The Baptism
There were two investigators this time.
Investigator #1: She finally quit smoking! In order to do so, she quit her job (or at least took a long break, I'm not sure she has decided to fully quit or not) and attended one or two of the Addiction recovery programs done by LDS Family Services in the area. That was the greatest miracle of the week I think! A little of her background, she is from New Zealand originally but came to Australia for work a few years ago. She came into contact through the church through a coworker who seemed very different from all of her other coworkers, and started talking to him. She came one Sunday, and the rest is history.
Investigator #2: He is from China originally, in Australia for study. Even while in China, he was interested in religions and researched what he could about them. Here in Australia, one day he was walking down the street when he heard someone speaking to him in Chinese. He looked around, but saw no Chinese people, so he continued, but on the second time he realized that there was a white guy talking to him in Chinese! That white guy was a missionary, with only 1 more day of being a missionary. He referred the investigator to us, I scheduled a lesson, and there you go.
The baptismal meet was well attended, like last week's. There were two talks, then I performed both baptisms, the first in English, the second in Chinese. Afterwards my new companion and I sang a duet, "Lord, I Would Follow Thee." After the baptismal meeting concluded, our Bishop bought everyone dinner at Subway! He's a wonderful, generous man.
My New Companion
Later last P-day, we finally got in contact with missionaries who were at the transfer meeting. They told us, both of us are training new missionaries! That explains why my last trainee was transferred, to make room for more new missionaries. We were told to report to a meeting on Thursday, were we would get our "Goldens" (They aren't called greenies in this mission).
The meeting was awesome, although the subsequent moving of the goldens and their luggage back to the flat unfortunately ate up a large portion of the day. My new companion is straight from the MTC. He is from San Angelo, Texas, of Hispanic descent although he doesn't speak much Spanish. He has already had his first potential investigator that came to church! He's in many respects similar to myself, with a quieter, thoughtful personality. I'm looking forward to serving with him.
My last companion's new trainee is a visa waiter, who served 5 months in the Philipines (where they were from), then went into the MTC to study Chinese as soon as they got a visa to Australia. Apparently there are 2 more elders in the MTC currently who were delayed because of visas.
The other big news of the transfer is that one of the Chinese-speaking sisters has arrived! They kicked out all of the EMP elders from the Sunnybank flat and moved them all down to Runcorn. There is only one right now, from Hong Kong, being trained by an English Sister from the Philipines.
District Leader Assignment
I'm not sure what to think of this part... I found out about it at Zone Meeting on Friday. My District is simply the two companionships in our ward, so at least that is simple enough to manage. Apparently President Henderson has also redone the responsibilities of District Leaders so they have even more responsibility then they had before. I have yet to receive the packet of information about my new responsibilities, hopefully I will get it later today. All I know is that my first responsibility is to baptize every month, and so I shall!
That was about it for the week, I think. I'll end here so I can find some pictures. Take care everyone! If any of you have advice for me about training missionaries or being a district leader, it would be greatly appreciated!
Elder J. Colton Ladd
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| Elder Santa Ana and Elder Ladd |
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| Baptisms! Elder Santa Ana, Bonnie, Elder Ladd, and Richard |
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| Bonnie and Elder Ladd |
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