Mar 6 2014

Good afternoon family and friends! I write from back in my area, Chermside. Continuing on from last week, trade-offs continued Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and finally Friday I was dropped off in my area once again --- a full 7-day trade-off. I wasn't eager to go back --- they kind of had to pry my fingers off a little bit to get me there. :P I miss it there in Eight Mile Plains (Well, in the Chinese Program in general I suppose I should say). While I was there in Eight Mile Plains, the other Assistants ran the Mission Leadership Council (where the Zone Leaders and Sister Trainer Leaders are trained), and I didn't envy them in the slightest!

As soon as I returned, though, we were all thrown into the thick of things yet again, with preparation for Zone Conference. The Zone Conference is where two or more zones get together and receive training from ourselves and President Henderson. Weeks prior, by reviewing the key indicators for the various areas and zones and discussing the mission as a whole, we determine what training the missionaries need. This time around, we felt that we, the assistants, needed to focus on finding skills (specifically, using teaching skills while finding), the Standards of Excellence that were created my first mission leadership conference as an Assistant, President Henderson trained on helping missionaries and investigators alike keep commitments (if your investigator is not keeping commitments, the first question you should ask is, how well do you keep your personal commitments made as a missionary, ex. mission rules), and also on deeper level to our missionary purpose, which is:

"Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them to receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end."

On Saturday, I went with one of my companions to trace for the majority of the day (Hard Yakka!), which was refreshing. Then on Sunday we finally had the opportunity to finalize preparations for Zone Conference.

The first Zone Conference, on Monday, was down in Eight Mile Plains, involving missionaries from the Eight Mile Plains stake and from the Logan stake. It was went well, but there were many adjustments we felt that we should make for the second time around. We adjusted the order of the trainings so that in the morning, when everyone is bright and fresh they can focus on the more heavy doctrinal trainings, and after lunch when everyone was sluggish at the first conference, we have the more interactive trainings. The second conference was held in Ipswich with Ipswich and centenary stake missionaries in attendance, it went much more smoothly.

After the conference held in Ipswich, I went on trade-offs with the zone leaders of Centenary zone. We started by tracting for about an hour and a half, and it was shocking to see the huge cultural difference between people in Ipswich and people in Brisbane. In Ipswich, the people are very friendly and inviting, and in that block of time we had two solid return appointments and other people who were interested as well. In the city, there are far more people to talk to, but overall they are a more hardened lot. I thought it was very eye-opening how small differences in culture between two communities, even close to one another, can affect missionary work in that area.

I realized this past week, something I love about my mission here --- the reason why the Australia Brisbane Mission is the best mission in the whole world --- is that, if you work hard, you can see success. There are missions in the world where if you don't work hard, you can still see a lot of results, and other places where even hard work can't guarantee you any results. Our mission has a culture of hard work, which we call "hard yakka!" (an Australian term for work which is tough and gritty).

We saw a lot of miracles last week. We received a referral of a man from Iran who wants to be baptized, we have taught him once and we will teach him again this evening.

Elsewhere, the other assistants GQed a lady at KFC while I was down in Eight Mile Plains, and they visited her following a session of conference. Upon visiting her, they learned that she was less active and wants to come back to church. She lives with her sister, and both of their respective partners -- and it turns out, her sister's partner's siblings were baptized just last week on the Gold Coast!!

While tracting, they were mocked and brushed off by a lady. Then, an hour later on the same street, the same lady approached them and asked if they could return to her house and teach her (and she cooked food for them too!). She has had a difficult time in her life at the moment. and she felt she should invite the missionaries back because it was a sign from God.

Today it is P-day, and tomorrow we get into the groove again with Zone Conference down on the Gold Coast, which I am looking forward to. I hope it will be the best one yet. Have a great week!

Elder J. Colton Ladd