week 28: australia style

rob's baptism

me with heaps as bogans at the bus mall

Gday mum!!

 

This week was really awesome!!  To start things off, Robert got baptized!!  That was super duper exciting!  It was such a cool experience, and he really enjoyed it.  We started off the week really not sure if it was going to go through or not, but we had a lesson with him last Wednesday and he said he was ready!  One of the miracles that happened because of his baptism, is that him mother and his grandmother became interested in the church.  After going to Rob's baptism and confirmation the next day they expressed their interest.  So they became new investigators!!  What a miracle that was, I am so excited to continue to help Rob and his family come closer to Christ!

Another miracle that we had, happened just yesterday.  A family in our ward has had Finnish exchange students.  One of them is named Mariana.  She has been attending church the past two weeks with the family in our ward.  We received a call yesterday from the family in our ward and told us that Mariana wants to recieve the discussions.  I was so happy!!  We are teaching her this evening so it will be awesome!

We got another chance to meet with Dani this week and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The spirit was so strong, and we committed her to read Alma 32 she accepted.  She is still excited to be baptized on March 8th, so we will keep working towards that date!

We were also blessed again this week to set a baptismal date with an old woman named Deff.  She is a former investigator from two transfers ago, and she saw us walking on the street and told us to come visit her again.  So we did and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and set a baptismal date with her!  Miracle!

We had zone conference this week too, it was so awesome to see President again.  There were some awesome trainings given.  One of my favorite ones was called "the measure of success."  President talked about how baptisms, and how many baptisms you have does not measure your success as a missionary.  As long as you go out and work as hard as you can, and help anyone come closer to Christ.  But baptism is still the goal.

I am so very thankful for my Heavenly Father, I am thankful that he trusted me enough to help Robert come closer to his son Jesus Christ and follow him.  I was glowing with happiness at his baptism and confirmation.  I am so very happy the step Rob has made to follow the Saviour Jesus Christ.  What a blessing that is!

Hi mum!!  I am very glad that you have gotten better.  4 weeks is a long time to be sick!  Too long I reckon.  Haha my birthday is in 7 days, and one of our investigators has offered to make me a cake next week, so that will be awesome.  She is a professional cook!  It is crazy how fast this year has flown by hey.  It doesnt even feel like I have been 18 yet haha.  Now I am moving onto 19.  The weather this week has been pretty rainy, only one pretty warm day this week, we are making the transition to fall at the moment.  Everything is going really well at the moment, I have had trouble sleeping lately so I am pretty tired as.  We are going to play some basketball today hopefully. Havent seen too much of sister Fox this week, she has been down and out with a toothache, she came to the baptism!  She is a wonderful lady!  Thank you so much for all that you do mum!  I love you so much!  Have an awesome week!  Cheers.
Love, Elder Richins
aka:Cmoney

me next to the river

selfies

week 27: australia style

our new finnish investigators!

Gday mum!!

This week was really good!  We experienced the polar opposites this week!  Some really good things happened, but then some bad things happened due to terrible luck too!  To start things off, we got to see Dani our investigator this week!  I have never seen a more prepared person in my whole life.  We taught her about the Restoration and then invited her to be baptized and she accepted!  She then came to church yesterday, and her fellowship told us that she thought she was a member by the way she was answering questions in Sunday school!  She always thanks us for helping her get baptized, it is so awesome.  The tricky part is, is her mother lives up north in Tazzy, and because Dani is 16 her mother needs to sign her bap record.  But because she has no idea when her mom is coming back down south, that makes things a bit tricky.  We have until March 8th to sort things out, so I havent started to worry about it too much yet haha. 

We had the priveledge of seeing Robert again this week.  He was not baptized this week because we couldn't interview him because he had work, him being a casual worker he pretty much gets called whenever to work, so he has no idea what days he works.  He did come to church though so that it a blessing!  But we got to meet with him and his parents, and his parents talked about how excited he is to join the church.  His parents are very accepting about it as well, so that is awesome!  He has asked me to baptize him, that is really special to me I hope he doesnt drown haha I am a Rookie!  We have a firm date for this Saturday, and we are going over to his house on Wednesday to set up his baptismal program.  So fingers crossed that it happens this week.  I have faith it will!!! 

Yesterday we had a missionary fireside that we conducted (which went great :)).  A member of the ward helped make a video of all the primary answering the question "Why is missionary work so important?"  Elder Richey and I have slowly been interview the people of the ward over the previous weeks, and guess what happened?  We left the camera that we used to shoot all the video on the bus haha!  So we tried calling the Metro headquarters and trying to locate where it went.  Then an awesome driver came to the bus stop we were crying by haha.  He asked us where we needed to go and we said we lost our camera on the bus.  So this awesome man calls all the buses on his radio, and he located it!  And after much stress we were able to get our camera back!  PRAYER WORKS, I have a firm testimony of prayer and how God listens and answers our prayers.  There were heaps of prayers said by my companion and I in this little trial, and we were blessed!  It is funny how God gives us these little tests and trials in our life to keep us on our toes.  I am so thankful for the trials I have had in my life because I know that I have grown from them.  God is the perfect teacher, and I am an imperfect student.  But I am learning!!  I am so very thankful for this Gospel in my life, I know that it is true and good, I love to share it with others!!

Hi mum!  Sounds like you have had a rough week hey??  I am sorry that everyone in the home has taken a turn being sick haha.  It has been quite a stressful week for me as well. I am very excited to see Robert baptized this week.  The weather down here has been quite rainy lately, not too much sun this week haha.  So I saw the shoes I wanted for 50 bucks instead of 120 and there were only two pairs left and one of them was my size so I just got them, I am very sorry for doing that I just thought would be a good idea to get them so cheap.  That is awesome that you guys get to see grandma and grandpa tonight!  Tell them hello for me!  Enjoy that cake too haha!  I could go for some cake right now!  It was awesome yesterday we got recruited to an all tazzy gridiron team.  We saw them practicing and we just went to go see what was going on.  I asked if I could throw a couple of balls, and they were amazed of how fast I could throw it, so they told me to go register online to be on the team.  I said we cant join teams as missionaries, and he asked if he could cut my arm off and put it on one of his players haha!  He said if I ever changed my mind I could join the team haha.  I told him after my mission haha!  I thought that was a funny experience.  Well I hope you have an awesome week mum!  I love you so much!!!  Cheers!

Love, Elder RIchins

aka:Cmoneylove

week 26: australia style

Me getting my work out on at sister Reijlian's!!!

Kia Ora Mum!!

This week has been pretty crazy busy!  We didnt get the chance to email yesterday because it was a public holiday here in Tazzy!  So all the libraries and such were closed!  The week was sweet as though!  

To start things off, Robert came to church two days ago, and he really liked it!  We also had a fast with him on Sunday to try and help him receive his answer for himself!  We are seeing him tomorrow, so we will talk to him about his experience fasting and such, I am super excited!  He is all on track to be baptized this upcoming Sunday.  It's weird though, he really wants to be baptized, and he has felt the spirit but he still doesn't know for sure that there is a God.  It is kind of a funny situation, but we look forward to seeing how he is going tomorrow! 

Another awesome miracle that we had this week was, we were biking around trying to see some new contacts but all of the appointments fell through.  Then we started biking back to the bus station, and we felt prompted to knock on one of the new contacts we found last transfer.  He opened his door and let us in without hesitation.  We then felt prompted to teach him the Plan of Salvation, because he has been around heaps of death and trials.  We really felt that the Plan of Salvation would fit his needs.  It was such a powerful lesson and we tried to set a date at the end of the lesson, but he doesn't want to commit to a date until he gets back from a trip to Melbourne in two weeks.  He is cool as though, and we are super stoked to start to teach him!  It is amazing the miracles that God gives us as we stay persistent! 

Today we had district meeting and the focus was centered on finding investigators concerns, it really inspired me to look extra hard for those concerns investigators have.  Because most of the time with investigators you have the iceberg effect where you notice a concern that the investigator has, but there are more concerns beneath the surface as well.  Inspired questions are the key to finding out concerns!  I really want to improve my skill in this area of the work because it really makes the difference!  I am not a perfect teacher at all!  But the spirit is!  

We are teaching a girl named Dani today and we are super excited because she is pretty keen on learning more!  We are going to try and set a date with her in about an hour haha!

I am so very thankful for my Father in Heaven he really is blessing my companion and I, in the great Rosny area of Tasmania!!  I am so very thankful to be a missionary!!  I love this work heaps!

Hi mum!  How are you today?!  Sorry for the big mixup this week, it has kinda been stressful figuring out where we were going to email haha!  But this week was heaps good!  It was superdooper hot this week.  Yesterday for P day we went to this carnival thing, and it was ok I guess haha!  I am really excited for Robert, if all goes well he will get baptized this week!  I hope all is well mum!!  Love you heaps!!  Have an awesome week!  

Love, Elder Richins

aka:Cmoneylove

week 25: australia style

we are all iron men at sister fox's

me with the one and only... tyson read

we have a 75 year old lady that is a pro dart player in our ward.

Gday Mum!!!!

Well this week felt like it was super long!  At the beginning of the week Elder Richey and I had to split up for two days because two people in our district were getting new companions from the mainland so we had to be their temporary companions.  So I spent a couple days with Elder Solomon, and Elder Richey went with Elder Harvey.  We had the car in our area for a couple days, so it was super good to get out to all the members we never get to see because of the size of the area! 

An awesome miracle that happened this week was we found a part member family while tracting!  This family was not on the ward list, and they kinda slipped through the cracks a bit.  They invited us in for a drink because it was like 37 degrees C outside!  We started talking and the mother was talking about how she was baptized but her partner and her children werent.  Her daughter and her daughter's best friend were really interested in what we taught, so they asked heaps of question!  Long story short is we are going to their house for tea tonight!  I am really excited to begin to teach this family, their are called the Blowfields!

This week was also filled with heaps of stress, a whole heap of our new contact appointments got dodged this week.  It was incredibly frustrating, but I feel so much closer to my Heavenly Father, there was a constant prayer in my heart this week to try and find prepared children of our Heavenly Father.  I was talking to Elder Richey, and I just told him that we should have a fast for our area.  So we fasted and still we didnt have much luck, besides the fact of finding heaps of new contacts.  Elder Richey and I really wanted to help someone.  So after a couple of days, it was the same old luck we had, had during the beginning of the week until yesterday. 

Yesterday we were fasting again because of fast Sunday.  We had an appointment with a lady named Gaylene.  We were extremely excited to teach Gaylene, because she seemed quite excited to learn more about the gospel when we first met her!  So we rocked up to Gaylene's house and we saw her in her front garden, she was so excited to see us!  So we began to teach her about the Plan of Salvation.  She told us how her husband died about a year ago, and she was really wondering what happens after this life.  It brought great relief to her knowing that there is a life after this one.  She also expressed her desire to read, Gaylene cant read or write and she is 57.  We told her that we would teach her how to read and she was so excited!!  We went on with our lesson and we were blessed to set a baptismal date with her for the 2nd of March!  She has a long way to go, but we will get there!

I am so thankful for the gift of fasting and prayer, that our Heavenly Father has given us.  Although the miracles didnt immediatley happen, we saw results come after the trial of our faith.  I admit to being quite discouraged this week, this was such a great miracle to boost us up for this transfer!  Our Heavenly Father loves us so very much, and he wants the best for us!!  I have a firm testimony of this in my life!

Hi mum!!!  How is it going??  I am sad to hear that you were sick most of the week, but the good news is that the kitchen looks really good I reckon!  I wish I could be watching scary shows with you too mum!  Haha the man in the walls a classic I reckon!  It sounds like Olive is super smart, I bet new is smarter though haha!  I wish you the best watching the Super Bowl go Broncos!  Sister Fox is a wonderful lady!  She enjoys feeding us so I just eat I guess!!  I am glad maguire finally won a game in Jr. Jazz and hopefully it wasnt against an all girls team haha!  Well I love you so much mum!  Have an awesome week!  I hope you feel better!  Chheeerrrsss!

Love, Elder Richins

aka:CMUNEY

P.S.

We lost the car...  Haha and we played heaps of basketball for P day last week which I am tots ok with!  Today for P day I am not quite sure what we are going to do!  It is pretty rainy outside, after being hot as all this week!  As far as the birthday goes hmmmmmmmmmm....  The only thing I can think of is some slim brown dress shoes for my suit.  And maybe a new belt!  My belt and my brown shoes are getting pretty thrashed haha!