Going Home...

Worry not, I'm not the one going home! But, unfortunately, my companion is. Elder Banks completed his two years, and so this past week was full of preparations for him to go home! So we got to go to the temple on Wednesday, well, he did. In the meantime, Elder Pierce, who's companion is also going home, came with me and we went door knocking a bit in an area near the temple. We ended up running into a woman who used to be a Jehovah's Witness, and apparently her position was the biggest you could be as a woman, yet for some reason she left them. We were kinda worried she wanted to argue with us, but she ended up being very open to our message and we got to share the message of the restoration with her!

On thursday the mission got together for a Christmas Conference! We sang Christmas hymns in the beginning, and for the second half we got to have a lunch and listen to each zone sing a Christmas themed song that represented different cultures. There was African, Australian, Islanders, and more, and we were New Zealand. It was awesome being able to see old companions and friends and spend time just celebrating Christmas.

And on friday, I drove to the mission home and dropped off Elder Banks after saying our goodbyes. It was an awesome transfer, and he was a great companion, so it was a bit sad to see him go. Then Elder Pierce and I went back to my area, and went back to normal missionary work until today...

And now Elder Pierce and I have our official new companions! So I'm with Elder Martin, who's from Utah and is a really cool guy, so we're looking forward to working together! We'll have a lot of fun trying to figure out what we're doing and getting to know the area, since I've only been here for about a month. But yeah, that's about it for our week!

I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and I wont be emailing next week, since I'll be skyping my family!

Thanks for all your love and support!

Elder Ho

Best 'Chips'

So this past Monday we got free haircuts from a member named Shane, who works at a barber shop. After that he took us to this kebab shop right next door, and we ate kebabs and chips (fries). It is there where I tasted the best fries/chips that I've ever had, and yes, they beat McDonald's fries.

Later on in the week we also got to do a quick service for a family that needed our help moving a playgroud/clubhouse thing to their backyard. The problem was that it was already permanently put together when they got it, and there was a fence that it had to go over to make it to the back, so we had to lift it over the fence. We were able to do it, but in the process of doing so my companion and I ended up stepping in some dog poo. After asking the members if they had a dog, we found out they didn't... and that one of their kids had an accident. So we spent a good amount of time cleaning our shoes...

And then even later during the week, I got to go on tradeoffs with Elder Huang from Taiwan! Tradeoffs were interesting, and I think my favorite part was that Elder Huang is a pretty good cook! So he cooked lunch and dinner, which included noodles, fried rice, battered and fried mushrooms and eggplant, and chips/fries. I was blessed!

Another interesting thing that happened this week... so usually I always admire Australia, or at least the part that I'm in, for being pretty safe when it comes to crime. After driving by a street that we had door knocked recently to get to a member's house, we saw one part that had heaps of police officers there, and the property was all taped off. When we got to the member's house, we were informed that someone got shot in the face only around an hour ago! Apparently they're still alive, and apparently the gunman is still on the loose. That's a first for my experiences in Australia so far!

And this Friday was a blessing filled day! In the evening, after many preparations, we were able to baptize 5 aboriginal kids we've been teaching! It was awesome to see how much they changed over our time of teaching them. All the rides we organized for church (they don't have a car), all the object lessons and magic tricks, and all the prayers that were said payed off! So just a little background, they all live with sister Barnes, who had been less active for a while but is a convert herself. Of the children that were baptized, only one of them was her biological daughter. The rest of them were cousins/relatives that she took in because their living situations weren't very good. Their ages ranged from 9 to 16, and she even had older children that were already baptized. It was awesome getting to know the kids and seeing how quick they were to learn, and even more awesome to see them enter the waters of baptism! We confirmed them on Sunday, but unfortunately, only 4 of the 5 made it in time! We were a bit worried, but later the 5th child made it and got confirmed in bishop's office.

Anyways, thanks for all for your love and support,

Elder Ho

Got Nothing

Just as the title says, I pretty much have nothing to email about, since it's only been a few days since our last pday... so I think I'll just send some random pictures!

Light the World

We had our p-day moved to Wednesday this week, hence the reason for me taking so long to get an email out. Anyways, this past week was a busy one! We've been doing a lot of door knocking too, and we actually found a pretty weird looking place to go door knocking at. One of the YSA showed us some pictures of a place called "the heights" in an area called pimpama, which is a circular neighborhood where all the houses are exactly the same, and look like something out of a futuristic movie. We did go door knocking there though, but had little success. We also met this guy who races super-bikes and he talked to us for a bit, and showed off his bike that he was working on. We met another lady who was excited to see us! We thought she was a member at first, but she explained to us that she used to be athiest, but met with us missionaries many years ago. Then she ended up joining the baptist church, thanks to the LDS missionaries helping her find her faith in God... we'll be having dinner with them this Sunday though so that should be fun! 

I also got to go on tradeoffs with Elder Cadiang, an Elder who is serving in my old area, Windaroo! Unfortunately, they didn't have a car during the time of our tradeoffs, so we ended up biking for an hour to get to where we were going to start working! It was a bit crazy; there were a lot of hills, and we were biking on a road while large semi-trucks were zooming past us. Some of them were close enough that the bikes swayed and shook a bit when they drove past. We got to have some awesome lessons in that area though, and I even got to meet a few of the members that I knew when I was in Windaroo ward, so it was really weird being in that area again, but fun! That night my legs were in a bit of pain from the biking though, it reminded me that I was a bit out of shape and helped me to have a greater respect for all the biking missionaries out there.

Among the other interesting things we did this week were getting free meat-pies from a restaurant owned by members called "Kai Kitchen", meeting a man who has a computer screen that's bigger than most flat-screen tv's I've seen, door knocking and talking to people in an old caravan park, and singing happy birthday in Samoan for part of district meeting.

Lastly, on a more spiritual note, I just want to invite everyone to 'Light the World' this December - once again the church is doing the #LightTheWorld Initiative where we serve people for the 25 days leading up to Christmas. As missionaries we've been sharing this as much as we can with everyone we meet, whether it's after dinners or while door knocking, and it's just cool to see the effect that the Light of Christ has on people, even nonmembers, especially during this time of year.

Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

the 70

First off, sorry! Normally I write down what I want to email about before I go into the library, but I didn't have time for that this time, so I have no idea what to email about... so this will probably be a short one!

One thing that was cool is that we got to have a mission wide conference this week, because Elder Uceda, Elder Haleck, and Elder Walker came to visit us! They all had an opportunity to speak to us, but Elder Uceda was the main speaker, and he was pretty awesome! He talked a lot too about how we're not here to baptise people, but to baptise converts, which I thought was pretty powerful. We need to be making sure that the people we teach are converted before they get baptised. He also talked a lot about how we're here to help establish the church, and how we can go about doing that.

Other than that, Elder Banks and I have been teaching, door knocking, and trying to get to know all the members, so we've been kept busy! Well, once again, sorry for slacking off a bit, but yeah my mind is blank at the moment, so I'll end my email here!

-Elder HoThe

Ziggy

I think the hardest thing to do on the mission is to think of a creative title for emails, so I decided to title this one after the name of a dog that we met. While visiting a family in one of our wards, we heard a dog hitting the door downstairs, wanting to get in. So the family showed us a picture of this cute puppy, and said that it's name was Ziggy, and that he is about 1 now. Then they let him in and bounding up the stairs came this MASSIVE dog, I'm pretty sure it weighed more than me. It then proceeded to lick us to death, and chew on our arms and hands. It tried to sit on our laps too (It doesn't realise that it's no longer a pup). And now I have a new best friend. They were told that it wouldn't grow to be very big, but then realised that it wasn't the breed they thought it was. So, that's how I got that creative title name...

Well this week was busy! Lot's of driving around! And we cover two areas (and we're kinda white-washing one of them) so it's been a bit overwhelming trying to learn everything and remember everyone, but it's been fun! Trying to go to both wards on Sunday was a bit tough, with trying to balance ward two ward council meetings, and make it to each sacrament meeting since both wards overlap a bit. One awesome thing though is that I got to see a lot of members from an old ward I served in, Windaroo! The stake had some recent boundary changes, so part of that ward got moved to one of the wards we cover! And I already got to have dinner with a few of them!

The AP's that travel the mission also came by our area, and we got to go on tradeoffs with them, and so I was put with Elder Fukofuka and we went and tried to visit a bunch of families that neither of us knew! We ended up running into a lady who had some crazy hair (it looked like there was icecream on her head). We also did some door knocking and found some cool potential investigators, and also a less active who wants to come back to church! We also got yelled at for making too much noise in front of one guys house who was sleeping. Apparently he was a chef that works at night or something, but it was kinda hard to understand what he was saying. In the meantime my companion and the other Elder were able to see a family and set some of the kids on baptismal date! So we'll be working hard to make sure all of that works out, but we're really excited. So it was a good tradeoff day.

Also we've been able to meet some cool people while door knocking! After my companion and I followed an impression to go knocking in this one area that we haven't been to, we drove there and saw that many of the houses were still under construction and we were kinda hesitant to knock the area. We decided to do so, and we only knocked on 5 doors, because pretty much all five of them were willing to have a chat with us! One of them actually visited America and played baseball! He was really chill, and it was kind of random because nobody in Australia really plays baseball. At another door we found someone from Tennessee! We didn't even catch the American accent. And throughout the rest of the week, we also met two different people, who we're pretty sure that they were both high on marijuana. Although they weren't interested, we're glad that they were nice and happy. Unusually happy. Anyways, we've decided that we're going to start counting how many high people we meet. So far 2 this transfer.

Anyways, thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

I'm Back...

I'm back in my last zone again! So I started in Cleveland zone, got moved to the Coomera Zone, then got moved back to Cleveland again, then just today I got transferred back to Coomera Zone again! I think that I'll probably finish my mission in one of these zones... 

Anyways, it was an exciting week! It was quite a hectic and busy one too. We were able to see some cool miracles though...

The first one is when we went door knocking one day, we door knocked for about 40 minutes and only talked to two people... because we ended up teaching both of them! The first was a young Australian guy who's actually a Muslim, but says that he's not a practicing one, more just culturally, but he's really cool and invited us in to have a chat. He was really interested about what we and the rest of Christianity believed, so we answered a lot of questions and helped clarify the Godhead. We left him with a Book of Mormon and a few pamphlets to read, and hopefully my last companion goes back to follow up and see how it went! The second door that answered was a guy from Zimbabwe, Prince, who's also around our age. He actually vlogs and travels, and was really open to hearing what we had to say, and we also left him with a Book of Mormon too!

We also got a new investigator from our Zone Leaders, who had a member in there ward who was just about to leave on a mission. The day before he left he introduced his friend to the missionaries and they taught him the first lesson. Then they introduced him to us and we taught him the plan of Salvation, and he's a really awesome guy with a lot of potential!

And lastly, we also visited a family for dinner, and they had an exchange student from Japan there! Unfortunately, she couldn't speak very much english at all, and didn't understand anything from the video we shared. We tried making a few calls to find someone who could translate over the phone, and ended up calling our ward mission leader. Turns out he was visiting a member just a few houses down the street, and not long after that he came by and we had a really cool spiritual experience as she explained her background, her religious history, and her desires to learn more, while we explained a bit about who we are and what we do.

Anyways, my new companion is Elder Banks from Salt Lake City, and he's an awesome missionary! I've only got a transfer with him though, because he goes home soon, but I'm looking forward to it!

Anyways, thanks for all your love and support,

Elder Ho

The Moringa Tree

This week wasn't the most interesting week, so I'm thinking really hard about things to email about. Hence the title. We had dinner with a very healthy couple the other night, and they put this green powder into the food, which is apparently ground up leaves from the moringa tree. I think we spent a large chunk of the dinner listening to how the moringa tree is super healthy and has a lot of different uses. Then they picked a branch from the tree in the back yard, and I ate a flower and some leaves, straight from the tree. So, if for some reason any of you are wondering what kind of tree to plant in your yard, I suggest the moringa tree!

We've also received some cool blessings from the Lord this past week! One of them is helping a part member family (grandmother is less active, grandson is not a member) move into our ward, and we're hoping to find more opportunities to serve them, and in the end turn it into a teaching opportunity. We also got a call from our zone leaders, saying that a member from one of the wards they cover (my first area, Capalaba!) was leaving on a mission, but the day before introduced his friend to the missionaries and they had a lesson with them. The best part is that this friend lives in our area, and the we'll hopefully be continuing the teaching!

I guess another awesome thing we got to experience was going to teach another part member family. The grandmother is from Africa, and doesn't speak much English, but we always do little magic tricks and object lessons with the grandkids. After we finished our awesome magic trick/gospel lesson this time, the grandma proceeded to tell us that she and the three grandkids are coming to church and that they need us to set up a ride for them! Then, after many Sundays of people promising they'll come to church then not turning up, they made my Sunday by coming and staying for all three hours! Happy -  a simple yet perfect word to describe my feelings as I saw they grandkids run up the stairs to the chapel, followed by the grandmother dressed in her colorful cultural-styled sunday clothes.

Anyways, I think that's it for this week. Thanks everyone for your love and support!

-Elder Ho

PS: And thanks to Elder Hymas for being my awesome zone leader for nearly 6 months, and for all the extra K's you gave us... haha

Where's The Sun?

Although it's supposed to be getting hotter now, with summer coming, we got hit with a week of clouds and rain. Perfect timing, because this was also the week we planned on dedicating most of our time to door knocking. We absolutely destroyed our goal for the number of people we were going to talk to, but there were a few prices to pay, like people thinking that something's mentally wrong with us for door knocking in the rain, and shoes that are still a bit damp even though I've tried to dry them out (yes I'm wearing them at the moment, it's pretty sad). 

We did get to have some cool experiences though this week! Sometimes you hear of members surprising inviting their nonmember friends to dinner then surprising them with the missionaries suddenly turning up (it's the ambush tactic, I don't suggest doing it though). This week was the other way around, we turned up to a dinner on Tuesday with the member's less active son and nonmember wife already there, and next thing you know we're changing our lesson plan and preparing to teach the restoration! It was a good experience though. The same thing happened just last night, were a member's aunty (from China?) walked out of the room and we ended up trying to teach her about God and His purpose! We had a good time though.

We spent a lot of time in the rain this week, as mentioned earlier! We got to play touch rugby in the mornings, which ended up being a muddy and slippery experience! We also got to talk to a lot of people at the doors in the rain! One of them chastised us for being out and commanded us to go home and take a warm shower and sleep. The adversary sure was tempting us there!

Anyways, looking forward to Halloween, although not too much happens here compared to Halloween in Australia. The ward is doing their first trunk-or-treat, although some members are anti-halloween and are against the "evil spirit" it brings... so yeah it'll be interesting to get people's opinions on Halloween this week.

Anyways, that's all for today, thanks everyone for your love and support, and hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Ho

Hitting the Doors!

So this past week was pretty good, started it off with a Pday, so we did the usual pday stuff, got haircuts, and did some 1v1 with my companion in table tennis / ping pong. I know, I know, exciting stuff.

Also, the temperature is still bipolar here! It was really hot as we mowed a less active member's lawn! But then rains and pours as we try to door knock. The lawn mowing was good though, we got to talk with him for a bit after, and this guy has had a crazy life. He traveled the world for work, and has crazy stories of surviving massive river bores in the jungles, crazy helicopter rides, and much more. He even shared with us some of his mission stories, like getting held up by 14 "Filipino jungle ninjas with guns". No other way to describe them.

And as I mentioned earlier, and, as you can see in the title, we have received a lot of encouragement to focus our efforts on tracting and contacting people! So this past week we did quite a bit of door knocking, and got to have a lot of interesting experienceds from that. Some of the weirdest mission experiences come from door knocking! First off, we met Mark, who let us in right away. He was kind of an older man with long white hair, and a lot white beard, and didn't seem totally there, but apparently met with missionaries before. In his house were all these pictures and statues of catholic stuff and Jesus. He talked about how people have seen visions, how he's a strong catholic and reads lots of crazy books, how he thinks the pope is evil but catholocism is the truest religion, and how people were visited by Jesus telling them to paint pictures of him. I asked if we could share something from the book of Mormon, and he paused, said no real quick, then went right back on talking about his catholic statues and pictures. After escaping his house it was getting a bit late soe  did some street contacting and ran into a guy sitting on a bench. We asked if we could give him a pamphlet since he looked a bit busy, but then he put down his papers, took off his glasses, looked up to us and said, "do you want to go to heaven?" - here we go. It ended up not being a bash though and just a friendly discussion about repentance and turning to Jesus. And his dog stealing his bacon? I have no idea how that story was relevant to what he was trying to teach us. 

Over the next few days of door knocking we also met Fia from Thailand, who we taught a lesson to at the door and answered a lot of his questions! Somehow we ended up motivating him to try going to church for the first time (he's got a buddhist background), and then he said he'd give it a try and go to his Jehovah Witness girlfriend's church - I guess a church is better than no church at all right?

We also met Jody, a Seventh Day Adventist, and he let us in to talk about his missionary work, discuss gospel principles, and also how much he's changed his life. We also got to share a message with Steven, who also had a bit of a rough history but a pretty cool "conversion" story to Christ, and changed his life. He told us we really uplifted him and reminded him about how he needs to get back on track again, which was good.

I also had to give up my companion for a day and a half to go to an orientation thing, and got 2 temporary companions for that time, who were in the same situation as me. We had a blast, door knocking all day and talking about mission life and teasing one of them (who is going home in a month or two).

And more good news! We got a new car! Well, newer than the last one we had. Our zone leaders got the one of the newest cars on the mission, so they gave us their car, which was quite an upgrade from our other one, so I can't complain. Hello touchscreen radio controls, cruise control, reversing camera, and more! Thanks zone leaders if your reading this!

Anyways, thanks everyone for your love and support! Have a great week!

Elder Ho

Revelation

I've got a lot to do today, and not much time, so I'll keep this email quick! But this past week was good! We got a sudden, heavy rain one day, which poured super hard for 15 minutes and then it was gone! Which then gave us time to see all those we planned to see. So yep, I'm loving Australia weather. Also, since it's warming up, I got to see a pet snake come out of hibernation, which was cool. Nothing else new has been happening recently though, we've just been doing the usual here, with lots of door knocking. However, the highlight of the week has been General Conference! I know, I'm a week late here in Australia, but everything that was on my mind, everything that I wanted them to talk about, they talked about, addressing everything I was thinking of specifically! It was a pretty awesome conference, every conference on the mission is like Christmas. Anyways, thanks all for your love and support, hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Ho

Happy Birthday?

So it's been a busy week and a half! For the first few days I was stuck with 2 temporary companions, I think I mentioned it last time, and we had a good time together! We did a lot of door knocking, and even had a good dinner at the bishop's house with all three of us! It ended great, with one of the Elders tearing his pants mid-lesson, with a massive hole that he was trying to cover as we finished up the lesson. Lucky for him, the Bishop's wife sewed it all up while he awkwardly sat in one of the bedrooms while we loyally guarded the door, teasing him and laughing from the outside.

On Wednesday all of us picked up our new companions, and my new companion's name is Elder Waqalevu! He's from Fiji, and apparently his name translated to english means "big boat". We're excited to working together and working hard in Holland Park!

Also, within one week it went from pretty cool to super hot! There were two days were it felt like the moment we stepped out of the car, we were stepping into a preheated oven. Fun. Fortunately, the Lord had a little pity on us and probably didn't want us to get dehydrated on fast Sunday, so it dropped around 10 degrees Celsius in one day and Sunday was nice and cloudy. Then it rained, which was great. Australia's weather just a bit bipolar.

So the reason why we are emailing today instead of monday is because monday was a public Holiday! It was Queensland's holiday to celebrate the Queen's birthday - which is actually sometime in April I heard. So why do they have it this past monday? I'd love to know myself. And I think most of the Australians are just excited that they get the day off, not too much talk about the Queen, some of them didn't really even know why it was a Holiday. We had to work that day though, so they moved our pday to today!

And lastly, we had an awesome zone conference! We got to wake up a bit early and go on a roadtrip with our zone leaders to zone conference! We were able to learn a lot and get a lot of trainings! They taught us about the importance of finding people to teach and how we need to step up our efforts, and we also got to learn a lot about priesthood blessings and consecrating oil. And before we went home, they gave us our usb's with music on it! Last week they took them from us so they could check for music and other stuff that we aren't supposed to have, and then at the same time give us some new music to listen to (we have a set playlist that we are allowed to hear). So I went for a week long fast without music, and I never thought I'd be so excited to hear music again! There's some pretty interesting music on there and we got to jam out to a bit of it on the long road-trip back home. Who knew I'd be into country music?

Anyways, for the spiritual thought, I'll just take something they shared with us at the zone conference. They shared a mormon message with us, which talked about how the Lord is always pouring blessings upon us! A lot of us just don't see it, and our sin is like us putting up umbrella's in the rain instead of enjoying the rain. So repent! And don't allow yourself or your attitude to get in the way of the shower of all the blessings that the Lord is giving us!

Thanks for all your love and support!

Elder Ho

Hey everyone! So guess what we did more of this week! Yep, moving! First, a bunch of us Elders got together and helped some sisters move to a new flat. Then that afternoon we got a text from a member, asking if we could help him move a less active family the next day, so of course we accepted and took the challenge! It was quite a fun but hectic and exhausting move, that included tossing things over a balcony (like a massive couch), "disassembling" beds (accidentally breaking a few parts), and playing with the cutest puppy we've ever seen. And that night, I got the best rest I've had in ages.

We also got to have dinner with a less active member and his nonmember friend, and got to see some of their talents! He has a natural piano gift and can sight-read music really well, and was even able to recall just about any church song even though he had been less active for ages. The nonmember friend had some amazing pictures that he took on his travels, like pictures of New Zealand and some third world country citizens. So now I feel inspired to go home and learn some instruments and go travelling, although it's much easier said than done.

Also, just thought I'd mention that after a dinner with a member fell through, my companion and I decided to treat ourselves to some Vietnamese food. I have no idea what the food we ate was called since the spelling of the names of the food was quite odd, but it was some sort of noodle soup with meat and vegetables in it, and it was pretty good. Just trying to make my father a little jealous since he keeps sending pictures of all the sushi and Hawaiian food he's eating at the moment. Probably wont work though.

And the title! Trying to keep it on the down low, and being really careful, because one of the sister missionaries is emailing near me, but last pday we got to go to a place called bounce with the Zone Leaders, and it was kinda an Elders Only thing, and the sisters probably wouldn't be very happy if they found out. But it was pretty fun! It's a big warehouse kinda building turned into a trampoline park, if that makes sense. Lots of trampolines, dodgeball, obstacle courses, etc.

And lastly, my little spiritual thought is to set goals! Setting goals is how we achieve purpose in life, and it helps us to push ourselves! My companion and I were striving to talk to 100 people this week, which was getting pretty tough since we lost a lot of our proselyting time. This past Sunday, we were 4 people away from hitting our goal, and we had two choices. We could go home since it was almost 8:30, or we could keep walking around the streets to look for a few people to talk to, even though we couldn't see anyone. We decided to continue to push ourselves, and after not finding anyone in that area, decided to hop in the car and drive around. Finally, we found 3 people talking on the side of the street, so we pulled off into a side road, got out of the car, and casually walked around the corner pretending we didn't know they wer ethere. Although they weren't of the Christian faith, we had a good chat with them and ended up talking to 102 people for the week! So yeah, that's just the little message for today, set goals and strive to hit them!

Thanks everyone for your love and support!

-Elder Ho

Australia's Got Talent

It's only been a few days, so another short email! Basically, we did more moving and helped a member move pretty much all Friday afternoon and then Saturday morning. We've also been spending a lot of time trying to recover from being sick (both my companion and I) so that's been fun but time consuming. And lastly, we had a ward talent night! It was a pretty good success, there were many investigators, nonmembers, and less active members that came to the talent night!

Other than that, there's not much else to report on, so I hope you all have a good week!

Thanks for your love and support,

Elder Ho

Moving!

Sorry it's been a while since the last email, when we go to the temple during the week they move our pday to the temple day, which was thursday for this week, so sometimes my emails are delayed by a few days. 

But anyways, last pday we went to this memorial garden/crematorium place and had a look around, and it was pretty nice and quiet. I was reading a lot of the little grave-stone sign things, and I realized that a lot of them said some sad things, like, "still missing you" and stuff like that. I realized that for mine, when I die, which is inevitable since it happens to all of us, if any of you reading this are still alive at that time, can you please put something on my grave that's along the lines of "cya suckers" or some other uplifting words? I'll brainstorm some in the meantime, but when people see my grave I'd rather them not feel sad and depressed. But that pday really gave me a greater appreciation for the knowledge of the plan of salvation, and knowing that this isn't the end, and that death is only a stepping stone into the next life.

Well, enough talk about death and stuff, some other interesting stuff that happened this past week... oh we got invited by our investigator to his church activity! We got to make pizza and enjoy the night, and even casually slip in a few things about us as missionaries and what we do as we were talking to people! But it was fun and interested at the same time, being invited to another church's activity.

We also had to pick up some other Elder's that are staying in the city, Elder Soyson and Elder Saiyavong, and they made some pretty good fried rice for us, Thailand style. Just thought I'd rub that in for all of you that are feeling hungry at the moment.

And no, I'm not moving at the moment, the title of this email is talking about the moving that everyone else around has been doing! Unfortutely, all in about one week, we found out an investigator that we had been teaching has moved, another one will be moving in a week, and another one will be moving back to New Zealand in about 2 weeks! So it's back to hitting those doors and trying to find some new investigators!

Along the lines of moving, we also helped a less active family move this past week! We spent a few hours on friday and saturday lifting furniture and loading furniture around a house and into a truck, and at the end of it all we were ablet o have a good talk with the mom, who has been less active for many years (even removing her records from the ward list) and she even committed to read a chapter from the Book of Mormon that we left her! The miracles of service!

And for my spiritual message, I'm going to be stealing it from someone else (all credit to Elder Hymas and his training this past tuesday). But my zone leader told us that there are three types of people (this probably isn't word for word). The first person is someone that makes things happen. The second is someone that watches things happen. And the third is someone who wonders what happened. Our goal, not just in the mission but in life, should be to be person number 1! Making things happen! And that has been on my mind for many days now and has helped me to re-evaluate the things I'm doing and set new goals for myself, I hope you can all apply it too!

But anyways, hope you all have a good week! 

Elder Ho

Table Tennis!

This week was a bit more exciting than usual, so there should be more to email about...

First off, we had tradeoffs with the zone leaders this week! They're currently in a trio, so I got to go with Elder Bullock and Elder Tuitama. They've also started to do work in Capalaba, which was the area that I started in, so for the morning we got to spend a few hours in there trying to visit some former investigators and less actives. Some things have changed, some things haven't. It's was really weird to be back in that area again, and seeing some of the people that I used to know. Oh, also, we started our tradeoffs by meeting at the stake center, where they were just finishing up a fireside with a guest speaker: John Bytheway! For those that don't know him, he's a very popular Mormon speaker, and although I didn't get to talk to him, we were able to get catch a slight glimpse of him, so now I can say I've seen him in person.

I also just thought I'd let you know, that no later than 3 hours after emailing you all last week about locking ourselves out of our flat, we locked ourselves out again. We were too ashamed to call the zone leaders again though (hopefully Elder Hymas doesn't read this part of the email), and we managed to use our great intelligence and criminal skills to break in again. I was pretty proud after to be honest.

We also had a zone conference this week, with trainings from President and the Assistants all about the Book of Mormon and it's importance. We talked about how it's the keystone of our religion and there was a lot of other inspiring stuff, which is too sacred to write in this email (I actually forgot to bring my notes, sorry). But one thing our President challenged us to do is to read the Book of Mormon (a fresh copy) and highlight every time a reference to Christ was made, or to Prophet (in honor of President Monson's 90th birthday). So if your not all already diligently reading the Book of Mormon, I invite you to take that challenge too!

And, just like the title says, we got to play Table Tennis! Or Ping Pong, if that's what you call it. It was pretty fun, there were quite a few good players there. Bishop had pulled a muscle in his leg a few weeks ago, but was still able to absolutely smash everyone. And we also were able to bring quite a few less actives and nonmembers, who all enjoyed their time there! 

The Book of Mormon thing was kinda my spiritual thought, but I'll just end this with a quote that I got this week. When it comes to our testimony of the Gospel, my advice for you is to "stay strong, stay classy". (Ironically advice coming from a member who's not active, but still great advice for us all).

Hope you all have a good week! Thanks for your love and support!

Love,

Elder Ho

Locked Out

Another week in Holland park! I'm just trying to think of the out of the ordinary things that happened or the things I need to update everyone on...

Well we had vietnamese food for lunch on one of these days! It was pretty good, lots of vegetables and noodles. It was pretty good. We also met a less active member who goes to the city to paint. At first I thought he was just painting buildings or something, but he actually does art with spray painting, and it's pretty good art.

Let's see, aside from door knocking and the usual, there's not much else to report on, besides the fact that we got locked out of our flat! Right when the door closed on night did I realize I didn't have the flat keys. Shout out to Elder Hymas and his companions (the zone leaders) for racing to the rescue and sacrificing their K's (or miles for all you Americans) to help us back into the flat.

Well, for the spiritual message today, we have an investigator who's asked a lot of questions, and one of them was something along the lines of, "How much work do we have to do to get into Heaven, and how much of it is our effort and how much of it is the grace of Jesus Christ". I thought the answers we found in the scriptures were pretty amazing and powerful, so I'll share some of it with you all today. In 2 Nephi 25:23, it says that we are saved by grace, but only after all we can do! So the Lord expects us to give it our all in this life, and try our best, even though we make mistakes and are not perfect. It also says in Mosiah 2:21 that, basically, even if we serve the Lord every waking our of the day, for our entire lives, we wouldn't be able to pay off the debt we owe, basically, we are "unprofitable servants". It's pretty humbling to think that no matter what we do, on our own, we can't "earn" our way to the celestial Kingdom. It is all Jesus Christ and the atonement he performed for us, and all we have to do is try our best, even when we slip up and make mistakes.

Thanks everyone for your love and support, enjoy your week!

Elder Ho

A Short One

It's literally only been a few days since the last email... so there's not much to email about, hence the title. Well last p-day we got to go to the temple! I also got to see some members from my last ward there, which was cool. It was also the final week of the transfer, which meant cleaning the flat and car! So we spent a few hours doing that on friday. And we got notified of who's staying and who's leaving for this upcoming transfer, and both Elder Tonga and I are staying again for another 6 weeks! Well, that's pretty much all the news for today. Hope everyone has a good week!

Pictures

E Komo Mai

One of my side goals on the mission is to meet someone who was born and raised in Hawaii that lives in Australia now. I've met someone from Hawaii but it didn't fully count because they were only visiting as part of their mission assignment. As we were door knocking I thought I was going to be able to check that goal off my list as we walked up to a door that had a Hawaiian phrase on it, "E Komo Mai". Unfortunately, when we knocked, the lady who answered wasn't from Hawaii, and wasn't interested in talking about her sign or the gospel either. So my search continues...

Anyways, this past week had quite a few miracles! To name a few...

The first one is Hilton! He's a young boy that we've been teaching, and I can't remember if I've mentioned him already. But we've been able to set him on date for the 26th of August, and his mom is fully supportive, in fact, pushing him to be baptized as soon as possible!

Another miracle we saw was as we were finishing up a night of street contacting, we began to walk back to our car to head home and sleep! As we were walking, a car pulled up along side us and inside a former investigator asked to meet with us again! We did meet with him and answer a few questions, and we're not sure how interested he really is, but he did mention that he'd love to have us over for dinner at his parents house, who are actually members of the Reorganized LDS church! The mom is from Hawaii too so, might be able to check that goal off my list soon.

Another miracle! One day we decided to go door knocking and chose a street. We only talked to 3 people on that street because all three of them were willing to talk with us! The first one became a new investigator after teaching her about the Book of Mormon, the second one wasn't interested but let us in his house and talked with us about his travels and let us say a prayer for him, and the third one was the son of a Pastor but said we could share a message with him so we shared one about the restoration of the Gospel (if I remember correctly).

And I also learned that there are more illegal things in Australia, such as potato launchers, slingshots with an arm-brace, and killing birds.

To finish off, we also got to meet a less active who has a pretty awesome piano gift, where he can sight read just about any music. What was also pretty cool was that, even though he hasn't been to church for ages, he was able to play just about any hymn or church song by memory. We're hoping to invite him to our upcoming talent night!

And my quick spiritual message for today: Look for miracles! They're all over. I've experienced many miracles, but unfortunately I never really saw them or appreciated them till I started looking for them.

Thanks everyone for your love and support,

Elder Ho

Cheap Tuesday!

It was an average week this week, so nothing too interesting, but I guess I'll start off with district meeting. It's become a tradition with my companion and I to go to KFC every Tuesday, because they have a "cheap tuesday" deal here where you can get 9 pieces of chicken for 9 dollars, and in Australia they have "hot and spicy" chicken which is really good so... yeah every Tuesday we eat that. I think it's almost on the verge of becoming an addiction and breaking the word of wisdom but that's ok, it tastes really good.

Another interesting thing that happened this week was trying to help a guy who's car broke down in the middle of the street. We helped role his car to the side while everyone else drove by and decided not to help. He also flipped off some guy who honked a horn at him. Then eventually, as we watched the car, he walked off to buy a battery but never came back so we ended up walking away to head to our next teaching appointment. I think everything worked out because the car was gone the next day.

What else... we've been teaching a lady from Africa about prophets, a lady from PNG about the Book of Mormon, and an Australian about temples. It's quite interesting teaching people from different cultures. They all have different levels of spirituality, different opinions and views on life, and different challenges and trials.

Oh, we also did some service the other day; helping prepare someone to sell their house. Our job for the short time we were there was to clean the pool deck and veranda, and varnish it. We did an ok job, and were trying not to get high or sick from the smell, but the finished job was decent I guess.

And this past Sunday was soup Sunday, so all the members brought bread and soup to church! There's also a bakery that gives us the bread they can't sell anymore, so there was lots of bread to go with it! It was really good, and also meant that my companion and I didn't have to have noodles for lunch.

And I guess to finish up, my little spiritual though is to appreciate all the things that our Father in Heaven has created for us! My companion and I have been doing our studies in a park recently, and it's given me an opportunity to enjoy nature I guess. No I'm not trying to be a hippie or anything, but I just thought that it's amazing how much detail and care Heavenly Father took into creating everything, even just the small cells in each leave on the tree to all the planets in space.

Anyways, hope you all have a good week!

Elder Ho

Relief Society!

Just a heads up - not too much happened this past week so there isn't too much to email about. But I'll try throw some random things in here to make it seem semi-interesting and long.

First, it's been a cold week in Australia! I guess nothing compared to places that aren't actually close to the equator, but it's been pretty cold and even windy here. It makes door knocking way better though, everything looks and feels nice and fresh and the people have a little more pity on you because they're wondering what you're doing walking around without a jumper/jacket.

We also got to mow a lawn today! And I got to witness my companion save a little girls life! As we were mowing with some members, a little girl was playing in the yard and my companion told her to move away, and literally seconds after she moved a rock from a whipper snipper (to all non-australians that's what they call weed wackers) flew right to where here head used to be and into a window, completely shattering it. The window looked cool though, it was still partially held together and had thousands of cracks all over it.

We also found some new people to teach this week, who seem to have potential! One of them is a younger boy, who's mom is a less active, but he's seems really interested and likes the games and tricks we use to teach him.

And last, I got to teach relief society! I think it was my first time even being in a relief society class. One of the members had invited my companion and I to come teach about the Godhead for a few minutes, so we did, and it definitely felt different from teaching a priesthood class. It was good though, and I guess I'll use that as my spiritual thought for today...

One thing that we believe, that not many others believe, is that the Godhead isn't the common "Holy Trinity" beliefs, but that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all 3 distinct and separate beings. In Matthew chapter 3, there is a bit of evidence for that when Jesus is baptized, and also in Acts chapter 7 when Stephen sees Jesus standing on the right hand of God, but one that we all seem to forget is the first vision, where Joseph Smith becomes a witness that they are all distinct beings and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have bodies. But, although separate, they are one in purpose, and that purpose is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life! Everything they do is for our benefit!

Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Ho

State of Origin

First of all, this past thursday, on July 13, I officially hit my year mark! And what was cool about it was that I got to go on tradeoffs... with Elder Hymas! We entered the MTC together just within a few hours or even minutes of each other, lived in the same MTC room, flew on the same plane here, and now celebrated our year mark together! Not trying to sound trunky, we were just talking about what a cool day it was during tradeoffs. 

What happened this week? Well we taught a bit, door knocked a bit, street contacted at night a bit, and had dinners with members just about every night, so it's been a pretty good but normal week. On Tuesday we had a zone conference, where multiple zones gathered together to receive trainings from our President and a few others, and that's where I found my first Hawaiian! Elder and Sister Graham are the pacific mental health missionaries (something like that), and Sister Graham was born and raised in Hawaii! She even graduated from the same Highschool! She acted like a local Hawaiian too, which was kinda funny to see because I haven't seen that in a whole year. It was nice being able to talk to her a bit after the conference. 

Another cool thing was being able to talk to our zone leader's investigator (who was just baptized this past saturday) on tradeoffs. It was really cool, basically he prayed and read the Book of Mormon to find out if it was true, and his answer ended up being him realizing he needed to serve a mission. So when I talked to him, which was before his baptism, he was already talking about where he wanted to serve and how excited he was, which I thought was really awesome!

And if your wondering what the title is all about, for all you Americans out there the State of Origin is a huge rugby competition between (I think this is right) pretty much the Northern and the Southern Part of Australia... hopefully I'm not teaching false doctrine here. It's New South Wales vs Queensland. It's huge over here, and they have 3 games between the two teams, it's kinda like the superbowl in America, when you talk about popularity. And Queensland won! They play on Wednesday nights, and this past Wednesday was the final game, so it was fun being able to go street contacting that night and hearing all the cheering and screaming coming from some of the houses. Also, I had to make sure I didn't wear a blue tie, since that's the New South Wales team...

And fun fact! Did you know that it's illegal to have a rabbit in the state of Queensland? And in all of Australia you can't have... I believe it's a hamster. And if you do get caught you can get a bigger fine that you would get if you got caught growing weed. I think the best part is that if you take a rabbit to the vet, they'll call it something like a "long eared guinea pig" or something like that, so that you won't get in trouble after they treat it.

Well, back on the missionary work side of things, while I was celebrating my year mark on tradeoffs, my companion and the other zone leader set a baptismal date for August 5th with one of our investigators! It's exciting, but it means that we'll have A LOT of work ahead of us. 

And for the spiritual message for today... I'll talk about obedience. Obedience is the first law in heaven, and it is only through obedience that we can be blessed. One of the reasons Heavenly Father has given us commandments is so that he can bless us! One thing that was mentioned in zone conference was that obedience shouldn't just be a chore or duty, but a quest! And when you think about it, at the end of quests are great rewards, so the result of obedience yields many rewards, and ultimately, exaltation. 

Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

Here Comes the Bride!

Happy late fourth of July everyone! I totally forgot that it was the fourth of July, and nobody here even mentioned it, although I'm not surprised. I'm the only American in the district, and I think there is only 3 of us in the zone, so there wasn't really much of a celebration... 

Anyways we've had a good week! There's a decent bit to talk about this week, like this one member's video game collection! We walked into his house and there were a shelf full of just video games, and there were action figures and little collectible things from video games all over, it was crazy. Apparently he was also one of the best players in the world for this rugby video game he plays. Just thought I'd mention that, I thought it was interesting, it's the biggest collection of anything that I've seen.

We also visited another member, who lived in an apartment building, and they had this awesome view over the area and the city. I wish I took pictures, but there was this really nice sunset and you could see the city in the background. I think the best part was all the bats just flying around! There were just tons of them, all flying in one direction, probably for hours. I had no idea where they were coming from. Just thought I'd mention that one too because I've never really seen bats before the mission.

Also, I heard they don't have it in America, but we got to eat truffle/mayo fries and a truffle burger at McDonalds! It's probably the best McDonalds meal I've ever had... it was fries and a burger with "truffle sauce", which apparently comes from a rare mushroom called a truffle which makes anything taste good.

And, as you can see in the title, my companion and I were asked to come to a wedding! It was only about 30 minutes long, and half the people there were nonmembers. It took place in the chapel, and there were maybe around 20 people there, but it was pretty cool. My companion and I got to say the opening and closing prayer, which we thought was pretty cool because we've never really participated in a wedding before.

And I guess the last event that happened was we got to go to a stake priesthood meeting, where they talked about the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods and their duties, and about the benefits of the mission (to all the future missionaries). They talked about a few examples of "wingmen", like Pikachu for Ash in pokemon, Robin for Batman, Pedro to Napoleon in Napoleon Dynamite, and ultimately, John the Baptist to Jesus Christ, and how with both Jesus Christ and John the Baptist, the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods work in unity.

Well, that's my week! Thank you all for your love and support, hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Ho

Staying!

So we got the call for who's going and who's staying, and both my companion and I are staying in this area! Not really a surprise though, since we both have been here for just one transfer. Anyways, it's only been a few days since the last email, so not too much has happened...

Well we've been doing a lot of "GQ-ing" at night, which is basically walking around and talking to people on the street. I think that's when you meet all the interesting people and see all the interesting things. We met a guy named Peter, who was sitting down and maybe slightly intoxicated (couldn't tell), and at first he said, "Mormons, you're not going to convert me". But after talking with him we were able to share a quick message, talk about the hardships he's going through, and say a prayer with him. We're also walking right next to a big intersection, so often times people drive by and try to "sneakily" take a picture of you, or say something weird, or honk and wave if they're members. So that's always keeping things interesting.

Also, this past Sunday, we finally had an investigator turn up to church! What's weird is that we've been teaching and inviting a lot of less actives and investigators to church, but the people that we haven't been focusing on are the ones that show up. I can't complain, and it was really awesome to see them, but maybe Heavenly Father is just trying to teach me a lesson or remind me that He's the one in control and it's all about His will and not mine.

Also, today, although neither of us were getting transferred, my companion and I had to go to the temple with all the other missionaries to pick someone up and help them move to their new area. While there, I was able to talk with a lot of missionaries, and it was awesome and weird seeing missionaries who were going home in two days, and missionaries who had only been out for a few weeks. It's a scary though to think about how much time you have left on the mission. No, I'm not trunky and thinking about it all the time, but it was just kinda a reminder about how short the mission really is, and how precious time is.

Well, hope you all have an awesome week! Thanks for the love and support!

Elder Ho

Final Week of the Transfer

This transfer has gone by way too fast, it's crazy! The weeks and days just seem to go by so quick. And sorry, our p-day got moved to thursday, which is why I'm emailing today. But it's been a good week and a half!

I guess the first news for this week was that there was a big meeting for all the Auxiliary leaders and bishopric and stake members, with the mission president and missionaries, to talk about missionary work. It was a pretty good meeting, but what was really cool was being able to see members from the ward I started in, since I'm back in the same stake! It kinda makes me look back and realize how much time has passed.

Also, my companion's birthday was a few days ago, and we got to have a dinner with some members to celebrate it! He's 21 now, and we got to enjoy a bit of kfc for his birthday (his favorite food).

As for people we're teaching, for most of our investigators we're focusing a lot on getting them to come to church, since none of them have been coming for the past few weeks.

Sorry, it's gonna be a short email, but I'll be more prepared for monday when I'll be emailing again.

Thanks everyone for your love and support, hope you all have a good week!

Elder Ho

The Will of God

We met an astrophysicist (thanks for auto correct because I had no idea how to spell that) this week, and talked to him. He didn't believe in any religion, but was a nice guy and told us some interesting things, like how there have been an estimated 72 billion people that have lived/ever lived on earth. Pretty crazy if you think about how much that really is. Just thought I'd share that cool insight with you...

Anyways, it's been raining a bit this past week, which has been nice! It's also been a bit cold, being winter, and it makes it a bit more tempting to sleep in in the morning when it's cold and raining outside.

I also got to meet the father of a famous person! Kind of. We had a meetup with some of the stake members, and did a rescue visit kind of thing with them, and I got paired up with brother Striplin. He told me about his son who has sung for a few bands or something, and is on American Idol and America's Got Talent or something like that. I think the best part though was learning about how a lot of the stuff we see on TV is scripted, sorry if I ruined your perception tv shows. The competition itself is real, but apparently for some of the people who audition, they'll have them re-audition a few times to get the right camera shots. And the golden buzzer sometimes doesn't work, so they have to re-film it. And the best part is the part where the family greets their relative who competed after they walk through the doors after auditioning, and if the family isn't excited enough they re-film it. Yep, that's what I'm learning on my mission in Australia.

Well, we did a bit of teaching this week, and met an investigator who was really nice, but slightly intoxicated. We talked to him and shared a little message with him, and then before we left he gave us these two really cool coasters from New Zealand (they're actually pretty nice), and also a little plant in a pot that was sitting outside. Thanks. We don't have a yard or anything though... so it kinda sits outside near the walkway. Not sure if we're allowed to have potted plants in our apartments, but I'm grateful for his gifts nonetheless. I guess the Lord blesses us in mysterious ways too.

And now slightly getting a bit more mission-related and spiritual, read 2 Kings 4:40 - that describes the mission life when it comes to food, whether it's what your companion cooks or sometimes the members, although so far I've been able to eat and enjoy all my meals with the members so far.

Also, just thought that I'd mention prayer and and advise you all not to take it for granted. We've been teaching someone who doesn't really understand prayer, or how God works, and so we've spent two lessons, and nearly 2 hours, just talking about prayer. It's actually pretty tough to explain it to someone who didn't' grow up with a Christian background who's only prayers are to family gods. But it's been a good learning experience for us, and has made me truly grateful to understand the role that prayer plays in my life, and how it works... which makes a nice lead into the spiritual though.

God's will is not our will. (Hopefully I haven't talked about this in a previous email, you start to forget after being out on the mission for a year). In the bible dictionary I believe it mentions that the purpose of prayer is to align our will with God's, not to change God's will to match ours. He knows what's best for us and is prepared to bless us as long as we seek His guidance and follow it. There's a mormon message titled "The Will of God", which is pretty good. Watch it, because I don't really have time to explain it all, but it's worth the few minutes of watching. God's love is perfect, and sometimes we have to thank him for hurting us. Which will make since if you watch the video.

Anyways, love you all, thanks for your love and support, have an awesome week!

Elder Ho

Ups and Downs

This past week was a good one! It had it's ups and downs as you can tell by the title. So I guess I'll start with the downs, which are only small and few. A lot of our appointments fell through this week, like, almost every day we had appointments falling through, and none of our investigators came to church but... the ups! So we were able to find a new investigator this week, she is a former investigator from Thailand. She has a few concerns but she's definitely worth working with and trying to help. And although no investigators came to church, we did have some less actives come! It made us pretty happy to see them, especially one of them who has been having trouble with drinking, but she came to church and hasn't drunken at all for about a whole week! Physically, mentally, and spiritually, there was a big change in her, and it was really uplifting to witness that!

I also ran into another guy while door knocking who was talking to us about his studies as a Christian. I don't think his first language was English, and he was a bit old, so it was hard to understand him, but I learned a new word, "disconcernment"! I think it's supposed to be discernment but apparently he has this special power of disconcernment and "could read my mind if he wanted to".

Other than that, it's been the usual week. Door knocking, eating KFC and doing a bit of teaching here and there.

Anyways,

Thanks everyone for your love and support! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Ho

Another Week in Holland Park

Just finished week 2 in Holland Park! It's been pretty much the same as the last week though, so I'm not too sure what to email about. Lets see.... We've just been doing the usual. Teaching the same people, knocking doors, etc. Maybe I'll just send some pictures since these computers are actually good ones for once.

So this is my last companion, learning to drive. It was a ... great experience. 

Another picture. That smile is just me trying to hide my fear.

My new companion and I on a road trip to a zone conference with the zone leaders...

My last area with another set of Elders that lived near us:

The new district we're in:

A trip to the temple that we took last month:

Anyways, a quick little spiritual thought...

We are less than dust of the earth, yet we have the potential to become gods. I think one of the ways to progress to that point is to realize that we are less than dust of the earth, and to humble ourselves, but don't think that humility means to condemn yourself and not see the potential within you. Humble yourself but remember the vision of what you wish to one day become.

Thanks everyone for your love and support! Hopefully I'll have more to email about next time.

-Elder Ho

Test

So apparently these new library computers upload pictures in seconds! Expect pictures next time, hopefully!