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