Door Knock Miracle

There wasn't too much that happened this past week, but the things that did happen were pretty cool. So first off, the door knocking experience that lead to the title. Just doing our typical door knocking routine, and at one door we meet a 20-ish year old who tells us that one of his friends is on a mission in New Zealand. After finding out that I knew his friend (we had taken him out with us to teaching appointments before he left, and he always bought KFC for us - true legend), he invited us in! The whole family (grandparents, mom, siblings) were all chatting to us and talking to us as if they had known us for ages, then proceeded to cook us dinner and feed us! So yeah, probably the first time on my mission that someone fed me right after I knocked their door. Possibly the last time something cool like that happens too, but I'm still hopeful.

After that cook experience, we went to our ward activity, which was a Trivia night with free pizza! We sat next to some people we had invited, and had a bit of fun, but after being on a mission for nearly two years you realize you can't really help answer a lot of the questions because you've been disconnected from the world for so long. So didn't feel like the mvp that night, but that's ok, still fun.

Highlight of the week? Well, two Sundays ago, we got a call at night from a family that had a nonmember living with them, who we had been teaching. There's a bit of a back-story, but basically they had taken her in as one of their own kids (probably one of the strongest, most active families in the ward to be honest), and she had been going to church every Sunday and every ward activity, even attending Seminary and going to a miniMTC activity - all by her own choice too! So during the phone call they said that she had decided she wanted to be baptised the following Sunday (this Sunday past)! With that, though, came a few obstacles and things we had to sort out and take care of to make sure that everything would go through as planned, but after a crazy week and many appointments and phone calls, the baptism went through! It happened after church, and the family she was living with planned it out and pretty much ran it, and it ended up being a beautiful baptism!

Well, spiritual thought for today? I'll just take it from a recent talk I prepared for the baptism. The Holy Ghost! Don't take it for granted. Remember, you've literally got a member of the Godhead with you! I like sharing part of one of my favourite scriptures that goes with it, psalms 23:4 "yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me". Life is great, but we all go through rough and tough times, but don't forget, because of the Holy Ghost, God is literally with you always.

Thanks everyone for your love and support,

Elder Ho

Fun little object lesson activity thing we did...

Pday at a lake! no we didn't enter the water.

Gday Mates

Thought these were kinda cool... so yeah. Here's our pictures from our last temple trip! And Star Wars :)

Miracles

Got two weeks of things to email about! Unfortunately, I didn't get heaps of interesting door knocking experiences to talk about this past week. Well, I guess I got one that was kinda cool. We went to help out another companionship's area find new investigators, and some members came along to help too. So one of the members came with us and we went door knocking on one of the streets they gave us, and the third person that answered invited us in right away! I was slightly in shock because, well, here in Australia, that doesn't really happen while door knocking. As I recovered, I realised that this lady just lived by herself, so I was a bit ssad because, the one time we're invited in, we can't go in because of our missionary rules. Then I realised -  we have a member with us! So we went right in and ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation! She even said she wanted to learn more! So that's a cool door knocking miracle. Also got to pet her cool dog, who apparently only understands commands in the Maori language, which I think is pretty cool.

Some other small miracles that we've had thes past few weeks is being able to teach some part member families, and seeing them come to church, one of them being a family that hasn't been to church ever since I've been in this area (and I've been here for a while now). Another awesome experience happened one day, as we finished door knocking since it started to get a bit dark. We still had 20 minutes until dinner, so we went to visit a family (another part member family, with only one of the adults living at home being active). For the first time since I've been serving here, we got let in, and with our limited time we got to know them and shared a quick magic trick, that may have included a bit of fire, that just blew away the kids' minds - it was great! And of course, the trick was gospel related. It was probably one of the funner and more spiritual lessons that I've had with kids on my mission. As we were leaving, one of the adults (who's active) took us outside and said that she'd been praying just this morning that someone who could help bring her family back to church would come today... just another massive faith building experience for us! It's those types of moments that we live for on the mission.

Other things that happened this week... we went to the hospital to give a blessing, we helped someone move houses, and done the usual door knocking and teaching. We also had zone conference, where we learned a lot about the Book of Mormon!

Oh and I also got to have dinner with a family, whos parents went to BYU Hawaii! So we reminisced about local food, the funny types of people back home, the beaches, and the "haole's" that we sometimes come accross in Hawaii. Then we tried to share a cool object lesson/magic trick - but the kids were to smart and caught on to the trick - guess we have to bring a better one next time.

Anyways, thanks everyone for your love and support! Have an awesome week,

Elder Ho

Getting Spiritual?

First off, due to it being mother's day and us being able to skype home this sunday, apparently we're not allowed to email so don't expect any emails next week!

So one highlight of the week - dinner with a Tongan family that used to live in Hawaii for a while! That meant a few things... 1) a massive feed! We barely scratched the surface of all the food they had. 2) Him sharing his experiences of what the Hawaii life was like, and talking about all the food that you can't really get anywhere else but back in Hawaii! So yeah, it was all about food that night.

Also followed up on someone we found door knocking. He's Christian and a really nice guy, although throughout our conversation he was subtly trying to convince us that Joseph Smith isn't a prophet. One cool thing though, aside from the super nice prayer he said for us, was his table in the living room - it was a massive lego model of the Millennium Falcon from star wars! Said that, in total, I think it took him about 24 hours to complete? Gotta admit it was a pretty impressive model.

As for teaching, we had some cool experiences. First off, we've finally re-established contact with an investigator that we hadn't seen in a while, who's from Brazil. No later than maybe around 24 hours later, we talked to a missionary who just got back from Brazil that week! So we ended up meeting our investigator, Izabel, with the returned missionary, and got to go past the language barrier that was previously there! After a lot of nodding and trying to figure out what they were saying, we were told that throughout her life, including now, missionaries had always come when she needed help and was struggling a bit in life, even though they didn't know what was going on. So that was an awesome testimony building experience for us!

Another cool teaching experience was when we followed up with a different investigator, who, after many teaching appointments, said that she's received and answer to her prayers and wants to be baptised! Now we're just working out what date works best for her, but another testimony building experience about prayer!

Also had stake conference this week, majority of it was about ministering and temple and family history work. Some really awesome speakers!

And I'll close my email with a door knocking experience, which was my inspiration for the title. Met this guy one morning while knocking on his door, who we were able to have a bit of a chat with. Really nice guy, we shared the Plan of Salvation with him and he agreed to pretty much all of it! He said he was spiritual during the beginning of our conversation, so, in an effort to discern who he was and get to know him more I asked something along the lines of, "so, have you always been a spiritual person?" to which he responded no. Then he explains that, in fact, he only recently became spiritual... when he started smoking weed and seeing things. Then he said that, because of that, he knew there was something out there! I tried to just kinda forget what he said as we continued talking. I know God works in mysterious way, but I don't think substances like weed are one of those ways... if you're seeking to strengthen your spirituality, I invite you to keep the word of wisdom, not break it! Just another day in the mission.

Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

ANZAC

Another good week! Not too much to talk about. I got another fruit to try from one of the members (the one that's been giving us dragon fruit, panama berries, jack fruit, etc). This one was a custard apple - it looked pretty cool, and tasted pretty awesome. Sorry, that's about as exotic as most of the foods I try here are.

One Wednesday, at 3:30 am, we woke up to go to ANZAC day, where they commemorate the soldiers that fought from New Zealand and Australia in the war. It was a good experience, and quite an early start to the day, but worth it. Got back home in time to sleep for another 15 minutes before our morning alarm went off! The rest of the day was a bit of a struggle, it even included us helping a recent convert move houses! We got to life piano's, dump toys, destroy parts of a tree house, and clean windows! You can imagine how tired we were for the rest of the day - fell asleep pretty quick when we went to bed that night.

Another great service opportunity was when we got a call saying that a nonmember needed our help, due to her physical conditions, mowing her lawn and pulling weeds. Her son was a member so that's how she found out about us. We were able to help her out, and tried to teach her a bit. She's not too interested in having the discussions but we've been sneaking in little points of doctrine here and there, and we're hoping to go back again later to help her out!

Also found a new investigator, through a neighbour. She's a single mom from Poland and has had a tough life, but has turned her life around and is now seeking God. She talked a lot though about some conspiracy theories and her opinion on what the Book of Revelations, in the bible, means. Taught her about Priesthood authority though, and how Christ established His church on the earth.

I'd have to say though, that the highlight of the week was watching one of my companions, Elder Karina, receive his patriarchal blessing! I don't think I've ever been able to hear one besides my own, and so it was a wonderful experience! And no, I wont be sharing any details, but that's probably a moment on my mission that I'll never forget.

Before I close off, next week I'll probably be emailing on Thursday, but it's not confirmed yet. Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho