Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!!!

Good day all! Life is fantastic down here in the sunburnt country! It has been one fun as week and a lot of miracles, I guess, have been happening! I just love being here building the kingdom! So let me break it down!

Monday we had a zone activity for Preparation day. We met at the Quakers Hill chapel and just hung out, shot some hoops, threw a footy around and all that jazz. There are heaps of sisters in the zone! I was thinking about it and it makes sense. They are here to clean up the mess the elders made. I guess a few months ago some checky stuff went down with some elders so they brought in sisters but let me tell you sisters know how to do missionary work! Good on those Shelas! But at the activity the zone leaders had a big surprise. So, after we had fish and chips, which is huge here, we went into this room and there was a TV so naturally we were thinking, "Sweet as! A movie! And we were right! We got a movie alright! It was the new district movie. Basically a movie where cameras follow missionaries around and they use it to teach us how to be missionaries! And let me tell you that was exactly how I wanted to spend my preparation day! The reason why I told this story was because right before we watched the movie Elder Modlik (Zone Leader) threw me a uke and said first we will have a musical number by Elder Brough. I played Stars for him when we had the exchange with the Zone Leaders and I guess he liked it so I was put on the spot and I ended up playing it and it was a hit! Elder Shearer has a uke and I will hear him playing it from time to time. I think it is funny.

This week I also had the opportunity of going on exchanges with my district. I went with Elder Henare to the Quakers Hill area. He is the man and he is like the Moari version of me when it comes to missionary work. It was funny because I told him I have a hard time talking with islanders and he said he had a hard time talking to white people so we complimented each other heaps! He has only been out for about 2 months so he had a lot of questions and I was able to help him which helped me realize how much I have learned. It was a good exchange. About three minutes into the exchange we had an interesting experience. We saw a guy sitting on a bench so we went and talked to him. He had a six pack of beer and a pack of smokes (That is an extremely common sight here in Australia!) But we sat down and talked with him and he opened up to us and talked about family problems and how much he has messed up. He started crying and I got teary eyed because I sat there thinking how lost people are. So Elder Henare and I testified about the Atonement and right before we left he thanked us and told us we helped him a lot because he was thinking about going over to the train station and ending it but what we told him helped change his mind. It was a humbling experiences and we learned we need to talk to everyone!

This past week my zone was lucky enough to attend a fireside where Elder Vincent (Seventy) and Elder Callister (President of the Pacific Area) addressed some zones from our mission. It was incredible and it blows my mind how in tune with the spirit some people are! I learned so much! Elder Callister talked aout the apostasy and gave a lot of good information! Elder Vincent talked to us about going to the edge. He quoted a poem Elder Holland used once...

Come to the edge he said
Come to the edge he said
No I will fall

Come to the edge he said
Come to the edge he said
No I will fall

Come to the edge he said
Come to the edge he said
So I came to the edge and he pushed me
And I flew!

Everytime I write that out I get goose bumps! I loved it. It hit me so hard. I learned I need to push myself in this work. Like Nephi in the book of Helaman chapter 10 he was blessed for his unwearyingness in the work! I love inspired council!

Church was very very very good! I learned so much and I am starting to remember peoples names. I am having a hard time remembering all the islander names but I love the diversity! Someone actually blessed the water in Tongan so that was neat! The Lord, for some reason, has seen it fit to bless Elder Shearer and me. We received two member referrals and it looks really good with them. We also found a family. So after church Elder Shearer and I were kind of down on our luck. What do you expect we share the ward with a companionship of sisters and it is tough when they have heaps to report at coordination meeting and all you have to report is that your not very solid baptismal canidate can't be contacted and the last thing you heard about him was that he slipped on a bannana peel and broke his arm. So needless to say we were blue. So we decided to go look up some referrals who were never contacted. The first one wasn't that good so we walked to the next one and knocked on the door. No answer but then a guy comes around the house and says in an Indian accent, "No one is inside. We are in the back. Talk to us in the back." So we follow and we see all these platters in the back that they are cleaning so Elder Shearer and I at the same time exclaim, "Can we help?" And of course he agrees so for an hour we talk to Raj and Jema while we clean the platters they used for their son's 21st birthday. We learned they are from India and that they are Christian and they also lived in Spokane, Washington for a while. We asked them if they go to church and they said yes we go to many different Christian churches every Sunday and Raj even made a comment about how things are changed over time and he even used the analogy of if he told Elder Shearer something and Elder Shearer told me that things would be changed and we said YES!!!! So they invited us over for dinner next Sunday and I am so stoked!

I don't know why I was blessed with that experience and so many more I could write about. To be honest I didn't think I deserve something like that but that is why our message is so important! That as long as we try our best, we still fall short and that our savior, Jesus Christ will make up the rest. I love this Gospel and I am so happy to share it with our brothers and sisters from all over the world in Australia! I love you heaps as! The church is true!

Elder Landon Brough