One Good Week

Sorry, Family! This is going to be really quick but hopefully really good. The district is going to Taranga Zoo. So miracles happened this week. First off Zheng Haw from China. We GQ'd him last week and I called him and when I talked to him he was yeah I will meet you in a half an hour so we got ready and I was saying to myself we are going to be late but as we walked out of our building the zone leaders were there with their car so they gave us a ride. At this point I realized we forgot the Chinese Book of Mormon but we go and teach a powerful lesson with him and we set a soft baptismal date with him and then it just so happened that the fellowshipper we brought had a Chinese Book of Mormon in her bag so the whole experience was a miracle and we look forward to working with him. Next Yasmin from Vitoria Brazil. We GQ'd her on a bus and she said we could teach her right then so we got off the bus and taught her at the bus stop. She said an incredible prayer and she came to church. When she showed up to church the YSA swarmed her and now she is going to the YSA dance this week. Yasmin has a lot of potential and we are excited to work with her. Lastly the Tuma family. They are Australian and so cool, kind of hippies, too. We knocked on the door and the first thing he said to me is you are American and referring to my gut he said, "You are polluting yourself and the world." and I was like, "What?" then he laughed and said just kidding then he invited us to have an organic dinner with and we made them new investigators. It was a way good week. I felt the love of God every day. I love you all so much and pray all is well! Elder Brough

Elder Neilson of the Seventy

Wow, I am exhausted! I don't even know how to explain it. This past week has been so trying spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally but things worked out in the end! So nothing happened from Monday to Friday, everything we planned fell through and it was very discouraging for both me and Elder Lasalosi. Like nothing worked out during the week like I can't even exagerate something that happened to make it sound cool. The first part of the week was just lame and really discouraging. I am sad to report it but it is the truth! I went on an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Branco from Salvador, Brazil. He was born in Brazil and when he was younger he moved to Philedelphia where his family found the church then a few years ago he moved to Brisbane and now he is my zone leader and we had a long hot day of knocking doors talking to people in the street with no success. Even the members were kind of lame like it was the first time in my mission where I showed up to a Tongans house and was not invited in and given a feast of KFC. So it was a good exchange and I learned a lot but it was just a difficult day. The past few days were pretty intense I must say. So Saturday morning I learn that Elder Lasalosi and Elder Monson are getting emergency transfered. Elder Lasalosi to a place called Ourimbah in the Central Coast and Elder Monson to Summer Hill in the city. So that lead to me and Elder Stoddard becoming companions. Elder Stoddard is the man and I am stoked out of my fetching mind to work with him. He is hilarious and is a fetching good missionary. He has only been out seven months. He has spent five months here in the Harbord ward and two in the Colorado Springs mission while he waited for his visa. To describe him he is a firecracker, so full of energy and ready to do anything. It is difficult for me to keep up with him but it keeps me so more motivated and focused. He is from Murray, Utah. Both his parents past away in a car crash when he was 15 so he lived with his older brother till he came on his mission. But you just know he has a testimony of this gospel and we are going to do work here. At the moment we cover two wards - Manly and Harbord Wards so we have our hands full but I am excited for it! I am still figuring out the investigators but we have quite a pool of investigators and it is just going to be awesome! Sydney's stakes got changed yesterday. I am no longer in the Greenwich Stake. I am now in the newly formed Harbour Stake. Basically the City of Sydney and the Northern Beaches. Basically everything cool about Sydney in one stake. So the zones are all going to be changed so we will be waiting to see what happens. Well that's about it. Everything is good for now and I love you heaps! Till next week. Elder Landon Brough

(Note from Nancy: He never explained the subject title of this email in the email but we are thinking that this Elder Neilson of the Seventy must have been who came to reorganize the Sydney Stakes?)

Summer is Here And I Can Feel It!!

Holy moly! It is fetching hot! I honestly don't think I have stopped sweating since I have gotten to Manly! I like it though. It makes me feel like I am working really really hard! Don't think that I am not. I am working fetching hard! I have never felt more like a missionary than in the past week! This past week nothing has really stuck out to me but it was one of the best week weeks ever! I felt every night I deserved my pillow.

From Monday to Saturday afternoon I was in a three-way with Elder Stoddard and Elder Monson while Elder Lasalosi recuperated. It was so much fun and we did so much work and we were able to see miracles in both of our areas. The highlight I would say is when we made Robert Rush a new investigator. First off let me take you back to last Sunday. Me, Elder Stoddard and Elder Monson were walking through a park and we were smashing it. Anyone that came into sight we were talking to. I see this old man about 70 or 80 sitting on a bench so I walk over to him and sit down and begin talking to him. I find out his name is Robert and he is from Lithuania but once he finds out that I am teaching about God he is not interested. So I give him a card and walk away. A few moments later I turn around and see him waving at me to come over. So I do and he asks to have the address to the church so we give it to him. He then starts talking about being alone and he said a very short powerful statement of truth which I will honestly never forget. He said loneliness is not being alone it is not being wanted.... it struck me deep! So we talked a little bit and he ended up giving me his address and told us that we could come around sometime. Ok so fast forward to Tuesday of this week. We have a lesson set up with two Brazilians so we get two YSA in the ward to come help fellowship and we go to the lesson and it falls through so I look at the YSA and say do you want to go try some potentials with me and they say yeah. So we walk down the street a little to a potential investigators flat and he was not there, either. I realize though that it is the same complex that Robert lives in so I say let's stop by but once I look at the address my heart sinks because I realize I must have written the address down wrong because the complex doesn't even have that many units so I walk away bummed. Elder Stoddard says, "Why don't you flip the numbers?" I think that might work and it won't hurt anything so instead of going to unit 5 in complex 1 we go to unit 1 of complex 5 and sure enough it is Robert's and he was more than happy to see us. It was so good. We sat down with him and talked a bit and this man has seen a lot. He fought in World War II and he says it is hard for him to believe in God. But you can feel God's love for Robert. I know Robert is not alone! I love how God works and how things always seem to work out. That was definitely the highlight of the week when it comes to missionary work.
Ross is doing really good as well. He came to church in a full suit and seemed to really enjoy it. So that was good.

I realized how much I miss my mother! Mom, I love you! The day I got Elder Lasalosi back I woke up in the middle of the night with stomach cramps and all I wanted to do was yell out, "Mom"! And after a few minutes Mom would walk in and rub my belly a little bit and say something real sweet and it would all be over... well it didn't happen and I didn't really want Elder Lasalosi to rub my belly. So I slept it off and woke up and felt terrible. So I called Sister Simmons and she said, "You're going to the doctor." But the only doctor we could get to was in the hospital so Sunday morning I went to the hospital with Sister Simmons and found out I had a bug and that time will heal it. So I went back to the flat and rested. Don't worry, Mom! All is well now! It was a funny little experience! Well, I love you all. The Church is true and I pray everything is going well on the home front! Love, Elder Brough

Note from Nancy: We "chatted" with Landon for a little while and I asked him how Elder Lasalosi was doing and this is what he said:

He is good. His feet are bruised but he is doing good! I love him to death. I asked him to give me a blessing last night and he was in normal clothes and within a few minutes he was in a white shirt and tie and the more dressier skirt thing (note from Nancy: I think they are called t'avalas or something like that, they are the Tongan version of the Hawaiian lava lavas) and he gave me the blessing in Tongan and I don't know what he said but the spirit was there and I have not had a problem since.