G'day friends and family!
What a fast week this was!
Elder 'Iongi and I were hard at work this week as we worked to follow-up with many of the potential investigators we have found over the last few weeks. We taught a lot of lesson, but unfortunately, not many people were interested in learning much more. I guess that's what happens. Everybody has their agency.
We are continuing to work closely with Paul. I must say that he has been my favorite investigator I've had on my mission. He's a goofy guy, but has a big heart. He is very Christ-like. He tries very hard to live his life in a manner that he feels Christ would be happy with. I wish more people in the world were like that. I enjoy teaching him. The questions he asks us really challenge the knowledge of the gospel I have gained over the last 19 months.....and 20 years before that! I almost feel like I've been prepared over my mission to teach him. I wouldn't be surprised if Elder 'Iongi felt the same way. We are still trying to find a way for his wife's heart to soften. We have come to find that some members in our ward know them, and they would like to get involved in teaching. This will be a big help to us since we'll now have fellowship with us who they relate to.
This week Elder 'Iongi's bike broke down. We spent most of the week walking everywhere in our area. That's normally not an issue, but this week was exceptionally hot. I wonder if God's trying to teach us a lesson in humility or gratitude here......no dramas. He'll be getting it fixed this week, so we should be alright.
Well, I reckon that's all for this week. It was all pretty generic, for the most part. I love you all. Thanks again for your love and support.
Elder Rosier
Monday, March 3, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Weekly Update February 17, 2014
Hello again everyone!
This week was also pretty generic. We spent much time following-up on those whom we found last week, without much success.
The highlight of our week this week was a breakthrough we had with Paul. When we met with him on Wednesday, he told us that he is at a point where the only way he'll be able to know for certain is to pray and ask God. We've been telling him for a long time that was the only way, but he's fought against it, always looking for some fault in what we say, something he disagrees with. He admitted that he can find no fault in what we teach him. That it in no way goes against anything he believes in. We took the opportunity to invite him to come to the baptism that the other two elders in our ward--Elders Huntington and Tarati--had on Saturday. He attended, and really enjoyed himself. He loved the simplicity of the baptism, and said it was beautiful. He was also welcomed right away by the ward members, particularly the bishop and his wife. We also found out that one of the recent converts in our ward knows him! The stake president was also there, and had a long chat with Paul. He committed Paul to come to church the next day. He said he would.
Unfortunately, Paul didn't attend yesterday. He is experiencing a lot of resistance from his wife. We aren't really sure about what to do about her, other than pray for her heart to soften. We know that Paul really felt something special at the baptism. He admitted to it. Be he doesn't want to cause conflict in his family. I hope we're able to figure out what to do. I'm sure we will.
Other than that, there isn't much to report on for this week. I hope everybody has a good week. I love your all!
Elder Rosier
This week was also pretty generic. We spent much time following-up on those whom we found last week, without much success.
The highlight of our week this week was a breakthrough we had with Paul. When we met with him on Wednesday, he told us that he is at a point where the only way he'll be able to know for certain is to pray and ask God. We've been telling him for a long time that was the only way, but he's fought against it, always looking for some fault in what we say, something he disagrees with. He admitted that he can find no fault in what we teach him. That it in no way goes against anything he believes in. We took the opportunity to invite him to come to the baptism that the other two elders in our ward--Elders Huntington and Tarati--had on Saturday. He attended, and really enjoyed himself. He loved the simplicity of the baptism, and said it was beautiful. He was also welcomed right away by the ward members, particularly the bishop and his wife. We also found out that one of the recent converts in our ward knows him! The stake president was also there, and had a long chat with Paul. He committed Paul to come to church the next day. He said he would.
Unfortunately, Paul didn't attend yesterday. He is experiencing a lot of resistance from his wife. We aren't really sure about what to do about her, other than pray for her heart to soften. We know that Paul really felt something special at the baptism. He admitted to it. Be he doesn't want to cause conflict in his family. I hope we're able to figure out what to do. I'm sure we will.
Other than that, there isn't much to report on for this week. I hope everybody has a good week. I love your all!
Elder Rosier
Monday, February 10, 2014
Weekly Update February 11, 2014
Hello again, friends and family!
It was a very generic week for Elder 'Iongi and I. Unfortunately, we suffered a few setbacks. The saddest one for us was our investigator, Amy, moved. She went up the Sunshine Coast in search of work, and may not be back. We will find out in a few weeks. Other than that, the only "setbacks"we had were a number of appointments that fell-through.
On Saturday I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Tarati, our French-Polynesian trainee in Capalaba ward. It has been a long time since I went on an exchange with a missionary who doesn't speak English very well. I had a good time with him. His language skill has been improving heaps over the weeks, and he has great faith that Heavenly Father can help him overcome his weakness in the language. I must admit that he is the most confident greenie I have ever met.
Yesterday the four of us in Capalaba ward--Elders 'Iongi, Huntington, Tarati, and I--had the most exciting service project I have ever participated in as a missionary. We went to an elderly lady's home to clean up the dead palm frons that were all over her property. That was a bit boring.....up until she asked us to burn them :) That was rather exciting! I will send some photos of it home next week.
Today is transfers. Elder "Iongi and I are still together. In fact, there were no changes in Capalaba ward.
That's about it for this week.
Love you all very much!
Elder Rosier
It was a very generic week for Elder 'Iongi and I. Unfortunately, we suffered a few setbacks. The saddest one for us was our investigator, Amy, moved. She went up the Sunshine Coast in search of work, and may not be back. We will find out in a few weeks. Other than that, the only "setbacks"we had were a number of appointments that fell-through.
On Saturday I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Tarati, our French-Polynesian trainee in Capalaba ward. It has been a long time since I went on an exchange with a missionary who doesn't speak English very well. I had a good time with him. His language skill has been improving heaps over the weeks, and he has great faith that Heavenly Father can help him overcome his weakness in the language. I must admit that he is the most confident greenie I have ever met.
Yesterday the four of us in Capalaba ward--Elders 'Iongi, Huntington, Tarati, and I--had the most exciting service project I have ever participated in as a missionary. We went to an elderly lady's home to clean up the dead palm frons that were all over her property. That was a bit boring.....up until she asked us to burn them :) That was rather exciting! I will send some photos of it home next week.
Today is transfers. Elder "Iongi and I are still together. In fact, there were no changes in Capalaba ward.
That's about it for this week.
Love you all very much!
Elder Rosier
Monday, February 3, 2014
Weekly Update February 3, 2014
Hello again friends and family!
What a fast week this one was! I cannot believe how quickly the time goes by these days.
Elder 'Iongi and I had an interesting week this week. We had found a lot of potential investigators over the last 2 weeks, so we spent this week following up with them, trying to find out who was genuinely interested. As a result of our week, we reported four new investigators this week, the most I've ever reported in a week. One of our new investigators is a 19-year-old girl named Amy. Amy is someone we found tracting two weeks ago. We met up with her this week and taught her about the restoration. Amy doesn't have much of a religious background, but she did take religious classes in primary school. She said that God has never played much of a role in her life, but she's always wondered if there's really a god out there. After we taught about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, she got really excited and said she would start reading it right away. We saw her again three days later, and she had already been reading. We're looking forward to continue teaching her.
This week is the last week of the transfer. We hope to be able to get a baptismal date with Maria this week. We will also be following-up with members whom we have left challenges with. I really hope to be able to see the members becoming more and more excited about missionary work in this ward. They have come a long way since I first arrived here. It is a good ward, and I enjoy serving here.
I hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Elder Rosier
What a fast week this one was! I cannot believe how quickly the time goes by these days.
Elder 'Iongi and I had an interesting week this week. We had found a lot of potential investigators over the last 2 weeks, so we spent this week following up with them, trying to find out who was genuinely interested. As a result of our week, we reported four new investigators this week, the most I've ever reported in a week. One of our new investigators is a 19-year-old girl named Amy. Amy is someone we found tracting two weeks ago. We met up with her this week and taught her about the restoration. Amy doesn't have much of a religious background, but she did take religious classes in primary school. She said that God has never played much of a role in her life, but she's always wondered if there's really a god out there. After we taught about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, she got really excited and said she would start reading it right away. We saw her again three days later, and she had already been reading. We're looking forward to continue teaching her.
This week is the last week of the transfer. We hope to be able to get a baptismal date with Maria this week. We will also be following-up with members whom we have left challenges with. I really hope to be able to see the members becoming more and more excited about missionary work in this ward. They have come a long way since I first arrived here. It is a good ward, and I enjoy serving here.
I hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Elder Rosier
Monday, January 27, 2014
Weekly Update January 28, 2014
G'day everyone!
What a fast week this one has been! A lot of good things happened to Elder 'Iongi and myself this week. We did more finding this week than we have done all transfer, so far. However, we were able to find a couple really solid potentials we will be seeing this week. We had a couple lessons with our investigator, Paul, this week. The second time we visited him he told us that he had just been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, and may already have diabetes. After a bit of conversation about nutrition and exercise and things along those lines, we introduced the Word of Wisdom to him. As we read from D&C 89, he would have us stop and ask questions, or sometimes just comment that he agreed with what it said. The thing that surprised me was when we mentioned drinking tea or coffee, he admitted that was good advice! Paul is a religious coffee drinker! He said he can see that being a good thing because then you "aren't chained to your morning coffee."
On Wednesday evening, we (the missionaries in the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane North, Brisbane, and Cleveland Stakes) were invited to attend a "cluster meeting" that President Henderson, the mission president, was speaking at. The cluster meeting consists of the ward councils and bishoprics of multiple stakes, and are presided over by an area authority. There was much talk about the missionaries and the members working together. I really enjoyed the meeting, and we received a lot of really good information we can use when we go out to challenge our members to work with us in some way. When President Henderson began his talk, a thunderstorm hit Brisbane, and when he started speaking, you could hear the thunder in the background! It was really cool! I really drove home the authority that man speaks with! Ever since this meeting, Elder 'Iongi and I have been out committing the families in our area to form Family Mission plans. We hope to be able to work with them to accomplish the goals they set as families. I really feel this is going to help both members and missionaries to work effectively together.
This past Sunday was Australia Day. Our ward had a barbie yesterday (Monday) to celebrate, since it was a public holiday. Australia Day is the celebration of Captain Cook discovering Australia. However, the indigenous community does not celebrate Australia Day. They have a different name for it: Invasion Day. I think that pretty much sums up their feelings on it all. Just thought that would be a fun fact about Oz.
I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Rosier
What a fast week this one has been! A lot of good things happened to Elder 'Iongi and myself this week. We did more finding this week than we have done all transfer, so far. However, we were able to find a couple really solid potentials we will be seeing this week. We had a couple lessons with our investigator, Paul, this week. The second time we visited him he told us that he had just been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, and may already have diabetes. After a bit of conversation about nutrition and exercise and things along those lines, we introduced the Word of Wisdom to him. As we read from D&C 89, he would have us stop and ask questions, or sometimes just comment that he agreed with what it said. The thing that surprised me was when we mentioned drinking tea or coffee, he admitted that was good advice! Paul is a religious coffee drinker! He said he can see that being a good thing because then you "aren't chained to your morning coffee."
On Wednesday evening, we (the missionaries in the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane North, Brisbane, and Cleveland Stakes) were invited to attend a "cluster meeting" that President Henderson, the mission president, was speaking at. The cluster meeting consists of the ward councils and bishoprics of multiple stakes, and are presided over by an area authority. There was much talk about the missionaries and the members working together. I really enjoyed the meeting, and we received a lot of really good information we can use when we go out to challenge our members to work with us in some way. When President Henderson began his talk, a thunderstorm hit Brisbane, and when he started speaking, you could hear the thunder in the background! It was really cool! I really drove home the authority that man speaks with! Ever since this meeting, Elder 'Iongi and I have been out committing the families in our area to form Family Mission plans. We hope to be able to work with them to accomplish the goals they set as families. I really feel this is going to help both members and missionaries to work effectively together.
This past Sunday was Australia Day. Our ward had a barbie yesterday (Monday) to celebrate, since it was a public holiday. Australia Day is the celebration of Captain Cook discovering Australia. However, the indigenous community does not celebrate Australia Day. They have a different name for it: Invasion Day. I think that pretty much sums up their feelings on it all. Just thought that would be a fun fact about Oz.
I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Rosier
Monday, January 20, 2014
Weekly Update January 20, 2014
Hello everyone!
I am terribly sorry that there was no update last week. I forgot to write it and when my time on the internet at the library had ended, it hit me that I failed to send one.
These last two weeks have been good Not too much out of the ordinary. Missionary work as usual, I reckon. Here are a few highlights for the week I failed to write you about:
Elder'Iongi and I went and followed up with a potential (investigator) we had. We were most of the way through teaching the first discussion with him when his mum came out, Bible loaded. After a bit of a conversation where we were inclined to--as President Langeland always put it--correct their false doctrine, I was able to get a commitment from both of them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We went and followed up this past Saturday, only to discover that they hadn't done it, and the mum had told her son she didn't want him to investigate our church.
We had our second visit with Maria. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying. She didn't really feel like she's getting an answer yet, but will keep praying and reading.
This week was really good. We visited with Paul a couple of times, and shared a message with him about keeping positive. He recognizes the need to make prayer and scripture study a bigger part of his life. We are encouraging him to read from the Book of Mormon. He has nothing against it, bue he is afraid that his wife doesn't want him to read it. We have tea with them tonight. His wife's heart seems to be softening. She is from Boston, and is really happy that there is a missionary from America coming to visit.
We taught Maria about the Plan of Salvation yesterday (Sunday(. We first followed up about her reading and praying. She said that she is feeling something different in her life since she began studying the Book of Mormon. We also met her mum. She said she is completely supportive of her to learn about the church, and get baptized if she wants to. Apparently, her parents--Maria's grandparents--are members of the church. Maria didn't know that until she told us!
I hope everyone has a great week! Love you all!
Elder Rosier
The mission blog posted an article this week entitled "Flat Inspections and Interviews" and posted pictures of missionaries with the mission president and his wife. I noticed that the missionaries in Ross' zone, however, were taken in the church. Ross said that they got a call five minutes before expecting their arrival, for them to come to the church for their meetings. Ross was sort of disappointed because, "they had spent heaps of time cleaning their flat!" I'm thinking, that was probably a good thing!
I am terribly sorry that there was no update last week. I forgot to write it and when my time on the internet at the library had ended, it hit me that I failed to send one.
These last two weeks have been good Not too much out of the ordinary. Missionary work as usual, I reckon. Here are a few highlights for the week I failed to write you about:
Elder'Iongi and I went and followed up with a potential (investigator) we had. We were most of the way through teaching the first discussion with him when his mum came out, Bible loaded. After a bit of a conversation where we were inclined to--as President Langeland always put it--correct their false doctrine, I was able to get a commitment from both of them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We went and followed up this past Saturday, only to discover that they hadn't done it, and the mum had told her son she didn't want him to investigate our church.
We had our second visit with Maria. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying. She didn't really feel like she's getting an answer yet, but will keep praying and reading.
This week was really good. We visited with Paul a couple of times, and shared a message with him about keeping positive. He recognizes the need to make prayer and scripture study a bigger part of his life. We are encouraging him to read from the Book of Mormon. He has nothing against it, bue he is afraid that his wife doesn't want him to read it. We have tea with them tonight. His wife's heart seems to be softening. She is from Boston, and is really happy that there is a missionary from America coming to visit.
We taught Maria about the Plan of Salvation yesterday (Sunday(. We first followed up about her reading and praying. She said that she is feeling something different in her life since she began studying the Book of Mormon. We also met her mum. She said she is completely supportive of her to learn about the church, and get baptized if she wants to. Apparently, her parents--Maria's grandparents--are members of the church. Maria didn't know that until she told us!
I hope everyone has a great week! Love you all!
Elder Rosier
The mission blog posted an article this week entitled "Flat Inspections and Interviews" and posted pictures of missionaries with the mission president and his wife. I noticed that the missionaries in Ross' zone, however, were taken in the church. Ross said that they got a call five minutes before expecting their arrival, for them to come to the church for their meetings. Ross was sort of disappointed because, "they had spent heaps of time cleaning their flat!" I'm thinking, that was probably a good thing!
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Weekly Update January 7, 2014
Happy New Year!
Hope everybody had a great new year's eve and day! As I mentioned in my last year's Eve, so I am starting 2014 in a new area.
The first week here was really good. I am enjoying serving with Elder 'Iongi. We spent much of this week finding people to teach, and visiting the less-active members in the ward. We have had much success this week with people who we have talked with on the street and at the bus station. Hopefully I'll have much to report on in the coming weeks regarding those whom we found.
We have two progressing investigators here. One is a man named Paul who is Catholic. His wife is from the states. He joined the Catholic church when he married his wife. When I met him for the first time this week, we had a rather long (and deep, I might add) discussion on the apostasy, how it started, what caused it, and how/why the restoration of the gospel occurred. Thank you, James E. Talmage, for teaching me about that subject in depth. Fortunately, that was really good for Paul, as I was able to address some of the concerns he had both about our church and the Catholic chruch. He was mostly concerned about the claim to authority by both churches. Elder 'Iongi feels that now that we're over that obstacle with him that we'll be able to help him progress.
Our other investigator is a girl named Maria. She has met with missionaries in the past. On Sunday we went over the restoration with her. She said she will get baptized if she gets a witness that he Book of Mormon is true. We are seeing her tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to set a date with her.
Well, that's us here in Capalaba. I hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Rosier
Hope everybody had a great new year's eve and day! As I mentioned in my last year's Eve, so I am starting 2014 in a new area.
The first week here was really good. I am enjoying serving with Elder 'Iongi. We spent much of this week finding people to teach, and visiting the less-active members in the ward. We have had much success this week with people who we have talked with on the street and at the bus station. Hopefully I'll have much to report on in the coming weeks regarding those whom we found.
We have two progressing investigators here. One is a man named Paul who is Catholic. His wife is from the states. He joined the Catholic church when he married his wife. When I met him for the first time this week, we had a rather long (and deep, I might add) discussion on the apostasy, how it started, what caused it, and how/why the restoration of the gospel occurred. Thank you, James E. Talmage, for teaching me about that subject in depth. Fortunately, that was really good for Paul, as I was able to address some of the concerns he had both about our church and the Catholic chruch. He was mostly concerned about the claim to authority by both churches. Elder 'Iongi feels that now that we're over that obstacle with him that we'll be able to help him progress.
Our other investigator is a girl named Maria. She has met with missionaries in the past. On Sunday we went over the restoration with her. She said she will get baptized if she gets a witness that he Book of Mormon is true. We are seeing her tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to set a date with her.
Well, that's us here in Capalaba. I hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Rosier
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