We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed ringing in the new year with loved ones! Here’s what our week looked like:
Monday 12/29 – Monday’s (Sunday back home) we get to talk to both of our kids and their families! We LOVE getting to facetime them and hear about their weekly adventures. We can already see our grandkids getting BIGGER!!! We were also able to message people from our congregation who we missed at church to let them know we missed them and find out if they were OK. We also messaged some of the friends we had met the week before to see if they were up to getting together.
We finally went back to our Black Town flat to clean it out and return the keys to the mission office. While we were out, we went to Bunnings aka Hammer barn (like Home Depot) and Costco to get pizza for the missionaries for dinner. We decided that since we already have district council with the 6 junior elder missionaries in our district, we would feed them on this night and have district council at our flat. It’s great to have that time each week set aside to talk about the people we’ve met, lessons given, and collaborate on how to best help the friends and members of our Hyde Park group.
Tuesday 12/30 – Well, it wasn’t a great day for the Hellands! We had our day planned but in our haste to leave the apartment, we both walked out without keys to anything! Yes, we locked ourselves out of our flat for a SECOND TIME!!! I seriously hoped we learned our lesson the first time! Darn! This time we didn’t even have our keys to the car so we ended up taking public transportation to Carlingford, where the temple and mission office is. We were able to AGAIN borrow the spare keys from Elder Putnam then make the trek back to our flat in Haymarket. On the way back, we got on the wrong train (an express that didn’t stop at all the stations) and headed to New Castle! We were finally able to get off the train and get back on the correct train! Between the train and city buses, we finally got home to our flat in the evening – tired and discouraged from having a “wasted” day. As we thought back on the day, we realized that we were able to contact a few people who needed some extra TLC. When we got home we also put a sign on our door, inspired by our friends the Putnams – “Got Keys? (and lift card, glasses, hearing aide, bags)?” The day was NOT wasted! 🙂
Still smiling – after a crazy “locked out” day – ha ha!
Wednesday 12/31 – New Year’s Eve – we didn’t realize that Sydney has one of the BIGGEST fireworks displays in the world for NYE. We’ll definitely try to see it next year! Today we walked to Kmart to get a few supplies then walked home carrying extra heavy items (Christmas Clearance!). Kmart was further than we thought so the walk back was LONG! We were blessed to meet with a new friend, “Jake,” who two of the sister missionaries had met and were going to teach a lesson to. Jake is only 19 but what a beautiful spirit he has about him. It’s so wonderful to see someone his age (really, ANY age) be asking questions about what’s important in his life and how does God fit into the picture! Jake had already done some studying and was very interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Meeting with him, sharing our testimonies and answering his questions totally uplifted Eric and I and we left so excited and grateful for the Savior and the blessings He brings to His children! When we got home we made some cookies and cheese balls for the NYE party our group leaders, Lyle and Lyka Elisara hosted at the church building. This might have been the most fun we’ve had on NYE! We played games, danced, ate delicious food, and laughed our heads off at the funny things that happened during the games. The best part was being with such special people – our new Aussie family! It’s amazing how being with friends, laughing and enjoying each other’s company is soooo good for the body and spirit! We both left recharged and so blessed to be amongst amazing new friends who already feel like family!
Lots of yummy food!
Yummy good, fun games, dancing and LAUGHING with our Aussie family!
Thursday 1/1 – After staying up so late and getting home around 1:00 AM, you can guess that we slept in Thursday morning. We met two elder missionaries at the church to be part of two different lessons. Unfortunately, neither showed up so we ended up waiting at the church for a little over an hour. We walked to The Rocks area and ate dinner at a little Danish restaurant. One thing I love most about Sydney is how “international” the city is! Not only is there food and restaurants from every continent, but the diversity of the people here is incredible! I love hearing languages and accents from all around the world!
It reminds me of the great truth found in Acts 10, when Peter said, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Then in the Book of Mormon, Nephi (in 2 Nephi 26) teaches that the Lord, “doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God.” I KNOW that we are ALL God’s children, He created us and He loves each of us equally – as a perfect father loves His children.
Around town on New Year’s Day!
Friday 1/2 – We went to the grocery store again to get food for the baptism and “break the fast” luncheon for the missionaries (we need to do better about planning ahead for the week so we only go to the grocery store ONCE!). In the afternoon we met our dear friend, Thais, who recently got baptized, and rode public transportation with her to the temple in Carlingford. She introduced us to the subway (which we hadn’t ridden yet), which is the CLEANEST and NICEST subway we’ve ever ridden. It’s also faster than the regular train. We only had to ride the subway, then one bus ride to get to the temple. Once there we met two elders, one who was previously in our district and taught Thais. We went to the family search center and, with the help of a missionary who staffs the center, Thais was able to find more family members on her tree to do proxy baptisms for. Two sister missionaries – Sister Moncrief and Sister Hansen also met us and we were able to spend time in the temple doing baptisms and confirmations. The bishop of the ward our unit is tied to, Bishop Scott of the Summer Hill ward, was working at the temple baptistry along with his wife. It was wonderful to see them as well. What a joyous occasion it was being at the temple together! After some pictures in front of the temple, the 7 of us went to have dinner (sushi) at the mall across the street. Sydney must be the capital of “malls” in the world! There are malls (they call them shopping centers) EVERYWHERE! Stores are not free standing here; they are grouped together in malls so you can find one on every block!
Saturday 1/3 – We had to clean our flat this morning then walked to a park to meet our sister buddies for a lesson with Russo. Another beautiful lesson, talking about having faith in Jesus Christ and the power of prayer. I love to be in these settings where everyone contributes to the conversation, sharing experiences and testimony of the Lord’s work and blessings in their lives. We walked home feeling so uplifted! Some missionaries came over to use our computer, as one of the elders is submitting his final paperwork to attend BYU Hawaii after his mission ends this spring. Meanwhile we made food for Jennifer’s baptism. We LOVE our friend/dear sister Jennifer who got baptized Saturday evening. Although she only speaks Mandarin Chinese, we are able to communicate through other people translating, a translating app on the phone, and the language of love! She is truly a treasure! Her son and his partner also came to the baptism service and we were so happy to finally meet him and let him know how much we love his mom. When we sat down in the chapel for the service and were able to sing the opening song, Eric handed me the program and said, “Did you know that your name is on the program? I looked and saw that I was giving the first talk on baptism. I only had through the opening song to try to gather my thoughts and say a prayer for help and guidance. After the opening prayer, it was announced that I would speak. I totally felt the Spirit guide me on what to say about the need for baptism, talking about the Savior, who was perfect, was even baptized to fulfill all righteousness and show us an example. That was one of those miraculous experiences were I felt the truthfulness of the words of the Savior from the book of Mark, “take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak…but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” Also, in Doctrine and Covenants section 84 where the Lord says, “85 Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man (or women).” After the baptism I leaned over to Eric and said, “Thank goodness you saw my name in the program and pointed it out to me!” Eric replied that he hadn’t seen my name but had only handed me a copy of the program. It must have been the Spirit that said to me, “Did you see that your name is on the program?” I am sooo grateful for that prompting so I had a couple minutes to collect my thoughts and pray for guidance!
Sunday 1/4 – Today was “Fast and Testimony Meeting”, where we were able to hear the testimonies of so many congregation members – including recently baptized members and visitors from the states. It was a BEAUTIFUL meeting! I was called to be the Young Women’s leader. Our group hasn’t had any youth classes for some time so I was super excited to meet with the 3 young women who attended church today for a Sunday School lesson, an introduction to the Old Testament, which we’ll be studying this year. We will also have weekly youth activities! I’m very excited to bring the joy of the Young Women’s program to these sweet sisters and to get to know them better!
Some things we learned this week:
- The Spirit of the Lord is alive and real! If we seek Him, He will guide us in the ways that are best!
- God and our Savior Jesus Christ ARE aware of us and the details of our lives! They love us and CARE about what’s important to us!
- It’s easy to get “off” schedule, lose track of time, and not make the most of our time! We realize that we need to plan ahead for the week so we know what food to buy, what lessons to plan, etc. The week felt a little chaotic as we only planned for each day as it came. Not a good practice!
- God loves ALL His children equally – He is the Father of our Spirits and loves each one of us with a PERFECT love! We are grateful to live amongst such a diverse population of God’s dear and beautiful children!
- Miracles do NOT cease! If we look for them, we can see God’s hand in our lives EVERY day! Some miracles are so personal and clearly from the Lord! He wants us to know that He can and will ALWAYS be with us, especially as we seek, ask and knock!
- We thought we were here to help and support, which we are, but we didn’t realize how much WE would learn and grow through our experiences and the lovely people we meet! #Blessings! ♥️
The Helland's Down Under 