May 25 – 31
Our ASM (Australia Sydney Mission) theme for the next few transfers is, “Fit for the Kingdom” from the song, “More Holiness Give Me.” The song is beautiful. You can listen to it here by a young adult choir – More Holiness Give Me | April 2023 General Conference– they sound fabulous! Here are the lyrics:
| More holiness give me,More strivings within,More patience in suff’ring,More sorrow for sin,More faith in my Savior,More sense of his care,More joy in his service,More purpose in prayer. | More gratitude give me,More trust in the Lord,More pride in his glory,More hope in his word,More tears for his sorrows,More pain at his grief,More meekness in trial,More praise for relief. | More purity give me,More strength to o’ercome,More freedom from earth-stains,More longing for home.More fit for the kingdom,More used would I be,More blessed and holy—More, Savior, like thee. |
Text and music: Philip Paul Bliss, 1838–1876
Monday –
We’ve been asked to expand our support beyond the district that attends our church congregation (the Hyde Park Group) and support the rest of the districts in our zone. So, tonight, we attended the South Harbor district council, taking delicious mint chocolate brownies, of course! We know most of the missionaries in this zone well as ½ of them join us for Sunday dinner each week (half of their zone attend the Summer Hill ward, which is the ward our group is “tied” to). It was fun to see how they held their council meeting and get to know some of the other missionaries a bit better. That night, we got a phone call at about 12:30 AM from the district leaders of South Harbor, letting us know they got locked out of their flat and needed help. THANKFULLY, we were still awake or we would not have heard their phone call (we silence our phones while sleeping). Apparently a ward member wanted to have food delivered to the missionaries but the Uber delivery kept getting pushed back later and later. Finally, at 11:30, the elders were informed that their Uber delivery was outside. Leaving the other companionship inside the flat, they ran out to pick up the food – without shoes or keys, but thankfully a cell phone. Upon trying to get back into their locked flat, they began pounding on the door, trying to wake up the two other sleeping elders. After an hour of trying and contacting the AP’s (assistants to the mission president), they all thought the best bet was to try us! I was glad we attended their district council that evening so the missionaries felt “safe” in calling us to go pick them up and drop them off at another elders flat for the night!
Tuesday –
Today was our awesome son’s, Adam, 38th birthday! Happy birthday, Adam! We are so proud of the man you are – husband, dad, son, brother, uncle, friend, disciple of Christ. Thank you for being such a great example and bestie to Dad and I! We love you so much! 🙂
Eric was able to get up early this morning, pick up the shoeless elders and drive them back to their flat so they could get ready for the day! Today we had the Emotional Literacy class with the Teancum Zone at the mission office. On the way home we stopped at our favorite lunch spot (Clover Cafe). While walking through the mall to Clover’s, I saw a tiny electric fireplace on display in the Kmart window. I jokingly told Eric that I needed that for our tiny flat. After lunch, we walked out to the parking lot and saw some kind of “machinery” laying in the middle of the parking lot. I thought it was a computer tower. On closer inspection, Eric found that it was one of those tiny electric fireplaces – obviously used and worn (it was pouring rain at the time). Eric stuck it in the back of the car, just in case. We also stopped at Saver’s (thrift store) to look for items to wear for the Retro Dance on Friday. I got white shorts and Eric got a pink polo! Preppy 80’s here we come! P.S. The mini fireplace worked! Manna from heaven! Ha ha!
Wednesday –
Apartment check day! Today we checked Summer Hill and Coogee flats. After checking the Coogee flat, we drove down their street to walk around the Coogee beach for a few minutes. It’s soooo beautiful! Tonight we went with other senior missionaries on a harbor cruise during Vivid. It was supposed to be a harbor cruise during the drone show but unfortunately 100 drones crashed into the bay the first night of the drone show so they had to cancel the rest of those shows. It was still fun and beautiful to be with friends, on the HUGE glass Captain Cook boat! Setting the lights from the water was gorgeous. We barely got sprinkled on when we were atop the boat but the great company and beautiful temperatures made it a lovely evening!
Thursday –
Today we got up early to take Sister Lui to the mission home. She is completing her mission and flying home to China. Her two companions wanted to come with us so fortunately all of Sister Lui’s luggage fit in the back of the car (just barely!). On the way to the mission office Sister Lui shared her mission preparation story – how she prayed to know what to do, receiving a call to NYC but being unable to get a visa for the US and eventually getting another call to Australia. It took her over 2 years to be able to go on a mission due to many stumbling blocks along the way. I love the faith and determination she had (and still has!) to follow the Lord and persevere! I have to admit, I felt the saddest so far about having a missionary go home with Sister Lui. Not only is she one of the sweetest, kindest, gentlest, missionaries I’ve had the privilege to serve with, I hope and pray that things will change in her country so she can practice her beliefs freely.
After we dropped Sister Lui off – with tears and lots of pictures – we took the two remaining sisters out to breakfast – Sister Nichols and Sister Rowe. We ADORE these sisters as well and are SOOOO grateful they are both still here with us in our district. The testimony, love and kindness that exudes from them can be felt by all! What a blessing they are to our area…and to our lives!
Since YW was canceled tonight, Eric and I walked down to Vivid at the Circular Quay and had dinner from a couple of the many awesome food trucks they had there! It was the perfect weather to walk around and see the beautiful light displays. Before walking back home we visited our favorite crepe place – The Four Frogs – for crepes and hot chocolate – YUM!
Friday –
Today we finished our apartment checks, got ready for the temple trip the next day, prepared for the 5th Sunday lesson (the YW organization was in charge of it), and attended the Retro Dance Party at church. A HUGE thanks to the Elisara’s and Brillos for throwing such a FUN event!!! We had a great turn out as well – with many of our group members attending AND bringing friends!
Saturday –
This morning was our first Young Women temple trip. Manda was kind enough to help drive so between the two of us we could get the YW, the moms, the leaders, and the sister missionaries to the temple! It was the first time to do baptisms for one of our YW, Leslie, and one of our YW leaders, Gianella. Our elder missionaries met us at the temple to help with baptism and confirmations as Eric was with Francisco this morning, helping him get ready to receive his endowments. He and Francisso met early to take public transportation to the temple, first to go to the distribution center to purchase his temple clothes, etc. Eric was his escort for the day and it turned out to be a beautiful day for all of us! As soon as the girls were done with baptisms, I was able to join Eric and Francisco for the endowment session. Two of the elders in our group, Elder Sorenson and Elder Latu, also joined the session as well as Elder and Sister Westover. Francisco beamed! After the session, we all went across the street to the mall for dinner and celebrations! Francisio is moving up to Queensland, hoping to get hired on at a farm (or farms) for a few months in order to extend his Visa. We will miss him and look forward to him returning to our group (hopefully!) when he is finished. His fiance, who is still in Peru, is preparing to receive her endowments as well and the two of them plan to be married in a temple in Peru this fall (Spring?). We are so blessed to get to know Francisco better we taught him the temple prep classes. He is a super kind, spiritual giant! What a great husband and dad he will be someday!
Sunday –
Today was a BUSY day! The YW organization was in charge of the 5th Sunday lesson. We were talking about temples and used a temple tour video we found on the church website. Gianella, one of the YW leader assistants, was able to cut the video into segments so ward members share their own testimony of the temple throughout. Even though a couple people who were supposed to share did not show up, the lesson turned out beautiful – hearing from the YW, YW leaders, a temple worker, a friend who is the only member of her family and a couple.
After church, we rushed off to the Summer Hill building to help prepare for Pilar’s baptism. I have been blessed to attend almost all of Pilar’s lessons. Not only was I able to get to know Pilar better through the past few months and grow to love her so much, but it has also been a joy to see her Spirit “perk up” and shine! She has been through a lot of trauma in her life. What a blessing it has been to see the light of the gospel, her understanding that she IS a beloved daughter of God, and to feel His love change her life! Eric made delicious treats for the baptism – peanut butter cookies and Texas sheet cake! I think I’m married to Martha Stewart…and LOVING IT!!
The baptism service was emotional and beautiful – the talks, the music and of course, the ordinance of baptism. When we first got to Sydney I found I had “grown out” of my temple dress so I purchased a couple more white dresses from Shein to see if they could work as temple dresses. Since both had to be majorly hemmed, which I hadn’t gotten around to yet, I bought a temple dress like my favorite one back home at the distribution center (for ½ price since we work at the temple!). Since the last lady who got baptized wore my temple dress, I brought all the long white dresses I now had (including the LONG Shein dresses) for Pilar to try on and choose one to wear for the baptism. She looked RADIANT in one of the Shein dresses that fit her PERFECTLY!
After the baptism, we rushed off to the Mortdale Stake Center for a stake devotional for the “conclusion” of our stake-wide harvest.” The “harvest” included a challenge from our stake president, President Jassar, to have a ward/group member attend every missionary lesson (it’s called LMP – lessons with a member present). He challenged every adult in the stake to dedicate at least one hour a month to go out with the missionaries AND serve in the temple at least once a month. We had almost 200 lessons with members during those two weeks for our stake – woo hoo!
We arrived at the stake center early so the young missionaries could practice the song they were singing as a musical number (Army of Helaman/Sisters in Zion combo). For some reason Eric really wanted to sing with them in the choir. Anyone who knows us knows we DON’T have great singing voices so I wasn’t sure why Eric wanted to participate so much. Well, I conceded and we practiced then sang with our whole zone during the devotional. I don’t know how it sounded to the congregation, but the spirit was strong from the choir seats and the missionaries’ voices sounded angelic!
Whew – what a day! It’s been a busy week and we both “dropped” when we got back home Sunday night! Dropped onto the couch just in time for our ASM Sunday devotional! Tonight was the kick off to start our mission wide, 30 day Book of Mormon reading challenge! Neither Eric or I have read the Book of Mormon all the way through in such a short amount of time so we’re excited for the challenge AND know that we will have to dedicate more time each day to reading the 8 to 10 chapters! 🙂
The Helland's Down Under 