June 22 – 28
So, it’s officially WINTER here in Sydney (started June 1st)! Someone fibbed to me – saying it gets “SUPER COLD” here in the winter! I went out and bought a thick coat and a couple turtle neck undershirts for those “frigid” days but so far…no need for them! I think I could wear sandals and bring along a denim jacket, just in case! Although, you can’t forget an umbrella – you never know when the rain will come! I’m not complaining, though, the weather is GORGEOUS!!! I realize more than ever the importance of layering! Even though many Aussies ARE wearing heavy coats (and even scarfs!) I get HOT walking around the city (thank you, post menopause!). Even though the Aussie winter has no Christmas, I’m truly loving the cooler weather and beauty of the season! P.S. They do celebrate “Christmas in July” here in Sydney so we’re excited to attend some of the events around the city!
Here’s what our week looked like:
Monday –
Today was a regular – call our family, plan for the week, go to district council day. We neglected to check our messages to see that our district had changed the time to starting at 5:00 pm instead of 6:00. While we showed up about 10 minutes late, we were surprised to see they were already towards the bottom of their agenda. Eric finally figured out that we were not 10 minutes, but 70 minutes late! Oops!
Have I said how much we love our zone? We have such AMAZING missionaries in our zone! I love how this current group is so caring and considerate of each other! Not only are they “all in” about sharing the gospel – they love those they serve and look for ways to support each person. It’s so beautiful to see the gospel in action! They are fabulous examples to all who know them!
Tuesday –
Today we drove about an hour to train the Helaman zone for the 2nd lesson in the emotional literacy curriculum – which is called “Taking Responsibility.” This is an AWESOME lesson! I highly recommend the talk that we incorporate in our lesson – Be 100% Responsible – by Lynn G. Robbins (here’s the link: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/lynn-g-robbins/be-100-percent-responsible/). It’s soooo good!
We tried to find a restaurant to eat at after training but couldn’t find anything so we ended up eating at Costco! Good ol’ Costco pizza! We hadn’t done our “big” shopping at Costco in a couple weeks so we had a lot to buy (and a big receipt to show for it! 🤪).
I haven’t baked much in our tiny kitchen but tonight I made the Southern Living Chocolate Praline Torte (a family favorite) for one of our missionaries’ birthday tomorrow. There are NO Nilla Wafers (or graham crackers!) in Sydney so we had to sample a couple different types of cookies to determine which tasted the closest to use in the recipe.
Wednesday –
Today we trained our own zone – the Abinadi zone – for the emotional literacy lesson. It’s always fun to be with our own zone because we know all the missionaries pretty well. However, the longer we’re here, the more we get to know many missionaries throughout the mission, so really, training each zone is like training our own!
Today we also celebrated two of our zone missionaries’ birthdays, taking cinnamon rolls for the zone and singing to Elder Sorenson and Sister Bigtas. After the zone training, our Hyde Park District had a quick “surprise” party for Elder Sorenson (which I baked the cake for). Not only was it his birthday but he only has a couple weeks left in his mission (which he has already extended). We are so blessed to know and serve with Elder Sorenson! He is a SUPER STAR missionary – humble, caring, compassionate, helpful and seeks the Lord to bless our friends, our group members and the other missionaries. We will greatly miss him when he leaves but are excited for his next adventure back at home in Utah.
In the afternoon we headed to the temple to work our PM shift. It had been over a month since we worked at the temple – due to other things that came up on Wednesdays – so it was fun to be back with our temple friends and serving the Lord in His holy house! There is a great PEACE that can be only found in the temple. I needed that quiet, peace, and CALM today! Such a blessing!
Thursday –
Today we trained the Alma zone – which was only about a 30 minute drive. This building has NO parking lot (seriously, there wasn’t a parking lot built) so it’s hit or miss whether we get a spot close to the church building or have to walk, carrying our training bags! Apparently the district leaders told the district members to be at the church early – at 8:30 (training starts at 9:00) but they, themselves, didn’t arrive until about 9:10 – with all of us waiting outside in the rain. Thank goodness for the overhang of the roof that kept us all mostly dry!
We went to have lunch in Bondi Junction at Grill’d and found some familiar US stores to walk around – Pottery Barn, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma. It’s not as fun to look when you really can’t purchase decor that will have to stay in Sydney! Ha ha!
In the evening, we had the young women and their moms over for our weekly Young Women Activity. We watched the church movie, Legacy, to prepare the girls for our upcoming Stake Pioneer Trek and the Pioneer Day Celebration we are in charge of for our group/ward. The girls knew very little about the early pioneers in the church so the movie got the conversation started. Even though our Pioneer Day Celebration will include some of those fun, old-fashioned games, we hope to focus more on the “pioneer” heritages of our group members – who are from all over the world – and what “zion” means for us today.
Friday –
This morning I picked up the sister missionaries and drove them to the hospital to visit/teach Ruiyi. We had a great visit, talking about the Holy Spirit and how God “talks” us through His Spirit. We can feel peace and comfort when we pray, receive guidance and feel God’s love in our life. I sat in awe listening to the three sisters teach Ruiyi! They are so full of the Spirit and love for her and the Savior! I felt an immense love for the four of them as we sat there together! I know that love was a gift from God and I felt privileged to know and be with these 4 sweet sisters, dear daughters of God!
This evening we had our friend, Ansii, and his mom over for dinner. We’ve known Ansii since shortly after we arrived and attended all of his lessons with the missionaries. We’ve gotten to be good friends and were excited to get to know his mom better, who is visiting from Finland. She mostly speaks Finnish but knew enough English that we were able to communicate. We also invited our group leader and his family (The Elisaras) to join us for dinner. We had a fabulous evening with great company, fun conversation, and yummy food! The Elisara little girls quickly fell in love with Ansii and kept telling him they would miss him when it was time for everyone to go home – so sweet!
Saturday –
Today was P-Day! We had big plans to take a 2 hour train ride to Wollongong then to see an ocean blow hole in Kiama but when we woke up we discovered the trains were under maintenance. Instead, we had a lazy day at home! Eric ran a couple walking errands but I stayed home like a bump on a log!
Sunday –
Today was a typical Sabbath day – attending church, teaching our classes, preparing dinner, then hosting the missionaries for dinner… and great conversation! After dinner we had our mission-wide devotional, focusing on the importance of the Book of Mormon. It has been an interesting month reading the Book of Mormon as a mission in only 30 days. I’ve never read it this fast and, a s long as I stayed caught up, I truly enjoyed spending the time each day reading 8 to 10 chapters. Although I have read the Book of Mormon many times, it was interesting to see different things that stood out to me that hadn’t upon other readings. I gained an even stronger testimony that the Book of Mormon – a second testament of Jesus Christ – contains the fullness of the gospel in beautiful, plain and simple truths. It IS the word of God and its purpose is to bring us to Jesus Christ and to be reconciled to Him. I have been repeatedly reminded that as I follow the Lord and His teachings, I will find peace, joy and guidance each day. Additionally, I have loved the theme of the need for, power in, and joy that comes from daily repentance. The words coupled with the Spirit have brought me closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ.
Some things I learned this week:
- It’s easy to let negative thoughts creep in and take hold! That definitely even happens as a missionary! There are days when I question what I’m doing here – half way across the world from my home and family?!? I can start to dwell on the games and events that I’m missing with our dear grandkids, the family and friends I’m not able to spend time with, I even find myself missing my favorite stores, restaurants, and products I can’t buy here. Missing things and even feeling sad and homesick are normal feelings. The problem happens when I begin to focus on those things, instead of focusing on the here and now – my purpose here in Sydney. When I see a cockroach in our apartment, a huge rat crosses my path as I’m walking home, my black kitchen tile/counter always looks filthy, my apartment seems damp and dark – thoughts creep into my mind saying, “Why are you even here? What did you think you could accomplish? You don’t belong here! You’re not even making a difference! Go home to your comfortable life! Two years is TOO LONG!” I have to ask myself where those thoughts are coming from. One thing that has been helping me is to ask, “Are those thoughts from Heavenly Father? Are those thoughts true? What does Satan want me to believe? What does Jesus Christ want me to know?” I’m not saying that feeling homesick or missing people/things is “bad” – emotions are real and they’re not bad. But I can see how the spiral in negative thinking can lead to a dark place of depression and hopelessness as we focus on them. I am grateful for prayer and for the Spirit helping me to see what is true. When I focus on feelings of gratitude for all the GOOD things and BLESSINGS in my life, the darkness clears and light appears. I know that when we feel down and discouraged, as we turn to the Lord for help, He will help us see things clearly and bring peace, comfort and even JOY into our lives! I’ve always struggled a bit with anxiety so I am grateful for the truths and strategies I’m being taught by the Spirit on my journey here in Australia. I may never know the whole “impact” Eric and I are having here on the people we serve, but I do see the “impact” the mission – the struggles AND the miracles – are having on me – helping me to grow as a person.
The Helland's Down Under 