So the theme for this week seems to be overcoming adversity, and the emails that I got today really helped with that, so thanks for those. Not that this week has been full of adversity, but it's definitely had it's ups and downs. For example, we were only able to teach one investigator the whole week, that was one of the downs. One of the ups would be that we got to go to the temple on Wednesday and that's always a great experience. The thing that I learned in the temple this week comes from Ether 2:15. Not really anything about overcoming adversity, but about repentance and forgiveness. But it was good.
So I think that the biggest adversity that I've felt this week just comes from me feeling like I can be doing better. There's so many different aspects of the work that I just feel like I need to improve in. We had a Stake Correlation meeting this week with the Mission President, Stake President, 2 of the High Councilmen, us, and the Bunbury ZLs. After that meeting I just felt this overwhelming desire to do everything better. I know that I'm trying my hardest in everything I do, but I just feel like I can be doing so much better. I have the desire to baptise monthly, I'm just trying to figure out what more can I possibly do to achieve my goals. We had a massive weekly planning session on Friday and we discussed some goals that we want to work on. Goals for our area and for our zone. We really want to set the example for our zone in everything including helping our investigators progress. We haven't really had any progressing investigators in awhile, they're all just kind of at a stand still or have just dropped us. We have had some good progress with the Coromandels, but that's about it. We're really hoping to see even more with them in the weeks coming. We went around to visit them on Thursday to see if we could reschedule an appointment. Jerome wasn't home, but we were able to talk to his wife Jamie. She talked to us about how she has kind of been pressured into the church in the past and been put off a bit as well. Apparently Jerome has an auntie that told her she couldn't come to the church because they weren't married, and then when they did get married, she told her that she can come now. So that put her off for awhile. We invited her to church and she didn't say no, but she said that she wants to learn more before she makes any big changes or jumps or anything and she wants to learn at her own pace. Basically, we had a really good chat with her and found out that she is learning and interested in continuing her learning. She even said that they read a couple of chapters of the Book of Mormon together! We haven't been able to reschedule our appointment with them yet, but we're hopefully going to get that done tonight. And hopefully also plan a Family Home Evening with them and the Katoas. Sister Katoa said that her mum was a Coromandel, so there's a chance they might be related. But she also said that Coromandel is one of the most popular surnames in NZ, so we'll see.
We had a service opportunity at the Hoey's house this Thursday that involved working with heaps of concrete. Brother Hoey, (Jim), isn't a member but the rest of the family is. His son is actually on a mission in the Adelaide mission and his other son is married in the temple. The rest of the family was baptised 3 years ago or so, but he's just too staunch of a Catholic to want to change. Very stuck in his ways. It's had a pretty big effect on the rest of the family as well, I think the two sons are going to carry that family in the gospel for sure. Well anyways, I learned on Thursday that I never want a job that involves working with concrete. I was pretty shocking at it. Hopefully he still has us around to help him with other jobs that he has. He's a workaholic. When he's not up in the mines, he's always doing something around the yard or house, just always renovating. It was good fun though. Then he bought us some KFC afterwards so it was all goods.
We have another specialised training meeting tomorrow and I'm actually feeling healthy this week which means I won't have to miss out on giving training again! I'm not sure what we're giving training on though, the APs just called us a couple of hours ago to let us know and I haven't had a chance to listen to the message yet. But it should be good. We have to prepare a 3 minute talk as well and the topic is "a funny story from the mission or life that teaches a gospel principle". And it's been a lot harder for me to think of my funny story than I thought it would be. Hopefully I gain some kind of inspiration tonight though when we're planning.
Sorry this email isn't heaps long this week. I hope we're all preparing for General Conference. Less than 3 weeks away now! It's bound to be a good one with all the things happening in the world right now. I can't wait to hear the words of the prophet.
Love you all!
Elder Tanner
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