Wow. This week has been "chalk-o-blok" full of ups and downs. Not major ups or downs, just the normal ups and downs of missionary work. Nothing to literally get down about though. The ups always outweigh the downs anyways. Some of the best ups about this week would definitely have to be finding our new investigator Marion, getting in touch with Monique again (the lady that we did service for that one time a few weeks back), the barbi that we had on Saturday night, as well as the volleyball, that most of the active members in the branch attended, having one of our less actives that we have been working with keep his commitment to read the Book of Mormon, and dinner at the Clarke's, which is always a highlight of Sunday nights. So yeah, I won't really go into the downs of the week, because they're not as exciting. Really, now that I think of it, there weren't many downs this week. The only ones that I can remember were having appointments fall through. That's something that happens so regularly that it doesn't really affect me. I just write down the person's name to go try them again the next day or later in the week or something. So all in all, this week has been all ups for me.
So going back to some of the highlights of this week, where to begin. I'll begin with Marion. I found Marion 2 weeks ago while tracting with Teancum Clarke on splits. We weren't really able to set a return appointment with him or anything when we met him, but he said he would be interested in hearing anything that came from the word of God. So we felt impressed to see him on Wednesday this week and the lesson we had with him was spectacular. And we taught him again yesterday as well. Between Wednesday and Sunday he had already kept his commitment to read the Book of Mormon, but hasn't prayed about it yet. After teaching the first lesson he said that he recognised the feeling of the holy ghost and he really like it when we explained the apostasy especially when we used the analogy of a broken mirror. That analogy really stuck with him and he said it made him feel really good inside because it answered some questions for him. Marion is a really great man. He's a catholic and has been for his whole life. He has lots of humility, charity, and love. He is working over here while his family is back in the Philippines. Apparently in the Philippines the only jobs he can really get only pay about 30 dollars a day, whereas here in Karratha he can drive a forklift for 35 dollars an hour. And 2,000 Aussie dollars equals about 70,000 Filipino pesos. He pretty much just pays his rent and his bills for the place that he's staying here as well as buying food and then just sends the rest of his money home to his wife and 2 kids. And anytime anyone back home asks him for money, he's always willing to give it. He told us that he can't not give, because he just gets a feeling in his heart that tells him that he needs to be giving. Of course we know what that feeling is. We're looking forward to this week because we're setting up a lesson to have Sister Weeks come with us to a lesson since she is Filipino herself and has one of the strongest testimonies in the branch. I pray that good things lie ahead for us with Marion.
We finally got in touch with Monique again. If you don't remember we found her by walking past her house while she was weeding her yard and we offered to help and did her whole yard while still wearing our white shirts and ties. She was very grateful for that but then we kind of lost contact with her for about a month because she went out of town and when she got back we tried to go over and visit but her husband, Peter, came to the door and just said it wasn't a good time. We kind of took that as a rejection and thought we would kind of lay off for a couple of weeks. Well we decided it was time to go see her again this Tuesday and it was inspired. She asked us if we could help her move some furniture on Thursday because he husband was going to be at work and she wouldn't be able to do it on her own. So we organised for Mick Halls to come along and help us out and so we got another chance to serve her. Peter called us from work and asked what he could do to pay us and he just thanked us and all that. So that was cool, to know that he's not standoffish either. Apparently one of the members, Brother Van As, overheard him talking on the phone to us at work and told him that he knew us and that he went to church with us and told him a bit more about who we were. He said he described us as "disciples of Jesus". That was such a great experience. Even better than the last experience that we had with her. We invited them both to church again as well as to the barbi on Saturday, but they didn't come, but we're going to definitely stick with it now.
The barbi was great. All of the people that came were the Ottos, the Pilkingtons, Rachel and Sara Seuga, the Garepos, Sister Weeks, the Halls, Teancum and Ethan Clarke, Sister Alvarez (a less active member), and President and Sister Shepherd from the mission presidency were even in town and they came along. It was a super night. Lots of volleyball and lots of food. Our investigator Carlo came as well so we shared a message at the end of the night about gratitude and had everyone go around and say one thing that they are grateful for. So we left that spiritually and physically full, as well as physically ready to have a sleep.
At the Clarke's house last night we watched episode 1 of Preach My Gospel DVDs season 2 and then had a discussion about missionary work. I've watched these DVDs with people before but never have I seen people get so into it. Teancum is like a movie critic and he's sort of preparing for a mission, so he had lots of comments about the movie. It was fun to see them all getting into the DVD. We really felt the spirit and I think it really increased their desire to do missionary work, which is our goal for this branch. We've come up with a cool idea that we're going to start putting together today. We took a picture of our name badges and we're going to get it printed with the words "Will you pray for us by name?" on it and chuck a fridge magnet on it. Then we're going to share Alma's prayer in Alma 31:26-35 when he prays for his fellow servants by name and then prays that they may all have success in bringing people unto Christ. I'm pretty stoked about this idea, and I wish I would have thought of it sooner.
Well my time is far spent on the computer. We have a busy day today organising that lesson as well as getting our flat ready for a flat inspection, which is never fun.
I love you all, Talk to you soon!
Much love,
Elder Tanner
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Send a letter to:
Elder Clark Tanner
4/170 Withnell Way
Bulgarra, WA 6714
Australia
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