This week has been great. Every week is great when you're in the service of the Lord. I absolutely love it. But it's getting hard to not count how many weeks I have left until my return (9 and a half for those who were wondering). I love Perth. I love Karratha. I love the people that I've met on my mission. I love that no matter where I go, I can always have instant friends in the church. I LOVE studying the gospel every single day. That's definitely a habit that I don't ever want to lose after my mission. I always hate it when study time ends because I just wish I could keep studying all day, but then when I get out there and start sharing the gospel and teaching people I don't want THAT to end either. I just love everything about the gospel and my mission.
I've been learning this week about the level of Elder Ford's knowledge of the gospel, and it's kind of been blowing my mind. I wonder if I was like that when I first came out. I know that Elder Shobbrook wasn't that bad when I trained him, but he's a gun so that's why. I know that we learn a lot when we're on a mission, and since I'm near the end, I can look back and think about how much I have learned, but Elder Ford was reading the Gospel Principles manual today in study time and out of nowhere he just goes, "whoa! We believe that Christ will reign on the earth for 1,000 years?!" I couldn't help but laugh, but I've been teaching him a lot of basic knowledge in our study time as well as teaching him a lot of missionary knowledge (teaching the restoration and things like that). I guess that basic knowledge isn't really basic for a lot of people, I should've already known that from all the people that we teach. I don't know how much preparing Elder Ford did spiritually before his mission, but I know that he'll be a completely different missionary by the end of his mission, and hopefully by the end of me training him. I got 10 more weeks with him, 9 and a half if we want to get technical though.
So as far as how things in Karratha are going, they're going great! We didn't get to teach Martin Kumar and his family this week which was kind of a disappointment, but they're not dropped, we have an appointment with them this week before he goes to Perth for a visit. The good news this week is from teaching Marion. We didn't get to set a baptismal date with him or anything, but we taught him on Thursday and invited him to be baptised. He said that he couldn't answer that right now, so we committed him to get on his knees that night and pray sincerely to know the truth of the things we have been teaching him and if being baptised into the Lord's church is what he needs to do. He said that he would do that, but when we followed up on Sunday, he hadn't. But some of the things that he told us were very interesting. The reason that we committed him to pray was because he told us that he has been losing sleep over the things that we've been teaching him. He stays awake at night just thinking about all the things that we've said. And when he went back to his church after coming to ours, he couldn't stop thinking about us and our church while he was attending mass. So when we asked him if he had prayed when we saw him on Sunday, he said that he couldn't because he didn't want to tear apart his family. He KNOWS this is true and that this is what he needs to do, but he's afraid to pray about it and receive that spiritual witness because then he'll have to act on it. If his family were here with him rather than in the Philippines, he would probably be getting baptised next week, but he doesn't want to do anything without his family. So we're going to be praying that missionaries will either find his wife or that he'll give us her address so we can send it as a referral to the Philippines. Marion is such a great man though. I think if we could just get him to read the Book of Mormon more, then he would definitely want to be baptised. But we're still waiting for that Tagalog Book of Mormon from the mission office. Either way, I KNOW he'll be baptised someday. We've planted the seed in him and it is a good seed and it's already starting to grow. Someday.
That was really the highlight of the week when it comes to teaching. It was kind of a slow week for teaching. We got on the bikes for Elder Ford's first time ever, and that was good. On Saturday we had a branch service project cleaning up the grounds around the chapel. Nearly the whole branch came minus I think 2 families. It was great. Then that evening we had a priesthood Ping Pong tournament, but I think everybody was just too tired from the service so not a lot of people came, and the people that did come were just tired and didn't really want to play much. None of our investigators came either. Our branch President, President Pilkington brought a friend, but that was the only nonmember there. But it was a fun day nonetheless.
Well I think that's about me for the week. I think we're going on a hike up the side of the mountains (or hills) near Karratha today. It should be a good P-day. I love you all. I'll see you all ridiculously soon.
Much Love,
Elder Tanner
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