Jesus Take the Wheel

Hey yous! 


SO MANY MIRACLES AND LAUGHS THIS WEEK. So please, be excited.

Wed: One of our special less actives... well, she bled on me. She likes to hug us super tight for literally a good 5 minutes and last week she bled on Sis. Davis arm and I laughed... so there is karma for you, or God's lovely sense of humor. But don't worry- it washed straight out of my blazer haha Then we contacted an Iranian referral. We had to say no to tea, then coffee so first things first... Word of Wisdom! Then we had to head out to Oatlands to start exchanges but turns out the referral was cooking us Persian food. Just like Dad "I felt bad" the whole way to Oatlands that we couldn't stay and try it. But her name is Maria, she is Muslim but not practicing, her husband is Christian, one little boy and she is just lovely.

Thurs: Exchange with Sis. Holtz! It was so fun being with my eldest daughter (first companion I trained). She is such a great teacher and I am so proud of her and all of her growth. It was also really nice because we still have our good teaching flow :) We also saw heaps of miracles. We taught Trixie who is going through Chemo right now but has the best attitude and wants to prepare to go to the temple, then we saw our less active friend Shelly who is so sweet. She has bipolar and schizophrenia, she has always had the same personality when we are with her (luckily) but she mentioned her other personalities this visit! She is still so happy she has seen the light and knows despite her mental disabilities, she is still a daughter of God and that is the one thing she for sure knows. We met a Sudanese family (our specialty back in Canberra if you remember) and then visited a less active single mum from the Cook Islands with heaps of unbaptized children. We are going to set up to do a family home evening there next week :) Favorite moment of the exchange though had to be as we were driving we saw a lady sitting on the fence, crying, with a tissue. Within like 10 seconds I pulled over, we hopped out and RAN. I felt like Superman "Are you ok?!?!?!" haha But we were able to leave her with a pamphlet and Book of Mormon, all while it started raining. How much more dramatic could you get?  Oh and then to finish it off a super awkward dinner which looked like it was all done, helped set the table and we sat and waited for 45 MINUTES. At this point we couldn't leave, so once we started eating we ate, gave a thought and prayed within 15 minutes. Exact Obedience people :) It was such a great exchange and I loved being with Sister Holtz again!

Friday: We helped out the Zone Leaders and gave a chapel tour at ZTM, the spirit is so strong in these, especially in the chapel and by the baptismal font. Then we finally got in touch with an investigator left in the area, Anthony. He was the most open minded "I'm not gonna change" Catholic I have ever met! haha We now have set appts. with him every Saturday and we also got his older brother who lives in London's info to refer to the missionaries there! He was even more keen! 

Homemade guacamole, chips, pods (I will bring these back, the states need them), and ice-cream constitute dinner every now and then as well right? I was so excited to eat after being healthy for so long Sis. Davis even whacked my hand with a spoon... and it started bleeding so I got to play a major martyr for about 2 minutes haha so funny.

Saturday: We went on an exchange with the Samoan sisters. Their area is the whole entire stake (I think it is like 4 or 5 wards) but just trying to find and teach Samoans. So even though I was in their area for the day, we were actually working a lot in our area and so we found a lot of miracles for even our teaching pool. For example on the way to the 10$ steakhouse for lunch (it is cheap as, like American pricing) we said hi to a guy named Nick, who stopped us because of our American accents, we taught him principles from the Plan of Salvation and restoration and even pulled out my quad and shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon with him right there. He had lots of questions, raised Greek Orthodox, and wanted to meet us Monday to get a Book of Mormon and talk more. Then on the way back to the car we met Vera, she is from Croatia and wears more makeup then any other 70 year old I have ever met! But she was keen to come to church the next day and told us she would be at a certain bus stop an hour early waiting for a ride we offered to arrange to pick her up! Then we got to invite one of their investigators to be baptized and she said YES! Also, on the way walking back to our car from an appt. we started talking to a young man who referred us down the street to his friend that is an Atheist. So we went to talk to him "Hey, we hear you are an atheist! That's cool. What has led you to that conclusion?" Turns out that to him religion doesn't all make sense, answer all his questions and his parents forced it on him. After a great lesson and testimony that this gospel has been restored, his questions can all be answered, and how we are not here to force but invite and know on his own all his concerns can be answered, he willingly accepted to meet with us again and gave us a return appt on Monday :) So another miracle exchange where I think we accomplished Sis. Taupau’s (she is so great, but a different one then I lived with in Canberra, still Samoan but she was raised in new York) goal, which was to be bold in finding! 

Sunday: Started off with a bang. Went at 8 to see if Vera really was there waiting for her lift at 8:30 and lo and behold she was! So we parked, gave her lift a call to confirm she was there and walked back to see Vera- excited as! Until... she was gone. We freaked. We said a little prayer and decided to choose the right (no brainier) and walked in that direction praying so hard. Then we spotted up a ways her bright green scarf! Next minute we are covering our badges, running, chasing down a 70 year old woman in turquoise blue wedges haha We found her, then the ride pulled up, it was perfect timing. She loved church too. Only stayed the first hour though. She was a little disappointed our sacrament had water and not vodka, but knows at church she will change. She is great. We will be visiting her on Thursday. Also 3 of our special sweet spirited less actives came, we had them all sit together and they got along like a house on fire. We think we are funny. Then that afternoon as we were contacting 2 of the 4 referrals I received from the Samoan members on my exchange the day before, a metal rod got stuck in our tire. We both didn't have our camera's on us (priorities) and our flat was just down the road, so we bent the rod a bit so it didn't make as much noise and tried to drive back but boom, flat tire, within about 10 meters. So we tracked the street with no luck while the zone leaders changed the tire. 

Jesus Take the Wheel - a perfect time for a Carrie Underwood reference!

But it was all worth while when Fred drove by asking if we needed any help. 2 minutes later he walks down the street with mandarins and wipes and we had a great conversation with him which ended with him saying, I'm just number 98, yellow house right there, stop by whenever and I'd love to have a chat. The Lord always has a way!

Monday: Happy Queen's birthday! Proselyted that day to use our holiday prime time! Nick was a no show (the Greek orthodox from Saturday) but we have been playing phone tag so that's a good sign. When we called to confirm he was really nice and said he read through the whole pamphlet so hoped to get in touch soon. We then tried for hours to find a member to come with us to see Alex (the atheist) even trying to stop by less actives to see if they'd come join but no one was home. So finally we just rucked on up to a Samoan family I met on exchanges and stole their daughter to go with us! haha It was perfect. Alex wasn't home but his Dad and sister were and let us in straight away. Great lesson on the restoration and a return appt to teach the whole family on Thursday! We then went to pick up some Fizzy for a sick less active and on the way out quickly contacted Adam. He is from Iraq, gave him a card of Jesus, he kissed it, and now we are meeting with him on Wednesday. Oh how I love the people from Iraq!

So it has been a miracle filled week. I love what Sis. Taupau said, “Exchanges are always miracle filled!” And I will add on to that- exhausting! But I love being busy, working hard and going to bed completely exhausted. Which will happen heaps this week! We have 3 back-to-back exchanges starting tonight. The Lord is putting miracles in our path everyday. There are no such things as coincidences, only his tender mercies, we just need to have the faith to see them (1 Nephi 1:20)

Love yous! Have the best week! And everyday have your testimony be a little stronger than it was before as you see all the tender mercies around you.

Sister Rushing