Outback Down Under

Hey yous!

My flight itinerary? Are we serious?.... this is not happening. haha But a crazy week. And now I can tell you all about it :)

We went up to Bathurst Monday night on exchange. It is about a 3-hour drive into the Outback!!!!! I was in HEAVEN. I am so blessed. Really. It isn't even fair.

 On the drive back. So pretty. I love the country, you can never take that out of me, even in Australia mate :)

  It was the smallest, cutest country town and I was with Sister Paongo. She has been out 5 weeks and is ON FIRE. Seriously, she has been preparing for 2 years and I learned so much from her and had so many miracles. We talked to the only guy we saw out on the streets all day who was on a work release from jail, placed a Book of Mormon with a guy super pro marijuana, set a baptismal date for the most golden 17 year old Maori boy, had to pick up pink polka dot pajamas for a hoarder, had to lie that we had a GPS when we were asking directions as an excuse to talk to someone, had a golden doorstep lesson with a less active that is the only member of his family to help him come back, taught two aboriginal girls, and the list goes on and on. We had to do a lot of door knocking but everyone was receptive to either a Book of Mormon, a pamphlet, a return appt. or to come to church. So at 8:40 we obviously were going to try one more "miracle door", aka an elderly lady who yelled at us for knocking at that hour, that she is a sick woman and slammed the door in our face. It was just funny at that point and the perfect note to end on after what appeared to be a flawless day. I love being a missionary :)

(Sister Paongo at the hoarder's home. 

It was the most organized mess I have ever seen)

So Ivana, our new golden Macedonian investigator (I swear I don't teach anyone from Australia haha) is awesome. Deepest Plan of Salvation questions ever. So if anyone knows about Jehovah Witnesses, please forward your knowledge our way :) But she is super into it and is excited to be baptized on the 27th :) Oh and SHE keeps in daily contact with US. Now that is awesome.

Exchange this week also with the Tongan sisters! Love Sis. Maasi so much, powerhouse Plan of Salvation testimony. And our miracle find of the day had to be a Muslim guy at a construction site (I know, sounds sketchy.. but wait it gets better haha). Obviously with the little tid bits we hear about what is going on in the Middle East we were sure to take a member with us for our return appt. But when we walked in, they just kept coming. So here we are with our relief society president in a room with 12 Muslim men ages 20-40... not even joking. The 3 of us prayed so hard. Watched the restoration DVD, placed a Book of Mormon and left. Two of them were keen and we will meet them now in public, still with fellowship. I don't like that whole outnumbered business.  Not to mention this was brought up to the whole ward council and makes us look like dumb, pathetic, "sisters in distress." haha But we are being smart and protected, so ye shall not fear!

Keep praying for Helen please. All the Polynesian members are on top of meals for her while she is busy with her son in hospital all day. And Wen! She is still on date for this Saturday, which is a MIRACLE. We met her before church to show her the font and then the translator from the neighboring stake went off for like 20 min and we had no clue where it was going, apparently she was telling her to wait, then when she gets back from Vietnam try teaching another month or two then get baptized!!!! We almost lost her. But during the sacrament we opened up to the qualifications for baptism and she totally meets it. We were thinking during the lesson we would push it back a week but during the sacrament Sister Pagnin and I looked at each other and it still felt right. So after much prayer and fasting we got a miracle call this morning from the translator who said yesterday afternoon Wen was telling her whole family about her baptism.... this Saturday. And knew that the date we prayed and fasted about was right. So lets continue to do so the next few days :)

Well let’s see what else happened this crazy week. We are going to make a pro and con list with Sharon (the sick suicidal investigator we can't manage drop) about going into a nursing home. Our investigator in his 20s opened the door and said He'd go put on some pants. Last night we taught a lesson where literally no one was looking at or listening to us for a good ten minutes but we had some really killer good lessons to make up for it all when we had those powerful moments for the spirit to testify. I love missionary life.

But an amazing thing I noticed this week is how the Lord always is putting people in our paths. Just like a few weeks back we ran into our long lost investigator Kathy while buying groceries that told us it was meant to be. And then just this week on exchange Sister Pagnin ran into the lady who's car accident we witnessed who was so happy to see us again and gave us her, her cousin and the man that helped us, their addresses and said she'd love us to come and visit. We also found a doc that took off Sister Pagnin's cast and saved us nearly $200 because "We are church people! For Jesus!" and meanwhile we ran into our investigator Jason (the one we had the good lesson with in the rain last week). 

Just as the Lord has put people in our paths, he has put people in yours to reach out to, to lift up and serve and most importantly share your testimony with. The tricky part is, is that you don't know who they are until you open your mouth and invite. And if you really feel discouraged like you know no one, reach out to the full-time missionaries and ask them who you can help fellowship. I promise you that if you take part in this amazing work you will have the incomprehensible joy that Alma talks about. I know this because I feel it everyday. The gospel is truly glad tidings :)

Love you all heaps!

Sister Rushing  xx