I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Australia weather really is all over the place. It's supposed to be summer, and it's definitely getting warmer. But the weather changes every hour or so. The worst decision you can make is choosing what you'll wear based on how it looks in the morning. You'll put on a suit and a jacket because it's dark and stormy and by the time you drive from your flat to wherever you're going to contact, it's blazing hot and you're regretting everything you've done up to that point. And then the wind picks up and you're fine until your pamphlets and teaching records are flying away. And then you think the sun is coming back and then all of a sudden it's raining. Welcome to Melbourne, my friends. It's a weird place.
The weird doesn't stop at the weather, though. There are so many interesting characters you meet in the city. I've mentioned a few in past emails, and I assure you, they keep coming. The street art is quite something as well. But, we love it.
Our area is truly the best. I'm still in Heidelberg, which is way north of the city. You can google it. Because it's so far from the city, it's been known to be one of the harder areas in the mission for finding people. And yet, the Lord has seen fit to bless us with so many incredible investigators and so many new people to meet and teach. This coming week, we've got at least one lesson every day until P Day, if not two or three. For where I am in Melbourne, that's incredible. I'm so grateful to be here with the companion I have right now. My own abilities have nothing at all to do with whatever success we're having - I can't teach or speak or even understand them most of the time. And yet, so many are on their way to the font of baptism. How merciful the Lord is to us.
I haven't spoken much about Elder Hu in the last few weeks. My companion is pretty incredible. He's from Chengdu, towards the center of China. He's a devoted disciple of Christ. Everything he does, he does with purpose and direction in the way he feels will best bless our investigators. He's an example to me and, again, I'm grateful that the Lord put us together to serve right now. We've spent a whole lot of time drilling each other's language, which is a lot of fun. It make me feel a teeny bit better about my Chinese when my companion can't pronounce the letter I to save his life...so we've both got room to grow. But we're doing our best to better follow the example of Christ.
In Asian culture, there are four really famous pieces of literature that all Chinese people know. The largest is called Journey to the West. I was asking around to learn about the story and why it's important to their culture. The general idea is that a monk goes on a religious quest and is accompanied by a pig king (who was kicked out of an equivalent of heaven), the monkey king (whose fault it was that the pig got kicked out of heaven), a river king, and a dragon horse prince vehicle something and they have lots of adventures. I'm not sure if they ever reach the destination, as I was too busy trying to figure out the characters. I'm not sure why I bring this up, I have no funny joke to go along with this story. Maybe there's some good parallel I can draw that will get me out of a pinch when I don't have anything good to share for a talk. But if any of you happen to know anything about Chinese literature, please share.
Lots of little miracles this week. Liu Jing Long has his baptism in two weeks. It was such a tender moment when he came to us after a rough week of trying to live the Word of Wisdom and vowed to stop smoking forever. His faith is a testimony to me. We also finally got one of our other investigators - Leo - to commit to actually take a question to the Book of Mormon and read.
(Quick tangent - I swear, all of our investigators are named Leo or Liu or some other variation. I can't keep them all straight. They all sound the same to me and apparently they're all different. But it's fine. No different than the rest of my Chinese. Anyway.)
It makes me laugh a little, how much encouragement it takes to get someone to just sit and read the scriptures we're so lucky to be blessed with. They tell us they couldn't ever believe that God is out there. So we say, alright. Moroni 10:3-5. Read and pray and we promise you, you'll find an answer. We meet with them a week later, and they say, I still can't believe God is out there. So we ask, did you read and pray? ...no, but I still can't believe it. We cry a little bit inside and encourage them to actually read and pray. The Lord has taught time and time again that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. He just asks us to consistently do the basics with the faith that we will receive. We will receive. Anyway, we got Leo to finally read and pray. And then we call him in the middle of the week... Hey, Leo, how's the scripture study going? I read 1 Nephi, and I think I actually felt something...
So, we're working with him. He's so good. We just have to go to Christ and He'll give us those answers. I'm rambled a lot already this week so I think I'll leave my invitation there. Go take Moroni's promise, all of you. Whether or not you have before. I promise. You go with real intent, and an open heart - He will answer.
I love you all. Attached are pictures my companion took the other night of himself. What fun we have. I miss you all. Keep on doing good. Enjoy Halloween. I look forward to hearing from all of you soon.
Elder Blackhurst
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