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Time is short but here are some pictures! Went to the Cricket game today, lots of fun. 

Miss you all! Merry Christmas!

Why does everything smell like Sichuan pepper?

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been slacking on my emails these few weeks, we've had a lot of busy p days in a row. We just finished playing basketball with a bunch of investigators and the Asians wrecked us all. Basketball is huge in China and they're all really fast. One other reason I love Melbourne, it is so multicultural. I had a game with a couple guys from Japan, Taiwan, Greece, Africa, Australia, America, and a bunch of Chinese. Good fun.

Transfers have come and gone, and Elder MacPherson is still in West Melbourne. I moved into City Center with Elder Gao.  He's a native, from Sichuan, Chengdu (that makes my third companion from that same city, for those of you counting). He likes spicy food, basketball, singing in the shower and vocal point's Nearer My God to Thee, so we're off to a good start. He's a seasoned missionary and ready to work, we're going to smash us. President told us that he's essentially calling us as "co district leaders" and is giving us a couple transfers just to go to work. I'm so excited. His name translates to Elder Happy, which is funny in both English and Chinese. 

Time is a little short but I hope you all have a merry Christmas! We'll have more stories and pictures next week. 

Love you all! 

Elder Blackhurst

December 4

A happy December to everyone back home, I hope these last couple weeks have been lovely. I apologize for missing last week's email, I know so many of you were eagerly awaiting my report. For you loyal readers who are still here, I'll make this week's especially good. It really has been a great last couple weeks - we're starting to pick up speed with some of our investigators. 

Elder MacPherson and I have been doing everything we can to use our time well this week. Lots of contacting in our spare minutes. Several of our investigators are really starting to progress. Sherrie accepted a baptismal date for next year. James Liu committed to ponder about the questions he wants answers to and to take them to the Book of Mormon. Tons of new contacts and friends. It's an exciting time. We were worried that so many of the Chinese were going home, we'd have no one to teach. But we're doing alright. 

Still plugging along in my Chinese Book of Mormon. I had my pride beaten down upon discovering that most of the other Americans are learning way faster than I am - no worries, just a reminder to work a little harder. It has been enlightening to study the scriptures in this new language. There are so many things that stand out just because it's in a new language. Love the studies, hoping we can stay on top of things.

Just as a tangent, I hope you all heard that Christmas devotional from a few days ago. The Australian brother who described a Christmas down under was pretty spot on, from the summer to the barbeques to the smell of mangoes in our flats. Christmas down here is very different than that back in the States, but the Spirit is the same. We love the feeling of doing good and serving our brothers and sisters. The Light the World campaign is in full swing and I hope you're all looking for ways to do good. I've heard some excellent ideas about how to help others, and I encourage you all to keep it up. 

Miss you all, I hope you're having a lovely winter. Have a great week, and we'll talk to you soon! 

Elder Blackhurst

Big rain

A happy Thanksgiving to everyone back in the states, I hope you've all been doing wonderfully! Elder MacPherson and I are super grateful for another week of work out in the field. The Australians and the Chinese don't have Thanksgiving, but that won't stop us from having a Thanksgiving feast tomorrow in celebration and being more grateful than normal for the blessings around us. This last week was a lot of fun, and we have high hopes for this coming few weeks. 

Our investigators and members are one by one disappearing and going back to China, so the number of people we need to contact gets shorter every day. More time for finding new investigators, I guess. We've made a lot of good friends recently. We have a young man from Malaysia who is interested in the church because he initially saw The Book of Mormon musical. He came to an activity last week and he's committed to come to church this coming Sunday. He invited us to go and play games with him and his friend today at a game shop, which was a ton of fun. It was a good way to connect and let them see that we're human too. I love the process of getting to know people as a missionary. You can't just "teach" and move on - in listening and identifying their needs and looking for ways to serve, you can't help but start to love these people. I hope to find many more people who can learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Investigators are ranging. Lots of people have time recently if they haven't gone back to China, so we've got a handful of people coming to church for the first time this Sunday. I got a random call from a contact I made a few weeks ago from a guy who wants to bring his family to see a "white people" church when they come in town from China but decided that we'd do because we speak Mandarin too. Who knows what'll happen - we just go and make sure they have the best experience they can. Brother He is improving, and Tian has recommitted to learn more after being so busy. Li Xin and his wife came and had dinner with us a couple membrs on Sunday. Very, very powerful lesson on God and the Plan of Salvation. Lots of other people are starting to show up to. Exciting time.

Last Thursday was Elder MacPherson's birthday. A member planned to take him out to a nice dinner, so we had to do some careful work to get him to the location without him suspecting. Long day of work with a nice break at the end to recognize my companion - definitely a good day. I love working with this guy, Elder Mac is the man. He is working hard (working me hard) and we're accomplishing so much. 

Yesterday it rained. It only rained for a couple hours, and it only rained really really hard for a few minutes, but we happened to be outside for the whole of it. They two of us got so wet. 

We didn't stop and wait for it to pass like we should've, we just decided to run back to the church. Bad idea, we were drenched to the bone. Melbourne weather does that sometimes - crazy high to crazy low. Only thing to expect is that which you don't expect. So, sometimes that will be giant rainstorms in the city.

Anyway, this week was good. Powerful. The two of us are feeling the desire to become the best we can be and serve as many people as possible. We're setting goals, studying hard, preaching harder. We love the Lord and we love His work. I pray His spirit be us and you that we all might know how we can better serve the Lord our God. Have a great week and a lovely Thanksgiving, I'll hear from you all soon!

In which we keep on plugging along

Hey everyone! 

Good, regular week. Nothing out of the ordinary, just getting out and grinding. Lots of new contacts, lots of potential investigators. Few good lessons. Elder MacPherson and I are working hard and doing good.  I try to look for new things to tell you all, but sometimes, it's just going and talking to people. That's the bulk of missionary work here - looking for people we can serve. So many amazing people out in this world, and even if a lot of them don't want to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, they have their own passions and concerns and want to learn and grow and share what they love as much as we do. I stopped to talk to a young lady yesterday and three other Christians of another faith came up to talk to us. The five us us - two Australians, a Chinese, a Singapore人，and an American - at least three different faiths, but brought together by a love of Jesus Christ. It was such a tender moment to listen to them and their stories. That's what we're here to do - help others learn a little more about the Savior. No greater work.

As far as the work, we're kinda stuck in a spot where a lot of our contacts are going back to China so we're trying to get some more people into our teaching pool. We've got a sister named Sherrie who has met with us two weeks in a row and has committed to keep coming back, which is really exciting. Lots of new friends. We're moving. Ideally, we find all of the people who aren't going back to China for break. Those ones are golden. 

We went out to the beach again today, gorgeous as always. I was standing on the edge of a rock thinking about how much dang fun it would be to go diving when I may have been caught by a surprising and unnaturally tall wave. Oops. Don't tell President. 

I've had some days where I've realized there's some major repenting to do. I can spend a day using my time to my maximum and stil not really work hard. I can give more effort. One of my major flaws is a bit of laziness, that's something I've really found about myself on the mission. I can do more. And I will. I want to give my all to the Lord. I had a wonderful chat with a couple of Christian guys on the street the other day - definitely not our church, I think they were some born-again group. But we connected with our love of the Savior. You could feel the love. I need to keep that in my sights, in my focus - returning that love. 

Besides that, nothing too out of the ordinary. Meetings, lessons, contacting, cooking, sleeping, studying, all over. Zone conference on Friday. We're plugging along and loving the work. Have a lovely week, everyone. I look forward to hearing from you all soon!

Elder Blackhurst

November 6

Hello, everyone! Hope you've had as wonderful a week as we have! These last few days have been a blast and Elder MacPherson and I have been seeing blessings all around. We're very excited for the progress of some of our friends and pray that the Lord will continue to guide our work. 

We've spent the last while talking to a lot of people, the most of which ignore us because they're too busy prepping for finals. Finally, we're starting to get somewhere as test season is coming to an end. We've got one new investigator already this week and several more coming to church for the first time in the next couple days. Awesome. We met Sherrie the other day for the first time - super sweet, very interested in the message we share. Brother He is progressing and keeping commitments. It thrills me to think about the potential the gospel has in these peoples' lives. 

Our district consists of my area, Heidelberg, and the West Melbourne Sisters, so three areas. President Vidmar has recently been pushing for the mission to set better standards and goals and expectations for ourselves in the work and all three of our areas have caught the fire and vision of what President imagines we can accomplish. It has been a miraculous week, watching the faith of these seven other missionaries bring miracles to pass. I'm grateful to be serving as their district leader. I feel almost unworthy to be surrounded my such wonderful people. I'm grateful for the Lord and I know that He loves us - when we trust in Him, He puts us in the places He needs us to be. 

We have a funny relationship with the Australians, they're very real people. We're sitting in the library and there's a guy going off on one of the attendants because his computer is having problems. Another guy gets up and goes off on this guy for being loud and rude about his computer. Another guy goes off on him. Another guy gives up his computer for rude guy number one and goes off somewhere else. They're all very sure of what they know and believe and let you know it. Very often they'll come up and tell us what they like about us and what they don't like about us or that they think we're great but could never be part of our religion. They're great fun. I'm happy to be here with the Asians, but the 'Straiyans are good too. 

I spent a lot of time studying the story of the Brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon this week. I love his example of faith - just trusting that the Lord will always be there and do all things necessary to help us return home to Him. I want to do more as a missionary and as a son of God and as a brother to everyone around me. Sometimes, the Lord will let us make our own plan and take it to Him, just like the Brother of Jared smelted the stones and offered them to God. We do our best, according to the minds He's given us, and we trust that He'll take care of everything else. He does. I know He does. He loves me and cares for me and I hope more of us can better rely on Him. 

I love you all. Miss everyone tons, but I've heard lots of good from back home. Stay off the streets, Eliza is driving. Keep on praying, keep on studying your scriptures. Have a great week, and I'll talk to you all soon!

Elder Blackhurst

Happy Halloween!

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a happy Halloween. Halloween isn't nearly as big here as it is in the states, so we just keep on plugging along. I for one am already for Christmas, but so it goes. We had a great, great week. Lots of good work, lots of dedicated hours just getting out and talking to people.

Transfers have come and gone, and Elder MacPherson and I are still together. Not a big surprise, but we're still both very happy about it. He's growing lots. He is a great example of trying to be led by the Spirit at all times and in all things. We do our best to seek the will of the Lord and then get to work. We miss Sister Wu and Elder Gao who just went home, but know that the Lord has great things planned for them back home, and we're excited for our new Sister McConkie who has just joined our Chinese program. We love our Chinese missionaries.

I'm a little short on stories this week - sometimes, you have a week of lessons and activities planned and they all fall through. On Saturday alone, three of the four people we committed to visit the branch fell through, and the fourth left right after to go on vacation. But sometimes, that's how it goes. The 2nd chapter of 2nd Nephi teaches that there has to be opposition in all things. There has to be slow days for there to be hard ones. Some days have to have no investigators, and some days get to have lots. But we keep on pressing on. The joy is there in the work, regardless of "successful" we are. The Lord blesses us with little miracles all over the place - little miracles you can't explain or tell stories about, but make a world of difference in the moment. Studying the right thing in comp study that makes your testimony that much stronger when you're GQing, or when your zone leaders come and share something with you that just makes your day - there are blessings all around.

Speaking of the Book of Mormon, I hope you've all been diligently reading, especially since the prophet invited to do so this last conference. I myself have started again and will read it from cover to cover in Mandarin. For any of you back home who think it is too difficult or too hard to find time to read, I'll gladly switch languages with you. I'll even wrap the book and send it back to you. 

Kidding aside, my Chinese has really improved so much. I can get through a chapter of characters and be able to read 85% of it. Slow and steady, we're definitely getting there. What a blessing it is to have been called to serve the people in this magnificent language and culture. I love it so. 

One story from this week - we set one new investigator on date this week for baptism - a man named Brother He. We have the same Chinese surname, which is kinda cool. He's got a big problem with the Word of Wisdom, but he's cut his drinking by half since our last meeting. Praying that he can find the strength to get off of it altogether. 

I hope you all have a great week! Miss you all tons. Send good pictures of Halloween costumes, and I hope to hear from you all soon!

Elder Blackhurst