Words of Wisdom - Always Wear a Hat and Shower Regularly!

It has been a while since I have done an update about the life here in Karratha. I am enjoying it; at least everything besides this heat wave that swept in recently. It has been in the hundreds the whole time and I am always so sweaty ha-ha.

We have been working our butts off contacting lately. Between tracting and attending basketball games, we are doing what we can to increase the teaching pool here. The Saints, as they are called, is the branch basketball team and they just swept the finals this past week ha-ha. We have been able to run into some kids that are keen at understanding why their friends go to church. The problem now is just getting parental consent about teaching them.

I have been doing a new study of the Book of Mormon. I am into the beginning the chapters of Mosiah. I am using the Student Manual and it is a wealth of knowledge and is helping me to learn a bunch about the chronological and background facts. I enjoy marking up the scriptures.

Since last time I did a weekly, I have given a talk and a priesthood lesson in the branch. They went alright I guess. We have been focusing on Remembering the Sabbath with Elder Bednar’s talk about the promises from 2017 October General Conference. If you want some cool stuff to listen to church wise, I would recommend the BYU speeches; specifically from Elders Maxwell or Holland.

I would say that the biggest thing for me lately has been diligence and just keep plowing through the hard days. My companion and I are doing well though, doing heaps of services and enjoying the time we have to be missionaries.

I hope all is well. If I had some words of wisdom it would be to always wear a hat and to shower regularly ha-ha.

Bike Wreck!

We didn’t get a weekly email from Chance, but below are some of the excerpts from our Google Hangouts conversation.  Enjoy the pictures.

Chance: Hey!

Dad: Hey bud. How are things in the north?

Chance: It is getting to the 40's this week so pretty toasty.

Dad: Yeah seems like it.

Dad: Heard you wrecked on your bike. Sounded like you got cut up a bit.

Chance: Yeah I crashed doing some dirt bike jumps while contacting.

Dad: Did you get hurt much? Every missionary has to have at least one good wreck.

Chance: Nah, just tore up my hands a bit.

Dad: Were you having a good time?

Dad: How is the work going? Seems harder there.

Chance: Yeah, I was.  It is all good though, I will probably be back out there in the next week or so.

Chance: It is hard. We are trying anything and everything to get people out to church and lessons

Dad: Well have fun but be careful.

Chance: Will do it is not worth dying over

Dad: Just keep doing your best and try to follow the spirit as much as you can. The Lord has a reason for you to be there. He will lead you to it.

Dad: How are you getting along with your comp? You guys still having a good time? Your pictures Broome were way cool; very vibrant colors.

Chance: Yeah, Fo sure that is how it looks to be honest. Me and my comp get along pretty good he can be a bit nutty sometimes.

Dad: We all are for sure.

Dad: Do you guys have anything fun coming up?

Chance: Not really, there will be in a few months but that is a ways away. We are looking forward to conference.

Dad: Conference will be fun. Had any good experiences lately? What have you been studying.

Chance: I have been learning heaps. I have been using this Book of Mormon study manual and it blows my mind every time.

Chance: I learned that Lucifer means light bearer in Hebrew.

Dad: That is trippy. It is wild that he was next in line for most intelligence behind Christ. That is why there was such a struggle in Heaven over the plan of salvation. Because he was a spirit in high standing in the council in Heaven.

Chance: Yeah, but all is good. I am doing a 55-day challenge thing on reading the Book of Mormon.

Dad: Nice. It is good to study any way to get the time in. The time in the Book of Mormon is what matters. The book has power.

Chance: Yeah for sure.

Chance: I want to read all of the standard works by the end of this year so we will see how that goes.

Dad: The Old Testament is hard. I have read it twice. It is tough to follow but some great stories there. We learned about the story of Abraham and Isaac and the sacrifice of Isaac. Good ones.

Chance: Yeah. they did that in Gospel Doctrine the other week too.

Dad: I don’t get to Gospel Doctrine much but in Pasco we got there. The story of David and Solomon are ones that pain me but are powerful reading.

Chance: Yeah, same David is the biggest underdog and he mucks up when he wasn’t even supposed to be in Jerusalem

Dad: Yeah. Sad. But there are such great stories to learn from.

Dad: How long until it starts to cool off for you weather wise?

Chance: Not until around mid-April.

Dad: Yikes. Another month and you will be well done.

Chance: Yeah, I am a little red these days.

Chance: Hey got to go.

Chance: Love ya.

Visit to Broome.

This week has been a bit hectic. The highlight, I would say was being able to visit Broome for the first time. We did exchanges with our District Leader there over Friday and Saturday. To get there we had to get on a crammed smelly bus and drive ten hours through the night. It was worth it though. We saw the beautiful Cable Beach.

This week, we think we may have lost our new investigators which is a bit of a bummer. She isn't returning our texts or calls or those of the members so we will see. This week work wise we feel like we smashed it but numbers wise it was a bit rough. We are still optimistic though. It is hard to get bummed out on the mission to be honest. There are just too many tender mercies that the Lord gives us.

The flat we live in has mice and cockroaches if I haven't said that before.

This week it has been toasty, but I enjoy it just makes me appreciate home. It blows my mind that General Conference is coming up here next month.

It looks like I am staying here for a couple more transfers so don't worry about that. Other than that I am alive and doing well. The Shingles are gone now and life is back to normal.

Pictures will come next week.