From Elder Kay's email 23rd April

Hello everyone

 

We are plodding on slowly but surely, its been kind of disappointing this week because every time we've been to check up on a potential investigator, no one answers the door -_- aaaand Michelle has moved so we've lost track of her because we never could get hold of her to get her number. However, we got a referral from our ward mission leader this week and one referral we checked up on, on Bribie Island, is interested, the only thing is we don’t know when we'll be out there, we had to ask for more km to go out there in the first place.  Our new missionary in the flat is Elder Peaua (my district leader from the MTC), he's a nice guy. Alls well here in aussie land, the weather has been pretty nice at the moment, a bit of rain but not too much, this time of year is nice as!!! its not too hot and it only gets cold some nights.

 

Last week when we went fishing on p-day I caught my first fish EVER!!! it was a whiting and it was legal to keep, I didn't get any though cos everyone scoffed it :( but I got to eat some of Elder Peaua's flat head which was delicious, we used yabbies for bait (little half shrimp half lobster things) some of them were about 2 inches long and when we pumped them out of the sand you had to pick them up with your hand flat so they couldn't get you with the nipper. Was so much fun. There are some  great families in the ward. The Beaumonts have some friends who were taught the first lesson by the Redcliffe Elders (as they don’t live in our area) and Heidi is well keen and felt the spirit, the only problem is her husband isn't interested, but hopefully the lord will provide a way.

 

That’s just about it, hope you are all doing well, sending my best wishes and love

 

Elder John Kay

 

 

Spiritual Thought: As I was reading the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 I pondered on the way the lord refers to Peter as the rock that he will build his church, then remembered something I had been told about this scripture that, after reading it again in context is quite obvious. Peter proclaims Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, Christ replies by saying that he is blessed because this was revealed to him by heaven, referring to... Revelation, and then goes on to say that upon this rock he will build his church. the view that Peter is the rock is a common misconception, looking carefully you can see that the reason he refers to peter is because he is talking to him in conversation so if you read the verse as "...Peter, upon this rock (revelation) I will build my church." this is a testimony of the importance of revelation or, the direct communication from God to man through the Holy ghost, as referred to as the rock on which the church is build upon, without which the church would fall and mutate to the opinions and learning of mankind. I know the church truly does have the Keys of the ministering of angels and of revelation today, as did the primitive church, I know my saviour lives, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Sorry for the delay in posting Elder Kay's last 2 emails. The Easter holidays have been very busy for us visiting family and holding a party for Elder Kay's brother who is now 18 and has started filling in the forms to serve a mission as his brothers have. So here are three emails - the last of which I received this morning.

Received 2nd April

 I hope you are all doing well, as always thank you all so much for your emails it's especially exciting to hear of the wonderful missionary work happening in the Alnwick Branch. 

 

Quite a lot has happened this week, although it feels like we've not done a lot. We went to see Michelle but there were these guys outside and we didn't feel right so we didn't go; it might have been nothing but I'd rather trust the Holy Ghost. We also had a member scheduled to teach Anthony with us but he didn't make it :(. Man the Help we've had from Brother Lawton is great. The Lawtons are awesome, they are very willing to help. We are trying to help the members as best we can. There are some awesome families in the Ward and the Bishop is filtering down from ward council and Bishop is really busy with work and stuff so we don’t want to bother him too much. He would help if he could.  I Baptised this week;  it wasn't a convert Baptism but a child of record -  it was nice. People seem to keep turning to us to organise Baptisms for their children.  I love the work.

 

Man I cant believe I've been here 3 months already. Transfers are next week and we don't really have any suspicions of who will be transferred or anything but everyone else is saying they reckon Richards will be transferred and I'll have to show a new companion the area, which would be cool but kinda scary. I'm getting used to how to do things and I know the area pretty well, but I still need to get better but I'll get better with practice. This week we're going to hit the goal of 14 hours finding so we planned 15 and fasted to find a family. We're also going cray fishing today with members of the Burpengary ward.  

 

Much love Elder Kay

 

 

Received 10th April

Hey All,

 

This week has been a bit crazy, we made a goal to do 15 hours of tracting and we made it, finding three families, so we have lots of potential investigators  to work with. Me and Elder Richards are staying together this transfer, (it's rare for companions to stay together for three transfers), so we are going to work really hard in Centenary Lakes this transfer.  I'm serving in the Centenary Lakes Ward in the Brisbane North Stake, it was just recently split from the Burpengary ward. The Easter holidays are useful as it's something to start a conversation while tracting.  We tried going round Michelle’s this week but she was out then while we were tracting the top of the estate she drove by -_- annoying. Appointments with our investigator Anthony also fell through a couple time but we'll see him eventually.The work is good and we are starting to work with the ward a bit better.

 

Elder Kay xxx

 

Received 16th April

Hows everyone in the land of Eng? Hope everyone is doing good. Elder Richards and I have decided to go megga healthy (or as healthy as can be with our budget and members feeding us). We were at a meal appointment and Bro Forstpointer was telling us about exercise and diet, it was so interesting, so on Saturday we ate at Macdonalds as a last time really unhealthy feed (as we cant buy Maccers on Sunday) and started a hard out workout session today! I've put on loads of weight so I really need to get in shape. So yeah, fun fun fun. We are going fishing this Pday (this time it's for real fish though and the member we are with knows what he's doing) so looking forward to that.

 

The work is still slow, we've been a bit frustrated because we've asked about the 15 names program (a program for reactivating less active members) and nothings happened. The ward council have it running but none of the members are contacting any of the people. We're gonna get it going this week though, contacting  members and investigators and getting this place rolling. Also one of the members told us that we are missionaries that she would trust with her friends, so we must be doing some good :).

 

I enjoyed General Conference this week (It's delayed in Aussie because of the extreme time difference and then it was Easter the week after) I especially liked the talk on Forgiveness by President Uchtdorf :P What wounderful council our beloved general authorities give us. It is especially important to forgive as the Lords work cannot move forward with strifes and contentions (see Book of Mormon).

 

I know the Gospel certainly does bless lives, I know that my Saviour is the head of this church which is truly and surely His and the one and only true church on the earth. 

 

All the best

Bye!!!