Two months catching up

After 25 years of being a stay-at-home mum, now that I'm going out to work I'm having an interesting time trying to get the work/ home balance right, and this blog has been one of the things that has suffered, so rather than post all 10 of Elder Kay's emails I shall just pick out a few things that have happened since I last posted on 10th September. Sorry there are no photos - he hasn't sent any in absolutely ages

17th Sep
I was on a trade off with the district leader Elder fox, the other two Elders were in Bowen for a few days. Elder Fox and I were riding the bikes for ages as this area is massive, but we got a less active and her husband to come to a cottage evening we held. That was great. I taught a lesson on the Book of Mormon, we are so blessed to have the Book of Mormon, it is an inspired book and it testifies beautifully of Christ.

It's starting to get really hot now. The Branch did a clean up on Australia day for Helping Hands - we picked litter from a road and it was hot as! The Branch Presidency want us to really encourage the young men to serve missions (which I am only too willing to do) :P there are some good young men here.

25th Sep
I'm emailing a day late because it was transfers.  Elder Abel and I will be staying together, it's crazy cos I'll be sitting at 10 months of my mission with only two companions and two areas. The new missionary we have is called Elder Field (Elder Latu was transferred); he's the youngest missionary I've served around and it's weird to be on the other end of the stick.

8th October - at the general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 6th and 7th October President Thomas S Monson announced that the young men of the Church will be able to leave for their missions at 18 instead of 19 and the young women can serve at 19 instead of 21. Here is Elder Kay's reaction: -

About conference that everyone's been talking about, because we are ahead we don't get it shown at church till the week after but in a meeting President Ferguson told us about the age change for missionaries... AWSOME OR WHAT?!!!  I think the change is particularly good for sisters and I think that there will be an increase of missionaries in the Field.

15th October
This Sunday we went up to Ingham with Branch President and it was great. Ingham is a small town about 100 k's from here but they have no Branch and many of the members aren't able to come down every Sunday, but there is this couple who go round visiting old members and keeping the work alive. We are starting to have a sacrament meeting with them once a month of which this was the first. Not everyone we hoped turned up but it was great and the spirit was there, many of the people will have to be completely re taught, but we actually had a little Sunday School lesson and it went really well, so I'm glad we could end the week on a high note.

29th October

We are teaching someone who is awesome; he's a friend of one of the members and we teach him in their house, they are great fellowship. WOO HOO FOR MEMBER REFERRALS!!  That's how missionary work is supposed to work :D. Man I'm so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel I have and for this opportunity to serve for two years. I'm going to be a different person when I get back. I'm learning a lot about myself especially.

5th November

This week has been pretty good. I'm still in Townsville, but Elder Abel was Transferred. My new companion is Elder Powelson. I've also been made the district leader. We're planning to get this area alive again. We set a baptismal date of 17th November for Sarah, one of the people we are teaching. I'm excited about the work up here.

The weather is getting hot now so work will be harder. Apparently in a month there will be days when it's like 48 degrees and 100% humidity.

19th November

On Saturday I Baptised a Filipino lady called Sarah. Her daughter really felt the spirit at the baptism service then came to church the day after. After the Baptism we had to bucket the water out of the font cos the pump is broken and the font is built under ground. man I was stiff yesterday. Have you heard about the two new stakes in Queensland? The church is growing here so much. They adjusted the Brisbane, Brisbane North, Eight Mile Plains, Centenary and Gold Coast stakes to create two new ones. It's about time - the Gold Coast and EMP stakes were massive.

We had our First District meeting last week, which went pretty good. We're getting a new senior couple this week, which is exciting. The Miles from Idaho. There are good things happening here. Me and Elder Powelson are excited; he's great by the way, he's just the companion I needed :D. The weather is getting hotter!! It was sooo humid on Sunday and it nearly stormed at one point. Man we're really gonna have to drink a lot of water. Pres Ferguson told us about a guy that died and his friend that nearly died in the interior. They got bogged 16 k's from their homestead, so left the 4x4 with all the water and everything and started walking, one was dead by 3 k's and one was picked up and is still in intensive care.