Sorry there haven't been any recent posts. Elder Kay's emails were short and mostly directed at the family for a couple of weeks. Then last week he was able to phone home as it was Mother's Day in Australia. It was lovely to chat to him - shame his dad and brother had already gone to work/ college, but that gave me and his sister more time to chat to him :-) When I preview this post it says Sunday 20th May, but it's actually Monday now

Here is today's email

Hey all,
Sorry I didnt email last week due to calling home, really sorry. The past week has been good, we found quite a few potentials tracting. We also taught a member referral lesson (a lesson that involves inviting members to give referrals, it's great and really encourages members to get focussed on a specific person or family). That went well and hopefully the Centenary Lakes Elders will have success with  getting  in contact with their family to reactivate some of their children. We got in touch with some less actives who are trying really hard to get back to church; they are doing well and having scripture study and everything but the dad works away as he is a linesman. I didn't get to see whether they were at church on Sunday because I was transfered to Townsville.  I flew up on Saturday (if you go north you go up earlier).

The first day in Townsville has been great! My new comp is called Elder Abel, from Sydney, he seems like a great guy. It was good to have a first day in the area at church, its a branch of about 100 and I was welcomed with open arms (especially as there are a lot of English peeps up here). I'm so glad to be up here in the winter, its in the tropics so it is very hot in the summer apparently but it's normally in the high 20's in winter and it doesn't really seem to get cold at night. Townsville is alot bigger than I thought it would be, It's the biggest city North of Brisbane.  I've not seen that much of it yet. I'm going to miss some families in Centenary Lakes but I'll probs see them when I come back. There are currently five Elders here at the moment because Elder Auld isn't leaving till the 29th when he flys down to the mission home to finish his mission and go home. There are two areas in Townsville (I'm in Townsville East).  I need to write to a lot of people but I'm going to wait till we move house so I can put the return address on.

I hope you are all doing well and having wounderful lives, I'll email some photos of Townsville when I have some good ones.

love, Elder John Kay


P.S.  I left all my letters with the addresses at the mission home as I was only allowed one case, so I pretty much brought the essentials.

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!!!

 

Here are Elder Kay's emails from 19th and 26th March - last week I forgot to update the blog.

This week has been interesting. We were at a Samoan birthday party on Saturday and I kid you not I've never seen so much food for that amount of people. It was great as Samoans treat Missionaries with a lot of respect so no one starts eating till we do. There was a whole pig and everything! There were a lot of non members and less active members there we were able to talk to.

 

We bumped into someone we'd been trying to contact for a while on Tuesday and his cousin is the son of a former investigator we were going to contact. His dad was a member so it could be promising. We're also going to do a mission fast to find  families to baptise. Thanks for all those suggestions about service Dad. 

It's interesting to see see peoples responses to us while tracting. I quite like tracting because of the crazy people you run into; also it forces you to become more bold. It doesn't work very well if you're not sure of yourself. I've also learned the importance of the Book of Mormon in testifying because it's the only thing we can claim that is different; if you claim Priesthood authority others claim to have priesthood and it's not something tangible you can prove, if you preach about the plan of salvation people believe they will return to God's presence anyway regardless and if you teach them about prophets prophets they say there are false prophets. I've also been studying Hebrews in response to something someone we tracted into said; turns out he wasn't quoting it correctly or was quoting out of context and he accused me of reading from a bible doctored by my church. Well you cant help it if people aren't open to be taught, it's still sad though. so yeah anyway I was reading in Hebrews and found a great chapter on faith - chapter 11.  

We visited a less active member at Redcliffe hospital (out of our area but we asked for permission to visit) 

Elder Moore and Elder Richards told me they spoke to the Zone Leaders and suggested I go up to Cairns  but I reckon they are joking. It will be interesting to see where I get transferred after training, but that might not be for a while yet so I don't really need to worry about it. We're going to hike up Glass House mountains today for Pday and last week we went 10 pin bowling - it was fun.  

Thanks for all your emails and your prayers hope you are all well. Love to all

 

P.s I  go to the temple on my assigned Temple day it; we go once every transfer so we won't be going for ages!

Hey Guys!!

This week we had interviews with President. I'm not sure if I've told you much about President Langeland. He's so funny and he gives some great trainings. He really cares about the mission and the missionaries and because he's been out for two years he's well experienced. His sence of humour is very dry and when I got off the plane when I first arrived I was kinda nervous cos he looked so serious and didn't smile (I think he did that on purpose) and then at dinner I was the only one that got his jokes hahaha!!!  I enjoyed interviews.

 

The work is certainly picking up but we still don't teach as much I'd like to. We finally had an appointment with someone we met ages ago called Anthony (I think I might have mentioned him) but we also met with his brother and his friend. He's a great guy who has had previous contact with the church. Our first lesson wasn't very long, but we had a member with us and so it broke the ice and I think we could go further. I'm actually really glad Bro Lawton was there as he moved from Townsville (which is where Anthony and his brother spent a lot of time) and he also loves playing touch rugby and stuff so he was really able to relate where me and Elder Richards didn't have much in common with Anthony.  

We are also going to ask and assess what the ward has in place in the way of Missionary work and if it even has a Mission Plan. We had a training on the responsibilities of the ward and stuff and I was surprised at how easy missionary work would be if the ward did everything they should. 

We haven't seen seen Michelle for ages, but I saw her in the mall last week and she said she's still interested. I think every time we've been round we've not been knocking loud enough (we didn't want to disturb her son) as I told her we had been round a couple times and she looked a little confused. 

 

Sorry I've not sent any pictures - the internet's kinda slow in the Library. 

Dad doesn't it always happen that way - you always get a cold after winter. Actually talking of cold, we woke up this morning freezing and it was like 19 degrees hahahaha!. I think it's partly because the air is moving because of the fans and  little air con unit we have but still, I'm not looking forward to coming home to winter, glad its another 21 months or so. 

Love you all I hope you are all well and are making good choices.

 

Byeeeee! Elder John Kay

Spiritual thought: I must apologise I would have quoted directly from the Ensign but I forgot it sorry.

Taken from the March 2012 Ensign of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

A general Authority tells of a time when his commitment to the Lords church blessed him and his family. This man was in the American Air Force. Towards the end of the Vietnam war he was posted back and forth so was never in a particular ward for long, but while in Texas he was called to be Elders Quorum President and was promised that if he magnified his calling he would be provided with protection and blessings. One time while flying back from an assignment, stopping off to fuel the other pilot in his two plane squadron asked him to stay the night where comfortable meals and relaxing lying in the next (Sunday) morning would be available, but wanting to be at church for his calling on Sunday persuaded the other pilot to fly on. On approach to landing his waiting wife was prompted to kneel in prayer. As this man banked his plane an engine failure occured and he was forced to fly off course into clouds. Becoming spacially disorientated he was prompted to fly left, bringing him out of the clouds and in line with the runway. Because of his commitment to his calling and his families faith he was able to be provided with the Lords promised protection.

 

The Ensign Rocks and I have a testimony that the Lord blesses those who keep His commandments and their covenants and commitments to his church.

(To read the whole article go to The Ensign)

 

Here is Elder Kay's email from today - 12th March

Hi all,

 

This week has been quite a good one. 

A week ago we cut a member family's grass. We had a great time. They live kinda far out and we saved some Km so we could save them a trip to the train station to pick us up. Brother Beaumont is so  so nice, they are a great family. We're working with their daughter and family (who live with them) to get the daughter re avctivated and her husband baptised. Their  middle child just got baptised about a month ago (we participated in the confirmation).

Last week we went Fourwheeling on Bribie Island beach with Brother Phillips and the Opies.  Brother Opie is fun and Brother Phillips (Sister Opies Brother) served his mission in Russia.  We watched Brother Phillips surf and it was nice to paddle in the sea (as missionaries are not allowed to swim). We also had a 'walk in' last Sunday at church. His name is Hady and he's Baptist. He was pleasantly surprised at how friendly and welcoming the ward were, dispelling stories of 'evil Mormons'. He wasn't at church this week but we're going to get in contact with him and we offered to help him move house.

 

I found that info on Taro and laughed (according to what Mum found on Wiki it is supposed to give you kidney stones if you eat too much). Don't worry I've not had anywhere near as much as Elder Richards has (who served in a Samoan ward for 9 months) and he doesn't have kidney stones. When they are raw they also give you a rash but hey lol you dont eat them raw. We also got some cocoa Samoa a couple of weeks ago. Its basically roasted cocoa beans squished into a hard concentrated block that you grind and boil into a drink. So it's a warm drink thats not against the Word of Wisdom. I like it when you get to the end you chew down the bits of cocoa bean... YUM!!! :P

 

When you told me Amelia was the only one signed up to my blog I smiled she is so great!!! Will you be able to get her address, I would like to write her. 

 

I studied the Book of Abraham a couple of weeks back and it's great. It really gives a sense of the Old Testament times and how ancient the gospel is. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true, Joseph Smith was a true Prophet and Thomas S. Monson leads and directs Christs Church in these last days.

Here is the new ABM (Australia Brisbane Mission)  slogan:.... RISE UP TO THE NEXT LEVEL! President Langeland told us the following experience : -

"This last week, a couple of excited missionaries called us with the following miracle.    Two missionaries were walking home from dinner and 2 drunks, sitting outside a home, called them over.  They weren't sure they wanted to converse with 2 drunks, but went over.  The men questioned them about what they knew about Jesus Christ, but also began to mock them.  A wife came out and said that one of the men had to go to court the next day and asked the missionaries if they would give him a tie because her husband didn't have one.  They said no and she said that Jesus would have given them one if He had been there.  So they gave him a tie, understanding that the Gospel is for everyone and they didn't have a right to choose who would receive it.  The next day, they were walking by this home and saw this man out in the garden.  They stopped to talk with him and he now wants them to come back and teach his family of four.  They have an appointment this Wednesday." 

 

No photos from Australia yet, but this is Elder Kay at the New Zealand Temple Visitors' Centre as far as I know

This is the email from February 13th that went missing in the ether because there were too many photos attached so Elder Kay re-sent it to his brother this week.

Thank you so much for your emails one and all it's great to here from you. We had trade offs on Saturday and we walked about 10 miles. Nobody wanted to listen to us. It was a good experience though because I stayed in my area (Elder Richards went with the DL in Burpengary) so I got to know the area a bit better. Man it's crazy -  I put sun cream on and just sweat it all off so I have to keep re applying it. We are teaching a recent convert called Tiegan. She's cool, but she wants to know everything right now, we just teach her a bit at a time and have told her to let us know if she has any questions. We ask her after every Sunday School lesson if there was anything she didn't understand. She studies pretty good as well, but sometimes doesn't understand the scriptures so we have to help her.

Something I enjoyed this week was we bought MacDonalds and drove up to this lookout. Its an awesome view It looks over the Glasshouse Mountains (which are hills North of our area). It was gorgeous and we had a laugh. There was a banana plantation in the valley and you could just see the sea then it got dark and you could see all the lights below, I wish I'd taken a picture but never mind. We'll probs go up there again. 

 Send my love to the branch 

Week beginning Feb 27th was Transfers week. Elder Kay didn't move, but the District Leader did so there was no time to send an email. We did receive one this week though - March 7th

Hey all!!

We had another temple day so It's Wednesday Pday again, but dont worry it'll be back to normal again next Monday. 

 

Well not a lot has happened since last time I've emailed apart from we've not been able to do as much as we'd like or work with all the people we like due to Km  restrictions so we've asked for more because some smaller areas have nearly the same amount of Km and they can't use them all even when they never "car fast" [i.e. go on foot or public transport] We we can't actually car fast here because the two companionships in our apartment take turns using the car. We have a New District leader who replaced Elder Webster. He's called Elder Moore, This week we had a Ward council and Bishop gave us some less active members in the ward that we can go visit.  We're strengthening the members even though we have no investigators at the moment. Also we found some former investigators who might be related, we think so because we met this girl from Thursday Island knocking on a former investigator's door, who she said was her uncle (we think so cos there are very few no Aboriginals from Thursday Island, and we felt it a little more than coincidence) so we have three baptizms as a goal this month.  

 

Well theres not that much more to say apart from an investigator's member step son recovered from almost impossible odds from surgery so hopefully his heart will be softened. 

The nights are begginning to get a little cooler because the summer's pretty much over, but it's still rained quite alot. Oh and my trousers are getting tight. hahahaha. I'm also beginning to like Samoan food quite a bit :P I LOVE TARO!!!