3rd December 2012 Christmas is coming

There is hope for photos yet :-) Here's this week's email

One of the Townsville members bought me a camera,  she'll be blessed and I am grateful.

 

Transfers is in 2 weeks. I really don't reckon President will keep me up here for another transfer. The work is going well but a lot of appointments seem to fall through. We just referred a pretty solid investigator to Cairns after only teaching them for a week. It's the District Young Women's president’s sister (who is less active) and her husband (who is the non member) they are great but were only down here to recover after a car accident (which is what made them decide to look to the Gospel again) so good things are happening. It's hard to tract a lot in this heat but tract we must; our teaching pool is kinda low. We are going to push for referrals as well though as that is the best missionary work, when the members are involved.

I think I want to go to the temple a lot when I go home, a 2 and a half hour drive isn't that bad compared to people in Townsville, some people can only go once a year and then they have to go to Sydney cos the Brisbane temple has no accommodation  It's going to be so bizarre at home after being here, anyway that's a long way off and there is still a lot to be done here.

The Brisbane mission might breach 200 with the big influx of missionaries, its already up to 180 and nearly half the mission is training new missionaries, I'll probs go down south and either train or be in leadership. Anyway I'll love you and leave you thanks for all your support with everything and your prayers.

Heaps of love Elder John Kay xxx

P.S no I didn't see the eclipse, I would have to wake up at 5 am so I was like BEAT IT!! hahahaha.

26th November

As the Adversary tries to thwart the Lord's work, often a good week is followed by a not-so-good one. Everyone has ups and downs - the downs help us to appreciate the ups.  Here's his email

Hello.

How is everyone?  Last week was OK. We did a lot of tracting (i.e. going door to door telling people about the church) though because the people we are teaching were either busy or away (it's summer now so many people will be going on holiday), but we got heaps of potential investigators. Things are going to be good although there's some bad news, we got robbed, my bag got stolen and it had my scriptures and my camera in :( so I'm not sure what to do. I'll have to borrow some scriptures. Elder Powelson's wallet got stolen as well so we'll probably be on bikes the whole week because it had his driving licence in. I hope the things can be found. We filed a police report but I'm doubtful. It will be weird being a missionary without any scriptures. anyhoo I think that's about it, I don't really have anything else to say. I love you all 

Elder Kay

So there will probably not be any more photos to add to this blog unless he can download photos from his companion's camera and email them. We'll have to wait and see.

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.

Here are Elder Kay's last two emails. If I don't post emails on Monday morning when I receive them it just gets forgotten! I have no idea why there are two different fonts and one suddenly gets smaller. I have just copied and pasted and taken personal bits out. Hope you can read it all!

On Monday 3rd September he wrote

It's getting hotter - about the mid 30's at the mo, but it will probs get hotter, the nights are not so cold anymore either.  Sometimes it just gets so humid. I saw a paper in McDonalds that said there is record breaking bushfire risk because of the wet autumn (so lots grows) then really dry winter, crazy! I'm doing well, we are slowly but surely rolling the work forward. Our main investigator family is so close to coming to church - they just say they can't because one of their kids doesn't like it, but we're going to invite him to Mutual to soften him up, we'll just jeep trying and hopefully they can gain a testimony!

This week we did a bit of service, we seem to do alot of it, especially moving people (that's what we did this week).  We almost got a referral from a member that we asked for, we just need the address, we need to follow up. We are also organising a cottage evening this month so that should be great.

Thanks so much for your emails it's good to hear from you all, you all sound so BUSY!! hahaha.
I miss the temple being up north but hey.

I love you all so much you're AWESOME!!! take care

Bye!! xxxxxxx


Then today (10th September)

Howdy peeps,

How's it going? This week has been good, I think I'm going to miss a lot of people in this area when I am transferred.  I dont know how people can leave their mission and never go back to visit if they are able to. The work is still going we are making good progress with our investigators; they are great people.

Every Saturday we play touch football with some non members and now that we've got alot of people coming I want to do a spiritual thought each week, I've also started excercising every morning and eating better so I might lose weight :P I'm getting alright at touch as well and I'm learning to kick. hahaha. 

 

We were talking about the signs of the second coming and the apocalypse in district meeting and Elder Mathews (senior Elder) was saying that when the world no longer accepts the missionaries message then there will no longer be missionaries, the time is not yet though - there are still wonderful people searching for the truth.

I know it takes a long time with some people. Sometimes we have to drop people just so we can focus our efforts but we always go back to former investigators in the area book, circumstances always change :) It is such an important work. hmm theres not alot really happening at the moment in particular. we're still teaching alot of less actives. sorry I forgot my memory stick and camera so I wont be sending photos this week sorry.

If you were a king what would you say to your people as your last address? I love the words of king Benjamin as he councils his people, It just goes to show his love for his people and his testimony in the gospel, what a great example. anyhoo, I hope you are all doing well I love you all. I testify of the truthfullness of the Gospel and I'll talk to you next week.
Bye

Here are all of Elder Kay's August emails. It's been a busy month for me with holidays and work so sorry it's taken me a while to update the blog

Monday, August 06, 2012

How’s it going all? My week has been pretty good; we got in contact with one of our investigators after an appointment fell through. They seem pretty keen and we also got a less active guy to church. We did a lot of service again this week and I GOT TO DRIVE A TRACTOR. The branch president is one of the managers of an aboriginal reserve and so we sometimes go help him cut the grass and stuff like that. I've been reading the Doctrine and Covenants and I'm really enjoying it, I love section 10. We are beginning to get the Branch excited about missionary work (heaps of thanks to the Branch President - he's awesome) Not a lot else has happened this week, I'll send some photos next week. Heaps of members are telling me England’s doing really well in the Olympics, gutted I can’t see it but I'm doing the Lords work. Man you learn a lot about dealing with people, sometimes it’s so hard to listen when they talk a lot. I've taken on a little project when I get time I'm drawing out the central Americas at the time of the Book of Mormon (about Mormon’s time) we had some training by Elder Matthews on it and he showed us one of the existing theories that makes sense the most to him and it's awesome, its mostly theoretical but he's been to the Americas and read theories and everything, he’s a scholar, I'm gonna make it more arty.

Give my love to everyone.

Love Elder John Kay

Monday, August 13, 2012

Hello everybody,
This week has been a good week for us here in Townsville, we taught way more lessons, the Branch is progressing as well, some less actives are coming to church as a result of the letters that we sent out from President Ferguson, we are also getting acquainted with a whole load of Niueans through an Ex member soon to be re baptised, hopefully we shall have some Baptisms this month. Transfers came and went with no changes its still Elder Abel and I in the east and Elder Latu and Elder Fox in the west, I might well be up here for 7 and a half months, man it's crazy, when I go back down south I'll nearly be at my year mark. It's going so fast. Elder Richards (my ‘dad’ i.e. first mission companion) is also going home this transfer as well. This mission is a really young one (i.e. most of the missionaries haven’t been out long – this is due to hold-ups with visas over the past year)  I'm gonna know hardly anyone when I go south... ah well, it makes my chances of training higher, I don’t particularly want to be in leadership, but I would like to train a new missionary.
This week there was an Elders quorum activity, it was well good we had a testimony in a park then Breakfast,

I'll know this area so well when I leave, I was surprised how quickly you get to know areas.

I can see how important companion study is, it's a great opportunity to get better at teaching if you're not teaching that often. The church is true, I hope you are all well
Much love Elder Kay

Monday, August 20, 2012

Hey,
How is everyone? I hope this email finds you well and happy :) I'm great!!! Last week was great, with some slightly crazy experiences, but at the minute we're excited as the people we are teaching are getting closer to Baptism, there is also an excommunicated member being re Baptized this week so we're excited, he’s the Niuean fella I talked about last week, he got us into the Townsville cultural Fest free :P so we saw their performance, it was Brilliant. Afterwards when I congratulated him and the others they joked about how they were savages until the Brits came.  It was great to see them in all their costumes and painted faces, I tell you if I was attempting to invade Niue (see the History section of this link!) I wouldn't hang around long in those days. So yeah the work is progressing well, we came in contact with a less active who wants to come back to church, she's come two weeks in a row now and this week she brought a non-member friend who we started teaching last week :P it's awesome. Ok so the crazy experiences... we were delivering some of the last letters for less actives we have and we found out (from his wife) that this guy has been dead for three years and it shocked me that he had slipped so far off the radar, we felt really inadequate. Then another guy we asked if this woman lived at his address just ripped up the letter in front of us and slammed the door, sometimes it's difficult to remember they are all Heavenly Fathers children,  but that’s where the spirit comes in, I guess it's part of being a missionary.


well I think that’s about it, OH no. I almost forgot, we went up the castle hill last week - a big mountainous hill in the middle of Townsville (it's probably about the size of cheviot) and the view was awesome

Much love, Elder John Kay

Monday 27^th August 2012

Hey all,
This week has been pretty good, we had District conference and we had a meeting with President Langeland afterward and had a training on the Doctrine of Christ (this month’s mission theme) basically he was sharing that if our investigators understand the doctrine truly then they will gain faith and want to change, obviously with the help of the Spirit etc. but it was a great training and it give me new drive for my studies. Sadly we haven't taught that many lessons this week as our main appointments fell through but we plod on. I think we need to find more people and look through our former investigators.

There’s a quote in preach my gospel by Elder Packer saying that true doctrine understood changes attitudes and behaviour better than a study of attitude and behaviour changes it.
I send my love and wish Heavenly Fathers choicest blessings on you all,

Until next week.

Elder John Kay

I can't believe it's 2 weeks since I updated. Where has this year gone? Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes in the post or on facebook.  Here are the 2 emails from 23rd and 30th July. We will be on holiday next week so I will be posting 2 emails the week after as I don't think the campsite has Internet and our laptop is on it's last legs so not worth the space in the car!

23rd
Hey Guys!!!

howdy diddley doo! man my first email as a twenty year old :P, This week has been pretty good, we've mostly done service, my back hurts from moving someone accross the street and playing Oz tag (tag Rugby) and someone's lawn broke our lawnmower hahaha. My birthday was really good I didn't tell many people till the day so it was a kinda off the cuff thing,  Sister Tupaitau got me a cheesecake from the cheesecake shop and we went to Macdonalds after practicing for a fireside which I'm singing at. It was great spending time with the Branch President  and family and some other few, we had the cake at the Orro's the day after because we always go to their house for dinner on Thursday. Oh also thank you for the package it arrived this morning mmmm minstrels, send my love to everyone in the Alnwick branch. I really liked the cards from the priesthood and the pen is lovely, thank you.

well anyhoo, thanks for all your emails and whatnot I loves you all,  bye!
Elder John Kay. xxxx

30th
This week was good, we were mostly seeing less actives again but we did contact some people and gave them a pass along card and told them to visit the website. They aren't in our area, well, they technically are, they live in Ayr (a town with it's own branch about an hour south of here) but they dont have missionaries so it's kind of in our area, but we never go there. We would love to get floating missionaries in a town called Bowen about 2 and a half hours south that can cover Bowen and Ayr and Airley Beach (which is in the Bowen branch - called the Whitsunday branch) everything is just so spread out.  Elder Latu and I went to Bowen yesterday (Sunday), they are a small branch who are mostly Tongan but most of them were working yesterday. I think one of the biggest challeges is reactivation.


I hope everyone is doing well

love Elder Kay

18th July 2012
It's Elder Kay's birthday today. Or I should say it was as it is already 19th July in Australia. He is going to tea with Sister Orro and family and she is going to bake him a birthday cake. I emailed her a list of all the people who wished him a Happy Birthday on Facebook, since missionaries aren't supposed to go on Facebook so he wouldn't have seen the messages.

Here are some excerpts from his last few emails

25th June
Hows it going? This week has been a bit slow tbh because of moving (which we still haven't finished). We also got the news from our investigators that they don't think they will go to church again because of their kids, but  they are still receptive to us, so when they get back from camping we'll teach them the Plan of Salvation and they might be touched by the Spirit. Moving has been a faff, we have the keys to our flat but the Townsville West elders don't (we're getting split into 2 separate flats) so we cant move out till they do cos they need the fridge etc then they will get new stuff delivered to their flat I believe.
I gave two blessings this week;  a couple of members were sick. Sorry theres not much to say, hope you are all well, much love
P.S. talofa lave means hello in Samoan

2nd July
Hey,
I just wrote a whole email and then the browser closed and didn't save my draft.
Sorry I dont have a lot of time. This week's been good we gave a blessing which was really touching. We're moved now. Thanks so much for your emails, I hope you're all good, I'm fine.
much love Elder Kay.

9th July
Hey All,
Apologies for last week's short email. It turns out I might have to buy a new suit with my birthday money :/ I'm getting abit big. I think I'm 75 kg's but I'm exercising and I can see a bit of a difference, I dont think I'll ever be as small as I used to be, unless I get really sick and lose heaps of weight, I've been wearing different trousers with my suit for two weeks of church now because I cant physically fit my suit pants, i'm going to see if I can get them let out a bit by one of the members before I buy a new one....

So, this week we completely got shot of our old house, turned out we needed to clean better, so we enlisted some help and got it squeaky clean, we also had to mow the lawn, (thank goodness we dont have one in this flat). We did quite a bit of service this week so we haven't done a whole lot of proselyting but we saw a less active member, who hopefully will come back to church and maybe we could teach his non member family, We can also contact a guy called Rhys.  He does security work and was doing alot of overtime wor a V8 race that was in town over this weekend called the Sucrogen Townsville 400. It was a huge event and you could hear the roar of the cars all day for three days, it was kind of annoying in the end. Last weeks fast and testimony meeting was really good, a new member of our ward spoke of his wife's experience when they moved up here and how much the branch presidency supported them, it was touching as she lost her baby :( but he has a strong testimony and I think they will be great to work with.

Thinks for all your emails btw, I got heaps this week.

One annoying thing about Australia is that it takes so long for mail, but I guess it keeps me focussed.

I hope your all doing well, The church is true, Jesus is the Christ,
 love you all

Elder John Kay

P.S the weather here has been unusually wet as well

16th July
Hey Guys!!!!

Hows it going? I hope everyone is all good! Thanks for all your emails It's great to hear from you all, thanks for the birthday money mum, and dont worry that my card will be late, I dont really have any plans, I wanna work hard on my bday.

Well this week has been pretty good but we've not been able to see any of our investigators. We found two new people and taught a doorstep lesson to one. When she offereed to say the prayer she thanked Heavenly Father for sending the missionaries because she wanted to "know about what the mormons believe". Hopefully she will gain a testimony of what we share with her :)

I also gave a blessing to the second councillor on the branch presidency, he said the blessing he received was just what he needed, I couldn't even remember what I said, the Lord truly speaks through us.

Elder Abel and Latu went to Bowen (about a two hour drive south) so me and Elder Fox were on a trade off from Thursday till Sunday, it was pretty good. 

love you all

Elder Kay