Week 32: February 18, 2020

Been a good week! Last week was awesome, we had our district pday, played a lit game of bowling, ate some food and played some basketball! It was great because I hardly ever get to see other missionaries because I'm like 5 hours away from brisbane and an hour and a half away from the closest missionaries haha. The next day, Friday, we had our zone conference! So I got to see a lot more missionaries, and a lot of good friends I have made. That was really fun, and we got some really good trainings there which sent me back up to bundaberg feeling refreshed and with extra motivation! 

My favorite experience this week was going to an old person place to visit some members which was awesome actually cuz I met some non member German old people who were actually very nice. Then a different member invited us to watch him play this other guy in pool in their combined recreation center, and it was the most slow and boring game of pool I've ever seen, but they were acting like pros hahaha. It was like watching mermaid man and barnacle boy do stuff really slowly if you get my reference. Next time ima beat them in pool because I'm lowkey a pro, thanks to my dad for training me even though I didn't like playing pool at that time. 

But for real my favorite experience this week was with one of our really progressing friends, named wade. He lives about an hour drive a way from us, so we drove down there and did some work there all day yesterday. We taught a very spiritual lesson on Joseph Smith and the book of mormon, and it was honestly one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. I could feel the spirit so strong testifying on the book of mormon and joseph smith, and how much they have impacted my life, and I know they can for so many others. My favorite part of teaching people is getting to share the experience of the first vision and reciting what Joseph Smith experienced. Even though its memorized, I know so strongly that it is true and feel the spirit so strongly doing so. That's why this next conference is going to be unforgettable, 200 years since the first vision which is absolutely crazy. Make sure you guys are all prepping for this, it truly will be unforgettable. 

Been feeling really really good about this area, it's starting to get back to the way it was when my trainer was here about a year ago. When I first got here, we only had about 4 people being taught, and not much else to go for. But through tons of hard work this transfer we have been able to find 8 more friends! Transfers are coming up on monday which is crazy because it feels like I just got here, and I'm hoping we will both be able to pull through for this next transfer and keep the momentum going. 加油!

高长老

District, some kangaroos, and a hangi!

Week 31: February 12, 2020

Hey everyone, sorry forgot to tell y'all but today is my pday since my district is having a pday together and tomorrow is my zone conference... which meant I had to drive 5 hours down to brisbane yesterday in some of the heaviest rain and the longest storm I've seen ever. It rained super heavily the whole way down. It was actually really scary but I've driven in worse (the utah snow) so it wasn't bad. My comp was really scared of how I drove though haha because despite the bad vision and occasional hydroplaning I had to keep myself going a steady 100 kmph.

Last pday I got to go to the bundaberg ginger beer factory for a small tour, then I tried all 19 flavors! Not much people can say they've done that so yeah pretty big accomplishment hahaha. Super good so once more I'm going to invite you all to try and find some to drink. 

A highlight this week was playing tennis with some Filipinos that play every friday night. They challenged me and my comp to doubles, and I get really competitive in tennis, especially with all the smack they were talking. Unfortunately elder lin doesn't play tennis so we took a nasty 1-5 deficit in games, but I carried us back until we lost 4-6. They were gloating but when I called them out in singles they got too scared haha. Still working on trying to teach them though, hopefully can get some progress. 

Another highlight is that the other day me and elder Lin made lunch, but used some hotpot to cook some vegetables. I've grown to really love super spicy food on my mission, given I was with a sichuan comp my first transfer, and a member in sunnybank would always take us to the spiciest places in town. So naturally we finished lunch but I was craving more spicy so I straight up drank the hotpot haha. It was soo good though, and felt really good for the rest of the day, but man, the next morning was rough. My stomach was so upset and let me just say I let the toilet have it. I guess that's the downside of really spicy food but hey, it tasted really good. Then later for lunch we ate more hotpot and I went through the cycle again but what can I say?

We just barely found a guy named warren this week and he is awesome. His parents are members, and he is really into listening to what we have to say. It is cool to see the Lord work and prepare people to be able to meet with the missionaries, especially in a place like Australia lol. The people can be really cold here sometimes, the members here are always telling us how bad they feel for us getting sent here, but honestly I like it a lot. I can really feel how much this area has changed when I first got here to how it is now. Hoping I can stay here for a couple more transfers because I can really feel the work starting to progress here. We've doubled the friends we've been teaching just these past 4 weeks I've been here so I'm stoked to keep working hard on that. 

Elder Ensign

高长老

澳洲布里斯班

Couple other small highlights-

just hopped on the Taiwanese bandwagon this week, my comp is from taiwan so I'm learning a couple of phrases now haha.

Knocked on the wrong door, a person opened up and let us in (the first time anyone has EVER let me in their house while door knocking), but proceeded to make us flip through the bible with him to all these different scriptures with the word "kingdom" in them, and "jehovah". Needless to say we got bashed.

Week 30: February 4, 2020

Really good week, lots of fun stuff happened. We started the week off by fishing
last p-day with our friend patrick,
so I got pretty burnt but it turned into a nice tan so it's all good! Got about 50 mosquito bites
so I'm still recovering from that ha. When we were shopping too I found some a&w rootbeer,
which is the best because Australia doesn't have rootbeer so I introduced my companion to it,
I miss rootbeer and all the flavors of mtn dew so bad, shout out to the dew pong gang though!
I got a chinese name as well, Elder Lin gave me a pretty sick one. I'm trying to find him an
english name but hes pretty picky so send me some cool english names Haha. My name is
高毅翔. (Gāo yìxiáng) finally, the best part of the week. Something really big that happens in
bundaberg is every year around january to March baby turtles hatch on the beach and people
from ALL around the world come around to see it. So I asked our mission president if it was ok
to go see and he said yes! Coolest night ever, so awesome. Literally hundreds of baby turtles
hatching and running into the ocean. Super cool but unfortunately we weren't allowed to
take pictures for most of the time because it distracts the turtles. So sorry you'll just have to come
see it in person hahaha. Without a doubt the coolest thing I've seen in australia. Because of that
 I've decided to join the campaign "save the turtles" and along with reading the scriptures and
praying everyday i also want to invite you all to stop using plastic straws and stop buying
unnecessary plastic items, save the environment and recycle :)

Other than that, the missionary work has been slowly picking up here and we are finding
new people who are potentially interested! We have a friend we are teaching on baptismal
date in April, the only problem is it's about a 2 and a half hour drive to her house hahaha.
Oh and she's not very good at answering her phone so we ended up dropping 300 kilometers
the other day to go to her house when she wasnt home (we only get about 2400 kilometers
a month so its really rough sometimes). But hopefully we will be able to work more with her!

Elder Ensign

Also just something funny, I got an email from mark yesterday (screenshot included down below)
asking for some photogenic pictures of my name tag in cool places in australia so he can use them
as well, perks of having the same last name I guess. I'll let you all try and find out which ones I took
and which one he took ;)

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Week 29: January 28, 2020

Honestly not much happened this week, but still fun and enjoying the work! We celebrated chinese new years by watching some approved lds movies at a nonmembers house so that was fun, and Australia day happened to be on sunday (but was celebrated on monday). Too bad this country is the least patriotic country I've ever been in, I didn't see one Australian flag outside hahah. Besides that, we've been trying to visit some people who have been taught by the missionaries a long time ago, and a lot seem to be dropped for one certain reason; they looooove to bash on the church. So yeah we will have a really nice conversation with them, and then all of them will pull out THE SAME anti mormon doctrine literally every time haha and when I roast them back they won't accept it. Allow me to give you an example dialogue:

Them: "I respect your church except for that 1st prophet of yours, Joseph Smith"

Me: "well whys that?"

Them: "because of all the wife's he had, and how your church believes in polygamy"

Me: "well does it say in the bible you can't do polygamy?"

Them: "yeah yeah I'm sure you're only supposed to have one wife....."

Me: "didn't abraham have more than 1 wife too? And multiple other prophets back then too?"

*lol roasted*

Them: *trying to make an excuse about the gold plates or joseph Smith killing people*

Me: *roasts them again* (btw if hundreds of people were trying to kill you, wouldn't you try to stop them as well?)

But for real really thankful to have grown up in this church, with the full gospel on the earth and living prophets to guide us. I really took it for granted growing up and didn't realize all the blessings. Plus to have the book of mormon on the earth to guide us along with the bible. Make sure to keep up on that daily scripture study and prayer, because it really can bless your lives. 

Elder Ensign

2 Nephi 3:12

Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord.