Week 20

Hello all

This week we set 2 baptism dates with Rhylee and Quintas. Quintas is from china and has been investigating the church for a while. He feels he is ready to be baptized. Since he has had all the lessons, we will be reviewing them with him since it has been a few months the last time we met. 

Rhylee is an Aussie. We found her at the park by the city. She is the only non Christian in her family and feels she needs religion in her life. She also excepted the invitation to be baptized. 

So far we haven't been able to meet with any of our other investigators, so we have been doing lots of finding in the city.  We are slowly building our teaching pool thanks to the Lord!

See you all next week.

Elder Westbrook.

Week 19

Today was temple Pday, so we don't get to email till today. Last week was an all-GQ week. We had about 3 lessons that cancelled on us so we had 0 lessons to report. This week really is a miracle. 

Since we started fresh this last week, we had 0 investigators till a lady named Grace approached me. She is from China and loves her family(which is quite rare for Chinese people to talk about their family so much). Apparently her family is Muslim, at least her mom is...pretty soon we will be teaching a unicorn. The first time we met, all she talked about was how much she loves her family and how she really wants them to be united, since her parents aren't getting along very well. This is who we have been praying for! I feel she has been prepared to learn about the Gospel and bless her family. 

We met a guy named Ryosuke from Japan. He is interested to learn about the gospel, and came to church. We taught him the Restoration and took it very well. We also met with Sarah, and taught her the Restoration. I know she really felt the spirit during that, as I did.

I am really grateful for this past week. Our new mission president is also amazing! The first time we met at Golden Orientation, he gave a really inspirational training. We are so blessed to have President McSwain here in the ABM!

Till next week!

Love Elder Westbrook!

New Mission President

Week 18

Dear Everyone

I have to be honest, this week hasn't been the greatest week. Our teaching pool got a little smaller as we had to drop some investigators because they were not progressing. We taught a number of first lessons this week, but none of those people wanted to meet again or were interested in learning more.

On the bright side, we get to find new people! We've been working hard to talk with people and not to people. We have met some crazy Aussies along the way, but it's all apart of the journey. We met a lady in the park in Brisbane and to our surprise she accepted our invitation and came to church! Hopefully she agrees to meet us this week and learn more.

We also met a guy named Simon. He just moved to Brisbane, and has nothing but probably his car. We taught him the Restoration and he really wants to learn more. The sad thing is, he has no phone that we can contact him with, so we are waiting for another miracle that we will find him again.

Elder Morris is my trainees name. He is still very golden and has a lot to learn. I've been trying to be the best example I can to him. He's a great Elder and is very eager to learn!

Our goal as a companionship is to get to know all the members in the ward. It is a long process, but it is great to be able to involve them in missionary work during splits. The members in the ward are really great. They are all really friendly and out going. 

The Mission life is great!

Love all of you!

Elder Westbrook

Week 17

Hello:

Sorry time is short, here are some pictures you can look at until next week.

Love you all!

Elder Westbrook

Week 16

Hello all

Transfers has finally come, and turns out I'm training! I'm with Elder Liao again for now, then on Wednesday I will pick up the Golden(we call greenies Goldens). I hope I don't disappoint the new Golden...

We have a baptism date for the 23rd of July for Taku! He is very skeptical about the existence of God, but we are glad that he is willing to find out. It is actually complicated to teach him since he speaks Japanese, Chinese, and English. One of our Assistants is from Japan, Elder Sunakawa. We have him come help whenever we are teaching Taku. He has excepted the invitation to read and pray about the Book of Mormon everyday; he has agreed for us to call him and remind him. He expressed that he expects a big answer, but hopefully he will slowly understand that God does not work that way.

Also we have a new mission president, President McSwain. I am looking forward to be able to have him lead us. President Henderson is also leaving this transfer back to St George. He will be missed!

Looking forward to this new transfer!

Love Elder Westbrook

The Elders that are leaving

Week 15

Hello all!

We finally got an investigator to sacrament this week! We haven't had one come to sacrament all transfer. The Lord really does answer prayers. Taku went to the meeting before us so we didn't see him. There is an Aussie member, Luke, that speaks Japanese in the other ward that fellow shipped him, so I think it all worked out well. He is free pretty much all the time so we get to meet with him frequently.

We have been doing lots of finding this week. We got a few numbers that we still have to contact. Can't wait to see what happens this week!

We had an awesome zone conference where President Henderson gave his last zone conference training. I couldn't remember everything that was said, but the spirit was so strong, and I got more motivation to do missionary work. He will be missed by everyone. He is an amazing leader and example!

Love Elder Westbrook

Week14

Hello all

We just got back from a session at the temple. It was great!

Not much happened this week. All of our investigators are doing final exams in college right now so we haven't been able to meet with them for a while. We have been finding a lot this week. We found a Japanese guy named Taku that speaks Chinese and English! He learned Chinese in Taiwan and is learning English right now. He is on a working holiday visa (like most of the Asian foreigners in Australia). The period of the visa is one year, but you can extend it to two years if you work in the farms. We have mainly taught him English the past week, and shared a church related message at the end. He wants to come to church next week so we will wait and see what happens.

There are 3 areas for the Chinese missionaries in the ABM. The city, Sunny Bank, and Gold Coast. The missionaries call the city the Telestial Kingdom, Sunny Bank the Terrestrial Kingdom, and Gold Coast the Celestial Kingdom. Basically how hard the area is. The city is hard because there aren't very many people who want to listen. We are in an English speaking YSA Ward. We are supposed to bring non-English speaking Chinese people to church which is hard because of the separation caused by the language barrier. We can't find many members to fellowship because they are all Aussie. I am just patiently waiting until we find someone that has been prepared by the Lord! I know everything will work out!

Hope all is well with you!

Elder Westbrook

Some pictures...

1202: The guy in there looks like David Stevens.