We've had a lot of great meetings this week. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum the the Twelve Apostles came to Sydney and had a conference with all of the missionaries in the North and South Missions. One of the things that stuck with me was in how he presented his message. It was essentially a big Q and A session. He didn't give us a talk about hearing, observing, and feeling, he did them. His message was not a theoretical one, it was a practical one. I think that's a message in and of itself. We teach certain things, but the real message is in showing investigators and members the application of them. That's one of the reasons it's so powerful to teach in a member's home. You can see the gospel in action there, and the spirit can say to an investigator "Do you see this? You could have this." Elder Bednar's message had many layers to it, but this is the one that stuck out to me the most.
We also had Korean Conference this week, which was really cool. It's given me a chance to see how I've progressed in the last few weeks.
Another great experience we had this week was with the part-member family from last week. We've had a couple of lessons with the father during the week. Right now, he's at a point where he doesn't feel ready to come to church yet, and certainly not to be baptized, but he's been very open with us and we've had some great experiences with he and his family as we've taught. The thing that's made the most impact has been the influence of his wife and her testimony of the gospel. This reminds me of Gordon B. Hinckley's talk "Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep". In the end, the biggest help for the man to join the church was his wife's testimony.
One of the other miracles we saw this week came from our visit to another family in the ward. The father has had his name removed, the wife is not a member, and the only reason we know about them is because their son was blessed in the church when he was a baby. None of them are members, but they've been receptive to us teaching their son. We were leaving our first appointment last Tuesday when the father put his hand on his son's shoulder and said "Let me tell you how this all works". Elder Rencher and I immediately thought that he was going to say something that was going to put his son off from meeting with us and just destroy the foundation we'd laid in the lesson. And then a miracle happened. He started talking about when his brothers were on their missions and and how the members would feed them. Then he told us that next time we came over, they'd have dinner for us. I don't know how to describe the happiness and surprise we felt as we were leaving, but it was just amazing.
It's been a very memorable week, to say the least, one I will remember for a long time.
Love,
Elder Clark
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| View outside our flat. If they moved that building the back, I could have a view of the temple. |
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| If they moved that building above, this would be the view from my flat. |
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| A cleverly disguised pole outside our flat |
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| The Korean Conference (Elder Clark is one of 7 Korean speaking missionaries in the mission) |
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