Teaching a Guinea Pig the Plan of Salvation

What's up everyone, it's been a great week and things are going by way too fast. This time of my mission is just solely focused on the work. There are very few obstacles and it feels great to give my all to the Lord. The time goes faster and faster, and I'm trying to appreciate each moment.

I took one of the new Elders to UNSW for a trade-off and we worked together for a day. It was such a blast, we taught an awesome first lesson and really felt the Spirit as we taught about the Restoration of Christ's gospel. The girl had a ton of good questions and we all left feeling spiritually uplifted. Then we had a prayer answered and had a total miracle. So last week we had met a guy named Frank who was having a really tough time and we had started teaching him. But after not showing up to church he stopped responding. That day, we had just finished lunch and wanted to head to the uni. I planned to call Frank once we got there and see how he was doing. Then, as we walked there, I felt we should go a certain way that we hadn't planned on. Suddenly we saw Frank sitting on a bench. He looked happy to see us and we got to really uplift him. I know God prepared us to meet him that day and that it was a miracle. I know God answers prayers. After that, we just found a ton of people who were interested to learn more and had so much fun. I ended up giving these people some relationship advice in Chinese which was not something I'd expected to do that day but it was pretty cool. The day flew by in the blink of an eye and I could hardly believe it. I love giving my all and doing the Lord's work.

We've tried a new strategy this week. Since I don't have a Chinese comp anymore, I've been asking people we meet on the street to learn the gospel, and if they're not interested, I ask them if they'd be willing to teach me Chinese. Most of them are super down and it works out great, I get a language study in and it usually ends up with us teaching them a lesson once they realize how awesome the gospel is. I'm still blown away by how generous and kind the Chinese people are. I love this culture so much and I'm so glad I still get to speak Chinese all the time.

I have learned that sometimes the Lord pushes us just to where we think we might break and then pours out blessings. In this way He helps us see our own potential and reminds us that He is always there. Near the end of a long day of finding and experiencing a lot of rejection, I was tired. But we said a prayer to be led to those people who were ready. And we had faith that God would answer our prayer as long as we were willing to act. We were walking to a lesson and saw a girl sitting on a bench. It would have been easy to say that we were already late and just skip her, but we felt to stop and talk with her. She smiled so brightly and excitedly asked us if we could teach her about God and religion. She had been looking for a way to feel closer to Him. We taught her to pray and then kept in touch to meet a couple days later. She was so accepting of what we taught and I know that God led us to someone who was truly prepared to hear His gospel. I know He really answers prayers.


The morning of our lesson with Sophia, a girl we met this week, she texted us and asked us if she could bring her guinea pig. I checked Google translate to make sure I was understanding her correctly, and then she clarified by sending a picture of her guinea pig. We said heck yeah you can bring your guinea pig and then she also asked if she could bring her husband. So we showed up and there she was with her husband that we didn't know about and TWO guinea pigs that were so cute. We just sat there in the grass and had the whole Plan of Salvation laid out, scriptures open, and guinea pigs happily munching on the carrot we brought. It was one of the best lessons we've ever taught. She had such great questions and was so grateful for what we shared with her. Next time she'll be making us dinner, so we're excited.

Church is always a little stressful because everyone in this YSA ward is either a recent convert, a missionary, or an investigator. So there's not a huge support system and you're always juggling people and trying to make sure everyone has a good time. The rest of the ward is made up of random people visiting Australia that just happen to be in Sydney for that one week and came to church. So there's a lot of turnover but it keeps things interesting. I like the vibe of having a third of the ward literally be missionaries.

One crazy cool thing about Sydney is that every day around 6 PM, you see these things in the sky that are huge and look like birds but then you look closer and realize that they're bats. Like there are these huge vampire bats that just fly around all the time, who knew? Australia is really nothing like what I originally thought but I think it's pretty cool.

The other elders live in the 27th floor of a skyscraper in the middle of downtown Sydney. Growing up in Kansas I've never seen anything taller than the 2nd floor of my house so it was pretty cool to sleep over there and eat dinner with the view. Then later we got to go up on the roof since we are really chill with the security guard. I loved seeing the sunset from the top of Sydney. And honestly when I see stuff like that I just know we have a God who must have created all this. Everything points back to Him.

Today we went to the ocean and got to play around in some tide pools which was so fun. I really miss swimming and it's always a big temptation for me to just send it and jump in but so far I've been able to control myself. We found all sorts of little sea creatures and it felt good to just be a little kid for a while and play by the water. Then an hour later we were clothes-changed, Book of Mormon in hand and testifying to somebody of the truth. I love my life.


I love being a missionary, it's so awesome. 
这是我最开心的一时间

Elder Halverson













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