This has been a really good week. Last week when we had our zone conference with Elder Ardern of the seventy he challenged us to reach the goal of every companionship finding 2 new people to teach in the next week. That meant we were shooting for 106 new people as a mission. Recently in the mission we had been struggling to find people to teach. In the past 2 weeks we had only found 40ish people. So we had to exercise a lot of faith and work hard to reach our goal. In the end we found 161 new people to teach.

I thought it was so cool to feel the urgency and desire to find as many people as we can to teach the gospel to. It reminds me of a quote from preach my gospel about setting goals.... 

"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.”

–President M. Russell Ballard

The goals we set show our desires. They help us to work hard and be successful. I know this week we have worked harder, prayed more sincerely, and taught and invited more boldly so that we would be able to reach our goal of 2 new people to teach. And it was so exciting when we did reach it. 

Anyway so here is how the week started. On Monday we had just finished emailing when the power went out in Kalgoorlie. So everything wasn't working. The traffic lights were out and the cell towers didn't work. We tried going to the store to do our shopping and when we got there the registers still were working for a bit but then after we got our food and were about to check out they stopped as well. So we left empty handed. The power eventually came back on a couple hours later. 

On Tuesday we went to the bike shop so they could get my bike fixed. Now I have two pedals! Then later we went and met with Braden. He is an aboriginal guy and his partner is one of the members. We talked with him and shared about our Heavenly Father and prayer. We look forward to teaching him more.

 

Then on Thursday we had a lesson with Jade and her children Zoe and Blake. Jade was baptized recently. Last time we invited her to continue reading the book of Mormon and when we got to the lesson on Thursday she told us that she had read it all in 3 days. We taught the restoration to her children and invited Zoe to be baptized and she said yes.

Then afterwards we met with a returning member and shared with him the importance of living the word of wisdom. While teaching it occurred to me that one of the best ways to show our love for God is when we willingly give up something we love so that we can follow Jesus Christ.

On Saturday we were pretty busy. Around lunch time we met with a lady who hadn't been to church in a long time. She has been making progress and should soon be able to start coming every week. Straight after we visited with another family. The grandma is a member but the mom and dad and their children aren't members. We spoke with the father and started teaching him about Heavenly Father's plan for families and then shared our testimonies that families can be together forever. Afterwards he told us that he would like his family and himself to learn more. We also asked if he would be baptized if he believed the things we taught and he said yes. We are excited to keep working with them. Then after that appointment we went and visited with Braden again. I helped him to fix his flat tyre while my companion helped him finish cutting down a tree. Later this evening we had the adult session of stake conference. They spoke about missionary work. They had a couple of the recent converts speak and I always enjoy their testimonies. Half way through the broadcast cut out and the tabernacle choir appeared and started singing which was pretty funny. Then afterwards we went down again to the touch rugby fields and talked with people down there. We met one man who told us he was a member but hadn't been to church in ages. I know that God led us to him so that he could have another chance to experience the blessings of the gospel. 

On Sunday we had our stake conference and they broadcasted it from Perth. They spoke about the temple and making the sacrifice to go. For the members here in Kalgoorlie, it takes 6+ hours to get to the temple and I know many of them make the trip frequently so they can worship in the Lord's house. Their faith is inspiring.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. 

Love 

Elder Nelson