"Lead kindly light amidst the encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on."
That is my favourite hymn and how I have been feeling this week. It has been great, but I have had a few rough moments. First I want to share an experience I had regarding prayer. So on sunday at church I saw someone who reminded me of my Mum and that immediately made me feel homesick, like a punch to my tummy. I haven't felt homesick much so this was unusual. That caused me to be in a weird mood the whole day, I kept thinking of home. When we were driving I was thinking that I wished I had the gold chevy back playing Ed Sheeran with my besties in the car with me. That night I knelt down in prayer and opened my heart to my Father in Heaven. I did not want to be focussing on home at all. Yes, I miss everyone, but I need to do the work, I need my whole heart in the work, not bits and pieces. I prayed for help to just get over it. This morning in my personal study I was reading in Alma 17, and I found a scripture that touched me. It is when the Sons of Mosiah come to visit Alma, these were the Sons that were with Alma when he saw the Angel so they are all really close, like brothers. The sons of Mosiah and Alma are going on a "mission" to preach the gospel to the Lamanites and they are all going to separate areas, so they have to part ways.
"... They separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken."
This helped me remember why I am out here. This work is great, of great importance and of great sacrifice. I need to trust in the Lord, that I will see you all again. But for now I need to focus on the great work I have ahead of me!
Earlier this past week on P-Day we celebrated Sister Soh and Sister Lee-lo's birthdays. They are companions and they have the same birthday and both turned 22! So we surprised them with cake and balloons and it was really fun! After I email today, the whole zone is going down to Victor Harbor for an activity. I think we are just walking around and enjoying the view. I am very excited for that! First time I get to actually go out and see things!
We have a baptism lined up for July 19th. I am super excited! That is so soon! We have a lot more work to do with him, but I know everything will be just fine and it will be great!
This week we gained 2 new investigators! They are both international students, one from China, one from Kenya. It was so great to meet them and teach them, I have high hopes. Sister Funaki and I also had a goal to get 20 connections, which means we want to talk to 20 new people in one day. We had been trying so hard to achieve it but we have been so busy with lessons we never had any time to find. But this week we got 20 connections on thursday! We were so happy. Since we did so much finding I came across many not so nice people. We went door knocking and this lady answered the door and said, "What do you want?" I said, "Hi, we are sister missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of-..." She interupted me and started yelling "NO NO NO NO" while I slowly and quietly finished "Latter-Day Saints..." under my breath. Then she continued to say she wanted nothing to do with religion and slammed the door. It was quite comical now that I look back on it, but in that moment I felt very discouraged. We do not knock to annoy you, we knock for your salvation! Something that Sister Funaki says is: "Knock once for their Salvation. Twice for your Salvation. And three times for desperation." It is funny, 'cause it is true.
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| Me and Sister Funaki |
We had dinner at a members house and she made such lovely food. A beef stew with veggies, etc. But the most exciting part was Apple Pie and Custard! My favourite, I felt so blessed. It was swimming in custard. That was definitely a highligh of my week. This week Sis. Funaki and I went all out with cooking our own meals. We had home made pizza and made a delicious chicken kabab meal with potato salad. I love food.
I biked in a skirt for the first time this past week! I was terrified my skirt would fly up, but it didn't. I was protected :-) My area is VERY hilly. I am not exaggerating Dad. I thought my legs were on fire because of all the hills we had to bike up. If we bike more often we will get in shape quite quickly. People were looking at us like we were mad though, biking in skirts. I gave them a look back that said, "yes, we are mad."
I also did trade offs this week again, I will do them every week since my companion is a Sister Training Leader. I went to Christies Beach area with Sister Soh. We were literally a two minute walk from the beach! Such a cool experience. I love trade off's.
I really look forward to this week! We get to have another Multi-Zone Conference with our new Mission President and his wife. (President and Sister Parker). We also have interviews and such and we will be teaching that man who is getting baptized soon and following up with all our investigators and our new ones! Oh and we have a member dinner every day this week! #blessed.
I love my mission!
I love you all and miss you. Stay safe, I pray for you!
With love,
Sister Coultrup
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Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup
Australia Adelaide Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
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