Stepping Into the Light...

G'day!

It has been a great week, we have been tested heaps but everything worked out in the end. Lots of people cancelled on us and no one answered the phone. I feel like it is karma when I used to put my phone on silent and never answer it. I can hear Dad now, "Why do you even have a phone if you never answer it?!" That is how I have felt all week. Alas, it was great anways! We had a baptism!

There were a few scares, we saw her every day this week leading up to her baptism on Sunday and there were two days where she showed up with concerns that the adversary had placed. He is really tricky and tries to stop people because he knows this decision will only bring happiness! But the Spirit lead and we were able to work something out. The baptism was beautiful. Dana bore her testimony and shared some of her experience leading up to this point. We met her exactly 6 weeks ago, on the bus. She explained that she was a lost girl in her darkest part of Australia, and the gospel brought her into the light. She is Chinese and explains that being baptized isn't her abandoning her Chinese culture, but actually embracing it! The gospel standards are parallel to many of the traditional Chinese ways. She chose the closing Hymn to be, "I Believe in Christ". I really felt the Spirit at that moment and reflected upon my mission.

I believe in Christ; he stands supreme!

From him I'll gain my fondest dream;

And while I strive through grief and pain,

His voice is heard: "Ye shall obtain."

I believe in Christ; so come what may,

With him I'll stand in that great day

When on this earth he comes again

To rule among the sons of men.

I am so grateful for the gospel in my life so that I can always have that guiding light, Christ. Christ is the Light and Life of the world. I love Him, I am so grateful for his atoning sacrifice. I am grateful that through Him I can start again, and that there is no end. It is such a privilege to be able to see closely how Christ works in other peoples lives as well.

Heaps of love,

Sister Coultrup

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Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

I Follow Jesus Christ on Facebook

G'day!

Another splendid week. I can't believe it is nearly the end of August. You will probably hear me complain about the time running out for the next few months.

This week we went on a trade-off, I was with Sister Tamana from Melbourne and stayed in City East area. It was a great trade-off, I learned a lot. We did heaps of City finding, we ran into some of my investigators from past areas and they asked why I don't come over anymore. That was a little sad.

Also had interviews with President this week! The first thing he said was, "Wow Sister Coultrup, you are almost going home, have you gotten your flights yet?" I almost started crying! Not cool. But it was a great interview, so many wonderful things happening here in the mish!

Working the PVC

On Thursday we opened a zone fast. We were all fasting to achieve our goal of reaching 5 baptisms this transfer! Eeek, that is a big one. We saw many miracles though! Right after we opened our fast we rushed off to the City for a lesson. In that lesson we were able to put our investigators on baptismal date, which was wonderful.

Then later that evening we also saw another one of our investigators, she is deaf. Sister Townsend knows ASL really well, and I am just learning. But here in Australia they speak BSL. It is quite different, luckily our investigator knows a little bit and we are able to still sufficiently teach her and communicate. In that lesson at the end, I wrote in my planner, "Will you follow Jesus Christ and be baptized?" In sign language and writing she told us she already follows Jesus Christ... on Face Book... That was hilarious, I didn't really understand at first but then I got it and had to try not to giggle in amusement because she was totally serious. I finger spelled "example" and pointed to a picture of Jesus Christ and rephrased my question: "Will you follow Jesus Christ's EXAMPLE and be baptized?" That made a lot more sense to her.

You've got to be specific

Also this week we had a PVC event, the AP's were having a baptism and we brought the Saviour of the World display. It was set up in the Chapel for us to teach and show videos in between the time he was baptized and finished drying off. Brandon, who was baptized, invited a few good family friends and they were the only non members there.

We watched 3 videos:

• Who is Jesus Christ in 60 seconds
• Hallelujah
• Because of Him

 Then after we watched the videos we testified of Christ, the spirit was so strong. We invited all who had not already done so to make covenants with our Father in Heaven to receive the many blessings God has waiting for them. Brandon's friends all were crying. Afterwards we got to speak to them and they expressed how they love how they are feeling and the positivity that was there. We explained how that is the Spirit, that is God telling them it is true. They all agreed and asked the missionaries to come over and teach them. Brandon's friend said, "I think this is exactly what I need at this point in my life." What a miracle!

Our investigator Dana also had her baptism interview yesterday (Sunday). She should be baptized next Sunday. She is amazing, so excited for her. She has a very strong love for God and Jesus Christ and a great desire to keep his commandments.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! :)

Love,

Sister Coultrup

--

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Perfectly Placed

G'day,

Wow. Another week gone by? Is it really already half way through August? Where does the time go. Time feels like sand slipping in between my fingers. We are keeping busy, there is a lot to do. Much juggling. We have been enjoying ourselves though, with the responsibility of both our area and assignment! 

This week there were a few miracles that really stood out to me. One day we didn't really have many appointments, but we set a goal to have two member present lessons. We were able to get a hold of one of our investigators and set up a lesson on the day and have a member attend. Then when we were heading into one of the food courts to have a quick lunch we bumped into one of our new investigators we just met the other week. She invited us to sit down with her and we got to have a great conversation. She has not yet seen the teaching space so we invited her to come with us. She said yes! We then sneakily texted everyone we could think of to join us for the lesson and it just so happened someone was in the city just waiting for their bus and could spare some time to join us. That was a great blessing and a great lesson! I could definitely see how the Lord's hand was in it and how she needed that lesson at that time. We almost didn't even have lunch at that time either, so if we didn't we wouldn't have found her! Perfectly placed.

Saturday was a ridiculous day. So many things happened I don't even know where to start. The whole weekend was full of PVC events. After one event that morning we went contacting in the city. We contacted this guy who apparently worked at a bubble tea shop and had all these free extra bubble teas and gave us two. # blessings. Then we had a busker serenade Sister Townsend and I and someone came up and offered us roses, from a basket of roses he was holding.. Those are the silly things that happened. But something a lot more serious happened that evening and I cannot deny that God was there.

We were walking along in the city near North Terrace and we were passing a lot of people everyone racing around on a Saturday night. In the midst of all the craziness there was a girl who looked physically shaken and distraught and on the verge of tears, everyone was passing her by. I stopped her and asked if she was okay and she just broke down in tears. She had just escaped a man who had tried to... hurt her. She was shaking and so afraid, we were able to stay with her and call her Grandma and try to calm her down. We stayed with her until she was picked up and safe. She has a strong belief in God and recognized that He had sent us to her to keep her safe and to be a comfort. The next best thing was she lives somewhere we were going to the next day for a PVC event! God really puts us the the paths of people and we were placed perfectly. That was a very special experience and I am so grateful to have been there for her. 

Sunday was a very busy day for us, travelling all over and outside of Adelaide transporting the PVC. It was a great experience though. A great way to hasten the work of the Lord. Also the teaching space is being filled out even more. We have a Book of Mormon round table now, which has all the languages the Book of Mormon is printed in, with a Christus (don't know if I spelled that correctly) in the middle.

 

I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to wear the Lord's name on my chest. I have a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, it has brought me great joy and closer to God. We have recently as a mission taken up the challenge of reading 4 pages from the Book of Mormon every day. I am into 2 Nephi now, we started August 1st. Every time I read the Book of Mormon different things stand out to me, especially this time as I have created a new marking guide. It works so well alongside the Bible, they support and complete one another.

Heaps of love,

Sister Coultrup

--

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

City East Suburbs

G'day!

It has been a very interesting week with a lot of new experiences! New area, new companion, new ward. But also same area... Because I am still in the City. It feels like I have been transferred but not, if that makes any sense!

The beautiful temple

We had no permits this week so we were not allowed to go into the City, which meant all we could do was work in the very few suburbs we have! We literally door knocked all week! It was very humbling and eye opening. I am so spoiled in the City! We have heaps of people to talk to every where, we never have to door knock, except for when we don't have permits I guess. We did see many miracles this week though.

We found a few new investigators and had some very special moments with people we contacted.

We received a referral from a new Elder in the City, he is from China! And apparently he knows a lot of people who have come here to Adelaide to study. One of his referrals were in our suburbs, so we went to follow up. Knocked on the door and asked for Liu. It was a different Chinese student and said the one we were looking for wasn't home but invited us in anyways! We got to know her and shared more about what we did and asked us to teach her! What a miracle. She is so prepared. Liu eventually showed up and we were able to have a lesson with both of them. It was so great and they prayed for the first time.

My new companion

When we finally got our permits we went straight to the City to contact! The first night we started talking to this lady. She used to believe in God but now she doesn't, she said she has experienced some tragedies in life and said she has become cynical in her older age. I shared a quick personal experience and testified of how the Lord comforts and families can be together forever. She began to cry and thanked us and told us how forgiving we are of God. We talked about how it is through faith in Him we can come to understand everything that happens here, comes to pass for a reason.

At church this week there were so many visitors they had to bless more water in the middle of passing the sacrament because we ran out. That is the first time that has ever happened. But I loved that experience, it just goes to show how important the sacrament is and everyone needs it and should not miss out.

We had a missionary fireside this weekend, I got to see Yan! She came! (investigator from my last area). She is still planning to be baptized in the next few weeks and there is a good chance that I will get to attend. She is so sweet and said she misses me and that I look like a story book character. Hopefully a nice character and not an ogre or something haha. It was so great to see her!

We also did some PVC events which I can't talk much about but that was great, and I again got to see some special people from my last area.

These are all over the suburbs, so funny

Love you all heaps!

Have a great week.

Sister Coultrup

--

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Packing Up...

G'day!

Here goes the transfer information:

Sister Maea, remaining in City North West, Sister Training Leader.

Sister Coultrup, packing, moving to City East, Portable Visitors Center Sister.

I am really sad that I am leaving Prospect ward, and all of our beautiful investigators! So many will be baptized this month, and I will miss it... Or maybe not! Being a PVC Sister means I travel the mission and take the PVC to different events. Apparently I will also be working in the office a lot.  So hopefully I can attend those baptisms. It has been such a great time in Prospect and I have seen much progression here in many ways. But I guess the Lord thinks my work here is done and it is time to move on. I know someone else is in need of me. And I will go where He wants me to. My new companion is from Texas! My first American! I have never had a companion from the Northern Hemisphere! Her name is Sister Townsend. So happy I am still in the CITY! Blessed.

This week has been great. We were able to get two more baptism dates. It is so great to see the hard work trickle down by the end of the transfer. When you start to see results it feels great. Our investigator Yan has been coming to church every single week! Which is awesome! She really loves it, she says it feels different and so much better than other churches she has been to. She loves the fact that we have members of the congregation give talks rather than just have the Bishop do it.

The past couple weeks I was really unwell with a sinus infection, which is why I did not have a blog post last week, sorry! But I am doing better now. It is from all the biking in the pouring rain and always being wet and cold. But it is August now so hopefully the Winter will come to a speedy end.

We have also been visiting a sick lady from our ward in the hospital this past week. We were able to also have a visit with her inactive husband which was a miracle. We were able to get him talking about his past good experiences he has had in the church, like getting sealed in the temple.

We had a lunch with an investigator named Shirley. She came to church with one of her friends and we started teaching her from there. I showed her a picture of the Calgary Temple and she said she has seen one like it before, here in Adelaide! And her friend has even talked to her about the temple. She was very interested and said she wants to go and see it. So we are taking her (maybe not me since I am being transferred..) on a temple tour this week! We were also able to commit her to baptism. Fruits everywhere!

I look forward to what this next transfer brings! I pray that all may go well and that I can discover what the Lord needs of me in this new area. Take care.

Love,

Sister Coultrup

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Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints