Tuesday 25 October 2016

The People You Meet



G'day!

Quick email this week. 

It has been a fairly good week. It went by really quickly. Because it is getting close to finals for the students here, everyone is busy and doesn't have "even 20 minutes?!" to meet with us. So this week was basically all street contacting all day every day. Which is really fun in the city mind you because there are always people to talk to and you meet the most interesting people as well... 


This weekend was Firle Stake Conference (the stake I am in), it was really good. But it was all about marriage! Getting married, keeping your marriage, staying in love, etc! I couldn't help but feel a little awkward (okay a lot of awkward) the whole time, considering I am a missionary and that is the last thing I would like to think about right now, thanks. So I tried to apply all of it into a companionship sort of scenario. One thing I really liked was the phrase, "If you want to be understood, seek first to understand." I love that. So true, I have seen that a lot in my companionship's throughout the mish. 

Yesterday while street contacting we walked by a restaurant that had a balcony and two Polynesian looking men called out, "Sisters!" We looked and waved and kept walking because they were too high up to talk to. We asked each other if we knew them and both just assumed they were less active members or something or they just knew who we were because all Polynesians know the Mormons. An hour later we were contacting by the Royal Adelaide Hospital and we came across the same two men sitting on a bench outside. We walked up and said hello to them. Turns out we were right, they are less active and not from Adelaide. They are brothers and one of them is really ill and going in for a huge surgery that is life threatening. They only just found out it was needed this weekend. Both distraught, I offered the Elders services in giving him a priesthood blessing. He accepted and noted that it is not a coincidence that we were lead into their path at this time, twice! 

Hope you all have a fabulous week. 

Love yous heaps,

Sister Coultrup

--
Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup
Australia Adelaide Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Monday 17 October 2016

Mildura



G'day!
It was a great week! Sister Townsend and I got to travel to Mildura, Victoria and were there for the week. The town was having a show there and we were able to get a booth so we went and set up there! It was a 5.5 hour drive. We just listened to old conference talks most of the time which was great! I had a lot of fun. We were also given a van to travel with because they are more sturdy than the usual mission cars.  The reason?  In case we hit a kangaroo.  Apparently it is very common on road trips and dangerous because they are big and can cause a lot of damage.  Fortunately we drove safely and no "Roos were hurt during our travels.  Sister Townsend used to serve in Mildura earlier in the year, so she was really happy she got to go back. We were invited over for dinner a couple times and we also got to go to church there. It was special. Mildura is beautiful, there are lots of vineyards and orange farms! Most of the people that live there work at the farms picking the fruit.
 The show was over 3 days, Thursday to Saturday, 9am-10pm everyday!!! No way could we do that without any breaks so we had the Mildura Zone Leaders relieve us for lunch and dinner each day. But it was still exhausting.
We met some wonderful people! Many of whom have met the missionaries before or have had the senior couple over. We were placed next to another booth and the people next to us were lovely and we became good friends with them! They were from Adelaide as well which is great and have agreed to a lunch sometime in the city. 
 When we were there we met a man who Sister Townsend had contacted on the street before. He remembered her right away. He is a 70 year old man and has been doing radio his whole life. His radio station was there at the show and he invited us to go on the radio and introduce ourselves and what we do! So during our break we went on the radio. It was a very interesting experience. He asked us where we were from, why we were here, what missionaries do and invited people to come check out our booth at the show!

Also transfers happened, and we are both staying! Sister T is my longest companion, 3 transfers now!
 
Heaps of love,
Sister Coultrup
--
Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup
Australia Adelaide Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Tuesday 11 October 2016

Prophets, Seers, and Revelators



G'day!

It has been a great week!

This past week we saw one of our less actives. She was baptized about 1.5 years ago. We were able to share with her the talk, "The Master Healer" from Woman's conference. It touched her heart and she opened up to us in a way I have never seen before. We were able to discover some of her deep concerns and the main reasons why she has been avoiding church. It was a very special experience. I feel so grateful for the leaders of the church and the inspiration they receive. Their words touch more hearts than they know.
Trade offs

We had a first lesson with a new (Chinese) investigator this week. We taught how to begin teaching and the God head. Simple phrases and things that we take for granted made her light up with excitement and astonishment. Something like, "God has a plan for all of us" made her eyes light up and say, "What? Really? How? and how can I know His plan for me?" It was amazing. It was taken back by her urgency to know. It makes me so grateful to have the truth that I do and I feel so immensely blessed to be able to share that truth with others.

I have been reflecting back upon my mission a lot lately and during the Saturday Afternoon Session of General Conference - focused on missionary work. I really love being a missionary, it has been the best thing I have ever done. Something I read today in "Our Search for Happiness" was along the lines of, "some missionaries go out with the intention of paying the Lord back for all the blessings they have received, but they soon realize that while doing the Lord's work they are being blessed beyond belief and there is no way that we could ever repay all that the Lord has done for us." I continue to stand in awe of the blessings that I receive while serving a mission. It has been some of the hardest but most joyous work I have ever done. I have felt such strength from the Lord in all that I do. I cannot express all my gratitude, but my heart is full.

Conference Thoughts

Speaking of Conference... it was heaps good! I know I am a little late on this, but in OZ we watch it a week later because of the time difference. I was envious of the MTC choir! I was in the choir when I was in the MTC and the chorister was the same when I was there too. Some of the common themes that I saw this conference weekend was, God's will, sincere prayer, repentance, and missionary work! There were three talks that specifically referenced Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to the Father, "Not my will, but thine be done." How often do we pray and ask God to align with us? We petition Him to bend to our desires and demands rather than seek to understand His plan, His will, and His timing.
 
City Zone Christmas photo, featuring President in the middle, for the Christmas Card
I really loved the emphasis on missionary work as well (of course). All those steps we were given to help us become better member missionaries! So grateful! The Lord has repeated again and again through his chosen servants that the work of the Lord relies heavily upon the members, that the best success actually comes from the members! We had a great experience this past week, not sure if I mentioned it in my last letter, but we met someone on the street who was great friends with a member. He spoke about how he admired this friend and had multiple gospel oriented conversations with him. He accepted a Book of Mormon and has agreed to come to the visitors center and meet with some missionaries. That contact was a success because of the member friend and his great example.

How blessed are we to have prophets, seers and revelators upon the Earth? Leading and guiding us. Every time I watch conference I feel the Spirit swell within my chest as I listen to the inspired words they deliver to us. To think, this is direct revelation and guidance from our loving Heavenly Father, how blessed are we?! I know that the Lord continues to bless and lead his church in the way he always has - through appointed servants. I love and sustain our wonderful Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. He truly is a man of God. I love and sustain all the other leaders of the church who dedicate their lives to serving God, and thus leads them to serve us.


View of Adelaide from a members home.
I definitely have a lot more thoughts, but that is all I have time for. I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Heaps of love!

Sister Coultrup









--
Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup
Australia Adelaide Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Wednesday 5 October 2016

Coincidences?



G'day!

It has been a great few days since I emailed last.

This past weekend we had a baptism! Niki was baptized. She is amazing. We met her and then she went to China for a month. When she came back we called her and were able to set up an appointment right away. Since then we have been seeing her multiple times every week and within a month she has been baptized! She readily accepted everything that we shared with her. She was very receptive to the Spirit and our lessons with her were always very special because of what she contributed. She is already a missionary. Even before she was baptized she was fellowshipping our other investigators at church and explaining things to them. This past Sunday right after she was confirmed she explained what baptism was in Chinese to our other investigator and told her, "You feel so much peace, and you are clean! It is like joining a big family, you should do it!" She is already inviting others to baptism. It is such a testimony builder to me to see these very recent converts and their excitement for the gospel and to share it with others.


excited!
 It was a beautiful service. We had one of the Elders recent converts baptize Niki. He was very nervous and rehearsed everything a billion times. He did an amazing job, flawless. When she came up out of the water she exclaimed, "I'm clean!" and continued, "I feel so much peace, more than I ever have before."

These past few days the apocalypse storm has continued but has been less of a terror and just more of a nuisance. Constant rain and hail. But we press forward and miracles are wrought! We met this wonderful man street contacting in the city on the weekend. He was just amazed that there were female missionaries. He had only seen the Elders before. He thought it was so cool! One of his great friends is a member as well, so he was very excited to tell him that he met us. We had a great conversation with him and ended up teaching many principles of the gospel and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He has read the Bible and other religious texts but never the Book of Mormon. The next day the mans member friend's family came and talked to us about him saying he contacted them and told them all about the chat he had with two sisters.

baptisms are the best!
Yesterday we saw our deaf investigator. Some really incredible things happened! Just keep in mind that there are no such things as coincidences! In the library at church we have over a hundred old ensigns and on Sunday the librarian was nice enough to randomly give one to Tanya. It was just a random choice. When we came over she had the ensign open to an article all about the deaf community in the LDS church. Coincidence?! I think not! She was so excited!! Sister T and I were just amazed, we had never read anything about that before and no one had any idea that was in that particular ensign. Out of all the ensigns she could have been given she got the one that related perfectly to her. Also she pulled out the Book of Mormon that we gave her and then another one that was an older edition. The showed us the two comparing them and told us that she found it and remembered that she met some Sisters like us YEARS ago. Like 20 years ago and they gave her a Book of Mormon as well! So cool!

It has been a great week and I look forward to this week. Hope everyone is doing well and is safe. I love you all very much.


A clear sky!

Heaps of Love,

Sister Coultrup

--
Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup
Australia Adelaide Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Saturday 1 October 2016

To the Bridge, Through the Storm, and Back Again



G'day! 

What an eventful week and a half! I am emailing on Thursday because we went to the Temple as a City Zone today! Hurrah! It was amazing as per usual.


Temple Trip!
So, last week we went to the Murray Bride Show! Never thought I would go back there. It was crazy to think that is where I was at the beginning of this year. We took the PVC to the show, we were set up in a little barn sort of thing, lots of other booths with people selling things and there was one other church booth. Outside there was a stage with a band playing and lots of food trucks and rides and games and things. It was pretty cool. It spanned over two days so we stayed with the MB Sisters over night. We were able to talk to many people and have a miracle! 

Don't know if you remember that last week I met someone in the City from Calgary who is actually our neighbour? WELL. I met him and his family AGAIN! In Murray Bridge! He remembered me and we were able to show his family some Mormon messages and we gave him a Book of Mormon in his language and he took all the pamphlets and requested the Elders come and visit them while they are still in Adelaide. And we also got the details for missionaries back in Canada to visit them too! How cool is that? So not a coincidence!

Also this past weekend we started ESL class. Sister Townsend and I are in charge of it, we teach and organize the lessons. We had the first one last Saturday. It was pretty good for the first lesson and this Tuesday we had even more people show up, so that is good that it is growing! I don't really know what I am doing... But I am trying my best, thinking of when I took English in school and how we can use that in the classes. It is really fun though. We play some English games and practice speaking to each other and always have a vocab part of the class too. We teach ESL in the City Teaching Center!

Just the Sisters

Quick funny moment on Sunday.. So I think I have mentioned before we are teaching a deaf lady. So she comes to church every Sunday and we interpret for her. (I have gotten a lot better at Auslan - Australian Sign Language) One of the assistants (we serve in the same ward as the AP's) asked me: "How do you say hello in sign language?" Then I just waved at him. LOL! It was so funny, Sister T and I laugh about it. 

Also on Sunday our investigator Niki had her baptism interview! She is really amazing, our district leader said she is an angel and such a blessing. We have only been teaching her for one month. She is so prepared. This weekend she will be baptized :) 

So yesterday we went on trade offs and it was the most adventurous trade offs I have EVER gone on! We received a text in the morning that apparently there was a massive storm coming in and that we will proselyte as normal until we are notified to return back to the flat. It was (and still is going on) the worst storm in 50 years! So Sister Collins and I were in the City contacting all morning and by afternoon, soaked to the bone. It was so insanely windy as well, everyone was saying it was a cyclone. At around 3pm we were right next to Rundle Mall on King William St and then all of a sudden ALL of the lights went out along the streets. People were screaming! It was like the apocalypse! Lol. We then found out that it wasn't just along the street, but the WHOLE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA was without power! Everyone then started filtering out of their office buildings and trying to catch the buses because all the trains and trams were down. I have never seen the City so busy and in such a panic. All in the mean time everyone is getting pelted with rain.

We still tried to contact even in the midst of this apocalypse. I said to one lady, "We share a special message about how the Church that Jesus Christ had when he was on the Earth has been restored today!" She looked at me frightened and said, "TODAY? LIKE TODAY? IS THAT WHAT ALL THIS IS ABOUT?!" She gestured to the sky and everything and I was like, "Oh nooo I meant in modern day times!" All the power was completely out throughout the state until 4am this morning. Our phone also was not working, we could not send or receive anything. Apparently there was a mission wide text sent out at 7pm telling everyone to get to their flats immediately but we did not get it! And everyone was panicking thinking we were in trouble, but nope, we were just still out trying to work! Then finally the APs got a hold of us and they were like, "Oh finally!!!" all relieved and such and we got home about 8:30pm. The storm is still going on right now, you cannot see the sky everything is just a gray-white. 


Back in Murray Bridge my old area
We did have a miracle in the storm! Our last contact before we headed into the suburbs was a lady holding an umbrella. She graciously offered cover from the storm to us and held her umbrella out so we could all fit. She realized who we were and asked us what our take was on why bad things happen to good people. We were able to testify of God's plan for us, how trials make us stronger and how we have a way to overcome these things through Jesus Christ. She said it was "crazy" that we were talking to her because she has been thinking about this all day because something really terrible happened to her just the day before. We had a great contact and taught about faith in the Lord and his timing. We were able to get her contact information and she wants to see the teaching space! 

So many things happened! I hope everyone has a great week and I also hope no apocalyspe storms happen up in the great white north!

Love you all!

Sister Coultrup

--
Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup
Australia Adelaide Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints