Encounters with Shelob

Hello Family and Friends,

This week has been wonderful and very busy! As usual. On P-Day we went to Victor Harbour. It is 45 mins away from where I stay, but the drive was beautiful. The whole zone went. We walked around Granite Island, it is a tiny island just off the coast, there as a long walk-way across the water to get to it. You could see Dolphins and Whales and Seals! The Island was gorgeous and I had a blast, it was such a great day. It was nice to get to know the other missionaries better as well and I got some cool photos. 

We had another Multi-Zone Conference, but this time with our new mission president! President Parker and Sister Parker are wonderful! Wow, we are so blessed to have received people like them. They have so much love and excitement, I look forward to getting to know them better. The new mission motto is "Catch the wave in Adelaide, it begins with obedience and ends with gratitude." The conference was great and I learnt a lot. President has given us a task/challenge to read 8 pages of the Book of Mormon a day so that we can all start and finish at the same time in 10 weeks. Everyone was shocked and I still wonder when I am going to find time to do this. Our personal study time is meant for studying for our investigators, I think I am just going to have to read during lunch. I also had an interview with President Parker, it was the best! The spirit was so strong and I am grateful to have had that experience. Afterwards President and Sister Parker took just Sister Funaki and I out for dinner! We wanted to go to a nicer restaurant but we couldn't find one, so we stuck with McDonald's. We had a lovely chat and the spirit was strong again, even in McDonald's. It was kind of strange sitting in McDonald's eating Burgers and Chips with our President but it was an experience I won't forget! They are truly called of God! 

This week we took one of our investigators to the Adelaide Temple. We did a little walk around and she was allowed to sit inside the temple waiting room. It was my first time in that temple as well so I was very excited! Temple's are a little piece of Heaven on Earth. No matter where you go in the world the spirit in the Temple will never change because it is the Lord's house. Our investigator enjoyed the experience and wants to learn a lot more about the Plan of Salvation now. 

Trade-offs this week was fun! I loved my companion I was given, but I was to lead in my own area! I was pretty nervous, luckily nothing went terribly wrong as I was expecting. I actually did okay! Sister Travers and I got along very well, she is lovely. We had a terrifying experience though. 

On Friday night we dropped by Anne's (investigator) house to have a lesson. We had a great lesson and it was time to leave. So we do the usual "goodbyes, see you on Sunday" thing as Anne opens the door. Sister Travers is half way out the screen door as I glance at it and scream. THE BIGGEST SPIDER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE WAS ON THE DOOR. Anne then screams, Sister Travers screams and runs outside and lets the screen door slam, then Anne slams the normal door. So at this point, I am inside with Anne and Sister Travers is outside, and the spider is trapped between the door and the screen door. I am panicking not only because there was Shelob between Sister Traver's and I but also because I couldn't see my companion! Anne refused to open the door, which I don't blame her, and there was no other way out of the house other than climbing through a window. My heart is pounding and my skin is crawling and we are all still screaming. Sister Travers is trying to be brave by opening and slamming the screen door to scare it away so I can get out of the house. Apparently the spider kept jumping between the door and screen and wouldn't run off. We did this for about 10 minutes until it finally ran off. When it did Anne opened the door and pretty much pushed me out of the house, haha! Then we RAN to the car because who knows, Shelob could've been anywhere. It took the whole drive home for us to calm down. Sister Travers is from Tazmania and told me that it was a Huntsman spider, it was as big as my Dad's hand. MASSIVE, too big. I get chills thinking about it.

We still have baptism dates lined up but we have to push the one for the 19th back because he is going out of town for a week and so we won't be able to teach him the rest of the lessons on time for him to be baptised. We have a bunch of potentials to follow up with, hopefully they can become proper investigators in the future! I heard from a little birdy that Sister Funaki and I have the most progressing investigators in the mission. Might be wrong though, but that boosted my confidence! It is all thanks to her and her previous companion though, they worked very hard, and I am just picking it up in the middle of all the work.

To end I will leave you with a quote from the new ensign, "The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behaviour but Christ can change human nature." - President Ezra Taft Benson.

With Love,

Sister Coultrup

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Lead Kindly Light & Swimming in Custard

"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. 

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 

--

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

The Good Shepherd

Hi Everyone!

What an awesome week it has been! It has flown by though!

We have been visting a lot of people. It is so busy we barely have time to go finding. We have a bunch of progressing investigators which is so great! We are really happy. 3 of them have baptisimal dates, 2 are in this month. I love this area! 

We struggled with finding as I said, but we met a potential! He was directed into our path! We fasted to find someone and we did. He is really cool, a student and wants us to teach him at the university so we are going to be doing that this week! He was very accepting and open! So pumped! 

My companion Sister Funaki and I

On wednesday we had arrivers training so we had to drive to the mission office and we had a lesson with President Carter. It was so good and a lot of fun! He taught all of the new missionaries that just came in, but before that he made some announcements. He said that on August 11th... DAVID ARCHULETA is coming to visit our mission and talk with all the missionaries!!! I WAS SO EXCITED! I felt liking jumping out of my seat and dancing but I had to sit there and remain dignified in front of my Mission President. I am so excited. Woo Hoo! 

I saw Kangaroos for the first time this week! Again, I was so excited! So much excitement this week! We were driving and they were grazing just off to the side. 

We went to Multi-Zone Conference. I was really nervous because there was going to be about 100 other missionaries that I don't know! The only person I really know is Sister Funaki! The conference was excellent though. President Carter is a great speaker, he talked on the doctrine of Christ. I then got to meet a lot of the missionaries! Everyone is so nice! I don't know why I was nervous. I met a missionary, I think his name is Elder Empey, he is Ryan Karl's cousin, so that was cool to make that sort of connection. It is a small world! 

Adelaide is a beautiful city, I am glad I got to drive downtown twice this week. The university is so cool! I wish I could go and take a look around.

Nearer the end of the week we got dropped. It was such a sad moment for us. We went over to her house and there was a note on the door for us. It was a very nice note, but I am so sad she doesn't want to meet anymore! We only got to teach her twice. I wish her all the best though. 

Thursday evening I had my first trade off! Again, I was nervous thinking "Oh no, what if this sister doesn't like me, etc, etc." But she was so nice!! I switch with the Mount Barker Sisters, about 45 mins away from here. It was interesting to see how someone else works and what different areas are like. The drive there was my favourite though. The road was small and windey through the country. It was beautiful! One of the most picturesque drives I have been on, other than through the rockies. I wish I could have shared it with my family! I know they would've all loved it! 

We had a miracle during trade offs, we found a new investigator! YAY! I can't wait to start teaching her. 

For this week we had a goal to get 7 of our investigators to church this sunday (very ambitious). We had 6 of them come and 1 potential! It was so cool to stroll around the church with our little army of amazing investigators! They are all so wonderful. The 1 potential was one of our investigators friends, and she wants us to teach her now too! So many blessings! 

I don't have much else to say, unfortunately I didn't have another UFO sighting, and no they weren't fireflies Dad! Ha-ha. I really hope my pictures upload today, I am so sorry if they don't. Every week I will print out pictures and post them home. They can be scanned in and uploaded here. I know it takes longer but, oh well! Not much I can do.

Read Alma 5. It is amazing. My favourite part is about the Good Shepherd and His sheep (which is us). 

Love Sister Coultrup

June 28th 2015

--

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Anxiously Engaged

Hi Everyone!

I'm in Australia! Or as the people here say it: Austraya. I don't even know where to begin! So much has happened! 

The flights as you would expect were HORRIBLE! The 13 hour flight was the worst. I took sleeping pills and still couldn't sleep, I was just in a drowsy state, squished between to big men. My back is still sore from that plane. Also the guy next to me fell asleep and I really needed to wee but I didn't want to wake him up or crawl over him so I just sat there in agony for 3 hours. 

I was picked up in Adelaide by my mission president and his wife and a few of the other senior people who are serving in the mission office. President Carter and Sister Carter ARE SO NICE! I was super nervous to meet them but I relaxed instantly as I was welcomed with warm handshakes, friendly smiles and a big hug from Sister Carter. They said they are excited they have a "new daughter". They showed me the temple and we took pictures outside of it. Then we went back to the mission office and we got to business with sorting things out, I had an interview with president then that evening we had a dinner and a devotional and I was assigned to an area and a companion. I am in the Aberfoyle Park area in the Happy Valley ward. Which is just south of downtown Adelaide. I am sure you could find it on a map. My comp/trainer is Sister Funaki who is also an STL. She is the best! She is from Brisbane, I feel so blessed to have had two awesome companions in a row. She is really hard working and obedient, but kind and patient. I think I got the best trainer in the mission. 

President told me that I would be expected to drive, but not for a few months so I can get used to driving on the left side (like England). But then, an hour later he asks to speak with me and said he changed his mind and wants me to drive NOW because my companion can't drive. Yeah so they put me in a car and expected me to figure it out! ON MY FIRST DAY! I also hadn't slept in over 24 hours! But I am still alive and I am completely comfortable driving here now. Lots of round-a-bouts, just like England. Our area is really hilly and so gorgeous. On my second day here I saw my first Koala! A wild one in a tree just hanging out! It was so cool! 

Me with President and Sister Carter

I am sure you are interested in the spiders and snakes and I am happy to report I haven't seen a single one! What a blessing! haha. Our flat is SO NICE. We are one of the only ones with central heating, it is a fairly new one with three bedrooms, a garage, a nice kitchen and bathroom with a bath and a shower. I will send pictures next week of it. 

Everything here is so green and beautiful. The trees, birds, landscape, everything is different and it is very refreshing! I can't wait to get to know the area better. We have a really big area! 

I have absolutely LOVED every investigator, inactive member and member that I have met. Everyone is so awesome and just plain lovely! The people here love asking me about Canada and are shocked at the temperatures. Right now it is the midst of winter and I don't even wear a jacket, everyone else does. An old lady at church wearing a blanket ( yes a blanket, and it was 10 degrees ) said to me: "Don't you dare ever leave the house like that again! You're making me cold just looking at you!" I was completely fine! haha. 

Oh also at church, there is this English guy named Brother Coleman. When I met him he was like: "Oh Hi Bethany" and Sister Funaki and I looked at each other and weirded out asked how he knew my name. Then he goes on to say: "You got your call around Christmas time, you are from Calgary Alberta, your Dad had a dream about you coming here on your mission.." And a bunch of other accurate things I don't remember. At this point I was convinced he had some weird gift to look into my soul or something. But it turns out he found out I was joining the ward and GOOGLED me! He saw my mission call video. Sister Funaki says he creeps everyone. It was really weird... But we had a nice chat about England and Tottenham because that is where he is from. He said he lived right across from White Hart Lane! 

We work really hard, we never ever have a single second where we aren't doing something productive and focused towards the Lord's work. We have an investigator, Lucy (not her real name), she is older and has done hard drugs since she was 17. When I first met her and went into her house I was a little shocked, it makes me so sad to see her live this way. But she has so much faith and is working SO hard to give up drugs, smoking and alcohol. I am proud of her and I love her already. She told me on the first day that she is glad that I am staying because she likes me compared to the other sisters that come on trade offs. That touched my heart!  

We have a lot of investigators. Sister Funaki said that she and her previous companion were master finders. I have taught lessons with all of them now (about 7 'gators) and they are all wonderful. The members are the best!  They have spoiled me rotten! We have had a dinner every night and Sister Funaki says that never happens! I love them all. I am so grateful that I am in a great area. 

We have a companionship goal to baptize this transfer, we have one planned already, but we want to find a golden person. So we have been praying and knocking doors and contacting a lot and tonight we are opening a fast so we can find someone. But yesterday we had someone directed right into our path like it says in the scriptures. His name is Huong, he is Vietnamese and he is very interested in learning more so we will be seeing him at the end of this week! YAY! I WAS SO HAPPY! He is really friendly too, so we are hoping he is our Goldie. 

I had the coolest experience (while it is not spiritual I thought my sister would be interested) the other night! We were on our way to Anne's house (investigator), it was about 8pm and really dark outside. We were walking when I saw this weird light fly by up in the sky. I stopped Sister Funaki and pointed up where I saw it, then 6 more popped up! There were 6 flying orbs in the sky floating around in an unorganised pattern. We ran towards them to get a better look, meanwhile freaking out and yelling "UFO UFO UFO"! It was so weird! They were just flying there floating around, there were no beams of light where it could be coming from. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I feel like I need to go on one of those UFO television shows now! Ancient Aliens? Our mate Georgio? "THE ANSWER IS YES!". Haha, only my family will get that.

Anyways that is all for now! I am looking forward to this week, although I am dead tired and still jet lagged. It used to take me hours to fall asleep and now I am out like a light in 5. If I don't send pictures I am so sorry, I want to smash these library computers because of how slow they are.

Love you all,

Sister Coultrup (The coolest Sister in the Adelaide mission)

--

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Travel Itinerary

SLC to San Francisco depart @ 5:12pm June 15 arrive at 6:20pm June 15.

San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand depart @ 9:45pm June 15 arrive at 5:45am June 17th.

Auckland, New Zealand to Adelaide depart @ 8:00am June 17 arrive at 10:25am June 17.

As I'm crossing the international dateline, I don't experience June 16th!

And So It Begins...

HEY EVERYONE! 

I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS DAY FOR A WEEK! My hands are sweating because I am nervous I won't have enough time to explain and go over everything I want to. I will try to start right from the beginning. I was picked up by my Aunty Susan and Savannah, we spent the day in SLC in Temple Square which was awesome. I am grateful for their hospitality. 

The first day at the MTC. Oh boy I was so nervous, but as soon as I was greeted by my host, a sister who came to take me to my residence then my classroom, all I felt was excitement and anticipation. My companions name is Sister Nelson, she is from Springville Utah which is 15 mins south of the MTC. I LOVE HER! She is the best, I am so lucky I got such an amazing companion. We get along and agree on everything and we have helped each other so much. She is going to the Australia Sydney North Mission. We have two other sisters in our district who are going to the same one, I am the only sister going to Adelaide. The two other sisters are AMAZING! Sister Spainhower and Sister Ballif. By the end of the first day we were already inseparable and I love all of them dearly. We haven't had a day where we don't laugh until we cry, it's awesome. We have orientation and a 50 missionaries to 1 investigator role play, then we went to bed.  

The next day was awesome. We spend a lot of time in our classroom just studying by ourselves and with our companion. We have two teachers that teach us for about 4 hours each day. We also do role plays with them and pretend they are our progressing investigators. I was assigned to be the Sister Training Leader in our zone and district! What the heck! And I am the senior companion. I have to look after all the sisters and the new ones that are coming in this week into our zone. Also I have to do my own orientation presentation today with the all the new missionaries coming into our zone! I am excited! 

On friday we did service and cleaned all the toilets in one building... yay service! We also went to Elder L. Tom Perry's funeral service. What was surprising was, it wasn't that sad. We are so lucky to have the knowledge that we will see our loved ones again. The music in the service was beautiful and I was so exhausted it was lulling me to sleep. You know when your head bobs down, then you yank it up in a groggy stupor? Yeah, that was me haha. Oh something funny, so the food sucks. It makes me feel so sick even just looking at it. For the past 7 days for every single lunch AND dinner I have had a salad and a banana. For breakfast I have a banana and a bowl of honeydew melon. Every single day. I think I have lost weight, but honestly I just cannot understand how these people eat food like this. I see elders and sisters with plates and plates and it's just blehhh! Sister Spainhower LOVES the food and I have no idea how she stays so skinny. Something funny that happened was while we were writing in our journals  before bed there was a group of sisters outside the door gossiping about how much they dislike their companions, but while they were doing so they were also saying: "I bear testimony that if you..." It was just so weird. Then Sister Ballif goes: "I bear testimony that you ARE going to get into a fist fight with your companion tonight. We all laughed so hard. I also dislocated Sister Spainhower's shoulder! LOL oops. She was being silly and slapping me in the face with her pillowcase (she sleeps on the top bunk) and so I pulled the case out of her hand and it apparently pulled her shoulder out of the socket so I had to push it back in and massage it for a while. What was funny was she was laughing the whole time and so we thought she was joking. But then she would say " no no no it hurts " and then start laughing again. 

Also I accidentally flashed people. It was windy on Saturday and yep my dress FLEW straight up, Sister Ballif asked if I was trying to fly away ahaha. Oh best part, there were Elders behind me and one of them is going to my mission. I can't look him in the face. I was SO embarrassed, of course that had to happen to me in the MTC!!!

It was fast Sunday so we went straight to class. We had a branch meeting with the president and zeds and district leader. Then I was interviewed by Brother Hobson, he kept me for an hour because we were having such a nice chat. He told me "I think I need to tell you something, I have a feeling you are going to need to sing on your mission. Do you sing?" and I said well I try to haha. Then he asked me to sing for him (reminded me of the phantom of the opera) So I sand O My Father. It was a little awkward. But the spirit was so strong and he told me he thinks I am going to be the "awesomest" missionary. Keep in mind he is like near 80 years old. He said I just have a glow apparently so that 's cool. We also had mission conference and I watched the Character of Christ by David A. Bednar which you can only see in the MTC. Everyone was saying that it will change your life but I was skeptical. Then I saw it, and yep, it changed my life. The best talk I have ever ever ever seen! I will write a letter about it and send it home today because I don't have time to include it in my email. 

Monday was the hardest day for me. It started out well then it crashed and burned. We had an awesome member lesson with this 17 year old boy who is a convert and so I showed him the paper cross object lesson and I blew his mind. We also related it back to the scriptures a lot and had an awesome discussion. But then all our other lessons tanked that day it was really discouraging. Then in the evening the whole district had a horrible experience because our district leader was really harsh for the stupidest reason and it effected me greatly and I couldn't get the spirit back. I knelt in prayer and cried and Sister Nelson and I did so as well and it came back and I am feeling much better. It took everything in me not to argue back at him, but I was able to control myself and I am proud that I did that rather than act out because he is a jerk. 

Tuesday (yesterday) was the BEST DAY! Everything went so much better, it was the complete opposite to Monday. All of our lessons rocked, our investigator prayed in front of us for the first time, Sister Nelson and I both cried.

This morning I got to go through the Provo Temple. It was awesome!! So glad I got to do that. 

I got my itinerary, funny thing, I was the only one in our district (that is going to Auzzieland) that got their Visa. So everyone else is getting temporarily reassigned. I am flying from SLC - San Francisco - New Zealand Auckland - Adelaide. I leave on Monday, June 15th. 

I have had the best time ever hear. I am so grateful for this experience. I LOVE the MTC! I am nervous to enter the mission field next week though. I am constantly tired, even though we are obedient and I get in bed before 10:30. This work is exhausting mentally and physically and I am not even really out there yet! 

 My testimony has grown so so much. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ lives and that they love me. I have so much love for everyone and everything. I can feel the spirit working through me. As I teach I am amazed at what is coming out of my mouth. My tongue has been loosed and I have been called to serve and bring others unto Christ. 

I don't know when my P-Day will be next week since I am flying out on Monday. I think the MTC might let me email before I leave, but maybe not.. We will see! Please please keep sending me Dear Elders. I get mail at lunch and dinner and the days I get mail are just the best days ever! Everyone is getting packages and letters too. Sister Nelson got three packages on her first day! Anyways, I love you all so much. I think about you lots and you are always in my prayers. I have shown everyone pictures of my family and friends and it just makes me happy when I get to talk about you all.

ALL MY LOVE,

Sister (Bethany) Coultrup

--

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Farewell Talk

Good Morning Brothers and Sisters, Friends and Family. I am so pleased to be here speaking for you today. I feel like this moment has taken forever to come but has also taken no time at all. I am so excited to serve a mission in Australia Adelaide. I have always wanted to serve a mission and I have worked very hard to get to this point. I have been studying and preparing myself the best I can. My Mum has called me an overachiever and my Dad says He thinks I am going to be the best prepared missionary ever (haha). I was talking to my Dad the other day about Gospel Principles I picked out in a TV show I liked. I found another one that I would like to share. Before I share, first thing you need to know is I am a big geek, which pretty much all my friends know already. This story is from Doctor Who, and the whole story line of the television show is extremely confusing so I am not going to attempt to explain much. All you need to know is that Clara and the Doctor are best friends. Clara was broken inside, desperate and hurt, this lead her to wrong the Doctor and betray him in a big way. But the Doctor was merciful.

Clara says: "You're going to help me?"

The Doctor asks, "Why wouldn't I help you?" 

"Because what I just did. I just..." Clara reponds.

"You betrayed me. You betrayed my trust, you betrayed our friendship. You betrayed everything I've ever stood for. You let me down!" 

Through teary eyes Clara asks, "Then why are you helping me?" 

"Why? Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?"

After that conversation between Clara and the Doctor I thought about us and the Saviour. We continue to disobey, betray His trust, betray everything He ever stood for. Yet He continues to love us unconditionally and will always help us no matter who we are and no matter what we have done. The Saviours love is without bounds, never ceasing and never ending. I find comfort in knowing that even when I do wrong, or I am disobedient that the Saviour will be there to pick me right back up again and help me on my way. That is true friendship, true love and true service. 

My theme today is caring for the poor, and what better example of caring than our beloved Saviour, Jesus Christ. Clara was poor in a sense, she was broken inside, in need of healing. Which is why she did what she did. There are many ways someone can be poor. To be poor you must be lacking in something. In the scriptures we are told to be poor in heart and have a contrite spirit, which is to lack pride, be humble before our God. But here we are talking about caring for the poor. Financially poor is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word “poor”. But there are many other ways you can be deemed poor. There is a quote I like that says “If a man truly has nothing but money, then he is the most poor.” 

As a missionary I will be helping lots of people who are poor in a material sense, but I will also help those who are lacking in the spiritual department. From Elder Holland’s talk “Are we not all beggars” He says: “In what would be the most startling moment of His early ministry, Jesus stood up in His home synagogue in Nazareth and read these words prophesied by Isaiah and recorded in the Gospel of Luke: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives. and... set at liberty them that are bruised.” Thus the Savior made the first public announcement of His messianic ministry. But this verse also made clear that on the way to His ultimate atoning sacrifice and Resurrection, Jesus’s first and foremost messianic duty would be to bless the poor, including the poor in spirit.”

Today I want to focus solely on caring for the poor in spirit. I have heard countless stories from my friends on missions and others who have since returned of their investigators. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that they all were struggling. Everyone is battling something. I don’t think there will be one investigator I come across on my mission that won’t be poor in spirit. The gospel of Jesus Christ and his amazing atonement is there to help make those battles easier. Jesus loved the impoverished and disadvantaged in an extraordinary way. He always went out of his way to help people and that is what we all need to do. I will strive to be an obedient and steadfast representative of Jesus Christ on my mission and bring those who are not as fortunate as I relief in anyway. 

In another one of Elder Hollands talks called “Broken things to mend” he says: “The first words Jesus spoke in His majestic Sermon on the Mount were to the troubled, the discouraged and downhearted. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” He said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”¹ Whether you are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or among the tens of thousands who are not of our faith, I speak to those who are facing personal trials and family struggles, those who endure conflicts fought in the lonely foxholes of the heart, those trying to hold back floodwaters of despair that sometimes wash over us like a tsunami of the soul. I wish to speak particularly to you who feel your lives are broken, seemingly beyond repair.

To all such I offer the surest and sweetest remedy that I know. It is found in the clarion call the Savior of the world Himself gave. He said it in the beginning of His ministry, and He said it in the end. He said it to believers, and He said it to those who were not so sure. He said to everyone, whatever their personal problems might be:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”²

In this promise, that introductory phrase, “come unto me,” is crucial. It is the key to the peace and rest we seek. Indeed, when the resurrected Savior gave His sermon at the temple to the Nephites in the New World, He began, “Blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Those who are poor and seek after Christ will be blessed and their burdens made light. I have had struggles in my life, just like everyone has, and I am sure there are many to come. I have been blessed with the knowledge of the atonement. It has brought me peace, comfort and light in times where all I could see was dark. Christ has given me strength beyond what I thought was possible to achieve. 

As my brother said, there have been times in my life where I wish I would’ve done more. More to help those who do not have the bounties of this earth as I do. I wish I could heal every broken heart, I wish I could solve every financial problem, and mend every hurt or injustice that is done.  But as much as I wish I could do these things, I can’t for it is not my job. The work to heal in every possible way has already been done by our beloved saviour. My job is to deliver the good news (the gospel) that Christ suffered for us so that we do not have to. My job is also to as the Lord commanded: “look to the poor and... needy, and administer to their relief that they shall not suffer.” One may ask what can one man or woman do? I have wondered this myself, I am only but one young woman our of billions. How can I make a difference? How can I help those in need enough? 

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was questioned by a journalist about her hopeless task of rescuing the destitute in that city. “He said that statistically speaking, she was accomplishing absolutely nothing. This remarkable little woman shot back that her work was about love, not statistics. Notwithstanding the staggering number beyond her reach, she said she could keep the commandment to love God and her neighbour by serving those within her reach with whatever resources she had. “What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean,” she would say on another occasion. “But if we didn’t do it, the ocean would be one drop less [than it is].” 

I think Mother Teresa makes a wonderful point that it is not the magnitude of the service act she is doing, but that she is in fact doing it. We are told countless times in the scriptures that if we do all we can, that Jesus’ atoning sacrifice will make up the rest. I also believe that Jesus just always wants us to do all that we can in every circumstance. If you believe that you have done all you can to help someone or a situation then you have done well. Jesus explains Mary’s act of anointing to an annoyed Judas of Iscariot, “She hath done what she could.” Think of yourself as Mary when Jesus describes you would you like him to say for example, “Bethany hath done what she could.” I know I would like Him to say that about me. Which is another reason why I am going to serve a mission. I want to do all that I can to do my part in the spreading of the gospel and the Lord’s work.

I have knelt with a heavy heart, puffy eyes and water soaked cheeks before my maker and cried for help. I have been broken and beaten down by what we call life and needed the love and peace of my Father in Heaven. I have wondered how in the world am I going to pay off my student loans. I have also felt discouraged, doubtful, confused, depressed, lonely, ashamed, ugly, stressed and so on. Many of these I ave felt recently and I know I am not mistaken when I say that everyone has at some point or will at some point feel this way.

To quote Elder Holland again: “Are we not all beggars? Don’t we all cry out for help and hope and answers to prayers? Don’t we all beg for forgiveness for mistakes we have made and troubles we have caused? Don’t we all implore that grace will compensate for our weaknesses, that mercy will triumph over justice at least in our case? Little wonder that King Benjamin says we obtain a remission of our sins by pleading to God, who compassionately responds, but we retain a remission of our sins by compassionately responding to the poor who plead to us.”

I strongly believe that it is our responsibility as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as neighbours, as friends, as strangers, as humans that we uplift and love one another. That we do all we can to help those in need no matter what it is. We have all been there, we have all sought for some sort of help. I myself also believe that God still sends angels to us today. They may not often appear in a pillar of blinding white light, or with wings, but I do believe they appear in the form of a person. In the form of friends. I have had friends that have been my saving grace, that have uplifted me and loved me and been my angels. They have been a God given answer to a prayer and I am so grateful for that. Why not be someone else’s angel. 

Although I have borne my testimony all through this talk I would like to end with my testimony as well. I without a doubt know that this church is true, that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and that He lives. He is my best friend and I love Him with all my heart. I am going to serve for Him, and I will do so willingly and with a big smile on my face. It is going to be hard to leave my family and my friends. I love my family. They mean the world to me. I will be sad to not see my brother Graduate, to not see my Sister begin her first year of high school, and to not see little Benjamin grow up. I will miss my Mum’s loving and comforting words and my Dad’s wisdom and humour. I want to thank them for all they have done for me. Now as sad as this all sounds, I am happy to leave. I have always wanted to serve a mission, lots of that is thanks to my parents example of both serving, and I know that this is the best possible way I can spend my next 18 months and I do not regret my decision at all. 

I would also like to thank my beautiful friends. I have been blessed with friends who are active in the church and who are great examples to me. Most of them have served, are serving, or have their mission calls like I do. I would like to especially thank my “crew”, Leann, Jonathan, Johnggil and Kenrick. They have helped me the whole way to this point. I thank Heavenly Father everday for my angels. 

I also want to thank all the leaders I had growing up in the church, from Young Woman’s, to Brother Wilde, to the Bishop. 

My heart is so full, and I cannot wait to serve in the gorgeous Australia Adelaide Mission. 

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

A photo with some of my awesome friends after my talk.