Moon Cake is not Really Cake...

G'day!

Hope all is well up there in Canadia land and England! All is swell down under. I met one of our neighbours yesterday contacting!!! He lives in the neighbouring suburb back home and knows the stake center I attend back home as well! It was crazy! It is a small world even though I am on the other side of the world!

This week has been really great. It was the first week of a new transfer! My just previous companion Sister Maea is still in my last area and is training. So this week while she waited for her new companion to come in from the MTC she stayed with us for a few days! That was cool. The weather has not been good. It has been teasing us with a day of 20 degrees and then it drops straight back down and rains for a week.

Got to hang with Sister Maea

On Sept 15, it was Moon Cake day! Now you are probably wondering what that is. It is a Chinese Lunar Festival, they have these things called "Moon Cakes" and have big parties to celebrate the "most round" moon of the year. (These are just things I was told by some of our Chinese investigators). Sister Townsend and I found out about this festival about a month ago and suggested we have an event in the City for all our Chinese recent converts and investigators. It was approved so we did! We had an amazing event, it was very successful and we will continue to do one similar to it each month. It was over 3 hours, we had a video presentation where we showed a series of selected Mormon messages IN CHINESE, then we had dinner (Chinese food and moon cakes of course), then we all played ping pong and "mingled". All the Senior couples were there as well as the mission President and his Wife. It was great fun for all that attended. We definitely had miracles! We were able to find two new investigators from this event and one of our investigators that did come felt really touched (felt the Spirit) while watching one of the Mormon messages about the Plan of Salvation. 

It isn't really cake

We had a temple tour with Dana, our recent convert which was beautiful! :) Loved it! She loved it as well, we walked around the gardens and sat in the waiting room and discussed the importance of temples and how they bless our lives. How they can seal families together forever. Something I am grateful for.

Another miracle from the Moon Cake festival, we had three more people at church than usual. Our investigator Niki, who is going to be baptized in a couple weeks, was a mini missionary! She embraced these new people and did her best to make them feel welcome, she sat with them in sacrament meeting and classes and interpreted and explained what was going on. It was awesome! She isn't even a member yet and she is already doing missionary work. What an example!

I have had a few things on my mind recently and came across a scripture that really spoke to me.

"Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." - Joshua 3:5

Ponder what that means for you in your life. It reminded me of the scripture that says, "Think not for the morrow, for the morrow will think for itself..."

Hope you all have a great week!

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

G'day!

It has been an amazing, crazy week! I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to be at the Royal Adelaide Show and to teach and testify to all those there. We were there everyday but only for 5 hours. Other Sisters would switch off with us so we didn't have to be there for 12 hours, otherwise I think we may have gone crazy!

We had many wonderful experiences! One of my favourites happened yesterday actually. Two little children under the age of 8 walked by our booth and saw the large image of Jesus in our booth. They both joyfully gasped and exclaimed, "JESUS! WE LOVE JESUS!!!" My heart melted. They ran in and started grabbing at the pamphlets with His picture on the front. We let them have them and they immediately started flipping through and looking at the pictures, then hopped off to join their parents.

Looking good in flourescent

We had a less active member enter the booth and bring a friend who used to investigate. Sister Townsend talked to him while I conversed with the less active member. He had so many questions and doubts, was bringing up all of these issues and random things that didn't make much sense. He would jump from one topic to the other, saying that it is impossible to see God like Joseph Smith did, that no one else in the bible has. I then showed him Exodus 33:11 (KJV), "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend..." There was further discussion and then I just decided to testify because I could see he was not willing to accept anything I said. I explained how I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this past week I have never had so much opposition surrounding that topic, but that it has only strengthened and confirmed to me that it is true. He was a prophet, the Book of Mormon is true, that is something I cannot deny because the Holy Ghost has witnessed it to me. This is my simple testimony, but something unbreakable. I expounded that he knows this too, he has just forgotten. Because at one point the Spirit witnessed it to him and that witness caused him to act in faith and be baptized. This experience for me was a testimony builder.

We definitely did receive a lot of opposition but also a lot of positivity as well. I felt like I had to be really strong and I constantly prayed for the Spirit to be with me and fill my mouth. And He did, I would not be able to do this work without the Lord by my side. I know He lives and loves me and I know that His church has been restored and if anyone doubts that then I encourage you and God encourages you to find out for yourself. Read the scriptures, the Book of Mormon and the Bible, feast upon the words, ponder them and pray about them. Our Father in Heaven is not the source of all this confusion, he is a God of order and will always answer someone's sincere search for truth.

I loved this past week! So much fun! And I feel spiritually reenergized as well. This is the start of a new transfer, both my companion and I are remaining! Which is awesome :) Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Ps. We found a blue tongue lizard in our backyard this week! It was hissing at us...

wildlife

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

Let the Show Begin...

G'day!

How is everyone! This week has been crazy! And I am sorry but I do not have much time to write an email this week.

So the Royal Adelaide Show started!! It is kind of like the Calgary Stampede... We have a booth for the church with the PVC and we are the missionaries in the booth that people can talk to at the Show! It is amazing and so much fun! I feel so blessed to be able to do this. It is a long day, 12 hours... So we have two other Sister companionship's that relieve us. We have the PVC to use as a teaching tool, playing Mormon messages and so on. We are giving out Books of Mormon, pamphlets, etc. It is a great way to get the churches name out there and reach out to more people across Adelaide. The show has about 700,000 people attend! We have a lot of members stop by the booth too, to say hello.

Doesn't this look nice?

In the Books of Mormon we are giving away, we have placed a testimony in each one. We had missionaries all over the mission visit the members in their wards and write their testimonies in their native language! Then we put their testimonies in the Book of Mormon that is in their native language so everyone who gets a Book of Mormon can read a testimony of it in their language. We received over 200 testimonies from members all over Adelaide!

This has been so much fun but also exhausting. We have been getting home a lot later than missionaries should be! But the show goes on until 9pm so we don't get home until past 10pm. We have had some amazing experiences these past few days.

I would like to share a  few small miracles we have seen at the Show. On the small wooden table below the TV we put a Chinese Book of Mormon and some Chinese Pamphlets. Later on an older Chinese man saw the Book in his language and stopped and picked it up and started flipping through it. In his broken English he said: "I love YESU" (Yesu Jidu is Chinese for Jesus Christ) and he pointed at the Saviour PVC display. We explained what the Book of Mormon was and how special it is. He gladly accepted the Book and said he would love for missionaries to come and teach him more about the book.

Perfect place for missionary work

Also today we had the massive bibles out on display beside the Books of Mormon in the booth. An African man walking by saw it and hastily walked straight into the booth and picked it up. He asked how much it was and we said it was free. We were then able to also introduce the Book of Mormon and after explaining what it was he said, "So, this will help me understand the Bible better?" YES! He gladly took it and is happy to have missionaries over as well to help Him understand the Book better.

There are many other experiences but as you can see the Show is helping us reach out to people from all over Adelaide (and Australia!)

Ready for another day

We had an experience where a man was trying to argue with us about how Joseph Smith is a false Prophet and quoted the scripture that says many will false prophets will come in His name, wolves in sheeps clothing, etc. I said, I completely understand and agree with you but it also goes on to say that by their fruits ye shall know them, and the Book of Mormon is the fruit Joseph Smith brought about. We opened to Moroni 10:3-5 and told him that through the Holy Ghost he can know if it is true. He didn't accept the Book of Mormon, but he also had nothing else to say after that.

Hope you all have a great week and I will update you on the end of the show next p day! The show ends on the 11th.

Heaps of love,

Sister Coultrup

**Img_6995 is of Sister Townsend dead tired on the ground after the Royal Adelaide Show haha.**

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My companion after the show

Sister Bethany Victoria Coultrup

Australia Adelaide Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

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

--

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