Humbled

G'day!

It has been an incredible week! 

First off, Dana went through the Temple and did baptisms for the first time! It was such a humbling experience! It is a real blessing to be able to teach someone, see them baptized and also enter the House of the Lord! She was so sweet and felt so honoured to be the person who could help others return to live with God again. 

Also Tanya was baptized! For those of you who don't know Tanya, I will tell you her story, she is amazing :) So Tanya was found about two weeks before I entered the area. She was found getting off the bus and the other Sister was trying to talk to her but Tanya was not responding and just giving a thumbs up. My lovely companion Sister Townsend could immediately tell she was deaf and so she rushed up in front and started signing in ASL to her. Tanya understood a little of it and got really excited and signed her name in ASL, from then they were able to start visiting her. I came in and they had only seen her twice because it was very difficult to communicate. Sister Townsend is fluent in ASL but Australia has its own sign language which is completely different, it is called Auslan. Painfully we learned this new language and Tanya helped us. We were able to teach her. We then found out that a priesthood holder in the ward actually knows Auslan and he was able to help out big time at church with translating and such. I would have never imagined that I would be able to "speak" sign language, or even teach in it on my mission! Christ has really supported us in many ways as we have come to know and love Tanya. She has such enthusiasm for the gospel. In her baptism service I gave a talk all in Auslan and translated it while I signed into English. That was very difficult. When she was baptized she could not stop smiling! Also on Sunday when she was confirmed! It was so beautiful! Also the ward is really just picking her right up! Everyone is trying to learn some Auslan now so they can speak to her. We are actually having a ward activity tomorrow, and Auslan potluck dinner. Dinner and us teaching some basic sign! So excited :)

Through the experience of Tanya, I was really humbled and learned how powerful the Spirit is. We could not speak her language, she could not hear us. But the Spirit guided us all and touched her heart. It does not take a certain amount of fancy words to deliver the gospel, all it takes is having the Spirit. We are merely instruments for the Spirit to work through to.

That is the great news for the week! Today we went to the Temple for Pday but I will talk about that all next Monday. Hope you have a fantastic rest of the week! Love yous!

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

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

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

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

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