Sunday, December 1, 2013

Work, Work, Work! ...Week 36

G'day from Aussie-land!

This week has certainly been an interesting one. To start off, it's been very hot recently. I've decided that humid heat and dry heat cannot be compared; in Darwin, I felt as though I was being deep fried whenever I walked out of the flat, but in Broken Hill, it feels as though my skin is going to start boiling as soon as it's touched by sun rays, and the wind is hot- I likened it to being baked in an oven with the fan on. Either way, it's not going to get any cooler so there's no use in complaining about it. As far as teaching goes, we didn't do very much of it this week, at least not as much as we have done in the past. We did, however, do a number of service projects, but I only really remember the main two.

We started Thursday off at Sister F's- we had wanted to get a lesson in with A, but she was going on to a sleep over party, so instead we asked if Sister F needed any service. She did, so we dressed out, went to her place, and started sorting out some rubbish that we eventually took to the tip. It was getting a bit windy and the day had started with a sunny, blue sky that had now been blanketed by a thin, grey cloud cover. We finished at the tip and were dropped off at our next service project with one Sister M, an inactive sister whom we had not heard of nor knew existed. 

Sister M was moving- she had just sold her home and was going to move in with her partner. When we saw how small he was (skin and bones) it became clear to us why she needed our help. We started to load up a trailer with everything that she wanted taken to the tip when a dust storm came out of nowhere. We finished loading the trailer and then took the first load to the tip- it was extremely dusty and windy, and we spent half the time dodging pieces of rubbish and debris that were flying around aimlessly. We repeated this twice, as she had two loads for the tip. We also had to take a load of her ex-partner's things to his house where it was obvious that we weren't expected. The bad thing about this was that I had lost my badge at the tip, so I basically looked like a YSA [Young Single Adult] on splits with a missionary (Elder P). My lack of a badge made it difficult for me to actually explain who I was. 

After that really awkward adventure, we took yet another trailer load of things to Sister M's mum's place. Sister M(sr) did not say hello even after we did, and refused to talk to us missionaries entirely. We finished unloading the gear, went back to Sister M's, and she began to ready one more load for her new place. She knew she had expired our services however (we had a tea date set for later that evening and the time was quickly approaching), so we grabbed our gear -and 80 kilos of food- and they dropped us off at our flat. We rummaged through the food and ended up discarding almost all of it, as it was all expired and had dates like "Best by November 2011" and to be honest, we weren't willing to put that down our bellies.

So that was how that went. But wait, there's more! Brother C went down to Adelaide recently to help a friend of his and her two sons move from that area to Broken Hill. Upon arriving, she immediately took up the lessons with us missionaries, and was keen on learning more. Brother C had already been sharing the gospel with her so she had a basic understanding, which made teaching her easier. We had a very spiritual first lesson and gave her a blessing of comfort, and the next lesson we were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon and even set a baptismal date for the 21st of this month with her. Then she got away for a day and ended up reading some anti-Mormon material. At first she was going to pull out, but we were extremely blessed to have the P's with us- Sister P talked to her, cut out all of the fluff and basically told her that we were trying to save her life from what it has been. So, she is still keen on learning and has stuck to what she knows- she knows she has felt the Spirit and she knows that what she has felt from us teaching her is good and something that she needs. She now wants us to also start teaching her children. She didn't come to church because she slept in, but she is still keen. Even so, keep her in your prayers please, because she does need backup.

Aside from all that, it's been a fairly uneventful week. I was glad to hear that people are enjoying the blog and that it's being shared in the RS newsletter sometimes and things of the sort -that knowledge has helped me more or less filter out what is worth saying and what is not. I had a good laugh the other day- before I left on my mission, I was telling Mum that I was going to go into detail concerning the area and describe the physical aspects of missionary work as much as I could. As it is, I find myself talking more of spiritual happenings for the most part, and I think that's probably how it should be. The physical aspects and the actual "What Missionaries Do" goes into my journal, and that will be published somewhere someday, so anyone who wants that will have to wait a bit. As a missionary, I have to do missionary things, even concerning those back home. It's been fun to write home and relate the lessons I've been learning to everyone else because, in a way, it's sort of like doing missionary work from here all the way over where all of yous are, and that's pretty cool. Some missionaries have tried to tell me that what I send home isn't going to affect anyone in the long run, but from what I've been told, I'm inclined to think that they're wrong about that. It's very humbling to know people are sharing the words I write with others, and just so long as good comes from it, that's fine. I've probably got to thank my mother for more than a few things concerning the blog, though- she edits out the wrathful feelings on those days where something has just rubbed me the wrong way, so I end up sounding nicer than I am. XD

Speaking of wrath (here we go XD), we had an interesting lesson on Sunday in Priesthood (Brother C passed the Sacrament and little RQ received the Aaronic Priesthood btw). Brother P lost his scriptures and everything else he usually uses for preparing lessons, so he pulled some statistics out of a newspaper and read the headlines for us (not as funny as Jay Leno's, unfortunately). One said, "Kids get Adult Only TV" and another article was about the rising number of single-parented families and how many children are born out of wedlock. Oh yes, also the Atheist Church in Adelaide will be holding their first meeting this Sunday (ironic). All of these things are pretty depressing, and it seemed as though the lesson was going that way for a time, and as it did, the job I have as a missionary seemed to get bigger and bigger. I wasn't worried though- I've been blessed with the truth, a very rare and scarce thing to find in this day and age, and I've been blessed with the opportunity to spread it and teach it to those who think they're living the good life. That's been the hardest thing as a missionary, so far- listening to people tell you that they're happy, and yet they have no idea what true happiness really consists of. That's been the most frustrating thing, as well- how do you tell someone who believes they are happy that they really are not as happy as they could be? I'll figure that one out later, when I have my scriptures in hand.

I have to go now, but don't forget how blessed we are to have the truth, and the fullness of the gospel restored to us in these last days. If you know the truth, share the truth. If you don't know the truth, ask God about it- He is no respecter of persons and will answer any sincere prayer, so long as action is behind the desire for knowledge.

I love you all heaps and I hope you have a glorious week!
-Elder Schomburg

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