Well, we having been having FHE together for over 20 months. Cindy's part of the family.
We started on Jacob in the Book of Mormon, for Come Follow Me study. We discussed what our errand is as members of the church. This manual is so well prepared. Inspiring questions, related conference talks, videos, teaching aids and resources. And you can't go wrong studying the Book of Mormon everyday! I have come to love feasting upon it as much as I love feasting on food! And that's a lot. Do you agree Elder Kahmann?
Elder Kahmann's response: YES, I agree! You (and I) love the Book of Mormon. We can't do without studying it every day. It is truly the "book of answers".
ZONE CONFERENCES ARE THE BEST!
Some of the missionaries favorite salads in Zone conferences: (I like to sub the mayo with sour cream or Greek yogurt.
Today Elder Kahmann and I (together) saw 2 beautiful kookaburras
I love this tree so much
Look at these amazing roots and branches. We have been studying about the olive trees and the vineyard, and how many times the gardener said, "It grieveth me that I should lose these trees. We are soaking in Australia with every breathe we take. We love it so much and we will miss it sorely, when we leave.
This is what draws us home! These adorable little new shoots springing up, along with all the beautiful 43 grandchildren and children that we miss and adore!
This is what we will miss most about Australia:
All these magnificent missionaries
We started an additional training this month to give the new missionaries budgeting skills. Elder Kahmann did a bang up job with this.
Elder Wright and Elder Moala - Companions who really get along!
Wonderful Sunday dinner and spiritual uplift as we got to know Elder Johnson and Elder Tauhalaliku better.
Sunday dinner in Bunbury with the beautiful Sisters: Udall, Frey, Woolley and Ika
(Quite the cool house they live in- just 2 of the sisters)
Saturday night dinner with the AP's: Elder Gore from England and Elder Mapa from New Zealand. What a lovely spirit they bring to our home.
OUR EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE TRAININGS
These are the poster children missionaries this transfer ! They all have their books and are ready to learn and share! Doing their best to stay emotional resilient!!!!
April 1: Thornlie and Jandakot Districts: Sisters Herrmann, Heelis, Larkins, Burt. Elders Guillermo(DL), Valley, Bradford(DL), Batiri, McDowell, Jones, Lorn and Manning,
April 1: Armadale District: Sister Olson, the mission selfie queen! Sister Rogers, Elders Withers, Hittle, Masalo, Us and Elder Wade (DL) in the back. Elder Wade, bless his heart, got 3 speeding tickets in one day a few months ago. (He's from the UK)
April 8: Rockingham, Baldivis, Manurah Districts:
Sitting: Elders: Gore (AP), Swenson, Kennedy(DL), Payne, Hutchins(DL), and Vea.
Standing: Elders: Putnam, Lioc (DL), Jensen Kirby, Thomas, and Brothers. Sisters: Very back: Sister Ulberg, then sisters: West, Crockett, Bolgen, Aiono, Evaga
Sister Aiono taught us that she and her companions like to ask each other every night, "How are you doing phyically, emotionally, and spiritually?" What a good idea!
Sister West shared in a training that the trajectory of her mission changed, for the better after making some complaints in one of her letters to the president, and his response to her was "Forget yourself and go to work."
April 8: Bunbury District
: Elders: Tamaiti, Anderson, (back: Ginn, Tafiti, (front: Johnson, Quesne)
Sisters: Woolley, Ika, Udall, and Frey
April 15: Como: Elders Mahaffey (DL) Stabler, Sisters Talbot and Gillins (STL's)
April 15: Cloverdale: Sister Baker, Elders Allen (DL) and Lorn; Sisters Fehoko, Tanielu, Lasitani, and Elder Tuilimo
Lesson #5:
April 29: Bunbury District : Sisters: Woolley, Ida, Frey, Udall, Mapa, Anderson (DL), Tafiti, Ginn, Switzer and Quesne
OUR BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS:
The Shepherds
Spectacular French Toast, Fruit and Bacon on General Conference Sunday with Cindy
Dayle Allen and her beautiful daughters
Our wonderful friends - The Berryman's: Patricia (Trish) from Scotland, and Aaron, a kiwi from New Zealand
We met a new friend in our ward this month that the missionaries have been teaching. Nima from Iran. He has been here for about a year as a project manager on a power plant project. He is getting hired by Rio Tinto. He has been to our home three times in April for dinner and gospel discussions. We absolutely love him. He is eating up everything he is learning.
THE GREAT THINGS AND PLACES TO SEE:
WA Maritime Museum featuring James Cameron - who has taken the deepest dive in the ocean in the world. This is one of the diving apparatus that he was encased in when he went down.
Julia and Mark gave us this absolutely delightful gift - Watching the Man from Snowy River with live orchestra. What topped it off is that the two main stars of the show were there in person and talked to the audience before the movie started. It was truly a BLAST!
The music was divine!
Thanks Robinsons!
ANZAC DAY:
A beautiful celebration of the brave soldiers of Australia and New Zealand who gave their lives. It began before dawn and was absolutely reverent and quiet, more so than church.
The community built a home for one of the returning soldiers for his family to live in.
A full beautiful day with some of our missionaries and friends, Anouck, Brook and Patricia (in the middle)
All the fun places to eat here:
The Departing Missionary Seminars
Sister Sariah Ngatokorua Herrmann
I would love to speak on how the mission changed my life. My life has been changed in showing Christlike attributes to anyone. Back home I am not that person who just shows that genuine interest to people's conversation. I have been chastened on my mission to love people in a way to have excellent communication. It takes time to act on that faith, and I am glad I was able to have that patience and love in my heart. An example was through my companions. They taught me through actions and words how to show Christlike love to anyone. Because I know as a missionary, I know we have been watched or will be watched by people, what we do, how we present ourselves. I also know we are representing our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Gospel. I was amazed and reminded of Christlike attributes through my companions. I am glad I was able to show and see the results of building genuine relationships with anyone. Because I have come to know and have a testimony that shows that Christlike attributes matters. Because the mission is His work, His teachings. We must love people to bring them into the Gospel. At times in my past experiences as I humbled myself and knowing the Lord did show my weakness, the challenge was hard. But I am grateful for the trials, the burdens I have been through. It is an opportunity for me to get up, learn and grow from my mistakes. And to know there is always so many chances to improve. I am grateful for the Gospel, which provides so much love, comfort, and support.
Elder Filipe Faivakimoana Moala
My mission has been the best and most joyful time I have had in my life. Throughout my time serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ I have been able to strengthen my testimony through this beautiful Gospel and I have learned so many life lessons that have taught me how to become stronger mentally and spiritually as a son of our loving Heavenly Father. I went through a lot of ups and downs during my mission but in those times of lows is where I’ve been able to feel Heavenly Father’s presence the most because he was always there for me and always helped me get back on my feet and keep pressing forward like my Saviour Jesus Christ did. I was truly blessed to have the best mission president in the whole universe. I am truly grateful for his obedience and love he has for the work and us missionaries. I am thankful for him for not giving up on me and counselling with me on how I can get better. One of the most important lessons I have learnt as a missionary is being accountable and setting high standards for myself to achieve miracles in this life. This has taught me that if we hold our values to a high standard such as being obedient to the commandments and laws that Heavenly father has given us, we would be able to feel his presence more in our life and also be able to feel happiness in our hearts and peace within our minds and I know this is true because I’ve done it and witnessed the amount of joy I’ve felt in my mission. I know that this Gospel we read and live by is from our beloved and loving Heavenly Father. I know as we continue to give our best efforts in living this Gospel Heavenly Father will pour down his love upon us. I know the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the Gospel. It has blessed my life, and it has blessed the lives of the friends that I have taught throughout my mission. I know that I am a son of God and I have purpose here in life to fulfill. This is my testimony I leave with you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
Sister Tagitonuga Aiono
What my mission has done for me? My mission has been the change I needed growing up. I always wanted to come serve a mission, but later in life, things got in the way, which led me to forget my goal. My dad wanted me to work, but I did not want to. So, he gave me two options - whether to come serve or work to earn money cos he was all about money. Because I did not want to work, I decided to come serve. However, being on my mission changes me. It makes me come to realize that I was needed at this exact time of my life in this exact place and by these exact people. The adjustment was the interesting part. Trying to get used to the culture, the people, the language, especially the food. It was a fun experience. Despite all that, I managed it from halfway to the end. Instead of people annoying me, I annoyed people. Dealing with companions from different backgrounds was a different story. But I had to deal with them and make sure to build relationship with them because I faced them 24/7. However, because of the gospel we came to understand each other so well and were able to make friendships that will last throughout our lives. I will say I have real friends now. I love all my companions. I will not say that missionary work is easy - you will think lightly of it. I will not say it is hard because I do not want to scare you. The only thing I will say is that missionary work is "the greatest challenge, the greatest cause and the greatest work on the earth today" (President Russell M. Nelson). I will add, it is the greatest blessing you will ever come to experience. I enjoyed my mission so much and I know that if you choose to serve a mission, you will enjoy it too. Heavenly Father needs you to help with his work, and he will be with you always. I have come to know that I am a beloved daughter of God and a disciple of Jesus Christ. I love the Book of Mormon, my knowledge of it grows each day, and I am so excited to say that I served in the Australia Perth Mission, the best mission ever.
Sister Iokapeta Tovia Ulberg
I did not know much about the Gospel teaching before but being on my mission has helped me to understand more about the Gospel basic principles. My mission has strengthened my testimony about the Gospel and have more understanding about "Why our Heavenly Father loves us?" I have learned to have more compassion for my family especially and put them as my first priority. I have learnt that people have their own free will to choose what they want to believe and do, and it is up to me to give them advice regarding what they are doing. I have learnt to make friends and accept people as who they are instead of judging them. My mission had helped me to be more social (as I was very antisocial before) because you never know that there are people out there who need people like you. Having different companions with different personalities and cultures has helped me to know that they are all beloved children of God. A mission is such a life experience because it has helped me to be humble, be patience and learn to trust in the Lord's timing.
Sister Leah Faye Rogers
How has my mission blessed my life? How hasn’t it blessed my life? I feel like everything that I could have learned on my mission, I learned it. I have grown in immeasurable ways. I have learned resilience where before my mission, I was good at giving up. I learned patience. I learned charity. I learned that it really is possible to love someone and feel God’s love for them, even when they do not treat you right. I learned that even when someone does not deserve for you to be a peacemaker, it is still possible to be a peacemaker without letting others walk all over me. I learned how to be humbly bold, and I learned the importance of sharing this great gospel and this great message. Most importantly, I did not think my testimony could grow as much as it did, especially the last 6 months. I cannot even believe how much my relationship with God and with Christ have grown. I KNOW this church is true. I do not just believe it, but I know it. How could it not be true? I have learned that it is so important to bear testimony to strengthen your own testimony. I have also developed even more of a testimony of repentance. It is real. There is ultimate peace through the atonement. Repentance is amazing and it is not scary, but it is a celebration! I have also gained so much love for the scriptures. They are absolutely incredible. Reading them every day has blessed my life in so many ways. My mission is the best possible thing I could have done with my life. It was so hard. I wanted to give up and leave so many times, but I know I did not do this alone, and I know that I would not be who I am today without these past 18 months.
NOTES FROM ELDER KAHMANN for the Amazing month of April
Update on our primary mission and WSR (welfare self-reliance) focus: For the last year our focused efforts in welfare self-reliance, per direction from our Welfare Self-Reliance
Area and Regional managers, have been to find, engage and encourage Young Single Adults and Young Adults (married) to pursue careers and commensurate education/training opportunities. The initiative, which I believe we mentioned before, is called Careers Pacific. Missionaries, both those currently serving within our mission and those returning home from other areas, are the most important part of this cohort. It has been gratifying to work with our young missionaries, particularly those in our mission with whom we begin talking at the 6-month point prior to their release dates. We have seen some patterns emerge. Most
notably, the majority of the missionaries from the US have well defined plans for education and career; while those missionaries from the Pacific, especially Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati and other islands, have more often not had any plans or goals developed. What has been gratifying to see is the change in vision and hope that the Pacific Islanders gain as we meet and discuss their possibilities, especially through BYU Pathway Connect, as an almost guaranteed means of admission to BYU-Hawaii upon completion; and the incredible opportunities they have for obtaining a Bachelors Degree at BYU-H and to be able to graduate debt-free. For almost 100% of these Pacific Islanders, they will be the first in their families to attend college. It has been an incredible blessing to assist and serve them in this way. We love and admire them so much. Here’s something notable about most of our missionaries, even including many from the US: while their stories of how they came to serve on their missions are unique, the challenges and obstacles they have faced to get here are humbling and amazing; for many, it’s a miracle that they are here at all.
Coming up on our May Blog:
Spoiler Alert! Here are my (Tony's) journal entries regarding a problem I experienced with one of my kidneys. I ended up needing to have surgery, which was done on May 4. (next month)
Thursday, 11 April 2024
It’s been an interesting week thus far. Most notably, I had a blood test and some imaging done a few weeks ago, the latter prompted by a spike in my creatinine level and a substantial reduction in my kidney function. My GP recommended an ultrasound, which was inconclusive but revealed that my left kidney was enlarged and required more precise imaging; and I then had a CT scan of my renal system, which showed a possible (likely) stricture in the urethra coming out of my left kidney. My GP then referred me to urologist, who yesterday ordered a MAG-3 kidney scan, which will apparently give yet better imaging and resolution to see what’s going on; that is scheduled for the 23rd of April. After doing an education/career training session with one of the APs today, I asked him, Elder Mapa, and his companion for the day, Elder Platt, to give me a blessing, which they did. While I do feel calm about the outcome and that everything will work out for good, I’d love to move a little faster in the process. I’m grateful for the restoration of the priesthood and the power vested in our elders.
TO BE CONTINUED: (See Blog for May)
LOVE YOU ALL and thank you for taking the time to look at our blog! We hope this inspires you to want to go on a mission right now or as soon as you can. It's a world class experience!
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