Perfectly Perth: Pretty Much...

HELLO!

I am so happy to be here in the Dianella (eh, eh) area! (get it? like that umbrella song? anyway...)

Sister Gao is the CUTEST!!! Ah, I almost start laughing just thinking about her. There is something about that Chinese accent that I just LOVE. You know how we all have our little quirks or things that we seem to do all the time? Well these are Sister Gao's: "Pretty much, we have to..." "Pretty much, they live in...." "Yeah. Pretty much." Haha! I LOVE it! It's just so funny. Pretty much. (pronounced: prehee mush)

And, when we plan every night, when she thinks, she sticks her mechanical pencil in her nostril and just lets it hang there. Bahaha! What the heck? It's so funny! She makes me happy. Whenever I laugh at her she says, "I know, you love me." Hahaha! Yes, yes I do.

When I first got here I walked in our flat and um, it's old. But I look at the table and I see all this FRUIT! Like bags of oranges and bananas and pears and peaches and apples and watermelon! I'll show you a picture. They are SOOOO good too! Like that perfect combo of tangy and sweet! Just so juicy and delicious! And they're SO CHEAP!!!!! It made me happy. There is like no bread or junk food or anything bad here, really, so I feel like I'm on a forced diet. I LOVE IT!!! I thank Heavenly Father in my mind when I look at all that fruit. We live in a good world people.

We had a great week already. There is a lot of work to do here, particularly finding new people to teach. We had a District Meeting on Friday and at one point our District Leader asked us what our strengths and weaknesses are as missionaries. I think all of us agreed that our weakness was talking to everyone. He asked why? For me, I said fear.

He led us to the Bible Dictionary where we looked up the word Fear, and I stand rebuked. Something it says in there is, "Fear is unworthy in a child of God." We are all children of God. Fear should have no place in us. Fear is of the devil.

Our District Meeting was on Charity and our Heart. If we are filled with charity, pure LOVE for all these random strangers we pass on the street, if we see them as our brothers and sisters and as the children of God whom they are, we will not have fear, but rather the desire and the love to share the blessing and the miracle of the gospel with them.

As a result, we have found 7 new potential investigators, and 3 new investigators this week. Miracles from heaven.

We can serve a mission, serve in our calling, live our life as a disciple of Christ, even, with all our Might, Mind, and Strength. But if we don't also do it with our Heart, giving up our own desires, our own will, our own way, we will be miserable. Not giving your heart to God is a struggle within. Giving your heart to God, for everything we do in this gift of life, leads to so much more joy, peace, happiness, fulfillment, hope, faith, love, trust, patience... everything!

So yeah, that is what I'm working on. Giving my heart to God. In every personal prayer I say, I ask Him to help me do that; to fill me with charity, to love all people, to see them as He sees them, to help me recognize pride, to help me recognize His will and the opportunities He gives me to choose to give my heart. To choose charity. To choose patience. To choose faith. To choose humility.

We are teaching someone named Belinda at the moment. She is currently living in a Women's refuge. They met her through Yvette. Do you remember Yvette from High Wycombe? Yes, she is in Dianella. We meet again! Anyway, Belinda is a young mom of a 7 month old. Long story short, she is excited to read the Book of Mormon (she's already in chapter 4), and she has been coming to church for like 6 weeks now, I think. Someone invent a pill to kill the addiction to cigarettes that the majority of people here in Australia have, and we have lots of people to be baptized!! We have faith. She has faith. She's great.

In the last 5 days, I have met people from the following countries: Germany, India, England, The Congo, Philippines, China, Kenya, America, Chile, Australia (duh), Pakistan, and Iraq.

Have an amazing week! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Beardall

Since I forgot to take Sister Sinaga with me to Dianella, I've had to learn how to cook... You should see my inventions. Sister Gao says they're good, so yeah. You make do with what you have!