Merry Christmas

Oh my goodness! I've been really bad at writing emails lately...whoops. 

Alright I'm gonna cover the past 2 weeks! 

So 2 weeks ago I got flipping sick, so for 1 day I was wrecked, she'll be right tho because the next day I felt much better lol. I think it was a 24 hour flu. 

Oh and I forgot to mention in my last email I got to hold a koala, boooya. It was freaking awesome. Super soft. I'll put a pic of the animal. We went to this animal wildlife park. It was super fun. Saw some cool animals. 

Anyways back to the week. I felt much better later and went back to the grind. It was a rough week though. A lot of our appointments got cancelled and finding people wasn't too successful either. We tried our best and no effort is wasted! Paul came to church and loved it and wants to keep coming every week! He is so prepared by the Lord. He is reading The Book of Mormon and is noticing blessings come from it and he's coming to church. He's ready. Such a nice bloke. 

This week we tried to do a lot of service for the members.  With it being so close to Christmas, tracting time is very unsuccessful.  We still did some because we didn't want to be doing nothing, but it was rough.  Service was great though. We helped this sister in the ward hang her Christmas lights because she hasn't had time because her husband is in the hospital and is not doing too well. She was very thankful! I felt the love of Christ enter my heart. We also did some service for a member that is doing some renovations in their back yard. We did some heavy lifting and digging trenches. I for sure felt the biceps bulging. 

We then had Zone Conference! It went really well. My companion and I both did some training for our zone. The spirit really directed the trainings and it went well. I did a training on bearing testimony and strengthening it. There's a qoute from Elder Bednar that I really liked when I was studying for this training:

"Knowing that the gospel is true is the essence of a testimony. Consistently being true to the gospel is the essence of conversion. We should know the gospel is true and be true to the gospel."

This was a big eye opener. We can't just have one of these or we will fall away from Jesus Christ because a strong testimony and living true to our testimony is what keeps us on the covenant path.  Once we stop living the gospel or we lose our testimony we right then and there are already breaking commandments that God has given us and we lose the joy and happiness that comes from the gospel.  The goodness from within us leaves us. We must know that the gospel is true and also live true to the gospel to be true followers of Jesus Christ. Then we can stand in front of him at judgement day and be able to say, "I did all I could". 

And another thought about testimonies. A testimony isn't nessarily a story in your life that let you know the church was true or that Jesus Christ and God the father are real. It's a conviction in your heart, and it's desire to live his gospel. When you get up to bare your testimony on fast Sunday, it's not a blabbering of words, it's a simple heart felt true statements of knowing the Gospel is true. When you speak of truth, the spirit of the Lord must be there. Don't blabber this coming fast Sunday. I invite you to have true conviction in your heart and tell everyone in your ward that you know that Christ lives and that He is our Savior and we are part of the church he established during his earthly ministry and that The Book of Mormon, Another testament of Jesus Christ is the word of God and is the most correct book of any other book on the earth.  Bear your witness that the love of the Savior can be felt and you know that the Savior loves you and everyone else on earth. Once you do this, the spirit of the Lord will touch your heart and everyone else in the congregation. Please bear your testimony!

And Holy Moly Christmas day was interesting but good. Paul came to church again woohoo! Then we went to the Pilkington family house for brunch and just had pancakes. Omg I ate too many and got a headache. Then we went to a friend the sisters are teaching. Her name is Mirael. She was interesting, she made some really good food that I didn't have any room for because the pancakes wrecked me, but she insisted that my companion do the Hakka Tongan dance for everyone! Haha! It was so funny. He's got some moves though! He did some Tongan screams and holy flip I was laughing so hard. It was an intense dance.  Please watch the video below. Then we went to another families house right after to have MORE FOOD!  Holy Fetch I was full and ate a bunch more food. It was really good so I'm not complaining but dang my belly just needed to take a deep breath but I literally couldn't. It was an interesting Christmas especiallly becaue it's 100 degrees and I'm sweating my balls off when everyone at home is in a artic freeze!  It's the exact opposite! It doesn't feel like Christmas, people are going to the beach and getting sun burnt and wearing sunscreen. It's weird as. And, the Christmas music is not at all the same.  

I finished opening all of my Christmas gifts early from my family since I have no self control apprently.  I had requested Kangaroo pajamas becuase I'm a bit goofy like that.  I made this request when it was not 100 degrees outside.  Needless to say, I did not keep them on too long, nor did I sleep in them.  Frankly, my dear compainon hates them and hides under his covers when I put them on and begs me to take them off.  lol. They are quite fluffly and large, so I'm not sure how I will manage to carry them around for the next several months either.  I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.  Even though mine was different, it was filled with the Love of the Lord.  It was good to talk to my family a lot during the two days, since I celebrated Christmas on your Christmas Eve.  My P-day was on your Christmas, so I planned a big Christmas feast with all the missionaries in my zone.  We had a lot of good food again, I know, shocker! We played games and called our families and tried to feel the Christmas spirit with them.  

Love,

Elder Bishop 

Pictures:

1.) My missionary friends

2.) Holding the Koala

3.) Paul

4.) My bag with my memory patched attached

5.) Tui's Tongan Christmas Day dance

6.) President Johannsen, showing off his nunchuck skills - only one handed! 

7.) Auzzie Christmas PJs, lol