Sunday, August 24, 2014

2 letters and some photos



Transfer Announcements Today! For transfer #4 I will be... staying in Trott Park, still with Elder Tau!
We've still got some work to do ;) One of my best friends in the mission Elder Matekohi is packing :(
i just wrote you all a few days ago so I don't have much to share but I'll run you through anything that has happened!
Well for starters Andrew came to church again! He just walked in and sat right next to Brother Whitrod. We hope to invite him to baptism this week so please pray for us that we may be able to invite powerfully and spiritually! He's our only investigator at the moment so we're having trouble finding people to teach but we're going to "hunt" (Jer 16:16) We helped a new family named the Butlers move in to the ward this week and man am I excited to hae them here. They are from Idaho and they love having missionaries over. Brother Butler is a convert and he has an amazing dream conversion story. he dreamed of his baptism and it happened exactly the way he dreamed. We helped them move in then they took us to Hungry Jacks which is the equilavent of Burger King. Thats about it for those few days.
D+C 100:4 gave me a lot of comfort this week. It says "Therefore, I the Lord, have suffered (allowed) you (Elder Acker) to come unto this place (Trott Park). for thus it was expedient to me for the salation of souls." Sometimes I may not feel good enough to do this work or that I'm not qualified enough but this scripture let's me know that God trusts me to work in this part of his vineyard. And this goes for all of us. We have been placed in the places and times we are today because Heavenly Father knew that these places and times were right for us to be a part in the work of salvation.
Love you HEAPS!
Elder Acker



Sunday, August 10, 2014

Spills, Spiders and Spiritual Revelations


Saturday, August 9, 2014

OOPS!! SKIPPED A FEW WEEKS!! Please insert accordingly!!




Hey there everyone, It's Lisa Acker.  Thanks to Brad Simler, I realized that I forgot to post 2 weeks worth of Joe's awesome letters.  Thank Brad!!  Here they are: 
July 20,2014:

Hello Everyone! 
This week was the start of transfer 3, and as I said before I'm still in Trott Park but I have a new companion named Elder Tau! And he is from Tahiti also! He's actually in the same home stake as Elder Villierme! Now I have two places to stay in Tahiti ;) Elder Tau is now the district leader of Onkaparinga and he is the MAN. I was so nervous for transfer meeting, even more nervous than leaving home for my mission but I shouldn't of been cuz this transfer is going to be great. I can honestly say that I've grown the most this week more than any week in my mission. We worked so hard and I loved it! There truly is joy in the work. When we first came back to the flat he seemed super stiff and I was scared that I wouldn't be able to enjoy myslef with him but now I realize3 that he is just exactly obedient and that is something me and Elder Villierme struggled with. We were obedient but not EXACTLY obedient. Obedience is key. If you want to be a better teacher, be obedient. If you want to find people to teach, be obedient. If you want to have joy and happinness in tyhe work, be obedinety. Because I know we are going to be exactly obedient, I know we are going to be blessed. 
It was Matthew (Sister Fields Sons) birthday this week so we got to have dinner at there house with the Whitrods! They are seriously family to me now, and it just still amazes me that they were in my backyard 5 years ago and I probably didn't even notice them! 
We have a new investigator family! I'm not sure what their last name is yet but the mom and dad's name is Ngona + Pam and they are from Zimbabwe! They have two boys and we taught the restoration to them last night. I felt like it went really well except for the fact I had a coughing attack in the middle of it... But really our focus right now is to find people to teach so please if you could please pray for the Trott Park Area that we may be able to find the people God has prepared.
Love you all heaps!

July 28, 2014:
Hey! Always good to be able to email you all every week! I hope everyone is doing well!
Every single Monday we have dinner as missionaries in the Happy Valley ward with our wonderful Mission Leader and his wife Brother and Sister Watts. We had hot dogs and banana splits that night which was great!
Every single day we get to have personal and companionship study, and on Tuesday we were reading about grocery shopping for missionaries and I got rebuked by Elder Tau for drinking most of the the Solo... Solo is a soda they have here in Australia. It's a lemon drink and its so good. I felt bad so I told him I would buy the next whole pack. We're actually going to get Dr Pepper today! We found a store that has them. I'm so excited! I know I'm fat. Later that day we did service for Sister Toker. Chopping up wood and such and she brought a non member friend to help us named Troy. We did the service and then had lunch with them and we got the chance to teach Troy so now he is a new investigator! We then went to go see an investigator we have named Rosland. But we first went to go see "his" neighbor. Her name is Celia and we talked about Rosland and she said that "she" is struggling. I asked her "she?" She says "yes, she. Rosland used to be a man but had a sex change operation." Uhhhhhh. ok. So we have been teaching a transgender for awhile now so... I talked to President about and he said to see if she is actually desirable to learn but I don't know what will happen haha.
The next day we visited a less active and they had these two cats. I was playing with them and when we were done talking to them I looked in the mirror and I had little bumps next top my eye. So it looks like I'm allergic to cats!
We found out the next day that we will be moving flats this thursday. We'll be moving to a house in a really nice area so that should be good!
That's all the fun stuff that has happened this week. We are real close to getting an investigator progressing named Andrew Shore. Pray that he will feel the spirit! I just wanted to share a scripture before I conclude. D+C 88:73 "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time". As I have pondered on this scripture this week I can truly testify that its time that the work of salvation is moving forward. We must work together to bring people unto Christ. We must work together as missionaries and members. We are all members. It's not like missionaries go to a different church. "We're all in this together" -High School Musical. Seriously though, people are ready to hear the gosple and it is up to us to fi8nd them. And we must recognize that Satan can say the same thing. "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." His guns are out and he's gonna do all he can to stop this work. Be strong brothers and sisters.
I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. And because I know that it is true, I know that Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is Christ's church restored on the earth again. IT IS HERE. We have it. Let's use it wisely.
Love you all!
Elder Acker





Monday, August 4, 2014

No letter, but something better...emailed back and forth for an hour last night!


No letter this week from Joe as he was too busy moving to journal anything.  Instead we emailed back and forth with him for awhile last night.  Pretty cool.  He is doing good.  New companion is working out fine and work is slow right now.  He moved to a "humongous" new house and loves it.  He also sent some photos. One of two members that fed him dinner that I think are recent converts.  He is inspired by them and their conversion.  Also, sent a photo of him with a ginormous sword.  One of their investigators named Craig has a knife and sword collection.  Yikes.  Oh, and he told Samantha that he misses Mexican food.  So, that's about it for this week.  Thanks for all you prayers!