Hello friends! How's everyone doing?? It's been two weeks since I last wrote so I may not be able to include everything that happened but I'll try my best. There is always so much that happens in any given day on a mission, I love it, every day is different and you never know what's gonna happen! First off, my birthday went great! It was P-day so we had a BBQ right next to the beach, I brought the frisbee and football that my parents sent me to throw around and my companion Elder Villierme threw it into a palm tree :( I'll have to buy a new one. But I'm actually thinking of buying a footie ball, we kick it around all the time and I'm starting to like it alot! We got to go down to the beach and I just had a moment where I just stared off into the sea, the voices of my district went quiet in the background, and I just had this overwhelming feeling that God is SO REAL. There is no other way, none of the nature that we see everyday could of just appeared. So amazing. I had my first interview with President Carter the next day, what an amzing guy he is. He is so in tune with the spirit and he most definitely receives revaltion for this mission. One thing that I love about him is that he calls me son all the time and tells me how much he loves me. He is so loving. One thing that I need to work on in my mission is accepting agency. I went into my mission thinking that if I just bare my testimony with the spirit powerfully, everyone will be able to recognize that spirit and they will accept us. But... now I know its not the case. I've had many many times when I have testified to people and they still reject. What a blessing it is that we have free choice. Everything we have and everything that is belongs to God and is His. But our freedom to choose, is OURS. We can choose death or eternal life. We decide our destiny. Always remember that. This life is a blink of an eye compared to the eternities, So I would advise you all to use that gift of choice that God has given us to Follow Him. It is the ONLY, let me emphasize that again, O-N-L-Y way to happiness. Not only in this life but in the life after. That's the reason we have missionaries. We want the world to know! One thing that I have noticed that is kinda strange about Australia is that I see men wearing Uggs all the time. haha . Must be for comfort or something cuz it definitely doesn't like right. We're working with a Vietnamese family right now named the Lams. The dad doesn't speak much English so his 12 year old son Tien translates for us. They have read the Book of Mormon fully through and they believe it can help them in their lives. Oh! and 2 days after we met a Vietnames man on the street named Andy who speaks English very well. We told him about the Lams and how Quac (The dad) doesn't speak very good English. We didn't even ask Andy but he just went out and said "I'll help you translate!" So now we are going to have a 2 in 1 lesson with Andy and the Lams. God answers our prayers and leads people to us! We got the chance to go to the temple on Thursday and it was great. I always love going to the temple. There is such a peace there. We then got to go shopping and I just HAD to get a new bike seat. My old one was skinny and hard, and it just hurt me so bad haha We've been biking alot lately which is goood because I'm afraid that I'm gonna gain weight because all of the food we're getting. Yesterday was fast Sunday and honestly I think yesterday was my first real spiritual experience with fasting. I just felt the spirit so much more that day and I know it was because I was fasting. We are more receptive to the spirit as we fast with purpose!
Can you believe it!? I have finished my first transfer. We found out this morning who is being transferred and I... am... STAYING. Me and my companion will continue serving the people in Trott Park.
I love you all. Stand steadfast in the faith. Just wanted to share a quote by Ezra Taft Benson that I love:
"Nothing will startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side then what we feel when you see Heavenly Father and recognize how familiar His face is."
I don't think that was the exact words but it is such an amzing quote. We Know Heavenly Father and He knows us. We lived with Him before we came to earth. Talk to Him. Because He knows His children and He IS listening.
Much love,
Elder Acker
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