Frozen Cokes and building the Kingdom!

Hi everyone! Hope everything is going well! Its been a really hot week here in Katherine!

Tuesday March 3, 2015- Tonight we had dinner with the Luccheese's! We have family night with them every week and its honestly one of the best things to look forward to every week. We love being in their home because they are just the greatest, most down to earth people. Sis Luccheese always has fun activities for us all to play and tonight she created a church guess who game! I'm sure you've heard of Guess Who? before but she for family night she put the general authorities of the church as the faces. It was a lot of fun! 

Wednsday March4, 2015- I broke my sunglasses this morning so I had to buy some new ones! I seriously could not handle being out in this Katherine heat without my sunglasses, my eyes would burn up if I didn't have them. It has just been so insanely hot and humid, holy cow! We went to this kid named Jakes house today. He is 19 from New Zealand and he's living in Katherine for work. He actually is living with a less active member in the Branch! We've gotten to see him a few times and we shared a little bit of the Plan of Salvation with him while we were there. He's pretty much into the whole "livin it up while we're young" trend but he says that he has always wondered what it would be like to be religious so we will keep trying! Because it was so hot today, we had to get like 3 frozen cokes just to take a break and get some coldness haha 

Thursday March 5 2015- We went to Brother Fridays today, he's the most active member we have in our branch. The past 3 weeks its only been us 3 at church. He is a trooper! We went to go see him and then we did his grocery shopping! He told us that he needed some tucker (which means dinner) so he wrote down all he needed, gave us some money and we did his shopping haha We came back with spam, milo, and solo haha We love Bro Friday! 

Friday and Saturday- Its been a bummer because Elder Aguilar had some pretty major stomach issues so we had to stay in the flat most of the time because whenever we would go out, we would have to go back to use the restroom, he's better now so its all good! 

Sunday March 8, 2015- It was only us 3 again at church! We were hoping to get more but it never worked out. We have to postpone Delilah's baptism because she wasn't able to come to church. Things are slow right now but we're still pushing forward. 

Monday March 9, 2015- Had a real great P Day today! We went store raiding today, went to every single store here in Katherine just to see everything, it was a lot of fun haha we don't have much to do here in Katherine but we work with what we got. We also played a few games of billiards which was so fun! We then later that night got to see the 14 year old Shamis. He is such a great kid, and he truly does want to learn but his Aunt and Uncle won't approve. It really hurt me to see that. He has had a horrible upbringing with his parents and we just want to help him so much but there really isn't anything we can do without their approval. :( 

Please pray for Katherine that the Kingdom may build here. Elder Aguilar and I need the prayers. I'm so very thankful for all of you and your commitment to follow the Savior. I love you all! Have a fantastic week! 

Elder Acker

2nd email that came after his blog email: 

If anyone is awake, I just wanted to let my family know how much I love them. My heart is full right now with everything that is going on. The news that I'm hearing from home and what's going on in Katherine and Adelaide lets me know that God is aware of everything. Lets all stay ACKER STRONG. I'm so proud grateful to bear our name and Jesus Christ on my badge everyday.  Wanted to share with you an email my Ward Mission Leader sent me today about how my investigator in Adelaide is doing. I don't know if you remember David but this email gives me hope knowing that God is capable of doing anything. Love you. 

Hey son.

Hope you are well….and staying cool…somehow.

Just wanted to let you know how David is going.

First of all…he wants to be baptised.

Still has some way to go with WoW but is progressing really well. 

I take him every week to the Addiction Recovery Program at Prospect Chapel. We’ve been for the last 4 weeks. Our first week was lesson 9 out of 12 but we’ll keep going so he gets the full 12 week course done and go for as long as he keeps benefitting from it. 

Last weeks lesson was on service. You see, addictions are all about being selfish….only thinking about yourself, so the lesson on service teaches the blessings about thinking of others first.

The previous Saturday… David went to the Adelaide Hills where the fires were recently and spent the morning giving service. He really enjoyed it. Then on Friday 2 days ago I arranged for him to give some service with the Elders to a family in the ward. 

To show our love for David, the sisters n elders n Lyndy n I all went to David’s yesterday morning and tidied up his front yard. Sis Funaki was a machine on the lawnmower (had never used one before) and mowed his whole large front yard. I did all the edges with my whipper snipper, Lyndy weeded, Elders did stuff and Sis Soh (trade offs) weeded too. David was so grateful…and HAPPY. He had a spring in his step and a smile on his face. Love that guy.

He has pretty much given up booze. He has halved his smoking by using nicotine patches and is going 2 weeks at a time with no drugs. He really wants to stop all of these things and is slowly noticing the changes to his health as he abstains.

I don’t remember a Sunday where he has missed church. He participates in lessons and even said the closing prayer in GP class a few weeks ago. He’s a changed man.

Thanks for all you did for him. Your love and patience and persistence has helped him immensely. 

Love you son.

Mum n Dad Watts