Meyers Mob and Malachi

Hi Everyone! Its been a pretty busy week this week here in Tennant Creek.

Monday Apr 20, 2015- Today was a pretty normal P-day, emailed family, played basketball at Sports and Rec, later that night we went to the Meyers Mob which is an aboriginal family we go see almost everyday because they're so awesome. We played footy with the kids tonight which was a lot of fun. We also had to really deep clean our flat today because the new senior couple the St Johns are coming tomorrow to inspect our flat!

Tuesday Apr 21, 2015- St Johns came to Tennant Creek today! They inspected our flat then took us out for pizza! They are from Boise, Idaho. I told them that I will most likely be attending BYU I when I return home and they said to take the road trip and I'll have a place to stay, they live right next to the Boise temple too! After we had lunch the St Johns took us out to buy some cleaning supplies haha our house needs a really deep clean, its such a old flat, and we have a mouse in our house that I always see in my peripherals and we haven't caught it yet! Time to get some mouse traps. After the St Johns left, we headed to the library to print off the new area list that was emailed to us then we went out to visit all of these people on the area list but most of them moved out ages ago, so we're just basically cleaning out the area list now.

Wednesday Apr 22, 2015- Started the day off by going to a less active named Susan's house. She's aboriginal, and we read the Book of Mormon with her. She has a hard time living the gospel because all of her family drinks every single night at her house which is pretty much everyone here in Tennant Creek but she says it helps to have us over to read the scriptures. We then went to see an investigator named Gail, she is in the same situation as Susan, just a lot of temptation from their peers, its hard. We then went over to the Meyers Mob and everyone was sick! There is a bug going around, Elder Kata was sick all day yesterday too and now I'm feeling under the weather ugggg. We then went to Pathwa's house, she is the most active member in the branch, and she is part of the Meyers Mob too. She has the cutest baby boy name Malachi too. He is my favourite. 

Friday Apr 24, 2015- Friday was just a normal day to begin with, we were actually at lunch time driving to get pizza and to our surprise, we see the Elders from Alice Springs in their Ute (truck), they decided to surprise us by coming to Tennant! It was so good to see them, it gets lonely with just you and your companion so it was great to see them! So they got here, got all situated and then we headed to Sports and Rec to play basketball and rugby with the kids. We ended up staying there all day, it was a blast! We even got to use the gym for awhile which was nice. Oh and the Elders names are Elder Ware from Ohio and Elder Soli from Hawaii.

Saturday Apr 25, 2015- I was on trade off with Elder Ware today, we visited some people on the area list and then we read the scriptures with a member named Maria, we read the scriptures with her everyday. We then went to Kyrels birthday party! He turned 7, he's a part of the Meyers Mob. We went to a lake for the birthday partynd it was a lot of fun, I love all the people there. We then all went to Lyals house for dinner who feeds us every Saturday Night, we had chicken and dumplings. 

Sunday Apr 6, 2015- We had church this morning and only 4 people showed up, I really wish more people would come. We then had lunch at Pathwa's then the Elders left, we had to stay home all day because elder Kata was sick.

This has been my week everyone, this is a great experience for me even though not a lot is happening workwise but I hope things will pick up.

Love, Elder Acker

Transfer 9, week 3

Good Morning Everyone! 

This week has been busy, busy, busy. We spent most of our week in Alice Springs for General Conference and also Zone Conference with President and Sister Carter. We arrived on Friday after the road trip from Tennant Creek which is 5 hours and as soon as we got in we got KFC. haha Man,  KFC in Australia is so much better than in America.  All we have in Tennant is a place called Red Rooster and its disgusting so it was nice to have a "vacation" in Alice. Alice Springs reminds me so much of home for some reason.  The mountains and the weather is really similar. Anyways we arrived in ALice on Friday then we began zone conference from 2 PM to 8 PM. and we were also glad to meet the new senior couple, Elder and Sister St John, who have just been 2 weeks out in their mission. I got the chance to chat with them for awhile about what goes on with a senior couple mission and it is exciting! I told them that I have grandparents that are planning to serve a mission also! Shout out to Grandma Jean and Grandpa Mark. Zone Conference was really awesome though, I just love President and Sister Carter so much and my faith grows every time I am with them.  They just have that influence on all of us missionaries. Something we do as missionaries to help us to become better teachers is role playing. I had the opportunity to role play with Sister Carter in front of all the missionaries and I had a really amazing experience. She acted as a lady who just lost her husband and doesn't want to hear anything about God, she was pretty hard to get to, but then in the middle of the role play, I just had just a huge, comforting, spiritual witness that God loves me and everyone around me, I couldn't hold back the tears as I just let it all out to Sister Carter on how much I know God lives, I don't even know what I said! But these moments in my life, especially on my mission I will never forget.  I know God lives and I know that this church is His Kingdom here on earth. no matter how imperfect or what trials come to my life I will never be able to deny that knowledge. What a blessing it is to have this Gospel in our lives. I am far from perfect, I make mistakes every single day but the ATonemtnet is what allows us to be imperfect and still be able to live with our Father forever in happiness. Please know my dear family and friends that there is more to life than just this. I KNOW IT. Before my mission I tried to convince myself that the church wasn't true because I wanted to feel free to live in the world, but now I know, there is no denying, the Plan of Salvation is real. Jesus Christ lives, He is our Redeemer, He knows what we are going through in life and He knows how to help. I want you all to know that I am doing alright. Sure, it is hard being in these remote areas and there is a lot of temptation to just give up and stop trying but I know that God is with me.  He is by my side and He will never leave because He loves me. He loves us, we are His offpring. 

I love you all, Elder Acker

P.S. Our most active member, Pathwa, is in prison now, we have two members in Prison.

Tennant Creek

G'day everyone! Happy Easter! 

Tuesday March 31, 2015- The aboriginal kids here love to play basketball! Lucky enough that Elder Katta and I love it too. We spent most of the day today playing basketball at the sport and rec club with all the kids. It was a blast. They are all such great kids. Everyone who I have talked to that has served in Ternnant Creek has said that the kids are the best and I can definitely see that, they're all crack up. So later on that day our power went out at the flat so we had to go buy a power card. We buy power cards to keep the house running haha.

Wednsday Apr 1, 2015- We had a lesson today with Maria, a member here. We read the scriptures with her everyday. We then got a new investigator named Terry and also put an investigator named Gail on baptism date. Its been a great day! 

Thursday Apr 2, 2015- We did a car wash service today for some people which was a lot of fun! We then were fed meat pies. Today we tried to visit a lot of people but no one was home! Long day

Friday Apr 3, 2015- We taught a less active named Susan today. She really enjoyed it and wants to come back to church. We then saw Terry again and taught the Restoratiion. We then tauight an 11 year old named Locky, he is great, he really wants to be abptized but his parents aren't allowing him but he will get there some day. 

Saturday Apr 4, 2015- Ran hills this morning with Elder Katta and now my legs are dead. We had a lesson today with an investigator named Kristine, it went well and she came to church! We then had a spaghetti dinner at a man named Lau's house. He's not investigating but he has been feeding the missionaries for ages now so its every Saturday we go over.

Sunday Apr 5, 2015- Had Sacrament Meeting this morning, only 3 people showed up but the Spirit was still present. I spoke on the plan of salvation. We then took a road trip to Elliot, a town next to Tennant and proselyted there for the day. 

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Acker