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.