Family!!,
Ok sorry i can't hold back form writing you cause my joy is full this week, I'm being truly blessed for Enduring so well to the end, i know i said that last week was my last email but i really want to tell you about Stephen. So you all remember Jesse, who just got Baptized last weekend, and you all remember Carrol, the rough around the edges lady we've been teaching, well her son was over at her house when we popped around and he was a bumbling mad man, pretty drunk, and we just said hello, and i had no intentions of ever teaching him, but he Came to Jesse's Baptism and loved it we then taught a mad first discussion and he was so excited about. we gave him reading in the Book of Mormon and he read that and beyond. He has also quit smoking drugs and drinking and he is on fire, never have i ever seen an investigator so thoroughly energized by the spirit of God. He is full on into everything, and man i have nothing but pure love for him and the enormous effort he is making, Also Jesse got the Aaronic Priesthood this sunday past and he will be the one performing the saving ordinance of baptizm for Stephen. I'm so Excited for the future of these three Y.S.A (Bree, Jesse, Stephen) This ward has really taken them in and themselve are a power of missionary force to be reckoned with, I can only put my trust in god that they'll be able to progress in the gosple with the love and support of mornington ward. I'm very excited to Come home but dreading saying goodbye, love you all... especially you.
Cheers,
Elder Wesley Ballard
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
November 21, 2010 Last Email...we'll see!
G'day Family,
So as you have been previously told this will be my last Email, well lets say my last "Full Detail" email depicting my triumphs over the adversary during the week. I know it will be tough but it's something i think would be fun to do, and although almost all of you can't stand the fact I'm doing this makes me smile hahahaha, if you have any urgent of pressing enquiries, please still ask them and i will respond also i still want to know how every one's doing, but as for me you'll just have to wait a couple of weeks. Ok, So, this week was so good, We spent the greater part of the week with Jesse, to help him and protect him from the JW so they wouldn't come and get him. and on Wednesday straight after his Baptismal interview he got a call from his Nan and they bought him a car to lure him home, but they had no idea he was planning on getting baptised this time but they still tried to take him away but he figured it out and was able to continue on throughout the week, really cool experience happened with him too, so on Thursday we spent the day With him and he was going good, then we left and did some work for the rest of the day but i had promised to call him that evening to just have a chat. and we got super flat out at night with something and it was past lights out time it was like 11:30pm and I Just had the thought to call him. and my companion told me not to cause we needed to be in bed and it wouldn't be that good if he knew we weren't keeping the rules but I disregarded him and called anyways and right when i call he was debating with Bree, weather to call or not cause they knew we were probably sleeping but they wanted to call us cause one of the older house mates had gotten drunk and was literally the devil himself it was crazy i heard it over the phone and it was crazy. but i was able to give them some comfort and got them out of their house and they went to Bree's mum's house, and I thought nothing much i hung up the phone and we prayed form them straight away. and the next day Jesse and Bree were going on and on about how perfect that call was, just when they needed it, it came, Jesse was pretty blown away by it, he gain a testimony that day on how we are true servants of God, and also Bree said as soon as they hung up they felt the spirit comfort them and protect them the rest of the night, and Bree said "right when that happened, I told Jesse, Yup! Elder Ballard just prayed for us!" hahaha it thought was so cool, cause I'm sure throughout our mission things happen like that but we never really know we just continue throughout our work, but it's pretty Great to hear that you're doing your job and bringing other to know the power of Heavenly Father. After that Fiasco not much else Happened and he came and got baptised with out a hitch, and yesterday I bestowed the Gift of the Holy Ghost upon him and he was glowing at church everyone was commenting on him, he's gonna be a great member, and were hoping next year sometime we can get this kid out on him Mission, he's off to great start. other than that, my week was routine, we slacked on our other people cause we focused a lot on Jesse this week, but We hope to have two more baptism my last Saturday as a missionary. Were working hard all the way until the end, I love you all and Hope your as excited to see me as i am to see you all. I hope all goes well these next couple weeks. I Love you all thank you so much for your support. Be good, and We'll see you soon. Cheers
-Elder Wesley Bryan Ballard
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
October 31, 2010
G'day Family,
Big news new this week, after all the stress and worry about were we will spend the rest of our missions and who it will be with, transfers new finally came last night and Sadly for my companion he will be leaving mornington and i will be staying. I could be happier that i get to finish here in this awesome area, and although i would have loved to finish with Fenochietti, he was a bit to far on the trunkie side, so my hope is to get a fun companion who will help me endure to the end... i'll get on tomorrow and tell you all about him when i get him. but as for our week it went really well, first off we met this lady, her name is Carol, and she is a month older than mum, but due to life decisions of substance abuse she look a lot older than she is, but at first her appearance gave me the impression of one who is less than interested but as we got to know her and taught her, she is great i really like her, she has strong faith and a good thirst for the truth. so we taught her the Restoration and set a baptismal date for the 27th of November, funny thing is the JW's have been visiting her for 20 years now and nothing came of it but get the real servants of the lord and give us twenty minutes and we get the job done hahaha, then also we were teaching these other people and they were friends to this member, and we just taught them a little bit and they hadn't been taught about church and this member who isn't all together brought them anyways and they had no idea what to expect, and they just were miserable and didn't get anything i felt bad, it may be hard to get them to Church in the future, but that was about it for the week, hope some good stuff will happen this week. but i start my last transfer today it's pretty intense. but just gotta keep rolling. love you all.
-Elder Ballard
Big news new this week, after all the stress and worry about were we will spend the rest of our missions and who it will be with, transfers new finally came last night and Sadly for my companion he will be leaving mornington and i will be staying. I could be happier that i get to finish here in this awesome area, and although i would have loved to finish with Fenochietti, he was a bit to far on the trunkie side, so my hope is to get a fun companion who will help me endure to the end... i'll get on tomorrow and tell you all about him when i get him. but as for our week it went really well, first off we met this lady, her name is Carol, and she is a month older than mum, but due to life decisions of substance abuse she look a lot older than she is, but at first her appearance gave me the impression of one who is less than interested but as we got to know her and taught her, she is great i really like her, she has strong faith and a good thirst for the truth. so we taught her the Restoration and set a baptismal date for the 27th of November, funny thing is the JW's have been visiting her for 20 years now and nothing came of it but get the real servants of the lord and give us twenty minutes and we get the job done hahaha, then also we were teaching these other people and they were friends to this member, and we just taught them a little bit and they hadn't been taught about church and this member who isn't all together brought them anyways and they had no idea what to expect, and they just were miserable and didn't get anything i felt bad, it may be hard to get them to Church in the future, but that was about it for the week, hope some good stuff will happen this week. but i start my last transfer today it's pretty intense. but just gotta keep rolling. love you all.
-Elder Ballard
November 16, 2010...Last Email?!?!
G'day
Family, I apologize for getting you a late email but eh it's OK,I'm thinking of next week being my last email to you all anyways just to make the homecoming that much better, you can and must still write to me but don't expect a weekly update... but if it's dire then I'll respond. so Ya yesterday was busy as and as well of this whole previous week, We me the Area Presidency and Seventy Elder Brent Neilson and had a zone conference he was secretly interviewing all; the dodgy missionaries and I know what conclusion you are all jumping to "oh then he totally interviewed Wes." well as a matter of fact he certainly did not. hahah but we had a good chat his training and President Lifferth's and their wives were very good i love the stuff they had to say to help us be better missionaries. But my Companion is keeping me working hard the whole week in the missionary aspect and I myself am keeping him working hard in the Physical aspect, I dragged him along to our first handful of boot camp sessions this week and although looks may disagree I am in better shape and he's been doggin behind but it's super fun the Personal Trainers Hayden + Nicky are so Great they are so fun and also we got to teach them this week and they are basically dry Mormons they're holding back only cause they're not too sure whats on the other side but we just gotta let them realize it's far greener and they don't have to change much. but they're a longer term project but I'll sink my sickle in while i have the time to harvest. But their morning boot camp work out has been kicking my butt, i love it i only wish it was more often than three times a week. But the best part of the week has been the resurfacing of the formerly taught Jesse, he was the kid that we had two days before baptism his JW Grandparents threw him in the back of a car or something and drove him off to the whoop whoop to get these foolish prophet notions out of his head, we a month and a half later he came back had a read of the book of Mormon prayed about it and got his answer more powerful than before, so we are setting up for his baptism this weekend at 6:30pm on Saturday, I'm so excited he is freshly 19 and want to serve a mission and do great things I'm pretty pumped for that he is the man. so this whole week we'll be seeing him everyday. but other than that, it's supposed to be summer her but it rained all week, but the sun's out today. but that's about it for me family, so you only get one more email, hahahaha your all gonna go nuts without um, well i hope, cause in my mind, my emails are the best part of your weeks and you can't live without them... ya that's probably a myth, well love you all and i hope your safe!!
-Elder Ballard
Family, I apologize for getting you a late email but eh it's OK,I'm thinking of next week being my last email to you all anyways just to make the homecoming that much better, you can and must still write to me but don't expect a weekly update... but if it's dire then I'll respond. so Ya yesterday was busy as and as well of this whole previous week, We me the Area Presidency and Seventy Elder Brent Neilson and had a zone conference he was secretly interviewing all; the dodgy missionaries and I know what conclusion you are all jumping to "oh then he totally interviewed Wes." well as a matter of fact he certainly did not. hahah but we had a good chat his training and President Lifferth's and their wives were very good i love the stuff they had to say to help us be better missionaries. But my Companion is keeping me working hard the whole week in the missionary aspect and I myself am keeping him working hard in the Physical aspect, I dragged him along to our first handful of boot camp sessions this week and although looks may disagree I am in better shape and he's been doggin behind but it's super fun the Personal Trainers Hayden + Nicky are so Great they are so fun and also we got to teach them this week and they are basically dry Mormons they're holding back only cause they're not too sure whats on the other side but we just gotta let them realize it's far greener and they don't have to change much. but they're a longer term project but I'll sink my sickle in while i have the time to harvest. But their morning boot camp work out has been kicking my butt, i love it i only wish it was more often than three times a week. But the best part of the week has been the resurfacing of the formerly taught Jesse, he was the kid that we had two days before baptism his JW Grandparents threw him in the back of a car or something and drove him off to the whoop whoop to get these foolish prophet notions out of his head, we a month and a half later he came back had a read of the book of Mormon prayed about it and got his answer more powerful than before, so we are setting up for his baptism this weekend at 6:30pm on Saturday, I'm so excited he is freshly 19 and want to serve a mission and do great things I'm pretty pumped for that he is the man. so this whole week we'll be seeing him everyday. but other than that, it's supposed to be summer her but it rained all week, but the sun's out today. but that's about it for me family, so you only get one more email, hahahaha your all gonna go nuts without um, well i hope, cause in my mind, my emails are the best part of your weeks and you can't live without them... ya that's probably a myth, well love you all and i hope your safe!!
-Elder Ballard
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Release Date!!
We Finally have received Elder Ballard's Itinerary for arriving home! He will arrive in Salt Lake City on December 15th !! We are so looking forward to his homecoming!
November 7, 2010
G'day family,
So this week was hectic As!! we did so much and it feels like it went by so slow but at this stage of the mission i don't mind it too much. So i have my new companion, he is from the east Side Mission his name is Elder Cody Lara from Arizona City AZ, he has been out 17 months and he actually started his mission here in mornington so he has come back to redeem his poor efforts from the last time around. he's pretty fun we work had but I'm currently trying to unwind this fool, he's a good kid but to hard on himself and his teaching and I'm trying to make him love everything a bit more. he so fun I'm glad i have him to bust my butt until i go home, this is my enduring stage and i think I'll be going till the end. I keep catching myself thinking of the work and how we'll find a whole heap and teach a lot this transfer and next transfer we'll be baptising up a storm, but then i sadly remember there will be no next transfer. :( As for this week for my birthday we had so much fun so The Kannar family and the Tennant Family took us to this national park Called the Dandenong Ranges, where they have this this called "The 1000 Steps" and there are over 1000 steps to the top of a mountain, and so before going i Spoke with Brittany Kannar and we agreed on a race to the top, she willingly said yes cause she is very fit and runs all the time and i Defiantly look less than athletic. so when we got there i saw everyone else but Britt was gone, so when i asked they said she had taken of five minutes previous, What!!! CHEATER!!! so i just was stirred up but decided to just walk with the family, but then i just decided to go for it and try to catch up with her to i started up the stairs at a very quick pace, after about five hundred steps i caught up to her friend Asha and she said that Britt was so far ahead, and i was already super tired so i sorta gave up and just strolled with Asha, but after about a minute something grew inside of me and I Wanted to have another go, so i really pushed my fatigued muscles and went hard the rest of the was and then around the next corner i see her!! so i bolt up those stairs and around people like Emmit Smith and i pass her with only fifteen stairs to go, caught and passed by surprise she grabbed my short for a last fighting effort but i Shook her and beat her by a few steps. it was glorious, she was acting like i didn't win but she was cut so deep that i beats her even when she cheated best birthday race ever!!! and family make sure you rub salt in this wound when she is at our house in a few weeks, that would be legendary, and i love it when i tell this story to people they all say at the beginning that Britt will smash me cause she is so fit but no sir not that day hahahha. then for the rest of the day we walked the national parks and fed giant white Cockatoo's there as big as eagles so intense. then i had cake at these other people's house over all it was a great birthday. the rest of the week we tried to teach people but our appointments kept falling through. but we found this great couple they are personal trainers and they own this boot camp thingy and they are letting us do it for free 6:00am every morning, I'm pumped for that so i can get even more fit before I'm home. they're great I'll tell you how their teaching goes later. we have a lot going on this week so I'm excited for it, but as for me I'm happy having a great time. Love you all family and i hope your getting ready to party this Christmas!!!
Love,
Elder Ballard
So this week was hectic As!! we did so much and it feels like it went by so slow but at this stage of the mission i don't mind it too much. So i have my new companion, he is from the east Side Mission his name is Elder Cody Lara from Arizona City AZ, he has been out 17 months and he actually started his mission here in mornington so he has come back to redeem his poor efforts from the last time around. he's pretty fun we work had but I'm currently trying to unwind this fool, he's a good kid but to hard on himself and his teaching and I'm trying to make him love everything a bit more. he so fun I'm glad i have him to bust my butt until i go home, this is my enduring stage and i think I'll be going till the end. I keep catching myself thinking of the work and how we'll find a whole heap and teach a lot this transfer and next transfer we'll be baptising up a storm, but then i sadly remember there will be no next transfer. :( As for this week for my birthday we had so much fun so The Kannar family and the Tennant Family took us to this national park Called the Dandenong Ranges, where they have this this called "The 1000 Steps" and there are over 1000 steps to the top of a mountain, and so before going i Spoke with Brittany Kannar and we agreed on a race to the top, she willingly said yes cause she is very fit and runs all the time and i Defiantly look less than athletic. so when we got there i saw everyone else but Britt was gone, so when i asked they said she had taken of five minutes previous, What!!! CHEATER!!! so i just was stirred up but decided to just walk with the family, but then i just decided to go for it and try to catch up with her to i started up the stairs at a very quick pace, after about five hundred steps i caught up to her friend Asha and she said that Britt was so far ahead, and i was already super tired so i sorta gave up and just strolled with Asha, but after about a minute something grew inside of me and I Wanted to have another go, so i really pushed my fatigued muscles and went hard the rest of the was and then around the next corner i see her!! so i bolt up those stairs and around people like Emmit Smith and i pass her with only fifteen stairs to go, caught and passed by surprise she grabbed my short for a last fighting effort but i Shook her and beat her by a few steps. it was glorious, she was acting like i didn't win but she was cut so deep that i beats her even when she cheated best birthday race ever!!! and family make sure you rub salt in this wound when she is at our house in a few weeks, that would be legendary, and i love it when i tell this story to people they all say at the beginning that Britt will smash me cause she is so fit but no sir not that day hahahha. then for the rest of the day we walked the national parks and fed giant white Cockatoo's there as big as eagles so intense. then i had cake at these other people's house over all it was a great birthday. the rest of the week we tried to teach people but our appointments kept falling through. but we found this great couple they are personal trainers and they own this boot camp thingy and they are letting us do it for free 6:00am every morning, I'm pumped for that so i can get even more fit before I'm home. they're great I'll tell you how their teaching goes later. we have a lot going on this week so I'm excited for it, but as for me I'm happy having a great time. Love you all family and i hope your getting ready to party this Christmas!!!
Love,
Elder Ballard
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