May 16, 2010

G'day family,

This week was really exciting we worked really hard and a few really cool and really disappointing things happened to us. ok so i guess I'll tell you about this guy we met named Abdule Raheem. So last Monday he Flagged us down on the Corner and talked to us, he is Austrailian but has changed his name cause he has converted to Islam. We think the lesson isn't gonna be that great we think he just wants to tell us all about Islam. So we go over there and teach him and it was going really well he's really smart, and understands ever thing, we relate the First vision and we ask him how he felt, and all he said is, it reminds him of a dream he had a year back. he told us all about his dream and what happened a lot of really interesting things, and then he said right before his dream closed he heard "Isaiah 28" and so he searched through all of that in Isaiah 28 and 29 and 30, and he searched for ages and found the only scripture that was pulling him in was Isaiah 29:11, and so i opened to that scripture and it was one prophecying of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and it was also written in 2Nephi 27:9 or somthing and man, the excitment that filled the room was palpable, and so when we shared this with Abdule he was shocked he had never expected us to pull something like that off. and the reason he had converted to Islam recently is that scripture matches up with he story of Mohammad, but he was really willing to pray about it and i knew he'd get his answer if he prayed. so in two days we saw him and we brought president lee to help us teach. but at the end he told us a few weeks ago he dreamed about Joseph Smith and he was a little boy and just said "i'm a Mason" thats it and so Abdule looked online and Found out joseph smith was a mason, and for some reason he has this deep deep deep hatred for masons, so he politely gae us the book back and refused to read it, i was so dissappointed. but i have no hatred towards him, we figure the he's just had something happen in his life but he'll hopefully find that islam is hullabaloo and he'll come our way, but as for that we taught quite a bit of other people. these people are wonerfull i lvoe serving and in order to keep some of these new people in the gospel and for anyone they just gotta read pray everyday and come to church it's simple easy, and with bring the most happiness. Love you family, be good, take care and go to church.

Elder Ballard

May 9, 2010

G'day Family,

So I just Got to Talk to Most of you on the Phone like an Hour ago, That was really good and really cool to think thats the last ohone call and the next step is to come home hahaha really exciting and scary at the same time, i don't want to leave really so i'll just be sure to work really hard the next few months i won't get trunkie till December and i'll give me a week to be in the words of Mikey Trunk-a-licious. hahaha, i've got ages to go so lets not think about it to much. So this Week, First off i Want to tell you this super cool expirience i had this last Friday. We saw on this list of poeple there was a brazillian family that had shown some insterest a few months back and seeing that brazillians are pretty prepared people, we wanted to go and see them, we get to there house and i knock on the door an older lady comes to the door, and when she see;s us she says, "oh, no ingles" now this happens to us a lot when were at the door but it's usually greek or italian people, and we can't do anything about that, but i knew this lady was Brazillian, and so she could understand me if i spoke spanish, i Before she Shut the Door i Blurted " Por Favor, aprendes espanol, conosco eres Brazillian pero hablo espanol" then she opened the door and i started to ask here questions in spannish she understood well but when she responed i couldn't understand a word of Portugues. it was still cool and we were able to find out the answers we needed, and hopefully this weekend we'll get to teach her and her family or neighbor i don't know all the details. that was a coll this that happend, other than that a sad thing is Fiona our Chinese Baptismal Date she doesn't want us aound and we went by with a Chinese speaking missionary abd it was so cool to see a american just spout off chinese so well. but she has been anti'd or something but man it's a little bit sad, were also teaching lots of indians hopefully one of them will be ready for baptism soon. I miss Elder Zabriskie me and Him taught like champions nobody could say no, but it's gonna take a bit longer to get teaching well with my comp, but i gotta be patient, he's awesome we get along great, just working hard waiting for some blessings. thanks for the phone calls it was great, happy Mothers Day to all you mothers, love you guys.

May 2, 2010- Parable of the Legos

G'day Family,

This week was a good one, we worked really hard, so it's a bit different not having Zabriskie around because he has Cronick fatigue syndrom, so we napped and took the work really easy but still baptised like crazy. we did so well but never got overwhelmed by anything, i thought it was a pretty good system, because we were the most effective. but this Chooseday (tuesday the way an Aussie says it) I got my New Companion Elder Jacob Bennetts, he is from a place in Western Australia called Bunbry. he has a thick accent and is helping me out with some word at a time, and soon i'll be pro at it. he's pretty new only been out 4 months but he works pretty hard but isn't serious all the time which calls for a fun time, we can't be serious always or we'll go crazy. But this week we wroked really hard, and got a lot of stuff done this week, exciting news is Fiona has accepted the Baptismal Invite and will be dunked in the next few weeks. we also have found quite a few indian investigators that we'll have our new convert Priyanker come around and help us out. it's looking like the success will continue to come but also i'm concerned, so there are many missionaries who go out and try and get as many people as possible andevery time they take on board more name they know what to do with, here's my analogy, " It's like your sitting in a room up to your neck in Legos, there is no way you'll ever be able to make anything cool because you'll never find the right peices, the peices are there but there are so many peices you don't want that it'll take way more than six weeks to do anything great" thats my parable of the Legos, thats i hope to continue the work here, organized, orderly, and simpley. Elder Bennetts and i have had a great first week, our first day even was exciting, because i got introuble for... well we all know what, i was made junior comp and not driver anymore, and the first day Elder Bennetts side swipped two cars, ahahaha it was crazy, so i took the keys off him for the sake of mine and his life, and i think we all feel a lot safer with me behind the wheel. I've been out 16 months now, prettty crazy, the missions are getting combine in two months, i'm so pumped for that, i guess i'll talk to you all on mothers day, love you all and thanks Christy for the only email this week. haha

-Elder Ballard

April 26, 2010

G'day Family,

This Week was the Last week of the Tranfer, and i guess i'll give you tranfer news now, I'm Staying here in this ward and my Companion Elder Zabriskie will be moving, so i'm excited to still be here we have more poeple to baptise, but i'm bummed me and Z-bo arn't together anymore, i get my new companion in about 2 hours. as for this week a couple exciting things happend is we Baptised one more Fijian girl her name is Morrisha, her older brother baptised her this saturday and it went really well. so that make me and Zabriskie's total baptisms together at 7, thats a pretty good number hahaha we had some fun. We have a few other people were teaching frist is Fiona, she is a chinese student and super cool she just rocked up to church last sunday we talked to her and then met up and taught her, we invited her to a ward dance and she came and went crazier than anyone else she's really fun and i'm sure she'll be baptized in the next few weeks. the other one is Sanjay he is Priyanker's (previous baptism) roomate he came to priyankers room in the middle of the lesson and said, "i've been learnign with the jehovah wittnesses and they are full of it can you teach me", so we did and we invited to a FHE and we asked if he'd like to be baptised and his response was classic, he said "thats a dumb question... of course i do" hahaha pretty cool, we'll get those two all converted fairly soon. I'm doing good and having a great time, i'llemail next week and tell you all about my new comp. Love you all, be good and love one another


Elder Ballard