New member! :) July 26, 2009

G'day Family,

This week was hecktic. Just one big thing we focused on and that was Peter Green. He was Baptised and confirmed this weekend as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It went so well, I was asked to perform the ordinance of baptism again and it was great! Other than that, we did nothing else this week. Be ready for two more baptisms soon. Love you all. I don't have much time. We went hang gliding with our district and for Elder Ianusi's (ya-noo-see) Birthday. It was fun!

Continuing success July 19, 2009

G'day Fam Damily!

This week went quick and not much else happened other than President and sister lee came down and there were no letters for me. Sad story haha. The zone conference was really good. Me and my comp are doing wonderful. We have a baptism this saturday. It is a 100% this guy is awesome and our ward is wonderfull they are

fellowshipping him like mad, man it makes our job crazy easy. And also another couple we have set up for baptism is getting ready, we had to get Robert to stop smoking after doing it for 48 years and with the lords help and after seven days he has zero desire to smoke now all they gotta do is come to church and they are getting in that font haha. They are so fun they love us coming by and the things we teach. Last night we were driving in the bush and there were wallabies every where fair dinkum I had to dodge them ever thrity meters. But as you could have guessed I finally hit one so I backed up to see if I really hit it and it was still moving so I decided to put it out of it's misery so I ran it over again hahaha. I actually feel really bad about it. Well family I love you all and take care. and write me. :)

-Elder Ballard

Scheduled baptisms! July 13, 2009

Well Family this week was a pretty good one. We have been working really hard on a hand full of investigators. We have Peter he is getting baptized this weekend but we might just push it back a week due to hecticicity (ya i made that word up) but just so things run very smooth we're giving ourselves more time to make this day very special for him. Then we have two older couples preparing for baptism... yes family that equals 4 people thats big for my mission hahaha. These people are grear they recognize us as the lords servants and are willing to better themselves to come unto him. So cool, but we have to get over smoking with one of them. But i'm confident in him. Fasting will help i'm sure. Yesterday we went fishing in the ocean it was sweet we caught nothing but I had a blast i'll get the pics by next week. Funny story... Elder Leota and I broke into the zonne Leaders flat and stole there three heaters and left all their windows open and then just left, hahaha and then we got a knock early in the morning and they come in shivering and we are warm and surrounded by seven heaters ahaha it was so funny. Weather is cold still but I love it here. Thank you all for your support. I love you guys.

-Elder Ballard

Transfer updates! July 6, 2009

Hello Family,
This week was absolutely nuts. Well my companion and I were tearing it up, we were told early that we were staying together for next tranfer so we were fine, we just went crazy good at working and did really well. But then tranfer news came and some last minute changes came, Elder Lewis is gone to the mainland, i've killed another one of my companions. I'm still in Glenorchy and it's official out of the first 20 people that were in Tazzy when I came here i'm the last one standing hahaha i've been here so long. My new companion is Elder Leota a Somoan from New Zealand. He's pretty cool. But ya I still feel bamboozled. We went to the snow yesterday you'll see pics i'll send them to mom. Work is good and we have a baptism coming up. I love it here I hope things start picking up more this is great. Love you guys take care.

-Elder Ballard

Six months!!

This week was fast and very slow at the same time, thank you guys for the package and for the goodies in it they were great I shared them with everybody. Not much happened this week but we did have lots of time to do finding and we found some pretty sweet newies but I did find out from president interviews that i'll be leaving Tazmania either next week or in seven weeks so my time here is dwindeling. But I had a good run, i'll miss some people here like nuts. The work must go on. Most my info will be in my next package home you'll enjoy this next one. Oh and WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO my Six months is tomorrow yay! I get to burn a tie! Man how fast did that go. Geez anyways I love you and you all take care.

-Elder Ballard

A day at the Zoo! (June 21, 2009)

G'day Family.

This week was good. Last week for P-day we went to a zoo park thing and I got to play with so many animals! I got to play with Deer, Emus, Kangaroos, Albino wallabies, Koalas, Wombats, Tazzy devils and I even got kissed by a Camel... ok mybae I did the kissing, I got heaps of pictures i'll send them soon. Oh and also during lunch one day this week we had some extra time and we had the awesome idea to set up a trap for a Wallaby. The trap is a wheely Bin (trash can) tipped over with an excersise band tied to the lid and the fence. Then we put apples in the bin and fashion a trigger that if the animal puts any weight on the trigger the top snaps tightly shut. It is the best stinkin trap ever but no success yet. There is a picture attatched to the email of the trap. You'll definately know when we catch one. We already picked his name. It's gonna be called dishes so we can say "do the dishes" as code to say feed the Wallaby. But on the more spiritual aspect of things we found a lot of new investogators this week. One just invited us off the street and we taught the first vision and the lady said I believe that's true. So excited! We see these people some time this week. Anyays love you all take care.

-Elder Ballard

Pictures! (click to see bigger)

Elder Ballard's first baptism!

"I'll call the cops!" (June 8, 2009)

G'day Family,
This week was pretty good. We got a lot of work done but it's still weird being senior Companion I don't like having to do all the work, but some funny stuff happened to us this week. The most recent story.... so you know what tracting is (door knocking) well it gets dark at like 4:30 here so we were doing some night tracting and we knock this door and then they weren't interested then we go to the next one and as we were walking to the next house I see this man just standing there holding somthing, so I decide to go and talk to him. So I throw my hand into a high wave and say "G'day Cobbah how you going?", and then he just screams "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING OUT HERE AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT?!!!" I respond "sir it's 6:35" then he says "GET IN YOUR CAR AND LEAVE, YOUR NOT EVEN ALOUD TO BE DOING THIS." "Actually fella we will not leave cause we are aloud to do this". "YOU LEAVE OR I'LL CALL THE POLICE!!" "You do that please i'd love to have a chin wag with them", then he just waddles up to his house which turns out we never even knocked his door. So why was he so mad, this whole time I was being polite but at the same time kinda rude. Then as he waddled off I said "have a good night" and he flipped me off haha. And as far as i'm concerned no police came. It was funny. The work and numbers are about the same but we haven't got any new investigators in so long. oh well. We're already half way through this tranfer freakin nuts and my six month is just around the corner wow, and Mike has been out a year what the heck it goes too fast I feel I haven't done enough. But all I can do is work my tail off. And mom I didn't forget about you I just only had a half hour yesterday cause the lame queens birthday so we get more time today. ok tell Shelby I miss her and the sunshine and the warmth and all of you. I love you all. bye.

-Elder Ballard