We LOVE Our Life!

We love our life here as missionaries. We love the wonderful Chinese people; old and young. We love the people of the Caulfield and Fairfield wards; active and less active. We are trying to do everything we can to keep new members strong and less actives to come back and stay when they come back. The second is the hardest. We read a scripture in Alma this week that explains this. It is found in Alma 24:30 ;

So we have found that working with those who have chosen to leave the activity of the Church are harder to convince then those who have never heard it before.

Two baptisms this weekend. On Friday a young Chinese man named Lin Ging. We were not able to get to know him very well because his English is a little better then our Chinese. It was nice however to have Michael Chen who we know very well do the baptism. Also we learned something new. A priest can be a witness for a baptism. So Surge age 17 was able to be a witness and actually said it wasn't correct and told Michael that Lin Ging's elbow had not gone under. It was great to see these two new members use their Priesthood. Surge also was at the Sacrament table on Sunday.

Saturday we sat in the Caulfield chapel with the Australian mission leader and people who attended speaking Cantonese and Mandarin and English to witness the baptism of Chris Yang a Korean young man by another Korean new member in the Korean language.. Because there needed to be two witnesses who spoke Korean the Elders had it written out phonetically so they could follow along and make sure it was correct. Had to be done three times and then he was washed clean. He is a really cute young man. Here on a home stay program to learn English. Stayed with Sister Plum and was introduced to the Elders. He is very happy and we have enjoyed getting to know him. His mother in Korea was very happy for him.

We had dinner Tuesday evening with Argielynn and her husband. She is from the Philippines and he is from Shri Lanka. He is a Baddest. We had a very enjoyable evening. We found out about their life. They met over the Internet. She in Hong Kong he here in Australia. They met in Singapore and decided to get married. Now comes the trial. Two different religions. He doesn't seem to mind but she does. They come up to the flat and we had further discussions about religion. They left smiling like they were when we met them and he said he would listen to the lessons. The major problem is time. He is in school Monday and Tuesday and works all the others days until 7pm. I finally after all these months can say that it will all work out the way the Lord has it planned. If we are the people to teach him it will happen. I forgot to get their picture, will get it next time.

Last night we had dinner with Martin Side and his son Juliano and Martins girlfriend You Xing. She is from Taiwan and not a member. He would like to marry her. We brought the dinner discussion around to the church at different times and she listened and had a couple questions. She is one who has no beliefs. It was a good evening.

The one advantage we have is that we are the senior couple. Everyone seems to like us. I'm sure it is because we are older. We don't think of ourselves as older, but I guess that is the way it is. We are grateful for the experiences we have had in the church, that has become a great knowledge for us. We have been able to share many things with our new members and also with the Elders about how the church organization works. We have found that there is still a lot for us to learn about this mission. Each week we feel that we are getting closer to what it is we are really suppose to be doing here.

For all of you who have May birthdays we will try to phone you, but our time is so different that it may not work on the exact day. We wish you all a very Happy Birthday and a very great year to come.

Love you all and appreciate the updates on your families and our ward.

Mom and Dad Grandma and Grandpa Elder Urmston and Sister Urmston