Elder Jaren Bryner A LDS Missionary Down Under in Adelaide Australia: California baptism...wonderful week and moving to new flat

Email #14
Area: Grange area of the Firle Zone
Companion: Elder Hamilton

Excerpts from Mom's email:

Hey Mom!
Sorry that I didn't email yesterday, we had a 12 hour training yesterday called boot camp so our entire day was filled up haha. Our P-day is today though so it is okay. We are actually going to be moving when we are done emailing, but I have already seen the new flat and it looks so good. Can't wait to send you a video of that next week, but in the mean time I will send a video of the old flat. So this week has been jam packed and thinking back through it, it has gone really slow. It feels like some of the things that I will talk about happened forever ago. Yeah they have a lot of crazy wildlife here as you would expect. The craziest thing has been happening where birds will just swoop down toward sometimes and it just startles us haha. I will have to get a video of that because it is just the weirdest thing, but it has to do with the time of year.

So we have twelve investigators in our teaching pool now, so we are just crazy busy all the time. I have seriously never been so busy in my entire life! The good thing is I really love doing the work. The days fly by as they go, but for some reason when I think back it feels like a long time ago. Their is just so much to talk about, but I will just tell you about a few experiences this week. So first off, at the beginning of the week I face my hardest challenge yet. Sometimes when we go finding we split up a little bit to talk to multiple people at once. We still stay within a couple of feet from each other, but we talk to different people. So we were doing that and I came across these two men who were Cristedelfian of something like that. It is a religion that doesn't believe in the principle of a soul. Anyway so I ride up and the first thing one says is that they don't want anything to do with the Mormons. Obviously we get that sometimes, so I know how to work around it in conversation so I keep talking to them getting to know them. He then says "I know what you are doing and it isn't going to work. You are being nice to us so then you can pull us in" or something like that. Next thing I know they are trying to bible bash with me saying that there is no such thing as a soul. They believe in the bible and how it talks about when Christ comes again he will raise the dead. So we were going over that and they asked where in those scriptures does it talk about a soul. Haha this was just the weirdest thing ever, but I answered their questions and one of them just starts yelling at me. I haven't really had someone really yell at me yet, so my companion comes over and helps me out. So that was an interesting experience, but it is just hard to put into words. It is safe to say though that the only reason he got mad at me is because he new I was right haha. I don't like bible bashing, but I am at least happy I was able to answer him with scriptures haha.

So now for a much better experience:) We have been this man named D... for a long time now. Elder Hamilton found him about 4 months ago and when they first met, he was an atheist and thought he would never go to a church. Next thing you know, we had inside the church building for a chapel tour. Not only that, but during our last lesson he was telling us just how big of a blessing we have been. To even add on to that, he sent us a heartfelt message yesterday telling us how he has been praying and thanking god for the amazing blessing he has to have us help him to believe. He went on to say that every time he talks to us, he finds more work to help him pay the bills. If you new D..., you would understand why all of this is a big deal. He has changed so much from when I first met him a few weeks ago, let alone when Elder Hamilton first found him. It's been amazing to see the change in all of our investigators. I think that is why I love missionary work so much. We are blessed to see miracles everyday and I will be emailing Dad about one of those Miracles this week.

Love you so much Mom
Elder Bryner

Excerpts from Dad's email:

Hey Dad!
Good to hear that everything is going well at home for you all! Yeah this week has gone really really well and we are seeing so much success I can't even believe it. I had one challenge this week and I was even able to over come that. I am really surprised just how much I have changed in the time I have been here. I mean I am the same person, but I have changed more then I could explain, it is really hard to explain.

So B.. and D.... have been progressing a ton ever time that we see them. We see them a couple of times during the week and we seriously look forward to when we go over because they are just so good. So another son actually came into the picture as well. His name is J.... and he is 17 years old. Its crazy because his girlfriend is LDS as well and it has amazed us how prepared this family is. We are going to do the invite to baptism this week for June 3rd. I am really hoping to stay in this area, because we have so many investigators that I want to see baptized and help them to the end. We have 4 on date at the moment and all of them are really solid. We have two right now that we are positive will be baptized, because there basically is no way they would back out from what they have told us and from what we have seen.

Their was a really strong miracle this week. We were teaching an investigator named B...., who has been being taught for 10 months now. (He will be in the picture with the temple and all the other pictures in it in a wheel chair) So the first time he was going to be baptized, he was hit by a car and that had really scared him to go through with it. The Member that was with us, Brother Gabheart has seen him with the missionaries most of the time and has grown very close to him. He knows that he wants to be baptized, but has been to scared to go through with it. Every time he is doing the right thing like planning to go see the temple or baptized, something bad happens. He had a heart attack before and hit by a car. He said the only reason he survived is because God wants him to be baptized first. Anyway, this last time that we saw him we were reading in the Book of Mormon with him and it really talked about baptism and how important it is. We both felt very impressed to invite him to baptism on June 3. To our surprise, he accepted it! It is hard to put into words how huge this is! He always said not to push him for baptism because he is just to scared. Now he is feeling good about this date so hopefully we can see it through.

Was a great week! Just want to tell you that I think about you guys all the time and you are always in my prayers every single day! Love you so much!
Elder Bryner