She wants to make a change in her life

Email #70
Area: Katherine
Companion: Elder Justin

Excerpts from Mom's email:

Hey Mom!

This past week was really good! I have gotten into the grove here I would say for sure.

We got a lot done! I felt a better sense of my place here in Katherine. I think a huge reason is that I made a commitment with God to be more sincere in my prayers. It is a small thing, but it has made all the difference! Sometimes when you start saying repetitious prayers, there is no feeling or meaning behind it so every prayer I have I make sure that it is sincere. That was my goal this week! It has changed the way I feel in the day!

We met a women named G..... at the beginning of the week. We road past on our bikes and just walked up to her sitting in the front of her house on the ground. We talked about prayer and she quickly expressed why she wants to make a change in her life. She wants to get rid of all the bad feelings of pain and heart ache". She committed to baptism for July 14! Simple principles to these people can have a huge impact of them! Things that I learned when I was in primary. When following up with G....., we found out she left town for a few days, but we came crossed another friend named J... he is a member of G.....'s family! He is really cool! We taught him a little bit more of the restoration because he seemed to really understand easily! He even had these experiences in his life that has helped him know God and Jesus Christ, experiences that not many people are blessed enough to have! He came to church on Sunday and he is pretty committed! He is excited to be baptized as well in July!

While finding in Town this week we had a few funny experiences. We had 5 drunk aboriginals walk up to us at once and asked us to pray for them. Based off their smell they needed the prayers haha. They were really nice though:). It shows that deep down they have faith, they just need to get away from the "grog" for sure.

A huge highlight in the week is going to mutual in Binjari! Most are really sweet, but can be really crazy haha. You can tell that one of them was the trouble maker getting into fights and stuff. I really love the kids!

While finding, I have seen this pattern that is pretty funny. We walk up to these doors and there is always a gate! Always! Sometimes locked sometimes not. The worst though is when there are dogs! I have never seen so many dogs on one street! We would walk up and these dogs go crazy! Then the neighbors dogs do the same! Next thing you know there are like 10 dogs all barking at us haha. I thought it was really funny to be honest:).

Love you heaps and have a good week!


Excerpts from Dad's email:

Hey Dad!

To carry on from Mom's email:

We saw W..... this week almost every day! He is doing pretty well. We gave him these smoking patches to help him quit. He has been struggling with that a lot and is the only thing standing between him and baptism at this point. We had to push his date for another week to make sure that he is clean from them! It's okay though, he is determined.

We started up a movie night now in Binjari and Rockhole communities. We got a hold of a projector and a really good speaker. We set it up last night for the first time in Rockhole and the turn out was great! I have never seen so many of them so excited to see us haha. Some potentials there that we have had came over after and said "that was great Elders, when are you coming again?!" We are simply showing Mormon messages that we think they would like. I think next week we will be showing half of "Meet the Mormons". We have done a kind of movie night in the past, but just with a small DVD player. But for some reason a projector has attracted a lot more people!

Sunday's are super busy holy cow! With setting up church in each community, we don't have much time to go finding. We did for about 20 min on Sunday and we came across these Jehovah's Witnesses who were really nice! Got to talking and they even gave us some food. Unfortunately we had to refuse, because we were fasting that day for Warren. Never met such nice Jehovah's Witnesses though to be honest. Usually they try to bible bash lol.

Love you!

He suffered an INFINITE Atonement

Email #69
Area: Katherine
Companion: Elder Justin

Excerpts from Mom's email:

Hey Mom!

The kids here are so great I think they are what I like most about it. That picture that you saw was just one of the communities that we went to, but there is another one I am not sure if she posted any pictures for it or not. I saw the one of us running which I thought was pretty funny we were just rounding up those that we could and knew that we were running a little bit late. It has been a humbling experience, but not in ways that I thought or probably you are thinking. I think this is a place you are more able to find yourself. Not having extra responsibility at the moment with a zone leader position has given me time that I have not had my whole mission to study. This extra time has made a difference that I did not expect. I have held it sacred. My understanding for things I have had questions about has increased. I am feeling happier! I feel like I am becoming something more. This is just a side note, but I just am really grateful for this and I am more and more seeing that the course that I am on is where I am meant to be.

We have been holding movie nights in the Rockhole community and has been pretty successful. Basically we bring a church movie/video that we can base a lesson around and they really love their movies there! We started just with one of our investigators and then the kids just started showing up. We just got a projector from a member, so we are going to set something up at a little bit larger scale to try to get more there.

One of the videos you will see that there are a few peacocks! That was when we went to go and visit one of the inactive members here. He has a farm full of them so that was pretty cool! He is an interesting guy talking about meditation and nature and things like that. The whole time I felt like he was reading me haha. He was talking about my speech pattern and said that I was doing something called "flexing" which is I guess relating what he was talking about to another subject (the gospel of course haha).

Youth activities are really fun! Like I said, the kids are the best part of Katherine! We basically just played sports the whole time and I was warn out by the end because of the heat haha.

As always, I love you!!!
-Elder Bryner


Excerpts from Dad's email:

Hey Dad!

Well this week had some good days and some not so good days. There was two days that we did not leave the flat because of sickness :(... that was Friday and Saturday. I don't know what it was, but I just slept like I have never slept before haha! So much sleep! Those days went by really quick for me and by Sunday I was a lot better. Still not at 100%, but doing fine now. I think it might have been climate change idk haha.

Besides that, the week was pretty good. I have learned a lot about myself this week more pertaining to grace. I have known that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do"(2 Nephi 25:23). However sometimes I feel I can't even do my best. I have often wondered how I am supposed to become better if I can't even do my best. I have seen it has been through weakness, laziness from past bad habits, and just repetitive days that have held me back from doing my best. So I never understood how I am supposed to be changed by grace if I couldn't do all I can do. After much study and pondering this matter, I came to understand that Christ still is the way to do all we can do. He suffered an INFINITE Atonement, he has filled whole space! I have listened to "His Grace is Sufficient" many times, but it wasn't until I studied it out for myself that this sank into my heart. I now know that have to rely on Christ in all things. I just can't try to do my best on my own, but rely more on Christ that he may help me achieve my best, then as well he will fill the rest of the space as well. I hope that made some sense haha.

Been a lot of pondering lately. Teaching here is really really simple. Most of the knowledge that I gain in my personal study I can't use, but it has increased my testimony. At this point I know how to teach simply and to help them understand, now my focus is increasing my ability to help them feel the spirit even more!

We are teaching W..... still and he is two week away from his baptismal date! He has cut back his smoking almost to none! Sometimes still he slips up and he tells us in a really sorry voice "sorry I smoked one", but we know he can make it. He has a desire! It is really cool to see these people that understand the gospel on a very basic level still be able to have such a strong testimony.

Love you and have a good week!

Pictures from Katherine Branch Family Facebook page

Area: Katherine
Companion: Elder Justin

Pictures and comments from Katherine Branch Family Facebook page:


"We welcome a lovely new missionary to our Katherine Branch Family. His name is Elder Bryner. He’s is from Holiday Utah. He has a lovely testimony of the gospel and in particular in receiving personal revelation.  We are very grateful to have this faithful Elder working on behalf of the Lord in this area."

Elder Bryner first day in Katherine

Elder Bryner and Elder Justin

"Last night a fun evening with 12 of our youth and primary children out at Binjari. Thanks Elders Justin and Bryner as well as President Walmsley."

Elder Justin and Elder Bryner with a bunch of kids in Katherine

Out playing with the kids

"On Thursday nights we have the pleasure of having the missionaries over for dinner it’s always wonderful having their company and getting to know them.   After each meal they leave a spiritual message for us. Which we really love."

President Walmsley, Elder Justin & Elder Bryner eating dinner

"Today at Binjari we were a little late getting started so we had Elder Bryner and Elder Justin on the run. The children were laughing watching the Elders running trying to get back for sacrament."

Elders running to getting to sacrament meeting

"Another great thing happened today was our first official sacrament meeting in the new area of Rockhole. So now it’s 3 sacraments each Sunday. It’s very very exciting. But looking for an undercover area to hold the meetings."

Rockhole Community

So many children playing in the centre area today it was lovely to see.

Elder Bryner at Rockhole

This is little Alexis helping to pin down the cover.

Elder Justin and Elder Bryner setting up

Elder Bryner preparing sacrament with President Walmsley

Elder Bryner with the dog ‘Sooky’ who was also at Sacrament this afternoon.

Elder Bryner with an investigator who came over to meet us

Transferred to Katherine

Email #68
Area: Katherine
Companion: Elder Justin

Excerpts from Mom's email:

The week started with one of the farthest transfers I think you could go on. It started with traveling from Mildura to Adelaide, then a 5 hour plane ride from Adelaide to Darwin, and then another 3 hour drive from Darwin to Katherine. I would be curious to see just how far that transfer was, but it would be hard for me to figure that one out haha. It was great to start the week in Darwin to be able to experience for the first time the Northern Territory in Australia. That was just the beginning though, because once we got out here I was able to see kind of what it is like in the outback haha.

I really really love the kids here! They are just all so awesome! This is very different, because so many people seem to know the missionaries here. We go street contacting in town and my companion seems to know almost everyone that we talk to. Then we go to the small communities that are around Katherine such as Benjari and Rockhole. This is where a large number of aboriginals live. I love them haha! They are just how other missionaries described it to be. Very kind people, just many of them have a word of wisdom problem of some kind. I thought it was pretty funny to be honest though that they call it "Grog" like in Pirates of the Caribbean haha.

Right now we are working with one man who is on baptismal date named W...... He is really good, he always is there when we visit, he always is excited to learn, and he remembers the things we teach him. The only problem again is trying to give up smoking. Daily contact here I have learned is key, because not many of them have phones and if you go a while with no contact, you never know what might happen.

Contacting is very different as well. You just have to be super excited to see them to get any excitement out of them haha. My companion is really good at it, but not me quite yet haha it just feels fake to me when I do it. I usually am really real with people and that has always worked for me. I will have to find the balance for sure it is just a matter of adjustment.

What a crazy week! I will share more with dad as always so there are more details there don't worry:).
Love you heaps!


Excerpts from Dad's email:

Hey Dad!

Yeah when I arrived here there was half the zone waiting for us at the gate! That was pretty cool, but a huge surprise. Pretty much all the elders in the zone and the senior couple were there to welcome all of us. I flew up here with 3 other elders and more new missionaries I believe came in today. Things are a little weird being out of leadership out here to be honest. Luckily President came up here and I was able to talk to him about it. It was there very last visit and they are seeing all the zones one last time. They were here on Saturday and we had a big family home evening for much of the day. I was then able to talk to President that night about the changes, because I never had the chance to find out why all the changes until then. All I can say is it is for good reason. He said I will probably go back to leadership once I leave here, but he can't say for sure of course because he won't be the mission president here. It was a really sad last meeting, because I really am going to miss them. Saying goodbye to first president in the interview was very heartfelt and I know he loves me so much. How grateful I am for him! He has helped me more then I could ever express on my mission! Then once our last meet was through, I walked out and Sister Parker was there. I don't think she was ready because we actually were the first to missionaries she had to say goodbye to. Haha she was so close to hugging me because both of us are sooks haha, but you knew she did not like that rule haha. I'm so grateful for this last meeting with them! I just knew how much they care and it meant soooo much to me!

Following that, we had to go to bed right away, because we had to wake up early at 5:30am to drive back to Katherine. We have to run 3 sacrament meetings here, so we had to be here. It was unfortunate because the Parkers were up there for church, so we were the first to say goodbye to. We were even the first zone they have visited. They still will be here for a while, so it is okay and I know that they live close by at home so I look forward to seeing them again!

Church was really cool, we first hold it in Katherine with some members in the smallest branch I have seen yet! Then we go to the communities and hold it there. One of the communities mostly were all the kids and both of them we just hold it outside on these benches! Pretty different for sure!

Earlier in the week we help a mutual program for the kids and that was just so awesome! They are all great kids and even was able to get a few pictures. They somehow got a hold of my camera and just started taking pics so will have to keep that out of reach next time haha.

Probably are going to be a little confused with the pics and videos but I will try to explain on chat.

Love you heaps!

Respect "The Elders"

My new desk

My new companion

Plane ride to Darwine

Drive to Katherine

Kids got a hold of my camera

Getting transferred to Katherine

Email #67
Area: Mildura South Pickers of the Marion Zone
Companion: Elder Fala & Elder Siaosi

Excerpts from Mom's email:

Hey Mom!

Well this week was an unexpected one holy cow! It started out as a normal week with district meeting and a trade off with the district leader companionship. So we travel up to Robinvale for the trade off which is about an hour away and it started off really well! We were able to go street contacting in this really small town and there are heaps of Chinese there, so that was cool. Elder Siaw speaks 5 different languages, so he was able to talk to most of them up there. Then we went to have a lesson with one of there baptismal dates that only speaks Malaysian, so Elder Jordan and I just sat by for a while and listened. We started to just talk to others that were sharing the house and ended up finding a new investigator in the same house for them. Following the lesson we get a call from the assistants. They told me that I have a new assignment and have to head down to Adelaide the next morning. So we drive back down to Mildura and the next morning I left for Adelaide.

I've spent the majority of the week serving in the Evendale area which is right next to the mission office. It was really weird to be back in Adelaide, because it feels so different here compared to Mildura. People are really rough sometimes and the teaching pool is really small. Did heaps of door knocking and riding bikes around Adelaide. I don't like that because there are so many cars driving around here! It really brought back memories to serving in Grange at the beginning of my mission though.

I came down early because they were moving around the out lining areas (areas outside of south Australia) early. I didn't find out my new assignment however until just yesterday for transfers. Turns out that I am going to Katherine, an area just outside of Darwin! I was pretty surprised because that is so far out there! I look forward to it for sure and it is going to be a new experience by far! Darwin is a different part of the mission entirely at the very top of Australia. Should be a crazy one!

Love you heaps!


Excerpts from Dad's email:

Here in Adelaide I have been all over the place for spits. It has been really crazy out here, so I have moved in between two areas in Adelaide back and forth haha. It has been really good though, it is in the same zone I was in at the beginning of my mission when I was in Grange! The areas here are really tough! There are lots of Catholics here and so many that just don't like religion at all. In the past few days here, I have been with 4 different missionaries as changes were happening. Just a really crazy week for sure and really hard to fully explain. I might have to be a shorter email I think I don't know what to say haha. Really sorry about that. We knocked a lot of doors mostly haha.

Love you heaps!!!