January 9, 2012

My Dear Family and Friends AKA You!
Life in the Isle of Destiny (Innisfail) is going. We definitely see a lot of potential, but the work is moving a long slowly. The members are very nice and that is so cool that Aunt Becki is related to Brother and Sister Smith. They are a wonderful couple. I've met them and am actually having supper at their house on January 24th. Small world eh? Missionaries were living at their house until about May last year (then they moved to Sister Stanford's where I am now.) My last companion, Sister Jones actually lived with them for a little while when she served here. I'll have to make the connection with them the next time I see them.

I'm so glad I bought such warm coats, sweaters, and thermals. Ha ha ;) It has been so warm! This week it got up to +12 C (I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit... 58 I think.) I'm definitely not complaining though. It's nice to go finding just in a cardigan and no bulky coat.

As far as missionary work goes we're just plugging away. We have some Former Investigators, Referrals, and Part Member Families we're hoping to get things going with. I've enjoyed our lessons with less actives and Recent Converts. There are a lot of really sincere people here. Sister White and I have come up with some pretty legit Member lessons/ FHE activities. One is the testimony balloon. We have everyone in the family write down something they know to be true and then they put it in the balloon. We then ask, "What can you do to strengthen your testimony?" As they tell us things (like go to church, read scriptures, pray) We blow up the balloon. Then we ask, "What happens if we forget to do those things?" We then let air out of the balloon. The kids really like it and we testify that we must continually strengthen our testimonies as well as not letting things "pop" or "deflate" our testimonies. To end we play a game of "Don't let your testimony touch the floor". It has been a success.

Another really fun lesson we've done for Missionary Work is the egg lesson. We started by having everyone write down someone they could invite to meet with the missionaries. Then we had one person draw that person on a hard boiled egg. We then explained, "We all have friends we'd like to get into the church. Sometimes our friends have hard shells and they won't accept the gospel right away. What can we do to soften them up?" As they'd give ideas we'd start cracking the egg. Once the egg is cracked we say, "Perfect, you've softened your friend and now they are ready to meet with the missionaries." We'd then peel the hard shell off until we just had the hard boiled egg. "Once we've taught them all the lessons and taken their hard shell off your friend is ready for baptism." We'd then dip the egg in a bowl of water (explaining that someone holding the priesthood would baptize them of course ;) "Once they've been baptized by water they can be baptized by fire and then they are a member of the church." We'd light a match and put it in a bottle that represents the church. The egg that previously couldn't fit because of the hard shell and size is brought into "the church" without of problem. It is pretty sweet. Kids love it and it's pretty legit. We then invite them to do something to soften their friend's hard shell.

Well, the church is true. Continue to look for ways to help the missionaries out and do missionary work on your own. There is so much each of us can do to "Soften their shell."

I love you all!! Until next time!

Love,
Sister Leanna Thompson
Proverbs 25:25 (Hint hint) ;)