Monday 16th September 2013 - Mission Conference

This past week was awesome! The whole Australia Melbourne Mission (except those serving in Tasmania) gathered together to receive wise words of council and love from one of our beloved general authorities Elder Pearson, he was accompanied by his wife and President and Sister Maxwell. When they entered the Heidelberg Stake Centre in Fairfield, Elder Pearson requested that all missionaries present shake his and his wife's hand, just so they could get the chance to greet everyone personally, what an experience that was! As I shook Elder Pearson's hand he looked straight into my eyes and said "Elder Apulu, How are you?"  I just smiled and told him that I am well and loving this work! so spiritually uplifting as a missionary to speak to a general authority face to face. Another exiting thing about mission conferences is that you get to meet up with all your fellow missionaries that you have served around. I was privileged to walk out of the stake centre and grab a picture with my trainer Elder Mcphee, his 1st son Elder Miller and his 3rd son Elder Haenga, yes I am the 2nd son haha mean heritage photo.

My companion and I were blessed again to have been given a lift by our fellow Fairfield missionaries Elder Napa and Elder Wilson, after the conference we headed back to their flat with our fellow Elders in the Caulfield Area Elder Solomon and Elder Pipers. Then after receiving so much spiritual food for the day we proceeded to grab some physical food at the local KFC. A day to remember!

 



 

Monday 9th September 2013 - Temple, Family Reunion and Costco

What a glorious week! Our zone was indeed blessed and priviliged to attend the Australia Melbourne Temple on Thursday. My companion and I arose at 5:00am (the earliest time I have risen on the mission field! haha earlier the better I guess) in the morning to make a trip out to our fellow missionaries in the Fairfield area Elder Napa and Elder Wilson who were our means of transportation to the temple. We enjoyed our spiritually uplifting day with them filled with jokes, laughs and Maccas.

So grateful to Brother and Sister Frew who took us to Costco to do a bit of shopping and shouted us lunch, as you can see everything you buy there is MASSIVE! Cannot believe I found two New Zealand products, some good old Griffin's bickies and the only number one, authentic corn beef in the entire world PALMS! haha, believe it or not all of this was polished in a matter of days.......not by me aha, we shared some with our Fairfield missionaries and gave the whole tray of muffins to our office staff. Looking forward to the next time we go there, straight up a missionary's dream shopping centre.

And to finish off this glorious week, I was honoured to have been reunited with my family here in Mlebourne, brought back memories of when I was little, time flys by too fast when your out here serving, cuzzy Nick shouted me and my companion to the all-you-can-eat buffet named the Kitchen Workshop in the Crown Hotel in the city, the food was DELICIOUS! really really tasty, enjoyed the company of friends and family. Going the miss them but alas this work must go forward. Loving the mission field! 

Monday 2nd September 2013 - Rainbows, Family, White Shirts and Ties

And the 3rd week of my 5th transfer has come to an end, has been very interesting this past week, on Friday we had to the privilege of journeying into the city of Melbourne to drop off a Persian Book of Mormon to our Zone Leaders Elder Smith and Elder Glover, luckily we had 1 left over from teaching our Persian investigator Arash, so as we made the journey back from the drop off we jumped off at North Melbourne Station only to see a massive rainbow directly above us, we could not let this opportuniy pass us by so me and my companion captured our pots of gold.

I was also priviliged to catch up with my Fitisemanu Family here in Melbourne, was soooooooo good to be around cuzzy Nick, his wife Vanessa, son Remi, daughter Esme and brother Andrew, the last time I got to see them was about 10 years ago! When I was a little snot nosed kid haha. Time literally flys these days, they prepared a huge feed for me and my companion, a good old Fitisemanu barbeque! hehe, will definitely be catching up again with them soon.

To finish off a wonderful week, me and my companion were indeed blessed to witness the confirmation of our recent convert Arash by our beloved Bishop, the Spirit was felt in abundance after the blessing as he arose from his chair and shook all of our hands, what was also speical that sabbath morning was that Arash had not worn a white shirt and tie before so our bishop beforehand guessed his size and brought along one of his spare ties, me and my companion quickly rushed into one of the classrooms in the chapel and helped him get dressed into his new sabbath attire, once he was dressed he was so happy and we knew straight away how he was feeling, he  also promised us that he was going to wear that shirt and tie every sunday! He is the man! Going to miss him when I leave this area. Good times.