Wow - What a view!

Dear Mom,

Yeah we were in a hurry so I sent only four photos, and I am sending one attached to this, but that was a hike, or bush walk as they call it, with some members. The baby is Alexander, and is the cutest baby ever - super disappointed that we aren't allowed to hold them. The others are members except the older lady who is a mother of Sister Mandi, an American from Colorado, who lives here with Brother Sam, an Aussie. They're awesome, and the Shoobridges are really awesome. We are going to go on another hike with them today and with the returned missionary/branch mission leader Jared. He's awesome too. He served in New Zealand, but not in Andrew's mission unfortunately. I'll have to definitely get a picture of the Shoobridges for you. Such a great family.  

This past week was very good, though we weren't able to see Eve and Ben Daniel. Eve is still recovering, though we are shooting to see her this upcoming week and same with Ben Daniel, since he is not working this week. We were able to stop again at Gordon's place to give him the "Faith in Christ" DVD but he wasn't there so we left it in the door. We really want to help him to see the relevance for him or else we will have to drop him. We dropped Brandon. The mother came out and told us that they have the JWs visit twice a week and so that's enough for them. It's such a bummer to see people get deceived like that. 

I am doing well though and will miss the area when I leave, I have five weeks til the next transfer so I should be safe. We had a miracle find which was pretty cool. Her name is Nola, and it was truly amazing and inspired. I enjoy my Albanian companion and he cooks lots of food, so I am putting on weight which is just awful but better than starving. But enough about me, my life's the same, good though. How are you? How are the two little people? I will send Melissa an index card in the mail for her. That was a very good idea to have the people do that by the way. I really hope she gets diving into the scriptures. I've been doing some study and that has been good. I am still studying the general conference talks. There are some really good things from each one of them. 

My testimony grows every day and I keep learning just how much our Father in Heaven loves us and why I should love them. It's great. I haven't been to the temple yet, one year now since landing in Australia, so boy I can't wait until I do. 

Love you so much, Mom, and I love getting your emails and the beautiful pictures of you and the family!

Love,

Elder Justin Cederlof

P.S.  This past week we had a wonderful miracle. We were on our way home from giving the sacrament to an elderly couple in a nursing home and as we were leaving I felt the impression to go tracting. I thought, “It's getting late when you usually don't tract, but where should I?” And the thought came to my mind: a pink house with white flowers. I thought that was interesting and actually thought I just thought that and not from the spirit. Well as we are driving I notice a pink house with white flowers on a hill on a different street, and I was thinking: what if..? And so I turned the car around, we knocked, lady opened, and we shared about our church. She was interested and actually had felt like staying home that night, and a little bit before we came to the door she felt that someone might be knocking that night. Cool as!! That was really nice. The Lord works in great ways, even by telling me exactly what house he wants to be visited. Shows you that the Lord's hand is in the work. 

 

P-Day Bush Walk

Dear Mom,

Time is very short this day, but pictures say 1000 words so it makes up. I am doing well. I am still in Merimbula with Elder Osmeni. We are currently working with our investigators, but have only been able to visit with Gordon, the old man who wants to believe. We gave him a restoration video, and hopes are he sees it and then gets that faith and deeper desire.

Eve and Ben Daniel we'll hopefully see this upcoming week. We need to do more finding, and are going to really focus on hastening the work of the Lord. Especially with the current dangers that are brewing across the face of the earth, namely ISIS, which, don't worry I am perfectly safe and six to seven hours away from, I think the missionary work really needs to be hastened.

I am so excited to hear from the General Authorities when we have General Conference and I've been studying the current conference ensign, relating it to my patriarchal blessing, which has been really amazing. I know that the church is true, ever more, and I ever grow in that knowledge every day.

I love you, take care, and know that I know this is ever true and that my calling is ever worth it.

Love, 

Elder Justin Cederlof

Dear Mom,

 

By the way transfers coming up so will be on on Tuesday next week. It is great having Elder Osmeni as a chef, but a bummer because I have some tummy fat and that is just not acceptable for my coming home. Eve is recovering, and we hope that she will be well this upcoming week because we haven't been able to teach her for so stinkin' long. We are busy and there's great potential in the area. I was able to talk to Brother Shoobridge's friend named Lisa, who's the wife of Tom, and was able to talk about the plan of salvation. I think she's ready. Hopefully, we'll be at her mother's for dinner this week (her mom invited us which was pretty cool). Afterwards of teaching, Brother Shoobridge actually took her on a tour of the chapel, which was pretty awesome. We are stopping by today to invite them to an activity this weekend. 

 

That's awesome to hear that the talk was good for Melissa and the audience, and awesome that Zach sent a video. I'll have to do a video sometime. As for the area, we only saw one investigator that just isn't seeing the need for a true church and it's kind of sad. We might drop him unfortunately. We were able to see two less actives and two came to church which was great, actually three ha. I'm loving the area and it will be sad when I leave. I love this area the most out of all of them so far. 

 

I love you so much, and it's so amazing to think that now Melissa is baptized!  It's great. 

 

Love,

 

Elder J. Cederlof.

 

P.S. You are world's best mom ever still. And these photos are at an animal conservation place we do service at. 

 

It's a Picture Week!

Beautiful Merimbula!



First Snow!

Elder Osmeni and the first snow I've seen in Australia - we were both super excited.
It was on the way down to our area, Merimbula, from Canberra. 

Merimbula

1st Zone Leader, now Assistant to the President

Dear World's Greatest Mom,   So Elder Balenaveikau is Fijian, and was the only Fijian down here. We had gotten a not so nice racist letter at the door of our flat, telling him to get out of there. The second one, and the last straw to which we called mission president, was along the lines of "we're coming after you" or something like that with not so good racist name calling. So he went up north and I got Elder Osmeni, the Albanian. That was sunday night we got the second one. We left the next morning up to Canberra. Wasn't the most fun p-day. He's okay.    Elder Osmeni is from Albania, which is on the other side of the Adriatic sea from Italy. It's by Macedonia. He's a chef and worked before he came out at a five star hotel. So far he's been the cook, and I am glady stepping aside. He's been introduced to the members of the branch and talked a little about himself when bearing his testimony at sacrament meeting. This week we actually didn't really get to see our investigators. They were all not home or busy or whatever. Eve is now out of the hospital and is just resting and waiting for her results from the testing at the hospital. We left a note for her at her house.    Even though the work here is very slow, I love it here and there is great potential. Right now the focus is the friends of Brother Shoobridge who have attended that game night thing. We were able to catch one of them in the parking lot of Woolworths (grocery) and talked about his beliefs and gave him a Book of Mormon, and since we knew him, it was easy to talk to him and talk about the church.    Well, today we are going to build sandcastles at the beach. Time will come short when we aren't allowed at the beach so taking advantage while I can.    Love you, thanks for the ring, and tell Melissa she's awesome and I am so excited for her baptism!   Love,   Elder J. Cederlof

 

Dear World's Greatest Mom,   So Elder Balenaveikau is Fijian, and was the only Fijian down here. We had gotten a not so nice racist letter at the door of our flat, telling him to get out of there. The second one, and the last straw to which we called mission president, was along the lines of "we're coming after you" or something like that with not so good racist name calling. So he went up north and I got Elder Osmeni, the Albanian. That was sunday night we got the second one. We left the next morning up to Canberra. Wasn't the most fun p-day. He's okay.    Elder Osmeni is from Albania, which is on the other side of the Adriatic sea from Italy. It's by Macedonia. He's a chef and worked before he came out at a five star hotel. So far he's been the cook, and I am glady stepping aside. He's been introduced to the members of the branch and talked a little about himself when bearing his testimony at sacrament meeting. This week we actually didn't really get to see our investigators. They were all not home or busy or whatever. Eve is now out of the hospital and is just resting and waiting for her results from the testing at the hospital. We left a note for her at her house.    Even though the work here is very slow, I love it here and there is great potential. Right now the focus is the friends of Brother Shoobridge who have attended that game night thing. We were able to catch one of them in the parking lot of Woolworths (grocery) and talked about his beliefs and gave him a Book of Mormon, and since we knew him, it was easy to talk to him and talk about the church.    Well, today we are going to build sandcastles at the beach. Time will come short when we aren't allowed at the beach so taking advantage while I can.    Love you, thanks for the ring, and tell Melissa she's awesome and I am so excited for her baptism!   Love,   Elder J. Cederlof

Dear World's Greatest Mom,

 

So Elder Balenaveikau is Fijian, and was the only Fijian down here. We had gotten a not so nice racist letter at the door of our flat, telling him to get out of there. The second one, and the last straw to which we called mission president, was along the lines of "we're coming after you" or something like that with not so good racist name calling. So he went up north and I got Elder Osmeni, the Albanian. That was sunday night we got the second one. We left the next morning up to Canberra. Wasn't the most fun p-day. He's okay. 

 

Elder Osmeni is from Albania, which is on the other side of the Adriatic sea from Italy. It's by Macedonia. He's a chef and worked before he came out at a five star hotel. So far he's been the cook, and I am glady stepping aside. He's been introduced to the members of the branch and talked a little about himself when bearing his testimony at sacrament meeting. This week we actually didn't really get to see our investigators. They were all not home or busy or whatever. Eve is now out of the hospital and is just resting and waiting for her results from the testing at the hospital. We left a note for her at her house. 

 

Even though the work here is very slow, I love it here and there is great potential. Right now the focus is the friends of Brother Shoobridge who have attended that game night thing. We were able to catch one of them in the parking lot of Woolworths (grocery) and talked about his beliefs and gave him a Book of Mormon, and since we knew him, it was easy to talk to him and talk about the church. 

 

Well, today we are going to build sandcastles at the beach. Time will come short when we aren't allowed at the beach so taking advantage while I can. 

 

Love you, thanks for the ring, and tell Melissa she's awesome and I am so excited for her baptism!

 

Love,

 

Elder J. Cederlof

Dear Mom,   This past week I can hardly remember. It wasn't the best of weeks - we only taught one lesson with all others not home or what not - but we did have zone conference in Canberra which was great. The assistants to the president spoke on listening and asking questions in teaching situations (which are found in Preach my Gospel). It was really good because you need the investigator and less active to talk and you need to really hear what they are saying so that you can come closer to knowing their needs and showing that you care.   For the highlight of the week we met Mitch, who came to stay with Brother Shoobridge's friend, Tom. We were able to see him at the gaming activity that happens at the family history center. Right before he left we visited Tom so we could see Mitch off, and we had the chance to give him a Book of Mormon as a gift, wrote our testimonies in it, talk about the Book of Mormon and the restoration, and he was open and said he'd read them. That was pretty awesome.   We're emailing late because we had to come up to Canberra today because Elder Balenaveikau is being emergency transferred so I'm getting a new companion, Elder Osmani, tomorrow and will drive down to Merimbula either tomorrow or the next day depending on if we do trade-offs.   Well that sums up the week.     Love,  Elder J. Cederlof