"This is the true church. It's the same everywhere because Jesus Christ is at the head of it."...week 41

Hey everyone! 

This week has been awesome it was also a weird week though cause we were out of our area for a while. But I had a great time. It's been a little hard for me not being in the city anymore where everything happens so fast and there is so much work to do. Out here it's a lot slower, I thought I would like it but I miss the work. We still work hard out here but we don't see as much success haha. 

So we had to leave Monday for Coffs Harbour to go up to my companions great grandmas funeral. We left Monday and stayed there over night. The funeral was Tuesday morning and it was nice. My companions family took us out to dinner and bought me new shoes! We got back late Tuesday. I thought it might make me homesick but it really just reminded me how important it is to be out here doing the Lords work.  He didn't get homesick either though so that was good.

On Wednesday morning we went out and just did the normal stuff and then my companion and I realised we had some appointments we needed to get to in Kempsey so we went back to our flat and realised we had no ks left to drive for the month and so we both slowly looked up at the bikes in the back of the garage. And looked at the each other and nodded our heads haha. So we biked from port to Kempsey and it normally is only like 55 kilometres if you take the highway but the highway is all under construction so bikers aren't allowed! So we had to take the old Maria river road which is like 80 kilometres to Kempsey and it is all dirt and pot holes and mountains. We smashed it though.  We did it in like 5 hours so we wouldn't be late. Our legs literally bruised we went so hard haha. We were fine by morning.,........,. Kinda when we had to bike back home. Our bums are so sore. It was a good experience though! I think we set a record for missionaries of the farthest bike in one day! 

So Thursday morning we got picked up by some elders from down past Taree as they were driving up for our zone training meeting. So that was all Thursday and Friday. They were good meetings though. It was nice to see the other missionaries. We all slept over at the zone leaders place so there were 14 missionary's packed into one small room hahah. It was fun though. I started this like volleyball dodgeball type thing and we did it for like an hour haha. 

On Saturday we went finding in the missions which is like our government housing. Here is where most of the aboriginal people live. We played with the kids and stuff and they all started following us around.We would knock on the door and the little aboriginal kids would say, well aren't you gonna let em in? And so we actually got a lot of return appointment thanks to them! It was a fun time. 

Sunday was hilarious! There is a lot of drama going on and it all came out on Sunday we were just sitting there like what the........ But we stayed out of it and just left cause it was getting way out of control. But ya they are all awesome people. I love all of them.

It's been a great week. I love you all and hope you have a great week. This is the true church. It's the same everywhere because Jesus Christ is at the head of it. Being a missionary is the best thing in the world. You don't need a name tag though. Reach out to your friends and share with them what you have. We don't ever need to fear because God has promised to always be with us.

Elder White

** Awesome email and pics from an Aussie family

Conner had told us that he would be traveling to Coff's Harbour for a funeral last P-day.  The next day I got an email from someone I didn't know saying they had taken these 2 great elders to dinner and sent on a few pictures:

The next morning I got this:

Just at the funeral service of elder Forbes's great grand mother.
Elder white and elder Forbes on stage

At this point I put two and two together and realized that Conner's companions last name is Forbes and the email was from a Jason Forbes.  I remember Conner telling me his companion was from Brisbane, Australia, so I wrote back inquiring about the family relation.  Turns out Conner's companion's great grandmother lived in Coff's Harbour which is in Conner's mission and just 2 hours north of where he currently lives.  This was the funeral they attended.  His companion's family drove down for the funeral.  I got this beautiful letter and all of these amazing pictures back from his companion's dad.  It was an awesome, unexpected gift!


Hi Angela,

My apologies. I should have filled in a bit more of the detail before firing through photos of your wonderful missionary. 

We've just arrived back home so here's some of the back ground story and the special time we were blessed to share with Elder White.

Elder Forbes is indeed my son. He is our eldest and 1 of 6 (half the size of your wonderful family I believe!). His great grand mother on my wife's side died at the age of 97 a few days ago. She was an incredible and faithful woman. In fact her husband was Australia's 2nd Patriarch. Her home town is in Coffs Harbour about 2 hours north from where our son's serve and 6 hours drive south from us. Elder White and Elder Forbes managed to get permission from their mission president to attend the funeral however only after President interviewed Elder Forbes to make sure it wouldn't be too much of a distraction or cause him to become homesick. They drove up the night before which is when we were able to take our Elders out for dinner. They were staying at their zone leaders apartment.

The following morning Elder White and Elder Forbes attended the funeral with us. Elder Forbes was speaking so they both sat together on the stand together while his younger brother Joseph, was the organist. I managed to sneak a few shots in the chapel.

Even though it was an church funeral service was so nice having 2 missionaries present - especially when they are 2 amazing young men like our boys

Your son really is a credit to you and your family. He was patient and gracious as Elder Forbes supported his siblings and mother. Our sons seemed like brothers and I felt a lot of love towards Elder White. He is a great young man.

I was however mindful of Elder White as Elder Forbes enjoyed having his family around. Yet Elder White didn't show any sadness or disappointment. He was full of smiles and I think enjoyed being around our family. Elder Forbes's joy seemed to be his joy. He did however tell me he misses you - a natural expression of his deep love for you all. 

Our sons are strong missionaries who are doing some great work. They were like brothers and I could see the friendship and love they have already developed. They are a strength to each other and having them both at the funeral was like having living angels in attendance. Only 14 more fast Sundays and Elder White will be home before you know it :-) 

A family from their Port Macquarie brach that they're close to also attended the funeral. In speaking with the mother of this family she expressed how our sons are wonderful missionaries and are loved by the branch. She said they are doing great things in their small branch, especially with less active families. She was living proof. This following pic is of the members from their branch. 

Our boys compliment each other well. Noble yet full of personality, both with a twinkle in their eye. Serious when needed but also tender hearted and quick to smile. Watching them together Elder White is defiantly the more patient and wiser of the 2. Yet they are quite similar. It felt so good seeing them together. I left with a good feeling knowing they are companions. My only concern is they may not serve long together as Elder Forbes has been in the area for going on 5 months now. Yet they are in our Heavenly Fathers hands. What ever happens is meant to be.

We managed to get some left overs for our Elders to take back to the flat with them. The following pic is of Elder Forbes's youngest brother Noah and of course Elder White with a plate of food.

Both of our son's needed new shoes so after the funeral we took them to local mall. It was quite a special moment as the Spirit whispered to me we weren't just buying shoes for these wonderful young men but for Jesus.

The sisters from their branch felt the same promptings and insisted on contributing to your sons shoes. It was nice to see the love these ladies have for our boys. The following is a pic of Rebecca (my wife) on the left with SIster Cole and her daughter from Port Macquarie on the right. Elder White was very appreciative. But it was the least we could do. I can't express how wonderful your son is. 

I hope I have managed to share a portion of of the Spirit we felt being with Elder White today. Thank you for raising such wonderful young man and helping instil in him the desire to serve this Heavenly Father. Our sons are great. They are happy and engaged in the Lords work. 

And yes .... it was hard saying good ... again :-) But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I know our sons are exactly where they are meant to be.

Lots of Love 

The Forbes family

"We all need to have our Moses experience" ....Week 40

Hey everyone!  This week has been a slow one since i have been crazy sick all week but its also been a great week. Not too much to report on though ahah.

Ummmmmm lets see.  So i did learn a lot this week.  Because i was sick i got to do a lot of studies and i have learned some awesome things. i was reading the story about moses and it was really awesome. i linked the story from moses 1 to exodus and just learned about how moses had all of these fears about confronting pharaoh and even though he knew God was real he was still scared. But eventually he does go to pharaoh and as he goes to him he totally forgets about the help he has from God and just begs with pharaoh. Pharaoh just tosses him out and makes the burden on the people worse. Moses goes to God and says basically what happened there? i did what you asked and it went awful. God says alright go again.  And Moses has no faith.  He says, who am i to go? and then the story in exodus skips to him actually going and he does awesome. The story in moses 1 fills in what happened between it. Moses is up in the mountain complaining and God appears to moses and shows him this amazing vision where he sees the complete power of God. He realizes after that man is nothing and God is everything. Then God leaves and satan comes and satan try to get moses to worship him. Moses laughs and says that Satan is nothing and he tells satan that he is a son of God and will never turn away from God. Satan starts to shake the earth and display his "power" and moses commands him to leave. He then starts praying to God again and God comes back and talks to him and he sees another amazing vision. After all of this he has no fear at all for pharaoh and when God commands him to do something he does it and now he has gone from the wimpy moses to the moses that can work wonders and miracles. 

As i was thinking about this story i just thought about how each of us needs to have our own moses experience. We all need to come to trust God completely through reading the scriptures and praying.

Now for more fun stuff....

​We had to bike since we were out of k's for our car. We packed a sleeping bag and some food and took our bikes out haha. We camped out in the bush and everything haha it was so rad. This was tuesday through wednesday and i think its what i got sick from -like i got bit from something or whatever. it was awesome though. 

Well i love you all and hope you have a good week!

Banishment....this week has been awesome! Week 39

So this week has been awesome! i have only slept in my flat 2 times so far haha. Its so beautiful up here. It is like perfect weather all year round here so i hope i stay until summer is passed! SO we have 2 baptismal dates we set this week! it was funny cause i came in and my companion told me that here in port nobody will listen to us really. but we went out and we just smashed the work this week! we talked to everyone and found so many cool people. Its funny cause port is a retirement communiy so everyone here is old. but they are so funny.

Sunday was pretty crazy we meet in like a old mexican looking home up in the mountains and there was like 20 people there on sunday! they all went crazy when they heard i could play the piano haha. 

We had one man named billy who we found this week. He is pretty old like 70's but he is super cool. He bursts out laughing randomly and as he laughs he says he has no clue why he is laughing. He is crazy but awesome. HE accepted everything we taught and will be baptized in a couple weeks!

We stopped and ate lunch on this tree branch hanging over a river. It was super rad.

Its straight bush where we are. Like kangaroos will run alongside us and its so pretty.

I was gonna fight this kangaroo but it was a wuss and ran away haha.

This is a sweet waterfall we found while we were driving to a members 

Its so cool to be up here. We sleep on the road in the car sometimes or we sleep at members homes and they are all so loving and kind. We have no more k's for the month though so now we are traveling by bike mostly haha. We might have to pack the sleeping bags and sleep like real men ahaha we want to try it out on saturday cause we gotta go way out and we cant take the car! i will let you know how it goes.

We work alot with the few youth we have in the branch and try to help them out. we do alot of service for people. Like this week we gotta tear down a wall! i got to run through it haha it was sick! 

Love you all!

Elder White

"I Have Been Banished!!!!!!" Week 38

So transfers was this week and i got the news that i was going to Port Maquarie and the other missionarys were all like -you're being banished! You won't see other missionaries for months! So i was pretty excited actually haha. Well i am the driver and man it was a long drive.  We left at like 12am from Sydney and didnt get to the flat till around 6! it was such a pretty drive though. Lots of kangaroos running, or i guess hopping, along side the car and stuff it was so cool. We live in a little place but it's actually pretty nice. We don't stay there too much though. Up here we travel around a lot and stay at member's homes and stuff. It's so rad! Like we can drive for hours and still be in our area. Its gonna be a fun time.

So the work is going good. I am gonna miss the city! everyone was crying and so i cried and looked like a big wimp hahah. I love emm all. 

So some good news we got a text from the assistants this morning and it was a forwarded message. I read it and it was from Dawn. She hadn't had a phone for 2 weeks and had been so slammed with work. She said she is so sad she missed saying goodbye to us. She is quitting her job so she can meet with missionarys. She will be baptized in a week or 2. Im so happy for her. ill miss her though. She said she would come visit me in my new area but i think she will take it back when she finds out where i am ahah. 

There isn't too much to report on for the week. We did smash the work the last week though.  We have 2 other investigators who will be baptized in the next 2 weeks and now dawn so that makes 3! im pretty bummed out i wont be there but its so awesome to have been able to teach them. I love being a missionary so much. Me and Elder Leak went to the sydney zoo our last p day in the city and it was so lame haah. i saw cooler things in claremont meadows but it was still fun cause he payed for me!

Up here in Port we wear like jeans and all that instead of dress pants and its just so cool. Its the most beautiful area in the mission. We are allowed to go to the beach and everything! just not in the water of course. 

Its just us 2 up here. We are a couple hours away from the next set of missionarys haha. Its so insane. We dont do any district meetings or anything, we just do calls every now and then. Its gonna be a interesting experience. it kinda reminds me of my first area in west virginia! except there are kangaroos everywhere here and its so pretty.

Only old people live here though haha. And its hard to get aussies to listen to us.  They are a hardened bunch of people.

My companion is from brisbane and he is a cool guy. He has been out for 5 months now. Im his second companion. we are gonna get along awesome. He is a crack up

I will send you all some pics next week of the new area! love you all!

Elder White