"The spirit was so strong in the room as Elder Parkinson and I bore our testimonies. I love being a missionary".....week 51

It's crazy to think that a year ago today I was 10 days away from reporting to the MTC! It has all gone by so fast, It seems like just yesterday I was at home holding my new born twin brothers and watching Frozen with Bronwyn. I have seen a lot of change over this year though, I have seen a lot of hardship and trials in other's lives and in my own. But one thing I didnt expect to happen was the change of heart. In alma 32:28 at the end of the verse it talks about the word or Jesus Christ becoming delicious to us and enlarging our soul. The gospel has really become delicious to me, I love it. I love searching the scriptures and listening to conference talks all day as we drive and its just all so amazing to me. 

So this week was a fast one, they all just seem to go by so quickly! But some weird things that happened this week is we went on Thursday up to a members property in the mountains to build some fences. He lives way out in the bush and it was raining on us the whole time but we didnt really care. But the reason I'm telling this is because Saturday morning I woke up and my lower back had been feeling weird for a while so I was rubbing it and i felt something so I looked in the mirrior and I had a massive tick!  It was a paralysis tick according to the people here. But being a boy scout I thought that I could handle it no problem, so I grabbed a lighter and tried to burn it. And all that did was make it crawl deeper inside of me and I burned myself haha. Then we tried pouring some listerine mouth wash on it and that just burned and then I tried to pull it out like a dummy and squeezed it and pulled and I just got a bit of its body and the rest was left in me where i couldnt get it. Everyone said I was gonna be crazy sick and all that if i didnt get the head out but I didnt beleive them and was stubborn and refused to go to the hospital to have them get the head out. But im feeling totally fine so I guess im immune haha.  But then the crazy thing is that night I found a giant leech on my leg just sucking away! It was massive! So I yanked it off quickly- which I guess is another no no- cause I didnt stop bleeding and ended up just putting a bandaid on it and going to bed and it soaked through it! Everything just wants my blood I guess haha.

So this week we had a cool experience! We called around when we found the tick and one of investigators said -come over we will give you some stuff for it- so we drove over and they were having a house inspection because they were renting and the couple that was doing it started asking us some questions.  So we all sat at the table and started talking and then some of the investigators friends showed up and joined the conversation. It was kinda funny.  We had 2 jehovas witnesses there, 2 born again christians, 1 catholic, then us and then our investigator family who are looking for a church! And we were leading a discussion with all of them. It was really cool, everyone was really open and respectful to everyone else, and we just had such a great conversation. Eventually one of them asked us how we could leave everything for 2 years, they asked basically what our conversion story was, why did we beleive. I told them my testimony was one that grew over time. But I shared with them the experience of my mum and the car accident she had. And how through faith fasting and the power of the preisthood she was able to heal and my little brother Colton was protected. The spirit was so strong in the room as Elder Parkinson and I bore our testimonies. I love being a missionary.

It was a good week overall, we gotta see heaps of people and help them out. The weather has been nice and rainy or cloudy so that's good.  I'm dreading the heat of summer that's comming in. I'm gonna sweat soooo bad. But it will all be right. 

Love you all heaps!

Elder White