Life as a missionary - or as Scott calls him Elder Tourist!!!

Time to catch up on Elder Duffus mission adventures with a few late posting emails and pictures. So Elder Duffus was transferred from Darwin and we had to wait for a week till we found out where he had been transferred to.............

so YES I did get transferred and YES I am on Kangaroo Island. I don't think president likes me or wants me around him because as soon as I get to Adelaide he ships me off again lol. (Jene - I told him he had got to have these experiences as President trusted him to behave and do the things he was meant to be doing, not the other way around lol)

this last week has been interesting because after transfers i was working with heaps of different missionaries in Adelaide because we had a multizone conference so I stayed in Adelaide till saturday morning then came out to Kangaroo Island.

The island is nice and they have some really good honey here, rare bees or something. the branch president is the 3rd largest bee keeper on the island so we get free honey. I'll get some and send it home for you!!

other than that the members are really excited to have missionaries here. the island has been missionary-less for 3 years and its only been open for 2 transfers. me and elder taylor (companion) have a feeling that it will close again because after 8 weeks with his last companion he had knocked every single door on the island. So they are just going to see if at the end of this transfer if there is any investigators progressing or people with a baptismal date, then they should keep us here. There are no more houses to knock on the Island and we teach maybe 4 investigators, otherwise we just go and visit the members and try to do serve and help them out as much as possible.  but if nothing is happening towards the end of the transfer it may close again, I feel sorry for the members here because they love the missionaries and the missionary work and are trying so hard to keep us here.

Elder Taylor said I'm going to get fat because 6 - 7 nights a week they feed us. There is a chapel here, it is a house that has been rebuilt for a chapel. There are probably about 40  members on records and about 17 attending, which is pretty much one family. one of the sisters here, sister Lovegrove, served in Penrith around the time I was born and she thinks dad was the bishop at the time, it would be sister McCann back then and was in the ward for about 4 months.

i was reading the part about simba and i thought you were about to say that he died but he still there, tell him i said he is a dopey cat. (Jene - I had told him that Simba (our cat) went missing for a couple of days when we moved house and we thought he was gone for good but we found him again thankfully as I didn't know how to tell Brendan that he was gone!!)

were are going to prospect hill later to dedicate the island. its the highest point on the island so ill take photos and the member take us all over the island like seal bay and magnificent rocks or something like that

its so exciting how many  YSA's are going through the temple and how many people have the desire to serve.

nothing else has happened this week but maybe next week ill have more to write about

love you all

 

Hi everyone

 

this week has been hard!! Every door has been knocked and almost every person contacted. we have a few investigators but some live about 50 minutes away so it is hard to get out there. other than that though the members are good and referring us to everyone they know which is pretty cool. they haven't had anyone knew come to church for about 3 years so they are really desperate for something to happen while we are here on the island.

 

the island is pretty amazing and I just wish I had the good camera. because I would be getting some pretty amazing shots. just an excuse to get back here after the mission. I got some photos of the island and today some members are taking us out to the west end to go to some caves like the Jenolan caves! so hopefully more photos soon.  the only kangaroos I've seen are dead ones!!

man that's so exciting for Jayden!! (Jayden Halavaka, who was called to serve in the Ghana Africa) Has Hans left yet, cant remember when he is leaving? and Tipe going through the temple, that's crazy but so exciting!!

 

Yeah I was talking to matt last week, via email and he told me about the video that he did about Katy.  sounds really good and I cant wait to see it when I get home.  (Matt did a video as one of his projects about and its on You Tube called We are more alike than different.  this is the link if you want to check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_6pKG3aJWI)

so my companions name is Elder Jon Taylor and he is the great, great, great, grandson of President John Taylor!! he is the man and he is into the same movies games and everything as me. He has been on his mission for over a year from Arizona and he plays volleyball, and I got him addicted to VEGEMITE!!

That's the exciting news for the week.

love you all

 

 looking over Kangaroo Island from prospect hill (dad to research)

Pennington bay

this is the baptismal font for the island, which would be really great in summer but not to sure about winter lol

this is the chair that I broke - man I must be putting on the weight!

 

 

(Jene - I sent him photos from Jayden Halavaka's farewell Sunday and setting apart this week) 

 

Hi

 

Tanner is flippin tall, when did that happen????  Jayden looks so cool and happy, man I wish I was there to see him off but we will catch up when we both get home.  Ethan and Courtney's baby is really cute.

JayJay said it was this week he should get his call, so I hope everything went well with it?? so you had the mini convention, did dad have to take anyone to the hospital this time hahaha. was it MacArthur stake that hosted it?? sounds like fun but of course couldn't have been that good cause I wasn't there!!(Jene - mmm me thinks he sounds like one of his brothers - which one I wonder??) is this the week that everything happened to everyone. JayJay said Brother Manapori passed away and now Deirdre's mum is in hospital and Sister Jarman passed away as well.  I hope everyone is ok and please give them my love xx

man they changed mission prep to 7 am that is way too early haha. even we as missionaries don't study that early in the morning!! who is the mission prep teacher now?? but its great that everyone is going.  its really good preparation for a mission - guess that's why its called mission prep haha.

things are going alright over this way... taught 1 lesson this week!!! wooohooo hahaha. man its getting harder and harder to find things to do and we have been getting calls from the zone leaders and the assistants about the area. it is most likely it will be closed for a while after this transfer which really sucks because it is a really cool place to serve and the members here are awesome. its just the people here are too relaxed and comfortable with where they are at the moment, and they don't think it would be worth changing now. but other than that I'm still enjoying it... you can never get discouraged and drop your head because you will miss all the opportunities that happen in front of you.

that's about all that happened this week. went out last night to a members house who culled some kangaroos so we might get some roo mince. Also he had a whole heap of honey that got to hot so it went a different colour to usual so he cant sell it so we may be getting some honey as well. 

 

life's good love to all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Short history lesson about Kangaroo Island:

Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia 112 km (70 mi) south-west of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Point in Backstair Passage which is 13.5 km (8.4 mi) from the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Once occupied by Australian Aborigines, the native population disappeared after the land became an island following rising sea levels several thousand years ago. It was subsequently resettled from the early 19th century onwards, at first casually by sealers and whalers, and officially from 1836.
Since then the island's economy has been principally agricultural, with a southern rock lobster fishery and with tourism growing in importance. The largest town, and the administrative centre, is Kingscote. The island has several nature reserves to protect the remnants of its natural vegetation and native animals, with the largest and best-known being Flinders Chase National Park at the western end.

Hi everyone

so this week it has been raining like crazy and a lot of the people were stuck on their side of the island as the water was flowing across the road. And apparently I have been out for about 6 months now which is crazy because it only feels like a couple of weeks ago I was leaving home!!!

Where is celeste going on her mission?? and NIKEE GOT HER CALL> AND SHE DIDNT TELL ME? aww man another going to the Philippines.

what's in Melbourne?? footy? i have to be rushed because i dont have much time. i have an hour to write to you and president, it takes a lot of thought what i have to say to president but i will make sure that i be more specific in my emails from now on.

The spiritual highlight of this week would have to be a really powerful lesson with our investigator John. We were having trouble understanding what he needed at this time in his life and we really sought the spirit for the help that we needed. We were then given a conference DVD from 2010 from a member, and decided to show him a conference talk. We watched a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar on the "Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost" which was really powerful and bold. After the talk we asked John if he had received the Holy Ghost and he said he doesn't think so. We were then able to invite him to be baptised by water then by the HOLY GHOST. He said he would be over the moon to have the holy ghost and accepted the invitation. We left that lesson on a spiritual high and he really felt it. We were able to follow up with him on Friday and he still said that he is interested to know more about the Holy Ghost. At the end of the lesson we gave him some advice... which leads to the second point.

as you can see that we had a good lesson with John but unfortunately when we went to see if john was coming to church on Sunday he said that he doesn't need it anymore so 1 step forward and 2 steps back. i think we will leave him for a while.

missions are something to enjoy and something Levi Krix told me is that if you aren't enjoying your mission you aren't doing it right

i do thank you for the love you show for me, thank you for the encouragement and support you show, and the helpful tips that you offer. just to let you know that my companion are trying our hardest and we do see some success but a lot of it is just planting seeds.

love you allllll
have no time to email today. transfer call I'm staying on the island and elder Taylor is leaving. ill try and email you on Wednesday when I get back to the island but if you don't get one ill email next week (Jene - gotta love these ones!!!)

Hi

So yes... I am still on the island!!! But i have new companion Elder Tuilua'ai.

This week and last week were good. this week have knocked on quite a few doors, and found a few potentials so we are excited for that, we have the chance to go and teach a potential that elder Taylor said was really interested to listen but then moved to Scotland, well she is now back on the island and her best friend is sister reeves so that is another positive!! 

we are able get more study done than other missionaries because of the pace of the work here on the island, so lately i have been studying the ministry of Christ and reading through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. probably the favourite parable I have come across is found in mark 13:34-37. Christ advices us to watch or in other words, always continue to do the things we are commanded to do because if we get caught in the act of doing the right thing we are going to get more blessed than if we aren't.

Yes i got an email off JayJay!!!! did you think he would forget to send me an email with his mission call?? hahaha that's so crazy though, port Moresby!!!. is that the one the president peteru is in?

that's about all the insights I have for this week.

love to you all