Well, this is it. I can't believe it..... I am sooo grateful for the chance i had to serve a mission. I cannot imagine my life without it. I am soo excited to work hard and to witness miracles this week! It is going to be a crazy week though.. haha we have tradeoffs with the other STLs on wednesday, weekly planning thursday, and we are getting mini missionaries on thursday to sunday, and deep clean the flat on friday for 4 hours, and sister cashman is coming up from Sydney to be our member present for a day, and aunty dessy from cairns is flying down so they can come see me on sunday and to the airport on tuesday... its is going to be a full on week!!!! :) But I am excited for it! We are going to work sooo hard!!! So hopefully Ill be able to sleep on the plane. 

But this past week, we saw so many miracles!

We have this one investigator named Ted. I may have told you about him before.. He is greek orthodox and knows a lot about history and religions and has lots of questions. And this past week he told us that before he met us, he didn't feel that he had any hope in life. He felt that he was stagnant, but he said since meeting us, his life has gotten better. He is happier, he has hope for the future, and he feels good everytime we come over. It was amazing to hear that, and I have been able to see the change in him as well. Now he just has to read the Book of Mormon. That is his main concern at the moment. And I know as soon as he reads the Book of Mormon, all of his questions that we can't answer will go away. So please pray that he will read this week by the time we follow up with him!! 

Also, we met this 13 year old boy from asking a potential if she knew anyone that had recently passed away, and she led us to Tua. His dad passed away a few weeks ago, and so when we went to teach him, he was soo receptive! It was a miracle! As we taught him, he was so excited knowing he could be with his family forever. We invited him to be baptized and he said, "yes!! I am so excited to be a member of the church and to be baptized!" He is probably one of the most mature 13 year olds, and I know he will be baptized! We just have to work on his strong, samoan methodist mother. :) 

But I want you all to know that I love my Savior!!!! He is the reason I am on a mission. And I will never deny the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It has helped me to learn more of My Savior and how I can become like him. My testimony is my most prized possession and how grateful I am for all of the experiences I have had on my mission that have strengthened it. I LOVE being a missionary!!! And I will not stop until they kick me out of this country. :) haha 

LOVE YOU!!! and Ill see you next week!!! 

love, Sister Alldredge

Trade offs with Sister James and Sister Hoiesi

Service - sorting clothes to send to Africa

Apelu Family!  They are beautiful!

Trade offs with Sister Esekielu

Got to see Sister Campbell because she lives with the Sisters in our region.  :)

Trade offs

We went to Sister Kunz baptism

I love Sister Kunz!  They were MTC Companions

Merry Christmas!

Halo! (hello in pigeon, aka broken english :)) 

So this week flew by.. we have so much going on these last few weeks of the transfer! This past week on monday, the assistants called us and asked if we could come pick up a sister from the Solomon Islands to stay with us for the rest of the transfer, so we went and got her. Her name is Sister Hoiesi. She visa waited in New Zealand for a transfer and then had to go to Vanuatu to await for her australia visa, and now she is finally here! She has been out for 6 months, and was baptized 3 years ago. She is so humble and the sweetest little thing! :) So it has been fun to have her with us! But when we got there to pick her up, there was another zone who was having a full day pday with president because they reached their baptism goal last month, and so they invited us to stay for dinner and FHE. :) It was soo fun. We played a game and man, President McSwain was getting pretty competitive, hahaha, but it was really fun!  

Also we did a few tradeoffs this week... one I went to Heritage Park with Sister Sau, and the other I went to Kenmore (closer to the city), with Sister Anitema and Sister Butler. It is so fun to be with other sisters, and in other areas too. 

One experience we had this week.. so we have this investigator, Ted. He is greek orthodox, very friendly, and has lots of questions and knows a lot about different religions, so at times it is hard to keep him on the same topic because he will bounce from one random question to another, so we told him to listen to the part of the restoration without interrupting, and he had me teach it. As I shared about the apostasy and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, the spirit was soo strong that I started to cry. (i know this sounds like a normal thing i would do, but I honestly can't remember the last time i cried in a lesson ha) My companions were tearing up, and we knew he felt the spirit. But as soon as i finished, he told me that he knew that I believed what I said and that I had conviction, but that this religion was all i know, and so it wasnt that convincing. He said that others would believe it more if Sister Hoiesi, who was a Catholic for 21 years told about her beliefs. It was a humbling experience for me, and I am so grateful that Sister Hoiesi was there and so she could testify and teach. He committed to read the Book of Mormon, and we have an appointment with him tomorrow, and I KNOW if he reads it, he will come to know it is true. This is what I have been praying and fasting for to witness this transfer, true conversion. Not necessarily a baptism, but to see someone change because of the Book of Mormon. I have faith that it will be Ted. So please please pray for him that he will be able to feel the converting power of the Holy Ghost as he reads it and that his heart will be open. But ill let you know what happens next week. :) 

We also got to have zone conference! It was amazing. We had Elder Walker, who is an area 70 come and we had some awesome trainings from him, President and Sister McSwain about the new Christmas initiative and video... (get pumped), and from the AP's about obedience and the Book of Mormon. It was soo good, the best one i've been to I'd say. And so I'm looking forward to more when we have MLC this coming week! 

But I will talk to you next week........ can't wait to see you all! :) It hasn't really hit me yet, which is good. I am excited for the miracles ahead this week and I will continue to give everything that I have! Love you all soo much!!!!

love, Sister Alldredge

Zone Conference

Trade-offs with Heritage Park

Lunch with Sister Hoiesi

Trade-offs with Kenmore

Frangipanni flowers... my fav!

Goofy

Hey fam, it felt like i just emailed you yesterday... hahahah so this will be short and sweet. :) 

So me and Sister Galang witnessed lots of miracles this past week! One in particular, we followed up someone that the sisters taught last tranfser, He was about 40 years old and pretty rough looking and he immediately lit a cigarette as soon as we sat down. But when we asked him about his Book of Mormon reading, he said he was up to Jacob 5. We were so surprised! So we asked his about what he learned and he told us a few things. And as we taught him, the spirit was soo strong. So we invited him to be baptized and he accepted and then he said, "I feel good." It was one of those moments that melted my heart and makes me want to stay here forever!! :) hahah But we have some work to do with him to help him prepare, so please pray for Shaden!! 

Also remember how i told you that Jordan from Cairns got baptized? Well a member had contacted me the day before she was getting baptized and they had me record and send a video to them expressing my love for Jordan and such so she could watch it at her baptism, and this is what Jordan emailed me as well as her mom.....

Hello Sis Alldredge I was happy to watch your video of you talking to me at baptism you have my ticket your name I wrote you showed It I have God in heart  it and Jesus loves me you are my friend loves God to I hope to visit at you with sister Yee.

Jordon

Hi it's me Sister Morrison  

Thank you - so grateful for your video, it was a huge surprise for Jordon and it made it for the event and was played to her in front of all congregation just moments prior to her leaving the chapel and entering the waters for baptism - many tears shed for the love you expressed for her as she was clapping and saying your name, huge grin hanging off every word you said. I can not tell you how much in words to express the impact you have had on each of the Morrison Families' lives and specially Jordon, she has loved and enjoyed the friendship and sister hood she has found in you. You have a beautiful soul and touched us each deeply. This act of effort to get a video to Jordon at her baptism was icing on the cake, so appreciated and of great worth, today she received the gift of the Holy Ghost she was so cute just wanted her mum when the hands came off her head so no one got a hand shake until she held my hand first then a quick grab of Step Dads Ian Morrisons hand as he returned to his seat squeezed his hand and said thank you as he is the one who said the prayer for the Holy Ghost gift.

Then she at end of sacrament shaked the hands of 

Brother Palmer 

Brother Gosney

Brother Kimmi 

Brother Tou 

it's been one huge high all week she's different many have noticed and said truly a change I am so glad that she never gave up on asking to be baptized - it truly was gods wish for her. I wish you could have seen it. But know your love allowed her to seek more of in what she felt each time you visited the pure love of Christ it certainly began with your love and interest in her - thank you for helping her find her way home xxx 

Love you and miss you soo much xxxx 

What a tender mercy.. My heart is soo full. I am soo happy for their sweet family!! But i love you all sooo much. I hope you are enjoying the cold weather because it just keeps getting hotter here! :) haha love you and see you soon!

love, Sister Alldredge

Jordon with Brother Morrison

The Morrisons after Jordon's baptism.

Wooh. what a week. :) I was so grateful that it was temple p-day today! I just loove the temple! 

But thanks for your last letter! I loved the snowflakes and i hung them up by my desk so it feels more like Christmas time.. but it doesn't work that well because it is sooooo hot and humid and sweaty.  

This past week we had a lot happen... We had tradeoffs with Sister Grawrock and her companion, so i got to go with Sister Grawrock! It was soo fun. haha We worked hard and we were able to find 3 new investigators that day, Miracle!!!! also we did 2 surprise perfect mornings with the kenmore sisters and the emp sisters. (we surprise them at 6:30 am and workout and do studies with them to make sure they are doing it) It was soo fun! And Sister Kunz is in our region so i got to see her!! I can't wait to go on tradeoffs with her!

But this past week i found out that Jordan Morrison, a girl i taught in Cairns got baptized!!! yeahhh! so exciting! And we have this girl that is 9 named Sosefina getting baptized soon. I have taught her ever since i have been in this area, we were just waiting to get permission for her to be baptized since she is not adopted to the active family she is living with.. but the family just told us yesterday that they want to postpone it.. im pretty sure its because they want to have a big feast and stuff and so they are planning it... please pray that they will set a date soon.. thanks! 

But i have to go because its the elders turn.. ha but ill talk to you on monday!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

love, Sister Alldredge

Surprise Trade-off!

More Surprise Trade-off!

Waiting for our car to be serviced!  Not watching the the election :-)

Brisbane selfie!

Temple Selfie!

The Zone

Sisters at the Temple

Brisbane and Sister Galang

Knocking doors with Sister Galang - She's the best!

Sisters from the Zone!

Hello! Hopefully you all have fun plans for halloween... because Australia is lame and doesn't do much here, but its all good. :) Sorry, i wont write much today.. I started getting sick yesterday so i'm feeling pretty weak today, but hopefully i will be all good tomorrow so i can go out and keep working hard! :) 

This past week was soo great! I loved training, but I love having a companion who knows what they are doing and we can just work work work. We were blessed to see some amazing miracles this past week.. We saw this one part member family, and it is this less active philippino that is married to this old, white, new zealand guy, and he is always making jokes and its tough to keep him focused when we are teaching, but this past week we read the Book of Mormon with them, and we got him to read 2 verses!!! It was awesome! He usually interrupts our lessons, but the spirit was so strong from reading that he was just sitting there listening! And then after Nida gave us chocolates because we got him to read. hhaahah Another miracle lesson we had was with this 81 year old lady, she was adamant about not wanting to read the Book of Mormon, but after we explained to her what it was, and what was in the Book of Mormon, she was really interested and was flipping through and saying, 'hmmm, wow, this sounds interesting." The Book of Mormon is sooo powerful!!! I love it. 

So a fun fact about filipinos, they want to be white. It was so funny this past week because Sister Galang was freaking out because her forehead was starting to get tan and so she was putting on heaps of sunscreen plus her whitening foundation.. hahaha 

Also this week on saturday, we had a stake missionary cultural night activity. Each ward had performances of different cultures and there was a huge turnout! It was awesome!!! Then last night, we had a musical fireside to finish off the weekend and President McSwain came and spoke and all the missionaries sang and there were recent converts that bore their testimonies. It was soo good!

But i am excited for this coming week and I know we will continue to see many miracles! Love you all soo much! 

Love, Sister Alldredge

by the way.. next week is temple pday so we wont be having pday until thursday! 

Candies with Sister Galang!

Riding bikes!

New car with backup camera!

Note from member neighbor!

Groceries from member!

Dang! Very full fridge!

Feast upon the word!

Beautiful flowers and trees!

Nasty lizard

Stake activity

Stake activity!  New member!

Tongan dancing

How ya going fam? Man, these months just keep flying by faster and faster! But, I bet you are all dying to know whats going on with transfers.... well i am staying in marsden!!! woooooooh. But sister costa, as well as the other marsden sisters that were living with us all got transferred. it was a big shock! But I am very excited. My new companion is Sister Galang, and they are making marsden an STL area, so I am going to be a sister training leader again. I am really excited to be with my companion! She is a hard worker and is soo fun and happy and is soo kind and thoughtful. I got to go on tradeoffs with her at the beginning of her mission in gladstone for a week, so i know her pretty well. She is from Quezon City, Philippines, and she has 8 kids in her family and has been out for about 9 months. So i will be going on tradeoffs again and things, so it will be a busy transfer......

This past week was really good, I will miss my dear sister Costa. But i know this will be really good for her to have a different follow up trainer to show her a different way of doing things. But this past week we really worked hard and we did lots of service; mowing lawns, weeding, cleaning someones house... and we did lots of door knocking! my favorite :) But the highlight of the week happened last night.. Elder Nealson in the pacific area presidency came and spoke to us last night. It was soo good! The spirit was sooo strong and he was going around and asking about favorite book of mormon scriptures and why.. and Sister Costa raised her hand, and just some background.. this transfer has been pretty tough. I tried my best to really help her and show her my love for her, but it wasn't until this past week or 2 that she finally opened up and talked to me about things I was doing that bothered her and the way that she was feeling toward the mission and everything. There were changes that we both needed to make but how humbling it was to recognize those things that I need to change to become more Christlike. I was very grateful for that. But when she raised her hand to share her scripture, she shared Alma 17:10-11 and said that this reminded her of me. And it wasn't until she had read this scripture that she finally was able to see me as Heavenly Father sees me, and to really love me. It totally made me cry when she said that. hah :) But it was a tender mercy to be able to hear those words and to know that. And saying goodbye to her this morning was hard.. she was crying quite a bit, but i know she will do great! and her new companion is shorter than me as well! hahah 

Well i love you all! Please keep praying for me, and that we will be able to witness many many miracles this week! LOVE YOU!!

love, Sister Alldredge

Flat Mates

Flat Mates - Australia Brisbane Mission

Snack time.  Sister Costa = Ice cream; Me = Carrots

The ugliest cat I've ever seen.  And Sister Costa thought it was so beautiful. Yuck

Flat Mates.  I will miss them

Cutest kids around

Mission Life = :D

The Taylors :)

Love Kristy!

Church yesterday

Me and Sister Galang, my new companion :)