11th - 20th April 2017

Liam came home on a flight direct from Jakarta.

He arrived 20th April 2017 at 9.27am in Melbourne Airport.

We were shocked but happy to have Liam home.

We love you xoxo

4th - 10th April 2017

Hi Everyone,

So it's finally here! It's gonna be a 30 hour flight including 7 hours of layover but I'll be with my original MTC companions and we always had fun so I'm excited to meet up with them again. Skipbo and phase 10 will come in handy for the 30 hour flight and I'm so lucky to have gotten to serve here.

I can't wait to leave this cold weather for ridiculous humidity, I'd make the trade any day. I have gotten to go to general conference, attend the salt lake temple, learn about early church history and meet some amazing people I never would have had I not gone to Salt Lake. 

After making it through this trial with the help of God and you guys combined I can say that any other trial will be made easier looking back on this difficult time and saying God helped me once and I know he'll help again. Prayer and scripture study have been two resources that have really strengthened me and given me peace. The scriptures are true and I am so grateful to have been born in this day and age as the gospel rolls forth amongst people of every nation and tongue. If it weren't for the direction and eternal perspective of the gospel of Jesus Christ I would be lost.

I invite you all to read one chapter of the book of Mormon a day, there's an app called gospel library where if you download it and click on scriptures the book of Mormon will be there. This book is more than just a historic novel, it's a map to God and joy in this lifetime. I'm thankful for being brought up in the church and for all my trials that will help me grow and be strengthened. 

The salt lake city temple was spectacular! It was the most meticulously designed structure I've ever seen. It was an experience I'll never forget and I felt the spirit so strongly the whole way through, what a privilege. On a different note, my companion Elder Workman took a test at East high, the place where high school musical was filmed. 

I got to say goodbye to some people, one of our Investigators gave me a tie as a departing gift and some members bought me some sturdy shoes because my dress shoes have started to wear out with all this walking we have done.

Oh Yeah, don't forget I keep my photos on Google drive, let me know if you don't have permissions to the folders. 

Love Elder Liam Winfield.

28th March - 3rd April 2017

ALMOST THERE!!!

The closer I get to Indonesia the further away it seems. It's like I'm chasing something but I'm on a treadmill but it's right there! I had some rough times at the beginning of these two weeks because of how long it's felt but with prayer and positivity I have endured. Well only one week left now and it has felt pretty fast to be honest looking back it just felt LIKE FOREVER during those days. The saying 'long days, short weeks' has never felt more true to me. 

I am not looking forward to my 30 hour flight though... any suggestions to occupy my time? I will really miss my trainer and I'm so excited to meet up with my MTC companions again! I have a small list of missionaries to go and talk to on behalf of some people who know them from America. I'm losing my Australian accent! Nobody I speak to can tell anymore that I'm not from America so I might try and fix that when I go to Indonesia and I'm not surrounded by only American people all the time. This week we got a total of $120 from strangers in cars pulling over and handing us money, most of them were returned missionaries.

Conference was amazing!!! We were taking an investigator to the Saturday pm session who is CRAZY but he cancelled on us because he believes the church is evil so we knocked frantically on all our Investigators doors and on the last door we had a lady who on no notice came with us immediately for the 3 hours it took. What a miracle. Elder holland was my favourite talk and in the priesthood session Elder Bednar shocked me! He talked specifically about how when visa waiters were reassigned (like I was) it is done with the some process of the initial assignment and that we should notice we are called to the work and not to a place. I got an email from president Spendlove saying I could go with my companions to a live endowment session in the salt lake temple! Missionaries here do this once every 4 months or so and I was going to miss out on that but now I get to! Woohoo!

Love Elder Liam Winfield.

21st - 27th March 2017

Hey everyone,

So don't freak out but.... MY VISA ARRIVED WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO. OK so I found this out because one of the sisters who visa waited before told me to call the mission office and check on the visa progress. So I called them on Wednesday and I found out that it arrived, they are working out the flight plans, they are 99% sure to have me out on April 10th and as of April 16th I would be illegal so DEFINITELY before the 16th. I'm just so relieved to have a date I will be leaving. The day I found out it was raining and stormy and we had nothing to do so I was a little down so now I'm just excited and ready. Now I am already starting to miss this place. I will miss the members, my companions, the warm showers (I will be having cold bucket showers in Indonesia) and my zone (group of about 25 missionaries serving in nearby areas).

We got to teach a lesson in temple square a few days ago and there was just such a strong spirit there. Our investigator was a little stubborn in his doubts but the sister missionaries helped us out and it just helped me to feel like I was finally fulfilling my purpose as a missionary getting to teach. So I also tried my best to get some American culture into me through trying all the restaurants here. So I have been to zupas  (sandwich soup and salad place), litzas pizzas, Caffè Rio (authentic Mexican food), highers, Tony burgers (place where members pay for missionaries), noodles and company, Chuckarama (all you can eat dessert included), Baskin Robins (awesome ice cream place superior to cold rock with 31 flavours) and taco bell (fast food tacos). Sometimes members took us places and other times our friendly neighborhood taxi missionaries elder Andrew and Weymouth took us out. Some of these restaurants are specific to Utah though. I loved them all and think they would do great in Australia! Time is certainly speeding up... 4 weeks in the field already? Elder Raharjo has been telling me all about serving in Indonesia, the people, the p day activities, the missionaries there, the mission president, the food, the slang and all so I'm super excited!

On a random side note, for those who know this movie I watched Johnny lingo (I finally understand dad! Johnny lingo had a cow...), for those who don't know it never mind ahah.

I got the chance to speak on faith in missionary work in one of the wards for a sacrament meeting where I met elder Pearson, an area 70 who spoke a lot at my first EFY many years ago. He thanked us greatly for our service and testimonies and I just took something from what he said in the sacrament meeting to the congregation: even if you're hanging on by just your fingernails (which I feel like I am) you are enough. It was actually his ward but he's away often so he always speaks when he is there. I'm blessed to have heard from him.

I have to thank all you guys who read my emails and support me, you have helped me so much and have played a big part in shaping me to be the missionary I am now. I love you all and know that God loves you and always has his arms open lovingly ALWAYS! Next time you hear from me I will have been to general conference so I will have some insight there.

14th - 20th March 2017

Hey family and friends,

My trials and difficulties in waiting for the visa and serving in this area are still here but I'm finding enough spiritual sustenance from members and scripture reading to keep me going. I think I'm serving in this area to learn patience and optimism but there may be other reasons too. 

So on Wednesday I received my first package, it was full of candy with a scripture attached to each packet as well as some other supportive pieces of paper like a scripture for every emotion I feel and also a pair of socks. There must have been 12 packets of candy stuffed into that box. I read the note at the top saying it was from the mother of a sister missionary serving in Josh's mission in Croatia who heard I was having a hard time. I have never felt so much gratitude for a stranger before, and I have already had to rely on some of the scriptures she gave me like doctrine and covenants 121: 7-8 " My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes".

I'm trying really hard to love this area and to accept the situation. We taught 0 lessons... the entire week was finding. Yesterday we had a tough time getting sworn off a drunk guys porch and that really cut me. but afterwards we had a Meal with the Trotters who just calmed my spirit and really inspired me to go on. Brother trotter had a rough life having been so desperate to the point where he fasted from food for 30 days in the woods. In this he found God again, is a member of the church, gives inspirational talks, and wrote a book called 'a different kind of strong' which we each received a signed copy of. 

My focus and goal is just to always stay happy and to not let my over thinking get the better of me as we spend half our day walking from place to place. We intend to have bikes in about a week so that will mean we will get to places faster. 

In a few weeks it will be general conference: an annual event which is broadcast to members all over the world. There the leaders of the church all speak including the prophet, it would be amazing to stay here long enough to get to see that live! We are going to order tickets soon and can only get tickets if we bring an investigator so we will start thinking about that. 

I am loving my companions and zone more and more and elder workman's unwavering optimism always supports me. I have met multiple previous mission presidents who served in Australia so we had some great conversations. Some stranger who just got off her mission gave us $20! 

I also met Melanie who sings in the tabernacle choir! She said that to get in you need to do a 3 hour theory test, send a recorded audition and then audition in person and after that you might just get put on stand by because there are 360 members of the choir who don't all sing.

Elder Liam Winfield 

7th March - 13th March 2017

I apologize for freaking everyone out last week, it was just a hard time for me, but I am way better this week! 

So I have finally adjusted to the schedule and the missionary life style. Just a few hours ago I finally got my Samsung tablet so now I can get to the gospel library, read my emails through the week (but not respond on any other day than p day) and take photos. 

I finally found some really great friends elder Weymouth and elder Andrew. So these guys are basically our go to taxi guys for places we can't walk to because we have no car. These two elders are great!! Elder Andrew loves magic the gathering so I've talked a lot with him about that! Elder Weymouth is just friendly as well as really funny. These guys are just great friends and I love having them in my zone. I have been relying heavily on prayer this week and my prayers have become so much longer and more meaningful. I have truly felt the love and support from all the people praying for me and supporting me. 

I feel love so much easier now that I have adjusted to life here. I love the generous members who have given us rides, fed us dinner literally every night as well as lunch sometimes. We went to this local place called Tony burgers where a stranger walked up to us and gave us $40 out of nowhere so that paid for all 5 of us which was just amazing and apparently common out here. We go every Thursday with a group of 5 to 15 missionaries to eat at the lion house which is an all you can eat fancy church place with a cool pianist guy there playing background music.

The work out here is still pretty dry but I can tell we are still making a difference here in the lives of those we meet. The other day we helped this elderly couple whose niece recently reconnected with her drug addiction husband in Nebraska, she just left her apartment out of nowhere, quit her job and went. We comforted the grandparents and they said we helped them know what to say to their niece. I am really loving my companion, elder Workman is a deep thinker like me so we have lots of conversations about life. I am of course still hoping my visa will arrive son, still no news on that but I am feeling just so much better here. I have gotten to play the piano from time to time. I have been meeting people and talking to them about careers and I have began considering orchestral music composition for a career when I get back but I still need to do a lot of research, just thinking here.

I have lots of stories to tell and lots of growth that I have had and am yet to have, again I'm so thankful for all the support I have, elder Workman  has  family and friends all against him being here so I'm very lucky. I will be emailing more around  this time from here on because I have the tablet. Again I will be reading the emails through this week.

1st March - 6th March 2017

Honestly this has been the hardest and longest week of my life. I tried to stay positive in the MTC about going to Salt Lake but when I arrived here there were heaps of members talking about visa waiters, waiting for 3-6 months which really scares me. It is freezing cold here so I have to wear the same jumper and jacket every day. So my companions are elder Raharjo and elder Workman, we're in a trio so that the work isn't disrupted when my visa comes and I leave. Elder workman is from Witchata Cansis and Elder Raharjo is from Jakarta Indonesia! So president Spendlove put me with the Indo so I could keep it up! We speak fairly often together and I understand most of what he says. Elder Raharjo served for 5 months in Indo and 6 in Salt lake. Elder Workman is a recent convert to the church, he has a strong testimony and he is VERY hard working and optimistic. So in our area we cover an entire stake which has 7 wards but the missionary work is more active in the 21st, 27th and 27th east ward so we visit those most. This area seems to be all but dead.... we have soooo many members in the wards but the problem is that because the church is so well known in Utah, either everyone is a member or they already know a lot about the church and are not interested or they are anti. The members are amazing though. They see us walking on the streets and give us rides to places we want to go, they have had us over to their places for dinner every night and most lunches and sometimes members take us out for meals. But right now we are completely dry of investigators, we have literally nobody to teach. Nearly every day consists of just walking to members places and asking for referrals and them saying they have none. Yesterday we went tracting (door knocking) in some heavy snow for an hour and we have tracted here and there throughout the week but again they are members, anti or uninterested. Most missionaries in this mission live with members in their basement so they have really nice places but we have an apartment sort of similar quality to the Moe missionaries apartment. We get $120 a month and hardly spend anything because we get feed most meals, have no car, have a place to get free haircuts and most cleaning supplies are paid for too so I don't know where all this money is going to go. 

I was ok in the MTC with missing the family because I made a home of the MTC having the zone as a family and a familiar daily routine with a constant spirit about every person there. But in the field I REEEAAALLLY miss home badly, I have to keep the photos of the family away from me or 'll miss them too much. The lack of consistency in the field just messed me up. I'm a bit better now but it's just difficult when I don't know any of the people, brands, schools, programs, or sayings of anything around me. We have some fairly friendly missionaries around us and they are somewhat interested in me but all they talk about is mission experiences about other missionaries who I don't know. 

So there is a HUGE homeless people problem here in Salt lake and in our area is this place called the road home. So we teach a few people there and it is basically just one big congregation of about 100 homeless people who do drugs, have no money or clothes and are all stuck there. It was extremely confronting for me that people live like that but they seem to respect the missionaries pretty well. There are many mental health issues there and I hope we don't have to go there too often. 

Not knowing when my visa will come is the most frustrating part of the entire situation. They say that when the visa arrives the mission president will get an email with my flight details and I would leave within the week so I could leave in the week or in the next few months as far as I know but in the MTC the teachers repeatedly reassured me I'd stay here for only one transfer (6 weeks) at most so I'm just a little anxious about that. I was also supposed to get an ipad but that never happened and I'm not sure why but the missionaries do daily planning, lessons, and the area book all on the ipads so I don't know what's happening most of the time, I just essentially follow elder Workman around everywhere. The area is also mostly up hill so bikes are not very useful, we just walk everywhere all day. 

I am relying on prayer extremely heavily because I've never struggled so much before just to get through the day. The days feel very very long and I look forward to bed time every night. I love going to members houses for meals and they are the nicest people. Please pray for me as I try my best to endure this trial. I can't wait for Indonesia. There is a definite language barrier between elder Workman and Raharjo so sometimes I have to translate. It seems elder Raharjo knows about as much as I do and because elder Workman is the most sociable person I've ever met, he does a lot of the talking, he stays happy by getting to know everyone he meets and relating really well to everyone. I find it hard to talk sometimes because I just don't understand America. I hope it warms up here because this cold is killing me. Well it's my first p day today and it seems we will usually just email, shop, clean and play basketball every p day. God has been my strength and being grateful for what I have (which was easier after seeing the road home) has sustained me. Sorry  this email was so long, a LOT happened and it felt REALLY long so this email reflects that. 

22nd -28th February 2017

So I'm not in Salt lake yet but it is P day today so I still get to email, I leave to salt lake in 5 and a half hours so plenty of time! I am really excited about finally getting into the field! I have heard a little about missionary work here..... I GET AN IPAD!! And there are even some stores (in Salt lake only, no where else in the world) where missionaries eat free! I just really want to meet my trainer and get started. I had lots of big goodbyes for everyone, getting their emails and I found out there is a zone tradition of giving the departing missionaries a blessing, so I got to choose the people giving the blessing. I chose everyone in my district (elders Gno, Johnson, Nordwald and Al-Rudhan) and my favorite two Mongolians elder Lambert and elder Coleman. I had elder Lambert voice the blessing and it was great! I feel ready. Yesterday I had a class with my teacher and because my two companions left for their mission early in the morning, I was the only class member. So basically it turned into a 3 hour question and answer session about missionary work and Indonesia itself. I will miss my teacher brother Rawle a lot, he really cares about his students and he just teaches with so much passion. I will get to skype him weekly though while I'm in the field so it will be OK. My zone has become like my family and it's so sad to have to leave them, but I will keep in touch with them though. Not too much new aside from getting ready to leave and I'm not too sure if I'll get to email again when I get there but I will arrive in Salt lake at 3:50pm american time. I'm grateful for my opportunity to serve and although I am very unsure of what lies ahead, I have complete faith that I will be in God's hands and that as long as it's His will he will provide a way.

26th February 2017

So I get to make an emergency email because I learned that because my visa hasn't come yet, that even if it does come I will still be serving one full transfer (6 weeks) in the Salt lake city Utah mission for one full transfer. I have been soooo sad saying goodbye to everyone and sister Bartholemew cried. I will be taking the train (or tracks as people in Utah call it) and my mission president will be president spendlove. For those who don't know, the mission president and his wife are basically mum and dad so this is a BIG deal! I know this is God's hand in my life and that there is no such thing as coincidence and I have no idea if i'll get to call in with my family when I get to America so I might just see you guys next p day (I don't know which day p day is in this mission).

15th - 21st February 2017

So last Thursday I began hearing that my companions missionary portal online had changed from the Indonesia, Jakarta mission to the Logan Utah America mission and I had not yet checked mine. So I checked mine on the Saturday and it said I would be going to the Utah Salt lake City America mission. I had nobody to talk to about it because things were closed till today. Once I got to the travel office they notified me that until I get my visa, I am going to Salt lake and that the latest they can wait for a visa is 3 hours before the planned flight to Indonesia. So my flight is at 1:50pm on the 27th of feb (America time) and sometimes peoples visa's come on the day people are supposed to leave so basically I will have no idea which mission i go to until 10:50pm on the 27th. This is an extremely unexpected change but if it's what God wants then I will go and serve. If I go to America it would only be until my visa came which would be for one transfer at the most (roughly 6 weeks). Now that I have unloaded all my stress about that I can tell you how my week's been.

This is my last week so I'm trying to learn and take in all I can. On Thursday I will have this thing called in field orientation which is an introduction to the field basically. 

I got to see elder Rohner and received a hug from him on behalf of my family which was really great, the first taste of familiarity I've gotten since I arrived here. Nathan seems to be doing well and his language looks hard but he'll get it, his whole district are in it together so he will be o.k. He adjusted very quickly to MTC life. Our schedules are miles apart so I don't get to see him much. 

It seems I got my wish that I would get to perform lots on my mission, we are currently working on the 3rd musical item since I got here and this time it will be a version of 'brightly beams' which will be written again by elder Colman. The previous piece 'oh Lord my God' was rejected for performance for being too technical and not spiritual enough so they asked us to prepare another piece thus 'brightly beams' (which is my dad's favorite hymn). I have been trying to think a lot about my career and basically my future because i'm still fairly unsure. It's difficult trying to balance focusing on the missionary work and actually having a plan for when I get back home. I have just began making a study journal which is organised by topic (e.g baptism, faith ect.) full of scriptures and quotes I have learnt at the MTC, I hope to continue it and use it throughout my mission to help me teach on certain topics better because I am no master of the scriptures. 

A man who was the head of media for the Church spoke about MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA this week. The play 'the Book of Mormon' (the play mocks the church) had just came out when I left so the church took advantage of this and took up literally every single form advertisement available in the station from the stairs to the banners. It was cool for everyone to see such an iconic place of Australia. Today will be my last chance to go to the temple for the next two years so i'll make the most of it. I have loved my stay at the MTC and have learnt so much here. The mission is changing me and will continue to do so to help bring me closer to Christ whilst I help others do the same. For those who are contemplating a mission, read D&C 4, pray to God and begin preparing now! The mission is for you'r investigators and not you, so study up for yourself while you can before the mission. Love God, love other people, develop a strong testimony and God will aid you.

8th - 14th February 2017

This week has really been the week where I truly felt settled and 100% happy to be here. The most significant thing that happened this week was all of the international missionaries got to go and look at the Salt Lake Temple and some other significant church buildings. So the temple was breath taking and the photos you see cannot accurately capture the enormity of the building. We spent not much time around the temple, mostly we went to other buildings like the Joseph Smith memorial building where we sore some artifacts from his life like the bars on the liberty jail he was kept in, the first edition of the Book of Mormon and the printing press it was created on. So that was cool. We also got to go to the relief society building (yes one exists) where there were pictures of all of the previous relief society presidents all the way down from Joseph's wife Emma smith. The relief society is the largest womens organisation in the world. I made some new friends who will be added to my email list soon, one from Puerto Rico and one from china who taught me a little chinese which was really fun! I learnt to say thank you, why?, what?, brother, sister, father, mother and elder Colman actually knows Chinese because he worked at a chinese restaurant so he learnt the language and he will help me learn some.... I love languages.... a lot. 

The 6 part men's chorus is coming along nicely and elder Colman is a genius for writing this piece! We are auditioning this Thursday so I'll have a recording for you guys next week. Two of us from the group including me will be leaving before this piece is performed though so they will have to replace us which is unfortunate but it's been a lot of fun. I have also uploaded a rehearsal of 'savior redeemer of my soul' which I have grown to love so much. We rehearsed last Thursday and unfortunately the three groups before us sang THE EXACT SAME SONG and have already been assigned to performances so we were greatly thanked and told to work on another piece and try again so now I'm trying to organise if you could hie to Kolob but there is not much time for that so it might not happen. I have uploaded a photo of us four performers around the piano the pianist being elder Colman, elder Jhonson on the violin and sister Peterson and I singing. 

Nathan (or elder Rohner I should say) will get here today I was told which I CAN'T WAIT FOR!! Finally seeing someone familiar around here. Also on Wednesday there will be a new elder, elder Green who will now become elder Nordwald's companion which will split up my trio and he will be sleeping in our room too! He will be learning Mong and he will be the only Mong student. I hope he will be cool and I will miss elder Nordwald! He will still be in all my classes and in the same room but now he doesn't have to follow elder Al-Rhudan and I around. Only 13 days left until I go to the field so that's really exciting! I also learnt my new favourite Indonesian word.... WADU (pronounced wahdoo), it pretty much means wow. You could drop something and you'd say wadu. You could see someone do something stupid and you'd say wadu. It's such a funny word that one of our teachers love, brother Blaser. Wow my emails are so long, let me know if this is a problem! 

I'm meeting more missionaries, learning more 

indo, singing more, playing more piano, becoming better friends with my comps, loving the MTC life and I will miss it here. Next week we will hear from a general authority (there are 84 in the church and make up the biggest church leaders in the world) so that will be awesome! Last week we heard from elder Gong who gave a great talk on not bursting people dreams in the field, I loved his talk.

I'll see you guys next week so stay awesome and endure to the end!

1st - 7th February 2017

Hi Everyone,

This week you guys will finally get a bunch of photos! I got my new camera from the MTC store last week and I've been given photos from others so go check out the google drive. 

So I have learnt so much in the past week particularly with how to properly teach people the 'injil' - gospel. It is only recently that we've been able to teach more effectively particularly because my companions language is getting so much better! At first I basically had to be a translator between the investigator and my companions which was not ideal... but now they can start to try and listen and answer for themselves. They say that they can understand what the investigators are saying now (because they speak slower) but not me... I might try to slow down too. We taught the lesson on the plan of salvation which has lots of new information for someone who didn't already know about it let alone in another language. I felt the lesson become cold and not interactive as we left little opportunity for questions and self guided learning. So now we have learnt to focus a lot more on customising every lesson to the individual needs of an investigator. We have learnt that every good lesson should have:

testimonies, questions, a commitment at the end of the lesson, scriptures and an atmosphere of love and understanding. 

I recently memorised my missionary purpose in both English and Indonesian. My purpose is to:

invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end.

Mengundang orang lain untuk datang kepada Kristus dengan membantu mereka menerima injil yang dipulihkan melalui iman kepada Yesus Kristus dan pendamaiannya, pertobatan, pembaptisan, menerima karunia roh kudus dan bertahan sampai akhir.

Next is memorising the first vision. Wish me luck!

The days are absolutely flying by now though! Today marks my 3 week anniversary of being here and that means I am half way done. I don't remember if I mentioned this in my last email but through the companion of the pianist for my musical item 'savior redeemer of my soul' I am now in a 6 part men's chorus which he wrote himself whilst at the MTC which is absolutely amazing! His name is elder Colman and he printed some staff paper on the computers here. The song has heaps of clashes and uses whats called clump chords. He finished composing and hand writing every part out for each of us today so we will practice tomorrow. The audition for the other musical piece is on Thursday so that's exciting, hope we get to perform in a devotional where all the missionaries are watching. I am loving the people so much here!! Recently I have gotten to know elder Lambert who I first met playing 4 square (he is amazing at it!). He is from Idaho and will be serving in Mongolia and he has started doing this thing where he hides in my room and scares me and it is hilarious because of his reaction to my reaction which is hysterical laughter. 

  

I am learning heaps of words here still and also some grammar which we have began learning more of in class. It's weird because before I'd have to study a word a lot to know it but now at them MTC I can hear a word and figure it out because of the context it is said in and then remember it from that point on, so I can feel God's hand helping me learn more and helping me to teach better. This week in TRC we taught on receiving answers to prayers and it really reminded me that if you ask for in answer in a prayer then you need to be willing to not only put in the work to receive that answer but you need to be willing to act on it. My testimony has grown immensely and I have also learned from the apostle elder Bednar that having a testimony is knowing what's true and being converted is being true to what you know (character of Christ talk). I loved watching the extended movie the restoration which I had not yet seen, I don't know what it's called but it goes for an hour and a half so I know I haven't seen it even though it's very similar to the 5 minuet version. 

I hope I'm not writing too much for other missionaries to read, just let me know. But for those missionaries out there, remember your purpose and stay true to D&C chapter 4.

Bye for now.
Elder Liam Winfield,

25th January - 31st January

This week has really been great getting used to the MTC and starting to appreciate the lifestyle and the spirituality here. So I am becoming more sociable with the missionaries here and really really like them!!! So my building is the south east asian building and the people on my floor are the Thai's Kambodian's, Mongolians and Malay missionaries (that is the language they speak not necessarily the country they will go to). So within a week almost everyone on my floor will leave to the mission field so I will have a bunch of new friends arriving and I will really miss the ones leaving. They were so kind and they helped us out and I love talking about cultural differences in Australia with them!!! 

So I have been learning heaps in the language classes but they are mostly focused on gospel topics, they don't teach all the numbers and then all the members of the family, they just talk at you and write words you might not know on the board. For those of you reading my emails who aren't from the church an investigator is anyone who is interested in the church and wants to learn more and a companion is a missionary who stays with you EVERYWHERE! You must always be within sight and sound of your companions. I have 2 companions so I always have to be with them doing everything with them. We did TRC last night which is held every Monday night and that's where we teach real members of the church (most of whom are from BYU and are returned missionaries/RM's) in Indonesian. So this is week three of the stay and we currently teach 2 people for 20 mins each but in the 5th and 6th week we will teach one person from Indonesia via skype for 40 minutes which is scary but still really exciting. The first TRC person yesterday seemed to be dissapointed by the lack of language skills from my companions and he just frankly looked like he didn't want to be there but we did the best we could. The second person was a native Indonesian girl about 24 years old who was SOOOOO friendly and she really made me excited to go teach the Indonesian people, her lesson went much better. I am freezing cold here and although the snow looks great it is just... SO COLD! So I can't wait to go to Indonesia. 

I went with elder Jhonson, one of the Malay missionaries who plays the piano, violin, viola and sings and we found saviour redeemer of my soul for a piano/voice/violin trio so we will practice, audition and hopefully get to perform together which makes me so excited! I have found a few moments here and there to play piano which has made me really happy especially knowing I can still play interstellar XD. The food here began tasting really nice but it drops in you like a brick and keeps you full for a long time and now it's all starting to taste the same but it still tastes ok... My favourite and only trusted drink at the moment is mixing their sprite (which tastes like soda water) with cranberry juice, my favourite! 

Til next week

Liam

18th - 25th January 2017

Hello everyone! It feels like forever since I last spoke to anyone I knew. So this was a crazy week which felt a little more like 3 weeks due to all the new stuff. When I first arrived in the US as I have mentioned, I stayed overnight at a relative's home overnight. They showed me around and looked after me which I am truly grateful after a 24 hour long journey of flights and waiting for flights, The first thing that hit me was the biting dry cold, it was -1 degrees here! The next day I was dropped off at the MTC where I was greeted by a random host missionary who happened to be going to the Melbourne Australia mission speaking Chinese so he had just as many questions as I did.

One of the first things they give you along with a bunch of other newbie books and materials is an orange dot on my missionary badge... It's the dork dot..... nobody likes the dork dot and for as long as you have it on everyone will say welcome to the MTC ALL DAY LONG. My first stop was to my Indonesian language class which as you all know was made easier by my previous knowledge of the language. The other 2 in my class made up my district, their names were elder Nordwald who is from Missouri and elder Al-Rhudan who is from Georgia (America). The MTC has an immersion program for language where in your 2-3 teachers will only ever speak the language to you for your entire stay in the MTC, even in class! Even when explaining things about the language and culture. So it was a struggle for the new guys who had a small book with a few basic terms and phrases to translate. The teachers here are amazing though! In my class we are taught by sister Bartholemew and brother Rowle both of which are from America and served in Indonesia. 

Afterwards I caught up with and got to know my companions. They are both very open and willing to compromise with people and we have a similar degree of introversion that has helped us gel better. I was feeling really anxious (which is not like me) because I had NO IDEA where anything was or what the names of the buildings were and the leaders don't tell you anything here, only friendly elders do. 

The meals despite being all processed food is amazing! We have had pizza, burgers, subway, honey chicken, a bunch of american cereals I have never heard of and every soft drink and juice you can think of except the flavors have very different tastes from what I know... the coca cola tastes like soda water. We have choir practice every Sunday and Tuesday which all current 1500 missionaries like to attend because of the amazing conductor brother brother Aggot. We have some gym time every day except for Sunday where you can play volley ball, basketball, four square, running or you can use the gym equipment but my companionship likes to play four square because there are heaps of people lining up to play and its just entertaining to watch the guy in king get knocked out by the rookie. 

Every Friday we have service for an hour and our jobs switch weekly. This week we did vaccuming. When you have service or preparation days (sort of a day off where you do laundry, buy things ect) you come in casual clothes and that means you get a sack breakfast. This is when you just join one big line where you grab thing like milk, eggs and donuts and put it into a 'sack' which is a brown paper bad, basically just less food is on offer. 

Typically elders are in duos and occasionally trios which I'm in but sometimes there are solo missionaries who are the only ones in their language class and have to stay around  a companionship regardless of which one. Missionaries stay here for either 3, 6, 9, or 11 weeks and we are here for 6 and that is when they say you really badly start wanting to leave so i'm happy. The other elders are extremely friendly and we have made some good friends. We are next door the dorms and classrooms of the Malaysian speakers who will serve in Amy Cranstons Malaysia/Singapore mission, there are only two of them and they are elder Jhonson from America and elder Ngo from Sydney Australia who has helped me feel more comfortable around these strangely cultured Americans. About 1/3rd of the missionaries here are american. 

The tip they give you around here is make it to Sunday and I can testify that is true! Because your first weeks schedule is nothing like the other weeks, it's waaay for busy. On some Sundays we will hear from some important church people sometimes, some Japanese missionaries who had been here for 11 weeks had heard from Elder Holland, Elder Bednar and David Archeletta! I just did my first load of laundry (i'm adulting!) and today marks day 6. The Hungarian speakers will be on the same floor me meaning they will also be in my zone so Nathan Rohner will be with me which will be awesome! I am also a district leader so that means I watch over, interview and collect mail for the Indo and Malay missionaries and I am interviewed by the zone leaders (who are very nice). 

There's a store here with EVERYTHING a missionary could want, shirts of all kinds, missionary bags, pamphlets, books, and scriptures in all different languages, cleaning supplies, lollies, artwork, literally everything. The first night we got here we got to teach some real life investigators (which happens weekly)  in the MTC as missionaries in groups of 50 so that's really cool! And we have an 'investigator' we teach every day who speaks Indonesian and is hired by the MTC to act as a certain personality. His name is Alfred and I have a tendency to takeover the lesson because I do all the talking when my companions don't understand what he said or how to respond. I feel bad for that but they are learning and are optimistic that they will improve

Sorry for the long email it's just I got a lot of questions and have been dying to tell you guys how iv'e been. I love it here and although I was really worried about my stay and my spirituality at the start, I am now feeling settled and way better. I'll always email between 8 and 12pm on Tuesdays (my P days) in American time, thanks for reading and i'll make the other emails shorter. Many of the computers here are really dodgy with a bad keyboard or mouse or it won't turn on or there's no wifi so I will try my best with that. Until next time seeyah! - Elder winfield - Indonesia Jakarta mission

18th January 2017 - Arrival at MTC

hey it's Liam! I'm in the MTC now and I have literally just arrived, I did a questionaire and got to email for a little. The flight took seemingly forever and I had an amazing time with the family playing their piano, visiting the temple and eating nice meals, im so greatful to them. I don't have much time bit i'll email you more next week when I know more!