Monday, August 23, 2015

I realized after reading Sorella Brunson’s email that she kind of gives a summary in the subject headline of what she is going to talk about but I'm not that cool so I'm just going to get right into it! I can't believe it is already time to write home again!  I feel like I was just writing and I really don't have too much to say haha.  Also, my weeks here just kind of mix together so I have no idea what I have and haven't told you about my mission.

Katie started her last letter talking about loving the people and I can second that!  The people here become your family and become your best friends.  I know my love for the Maori people will only continue to grow as I learn more about the culture and continue to strengthen my relationship with them.  They are some of the most humble people I have ever met.  They don't have much but what they have they give to everyone!  They also have so much faith!  They are not scholarly people by any means but they have faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and they know that the gospel will help them overcome any trial in their life.

We had a real funny experience with brother Mahe, the first counselor in the bishopric.  He came up to us after church and was like, “Elders I think my wife needs a blessing.  I gave her a blessing but it didn't work.  I think I'm running out of powers!”  It was funny because even though he was lacking in his own faith to heal her he had faith that a blessing from the missionaries would surely help her.

Elder Brunson really is learning a lot and really improving as a person on this mission.

Here is a list of areas where I'm improving:

1) I am clean shaven every day.

2) I floss my teeth every day- this is truly a miracle because I hate flossing so much!

3) I now know how to wash my clothes for myself.  I don't need my mom to do it for me anymore.     

4) I can iron a white shirt, pretty amazing!

5) I keep a clean and tidy flat- Yes, I am pretty much my mother of our apartment.

6) I have learned how much I love my family.  You don't understand how much appreciation you have for your family until they are gone!  The amount of respect I have for my mom has grown so much.  All the Elders here make fun of me because my mom has done everything for me.  I told them about losing my luggage and one of the Elders almost died laughing.  I told him you packed all of my stuff so I didn't recognize any of my bags.  I really do wish that I would have done more to help get ready for my mission.  I put all the weight on you and that wasn't fair.  I wish I would have helped out more around the house as well.  When you are on a mission all you do is serve for two years, and in one month I have already realized how little I did.  When I get back I will make up for it momma haha.

This week we had a great experience with working with members and the perfect timing of the Lord.  So Friday we were at our Bishop’s and he told us that for some reason he had his cousin Lehi's name in his head and thought we should go see him.  Elder Holmes had never met Lehi before but we told him that we would go visit him on Saturday.  Saturday came around and so we went over and saw Lehi.  When we got there we could immediately tell that he didn't want anything to do with us.  We kept trying to talk with him though and he slowly started to open up.  He told us that his family was going through a rough time.  He told us that his nephews had just gotten in trouble with the law the day before up in Nuhaka (which is 20 minutes away).  We had just been with the Elders from Nuhaka at lunch and they had told us about this big brawl that went down is Nuhaka the day before.  One guy ended up in the hospital (he was scalped with a hatchet) and some other people were injured.  We told Lehi that we had heard about it and we chatted a little more about that.  I felt impressed to ask him when the last time the missionaries came and saw him.  He told me that it had been over two years ago.  I had a feeling that was going to be his answer and I said that I found it very interesting that missionaries hadn't been to his home for over two years but now the day after this big event happened and his family is now going through a really rough time we show up.  I testified to him that it was an obvious sign that he has a Heavenly Father who loves him and knows his needs, and will always be there for us when times get hard.  He got a little emotional and it was so cool to see the change in him from the beginning of the visit to the end.  It would have made the story even better if he came to church Sunday, but he didn't.  It wouldn't surprise me if he shows up sometime soon though!

Now for a really disgusting story!  So in our flat we have a laundry room, and the laundry room absolutely reeks.  The reason it smells so bad is because there was a rotting pumpkin along with garbage bags that were who knows how old.  If you opened the door to the laundry room it would make the entire house smell.  It costs money to go dump your garbage though, so the bags have just been accumulating.  Well thank goodness for one of our investigators who lives about 15 minutes away out on a farm. They have a giant hole where you can dump all of your trash. So we decided to take our trash out there to dump it.  We start taking these bags out of the laundry room and loading them up in our little Toyota Corolla.  Half of the bags were leaking fluids and I really don't even want to know what was spilling all over me. So we filled the back of the car up and then loaded the entire back seat up with garbage bags.  I should have taken pictures because it was ridiculous!  Mom you would have died!!!!!!!!!! So after we loaded them all up I felt relieved and I was ready to go dump them.  What I didn't think about was how bad it was going to smell in the car!  So we get in the car and I almost threw up, it smelled absolutely disgusting!  It smelt like 50 dead cats were in our car.  Anyway, we start driving and it’s like 6 at night and it’s way too cold to unroll the windows.  Plus we were driving on the highway so that would make the cold air even worse!  Well we couldn't stand the smell anymore so decided to just unroll the windows and freeze!  It reminded me of this one time me and Brad Morgan, in the middle of winter, had a freeze out.  A freeze out is when you take your shirt off and see who can keep their shirt off the longest, and you do it in the middle of winter.  We did it from Pasco all the way back to Kennewick, it was crazy!  I'm a missionary now so I obviously had my shirt on haha but that is what I would compare it to!  Well we finally made it to their house with an icicle of mucous hanging from our noses but we survived.  For P-Day we are going to their house today and Elder Gutierrez from Nuhaka is cooking a goat for Elder Holmes’ Bday hahah. It should be interesting!  I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Brunson