To whom it may concern,                                                                       Monday, August 3, 2015

Haha I'm totally kidding… that’s probably the weirdest way I could start my letter.  I feel like I haven't written in so long and I feel like so much has happened since I last emailed home.  So the ankle is still pretty sore but it is doing much better!  I did not go to the doctors and get an x-ray.  I decided to be a man, and not a Samoan man, an American man! The mission home was so awesome!  The Assistants to President Rudd came and picked us up at 8:00 am the day we left the MTC (which was too long ago so I don't remember the day).  It took about an hour and a half to get to the mission home which is right next to the temple.  That day we were introduced to mission life and they just prepared us to go out.  That night we went to President and Sister Rudd’s home where they taught us how to be better missionaries.  We had a delicious dinner, like it was one of the best meals I have ever had!  We had a testimony meeting and after that we went and stayed in a hotel that was about 15 minutes away.  We were all exhausted so we went to bed real early.  The next morning we went to the Rudd’s home again where we had breakfast.  I thought dinner was good but breakfast was by far the best breakfast I have ever had in my life.  We had cinnamon rolls (definitely not better than my mom’s) but we had some bomb egg, bacon, and ham pie kind of thing, and this blueberry cake thing.  It’s way too hard to explain what it was but it was so good.  No, I did not get an iPad so you might want to get your money back from President Call haha.  I did get a bike though and I haven't even paid for that yet haha.  One of the couples in the mission home just said he knows where I live.  So I'm not really sure when I'm supposed to pay for that.  Yes, I have used my card, and that was when we went to the bank to take out money to pay for our bikes.  I only had $150 on the card so I couldn't pay for my bike so he just said to wait.  I also traded in $150 U.S money and got $211 New Zealand dollars so that was sick.  Sorry for everyone reading this.  All my mother’s questions are probably not as entertaining as hearing about crazy Samoan ladies torturing me! 

So my companion, he is a pretty cool guy.  He has only been out for 6 months though so we are both trying to learn.  We go and visit a lot of people but in the couple days I have been here we haven't actually sat down with anyone and taught them a lesson.  We pretty much go to their house and sit and talk about how they are and maybe if we are lucky throw something in about the gospel.  I'm so worried about wasting the Lord’s time!  I am only on my mission for two years and I want to do as much teaching in these two years as I can.  But I have never had another companion so I don't really know how to compare whether we are working hard or not.  I also don't know if I am just being too hard on myself.  We are following all the missionary rules.  It’s just hard to know if we should be pushing the gospel on these people more. 

So I am living in a city called Gisborne and serving in the Wairoa ward.  The first day in Wairoa my companion drove our car into a little ditch hahah.  It was the funniest thing ever!  We got stuck so we had to walk about 10 minutes to our investigator’s house.  The investigator has a truck so they pulled the car out of a ditch.

Man I barely eat any food!  We haven't been fed by members once since I have been in Wairoa and I haven't eaten breakfast once since being here.  For lunch we went to this fish and chips shop two days in a row.  So when we eat we eat really unhealthy food.  This area is kind of crazy!  Everyone hopes that Gisborne is their first area because it is so beautiful.  We are next to the ocean, but I haven't even got to see it yet except for a short section on the way here.  It took six hours to get here from the mission home so that was a long day.  It has been so cold here!  It is further south so I'm dying here.  Especially because our flat’s heat pump broke so all we have is two little heat fans like the one you use for your room momma.  During the afternoon the past two days have been absolutely beautiful though!  I'm ready for summer!  But then I will probably be really tired of being hot all of the time.  I want my ankle to heal so I can go running on the beach!  That would be so cool!  In my area we have a car so that has been nice.  All of the Elders here say they haven't used a bike their whole mission, I'm not really sure why they even make us buy a brand new one.  It doesn't really make much sense to me!

Church here is so crazy!  There are about 30 members who attend church on Sunday!  The whole time I thought about how big our ward was compared to this ward.  People here have like 3 or 4 callings.  It’s crazy!  The people here are so friendly though!  Most of them don't have any teeth though haha.  That is going to take some getting used to!  The kids here love Americans and American things.  Lots of them have American sporting hats.  They have no idea what the hats are or what sport the team plays, they just think the hats are cool. The people here are really nice, all of our investigators always offer us hot chocolate.  It is more like hot water that is brown though.  I'm starting to like it though haha.  Everyone here plays rugby.  It’s crazy, when I say everyone I mean literally everyone.  We are supposed to play with a group of guys this Friday but I can’t because of my ankle.

Man I am so excited for Taylor!  I'm glad he was able to get his surgery so that he could go to the MTC!  He is going to be a great missionary!

I am going to try and send you some pictures from my camera so hopefully you get them.  I have to use my companions cord though because I definitely don't have a cord to hook my camera to the computer

SO the address for the mission home is what I'm guessing you want. 

31 Ward Street, Hamilton 3204 (boxes and packages)

PO Box 9542, Hamilton 3240 (letters and packets). 

Although I'm a little confused about how to be the best missionary I can be, I have had some great experiences this week with sharing the gospel.  I love declaring my faith to other people and letting them know how happy the gospel of Jesus Christ makes me!  I wish everyone had the same knowledge that I do, and sometimes I wish I could just force people to listen.  But that is not what Heavenly Father wants, he gave us agency to choose right from wrong.

I have also learned how much I miss my mom’s meals.  I would give just about anything to have leftover roast and potatoes.  For any of you who don't know, I always complain when we have roast and potatoes because we have it literally every fast Sunday!  For our fast Sunday dinner we had scrambled eggs and four hash brown patties haha.  I love missionary work and I love and miss you all.

Love, Elder Brunson