Golfing!

Gisborne

Service at Sister Disons
BEFORE

AFTER

Monday November 30, 2015
Thanksgiving!

This is the first year I'm thankful I didn't eat thanksgiving dinner haha.  I'm not sure anyone will recognize me when I get home, so it was probably for the best that I missed out on the extra calories haha.

Transfers week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess where I'm going?!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wairoa haha.  As it stands right now I will still be training Elder Barbosa.  Who knows, maybe President Rudd will call later and relieve me of my duties haha.  Hopefully I'm doing a good enough job so that won't happen haha.  I did hear some really good transfer news though!  Elder Bowmen from my intake is coming to Nuhaka!!!!  He will be in our district so I'm super pumped for the next transfer.  It is going to be heaps of fun!  Elder Bowmen is like 6ft 5 and loves to play basketball.  All we did at the MTC during our lunch break was play basketball..... well until I smashed my ankle haha.

This week has been pretty crazy!  I will try and give a little recap.
Monday  we went golfing for P-Day!!!!!!!  I learned that you shouldn't tell your mother that you are going to work on the Christ like attribute of patience before you go golfing.  Heavenly Father must have a sense of humor because I literally played the worst round of golf ever haha.  I snap hooked almost every drive.  Guess what hole I didn't snap hook my drive?!!  Of course as you could guess haha, the last hole!  Everyone should be proud to know that I didn't break, smash, throw, or eat any golf clubs.  I remained pretty calm given the circumstances haha.  I was smashing my irons though!  I would have played way better if I just hit irons off the tee.  Monday night we went on a mini exchange with our zone leaders.  I went out with Elder Harmon who had served in Wairoa at the beginning of his mission.  He is going home this week!!!!!!  He is way nice and I learned a lot from him.

Tuesday we had district meeting in Wairoa and afterwards I made some mean crumbed venison.  Yes believe it or not Elder Brunson really did make crumbed venison.  Well I should say, Elder Landis and I made crumbed venison.  I did the hardest part though, cooking the venison.  Elder Holmes and I made crumbed venison before but it wasn't very good haha.  We cooked it way too long so it was way chewy.  This time I cooked it and it was literally perfect!  It was way soft, and it must have been cooked all the way because nobody has died haha.  After the mean feed, I went with Elder Fellingham to Gisborne on an exchange.  We had a really good exchange!  His teaching style is way unique so I learned a lot from him.

Wednesday was crazy haha.  Wednesday morning Elder Fellingham and I decided to go running for our workout.  I was so pumped because I have only got to run once since being out on my mission.  We ran up this massive hill.  Elder Fellingham is a skinny fella so he is a way good runner.  I think I almost died a couple of times on the run.  When we got back we were both coughing up our lungs haha.  Wednesday morning we got a call from Elder Harmon, the other Zone Leader, that Elder Landis had to come up to the doctors in Gisborne.  We had to wait ages for Elder Landis to be able to get into the doctor though, so we ended up spending pretty much the whole day in Gisborne.  On our way home we decided to stop and McDonalds to get a treat for our ride home.  As we were standing in line a member from one of the Gisborne wards came up to us and started talking with us.  They ended up buying us all mac attacks!  Let me tell you what a mac attack is haha.  A mac attack has two Big Macs, a medium fry, and a medium drink.  They bought each of us one, which probably cost like $50!  It was way nice of them!  So if you are reading this letter go find a missionary and spoil them with something good.  Don't worry mom, I didn't eat both of the Big Macs haha, I gave one to my companion haha.

Thursday- Don't remember Thursday haha
Friday- Did some service at sister Dison’s house haha.
Saturday- This is turning into a 3 day recap haha, not a week recap

Sunday was a mean day!  Ricky got the Aaronic Priesthood!  The Stake Patriarch is related to him, so he came down to Wairoa so he could give him the priesthood.  It was a very good experience and Ricky was way happy to get the priesthood.  Tinika is doing very good as well!  It truly is amazing the changes that have happened in their lives.  It still amazes me every day with what they have been able to do.  Sunday afternoon we had a mean lesson with one of our investigators who haven’t really been progressing.  Their names are Charlie and Stephanie.  They are in their 30's and have 4 kids.  We haven't really been able to teach them much.  However, Sunday afternoon we had a really good lesson with them.  They committed to reading The Book of Mormon every day this week and also to read The Book of Mormon picture book with their kids.  They are an amazing family and I love them heaps.  Their boys get so excited when we come around and see them.

Well I was able to remember 4 out of the 7 days haha.  This past week was really good and I can't believe that I am going to be leaving Wairoa in 6 weeks!  I love the people here and I don't really want to leave.  I think I could serve the rest of my mission here, I'm sure the people would get tired of me though!  I love this gospel.  Happiness comes from keeping the commandments, and when we keep the commandments and keep our covenants we can be sure that we will have eternal happiness.  I can't believe it snowed in Kennewick haha

Love,
Elder Brunson

Tyler’s mailing address

Letters and padded mail:

New Zealand Hamilton Mission

Elder Tyler Brunson

PO Box 9542

Waikato Mail Centre

Hamilton 3240

New Zealand

Packages and boxes:

New Zealand Hamilton Mission

Elder Tyler Brunson

131 Ward Street

Hamilton Central

Hamilton  3204

New Zealand

Elder Barbosa, Ricky, Tinika, Elder Brunson

Tinika and her son Rick

Tanika and Elder Brunson

Monday, October 23, 2015

Miracles!!!!!!

Man we had a mean week this week!  I'm going to try and write a good letter but I'm kind of distracted... you know why??........We are going golfing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm so pumped haha.  It feels like ages since I’ve golfed and I'm ready to swing a club again.  We are golfing with the Zone Leaders (Elder Harmon and Elder Fellingham) and we are golfing with the Nuhaka Elders (Elder Landis and Elder Hawkins).  We all golf except for Elder Barbosa haha.  Elder Barbosa is really excited to go golfing for the first time though!  It should be way fun!  The course isn't very nice but I really don't mind haha.  Mom, I promise I won't throw any clubs either haha.  I will be working on the Christ like attribute of patience while I'm golfing haha.

Man we had so many miracles this week I can't even count them.  I will start with one of my favorite miracles haha.  It is probably one of my favorite miracles because it is the definition of Elder Brunson.  So a couple of weeks ago I left my camera out in the rain and it got drenched.  The good news was the camera still worked.  The bad news was it wasn't working very well haha.  I did not tell my mom about the incident because she just spent a lot of time and money to try and get me a cord for my camera so I could connect it to the computer and be able to send pictures home.  I was very frustrated because I didn’t want the time my mom spent to buy and mail me the right cord to be wasted.  Well, to make matters worse, my camera literally stopped working.  It kept saying low battery and then it would just shut off.  I knew there wasn't a low battery because I had just put brand new batteries into the camera.  I was stressing out about it all week because I really didn't want to tell my mom I broke my camera.  Also I'm too cheap so there was no way I was going to buy another camera haha.  Well the day before the baptism I had a bright idea.  I decided to say a prayer and try to see if I could get my camera to work.  I said a prayer and I immediately had the brilliant idea to put new batteries in the camera.  I really didn't understand why I would do that because I had already put new batteries in the camera but I did it anyway.  Guess what?!!!!!!!  The camera started working haha!  It was a simple prayer and I have a testimony that Heavenly Father answers even our simple prayers.

Next miracle!  Tinika and Ricky were baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was such an amazing experience getting to meet them and see their progression.  Tinika getting baptized really was an amazing miracle.  Last week Tinika had not been able to keep the word of wisdom.  She was trying really hard but she just couldn't give those things up.  I was stressing out because she was having her interview on Wednesday and on Saturday she still wasn't keeping the word of wisdom.  I wasn't sure what we should do.  We had already fasted for her but she was still struggling.  Well Sunday came around and Elder Barbosa and I fasted for her again, and guess what?!!! She was able to keep the word of wisdom all of Sunday.  Monday night we had family home evening at Tinika and Ricky's house, and guess what?!!! She was able to keep the word of wisdom all of Monday as well!!!  We decided that we were going to have a group fast for Tinika, so our ward mission leader, Tinika, Ricky, and Tinika's sister Carol all fasted for Tinika to be able to keep the word of wisdom to prepare her to be baptized.  Guess what?!  She has been able to keep the word of wisdom without any problems.  The amazing thing is that she has had a heavy addiction to cigarettes her whole life and was able to just quit.  We asked her how she was able to do it and she said through prayer and fasting.  Every time she felt tempted she said that she would pray for the strength to overcome the temptations.  My testimony has grown significantly and I know that through prayer and fasting we can overcome anything. Tinika is an amazing example to me and she has come so far since we started teaching her.  It has been such an amazing experience to get to teach her from start to finish.  I have seen both her and Ricky progress so much!  The Baptism day was amazing!  They were both so happy and there was such a sweet spirit at the baptism.  I feel like I could come home now haha.  Nahh just kidding.  There are heaps more people waiting for the same blessings that Tinika and Ricky just got.  I know there is no way that Tinika could have just given up her addictions without there being a loving Heavenly Father who answers prayers.  The quickness of her giving everything up had special power behind it, and there is no way our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were not behind her, lifting her up.  I love being a missionary and getting to see the happiness that comes into people's lives from keeping the commandments of God.

Mosiah 2:41 is still my favorite scripture:

“I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God.  For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.  O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.” 

I love you all heaps!

Love,

Elder Brunson

The caves!

Elder Hawkins, Elder Landis, Elder Barbosa, Elder Brunson

Monday, November 16, 2015

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's mama's birthday and I'm not even sure how old she is haha!  I did remember to put two spaces at the start of my first sentence though haha.  My mom was giving me a hard time because I haven't been putting the customary two spaces before I start my sentence.  We will see how long I can go without forgetting to put two spaces.  When your mom has held your hand until you are 18 years old, you don't really know what to do without her haha.  Including her correcting every single one of my English assignments.  I'm not really sure if it is cheating, or if it's just getting extra help.  All I know is without my mom I would never have passed any of my English classes.  I know my mom will continue to help me pass my classes in the future ;)  I think the Brunson kids are the only kids who have the right to say that they have the best mom in the whole world, and that is because of the simple fact that it is true.  I love my mom heaps.  She is the most selfless, loving person I have ever met in my whole life.  I didn't realize how much I looked up to her until I came out on my mission.  Everything I attempt to do is to be like my mom.  I obviously don't do anything close to as good as she does, but I always look to her example.  Mom you would have been a great missionary.  Someday you will be a great missionary when you and papi hit the streets haha.  I think every Monday I could just email about my mom and tell everyone how great you are.  If you want to have a fun afternoon, you go and hangout with mom.  Mamma Brunson always makes sure that her kids are happy campers.  Even when she takes us to do ridiculous things like shopping, she always makes sure we have a good time.  Some of my best memories have come from spending time with my mom running errands.  She is always there to talk to, when you need someone to listen.  I wish I would have relied on her more when I was at home.  It's true I'm a mama's boy haha.

I absolutely love Elder Holland's talk from General Conference; I just keep listening to it over and over again.  I love when he says, “No love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child.”  I know that my mom has this kind of love.  She truly is an amazing woman, and I look up to her so much.

Let's see, what did we do this week?  Last preparation day we went to those caves where Elder Holmes almost died.  This time we had a little bit more light than last time.  I was the only one smart enough to bring a light haha.  It all worked out though and we had a really good time.  We took some sweet pictures in the caves that I will have to send to you.

Last week was pretty much a normal week except for the fact that we had to make a surprise visit to Gisborne.  Elder Barbosa still had not paid for his bike so we had to drive up to meet one of the senior couples in Gisborne.  I don't know if I ever told you about when I paid for my bike haha.  I just put $650 in an envelope and sent it to the mission office through the mail haha.  I don't know if that was the safest way to do it, but oh well.  It got there safely haha.   So Friday afternoon we drove to Gisborne.  When we got to Gisborne we had to wait for like an hour for the senior couple to arrive.  Then we were going to help some missionaries move their stuff out of their flat and into a new flat, however we did not end up moving them so that was a waste of time.  Then we drove back to Wairoa and our whole day was pretty much gone.

This week we have really been focused on helping prepare Tinika for baptism.  She is still having a tough time with the word of wisdom so we have been seeing her heaps to make sure she can be ready.  We have been praying heaps so hopefully she can be ready for her baptism this weekend.  We are way excited for them!  You know how I told you that Ricky is the man?!  Well he really is the man.  He saved our week this week.  This week was kind of long and we didn't have heaps of success but Sunday made everything worth it.  Ricky brought two more friends to church; their names are Chelsea and Bradley.  Ricky has already been bringing his friend Tarquin who we should hopefully be baptizing soon!  Now we have two more potential investigators as well.  Hopefully they will all be coming to family home evening tonight.  The work is really moving along, and we are eager to see heaps of success these next two months.  I love being a missionary and I am humbled every day to get to represent Jesus Christ.  I'm so thankful to have an infinite atonement which allows me to overcome my many weaknesses.  I'm forever grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Brunson

The beach on preparation day.

The tide came in quick while walking along the beach.

This was a service project for an older lady in the ward.
It took a long time!

Monday, November 9, 2015

This week flew by! 

Monday-  For preparation day we went to the beach!  The Nuhaka Elders were busy so Elder Barbosa and I decided to just go down to the beach for the day.  When we got there one of our investigators happened to be there. Can you guess who it was?  Matiu!  Matiu is the man!  He makes traditional Maori instruments and makes heaps of traditional things out of wood.  (I sent a picture last week of me playing one of his instruments.)  He also goes all around New Zealand and plays the traditional instruments for people so that it way cool!  Matiu stayed and chilled with us for about an hour.  It was so hott!!!!!! It was fun to hang out with him!  Matiu will hopefully be baptized sometime next transfer.  He needs to get married first. Their wedding is planned on November 28th so sometime after that he will hopefully be baptized! 

Tuesday-  Tuesday night we started an exchange with the Nuhaka missionaries.  I was with Elder Hawkins a missionary from England!  He seems way cool and we had a really good time!  The only bad part was I got absolutely no sleep that night!  Elder Hawkins snores like a grizzly bear... no joke!  I don't think I have ever heard a human being make the noises he did in his sleep.  Even when I somehow managed to fall asleep, my body would be jolted awake from his non-human noises.  I think they were actually scaring me in my sleep haha and that's what was waking me up.  No jokes I think I got like 2 or 3 hours of sleep at the most. It was terrible!

Wednesday-  Wednesday was pouring rain and freezing cold!!!!!!!!!! It went from like 70's to 30's overnight, it was insane.  Luckily we had heaps of people to see that day so we weren't out in the bad weather much.  It was literally the most rain I have ever seen in my whole life!  It didn't even let up all day. Usually if it rains hard it is off and on, but that was not the case. It rained hard ALL DAY!!!!!! Wednesday night we drove to Gisborne for Zone meeting.  We stayed in the Zone Leaders flat with the Nuhaka Elders.  It was so much fun!  We played a couple games of Monopoly Deal which got pretty intense.  I had never played Monopoly Deal, which is weird because I think Katie and Amanda love it. 

Thursday-  Thursday we had a mean zone meeting!  I learned heaps and everyone really felt the spirit it was way cool! Elder Barbosa and I shared the miracle moment of the week!  We talked about the two people we met from Germany haha. Everyone really likes my storytelling (unlike my family) so I'm starting to build my rep haha.  Elder Rios was the first person to love my storytelling haha. Whenever we were around people or missionaries who didn't know me he would have me tell them my losing my luggage story haha.  I love telling stories, maybe I should become a professional storyteller for a living haha.  After Zone Meeting we went to Carl's Junior haha. Yes they have CJ's in New Zealand!  My burger was way mean but my shake was very disappointing.  It was by far the worst shake I have ever had in my entire life.  It was so watery it wasn't even funny.  It was like I was drinking cookies and cream flavored water. 

Friday-  Highlight of Friday, I met an Italian guy!!!!! I was like, “My sister is serving a mission in Italy!” He invited us to sit down outside his house and we talked with him for about an hour.  I shouldn't say we talked with him though haha. More like we listened to him for an hour.  He gave us a history on pretty much everything that has ever happened in this world.  He had some very interesting views, and he sure love Barack Obama ;) Every time we tried to talk he just talked over us haha. I was hoping that he was going to be keen but he really wasn't.

Saturday-  We contacted two of the people from the area book. They are sisters and their names are Anastasia and Antonia.  I have contacted them once with Elder Holmes but we didn't really get to teach anything. Then Elder Barbosa and I ran into them in the street the other day and had a pretty good lesson with them.  I love Wairoa because it so small.  I pretty much know everyone in the whole town and you run into everyone you know pretty much every day. Anyway, we went to their house Saturday night and had the meanest lesson ever!  The reason they had been dropped by previous missionaries was because of the Church's stand on homosexual relationships (no they are not homosexual) but they do have family who are.  I was so worried about going to their house and trying to resolve this concern.  Well the Lord took care of us and we actually ended up resolving their concern!  We answered heaps of their questions and the spirit was really strong!  It was way mean and we invited them to church and to this fireside that we were having at church Sunday night! They said that they couldn't make it to church but that they would come to the fireside. 

Sunday-  Right before church Elder Barbosa and I got a call from Brother Maehe (2nd Counselor in the Bishopric) and he asked if we could fill in for two speakers.  We of course said yes because we are the missionaries haha.  I gave a talk on faith and it was the longest talk I have ever given, I spoke for 25 minutes so that was pretty crazy haha. I have now spoken 3 times in this ward haha. Some of the other missionaries say they never have to speak in their wards.  Sunday night was a mean fireside!  A Maori fella named Herewini Jones came and gave a presentation. He studies culture and relates family history and culture to The Book of Mormon.  You guys should definitely look him up! Antonia and Anastasia came to the fireside and they said they really enjoyed it!  We had a feed after the fireside and I got to try muscles!  They were way good!!!!!!!! I had heaps haha. I also had heaps of other food!  I don't think you will recognize me by the time I get back. 

My testimony is growing heaps and I love doing the work!  It is far from being easy but it is definitely worth it.  I don't know how I could forget!  Tinika’s son Ricky is set for baptism!!!!!!!!!!! They are both set for November 21st!  We are so excited.  Ricky is 12 and he is the man!  Sunday he stayed for all 3 hours of church and came to the two hour fireside! He is way cool! When we first started teaching Tinika he wasn't very interested, but now he loves seeing us and is really progressing heaps. Tinika still has some things to work on but I know the Lord will help her to be prepared!  I love New Zealand! 

Love,

Elder Brunson

Unreal haha

Jealous? Mahia is so beautiful!!!!!!

Me and Matiu having a jam session.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Tracting! Halloween! and Germans!

Mom you can no longer say that I haven't ever had to work hard in my whole life haha.  This week Elder Barbosa and I smashed it!  I have literally never been so tired when I go to bed as I have been this week.  I think we have knocked on about every door in the entire town of Wairoa.  Wairoa isn't very big so it doesn't take long to cover the entire town.  We haven't actually knocked all of the doors, but I'm sure by the end of these 12 weeks, we will have knocked almost every door. Elder Barbosa loves working hard so it is great to have him as a companion.  He is the man!  Our teaching pool is so small that when I run out of ideas, we just go knock on doors.  It's not very effective to say the least, but it's better than driving around in circles, or wasting time at a member's home.  We also have done heaps of street contacting!  I like street contacting but it's not very effective in Wairoa.  We have one main street in Wairoa that has several shops on it.  So when you try and talk to people on the main street they are all going somewhere and don't want to stop to talk to you.  With that being said, we found heaps of potential investigators from street contacting this week.  We had some really keen people but sadly our return appointments with all of them fell through.  One of them was an empty house haha. The other one hasn't been home and her Aunt keeps telling us to stop wasting time.  The other one was a 15 year old girl named Evening who we invited to church but she didn't come.  I'm hoping we are able to work with those people, especially Evening because she is searching for which church she wants to join.  Although we didn't have heaps of success with return appointments this week we did set one of our investigators for baptism.  I don't know if you remember the mean exchange I had with Elder Mathews who is an assistant to the president.  Well we found two sisters, Tenika and Carol a couple of weeks ago and taught them the restoration on the street. Well Tenika has come to church the last two Sundays and we set her to be baptized for November 21st!!!!! We are super pumped.   We are also teaching her son Ricky (12) and his friend Taquinn (15).  They both went on a youth trip to Gisborne this weekend.  I hope they had a really good time!  They are both keen on getting baptized so we will see how it goes.

Halloween was so lame haha!  Halloween isn't really big here. There were heaps of kids on the main street trick or treating but other than that it was pretty lame.  It is nothing like what it is in the States. Mom I loved the candy corn that you sent me!!!  I ate my last couple of pieces yesterday to celebrate Halloween in the States. The costumes here are also pretty lame.  Everyone was pretty much dressed up as a zombie, so everyone looked the same.  Elder Barbosa and I talked about going and dressing up as missionaries to try and get lollies. The town is too small though and everyone would recognize us so we decided we should not haha.

Alright you are probably wondering about the Germans haha. This week we had two crazy experiences.  On Friday night I had no idea what we should do.  It was 8 o'clock and the people we usually see on Friday nights were gone. So we drove to one of our less active member’s house named Senie. He lives by himself and a car we didn't recognize was parked outside of his house so we thought that we better not interrupt him.  We decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help us find something to do.  We decided to go to our go to spot....Marine Parade (the main street) and guess what???!!!! There was nobody down there haha.  By this time it was 8:20.   We decide to go back and try Senie again. Guess what??!!! The car was gone!!! But also guess what?!!! I forgot my USB and our plan was to show him a Mormon message.  So we drove to the flat and got my USB and we were about to drive back but  I looked over at Elder Barbosa and was like, "Do you think we should go to Senie's?"  We both felt like we shouldn't but we still had no idea what to do.  I decided that we would drive to Marine parade and no matter what we would just get out and start walking.  We saw a couple people but they were all really busy.  We kept walking and I was like man, we really need to find someone!  Than out of this parking lot came a guy that looked like he was in his 20's.  We end up talking to him and his name was Nicholas and he is from Germany!  He is just traveling around New Zealand for fun and was just staying the night in Wairoa and then going to Napier in the morning.  We ended up having a mean lesson with him!  We taught him the Restoration and then gave him The Book of Mormon and invited him to read and pray about it.  He said he would and he was really pumped!  It was a mean lesson but we were sad that we won't get to see if he reads and prays about The Book of Mormon.  Elder Barbosa and I talked about how mean it would be to have him come up to us in the afterlife and be like, "Do you remember me?" and then he tells us the story of his conversion. Who knows what will happen haha.  Well if it is not crazy enough to meet a German in one of the smallest towns in New Zealand, listen to this. So Sunday Elder Babosa and I were street contacting. Guess where we were street contacting?!  Marine Parade haha.  Well we ran into this girl who was 25.  We start talking to her and guess where she is from?!!!  Germany!!!!!  We were like, no way!!!! I asked her if she was with Nicholas.  She said she wasn't and that she was just with herself.  She said that she was just traveling around New Zealand for fun (same as Nicholas).  We told her about Nicholas and she thought it was the coolest thing ever.  We ended up teaching her about the Restoration and gave her The Book of Mormon and invited her to read and pray about it.  It was also a mean lesson! She wasn't as keen as Nicholas but it was still way mean.  We than asked her where she was going next...guess where?!!! Napier!!! hahaha We were like no way that is where Nicholas just went. We than told her that they were going to meet up and they were going to talk about The Book of Mormon and then become members of the church.  It was so crazy haha!  Elder Barbosa and I are hoping they meet up, fall in love, become members of the church, and live happily with their family forever haha.  It would be one in a million though.  But I think it was already one in a million that we found two Germans doing the exact same thing in Wairoa.

I know that Heavenly Father does answer prayers and that he loves each and everyone one of his children.  No matter what choices we make He will always love us!!!!!

Love,

Elder Brunson