Elder Brunson and Elder Lingwall, Zone Leader

Elder Brunson and Elder Vaea

TSB (Tyler Scott Brunson) Bank

Zone

District

Crazy District

Monday, February 2, 2016

An amazing surprise!

Well I will again apologize for my email last week.  I'm sure my mother was not too impressed.  I will try and do better this week, but no promises haha.  Shout out to my older Sister who is coming home from her mission this week.  I have felt very out of the loop haha, I had absolutely no idea when she would be home.  I'm probably out of the loop though because I'm not very good and remembering information that has been given to me.  You are probably all wondering how I will cope knowing that she is going home and I won’t be there.  I will be honest...... I want to come home :(  I’m just kidding, it’s alright haha!  I mean I would love to see her, but I will get to see her in just a little bit.  I love my older sister so much though!  She has been an amazing example to us all and I have no doubt that she has worked extremely hard.  She should be very proud (the good proud) of her service!  Quick story.  I learned the lesson of pride at a very young age haha.  Guess who taught me the lesson?  Uncle Adam.  I wonder if he remembers?  It was a hot summers day and I was about 12 years old.  I was very excited on this day because they were posting who had made the all-star team for baseball.  My mom was really busy so my Uncle Adam offered to take me down.  So we went down to the field together to check whether or not I had made the team.  When we got there I nervously checked the list for my name, and guess what?!  I made the A team for All-Stars.  I was so excited!!  I told my Uncle, "I'm so proud that I made the All-Star team."  Well Uncle Adam, being a recently returned missionary, quickly taught me a lesson about being prideful.  I don't remember exactly what he said, but I do remember that afterwards I felt I had been arrogant.  My point is that Sister Brunson should look back on her service and see what an amazing job she did and feel good about it.  I love her.

So today we are again emailing in the library.  Once again, I have to type as fast as humanly possible.  I'm really thankful I took computer apps last year or else I would be in even bigger trouble.

Thursday night of this week Elder Vaea and I got the best phone call ever (besides the surprise phone call from Katie at Christmas).  The Zone leaders called us and told us that we would be traveling to Auckland on Friday to hear an Apostle of the Lord!  Elder Vaea and I were so pumped we didn't even ask who it was.  After we calmed down the zone leaders told us that Elder Christofferson would be coming.  This all came as a big surprise and we were so excited to go and listen to an Apostle.  Friday afternoon we departed for Auckland at 3:00 p.m.  The drive up was really fun and we got to ride with the zone leaders.  The zone leaders are way cool and pretty entertaining haha.  Friday night we stayed in a motel in Hamilton, the same motel that we stayed in when we first arrived to the mission after the MTC and also the same motel we stay in when we go to the temple.  Two zones always stay in the motel, the Taranaki zone and the Gisborne zone.  You know what that means?!  I got to see my son!!!!! It was so good to see Elder Barbosa. I had forgotten what his voice sounded like.  We had a good time catching up and talking about our investigators.  It sounds like a lot of things have been slowing the work down in the area, which is a bummer.  He was enthusiastic as always though, and was happy.  I love Elder Barbosa heaps.  Saturday we woke up at 5:00 a.m. so we could try and be the first ones to the chapel in Auckland.  We really wanted to have front row seats to see Elder Christofferson.  Well it turned out to be an inspired plan and we got front row seats!  The MTC got the first 3 rows, but we got to sit in the fourth row!  The conference didn’t start for an hour and a half, so we waited patiently and talked with other missionaries.  We were instructed by President Rudd that when Elder Christofferson walked in the room we would all stand up.  We waited and waited and waited and finally came the moment where we all stood up.  As we stood up I felt such a strong spirit as I knew I was in the presence of an Apostle.  It was an amazing feeling!  We all were seated at the direction of Elder Christofferson.  Than Elder Christofferson told President Rudd that he would like to shake everyone's hand.  Everyone means all the missionaries in the Hamilton and Auckland mission.  I forgot to mention that the entire Auckland mission was there as well.  It was so cool to get to shake Elder Christofferson’s hand.  It was an amazing conference and I learned so much.  The talks were great and Elder Christofferson was really fun to listen to.  Something that stood out to me was that although he is an apostle of the Lord he is still human.  He has a really good sense of humor and does normal things like you and I.  The best part of the entire conference came at the very end when he bore his special witness of Jesus Christ.  If you look up apostle under the bible dictionary it teaches us that an apostle is a special witness of the name of Jesus Christ in all the world, particularly of his divinity and of his bodily resurrection from the dead.  The night before the conference I had looked Apostle up in the Bible Dictionary and that is what I learned.  So at the end of his talk I was hoping that he would share his special witness of Jesus Christ, and that is exactly what he did.  If I thought I had felt the spirit strong when Elder Christofferson entered the room I was wrong.  I have never felt the spirit so strong as when he shared his testimony with us.  Often times I have felt the spirit in my heart, but this spirit filled my entire body, and then some.  I know that Elder Christofferson is an apostle of the Lord, no different than Peter, James, or John.  I know that Thomas S Monson is a prophet called of God, I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He leads and guides His church on the earth, The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints.  

I'm sorry that I didn't have more time to tell you about my area, but this definitely was the highlight of my week!

Love,

Elder Brunson            

Monday, January 25, 2016

I'm sorry haha

I'm going to start by apologizing because I only have 20 minutes left to email and I just started typing.  Right now I'm emailing in a library and we only get a limited amount of time on the computer.  This email will be really lame and I know my mom will not be a happy camper haha.  The good news is her daughter is coming home that she hasn't seen in a millennium so that should help reduce the intensity of her wrath on me.

It's crazy to think I'm actually in this new area for good.  My whole mission experience was based off the little town of Wairoa so it is really weird not to be there.  I really don't remember what I told you last week about my new area so I'm really sorry if I repeat myself.  The hardest part for me about the new area is just adjusting to not knowing the people.  I had grown such as good relationship with the people of Wairoa and so it’s hard not having a really good relationship with everyone.  I know that it will take time though so I'm not too worried about that.

This week was pretty crazy.  The highlights of the week were going to Zone meeting and a new investigator that we found.  Zone meeting was way mean.  It lasted from 10:00- 4:00 and I learned heaps.  We watched a broadcast that went out to all of the missionaries.  In the morning we had our normal zone meeting, then we had a mean feed at lunch, and finally we had the two hour broadcast in the afternoon.  In zone meeting I got asked to give a mini training and so that was pretty interesting haha.  I used some advice that my wise older sister gave me when she called me at Christmas.  The broadcast was way mean and I really think that it will help me become a better missionary.

This is really random but I better answer my mom’s question before I forget.  So I'm currently serving in Waitara which is about 15 minutes from New Plymouth and about 10 minutes from a place called Bell Block.  We cover both Waitara and Bell Block.  There are sister missionaries who live in Bell Block though, so we double cover that branch.  Our District is made up of two sets of sisters and the zone leaders.  To be quite honest, I liked our two man district in Wairoa much better haha.  The sisters are kind of crazy haha, plus I'm not used to having sisters in my district.  New Plymouth is a big city, and is pretty comparable to Gisborne, just a little bigger.  It's pretty funny because everyone talks about how small Waitara is but it is way bigger than Wairoa to me.  There are lots more doors to knock than Wairoa haha.  I think you guys have probably figured out by now that I love knocking doors.  We had some really good success knocking doors this week.  So the new investigator we found is named Tawhio (wh makes an f in Maori so it sounds like Tafio).  Anyway, Tawhio is 17 years old and he is the man!  We saw him two times last week and set him for baptism on our second visit.  He already told us that he would want to serve a mission.  Unfortunately, like half of the people in New Zealand, he has his girlfriend living with his family, so we have to straighten that out haha.  But he is all goods on the W.O.W. I'm not really sure if that is supposed to be kept confidential, but oh well haha.  I love being a missionary!  The church is true.

Love,

Elder Brunson 

Maehe Family
Brother Maehe is the second counselor in the Wairoa Bishopric.

Seenie the man!

Tinika and Saul

New companion Elder Vaea

Monday January 18, 2016

Malo lelei famili

Where in the world is Elder Brunson?!!!

Well to end all of the excitement I will tell you where I am...............Wairoa!!!!!!!!! Jokes, I am in the Naki as the mission calls it.  I'm currently serving in Taranaki in the Waitara Branch.  My new companion is named Elder Vaea and he is from Tonga.  He is way funny and we are already having heaps of fun.  He has only been out on his mission for 3 months so he and I are babies.  I'm glad he has only been out for a little bit though because he still wants to work hard.  He really is the man!  He is very humble and always serves me.  Like if we are eating lunch he will heat up food and give it to me instead of eating it.  That probably sounds strange, but he is always doing little things to help me out.  He is also teaching me heaps of Tongan so that is way cool.  By the end of the 6 weeks I should be fluent haha.  The Branch here is about the same size as the ward in Wairoa.  There are a lot more people in this city though than in Wairoa and a lot more shops haha.  Last week was so crazy and I have heaps to say, but not a lot of time to say it all.  I will try to be as brief as I can and I will give you more details about the city next week.  Here is the run through for a couple days last week.

Monday-  For our last pday in Wairoa we climbed Mahia and climbed a hill which overlooks the beach.  The members told us that the hike should only take about 10 minutes.  However, the hike took us 20 minutes because instead of going up the marked trail we just went straight up the side of the hill because we couldn't find the path.

Tuesday-  We said goodbye to everyone.  I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to leave Wairoa.  It was so hard to say goodbye to people that I have grown close to.  I'm so glad though for the opportunity that I had to serve the people of Wairoa for 6 months.  I really didn't understand the impact that I was making on people’s lives until I left.  I had a really touching experience saying goodbye to Tinika and Ricky and I'm so glad that I was able to meet both of them.  Tinika has grown so much over the past few months and she really is a different person.  When we first met her she wouldn't say anything for the first few weeks, but now we are best friends.  Seenie, one of my favorite members of the ward, gave me a green stone for a going away gift.  Green stones are something that are really special in the Maori culture so it was way cool that he gave me one.  Grandma Brunson will be really happy to hear that Matiu (the man) gave me some rocks to take back to the states for her.

Thursday-  The Bus departed from Gisborne at 7:30.  Guess what haha?  I almost wasn't allowed on the bus haha.  My ticket had some complications and so I held up the bus for like 30 minutes while the bus driver tried to figure things out haha.  Luckily it wasn't my fault because the mission office was the one who put all of the bus tickets together.  Mom you will be pleased to hear that I made it all the way to Tarinaki without losing a single suitcase.  Guess how long the bus ride was though…..13 hours!!!!!!!!  That was literally the longest day ever haha.  I might as well have flown back to the United States haha.  My trainer always joked that the only thing that was keeping him in New Zealand was the 13 hour plane ride back.  Speaking of my trainer, I'm now officially the son of the Assistant to the mission president.  Yes Elder Holmes is now an assistant haha.  So that is pretty crazy lol.  I am currently still a District Leader in my new area.  There are sister missionaries now in this district so that is different haha.

The rest of the week I have spent meeting everyone in the area.  There are lots of nice people and Elder Vaea and I have already taught some really good lessons.  There is a lot of potential in the area so I'm excited to work hard.  Sunday was a good day and I got to bare my testimony in sacrament meeting so that was fun.  Then Elder Vaea and I got surprised and got asked to teach the young men's lesson last minute.  We talked about the atonement, which none of the boys knew what that was.  Then this big Samoan guy smashed them for not knowing what the Atonement was.  So Kevin, I really hope you know what the Atonement is, if not ask papi haha.  Today for preparation day we are going to play touch rugby with some other Elders and members of their branch.  It will be my first time playing touch so it should be pretty fun.  A little bit about the weather.  It has been way hot here in Tarinaki.  It’s not like heat where we are from because it is so humid here.  The humidity makes it feel so much hotter.  It has been pretty miserable to sleep at night because we only have one fan in our flat.  Our flat is pretty nice but reeks like poo and is way messy.  We did a pretty good job cleaning this morning, but it still doesn't pass momma Brunson's expectations haha, or mine for that matter haha.  You have taught me well momma.

I miss Wairoa heaps and it’s weird to be in a new area, but at the same time I know where I am supposed to be.  I'm looking forward to working hard and strengthening my testimony.  I love you all heaps and apologize for not giving more details momma haha. 

Love,

Elder Brunson     

District Meeting

While on exchange in Nuhaka

Monday, January 11, 2016

Uh Oh Transfers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For about the past 6 months I have been serving in the beautiful little town of Wairoa.  Wairoa is home to about 5,000 people and I think 4,000 of the people here are less active members haha.  No it's not that bad, but most people have connections to the church.  I love the people here and I can't believe I have almost spent a quarter of my mission in the same area.  The time has flown by and I really love serving here in Wairoa.  I still am not sure of whether or not I will be staying for another transfer so I am anxiously anticipating a call.  Some of you probably think that I am ready to go, but I actually really love it here.  I have really grown close to the members of the ward, but I especially have grown close to our investigators.  I love the people here so much.  I will especially miss Tinika and Ricky.  They are doing so good!  Tinika comes to church every Sunday and loves participating in class.  Elder Barbosa and I teach the gospel principles class and Tinika gets so into class.  She listens really well and even takes notes!  How many of you can say you have taken notes during Church?  I'm not even sure some of us can say we have stayed awake for all 3 hours of Church haha.  It is crazy to see how far our relationship with Tinika has grown since we first met.  Our first few lessons with her were the toughest lessons ever.  We would try and get her to participate in the lesson, but she wouldn't say anything.  Now she is a Chatty Cathy haha.  I'm so thankful for the opportunity that I have had to share the gospel with their family.  I feel like I know just about everyone in this little town haha.  If we walk down the street I can recognize just about anyone.  The cool thing is that people that rejected us when I first got here will now stop and talk to us on the street.  If the mission President let me, I think I could serve my entire two years here.  I have gotten so used to the people and to the way of life it just feels like home.  I can't imagine going anywhere else.  

News about Transfers.  So usually the way transfers work is everyone who is being transferred meets at a central location and we have a transfer meeting then disperse to our new areas.  Instead, this is our new protocol:  

Attention!!! Effective this week we are implementing a new policy regarding Transfers. This is at the direction of the Missionary Executive Council, chaired by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, and the Missionary Department. We will no longer be having "Transfer Meetings" where all those transferring come to a central location. Instead each transferring missionary will transfer by use of public transportation (Bus). During this process missionaries will be allowed to be without their companion. The cost and coordination of the transfer will be taken care of by the mission. Zone Leaders will be given instructions regarding the transfer logistics. It is very important that you adhere to the following guidelines and instructions. Each transferring missionary is allowed 2 bags (25 kilos each) and 1 carry on (5 kilos). Take your bike helmet with you (wear it if necessary). You should include your sheets and pillow case in your bags. You will not be able to take your blankets or your bikes with you. They should be left in your old area and use what is in your new area. We realize this is going to cause some discomfort and concerns with many of you. It is important for us to follow the direction from our leaders. Please direct any questions or concerns to your Zone Leaders, Assistants or Mission Office. Happy travels!  President Rudd.   

It is a little sad that we won't get to have transfer meetings, but if it is coming from an Apostle of the Lord I'm sure there is good reason for it.  The only concern I have is getting lost haha, or losing another suitcase! haha.  Also I think I have 3 suitcases so I'm not really sure how that is going to all go down.  I will probably figure it out somehow haha.  I will try to remember how many suitcases I have this time.  Also I'm getting robbed of a brand new bike, plus everyone else won't have to buy bikes anymore and we all know how cheap I am.  At least I will leave my mark on Wairoa because my bike has a sticker with my name on it.  Everything will all work out though, but I will just have to hope I don't get lost.  

This last week was way good!  We had some good highlights of the week that I will briefly share.  One of the best highlights was an exchange we went on with the Nuhaka Elders.  I went with Elder Bowman to Nuhaka and Elder Barbosa stayed with Elder Hawkins in Wairoa.  It was a way good exchange, Elder Bowman and I smashed it!  At the beginning of the exchange I told Elder Bowman that my goal for the exchange was to be bold.  He told me that was a mean goal because they had an investigator who is pretty stubborn who needs someone to be bold with him.  So I decided I was just going to follow the spirit and be as bold as I possibly could.  Well long story short, we probably had the best lesson I have been in on my mission.  When we came out of the lesson Elder Bowman was like, “Man that had to be the most spiritual lesson ever!” haha.  It was a way cool experience and I definitely felt the spirit so strong. 

Another good experience this week came from a lady named Lisa.  Guess how we found Lisa....you got it haha, knocking doors!  I love knocking doors so much!  Lisa was sitting outside reading a book in the sun.  She is probably in her 30's and has two kids and she is a school teacher.  Well because she was reading a book our job became a lot easier.  We asked her if she enjoyed reading and she obviously did haha.  That lead perfectly into us introducing The Book Of Mormon to her.  We gave the background of The Book of Mormon and shared some of the stories that are found in The Book of Mormon and talked about the restoration.  She was really interested in The Book of Mormon and was ready to start reading right away.  It was cool to see the excitement that she had to read the book.  I'm so thankful for my testimony of The Book of Mormon.  I hope that each of us can learn from Lisa's example and really have an enthusiasm for reading The Book of Mormon.  I hope you all have a tremendous week!

Love,

Elder Brunson  

Monday, January 4, 2015

Happy New Year!!!!  

Well there isn't really much festive tradition in New Zealand on New Year’s.  Well....at least not in the small town of Wairoa, who knows what the rest of the country was like.  I apologize for not being able to give you any more details on the New Year traditions here.  We heard a couple fireworks but nothing too fancy haha.  For New Year's Eve Elder Barbosa and I went and stayed the night with the Nuhaka Elders.  We even had permission to stay up until.......12:01! Pretty crazy eh???  It was so weird to think that was the first time I have stayed up past 10:30 in 5 months haha.  We had heaps of fun though.  We just hung out and played games!  We mostly juggled a soccer ball for ages.  It was way fun because I'm terrible at soccer!

Since I don't have heaps of things to share this week I will tell you one of my favorite New Year’s traditions from back home.  At the top of the list has to be watching The Great Escape with Grandpa Brunson.  I really should have just stuck to that tradition every year!  Grandpa Brunson is the man!  I have always loved chilling out with Grandpa Brunson and watching T.V.  If you have not watched The Great Escape you need to!  It is probably the best movie ever.  While we watched The Great Escape Grandma would always bring us her famous popcorn.  If you want to know how to make some good popcorn go see Grandma Brunson and she will teach you the tricks of the trade.  A funny story that happened earlier this week; someone was asking me what our traditions are for New Year and I told him one of my favorites and then realized later that it wasn't even a New Year tradition haha.  I know you are all probably dying to know what tradition I could have possibly mixed up for a New Year tradition haha.  Alright I will tell you, fireworks at the river.  I didn’t realize I had lied to that guy until just now when I realized we don't go to the river for fireworks on New Year's Eve.  That is the 4th of July haha, oops!!

This week has been a pretty slow week with everyone being gone for the holidays.  Also in New Zealand the kids go to school year round so their Christmas break is 6 weeks long.  So pretty much all of our investigators (the small amount that we have haha) are all gone, or they have family in town.  None the less, we have worked really hard this week and have some pretty cool new people to teach.  I will tell you about one of our newest investigators.  His name is Waka and he is the man.  Waka is like 20 years old and is in a gang.  Some background information.  New Zealand has two big gangs, Black Power and Mongrel mob.  Black Power wears the color blue, and Mongrel mob wears red.  Most of the Mongrel mob have tattoos all over their face, so some of them look pretty intimidating.  However, I am not scared of them at all haha.  Funny story, the other day Elder Barbosa and I were riding bikes.  Yes, I'm sure you are all surprised that we ride bikes even though we have a car.  Since being on a bike I have realized how bad I am at riding bikes.  Like if some waves, I have to put all my effort into casually waving while not looking like I'm about to fall over haha.  I have been practicing riding one handed so when someone waves I won't look like a fool.  Anyway, back to the story haha.  So the other day we were riding bikes and this guy from the Mongrel mob was riding a bike and smashed his bike into Elder Barbosas bike on purpose.  Then he said, "I don't have any rules boys."  Well we just ignored the fella and kept on riding.  After we got out of earshot of the guy I asked Elder Barbosa if he wanted me to go smash the guy.  I could not believe that he would have the nerve to smash into Elder Barbosas bike.  Elder Barbosa thought nothing of it but I was ready to throw down haha.  I was oblivious to the fact that the guy had an entire mob to back him up and all I had was a skinny Brazilian haha.  Now some of you might be worried, whoa what has got into you Elder Brunson.  No, I would not have actually attempted to smash the guy regardless of whether or not he had a mob backing him up.  However, I still was a little upset that the guy had crashed into my companion.  From this experience I learned that we really need to keep our cool because we represent Jesus Christ.  A lot of people are going to say rude things to us, or do things to try and upset us.  I realized how important it was that I realized I am always representing our Savior Jesus Christ, and I need to act that manner no matter what.  Now I will finally finish telling the story about Waka haha.  So Waka is a member of the Mongrel mob.  He is the man though.  We had a mean lesson with him the other day and it was almost like he had met with missionaries before.  It was like he could have taught himself the lesson.  We were talking about pre-earth life and as we were talking about it he was finishing our sentences.  It is kind of hard to explain but it was way cool!  He is way nice even when he is with all of his mob friends he has us come over and teach them.  He said that if he were to join the church he would bring the whole mob with him haha.  He is way cool and I really hope he gets baptized!  Well since meeting Waka we have meet a couple of the other Mongrel mob members and they are like the nicest people ever.  I think some of the nicest people I have met in Wairoa have been people from the Mongrel Mob and Black Power.  The mission is so awesome, you get to meet amazing people and share the gospel with everyone.  My testimony is really growing and I'm so thankful for my elder brother Jesus Christ.  I hope you all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Brunson