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