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