Monday, March 7, 2016

This week was so crazy!!!!!!!  My companion and I ran all over the place trying to get Matiu's baptism ready.  It was pretty stressful because Matiu is a big fella and so we didn't have a baptismal suit that would fit him.  Lots of random things kept coming up that were not helping us get things prepared for Saturday.  I'm pretty certain Satan works his absolute hardest to keep us from having people enter the waters of baptism, but jokes on Satan because Matiu got baptized!!!!!  It's really hard to explain all of the trials we faced this week in preparation, but I will just say it was crazy!!!  I'm so thankful to Heavenly Father for allowing everything to work out though.  Saturday truly was a special day.  One of the highlights of the whole process came on Friday nighth.  Friday night we went to Matiu's to see how he was doing and to follow up with the Word of Wisdom.  Matiu had been trying really hard to stop smoking.  He had been cutting back the number of cigarettes, but still was struggling with stopping completely.  However, Sunday Matiu had a break through and was able to not smoke at all.  One of the things he told us that was really hard for him was to say no when people offered him cigarettes.  He said that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't say no.  Well Friday night when we went to check up on Matiu he told us that he had been offered 3 cigarettes that day and turned them all down.  I felt the spirit so strong as a smile came across Matiu's face.  I have really come to appreciate a simple smile since being on my mission.  When I first got to this area Matiu never smiled.  He is a really quiet fella and has been through a lot in his life.  Whenever he came to church he would just sleep and not really seem very happy.  These past two weeks have been different though, he is always smiling and it makes me so happy to see him happy. Sunday night we went back around to check on him.  He was over at brother Tapuke's house that lives across the street from him.  Brother Tapuke is in his 60's and is a single fella in our branch.  When went over there Matiu was grinning ear to ear.  He said he has had a great last two days and that he feels clean.  Matiu is the man!  I wish I could explain better in words the whole experience, but someday I can tell you more about Matiu haha.  The hardest part is that Matiu doesn't really have support from his family.  Matiu is divorced and has three girls.  We invited them all to come to the baptism and confirmation, but they wouldn't come.  It was really sad because you could tell that Matiu really wanted them to be there.  We had a really good turn out from the branch at his baptism and that was great.  I got the opportunity to baptize Matiu which was pretty interesting.  Matiu is way bigger than me so I had no idea how I was going to baptize him.  I was really worried that I was going to be baptized at the same time as him.  Thankfully I ate my wheet-bix (not my Wheaties) and had lots of help from Heavenly Father and we got him baptized haha.  That was also a miracle haha.  A big fella in a tiny font haha.

After the baptism we had a mean lesson with a blind fella.  Unfortunately his wife is really anti-religion and so it might be really hard to meet with him.  We taught him the plan of salvation and it all made sense to him.  We asked him how he felt as we taught him and he just explained how happy it made him feel and how much peace it brought to him.  He said that he had never felt the feeling before and couldn't really explain it.  The spirit was so strong and I'm really glad that we had the courage to open our mouth.

After the lesson on Saturday night we went out to Brother Patu's (branch mission leader) house and had a mean feed.  I ate a fish head!!!!!!!!  I love trying things that I have never had before!!  This week has been full of trying new food.  This week I had a fish head, raw fish salad, and ate an entire apple... stem and all haha.  Sunday night we had a mean feed at the Mauga's.  They are the coolest family ever.   They are Samoan and are the best.  It was fast Sunday and so we had a massive feed.  That is where I tried the raw fish salad with coconut milk.  It was mean!!!!  Brother Mauga makes us eat heaps or else he gets really disappointed.  I ate so much food it wasn’t even funny.  I probably gained 25 pounds in one meal.  I knew I had to eat a lot so I just tried to eat fast as so the food didn't have time to digest haha.  Plus my Filipino companion hardly eats anything, so I knew I needed to eat a lot.  I was so full, but we had a really good feed.  We had a lamb roast, raw fish salad, bread, potato salad, crab meat, and some other dishes that I can’t really explain haha.  Everything was so good though!

This morning we got haircuts from brother Mauga. He said it was a $60 haircut.  He is the man though, we go and do service for his family in return.  I love my companion, Elder Suriben, he is the man!  We are having lots of fun together, and getting to know each other better.  He learns really fast, and I think he is probably going to end up training me.  He works really hard, so I'm always excited about that.  I have heaps to improve on as a missionary, but I love it!  It is hard work, but so rewarding.

I want to give a shout out to my Young Men’s president, Brother Mellor.  This week in our leadership training the zone leaders asked us to think of a leader who has influenced us in our lives.  Of course my thoughts turned right to him.  Brother Mellor has an amazing testimony, and always made us young men feel loved.  He had a special way of connecting with each young man and I thank him for that.  He always was spiritually prepared for our lessons at church.  I can definitely credit a lot of my testimony to him.  He truly helped me to have the desire to strengthen my own testimony.  I always felt the spirit so strong whenever he taught and I'm so thankful for his great example.  Thank you so much for all of the prayers that I get on my behalf, and thanks for all of the support.  I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Brunson