Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Temple Trip!!!!!

This week is already off to a weird start.  Yesterday, instead of having our normal preparation day, it was just a normal day haha.  It was weird not emailing home or doing any of the normal Monday activities.  We had a pretty successful day though even though it was hard to miss pday.  Today is kind of like our pday, but our day is going to be spent driving up to Hamilton to go to the temple!  It is definitely worth it to miss out on preparation day to get to go to the temple.  I love the temple and I'm really excited to get to go on Wednesday.  This week we were also supposed to have interviews with our mission president on Saturday, but he ended up rescheduling it to tonight at his house.  So even though we won’t get to play touch on the beach it still should be a great day!

I'm glad everything has worked out so far for the emails.  I'm not really sure how long I will get to write this email, so I will try my best to get as much in as I can.  I will rewind back to last week so I can give you some of the highlights of the week.  Preparation day was heaps of fun!  We went down to Howera which is about an hour away and had preparation day with the other elders in our zone.  First, we played basketball at the church, which was really intense.  We played against Elder Christensen who is 6ft 6 and has a scholarship to play football at BYU and his companion who is about 6 ft 6.  We barely lost though!  It was way fun.  I had the fun task of guarding Elder Christensen.  I think I did I pretty good job for being a little man haha.  After basketball we went and played Ultimate Frisbee on the beach.  Ultimate Frisbee was heaps of fun!  It reminded me of the intense games that we would have for mutual.  I'm sure RT remembers the mean Ultimate games for mutual.  This week I jinxed myself and finally got sick haha!  Nahh I didn’t get sick, but I have had a cold and a sore throat which wasn't heaps of fun.  It didn't keep us from working though, so that was good!  I think I would have to be practically dying to stay in the flat haha.  An update on the weather, it has still been hot!  I'm not sure if it is ever going to get cold.  I'm ready for cooler weather though so I can sleep better at night.

The spiritual highlight of the week was a lesson that we had with a man named Greg.  So I think I mentioned Greg a couple of weeks ago.  Greg is the man that we ran into after Matiu's baptism.  Greg rides around in a mobility scooter and is pretty blind.  I say pretty blind because he has some sight, but he is practically completely blind.  We had a mean lesson with him after the baptism and we could tell that he is spiritually prepared for the gospel. Unfortunately, his wife is completely against any other religion.  However, Greg said that he might be able to meet with us at the chapel.  Well we had set appointments with him two weeks in a row, and both times he didn't turn up.  Well this week when we were driving in the car and we saw Greg.  As bad as this sounds, it works out perfectly that he is blind because the past few weeks whenever we see him we just drive our car past him a little ways and get out and start walking toward him and then share a message with him.  Well this week when we ran into him he told us that he didn't think he could try and come to church or meet with us at the church.  He said that he had briefly mentioned it to his wife, but that she was against it.  However, we had a really spiritual lesson with him, and bore our testimonies how the gospel could fill the gap which he feels is missing in his life.  We shared 1 Nephi 3:7 with him which is my favorite scripture.  We shared our love for him and bore our testimonies of the truthfulness of our message.  He was really touched by the fact that we told him we loved him and cared about his salvation.  We invited him to pray and as Heavenly Father for the help to be able to talk to his wife and for her heart to be softened.  Elder Suriben and I are now anxiously awaiting the results.  We have been praying a lot for him and I really hope that Heavenly Father provides a way for us to teach him.  I don't remember everything we shared with him, but the spirit was definitely present.  I love being a missionary and getting the wonderful opportunity to feel the spirit so abundantly in my life.  Nothing can match the feeling of the spirit.  It is a feeling that comes which testifies of the reality of our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.  I have been so thankful to be a missionary at this Easter season.  My testimony and my appreciation for the Savior have increased so much since coming on my mission.  I really want to choose the right and keep the commandments so that I can return to live with them someday.  I know that it is through the covenants that we make inside the temple and through the atonement of Jesus Christ which allows us to be able to return to live with them.  I love you all and thank you all for the support you give to me.

Love,

Elder Brunson