Monday, April 18, 2016

It’s transfer week!  I’m not too worried about it though because I most likely won’t get transferred, but you never know haha.  I'm having heaps of fun with Elder Suriben though, so I don't want to leave.  I have loved all of my companions though and I'm not sure that I will ever not like my companion.  I should probably knock on wood though haha!  Elder Suriben is way awesome.  He has a powerful testimony and really loves the people we work with.  I have learned heaps from him over this past transfer.  One of our favorite things to do is make Chicken Adobo.  Adobo is the Filipino food that Elder Suriben taught me to make.  It is way nice!  We usually have Adobo when our schedule gets crazy and we have to skip dinner.  Then we get home and do our planning for the next day, and make a mean feed!  It's the best.  Fun fact about Elder Suriben; he is not afraid of spiders!  He literally picks them up with his bare hands and lets them crawl all over him.  I don't know how he does it, but hopefully by the end of next transfer I will be able to hold spiders.  We will now be going back to the normal 6 week transfers.  Most likely I will be with Elder Suriben for 6 more weeks and finish off training him, and then I will leave and go wherever the Lord needs me.

The weather has been cooling down here, I'm not sure what the temperature would be in Fahrenheit but in Celsius it has been around 18 at night.  It has been cold enough to where we have to put our winter jackets on at night.  Elder Suriben gets especially cold because he is used to the really warm weather of the Philippines.  However, we have been getting really lucky to have nice weather on our preparation days!  I think the Lord is blessing us haha.  That is like the opposite thing from back home.  The nicest days of the week were always on Sunday when you can't golf haha!  Last week for preparation day we went to a mean beach!  It was called the White cliffs, and I would have taken way more cool pictures, but my lame camera passed away again!  I think I'm going to try and get a new camera today.  However, it’s Elder Lingwall’s last p-day here so we are trying to have heaps of fun.  I think we are going to play touch on the beach with a bunch of the high school kids because they are on a 2 week break.  I wish I knew what you guys would like to know more about New Zealand haha.  My mom sometimes asks me questions and that helps me write my emails, but I don't have any juice in my thinking cells.  I always have heaps of things I want to write about during the week, but then I get to the computer and I forget everything.  I can tell you a little bit more about one of my favorite foods.  Here in New Zealand we eat pumpkin heaps.  The pumpkins here are way different than back home. They are small pumpkins and are green instead of orange.  Do we have these kind of pumpkins in America?  I'm going to be really sad if we don't, because pumpkin has become one of my favorite foods.

Well since I don't really know what to talk about I could share a miracle with you that happened a couple of weeks ago.  The miracle was our recent convert Matiu!  Matiu is still the man!  A couple of weeks after Matiu's baptism we were following up on how he was doing with the word of wisdom.  Ever since his baptism, every time we go and see him we ask him how he is doing with the word of wisdom.  Every time, without fail, Matiu would tell us that he still hadn't smoked.  Well, this one particular time when we asked him how he was doing he still told us that he hadn't smoked, but that lots of times he was tempted to.  He shared a story with us about how there was a cigarette laying outside his house and he really wanted to smoke it.  However, he thought that we might be coming around that night and so he didn't want to smoke it.  He said that he waited for us to come, but we didn't ever come.  He said that he really considered smoking it, but decided not to and went to bed.  Well the next morning he woke up and it was still there.  However, a lady who smoked came over to his house that morning, and he went and picked up the cigarette and gave it to her.  He told us that the only reason he thought he was able to overcome the temptation was because of his reading of the Book of Mormon and prayer.  He said before when he tried to stop smoking, it was easy to stop, until he got tempted.  Once he got tempted he said he would just cave in and start smoking again.  Matiu recognized that before he hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon and he didn't have the spiritual or physical strength to overcome his addiction.  Now that he is reading the Book of Mormon he sees the spiritual strength that it can bring into our lives.  This definitely strengthened my testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon.  I know that if any of you reading this have temptations that you are trying to overcome that the power of the Book of Mormon is real, and that it will help you overcome any obstacles in your life.  One of my favorite scriptures to go along with this thought is Alma 36:3.  I'm so thankful for the gospel in my life and especially for the Book of Mormon.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it can bring peace into our lives.  I love my family so much, and love you all.

Love,

Elder Brunson   

Alma 36:3

·         Book of Mormon

And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials , and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted.