We just found out that Elder Brunson will be transferred to a new area this week.  We don't know where he is going but the sweet missionary couple he has been working with sent the following picture and note about Tyler.

Elder Brunson teaching

Dear Brunson Family,

We just heard that Elder Brunson is leaving us to become a zone leader. I know that he will do well as he is such an exceptional young man. We are going to miss him very much. We are so appreciative of Elder Brunson. He is extremely helpful, a real “go-to” type person. Last week at our ARP meeting in Waitara, the church was locked when we got there and we had a really difficult time getting a key. It was Elder Brunson who was making calls and hurrying to members homes to find one for us. He is a wonderful person. I am attaching a few pictures for you and also a copy of our last letter home to our family and friends which I thought you would find interesting as it describes the work going on here in the District. We hope to meet you someday.

Lots of love,

Sister Sterzer

30 May 2016

We had a great, but very rainy, week here in New Plymouth. We are being blessed with sweet friendships and opportunities to accomplish some good work. We have met with lots of inactive members this week. We wish we were better at knowing what to say or do to encourage them to come back into activity, but we are hoping that just sharing our love and testimonies will affect them over time. I (Jan) had a hard time baking here in NZ, but finally made some orange rolls that turned out great, so we took plates of them around on our visits one day. We went to all the people who usually don’t let us in or aren’t excited about visits from church members. It was great – nothing softens a heart like warm sweet rolls! 

We had our first “SOUP-er Sunday” yesterday. Some of the less active members came out, but many people were out sick so we had a lot of soup leftover. (Several of the other sisters, like me, worried we wouldn’t have enough so made huge pots of soup.) I made a big batch of dinner rolls which were a hit. We are going to have some kind of “linger-longer” on the last Sunday of each month.

We began advertising our BINGO night for June 11^th. Everyone will bring a potluck treat and a garage sale-type item for the prize table. We are going with the idea that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”! J  We are learning that advertising our activities is the key to good participation, so we made a bright BINGO NIGHT poster. People seem excited about coming, and it will give the missionaries a fun event where they can bring their investigators and less active members. We also have been making posters with pictures of the past activities, and people love to see themselves. We think that remembering the fun they had at past activities will also help build a sense of unity in the branch.

Our 12-Step Member Missionary Program is not going too well. It seems like the New Plymouth members are not getting into it the way we had hoped, but we are praying that they will catch the spirit. The Elders and Elder Sterzer planned a 5th Sunday lesson where they tried to help members understand how they could share the gospel. They had a great movie clip and some members role playing ways to introduce the gospel. We are also hoping that building a warm culture, planning activities, and having great lessons and Sacrament Meeting speakers will build members’ confidence about inviting friends and family to come out. We have committed missionaries here (both the Sisters and the Elders), but the members need to help them.

Our ARP classes are going well. Also, the curriculum materials for the Self-Reliance Initiative finally arrived, so this week we will begin the classes. The Waitara Branch President (who is a fireball!) has already signed up 12 people to attend there, and we are hoping that there will be similar interest here in the New Plymouth Branch. We know that it will be a great blessing to the members -  so many are underemployed. So…. we will be very busy this week getting ready. 

We hope things are going well with all of you. We love you.

Elder and Sister Sterzer

Monday, May 30, 2016 Transfer week! Well another 6 weeks has flown by!  I'm really not looking forward to transfers.   I love serving here in Waitara and I love being companions with Elder Suriben.  We have heaps of fun together and we really get along.  We have learned lots together and we are really getting on a roll in the missionary work.  I'm hoping that I don't leave, but I don't really know if I will stay.  I have already been here for almost 5 months, but who knows maybe I will luck out!  This week we had an awesome week and saw lots of miracles.  Friday night we had an awesome activity at one of the member’s homes.  We all got together and had a feed and a spiritual program.  One of our investigators, Ngapuhi came and it was so awesome.  It was a really good activity and we had lots of fun.  I think around 30 people showed up, so it was pretty successful.  Ngapuhi is the man!!! Ngapuhi is 14 years old and he lives with his uncle who is a less active member.  I think I have talked about his cousin Tawhio before.  Tawhio was the man when we first met him, but he doesn't really want to commit to meet with us anymore.  So we go and see his little brother and his little cousins.  Ngapuhi is the one progressing the most though.  Ngapuhi has come the last two Sundays and has been coming to lots of activities.  We had an awesome miracle with Ngapuhi this week.  Saturday night we were super busy.  Normally on Saturdays we go and invite all of our investigators to come to church.  Well we got so busy and we didn’t get back to the flat until 9:24.  Once home, we realized that we hadn't even gone and asked Ngapuhi if he was coming to church.  Normally we see if he is coming on Saturday night and then find him a ride for church.  I was frustrated because we didn't go over because I really wanted him to be able to come.  Well Sunday morning we decided that we would drive to his house and see if he was planning on coming.  When we turned up to his house he wasn't home.  I was still a little frustrated, but tried to put it aside.  Well we got to church and walked through the door, and guess who was sitting in the chapel?!!!!! Ngapuhi!!!!!!  He is the man!  We asked him how he got to church and he said that he asked his uncle to drop him off.  Then we asked him if he had rugby.  One of the hardest reasons we can't get youth to come to church is because they play rugby on Sundays. Ngapuhi told us that he had rugby, but that he decided to come to church instead of going to rugby.  I thought it was the coolest thing I have ever heard.  What 14 year old kid willingly picks church over rugby?  Or even better, what 14 year old non-member picks going to church over rugby?  Ngapuhi has a lot of faith and really wants to do what is right.  He stays for all three hours of church and seems like he loves it.  Sister Flake even told us that he said the closing prayer in Sunday school for young men and young women.  She said that he gave a really good prayer.  He is really progressing and I really hope that I don't leave so that I can continue to teach him, but whatever the Lord says goes haha.  Then last night we had a really good lesson with Ngapuhi, we talked to him about baptism and he really wants to be baptized.  Ngapuhi asked us, “Can I make a commitment with you guys?” and we were like, “yup that's good.”  Then he was like, “Can I commit to come to church every week?”  We were like, “Yes!!!!!!!!”  He is the man though, and we asked him to ask his parents if he could be baptized.  He said he would and that he really wants to be baptized.  I wish I could tell you more about their family because they are so awesome.  I love being a missionary though, and you get to see so many amazing miracles in your service.  Thanks for all the prayers in behalf of me and the missionaries.  I definitely feel your support!  I love you all heaps! Love,

Elder Brunson

After playing basketball in the rain!

District

Service raking leaves.

Monday, May 23, 2016

It's raining man hallelujah it’s raining man. 

The weather this week has been absolutely crazy!  I think it has rained every day for the past week!  Sometimes the rain is just normal rain and other times it rains so much I don't even have words to describe it.  I have literally never seen it rain so hard in my life until I came to New Zealand.  It has been absolutely insane.  There were swell warnings this week so all of the crazy surfers were pumped to go catch some huge waves.  The rain doesn't really bother me too much though, I actually kind of like it.  We had fun playing in the rain on our last preparation day.  Our last preparation day was really crazy!  We mostly just went shopping, which absolutely was terrible.  Shopping back home absolutely stinks, but shopping on your only day off on your mission is even worse.  I thought I was going to die haha.  The reason we were shopping was because the Zone Leaders went to Howera for their pday so we were all by ourselves.  We went shopping because Elder Suriben needed some things and I needed to find a camera.  Turns out I'm not even going to buy a camera though, so that was a waste of time haha.  Anyway, it was going to turn out to be the worst pday in the history of pdays.  However, we still had an hour left and Elder Suriben and I decided that we would go play each other in basketball.  We are both really competitive and love basketball.  I will tell you a little bit about Elder Suriben’s game.  Elder Suriben has handles like Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving combined.  It is way fun to watch him move with the ball, he makes me look pretty stupid sometimes.  We started our first game at 4:00 and I was smashing Elder Suriben.  However, Elder Suriben had a mean comeback and won.  The second game started at 4:30 and the rain started as well.  At first it was just a light rain, but then it was a downpour.  I can honestly say I have never played basketball in that much rain in my life.  It was so fun!  Well the second game finished at about 4:42 and I barely edged out Elder Suriben.  Well the third game started and it was all or nothing, and guess what else started haha.... the lighting and thunder!  It was absolutely crazy!!!!!  It was so much fun though.  I can't even describe how crazy the weather was.  It was pretty sketchy, but we had heaps of fun.  I ended up winning the last game, but it wasn't really fair.  The court was so wet that we could hardly dribble, and so that took away Elder Suirben’s advantage.  So I don't really count it as a win.  We ended up having heaps of fun though, and got absolutely drenched in the process.

I think people feel bad for us because we are out in the rain so sometimes they are more willing to listen to us.  Other times they just think we are absolutely stupid, which could partially be true.  However, the worst part about the rain in when it is accompanied by the cold.  This week was also freezing cold!  For those of you who do not know, I'm currently serving in Taranaki which is next to Mount Taranaki.  During the winter Mount Taranaki gets covered in snow.  It doesn't usually snow in Waitara, only once every 20 years or so, but it gets very cold.  So this week has been really interesting trying to stay out of the rain, and keep from getting sick.  Some of the days we would be soaking wet and then we would go into someone's home and have a lesson.  If there house wasn't warm than we would be sitting in our soaking wet clothes and freezing.  You would probably think with these factors that we had a bad week, however, we had a really good week!  Elder Suriben and I worked really hard to try and achieve the standards of excellence.  We were talking with everyone we possibly could, and having good attitudes while we worked in the rain.

The highlight of working in the rain came on Friday.  Friday morning around 11:00 am we went to pick up brother Tapuke to take him to a lesson with us.  Brother Tapuke is in his 60's and plays the piano at church, he is the man!  He doesn't work anymore and he is always willing to go out with us and teach.  He has a really weird and funny sense of humor.  Back to the point though, when we went to pick up Brother Tapuke we saw one of the investigators that we had dropped a couple of weeks ago loading his house up into a trailer.  Not only did they not have very many people helping them, but it was absolutely pouring down rain.  I really wanted to stop and help them, but we had a set appointment with one of our investigators.  Well the appointment ended up falling through and so Elder Suriben and I decided to go and see if we could help this family move.  Well to make my long story a little shorter we ended up spending several hours helping this family move in an absolute downpour of rain.  I really don't know what they would have done if we hadn't shown up.  They would have been up all night moving!  Their home was very messy and cluttered.  I'm so thankful for a mom who has taught us to clean.  I sure hope that my home is always up to par with my mom’s standards.  Lots of the homes that I have been in here in NZ have been really cluttered though.  I'm so thankful for all the hard work my mom does to keep our house clean and tidy.  Elder Suriben and I got a good workout lifting all of the stuff though, they had heaps of heavy things.  I forgot that I wasn't supposed to say "haha" but I self-corrected my paper and I think I go the majority of the "haha's".  Anyway, Elder Suirben and I were really thankful that we were able to serve their family and we hope that we can try to share the gospel with them.

I thought I would tell you some random facts to end my email.  Elder Brunson loves sweet chili sauce, I eat it with everything, I put it in my noodles, on my sandwiches, and even in my soup.  The food here is really plain so I have to spice it up with some sweet chili sauce.  Also Elder Brunson no longer hates peas, I actually quite enjoy them.  I don't know what has changed, whether it is my taste buds or the peas here are different I'm not sure.  Thanks for all of the support from everyone though!  I love you all, and hope that you have a tremendous week.  

Love,

Elder Brunson

We hike up part of Mount Taranaki for pday

Monday, May 16, 2016

I love my family!!!

It was great to see the family this week, everyone looks so different and grown up.  I guess when you get on your mission you just expect time to stop back home, but apparently it does not stop.  Emma looks tall and skinny, Kevin looks like a man now, Amanda looks a lot more mature and very pretty, Katie still looks like Katie, and mom and dad you don't look like you have aged a day.  It was way good to get to see Katie even though she was on a little screen.  It was weird to see her. I feel like it has been ages since the last time I saw her.  My mom told me in her letter this week that she was a little grumpy after the Skype.  Don't worry mom, I know exactly how you feel.  Saying goodbye is definitely the worst part.  Skyping is pretty much teasing missionaries…here is your family…in 10 minutes they will be gone haha.  The call goes by way too fast and that is the worse part.  It was still awesome to see the family though even if I did get smashed for my terrible letters.  Apparently I say "haha" too much haha.  If I sound depressed in this email you will know why.  I'm no longer allowed to say haha, so I might sound a bit grumpy, but I promise I'm not.  Back to the family though, I think Emma gets the award for the most changed.  I still can't get over how tall and skinny she is. I hope you are feeding her mom.  I think my Mom and Dad are probably excited that they didn't win the award for the most changed, because that would mean they look older.

This week was an awesome week though, and it went by way too fast.  This week we went on an exchange and I got to be with Elder Fellingham again.  Elder Fellingham and I have been on so many exchanges it’s not even funny (I just put a haha right here because I forgot I wasn't supposed to say haha, good thing I remembered).  We had a really successful exchange.  We met a super nice lady.  We talked to her for a little bit and introduced the plan of salvation, which was exactly what she needed.  The spirit was super strong as we met with her and testified of the truthfulness of our message.  Unfortunately, this is a story with an unhappy ending.  We tried our very best but in the end she said that she wasn’t interested in us coming back right now, but that when she was ready she would find us.  It was so sad, we were so excited because the lesson was going so well.  She was interested in our message, but in the end she wouldn't commit.  It is definitely a tough aspect of missionary work, you do everything you can and in the end they turn us away.  It is so sad because we know how much our message could bring peace to her and her family.  However, the exchange was mean and we met heaps of people from all around the world which was mean.  We met a lady from Bolivia and her brother joined the church not too long ago.  We got a return appointment with her and we told her that she should skype her brother and talk to him about the church.  So who knows what will happen with the wonderful people we met.  That is something that is cool about the mission.  You never truly know the impact that your visit can leave on someone, and we don't really know who will end up joining the church.  Our message that we share with them can make them more willing to meet with missionaries later on in their life.

This Sunday I had the wonderful opportunity to speak in church. My topic was being worthy of the Holy Ghost.  I based my talk off of a talk by Elder David A Bednar, "That They May Always Have His Spirit to be with Them."  It was a wonderful talk, Elder Bednar's not mine, and if you have some extra time I would recommend reading it.  I shared the experience of when I got lost on my last young men back packing trip, when I got super dehydrated.  I don't know if any of the young men remember the story.  I was running along as usual on the last day of the hike.  It was a very hot day and I didn’t have much water.  I always run back to the cars on the last day of any hike because it makes no sense to take your time hiking when you are going home, so you might as well get home as fast as you can get home.  Well I was doing my usual routine of running and I thought I had to be getting close to the cars.  To make a long story short, I ended up getting lost. I prayed and was able to make it back to the right track and made it back to the cars but added several extra miles onto my route.  In my talk I shared how there will be times in our lives when we will desperately need the companionship of the Holy Ghost, it is so important that we are worthy of that companionship so we don't become lost.  However, there is more to the story that I didn't share in my talk.  So after about 30 to 60 minutes everyone else started arriving to where I was waiting by the cars.  What I didn’t realize was that by that point I had become extremely dehydrated and wasn't really sure what was going on.  I knew I needed to go to the bathroom really bad but I couldn’t explain my situation to my Dad.  I kept asking him over and over again if I could go to the bathroom right there because I didn't feel good at all.  My Dad realized I was dehydrated and eventually convinced me to drink some water and cool down in the river and my senses finally came back to me haha.  Thank you for taking care of me Dad.

I hope you all have a great week, and stay safe.  

Love,

Elder Brunson      

Happy Mother's Day!!!   Love you Mom!!!

Zone Meeting

Monday, May 9, 2016

Happy Mother’s day!!!!!!!!!!

Moms are the best thing in the entire world.  Especially Momma Brunson!  Mom I know with a doubt in my mind that you are the hardest working person that I have ever met.  I'm so thankful for the way that you have raised us as kids, and I owe everything I have to you.  Thank you for teaching me how to work (even if I didn't ever work back home haha).  I would say that I have definitely learned how to work now haha.  Elder Brunson can finally say he knows how to work hard.  Thanks for keeping our house so clean and tidy; I'm not sure how you do it!  I don’t know how many times I will say this, but nobody makes better cookies than Momma Brunson.  I could really go for a Worlds Famous Momma Brunson cookie.  I miss them heaps.  But more important than your clean house and your wonderful baking I'm so thankful for your Christ like example.  I truly know that you strive to love each of your children the way Christ would.  The amount of patience and love that you have with us crazy kids is truly amazing.  Thanks mom for always striving to help me to strive to be more Christ like.  You were always trying to help us develop ourselves and to make better choices.  We are all here and earth to prepare to return to live with Heavenly Father and become like him.  Thank you so much mom for doing your best to help us grow closer to Heavenly Father.  Thank you for your testimony of the gospel and for teaching the gospel to your children.  I love you heaps mom!  

It has been another great week here in Aoteroa though!  I love being a missionary here in New Zealand.  There is no better place to serve a mission.  I'm probably a little bias though because this is the only place that I have ever served a mission haha.  I really love serving here in Taranaki as well, the missionaries are awesome and so are the people.  This transfer has been a little strange though, so this past week we had our zone meeting instead, when we usually have it the first week of every transfer.  However, the entire mission was having a conference, but Gisborne and Taranaki zones didn't get invited because we are too far away haha.  Pretty lame haha, but it makes sense.  This is not the first big event that I have missed either.  At the beginning of my mission when I was in Gisborne I missed David Archuleta when he came to the mission.  I really was bummed when I found out that I missed that haha.  Pretty much President Rudd told me I'm banished to outer darkness for my mission haha.  No I really don't mind, I have loved serving in Gisborne and Taranaki, I reckon that they are the best two zones in the mission.  Anyway, we had our Zone meeting this week and that was way good.  We had lots of fun, and learned lots as well.  I gave a short training on following up!  I told a good story about Emma and her great missionary work.  I use Emma as an example of a great missionary all the time.  If my little sister who is 9 can do missionary work anybody can!  Thanks Emma for your great example!!  I definitely look up to you!  I have mixed feelings about skyping home today haha.  I don't want the skype to come because I know how quick it’s going to end.  The Skype pretty much teases you as a missionary haha.  With that being said, I'm still really excited to see the whanau!!!

This week has been a good week and the highlight has been working with one of our investigators named Vance.  Vance is married to a less active member of the branch Juliana.  Vance is a really busy fella, but we were finally able to catch up with him this week.  We had an amazing lesson with him and his wife and the spirit was so strong.  Vance has meet with missionaries for ages and there really isn't a reason that he hasn't got baptized.  He is really busy though, and sometimes he works on Sundays.  Vance and Juliana are 22 years old and an awesome couple.  Vance knows the church is true, and so Elder Suriben and I just need to help him overcome some speed bumps and he will be an awesome member.  We are really excited to try and work with him more though.  Sorry that my email doesn't have heaps of information haha.  I could tell you a funny story though.  So last night we were at Elder and Sister Sterzer’s house because Elder Suriben was doing his skype. Elder Suriben was talking to his bishop and his family.  They asked me to come over so they could see who I was.  As I was leaving, Elder Suriben’s bishop (who speaks really good English) said, "Your companion is very handsome haha."  Then he said there was heaps of YSA that would be interested in me haha.  He then tried to convince me to come to the Philippines after my mission.  So who knows, maybe I will go to the Philippines after my mission haha.  Just kidding.  I love you all heaps though and hope you have a great week and a great Mother’s Day!

Love,

Elder Brunson       

Beautiful New Zealand!

We made homemade shoes out of flax haha!

Elder Zes

Monday, May 2, 2016

This whole week I have been anticipating the arrival of my mom in New Zealand.  I thought after not sending an email this last week that my mom would definitely turn up to my flat and give me a hiding haha.  However, to my surprise, she never showed up haha.  My parents had no problem turning up to my cousin’s mission flat so you never know what momma Brunson has up her sleeve.  I really do apologize though for not being able to give you an update on my last week.  I had actually typed up a really good letter and was a little flustered when it got deleted.  Hopefully my anger has been able to decrease instead of my throwing of golf clubs halfway down the fairway haha.  I would like to see if I have more patience in my golf game when I get home.

I will try and give you an update of the past two weeks, but I mostly have things to talk about from two weeks ago.  I have some bad news though and I have some good news.  The bad news first.  The pair of church shoes that I came out on my mission with have now moved on.  Now these church shoes were not just any church shoes.  I had these shoes for ages before I came out on my mission.  They have probably been the best pair of shoes I have owned.  I'm also really sad that I didn't get a picture with them before they left me.  You might be wondering where the shoes are now.  That is the good news!  My shoes have gone to a better place, and no they have not gone to heaven.  My shoes are now with a less active member Aaron Harrison-Love.  Aaron is 16 years old and is so awesome!  I thought that I would share a little bit about him because it has been so good for Elder Suriben and I to get to work with him.  So a couple transfers ago when I first came to Waitara, Elder Vaea and I would go and try to visit Aaron.  However, Aaron was not making the best choices and so he was dodging us.  We were trying our best to see him, but we could never catch up with him.  About two weeks ago we finally caught our break.  We went to go and visit one of our investigators Jesse Luke.  Jesse is 20 years old and we have been teaching him.  He isn't really progressing very well though.  When we turned up to see Jesse though, Aaron was there.  We got talking and ended up having a really good lesson with them.  We could tell Aaron really wanted to change and that he wasn't doing very good, but that he just didn't know how to change.  Since that visit we have been able to have regular visits with him and he has come to church the past two Sundays!  He has changed so much since the first time I meet him.  Before you could really tell that he was not doing the best things.  We could tell that he was really going through a hard time and didn't really have the spirit with him.  Now it is completely different!  We can just see that he is booming with the spirit.  I don't even know how to explain it, but we can just see it.  He is so happy and excited to learn more about the gospel, and he wants to prepare for a mission.  It has been such a great blessing to get to work with him and to see him change.  He is now reading The Book of Mormon, and gets so excited to learn more about it.  Back to the shoes haha.  Aaron really wanted to come to church, but he didn't have any dress shoes.  I told him that he could have my shoes, because I had another pair at the flat.  So Elder Suriben and I went back to our flat that night and polished up the shoes and gave them to him.  They actually looked pretty nice after we polished them.  One of the shoes is split in half though, but you can't tell unless you look at the bottom of the shoe.  He wears them to church on Sunday though, and I'm glad that they have gone to a better place haha.  I was really hoping to make it to my year mark with them though.  I knew that if I could make it to my year mark that my other shoes would be able to last me the rest of my mission.

The weather is getting much colder!  There isn’t snow on Mt Taranaki yet though, so that's good.  It won’t snow in Waitara, but it will get really cold!  At church this Sunday I was freezing cold!!!  It was miserable haha.  Everyone was making fun of me because I was rubbing my legs up and down haha.  I would think that my hairy legs would keep me warm, but apparently not haha.  It reminded me of my first Sunday of church out in the mission field back in Wairoa.  It was freezing cold outside and I was so excited to get into the chapel.  However, when I got into the chapel it was freezing cold!  I then realized how thankful I was for the heating of buildings back in the United States.  It's going to be another long winter haha.  Just kidding I will manage!  I love being a missionary though, I'm, still trying to work hard.  I know that families can be together forever through Heavenly Fathers plan!  I have the best family in the whole world!  I love you all heaps!

Love,

Elder Brunson 

(Hopefully this email actually sends haha)