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