Ty Pritchard, a youth from our ward.
He left for his mission this week.
We will miss him!

Biking in the rain haha.
Heaps of fun!

Elder Zesiger and I say goodbye

I love Swedish fish!

Monday, June 27, 2016

Well this week is the real farewell of President and Sister Rudd  :(  They will be leaving this Thursday and heading back to Utah.  I don't know what we will do without them!  They love the missionaries so much it's not even funny.  I don't know how we could have a better mission President.  I'm excited for the new mission president though.  I have full confidence that he was called by revelation and that he is the man for the job.  I think he will bring lots of new energy into our mission, and new ideas.   Elder Saurey and I will get to have a 30 minute interview with him next Tuesday I think. He will probably just talk to us about our zone, and the goals that we have.  We are not really sure though, what will go down.  Got to be on the A game though.  This past week was a good week.  To be 100% honest our area is struggling pretty bad.  We don't have very many investigators at all right now.  It has been stressing me out a little bit, but I have confidence that the Lord will help us to find some new investigators.  He has already been helping us out, but we will definitely have to continue to rely on him.  So we have just been trying to talk with everyone we see.  We always do that haha, but we are really going out of our way to talk with everyone.  That part of our week has been really fun.  I love finding, but it can be really exhausting.  It feels so good to find a new family or a new investigator.  One thing I love about this area and about being companions with Elder Saurey is that we bike a lot.  Biking really makes it easy to talk with everyone.  If we are biking and we see someone we just bike over to them and start talking with them.  When you are in a car it would be pretty awkward to just drive over to someone and pull the car over haha.  I think we are a lot more effective when we are on the bikes.  One day we were biking in the pouring rain, it was so awesome!  Our pants got soaked haha, but it was a lot of fun.  Everyone thought we were crazy and told us we were going to get sick, we told them nah!  But guess what, that came back to bite us.  On Saturday Elder Saurey came down with a bug and we tried to go out and work, but he was dying.  We ended up calling sister Rudd and going back to the flat.  It was my first time not being able to go out and work.  There were definitely some pros and cons of not going out to work.  There are lots of cons but one of the pros was that I had time to study my scriptures.  I had a mean study!  I learned a lot!  I can't even begin to describe how much I love The Book of Mormon!!!!!!!  I wish I could just have it memorized.  The Book of Mormon can give us so much guidance in our life if we will just read it daily.  For me my testimony of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon has increased so much on my mission.  One of these simple ways is through the desire that I have to read it.  Each day I love being able to study from The Book of Mormon and I can definitely say that it has become delicious to me!  I can't imagine going a day without reading it.  I would just encourage you to read the scriptures daily.  I know that we get that pounded into us from day one, but it is because there is great power in reading The Book of Mormon.  If you are not a member ask my little sister for The Book of Mormon, she is the best missionary in the family and she will get you one.  One of my favorite scriptures in The Book of Mormon is found in 2 Nephi 32:3- Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you ALL things what ye should do.  No matter who you are, where you come from, your age, sex, or religious background I know that The Book of Mormon can show us ALL things what we should do.  How amazing is that blessing?!  Who doesn't want to be shown ALL things what they should do?!  We would be crazy not to read The Book of Mormon every day.  Well that is my rant for this email haha.  The Book of Mormon is true.  Anyway Saturday afternoon Elder Saurey and I attended a baptism in our zone even though Elder Saurey was sick.  It was the first baptism I have attended in another language.  The baptism was done in French!  Guess who was the translator?  My MTC teacher sister Burgess!!!!!!!  Sister Burgess was the best!  She is now living in South Auckland, she is married, and is pregnant haha.  It's crazy how much can happen in a year haha.  I was able to talk to her after the baptism and catch up with her a little.  It was so awesome to see her though. 

I just had an amazing tender mercy from the Lord!  The computer started freaking out and then my whole email was lost, so I thought.  But it turns out the computer was able to save my email so I don't have to retype this whole letter.  That really would have put a damper on my whole preparation day.  So mom, make sure you thank Heavenly Father for allowing me to get my email sent off.  Knock on wood, the whole thing actually gets deleted.  Saturday night the traveling assistants came and stayed the night at our flat.  The traveling assistants are Elder Zesiger and Elder Tibbetts.  Elder Tibbets just finished being the AP with my papi.  Both of them are going home with President and Sister Rudd on Thursday.  I love both of those fellas so much, they are both really funny.  I'm going to miss Elder Zesiger heaps though.  He was my first Zone Leader and now he is going home.  It’s funny to think that when I first met him, he had barely been out for a year.  Now I'm in his position and I'm sure this next year and a month will go by so fast!  I'm pumped to hit hump day!  We had a good night chillen with them and just talking about the mission life.  They were both really trunky and ready to be home haha.  Elder Zesiger is set on marrying Katie, but I think he might have a little competition haha.  Sunday was Elder Saurey's B-Day!  And we celebrated it with Bundaberg drinks!  You will have to look them up, they are really nice!  Two of the sisters in our zone also made him cakes, so we are loaded with food.  I also got him chocolate, and gum haha.  I'm a pretty lame companion though.  I did also clean his desk for him while he was sick haha.  Elder Saurey is now 20.  Last P-day we had a mean game of basketball, and this week we have another mean game planned!  I love basketball so much!  I miss playing basketball at the church and playing dunkball at the Mckays.  Shout out to the Mckays for being so kind and letting us use their court.  Hopefully we were not too obnoxious!  Another good week ahead, and I'm excited for the miracles that lay in store.  

Love,

Elder Brunson

PS Is Finding Dory in theaters right now?  If so, I hope our family has gone to see it, in my behalf haha 

Saying goodbye to President and Sister Rudd

At the airport with Elder Saurey

Eating dinner with Ty Prichard.
He is 18 and leaves for his mission on Wednesday.

Monday, June 20, 2016

I think I need to hire someone to start my emails for me haha.  Knowing how to start is the hardest task, once I get going it is usually pretty easy.  This week was a great week!  Tuesday was the highlight of the week, but was also really sad.  Tuesday President and Sister Rudd came down for a farewell zone conference.  It was really hard to have to say goodbye to them.  They are both such amazing people and they will be really hard to replace.  President Rudd has such a good sense of humor, I don't even think he tries that hard to be funny, but he just is.  The love that we feel from both of them is so amazing.  They both have very strong testimonies and have made a huge impact on my life.  I'm sad that I didn't get to golf with President Rudd, but there should be heaps of time when I get from my mission to do that.  I can't wait to visit them in Utah.  They are the best!  We got to take a picture with President and Sister Rudd and give them a goodbye hug so I will send you a picture of that.  I'm excited for the new mission President though, he should be really on to it.  He was a member of the seventy and has already been a mission president, so he should know what he is doing.  Elder Saurey and I were in charge of having everything ready for the zone conference.  Elder Holmes called us Tuesday morning and told us he needed a projector screen.  Well our chapel does not have a projector screen and so we were trying to figure out what we would do.  Elder Saurey and I decided we would go to the Warehouse and get a bed sheet and try and use it for a screen.  After we got the sheet we went to the chapel and spent ages trying to get this bed sheet up on the wall.  We didn't have a ladder, so I stood on the back of a pew on my tip toes.  It was pretty interesting, but everything ended up working out.  We were able to save the day and sort everything out.  Wednesday morning we had to wake up at 5:30 to take two missionaries to the airport.  We helped them get all of their baggage marked, and sent them off on their way.  It is always sad to have to be the one's to drop off missionaries.

I want to take a moment to say how much I love the people in this new area, they are seriously the best!  Islanders are the best people ever!  They are so kind and they love the missionaries!!!!!  They spoil us way too much!  My new favorite drink is Coco Samoa!  It is the best!  I don't really know how to explain it, but it is really good.  I also really love chop suey, an Islander dish, and taro.  The Islanders are also really funny!  All of our ward activities are really fun because the members are so fun and crazy!  One of the members took Elder Saurey and me out to eat at a Samoan restaurant this week and it was so good!  I think I would have loved to serve my mission is Samoa or Tonga.  However, I'm so thankful that I'm serving here in New Zealand.  Saturday morning Elder Saurey and I went and helped out at a ware service project.  We mowed a ladies lawn Islander style, with a musette!  Okay we didn't use a musette for the whole lawn, but for lots of it we did.  I had lots of fun messing around with the musette.  We went to do the service at 7 though, and it was dark and the grass was really wet!  We got soaked haha!  Afterwards we went to the bishop’s house for breakfast.  I ate heaps of pineapple!  It was my first time having pineapple since being in New Zealand!  It was seriously the best pineapple I have ever had!  It was soft, juicy, and cold!  That is my favorite way to have pineapple!

The best visit this week was to a fella named Francis.  Francis is from Africa and is so cool.  He is a convert to the church, but has fallen away for the last few years.  He has an awesome spirit though, and really wants to do what’s right.  We really want to help him come back to church.  I'm sure we will!  He is too awesome to not be at church.  His personality is just so cool.  We had a really spiritual lesson with him.  I felt so much love for Francis!  I just met him, but I could really feel Heavenly Father’s love for Francis coming through me.  I don't really know how to explain it, but it was a great feeling.  We invited Francis to church and he said he would come.  Sadly, Francis did not show up to church though :(  Maybe next week though! 

Well Elder Saurey found out this week that we are being evicted from our home haha.  Nah we are not really being evicted, but we do have to find a new place to stay.  The land lord wants the house back, so we have to figure out where we are going to move.  We are really sad, because we reckon that we have the best flat in the mission.  We have two showers!!!  It is so nice to have two showers!!!!  I forgot to mention something else we did on Tuesday.  Tuesday night we went to our next door neighbor’s prayer meeting!  It was a pretty crazy experience haha.  The people shouted hallelujah, and other random things.  There was so much commotion going on, we couldn't even tell what was happening.  Not to put other religions down, but I'm so thankful that we have the knowledge of the appropriate way to pray.  I'm thankful that I know how to communicate with Heavenly Father and receive answers to my prayers.  I'm not perfect at it, but I'm definitely getting better.

I want to end by saying Happy Papi's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I also want to let everyone know that I have the coolest dad in the world!  I'm so thankful for his great example and his love of the gospel.  I know I wouldn't be where I'm at without my dad.  Whenever I would get mad or upset back home, he would always find a way to humble me, no matter how hard I tried to win.  The greatest life lessons he has taught me are to honor thy father and thy mother and to love your companion.  I know I'm a long ways from having a companion (that's not a guy haha) and that is the last thing I'm thinking about.  But I know that if I treat my future wife the way that my dad treats my mom I will be a great husband!  I don't have any questions about whether or not my parents love each other.  Sometimes they show each other too much love, and it grosses us kids out, but I'm thankful that they do show their love.  I hope that I can always love and respect them the way they have respected me.  I love being able to study the gospel each day!  It is one of my favorite parts of being a missionary.  I have learned so much and I'm excited to continue to learn and grow!  I love being a missionary!  Serve Missions!  It's what he Lord expects! 

Love,

Elder Brunson    

Brother Buskee and Brother Tapuke,
both members of the Waitara Branch.

Jesse Luke was one of the investigators
that I taught in Waitara.

The Mauga family!
One of the coolest families in Waitara!

Saying goodbye to the Sterzers was hard :(
They are the best senior couple in the
Hamilton New Zealand Mission!

Brother Kipa-Dakin was baptized about a year ago.
He helped us out heaps.
He went out with us a lot and  helped us teach.

This is Aaron Harrison-Love, the 17 year old
less active boy that we reactivated!
He is the man, I miss him!  His little brother BJ
is on the right.

Matiu Rukuwai!!!!! Man I love this fella.  He is the man.
He is the one taht Elder Suriben and I baptized.
He is doing really awesome and hopefully by now he has a calling
in the branch.  It was really amazing to see how much he changed
from when I first got to Waitara and when I left.  He
definitely became converted!  I love that fella!

This is Trayc and Cyrus,
a part member family that we taught.

Maxwell family!  They are a less active family
that was starting to come back!

Sister Mcleod!!!!  She is an awesome recent convert!
She gave us so much food and
really took care of us. 

Elder Suriben loved chocolate so we decided
to try chili chocolate haha.

Clay and Kennedy!  Cay was less active and Kennedy was
his partner.  We were teaching them both and they were doing
really good when I left!  Hopefully Kennedy will get baptized soon!

The Chapman family!!!!  Mean family, members of the branch!

Goodbye my boy :(  !!!!!!!!

Our busted door!
They went through our drawers!

The robbers put a hole in our wall!

Elder Saurey, my new companion!

Elder Landis (Grandpa), Helder Holmes (Papi),
Elder Brunson (Grandson, son)

Posterity with President Rudd!

Zone Leaders from my intake!

What do you think, Mom?
I don't think I will ever have to send a picture again haha!

Manurewa Zone!!!!