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