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