Monday, August 15, 2016

Miracles!!!

Really, I think every email home should be title miracles.  The mission is full of so many wonderful experiences and miracles.  This week has been full of miracles.  The first miracle was the news of hearing that Grandma Brunson's surgery went really well!  You might be wondering when or how I got the news.  Well Tuesday was the day that Grandma Brunson was scheduled to have her surgery in America so her surgery was on a Wednesday here in New Zealand.  I was anxious to know how the surgery would go.  I wasn't really sure whether or not I would get a call.  I figured I would definitely get a call if it went bad, but I didn't think I would find out until Monday if the surgery went well.  However, I was very confident that the surgery was going to go well.  I knew my dad had given grandma a blessing and I knew he felt good about it.  I felt that my mind could be at ease with that news.  Each time I prayed I felt like everything would work out.  However, Wednesday afternoon I received a call from President Cummings.  My mind immediately recognized why he was calling.  I was nervous to answer the call, and wasn't sure what to think.  I hesitantly answered the phone and President Cummings informed me of the great news!  I was so thankful to hear that the surgery had gone so well.  I really know that Heavenly Father heard and answered our prayers.  I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and is eager to hear and answer our prayers.  It’s really hard to put into words the joy I felt, but I'm just so thankful to Heavenly Father.  I do have a testimony that things happen for a reason, I know Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for each of us regardless of the outcomes of life.  I know that everything that is unfair in this life can be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  We each have the same equal opportunity to return to live back with our Heavenly Father with our families.  

Another great miracle this week came on Sunday.  To be 100% honest our area has been struggling a lot.  It has been really hard to find solid people to teach.  We have been working really hard over these last two transfers but have not seen the immediate fruits of our efforts.  However, Sunday we had the great miracle of having 5 investigators at church, and two of the investigators had their less active partners with them.  Jay, Mary, and Serina came to church and stayed for all 3 hours, it was so awesome!  We had a 60 year old couple named brother and sister Faaui.  Brother Faaui is Tongan and is a less active member of the church.  Sister Faaui is his wife and she is Maori and is not a member of the church.  We sat with both of them, and I think they really enjoyed it.  The Faaui's are so kind to us.  Sister Faaui at first was not open to us at all, but she is slowly starting to warm up.  They are so kind to us as well!  They always give us heaps of biscuits.  Lucky is another investigator that we teach, he is 20 years old, and lives in a boys home.  He really wants to be baptized, but we are trying to help him want to be baptized for the right reasons.  We could have baptized him ages ago, but we really want to make sure he is prepared.  Another investigator there was Flutee.  Flutee is 24 years old and is partners with a less active girl in our ward.  We just recently started teaching him, but it has been really hard to catch him at home.  We have given him a Book of Mormon though, and we are trying to get him to read it.  He grew up a 7th day, so he says he wants to be faithful to that.  We are slowly working with him though too!  Jay, Mary, and Serina are progressing the most though.  They are such a wonderful family!  

Well I'm really excited, I don’t want to get my hopes up too high though!  Guess what we might be doing for p-day?!!!  Golfing!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Man I really hope we end up getting to golf!  I haven't golfed in ages!  We will see though.  I will let you know next week. 

Love,

Elder Brunson