Monday, August 22, 2016

Transfers :(  

It's another week of transfers, and I'm sad to say that Elder Saurey will most likely be leaving.  Elder Saurey and I have been together for 2 transfers already!  The time has flown by!  I definitely can say that we will continue to be friends after the mission.  We get along really well and I have really enjoyed getting to learn from Elder Saurey.  He is a very talented missionary, and is a really good teacher.  I have learned a lot of things from him, and I'm thankful for the opportunity that I had to be companions with him.  I'm crossing my fingers though, because he hasn't got a call yet.  I'm hoping he stays for one more transfer!  That would be mean!

The weather this week has been absolutely beautiful!!!!!!!!!  The spring is arriving and the sun has been shining!  We have had such nice weather, and it really makes missionary work a lot easier.  We haven't even had to wear our coats all day.  Usually I just have it on in the morning before lunch and after dinner.  This week has been full of lots of things haha.  I will see what I can remember though, and I will do my best to tell you about the week.  The week started off with a mean preparation day!  Guess what we did?!!!!  Went golfing!!!!!!!!!!  It was heaps of fun, but I felt like I have never played golf in my life haha.  I think I have forgotten how to swing a golf club, it felt foreign.  So you can imagine how well I played haha.  With that being said we still had a really good time!  It was just a blessing to be able to have beautiful weather, and get the chance to play a sport I love.  You would have been really impressed mom with how good my attitude was lol.  The golf course was pretty nice for New Zealand.  We got to use the Mountfort Elder's bishop's clubs.  They were Taylor mades and were really nice!  We went with Elder Osborne and Elder Tune who are the Mountfort Elders.  Elder Osborne is in my intake, so it has been fun to serve around him.  Elder Osborne and Elder Tune had never golfed in their lives though!  Elder Tune was surprisingly good though haha.  As for my companion, he has golfed a little bit, but not heaps!  He really loved golfing, and wants to golf more when he gets home.  I always find a way to convert people to golf haha.

On Wednesday we got the opportunity to go on an exchange with missionaries from the MTC.  Our zone is the closest zone to the MTC, so the MTC asks us to take them out for half a day.  We started the exchange after studies on Wednesday and went until 3:00.  It is really fun to be with the missionaries from the MTC because they are so excited to work.  Also they are really nervous and have no idea what they are doing so it's awesome to get to help them.  Because they had lots of missionaries we get to double cover our area.  We don't have heaps of investigators to see, so that makes our job really difficult.  However, we had a really successful exchange so that was awesome.  I was with a missionary from the South Island who will be serving in Australia.  He was a really nice fella, he didn't know heaps about the gospel, but he was really excited to work.  After our exchange with the MTC missionaries Elder Saurey and I went on an exchange with Elder Mathews and Elder Fesolia.  I went with Elder Fesolia in his area and Elder Mathews went with Elder Saurey in our area.  We had a mean exchange!  The highlight of an exchange was meeting a fella named Buster.  Buster was a good lookin man, who was about in his 40's.  Buster was out painting a brick wall in front of his house.  We started talking to him, and he was super nice.  He said he wasn't too interested in our message though.  We kept talking to him though and he started to open up.  He ended up telling us that his wife had just passed away 2 weeks ago.  He told us how hard it had been for him, and how his kids were handling it.  It was so sad I'm not even sure how to explain it.  We felt a great amount of love for him, and taught and testified of the plan of salvation.  I wanted so much for him to have the gospel in his live.  I can't even explain the kind of feeling you get for these people, but I just wanted him to know and understand Heavenly Fathers plan.  He ended up saying that we could come back around.  I was so sad that I wasn't in their area so I can't go back and teach him :(  I felt such a love for him and wish that I could really help him accept the gospel.  I hope that I could have at least planted a seed with in his heart to help him accept the gospel.  What I love about the gospel is that everyone needs it.  It doesn't matter which country you are in, what church you go to, how old you are, everyone needs the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives.  Our Heavenly Father has given us a specific path to return to live back with him.  What a blessing it is to know that path, and to be able to share it with others.  I'm so thankful to be a missionary, and hope that I can continue to share the gospel the rest of my life, because the Church is true!!!!!!!  I love New Zealand and the gospel!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder Brunson