Monday, August 29, 2016

Oh boy oberta! 

It sure has been a crazy last week.  This last week went by really fast and really slow at the same time.  So many different things happened that I can't even remember what happened this week and what was last week.  First off, you are probably wondering who my new companion is.  All the way from Idaho......Elder Saurey!!!!!  Yes, Elder Saurey and I are still companions!!!  This will be our third transfer together and we are really pumped to smash it!  We are hoping to be able to have a baptism by the end of the transfer.  We are hoping to be able to baptize Mary, Serina, Chris, and Christina!  Sadly they didn't come to church this Sunday, but we are going to keep working with them.  Transfer week is always pretty crazy though, so we had lots of stuff we had to sort out that took away from our proselyting time.  I will give a little run through of the week, and see what I can remember.  This last week we met up with the Assistants, Elder Holmes (my papi) and Elder Ith and spent p-day with them.  We went and got lunch from a place called Empress of India.  It is a mean Indian restaurant which makes the best butter chicken in all of New Zealand.  Butter Chicken is one of my favorite foods that I have eaten in New Zealand, even though it’s not really a New Zealand food.  After lunch we drove with the Assistants and got poconos ice-cream.  Poconos has the best ice-cream in all of New Zealand, so I was very lucky this week.  I got a scoop of caramel swirl and a scoop of something else that I don't remember.  Tuesday we were with the Assistants again and guess what we had for lunch?  Butter Chicken from Empress of India again!!!!!!  The assistants love it so much so they always go and get it when they are in South Auckland.  After lunch we started our exchange with them and went and visited some people.  I was with Elder Holmes this time which was heaps of fun.  It was weird to be back with him again.  He has come a long way since we were companions haha.  He is a really good teacher, and I really enjoyed learning from him.  We saw some people Elder Holmes taught when he served in Manurewa.  It's funny because Elder Holmes and I have served in two of the same areas.  Tuesday night we surprised Elder Holmes with a birthday cake because Wednesday was Elder Holmes 21st birthday!!!  We had a mean celebration for him!!!  21st birthdays are a big deal in New Zealand, so if the members find out when you turn 21, they will get you heaps haha.  Thursday was Transfer day so we were busy at the bus stop.  Only two missionaries left our zone so that wasn't too bad, and 3 missionaries came in.  Elder Ellsworth from Oregon, Elder Latu from Tonga, and Elder Rogers from Utah.  They are all greenies so are just starting their journey.  It makes me think of when I was a brand new missionary.  I was so lost and stressed out haha.  I'm so glad you only have to start your mission once lol.  I definitely have learned a lot from that point.  I still feel like I have so much to learn.  I hope I continue to understand and study the gospel the rest of my life.  I hope that I can make it a priority to study the scriptures!  I think my parents are great examples of continuing to study the gospel.  I can picture my papi reading his scriptures and eating his cereal, and I think of my mom diligently preparing her lessons for relief society.  I'm thankful for such wonderful parents who love the gospel. Friday we went and met the assistants and Elder and Sister Mcgregor at Poconos.  We had to meet up with another set of zone leaders to swap some stuff so we all met up at poconos which is about a 45 minute drive from our flat.  However, because of traffic it was more like an hour and a half.  The traffic in South Auckland is insane sometimes!  So yes this week I had poconos twice!  It was a pretty great week!  Elder Mcgregor and sister Mcgregor shouted our poconos.  They both work in the office and are the nicest people ever!!!  They are so cool!  Elder Mcgregor works with the cars and the bikes, so we talk to him on the phone quite often.  Especially because we have had a set of Elders get 4 bikes stolen this last transfer!  One time they didn't lock their bikes and the second time the kids broke the bike lock.  Nothing is safe in Manurewa haha even if it has a lock on it.  Friday night we had sports night!  Unfortunately we didn't get a very good turn out from our investigators, but we did have Lucky turn up.  Something crazy happened at sports night.  I drunk fella came into the gym and started playing basketball.  He had only been in the game for like 5 minutes when out of nowhere he started throwing hay makers at a nonmember named AJ.  We found out after the brawl that AJ didn't even know him. A big Samoan fella ended up pulling the drunk guy off of AJ and took him out into the parking lot.  It was super crazy!!! You never know what to expect in this area haha.  Sunday we had a cool miracle.  Sunday night before our dinner appointment we were out knocking on a couple of doors and we knocked on this house and a Filipino fella answered the door.  His English wasn't the greatest, but he told us that we could come in.  When we went in to the house, there was heaps of Filipino guys.  They are probably around 30 years old, and they all work in New Zealand and send money back to their families in the Philippines.  We shared a little bit of the restoration with them and gave them restoration pamphlets.  Their English wasn't the best so it was pretty hard to teach, but it was still really cool to be able to teach them.  Hopefully, they at least felt the spirit haha.  They said they would be keen to get baptized if they knew our message was true.  We are going to go back with Lars, a YSA in our ward who got back from his mission in the Philippines 2 years ago.  We are just going to have him translate everything.  It’s going to be mean haha.  The highlight of the week was going over to Jay and Mary's with brother Maasi our ward mission leader on Wednesday.  We have been struggling to get fellowship into Jay and Mary's for several reasons, but we finally were able to get brother Maasi there.  Jay wasn't there so that was a bummer, but we were able to teach Mary, Serina (Mary's sister she is 15), Chirstina, and Christ (Marys twin brother and sister they are 10).  We had a mean lesson!!!!!  We reviewed the restoration, and we had such an awesome lesson.  Mary said that she believes the church is true and wants to become a member of the church!  It was a great lesson and brother Maasi was really good to have there as fellowship.  He just got back from his mission not that long ago, so he has a really good understanding of the gospel.  Overall it was an awesome week!

Shout out to Amanda!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The big 17!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I can't believe she is going to be 17 years old!  I hope you have an awesome birthday!!!!!!  No kissing any boys haha!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder Brunson