Monday, October 16, 2016

New Zealand is officially the most bipolar country in the entire world.  The weather this week has been 4 different seasons all in one day, every day this week.  There has not been one day this week when the weather of the day stayed the same haha.  There was never just a sunny day, or just a rainy day, or just a windy day.  It was a sunny day, windy day, and rainy day all in one day haha.  I would think people would get a lot more sick than they do with all the changes in the weather, but for the most part it seems just about the same as back home.  I can't wait for December to come because that is always the nicest month!  I love the summers in New Zealand!  I love working in any weather, but I especially love working when it is sunny outside!  Everyone seems to be much more receptive when it is a sunny day.  Summer should be just around the corner though.  It’s crazy to think that the month of October is already almost over.  I don't know where all the time goes haha. 

This week was pretty stressful still trying to adjust to the new responsibilities; however I think it went really well for the most part.  This week on Tuesday we had MLC in Hamilton so I drove up with Elder Van Thiel.  Elder Van Thiel is from South Africa and is a really good missionary!  Guess who his companion is?!!!  My son!!!!! Elder Barbosa!!!!  I got to see Elder Barbosa a few times this week, It was really good to be able to catch up with him.  It's so funny to hear him talk now because he still has a very heavy accent.  I got so used to it when I was with him that I didn't even notice haha.  Now it is a lot more obvious.  It was awesome reminiscing on good ole Wairoa.  We talked about the people we used to visit and what has happened to the area since we have left.  It was really funny having two of my sons in the car together at the same time.  It's amazing how blessed I have been with my companions.  They are all very different, but I feel like I have gotten a long with them all equally well.  Anyway, Tuesday I drove up to Hamilton with Elder Van Thiel.  It was cool getting to talk with him about missionary work, and to get some good insights from him since he is very experienced and is going home in January with Elder Holmes, and Elder Saurey.  The meeting was really good and it was quite helpful for me because part of the training was on handling stress.  I learned some good tips that I can definitely apply into my life haha.  This week was pretty stressful up until Thursday afternoon.  The reason I was so stressed was because I knew I would have to do zone meeting all by myself on Thursday morning.  I had pretty much just one hour during personal study on Wednesday to plan the meeting, so I started stressing out about it on Monday.  However, I got everything all figured out and was able to give the training on Thursday.  I think it went alright, but I was so relieved when it was over haha.  

Elder Taito and I had a really good week though and had some really awesome lessons.  It was so sad though because we were really hoping to have a lot of people at church on Sunday, but nobody really turned up.  The Lord did bless us with a tender mercy though and we had a less active lady that we just met this week attend church.  Her name is Pepetua and she is Tongan.  We found her this week when we were just knocking on doors.  She invited us in right away and she then told us she was a member of the church.  We had a really awesome lesson with her and she said she really wanted to come to church.  She is in her 20's and has a little girl and has a partner who she lives with.  Her partner is not a member of the church and unfortunately he is not really interested in the gospel.  However, she turned up to church on Sunday all by herself and it was really cool to see that she came.  We had a really solid week at randomly finding less active families.  We also found an awesome Fijian/Indian family who we are going to start working with.  We were also randomly knocking on doors and sister Chandar invited us in right away.  I was pumped again because I thought she was a nonmember haha.  I always get so excited when people invite us in on the first visit, but I'm always hoping they are nonmembers haha.  We are still happy to work with less active members though.  Well we reviewed the restoration with sister Chandar and her son who is 13.  We are excited though because sister Chandar said that her older son who is 18 but was sleeping is not a member of the church.  So hopefully we have a potential there.  Sister Chandar said that they would be at church on Sunday, but sadly they didn't turn up.

The other family we have really been working with a lot is Daniel and Alofa.  There was heaps of progress with them this week!  I don't know what I have said about Daniel and Alofa so I might say some things that you have already heard.  Daniel is a nonmember and his partner (not wife) is Alofa.  Alofa is a less active member who we met just shortly after her mom passed away.  She said that her mom always wanted her to be at church and so she asked us to review the plan of salvation with her.  When we first met Daniel he seemed really nice, but he didn't seem too interested in our message.  However, he has really began to progress.  You may be wondering why?  It's an easy answer because he is reading The Book of Mormon!!!  We gave him The Book of Mormon and invited him to read it last week and he has read a lot! At the beginning of the week, on Tuesday Daniel called and he was really upset.  I was in Hamilton though so I said we could come later.  Daniel could hardly speak on the phone and said that he just wanted to give up trying.  Last week Daniel and Alofa told us that they wanted to give up drinking and smoking together.  I was trying to get Daniel to open up, but he wouldn't let me know what was going on.  After a long silence he finally agreed that we could come over later.  However, on our way back from Hamilton Daniel sent a text and said that he wasn't really in the mood to talk today.  Well I got back from Hamilton and talked about it with Elder Taito.  We decided that despite Daniels text we would go over and see how he was doing.  It was a scary decision to make, but we made it anyways.  It turned out to be a really good decision.  We had an awesome lesson with Daniel!  Daniel was upset because Alofa had gone and bought cigarettes.  Daniel felt like she had let him down, and he just wanted to stop trying.  He didn't smoke any of them, but he was mad that she did.  We had a really good lesson though, and Daniel told us how much he had been reading.  He had read up to 1 Nephi 7 which doesn't seem like heaps probably, but for Daniel that was a huge step.  The more amazing part was that he understood and remembered what he read.  Daniel was really happy though that we came over.  The best part of the lesson was at the end though!  We have been trying for the past few visits to get Daniel to say the closing prayer, but we had no luck.  However, at the end of the lesson we finally got him to commit to say the prayer.  He gave the closing prayer, and it was so sincere!  After he closed the prayer we all sat in silence as tears streamed down Daniels face.  It was one of the coolest moments on my mission.  Then on Thursday we got a text from Daniel and he asked us if we could come over and share another message.  We were pumped and said of course!  We went and had another really good lesson and we followed up again on his Book Of Mormon reading and he was up to chapter 16 of the Book Of Mormon, we talked about 1 Nephi 8 with him and it was way good!  We got a return appointment for the next night.  We asked brother and sister Saliva to come with us to the lesson.  Brother and Sister Saliva are a young Samoan couple and they have a girl the same age as Daniel and Alofa.  They are the perfect fellowship for them!  Well they came with us and the spirit was so strong in the lesson.  It was so awesome because Brother Saliva is a convert of a couple of years and he was pretty much in the exact same situation as Daniel.  Sister Saliva was a less active member and brother Saliva was her partner and wasn't a member of the church.  It was so cool because Daniel was able to relate with him and it really helped him.  Daniel was even able to come to sports night afterward and he stayed with brother Saliva and played basketball.  The saddest part was that they didn't show up to church on Sunday :(  We went over Sunday night though and talked with Alofa and she explained why they didn't come.  She promised us that they would come next week.  We are excited to keep working with them though!  Overall it was another awesome week in the beautiful country of New Zealand. Adios Muchachos. 

Love,
Elder Brunson