Monday, December 26, 2016

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

You probably think I had a scorching hot Christmas, but it was actually pretty cool!  The weather has been really bad this week.  This week was really good though, and it flew by.  We had MLC on Tuesday, interviews on Wednesday, zone meeting on Thursday, and Christmas on Sunday.  Also I forgot to mention Birthday surprise on Monday.  I will try and just quickly summarize each of the events that occurred this week.

Birthday surprise and tender mercies- On Monday night the Pritchard’s asked us to come over and have a family home evening with them.  Usually on Monday nights we go over to the Pritchard’s house if we can get one of our investigators to go with us.  Well it was 6:00 and we hadn't found anyone who could go.  We really wanted to be effective with our time so we told the Pritchard’s that we couldn't come because we didn't have an investigator.  They were really sad because they said that they had a surprise for me.  I felt really bad, but we wanted to be effective.  However, I told the family that we would try and go see a few more people and invite them.  Just then a pop came into my head that we should try one of our investigators named Zyron.  Zyron is 21 and is Filipino.  We have invited him to several activities and even church, but he never comes.  We decided that we would try him anyway.  Well guess what?!  He said he would come!  Well I thought that was a huge blessing, but when we got to the Pritchard’s there was an even better blessing.  There were two Filipinos that came to FHE!!!!  It really helped Zyron to feel comfortable I think.  Elder Taito and I gave the lesson on the importance of The Book of Mormon.  It was really awesome because brother Saliva, who is married to sister Saliva (Pritchard) is a convert to the church and he was able to bear his testimony to Zyron.  Also Gups the 18 year old who comes out with us all the time, bore his testimony on The Book of Mormon.  The spirit was really strong and we had such a great night.  Then the Pritchard’s surprised me by putting up videos that my family sent and Katie and Tanner sent.  They also sang to me and brought out a cake.  It was actually the nicest cake I have had in New Zealand!  They definitely made me have a great b-day!  They are such a great family.  They are always thinking of others.

MLC- Mission Leadership Council was really good!  It's always the best to hear from President Cummings!  He is so on to it!  I also rode up with another single zone leader named Elder Van Thiel.  Elder Van Thiel’s companion is Elder Barbosa and they are in the zone right next to us!  I have got to see Elder Barbosa a lot over these last few weeks, and that has been awesome.  Elder Taito and Barbosa got to be companions for the day while we went to Hamilton.  I love them both heaps!  Elder Van Thiel is the man as well!  He pretty much gave me a training on the way up!  He is really smart and was telling me heaps about deep doctrine haha.  I'm not much into studying deep doctrine, but some of the Elders love it.  He shared heaps of stuff with me, and although it was really interesting, it’s not something I would deeply dive into.  I struggle enough with the basics haha.  Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end haha.  

Interviews-  Interviews were awesome!  President Cummings gave me a challenge to study Mathew 5:48 and 3Nephi 12:48.  He asked me to find the difference between the two scriptures, and also explain why there was a difference.  So I studied it for a little while and I couldn't figure out the answer.  I think I was trying to think too deep haha.  I was talking with some other elders about it and President Cummings had already showed it to them, but before I could stop them they told me the answer.  I will give you all the challenge to find out for yourself, if you don't already know.  The answer though is definitely a testimony to me that The Book of Mormon is true.  There are just so many things that Joseph Smith could not have come up with on his own.

Zone meeting- Zone meeting always stresses me out!  It's tough because I don't have a companion to back me up during the meeting.  The last Zone meeting I did was a little shaky.  However, I felt really good about this meeting.  I talked about the importance of change!  Change is what allows us to grow.  People often ask us why we move around so much, and I think change is the answer.  We need to be placed into new environment so we can learn and grow.  Our purpose in life is to become like our Heavenly Father and the only way to do that is to change.  I also read from Alma chapter 5 which is a great chapter on change.

Christmas!!!!!- We spent Christmas at a baptism, church, biking, the Leelos, and the Pritchard family.  After church we had no idea who to go see and we had two hours before we needed to be at the Leelos.  Elder Taito and I just decided to bike around our area and talk to people that were in the street.  At first we thought there would be nobody, but we actually ended up talking to a lot of people.  We had our first meal of the day at 4:00 at the Leelos house!  We were really hungry haha!  We had a really good meal with their family!  Brother Maasi was cracking jokes as always and it was a lot of fun.  After that we went to the Pritchard’s house and did secret santas.  Afterwards we had a singing competition haha.  Yes believe it or not I participated.  It was actually lots of fun haha, and yes we sang church songs!

Well this week is transfers and based off of my interview I think I will be leaving.  President Cummings always hints when you are going to leave an area haha.  Who knows, hopefully I will stay, but I think I'm gone :( I have loved this area heaps so I will be really sad if I have to leave.  I love you all so much and hope that you have a Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Elder Brunson