Monday, January 15, 2017

Time needs to slow down!  This transfer is going by way too fast.  I really love being companions with Elder Fellingham.  We work really hard, but we have heaps of fun while we are doing it haha.  We are really similar people and we get along great.  It stinks to know that we will definitely have no chance of being companions for another transfer since he is finishing his mission.  Elder Fellingham is the man though!  He is really smart so I'm learning a lot from him.  He is especially good at understanding the Bible, which I am terrible at.  I have been trying to read the New Testament though and I'm really enjoying that.  Elder Fellingham is from New Zealand, but most people think he is from America.  It's really funny because nobody believes him when he says he is from New Zealand.  To me he sounds like he is from New Zealand, but he has had heaps of American companions so he has picked up a slight American accent.

We had an awesome week.  We went on two exchanges, one in Opotoki, and one in Karikari.  We had an awesome miracle while I was down in Opotoki with Elder Wood.  Elder Wood is also from Washington State!  Guess where he is from?!  Moses Lake haha.  He even worked at the Moses Lake waterpark.  So who knows, maybe I even met him before the mission.  It was a really awesome exchange.  At the beginning of the exchange we were talking about what we wanted to work on.  I told him that one thing that was helping Elder Fellingham and I was to find our purpose in every area that we went to.  A lot of times we make plans and we go to the specific area and nobody is home.  Well, we always put backups for each plan in case it falls through and a lot of the time we just immediately go to the backups before seeing if there are any doors, or anyone else we could share the gospel with.  We decided that with each plan we wanted to find our purpose for being there.  Right at the beginning of our exchange we saw the blessings of finding our purpose.  The first house we tried to visit nobody was home.  We decided that we would knock a few houses in the area.  Well nobody was home at those homes either.  Well we kept walking down the road until a less active member pulled over and started talking to us.  She was really busy so we couldn't teach her at the time, but we asked if she knew anyone in the area.  She said that one or two streets over there was a grey house with a blue van that we could try.  She wasn't exactly sure where it was, but we decided to try the streets anyway.  We walked down the first street and couldn't find the house.  We were nearing the end of the street when we saw a younger girl in her 20's outside her house.  We started talking to her and she was super nice!  However, she wasn't super interested in our message.  However, we again asked if there was anyone she knew in the area that we could see.  At first she said no, and she told us that everyone on the street was family and probably not interested.  Just before we were about to leave though she pointed across the street down a longer driveway and said that we could try that house.  Guess what house it was?!  It was the grey house with the blue van!  Both Elder Wood and I had missed the house because it was kind of tucked away.  We were pumped and we thanked the girl and went to try the grey house.  We knocked on the door and a lady answered the door.  We asked her how her day was going and she said that she was really stressed because she had lost a stone that she was planning on using to make a necklace for her sister.  She looked panicked, but two seconds later her husband came into the room and had found the stone!  They were both super excited and invited us in!  It turns out the lady is a less active member of the church and her partner is a nonmember.  We ended up having a super awesome lesson with them!!!!  They are the coolest couple ever, and they have some really cute kids.  Her twin sister is actually an active member in the welcome bay ward.  The experience was really cool because the timing of everything was so perfect.  It was also really cool how the Lord was able to lead us to their home.  It was even the ladies only day off, so we couldn't have had any better timing.  It was a testimony to me that Heavenly Father knows how to put the pieces of the puzzle together.  He knows how to lead us where we need to be.  Sometimes in life we experience things that we don't understand why they need to happen.  I have a testimony that God has a perfect plan for each of us, and that everything we face in this life is for our benefit.  I'm thankful to be a missionary and I'm thankful for the plan of salvation which enables each of us to return to live back with our Heavenly Father. 

Love,

Elder Brunson