Monday, January 23, 2017

Sardines!

We had a jam packed week this week!  We had so much going on it wasn't even funny haha.  We had MLC on Tuesday, Wednesday we had Zone Conference with a visiting area 70, and Friday we had a baptism plus some other crazy things!  Also I went on an exchange with my father!  I will try and talk a little bit about some of our events this week.  Well Mom to answer your question, no I have not been exploring on preparation day.  Tauranga is probably the best zone in the mission to go exploring, but I haven't done any haha.  Every Monday we go and play basketball and volley at the chapel.  Heaps of the YSA and youth turn up, so it is a lot of fun.  I'm getting better at volley, but the islanders are super good!  I have got my serve down though.  I most likely won’t do much exploring while I'm here, but Elder Fellingham and I want to run up the Mount for morning exercise before he finishes his mission.

Monday night the Zone Leaders from Gisborne stayed the night.  One of the Elders served in Wairoa so it was fun catching up with him and hearing about how Wairoa is doing!  I got a letter from Tenika Rore the other day which was awesome!  She is still active in the church!  I have received a couple of letters from her.  She got to go and do baptisms for the dead the other day and loved it!  I haven't heard when she is going to go through and get her endowment though.  I really want to find out so I can go!  Matiu Rukuwai is also still very active in the church!  He has sent me a few letters and it makes my week every time I get one! It's so hard to keep in contact with them though since neither of them have email.

Tuesday we drove up to Hamilton for MLC.  Elder Cardon, the visiting area 70, gave us a training.  It was really good and I learned heaps!  Wednesday was even better though!  We had a Zone Conference with half of the mission so that was really exciting!  I got to see Elder Suriben, Elder Saurey, and Elder Holmes!  I was so excited to see all of them.  Elder Saurey and Elder Holmes finish their missions this week!  I can't believe how fast the time has gone.  I remember when I first got with Elder Saurey he still had like 9 months left of his mission haha.  Elder Holmes and Elder Saurey still say they are going to come to Kennewick when I get home.  The conference itself was really good though.  Elder Cardon is super bold and he really helped me to answer some of the questions that I had.  Wednesday after the zone conference I got to go on an exchange with Elder Holmes!  It was heaps of fun.  I stayed in our area since I will have to lead the area in a few weeks.  I'm pretty stressed about that because it is such a big area!  I feel like I still have to learn heaps of the member’s names and still figure out how to get around.  I know Heavenly Father will help me to figure it out though.  I have definitely gained a testimony that everything will work out, it always does!  It was really fun being with Elder Holmes again.  It felt like we were going to be companions again.  Elder Holmes still hates knocking on doors so I made him knock heaps.  Guess what?!  We found the most keen guy ever haha.  His name is Thorne, he is 20 years old and met with missionaries up in Manurewa.  Thorne has read the entire Book of Mormon, and knows heaps about the gospel.  We set him with a date on our first visit as well!  He didn't come to church this week, but is planning on coming this next week.  Hopefully we can help him get baptized.

Friday we had a super awesome baptism!  Three little girls that Elder Fellingham had been teaching before I arrived got baptized.  They are from a big Maori family named the Totos.  The Totos had been less active, but Elder Fellingham started teaching them and they started coming back to church.  The girls are super funny and were really excited to be baptized.  Lots of the ward members turned up to the baptism which was awesome.  The bishop of the ward is Bishop Arthur and he is the man!  He is a younger fella and is super funny.  After the baptism he was giving his wife a play by play of his surfing, and how he made it to the baptism right as it was starting.  He was expecting his wife to be proud of him for being on time haha.

Sunday was one of those really long days!  We go to 6 hours of church which can be a struggle haha. I get really tired and have to fight myself to stay awake sometimes.  Also I was super hungry because we have church from 9-12 and then from 1-4 so we don't get any lunch.  My mom knows that a hungry/tired Elder Brunson is not a good combination.  After church our dinner wasn't until 6 instead of 5 so I knew I was going to have to work really hard to stay positive.  Well I did really good for the first hour and a half, but by 5:45 I was getting pretty drained!  We were about to get in our car when I saw this guy across the street. Elder Fellingham was already about to get into the car and I knew we could easily just head to our dinner appointment now since it would take 10 minutes to get there.  Well I decided to push a little more and I started talking to the guy from across the street.  He was really friendly and ended up crossing the street to come and talk to us.  He told us his name and it turned out to be a less active that we had been trying to contact for ages!!!  We ended up having a really good talk with him and set up a return appointment.  I was really thankful that I hadn't given up.  I have a testimony that when we serve others, when we are tired, hungry, grumpy, or all of the above and we do it with a willing heart we are immensely blessed.  I have had many opportunities to do this in my life because most of the time I'm either tired, hungry, or grumpy haha.  I know each time I have changed my attitude and served I have seen great blessings come into my life.  I love you all and hope you have a warmer week haha.

Love,

Elder Brunson