Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
I’m in a rush. Last week I thought I was in trouble
with 30 minutes left to write my email home, and this week I only have 20
minutes left haha. I'm really in trouble. The highlight of the week
was definitely the mission conference! Wednesday night the
Gisborne Zone stayed the night in our zone. Elder Egbert and Elder Cowley
stayed with us. Elder Cowley is relatives with a famous missionary and Apostle
Mathew Cowley. Mathew Cowley served his mission here in New Zealand and
was known for his ability to speak the Maori language and work with the chiefs
of many different tribes. Elder Cowley has a very distant relationship
with him, but it is still really cool! Thursday
afternoon we arrived in Hamilton around 2:00. We needed to be seated by 2:30 to
wait for Elder Renlund to arrive. We even got to take a picture
with him, which was quite crazy. Before we had to get seated we got
to catch up with all of the missionaries. It was cool to see everyone
from the mission. I talked to a lot of the Elders and Sisters that I
served with in Manurewa since they are the missionaries I know
the best. It was also really good being able to catch up with all three
of my sons; Elder Barbosa, Elder Suriben, and Elder
Taito. They were all really excited to finally be able to
meet each other! Sadly, we did not get a posterity picture, but
according to my mom I will just need to write 1000 words to make up for not
having a picture haha. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to
write 1000 words haha. The conference was really good though.
Elder Renlund and his wife were there, and Elder Cordon of the seventy was
there, and Elder Thompson from the area 70 also attended.
Elder Renlund took most of the time. Elder Renlund
shared a really cool story about the fact that we are called by revelation
to the specific mission we are assigned. He shared with us how
missionaries are called to each mission. Now this wasn't the
first time that I had heard about this process so it didn't overly
hit me. However, I really enjoyed a story that he shared about calling a
girl to the Milan Italy mission. Elder Renlund shared with us
how nervous he was when he became an apostle and he had to assign
missionaries to missions. He said that he asked several of the other
apostles how they did it, and there advice did not seem to help at all.
He shared his experience with us of calling a girl to the Milan
mission. He said that one day he was assigning missionaries and
it came to this particular sister. He said that he looked at her
picture and immediately felt she needed to be called to Italy, so he
looked at the options in Italy and called her to the Milan
mission. He felt good and went on to the next missionary that needed
to be assigned. He continued on assigning missionaries until he got
this really sick feeling. He knew something was wrong so he went
back through the missionaries he had assigned until he got to this
particular sister that he had assigned to the Milan mission.
He pondered over the decision and felt that Italy was the right place, but
that she needed to be called to the Rome mission instead
of Milan. He then met her Grandpa a few weeks after
assigning this particular sister missionary. The grandpa had no
idea that Elder Renlund had made the assignment. The Grandpa
shared with Elder Renlund that when his granddaughter was 9 years old she
had pointed to a map to Rome Italy and said that's where she was going to serve
her mission. When she opened her call it was an emotional experience for
her because of her pointing to that map when she was only 9 years old. It
was also a really cool story because Katie may have met this girl while she was
serving in Rome. I just want to let everyone know that I have a testimony
that I have been called by a prophet of God to serve here in New Zealand.
I know it’s where I am supposed to be. I have already found so many
wonderful people that I know were my purpose for coming here to New
Zealand. I can't wait to continue to find those who are prepared. I
love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Brunson
Monday, February 20, 2017
We had a mean week!! However, I am more
excited for this week because we get to see an Apostle!! Elder Renlund is
going to be coming to our mission on Thursday. We will get to drive
up to Hamilton on Thursday so I'm pumped for that. Well my mom
was questioning me about my cleanliness on my mission. I would think that
she would know better than to do that because I am the son of one of the
cleanest people on the planet haha. So yes I keep my flat clean!!!
My mom questioned me when the last time I washed my sheets was.
Answer: I just washed my sheets this last week!!! I try and wash
them every other week. I think we probably have one of the cleanest flats
in the mission. I even did one of the nastiest jobs in the mission this
morning. I cleaned out our vacuum cleaner! It was probably one of
the grossest things ever. It is probably one of the worst issues in the
mission. Nobody ever cleans out the vacuum filters. I spent
probably 20 minutes cleaning out the filter this morning. It was
definitely worth it though because our vacuum is now on steroids. I
didn't realize how bad our vacuum was until this morning after I cleaned it
out. The vacuum actually started preforming its duty.
We have had several really cool miracles this
week and I'm going to try and write about them.
I might only get to one of the miracles depending on how fast I can
type. I will talk about the best one
first. I finally wrote in my personal
journal this week because the miracle was so cool I wanted to write about it
while it was fresh on my mind. My plan
was I was going to bring the journal so I could just type exactly what I had
written down. Unfortunately I forgot it
at home haha. Yes, sadly I have been
really bad at keeping a journal.
Probably because anything that is journal worthy I just send home in my
weekly email. So pretty much I am giving
all of you access to my personal journal.
I don't have much to hide so I can just tell you all about my
experiences haha. I'm going to try my
best to tell you this miracle. So a few
weeks ago we met this really cool Maori kid named Kayne. When we knocked on Kayne’s door his grandma
answered who was not keen AT ALL!!! Well
Kayne heard us mention Jesus Christ, so he popped out of the back room and
started talking with us. He didn't have
much time though so we left him with a restoration pamphlet and went our
way. Well we tried him several times and
we were not able to catch him at home.
Finally, when I was on an exchange with one of the zone leaders in
Gisborne named elder Egbert we were able to catch him. We had a really cool lesson, but I don't have
much time to talk about it. Well several
weeks went by and we were not able to catch up with Kayne. This week though we had MLC so I was able to
see Elder Egbert on Wednesday. He asked
me about how Kayne was doing. We had
tried him so many times and were not able to catch him that I had pretty much
given up one the idea of teaching him.
When Elder Egbert said Kayne’s name I actually forgot who he was talking
about. It took me a second, but then I
remembered. Well I told him that we had
tried, but hadn't had much luck. Well we
got back from MLC on Wednesday evening and went to try one of our investigators
named Kayne(?). Kayne(?) told us he was
high so we decided it probably wouldn't be a good time to see him haha. Well we had planned to have dinner at 5:30
and it was currently 5:20. I was trying
to think of how we should spend our last 10 minutes. A name came into my mind of a potential
investigator that we had in the area. It
was a 15 year old boy named Josiah. When
we tried him his parents were not home, but he said we could try anytime during
the evening. He didn't seem overly keen
though, and I had never even met his family.
I then thought that we could try another older couple by our flat. I thought that would be a better idea so we
started driving towards their house.
Well, we got a little ways down the street and I rethought my
decision. We flipped the car around and
decided we might as well try Josiah. We
got to Josiah's house and we were immediately invited in by Josiah's dad named
Jayson. Jayson was really nice and we
started getting his background. He told
us that he had 3 boys and he started talking about each one. He finally got to his oldest boy and guess
what his name was... Kayne. I was like
oh true... does he live here? He said no he lives on Dunton. My mind was blown!!!I I was like no way we
know your son! Then guess who walks
through the front door right as I am saying this.... Kayne!!! It was so mean!!!! We ended up teaching the
restoration to Kayne and his dad and they loved it!!!! They were really keen to
pray about our message! Kayne’s mom even
came in at the very end of the lesson and was super nice! We are really excited to work with their
family though!
As I was pondering about the chances of us
meeting both of these families my mind was blown!! We have so many houses in
our area that the chance of even meeting Kayne was slim because we just
randomly knocked on his door. Then the fact that we randomly knocked on
his parents’ door was even slimmer!!!! Like the likelihood of that
happening is literally so small!! The only way it would happen is if
Heavenly Father led us to each of their homes.
I can promise you that Heavenly Father did send us. I
know Heavenly Father sees all the pieces to a puzzle and he
knows how to make a perfect picture with the pieces every time. Sometimes
we don't see the picture at first, but I know God loves each of us
and has a perfect plan for each of us. I'm so thankful to have been part
of this miracle.
Another really cool thing happened this
week! I got to see Elder Fellingham!!!! He came back and
visited with his brother which was really cool!! They came to
church on Sunday and it was really awesome to be able to catch up
with him.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPI AND
KEVIN!!!!!!!! If you don't know these two handsome men you really
should. They are probably two of the funniest people on this
planet!!!!!! I'm so thankful to have both of you in my life and thankful
for your great example!!!!!! Hope you have a great week and
an awesome Birthday!!!!!!!!!!! Love you heaps!!!
Elder Brunson
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Monday, February 12, 2017
Fruit Salad!!! Yummy Yummy!
Elder Brunson is continuing to make a fruit
salad of companions haha. I started my mission with an American, next
Brazilian, Tongan, Filipino, American, American Samoan, Kiwi, and now a
Maori!!!!!! Elder Timu is my new companion!!!!!!!! You probably
don't recognize his name, but who knows maybe you do. Elder Timu is from
the same intake as me, so he has been out a little over a year ;) He was
also is the same district as me in the MTC. So Elder Timu and I know each
other pretty well. Funny story with Elder Timu. When we were in the
MTC I asked Elder Timu a question and he wasn't responding. I asked him a
few times and all he kept doing was raising his eyebrows. I was so confused!
Finally I was like, does that mean yes?! He just laughed and said that a
lot of time Maori people respond by raising their eyebrows haha. Not
everyone does it, but I have seen it quite a bit on my mission. So if you
see me do it when I get home you will know why haha. Elder Timu is from
Hamilton New Zealand believe it or not. He is a really great guy and very
talented! Our ward immediately loved him because he can play the piano
really well! The Mount ward didn't have a piano player so he is now the
full time pianist. It's also a bonus having Elder Timu be from Hamilton
because heaps of the members know his family. It was the same with Elder
Fellingham. That means when the members feed us they really try and look
after us. Elder Timu also served in Taranaki when I was there so we had a
couple of pdays where we all played touch on the beach which was pretty fun!
This week was a super awesome week
though! As you know Elder Fellingham left on Monday which was
really sad. I got to spend the next few days with two Tongan
elders. To be quite honest, I really wasn't looking forward to being with
them for 3 days. However, the Lord humbled me and we were able to have an
awesome week! It was really cool for me because both of the Elders were
really struggling, mostly with obedience I would say. However, we
had many opportunities to teach this week, which made them get really excited
about missionary work. They just kept talking about how cool our lessons
were and how cool the people were that we were teaching. It felt good to
be able to motivate them to want to be obedient and to work hard. One of
the best lessons we had was with a Fijian couple named Ashish and Nalini.
They are in their 30's and they have really cute little girl! Ashish and
Navini had moved from Fiji and had been living with the Green family in our
ward. They offered to have Ashish and Nalini stay with them because
Ashish is working for Brother Green. Brother Green invited them to come
to church and they agreed. Ashish grew up Hindu and Nalini is a born
again Christian. They are seriously the best people ever! They are
so respectful and kind! Well they have been coming for the last few
weeks, and Nalini started sitting in on the lessons. Two weeks ago I
asked Nalini if it would be okay if we came over sometime. She said that
they were moving out of the Greens and into their own place and that when they
moved we could come and visit them. Well Tuesday night we were
finally able to go around and teach Ashish and Nalini. We also asked Sister
Green to come around for fellowship. We taught them the restoration and
the spirit was so strong in the lesson. It was also really awesome to
have Sister Green there to be able to connect with them. She bore her
testimony of how the gospel has blessed her family, and also how it has helped
her to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We are really excited
to continue working with them and I'm sure they will get baptized. The
only setback is that Ashish is Hindu and his father does not want him to become
a Christian. I know that the Lord can provide a miracle for them though!
On a non-spiritual note, the Tongans made my
favorite drink!!! Otai!!!! Mom you should seriously look up how to make
Otai and have it for the next family home evening... so tomorrow haha.
It is the best drink ever!!!! It's an island drink, I'm sure Uncle Brett loves
it haha. If not he is crazy! Actually everyone who reads this email
should look up how to make Otai, and then make it. Faith without works is
dead. So if you read this email and don’t look up how to make Otai and
then actually make the Otai, your faith is dead haha. I can honestly say
I love being a missionary. There are a lot of ups and downs, but it is
seriously so good to serve the Lord. I was trying not to be too stressed
this week with all of the change. I had to pray a lot and ask Heavenly
Father for help. It's been really amazing to see all the help he has
given to me. Normally I would be really stressed out about having to lead
the area after only being in the area one transfer, but things have been going
really smooth. I think Elder Timu and I are going to find a lot of
success. I'm guessing we will probably be companions for two or three transfers.
We both unfortunately can't die in this area, so I'm guessing I will probably
have to have one more area after this. Who knows though, maybe the Lord
has some cards up his sleeve, except for the fact that the Lord wouldn't
cheat haha. So he probably has all of his cards in his hand, and knows
how to use them perfectly. I love you all heaps!!
Love,
Elder Brunson!
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Monday, February 6, 2017
I'm officially a killer :( It's sad to say, but I
officially killed Elder Fellingham this morning at 7:30. It was sad
to see Elder Fellingham go! I still can't believe that I got the chance
to be companions with him. It was so nice not having to adjust to someone
who I didn't know. Elder Fellingam and I got along so great and already
had such a good relationship even before we became companions. I don't
know what I'm going to do without that guy in the mission. He was a
really good missionary, and I learned so much from him. This last week
went by really fast! It was a really awesome week because neither Elder
Fellingham nor I were trunky. For all of you who haven't served a mission,
being trunky is when you talk about going home! President Cummings really
discourages talking about home and something we do in our mission is when
someone asks us how long we have been out we say a little under a year or a
little over a year. So I tell people I have been out a little over a
year. It was really cool to see how well we were able to stay focused on
our purpose as missionaries. Elder Fellingham is a great example and I'm
thankful to have been able to be his companion. I am now
companion-less. It's going to be weird to live in the flat by myself for
the next couple of days.... jokes!!! Just kidding I have a companion; I'm
currently with Elder Talinoa and Mahina in a three sum. They are both
Tongan so it should be a pretty interesting couple of days. I'm probably
going to be pretty stressed haha. However, to go along with last week’s
email, I'm going to put my trust in God, and know that everything will work
out! I will stay with these Elders until transfer day on Thursday!
I really just want to know who my new companion is going to be! I should get
a call Tuesday night which will let me know who my companion will be,
and who will be moving from our zone. Until then we are just going to
keep working hard!
Before I write anything else I want to make sure I talk
about the most important event that happened this week and that was Shelby
Brunsons baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could explain in words how
happy it has made me to hear about the miracle in the Brunson family.
Even being so far away it has made me feel great joy to hear the steps that
Shelby and Roger have been making. I wish I could have been there so that
you could have felt more of my support, but I want you to know how much I love
you, Roger and Shelby. Thanks for being such a great example! I
can't wait to attend your sealing in a year from now. That will be an
even more special day for your family! I know that you have made such a
great step and a step which will enable you to return to live back with
Heavenly Father!
This week I had an awesome exchange on Tuesday with
Elder Fesolai. Elder Fesolai served in Manurewa when I was there and it
was our third exchange together. We always see heaps of miracles when we
go on exchanges which are super cool. We had some of the coolest lessons of my
mission on Tuesday! One was to a group of 20 year old guys. We
really had no idea what to teach them, but we ended up getting them to open up
to us and we ended up teaching the plan of salvation! It was such a cool
lesson, and they asked us heaps of questions! They thought that the plan
of salvation made heaps of sense! We also had a really good lesson with
one of our potential investigator’s partner! We taught her the entire
restoration outside of her house. The coolest part was when she asked us
about the "Holy Trinity." She told us that her biggest problem
with church is that she doesn’t believe that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is
one person. She said that it just didn't make sense to her. It was
so cool to be able to teach her that we believe that they are three separate
beings with one purpose. She was really amazed and said she had never
heard of any church having the belief that they were separate beings. We
are really excited to keep working with her and hopefully we can see lots of
progress this next transfer.
On a non-spiritual note, I had the best feed of my life this
week! One of the members bought us food from a Thai restaurant and it was
seriously the best food I have ever had! Man I can't even describe how
good it was! Well I love you all heaps and hope you have a terrifically
stupendous week!
Love,
Elder Brunson
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