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!