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