Monday, March 6, 2017

Cars!!!!!!  What a blessing they are!!!

This week has been quite an interesting week!  The craziest part of the week was that we had to bike the most hilly, massive area ever haha.  Okay maybe not the hilliest and biggest in the world, but definitely the most hilly and massive area in the Hamilton mission.  Our car had to be fixed this week because of some damage that the previous missionaries did to the car.  They backed into a shopping cart and so there was a big dent in the rear of the driver’s side.  Wednesday morning we took the car in and we were supposed to get it back by Friday morning.  I really wish I would have taken some pictures of some of the hills we had to ride up.  It probably wouldn't have been too big of a deal if the bikes we were riding were not pieces of junk haha.  The missionaries in the area never used bikes so two old, junky bikes were in our shed.  So going uphill was definitely a struggle!!  It made me appreciate the mail people even more.  The mailman rides a bike here and it's crazy to watch him.  There were two really crazy parts of our bike experience.  One was the fact that the street we live on is like the steepest hill ever!  So each time we leave our flat we’re immediately dead because of how hard it is to bike up the hill.  I never want to see another bike again after this week haha.  Although I shouldn't complain because we saw lots of tender mercies because we were riding bikes.  Before I tell the tender mercy though I will explain our trip from Welcome Bay to the Mount.  So we live in Welcome Bay, but the Mount is part of the Mount Maunganui ward which we also cover.  It is about a 10 minute drive away from our flat.  Well we were on bike so it was more like a 30-45 minute bike ride away.  Wednesday we had decided to spend all day in Welcome Bay, but on Thursday we decided we would spend all day in the Mount.  The bike ride there isn’t too bad except for the fact that it is a little dangerous because we have to bike on the side of the highway.  When the big trucks come by it gives you quite an adrenaline rush haha.  Well all was sweet except for this old guy that almost ran us over in a vehicle that was in between the size of a golf cart and the size of a small car haha.  He was driving down the side of the highway as well and I didn't know he was coming behind me until he was literally on me and I had to peddle fast as to get out of his way.  Well we worked all day over in the Mount and actually had a really solid afternoon.  It came to 4:50 though and we needed to get back for an appointment at 5:30 in Welcome Bay with Ashish and Nalini.  We headed back and there was heaps of traffic, which we were a little worried about since we would be biking on the side of the highway again.  We got to the highway and we realized that we couldn't bike on the side going with the traffic because there was no room to bike there.  So we made the decision that we would have to bike against the traffic haha.  I knew that this was probably not the smartest idea, but we decided to do it anyway.  Before we stated I told Elder Timu that I was sure someone would honk at us.  Well biking against the traffic was quite a thrilling event.  I'm sure mom would have given me a hiding if she saw me doing it.  We had a couple of close calls, but I'm alive to tell the story haha.  It was really funny though because sister Ngakuru came up to us at church on Sunday and she was like, "Elders what were you doing biking on the side of the highway??!!"  She wasn't too thrilled with us haha.  She was like please be careful Elders!  Well the tender mercy comes into play with the fact that we miraculously arrived at Ashish and Nalini's right on time!!!  Which is incredible because we have a hard time being on time when we have a car!!!  But guess what?!!  When we knocked on the door Nalini answered and said that Ashish wouldn't be home for probably another 30 minutes.  Elder Timu and I were gutted because we were so tired and ready to sit down and have a lesson with them.  Plus we were dying for a drink of water!!!!!!  Well we told her we would try someone else in the area and come back.  She shut the door and we got ready to get on our bikes and leave.  Guess who pulls up though?!!!  Ashish!!!!!!!!  We were so pumped!!!  It was seriously the best tender mercy ever!!!  We got to go in and we had a really good lesson with Ashish and Nalini.  We talked about the plan of salvation and it was a really solid lesson!  Ashish and Nalini want to be baptized, but because Ashish is Hindu he is expected to keep the family traditions alive because he is the only son.  The reason he doesn't want to be baptized is because he doesn't want to go against his parents will.  However, his mom will be coming in two weeks to stay with them and he believes that with prayer a miracle can happen and she will let him get baptized.  It was really cool to see the amount of faith that he has!!!

Well I love you all so much!!!!!  Shout out to Amanda for getting into BYU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is so cool!!!!  Also shout out to Ratch for getting engaged!!!!!!!!  Man that makes me feel like an old man haha!! I love being a missionary.  It has a lot of ups and downs, but I know every time I have downs and I put my trust in the Lord, things work out.  I love you all heaps!

Love,

Elder Brunson