Monday, April 17, 2017

Cyclone!!!!!!!!!! 

We almost died!!!!  Jokes.  We did get hit by a cyclone, but it was the most pathetic thing ever!!!  Elder Miller and I were absolutely gutted!  We wanted to see something crazy.  To be honest, I had no idea what a cyclone was haha.  I just read an email from Papi and learned that a cyclone is a hurricane.  I think I would have been a wee bit more scared if I knew it was a hurricane that was coming towards us.  Although we did want to see a mean hurricane it was an answer to our prayers and fasting that it didn't hit us very hard.  Last Sunday we had a stake wide fast to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help the effects of the storm not be too bad.  We had been hit by a smaller cyclone the week before and it had destroyed a small town in the stake called Edgecome.  We were especially praying that those people wouldn't be affected again.  It was crazy the few days leading up to the cyclone this week.  Everyone was freaking out about it.  We kept telling everyone that we would just keep working like normal.  They thought we were insane haha.  We figured that President Cummings would give us a call if he heard that anything really serious was going to happen.  Well, Thursday morning came around and a few of the missionaries were a little worried about the weather.  We called President Cummings and he instructed us to keep working up until the cyclone was about to hit and then to go into our flats.  Well we worked up until 5 when we took our dinner break, which was an hour before the cyclone was supposed to hit.  It got pretty windy and rainy but it didn't last very long.  We ended up staying in our flat until 8 and by the end of the night the rain had completely stopped.  Our flat wasn't affected at all besides some water that got through the front door.  We used a mop to mop up the water though so it wasn't a big deal.

Another exciting note for the day!  Elder Miller and I got to golf today for pday!!!!!  Brother Fourie from our ward took us out with his father who is not a member of the church!!! He had told his dad that I was a golfer and he said he wanted to take us out golfing!  It was so much fun!!! The best part was we got to do missionary work while we golfed!  Also another bonus was that it was a fourie (excuse the pun haha ;).  I got to ride in a cart with John, who is Brother Fourie's dad.  Brother Fourie and his father are originally from South Africa.  John rented me some really nice Nike Vapors from the club house so that was also a bonus. I didn't play very well, but it was still heaps of fun!!  Also I didn't get mad so you would have been impressed mom haha.  The funniest part was that my short game was actually pretty good which I'm usually terrible at but my driving was pretty rubbish.  I finally figured it out on the last hole though!  I want to go agian! Good news is John talked to the pro after we were done and he said he would give us a deal of $15 so I'm pretty pumped about that.  So we might try and play again!  Well, enough about golf, I'm sure you don't want the play by plays from my round.  Great news though, John told us to come around so we are going to do our best to share the gospel with Brother Fourie’s parents!  He really wants us to be able to help them make the step to be baptized.  Based off the things we talked to him about I think he just has some misunderstandings, but we are going to get him reading and praying about The Book of Mormon.

We have an exciting week this week as well.  Zone Conference and interviews with President will be this week!  I never would have said this back home, but I love interviews!  They are the best, I love getting to meet with President Cummings!  He is such an awesome mission President!  Man I forgot the best news of the week!  I got to Hongi (*a traditional Maori greeting in which people press their noses together) members of the seventy!!!!!!!!!  They had a dedication for a grove where Matiu Kauri (Mathew Cowley) learned how to speak Maori.  The grove is in the Otumoetai area of our zone and the stake President asked us if we would attend.  Elder Snow, a church historian and seventy was there!  It was really cool!  Afterwards they did the traditional hongi with the Maori people and so I even got to Hongi the members of the seventy.  It was awesome!!!!!!!!  The dedication of the grove was really cool as well!  I wish I had more time to pay tribute in my email to how great a missionary Mathew Cowley was.  You should definitely look up his talks at BYU though!  They are some really awesome talks.  I also forgot to wish you a happy Easter.  I just want to finish by bearing my testimony about the love that I have for our savior Jesus Christ.  I have had such a great opportunity to develop a deeper relationship with our Savior.  I have felt the enabling power of the atonement in my life and this has brought me closer to our Savior.  I have also felt charity for people I have met here in New Zealand.  I know that kind of love does not come from myself, but comes from our Savior Jesus Christ.  I know he lives and I know he loves each of us.  The best news I can give you is that he will never abandon us.  No matter how far we stray, no matter our doubts or our fears he continues to love us and reach out for us.  I know when we in turn reach out for him we find that he was never far away.  I'm thankful to know that I can overcome all things with the help of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!              

Elder Brunson