Clean car award at Zone Conference

Audi r8, my dream car

Melanie

At church

Monday, May 29, 2017

Obsessions!!!

In my Mom’s email to me this week, she wrote about an obsessions my little brother has with learning about computers.  I thought I would start my email by confessing one of my obsessions.  

Cereal: Cereal has become one of my obsessions over the past few transfers.  Mom you would probably kill me if you saw the amount of cereal I eat haha.  The good thing is that the cereal I have been eating actually isn't too bad for you so I don't think I'm going to die.  While I was in Tauranga we never got fed by the members so I literally had cereal almost every day for lunch and dinner.  Yes, I'm sure you are all thinking that is the weirdest thing ever that the only meal I don't eat cereal for is breakfast.  I have a routine though and I can't break it.  Every morning I have an apple and a hardboiled egg, and then for lunch and dinner I eat cereal.  We get fed a lot more in the ward I am currently serving in though so sometimes I only have cereal once a day like I'm supposed to.  I have a great mix of cereal every day.  I have Weet-bix mixed with Coco pops and Tropical Muesli.  It's really nice.  I usually cut up a banana and chuck it in there as well.  I honestly look forward to eating cereal haha.  My mom would never let me get away with that back home.  

This week was another solid week!  We had Zone conference on Wednesday which was really good and interviews on Thursday.  The theme of Zone conference was obedience which is Elder Brunson's favorite topic.  When your favorite scripture is Mosiah 2:41 you are bound to like the topic of obedience.  I won't type out the whole scripture, but it essentially tells us to think about the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God.  I can testify with all my heart that this scripture is true.  When we are obedient to God’s commandments we find true and lasting joy.  I haven't wasted a day of my mission because there has never been a day when I stopped wanting to be obedient, and it all starts at 6:30 AM.  If you get out of bed at 6:30…not at 6:31 or 6:32…that's when you decide your level of commitment to Heavenly Father.  I feel that Heavenly Father has truly blessed me with the decision to get up on time every day.  I think it has helped me to love being a missionary.  There never has been a day when I just wanted to go back to sleep and not work.  I'm obviously not perfect and there are times during the day when I'm not as focused as I should be, but I have never woken up and not wanted to be a missionary anymore.  I love serving.  I love working hard.  It brings the richest blessings into my life.  Being a missionary isn't easy, but when we are obedient the Lord blesses us immensely.  Obedience doesn't stop after a mission.  Obedience is the first law under Heaven.

We have been teaching an awesome as couple!  Their names are John and Lina.  They are from Columbia and they are so awesome!  My Española is embarrassing though!  We had a wonderful family home evening with them on Monday night with a Brazilian couple in our ward.  They are cool as!  They were baptized exactly a year ago and they are going through the temple tomorrow!  We taught the restoration to John and Lina for FHE and Alex and Sarah the Brazilian couple translated it into Spanish.  Elder Barcinas can speak a little Spanish because the dialect he speaks in the Philippines is very similar to Spanish.  I just mess around and say random phrases haha.  I'm going to try and learn to pray in Spanish though!  It was a really good lesson and John and Lina really loved it.  Lina made a really mean food called Arepa.  I wonder if Taylor has had it on his mission.  I have been very jealous of Taylor’s call to serve in Washington this week.  Meeting with John and Linda has made me wish I paid more attention en la clasa de Española.  The best part was that we have been trying to get John and Linda to come to church for the past few weeks but they haven't come.  Lina attended church twice before I came into the area, but John had never come.  However, this past Sunday they both came!!!!  Also we had two less active members that we invited attend church so we were really pumped!  We also have been teaching heaps of people so it has been a great past week.  I have never taught so many people from different cultures.  We taught a kiwi last week, two people from India, a Uni student from the Soloman Islands, a guy from the Cook Islands, and a guy from Nigeria.  These are all people we have just met who let us come in and actually sit down with them and teach them.  This has definitely been my favorite area for teaching!  I'm gutted that no matter what, I'm only going to be in this area for one more transfer :(  We are going to have the area pumping by the end of next transfer!

Well, I'm about outta time!  I love you all heaps! Shout out to RT…Happy Birthday my bro!!!!  Mom I'm a terrible son and friend, but I have signed you up for baking RT his bday present.  It's your homemade cookies haha!

Love,

Elder Brunson 

My Samoan shirt that Sister Tusega gave me!

Elder Barcinas and Elder Brunson before church

Monday, May 22, 2017

When I received my call to serve in New Zealand I was so pumped because I thought I would be serving in a tropical paradise haha.  Turns out I was wrong!! It has been so cold the last 2 weeks it's not even funny!  I literally cannot explain how cold it has been.  It's apparently not even winter yet and it is so cold already haha.  Last night we were knocking on doors at like 7:30 in pitch black, in freezing cold weather, on a college campus.  It was cool as haha.  I can't explain how much I love knocking on the college students’ doors.  You have the most crack up conversations ever with people.  We had a bro slam the door on our face last night just as his two friends were walking up to his front door.  They saw the whole thing and felt super bad.  That was the first time we have had a college student be super stand offish to us.  I think because we are a relatively similar age to the students they are usually pretty nice to us.  The only problem with the college students is that they are busy as. We had a really solid lesson with a girl named Miharo this week!  She is a Maori girl in her early 20's and seems really keen!  We taught her the restoration on her doorstep last week and gave her a restoration pamphlet.  We told her she could write down any questions that she had while reading the pamphlet and that she could ask us next we came by.  Well we came back for the return appointment this week and we asked Miharo if she had a chance to read the pamphlet.  Over the past year or so I have given out about 3 million pamphlets so I will try and explain what the usual conversation is with our investigators.  Missionaries: “Thank you so much for allowing us to come over and share more of the restored gospel with you. Did you happen to have the chance to read through the pamphlet we left with you?”  Investigator:  “No problem.  Long pause.  Yeah I did have a chance.  I kind of skimmed through it, it was really good.”  Missionaries:  “Did anything stand out to you as you read it?”  Investigator: “No it was all really good.  Strong message.  I liked it a lot.”

Missionaries:  “What are some things you remember that the pamphlet talked about?”  Investigator:  “Oh you know, just about God and stuff and finding happiness.”  At this point you know the investigator didn't read the pamphlet and that you will have to go through all of the points of the lesson so they actually understand what the restoration is.  However, Miharo is not your typical investigator.  She is one of the few people that without a doubt in your mind you know that they sincerely read the pamphlet.  When we asked Miharo if she read it she was super excited and said that she had written down heaps of questions!  When we got to the part of the lesson when we talked about Joseph Smiths experience we read James 1:5 with her and then before we could explain what happened next Miharo was like, "And then he went into the bush and prayed and God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and they told him not to join any of the churches.”  We were amazed that she actually understood Joseph Smith’s experience and that she remembered that he was told to join none of the churches.  We are really excited to work with Miharo.  We were hoping that she was going to be able to come to church this week, but she is preparing to join the navy so she had to go to a training out of town.  Hopefully this week she will be able to come!  We have an exciting week this week though!  We have zone conference and then we have interviews!  I'm pretty pumped!  Love you all!  I'm jealous of your nice weather!  Be thankful for the sunshine haha. Have a tremendous week! 

Love,

Elder Brunson

Monday, May 15, 2017

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

It is a proven fact that I have the best mom in the whole wide world!!!!!!! I can tell you all with 100% confidence that I wouldn't be on a mission without the influence my mom has played on my life.  No, she did not force me to come out on a mission.  No her evil side did not scare me into coming on a mission either.  It is the pure love of Christ that she has for those around her and especially her children.  I'm so thankful to have been raised by such a wonderful woman.  I can't describe in words how much I love my momma.  I don't care if people call me a momma’s boy because it's true haha.  Mom I hope you have a great day!  I have two other sweet women in my life who are known to me by the same name.  Grandma!!!  I have two grandmas who did a wonderful job of raising their children and I know without the way they raised their children I wouldn't have the parents which I have.  I wish I could take more time to write about how much I love you all, hopefully you can feel the love that I have for you though!  

Ham town!!!

Yes!!!  I'm already starting to love my new area!!!!!!  As you all know Elder Brunson gets a little stressed out with change!!! But the Lord helps me to get settled in really quick and I'm very thankful for that.  The first little while is really stressful, but once I get comfortable I'm away!!  The best thing about Hamilton is that you can knock on doors at 8 o'clock at night and not get a hiding!!!  The other great part is that I'm serving where the University of Waikato is so I'm serving on a college campus!!!  It is really mean because we get to meet heaps of different people from all over the world!!!! I love it so much!!!! I also really love talking with people that go to Uni because they are usually really open minded and cool as.  This past week we met some really solid people that have heaps of potential.  The most recent baptisms have been YSA as well, so Elder Barcinas and I are going to try and get the YSA pumping!!! Another really awesome thing is the visitor center for the temple is not too far away so we get heaps of referrals that are usually pretty solid!!!!  Another plus is the mission office is in our area so we get to see the office staff pretty frequently, which is the best.  The negative about that is sister McGregor’s cookies are the best in New Zealand (notice mom I said NZ) so I'm going to gain heaps of weight haha!!!!  That is the worst part about H Town as well.  We are getting fed again so I'm gunna get real fat.  Also another plus, we have a Subway in our area that is owned by a member and he gives us half off so it is seriously so cheap to eat there so we eat there all the time!!!!!!  So another negative haha I'm still getting fat.   

Funniest thing of my life!!!!!!!!!!!

You all would have died laughing and I'm literally almost laughing out loud as I type this.  Elder Barcinas and I had to sing prelude in sacrament meeting with the sister missionaries in our ward.  Guess how the lady who leads the music wanted us to start out??!!!!  With Elder Barcinas and I singing by ourselves haha.  I no joke sang with my companion in front of our whole ward haha.  It was probably the saddest thing anyone has ever heard haha.  Like it was so bad.  We both have never sung in front of people like that and I was so nervous!!!!!!  I know I suck at singing so we were pretty much being set up to fail haha.  We sang, “I'll go where you want me to go” haha, which was quite fitting because I did not want to sing one bit, but somehow I couldn't say no haha.  I can honestly say it was probably the most embarrassing thing ever.  The best news was that it was so bad nobody even made fun of us haha.  Like if it would have been decently bad I'm sure people would have given us crap, but because it was probably the worst song they ever heard they didn't say anything to us haha.  On a serious note though, our ward is so awesome!  The people are pretty different, but they are so wonderful!!  Like if it would have been me, I would have been busting up laughing, but everyone listened to us and didn't even laugh haha.  I'm officially never going to laugh and someone who is singing ever again haha.  Unless it is on American Idol.  I'm not even sure if they still do that show haha. 

I love you guys heaps!  If you are feeling sad this week just picture Elder Brunson up on a stage singing at church.  I know it will bring a smile to your face haha.

Love,

Elder Brunson   

PS. The best part of the whole singing experience was that it made me feel comfortable to sing way louder when we sang as a group.  The opening hymn of church I sang loud as because I was thrilled not to be singing with just one other person haha.  I can now move past my fear of being a terrible singer and just belt out the hymns with the voice that I have.  

Monday, May 8, 2017

There is no escaping it. I actually got transferred!  To be honest I didn't really think that I would actually get transferred, but I did so I'm officially no longer in Tauranga.  I tried my very hardest to escape serving in Hamilton, but my luck has run out and I have finally been called to serve in one of the 2 zones in the Hamilton New Zealand Mission.  I might be preaching false doctrine though because I don't actually know how many zones are in Hamilton.  You would think with how long I have been out on my mission I would have figured that out by now, but I haven't haha.  So I'm currently serving in the Glenview Zone in the Hamilton East Ward.  To be honest, I always wanted to be able to say that I didn't serve in Hamilton, but now I'm here.  I'm excited to serve here though!  One of the reasons being that I can now finally go to the temple!!!!!!!  Man it has been ages since I have been able to go through the temple!!!!!!  I have missed it heaps!!  When President Rudd was our mission President we would go on temple trips, but with President Cummings we can only go to the temple once a transfer on preparation day if you’re serving in one of the Hamilton Zones.  Anyway, my new companion’s name is Elder Barcinas and he is from the Philippines.  I don't know him very well, but he seems like a great guy!  I have yet to have a companion that I haven't got along with so I think it will be sweet haha.  The area wasn't in the best condition when I got here so that has been pretty stressful, but we are figuring things out.  I think we are going to do a lot of knocking doors haha.  We don't have too many people to teach at the moment and some of the people that we are teaching are quite peculiar people.  The ward seems really nice though and willing to help with missionary work so that will be good.  We did have some awesome miracles this week though!  So Saturday we went to try and contact a potential investigator, but she wasn't home.  So we decided to knock some doors next to her home.  We knocked on one particular door and an Asian looking woman answered the door.  She looked really confused and obviously didn't speak any English.  Well her daughter in her 20's came from behind her and looked at us really confused.  I was thinking "Oh great, she doesn't speak English either.”  I told her that we were missionaries and we came to talk about Jesus Christ.  As soon as I said missionaries and Jesus Christ it was like a light bulb went off in her head and she realized who we were.  She finally started talking and it turns out her English was pretty good!  She was so shocked to see us though she could hardly get the words out of her mouth because she was so excited.  She said, "How did you find me?!  That was so fast!"  Elder Barcinas and I looked at her confused because we had no idea what she was talking about.  She then explained to us how she had just moved unexpectedly and how she had been meeting with missionaries in a different part of Hamilton.  She said the Elders’ names and we were surprised because we knew who they were.  She was so excited to see us and couldn't stop saying how amazing it was that we found her.  She was like, "My friends don't even know where I am, but you found me!”  The amazing lesson of the story is not that Elder Barcinas and I are just the greatest missionaries and that's why we found her.  The reason we found her (Jessie) was because Heavenly Father knew where she was because he never loses track of his sheep.  Whether we are on the path, off the path, looking to jump off the path, or trying to find our way back to the path he knows where we are.  It was a great blessing to me to see this principle this week because as you all know; I'm not a big fan of change.  It really stresses me out to adjust to new situations, new people, and a new environment.  It comforted me to know that Heavenly Father still knows where I am at.  He hasn't abandoned me and he will always be there to answer when we call out for help.  He has already put me to work here and I think that's exactly why I needed to be here.  The Lord is going to squeeze all the juice out of me.  I can honestly say these last few nights I have slept like a rock because I have been soooo tired from working!!  It has been great though!  I love working hard and I know that's what I need.  I wish I had time to talk about the cool as family from Argentina that we taught the restoration to, but I'm out of time!!  Hope you all have a great week!

  

Love,

Elder Brunson