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