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