Monday, July 17, 2017

Miracles for days!!!!!!!

The Lord is opening the windows of Heaven and pouring out blessings that there isn't enough room to receive them! Monday night we had a pretty solid evening and then when we got home guess what?!!  We received a text from the YSA female rep named Lina that said Dayna was interested in taking the discussions again, and wants to get baptized! Dayna has been taught before but she felt too pressured and had them stop coming around. Well, a few weeks ago Elder Barcinas and I decided to stop by and see what we could do to help Dayna.  Dayna is in her 20's and is studying to be a nurse.  She lives with a lady in our ward named Sister Maha and two other YSA named Urim, and Alysse, who are active members.  (Fun fact: Urim served in the Seoul South Korea Mission.  I think Grandma and Grandpa were just in the Seoul Korea mission though.)  Anyway, we went a few weeks ago and we had a really good talk with Dayna. Afterwards, Alysse texted us and said that Dayna really liked the lesson.  We didn't immediately start teaching her though, because she still said she wasn't sure if she was ready for visits again.  Well, this Monday Lina texted us and said that Dayna told her she would like to start the lessons again and she’d like us teach her.  We were so pumped!!  Lina set up a time for Tuesday for us to be able to go and teach her.  It is also perfect because Sister Maha's son Andrew just got back from his mission and so he was able to be at the lessons with us.  We went over Tuesday and we had a mean lesson.  Guess what?!  We set Dayna for baptism on July 22nd!!!  We were so pumped!!!!  She was hesitant to accept the date, but at the end she committed.  Elder Barcinas and I were so pumped until Sunday came around.  We asked Dayna if we could announce her baptism at sacrament and she said she wanted to wait.  She said she didn't want everyone to know in case she backed out.  We were gutted because we were guessing that she probably was going to tell us that she didn't want to be baptized on Saturday.  Sunday afternoon we had another teaching appointment with Dayna.  I'm skipping lots of details because I don't have enough time, but we taught Dayna several times throughout the week and all we had left to finish was some of the commandments.  We were really nervous for the lesson because there was going to be heaps of YSA at the lesson and we didn't want to overwhelm Dayna, but we also really wanted to talk to her about how she was feeling about being baptized.  We ended up teaching her about the commandments and then at the end of the lesson we brought up baptism.  We asked her how she was feeling.  Dayna has so much faith it's incredible.  The only thing that is holding her back from being baptized is her family.  She has been living all of the commandments for the last year and pretty much her whole life, but her family are staunch members of the Ratana church, and they don't support her decision to be baptized.  She really wants to be baptized and knows it is right.  She has fasted and prayed heaps with some of her close YSA friends to know if she should make the decision to be baptized.  It's incredible the sacrifice that she is willing to make.  So we brought up baptism and the YSA were awesome. They shared their testimonies and how much they love Dayna.  We recommitted Dayna to see if she would be baptized this Saturday and she said yes!!!!!!!  This time Lina was there to start getting the plans rolling!!  She has great support and we are so excited for her baptism on Saturday.  Please keep Dayna in your prayers.  We are really hoping she can be baptized on Saturday.

The other great news is Ritati is getting baptized on Monday!!  Yes, it is a weird day to be getting baptized, but you probably know why haha.  Ritati is so excited to get baptized and so is his wife Tamwane who is already a member. Ritati is giving up his lunch break so that he can be baptized the day after his birthday.  We were so worried because church had already started and Ritati and Tamwane hadn't showed up.  Thankfully after the sacrament was passed they arrived! They had to come to church in order for Ritati to be able to be baptized on Monday.  Another miracle was that we had a mean lesson with Fayne!!!  I don't have time to write about it, but it was so cool!!!  He is the man!!  He came to church again which was awesome!!  I'm gutted that I won't be able to work with him too much longer!!!

A couple weeks ago I forgot to write about a major highlight of my week! Guess who came to the Ham East ward? Gups from Rewa!!!  Gups is the 18 year old who always came out with us in Rewa! He is the man!!! It was so good to see him!!!  There was a few of the YSA that came with him also and it made me feel like I was back home in South Auckland. I miss the Rewa life!!!  So many great memories.  Well, I'm kickin’ hard and going to smash it this week.  I love being a missionary so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I love you all heaps!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Brunson  

This is Alex and Sara.  They are recent converts from Brazil.
They have been members for one year and just got sealed in the temple.
They are our translators for John and Lina!

Monday, July 10, 2017

Mean week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Miracles for days!!!!!!!!

I don't even know where to start because there were so many miracles.  I wish I had time to write about everything that happened.  I have been absolutely useless at writing in a journal so I need to try and get down as much information as I can so I don't forget everything.  The miracles started on Monday evening.  We started our evening off by having a mean as Family Home Evening with the YSA.  We watched a video from LDS.org.  Guess who is in the video haha?!  Chase Fairchild! I was so pumped when I saw him in it haha.  Anyway, the video is about helping members “find” by using Facebook.  So we watched the video with the YSA in our ward and then we put them to the test.  We had each of them open up their friends list on Facebook and we committed them to right there invite someone to our Ward Cultural activity on Friday night.  They were really awesome about it.  One girl even face-timed her friend right there and invited him in front of everyone.  Guess what?! He actually came on Friday night.  He is an Indian fella and his name is Rohan.  After the FHE we had planned to see a few other people, but we felt like we should go and see Tamwane and Ritati.  Best choice ever!!  We finished teaching them the plan of salvation and then we felt like we should bring up baptism again.  The spirit in the lesson was so strong and then guess what?!!!  We set him for baptism on July 24th!!!  Ritati was really excited and even wanted to schedule a specific time with us.  We told him that he would need to come to church for the next 3 weeks if he was going to be baptized on that day.  He agreed and said he would do everything he could to prepare.  Thursday night we went back and had dinner with their family and Ritati was still pumped to be baptized. Then on Friday night guess who came to the ward cultural night?!!!  Tamwane, Ritati and their two children Rebekah and Jilio.  It was awesome.  Then it was time for the real test!  Sunday came around and I was nervous as!!  But guess what?!!  They came through and showed up to church!  I was so pumped!  I really can't explain all of this very well, but missionary work is so much fun!

  

The next best miracle is Fayne!  If you read my email last week you will know that Fayne was the 21 year old that we found tracting right before we closed our fast on Sunday.  Well, he continues to be an even greater miracle.  So we went around on Thursday for our return appointment, but Fayne was just heading out the door.  He was walking across town to meet his girlfriend.  It was 8pm and we told him we would walk with him.  We pretty much begin teaching while we walked and asked him heaps of questions.  He told us that he had an antichrist tattoo on his chest, and that ever since he had met us he has been thinking about getting it removed.  We had a great chat with him and we invited him to the cultural night.  He said he was keen to come if we could get him a ride.  So we coordinated a ride for him with a YSA that lives right down the street from him named Campbelle.  It came to Friday night though and Fayne got stuck working in Auckland and wasn't able to make it back in time for the cultural night.  He felt really bad and said that he still really wanted to come to church on Sunday.  It was funny because on Thursday night he told us that his girlfriend said there was no way that Fayne would go to church on Sunday.  But guess what?!!!  Fayne came to church on Sunday and he stayed for all 3 hours!  He had never been to church in his life, but he really loved it!  He said he just loved the atmosphere and how positive everyone was.  It doesn't end there though.  Sunday night there was a fireside at the Visitor’s center next to the temple and he came to that as well!!!!  He loved it!!  The spirit was so strong at the fireside.  I wish I could explain how cool the environment is in the VC.  A lady named Aotea from Auckland came to sing.  She sings brown hymn book songs and she is good as!!  She is seriously the best singer I have ever heard in person.  Plus we were super close so it was cool as.  Fayne loved the fireside and he is really keen to keep coming to church!!!  It was so awesome though because Friday night at the culture night we had 6 investigators attend: John and Lina, Ritati, Aaron, Greg, and Charles.  At church on Sunday we had 5 investigators attend: Charles, Ritati, John and Lina, and Fayne.  Then at the fireside we had 5 investigators attend: John and Lina, Fayne, Kailash, and Shalvin.  We also had a mean lesson with Kailash and Shalvin this week.  I don't think I talked about them this last week.  They are cool as though.  They are both from Fiji and they are both cooks.  We had a really awesome lesson with them this week and Shalvin told us how much he wanted to change.  He said he has made a lot of mistakes in his life, and that he really wants to have the burden of those mistakes lifted off of him.  They are super busy with work though so coming to church is hard.

We had another mean miracle on Sunday afternoon.  A set of sisters in our zone called us to see if we could come and give one of their investigators a blessing.  She has been taught by missionaries for 6 years, but hasn't committed to be baptized.  She has kidney failure and it is affecting her eyesight the doctors pretty much told her that her eyesight would only get worse.  I had the opportunity to give her the blessing and the spirit was so strong!  I blessed her that her eyes would be able to heal and that she would more importantly be able to see with her spiritual eyes.  There was such a strong spirit after we finished the blessing and it was really awesome.  As Elder Barcinas and I headed back to our area the sisters called us up and were so thankful and excited.  They said that after we left she explained that she had never felt anything like what she was feeling.  The sisters invited her to be baptized sometime in August and she told them that it was too far away.  They told her the soonest she could be baptized was July 29th.  She happily agreed!  The sisters thanked us for being worthy of the priesthood and for our service.  I know it wasn't anything that we said that made her feel the spirit, but it was the power of the priesthood that brought an increase of the holy spirit into her life.  It was such a great experience!!!  Well, I love you all heaps and hope you have a great week!!!!

Love,

Elder Brunson 

Monday, July 3, 2017

I'm really struggling with writing home this past few weeks so I apologize.  I wish I could just record myself and tell you all about the people we are teaching.  I think it would be much easier than having to type everything out.  We are teaching some really awesome people and it's really hard for me to tell you about them through email. Plus I have a terrible memory so I don't know which of our investigators I have talked about already.

Renu+Dilyog and their 4 year old daughter Ezra- Awesome as couple from India that we are teaching.  They had a big concern with The Book of Mormon at first, but now they are loving it.  Renu has come to church once, but she is waiting for Dilyog to get work off because she wants to come to church as a family.  They have grown up in the Salvation Army church.  We have taught them the first two lessons and read from The Book of Mormon with them.

John+Lina and their 4 year old daughter Melanie- You know all about them.  They are awesome as!  They have been in New Zealand for a little over a year and they speak a little bit of Spanish.  Lina is ready as for baptism, but John doesn't feel ready to make the commitment.  Lina is so awesome because she is keeping the word of wisdom and she isn't even a member yet!

Winiata- Young fella we just started teaching two weeks ago!  We set him for baptism August 7th and he is super awesome.  He is a Uni student studying law.  His grandma is a faithful member of the church and he has grown up with Christian beliefs.  We had an awesome as lesson with him this week where we talked to him about The Book of Mormon and we shared our favorite scriptures.  I shared Mosiah 2:41 and my companion shared Ether 12:27 he loved both of the scriptures!!!  He highlighted them both, and he had a great understanding of what they were saying.  He is keen as to read The Book of Mormon.  This was Saturday night and he said he was going to come to church, but then he didn't show up :( He is still really awesome though.

Charles- Charles is a member referral that we have set for baptism on the 22nd of July.  He is really hard to explain.  He is 50 years old, Maori, and has an 8 year old son named Noah.  He has gone to church the past two weeks, but not in our ward.  He has been going to the chapel next to the temple because he says he feels the spirit stronger there.  He also said he had a bad experience in the past in our ward so he doesn't really want to come.  We are trying to get him to come to our ward culture night that we are having this Friday.  Hopefully he comes and we can get him some fellowship! 

Joshua- Maori fella in his mid 20's. He has 3 kids and really wants to make changes in his life.  He is really receptive to the spirit and we have really awesome lessons with him!  He hasn't been able to get the courage to come to church though.  He keeps telling us that he is going to come, but then he doesn't show up.  He is super cool.

Temwane and Ritati and their two kids Rebekah and can't remember the little boys name, I'm really sad.  They are an awesome as family from Kiribati.  Temwane is a less active member and is a convert to the church.  She has a super strong testimony though.  Ritati wants to be baptized, but he is worried about leaving his church.  He is the oldest child and is afraid that his family will not accept him because of the change.   

Now for the miracle of the week!!!

Fayne- mid 20's from New Zealand.  He has no belief in God, but he has a sincere desire to know if God is there.  It was a really cool story with how we found him though.  So it was Sunday, and as you know it was fast Sunday this week.  Fast Sunday is the first Sunday of the month where we go without food and water for two meals, and we donate the money we would have spent on those two meals to those who are in need.  We also fast to ask for specific blessings that we might be in need of.  This Sunday we had a zone fast, that we would be able to accomplish our goal of having 9 baptism this transfer, or one per companionship.  Anyway, fast Sundays back home are a piece of cake.  I normally would just sleep through my fast.  We would get home from church and I would take a giant nap until it was time for dinner.  Well, on the mission you can't just go back to your flat and take a giant nap. Well....I'm sure you could, but what would be the point of being on a mission if you were just going to stay in your flat.  So fast Sundays are a little more tricky when you’re a missionary.  Especially for Elder Brunson who can still get grumpy occasionally when he is hungry and tired.  It was 4:00 and we had 30 more minutes before our dinner appointment.  We had just finished trying someone from the ward list that we had tried a thousand times and she finally happened to be home, but she was pulling out of her driveway.  She was really nice though, and said that we could come back.  So we still had 30 minutes and the natural man in me really wanted to get back in the car without knocking on any doors and just drive to the next house.  However, I felt like we should knock a few doors. There was nobody home at the first door we knocked, but the second door we knocked on was Fayne!  He was super nice and said that he has always wanted to join a church and find out if God is there, but he has never known where to go.  We had a great conversation with him and we invited him to church on Sunday. We also asked him when a good time to come back to follow up on the pamphlet we left with him would be.  He said "Well, if I'm actually going to be there on Sunday I'm going to need you to come back before then so I can have a little motivation."  It was so cool that he really wanted to be able to make it to church on Sunday.  We are excited to teach him and hopefully he makes it to church!  Well, I hope you all have an awesome week.  I love you all heaps.

Love,

Elder Brunson