Consider on Your Blessed and Happy State

New Zealand sacred grove

Dearest Family,

Man, your comment about Trevor coming home and getting the house clean made me realize just how everyone might be feeling back at home. Please let Trevor know that the first thing I will do is slap him if he isn’t working his hardest the last few weeks of his mission. I know he wouldn't do that though.:) Give him my love.

So here are the answers to your questions:

1. Q:  Why exactly did that jersey that you sent Collin smell so bad? (Dad) 

    A:  The jersey hahahaha what do you think? I pumped out hard core during my 30 minutes of exercise every morning for 3 weeks with that thing on all in honor of Collin.... He should be proud.
2. Q:  How many missionaries serve on the island of Niue at one time? (Mom) 

    A: Niue…only 2 missionaries get to serve there but there is only like 2000 residents there. The missionaries get a van and pretty much know everyone by the end of the 2nd transfer. All the missionaries dream of going there.
3. Q:  What’s the funnest thing you’ve done on a P-day? (Mom) 

    A:  P-day experiences??? Uhm…nothing too cool. We went to a sweet waterfall and took pictures once but mostly we go play vball with the Tongans. Last week some Samoans came and they take vball pretty serious. I went up and housed there best hitter and everyone was dying on the floor laughing. I could only make out palangi as they pointed and laughed at the guy. I didn't know whether to be happy or offended. :)
4. Q:  Will you ever get to go to the temple there?  (Mom) 

    A: Temple!!! We’re actually going as a mission on Wednesday! I’m pumped for that. We go twice a year.
5. Q:  How much do you think the biggest person you’ve met weighs?  (Collin)

    A:  Fatties? America is way more obese. Sure there are a lot of bigger Polynesians, but people are usually more fit here.
6. Q:  Have you had any language barriers like with Maori, Chinese, Tongan, etc.? (Collin) 

    A: Uhm some Samoans and Tongans have broken English and the Aussie/New Zealand accent is sometimes hard to catch everything.
7. Q:  It seems like it’s always raining there when I check the weather.  Is it miserable or are you getting used to it? (Collin)

     A:  The rain is not too bad. I won’t lie…there are a few days where I get drenched, but it's crazy in NZ. It can be black clouds and pouring 1 hour and bright and sunny the next.
8. Q:  Have you seen any beaches? (Aubrey) 

    A:  To be honest, not really. Elder Tafiti said there are some really, really nice beaches up on the north shore, but I haven't been to any yet.
9. Q.  How many times have you fallen on your bike?  (Aubrey)

A.    Just that one where I flipped over the bars. :) I’m totally pro

10.  Q.  Should I play volleyball? (Aubrey) 

A: I don’t know. If you want to, then yeah, but you have to commit to it and practice hard. Sorry, I don’t have a good answer for that one. Dad and your other brothers would be able to help you out. At the same time though, a lot of the girls your age have been playing since they were like 2 and might not be so nice.

11. Q:  Where did you get that green stone (jade) that you gived to me? (Ava)

      A:  The green stone was just from a store. The rule with getting green stone is you have to give it as a gift before you get your own or else you will have some serious bad luck.
12. Q:  What is the best food you’ve had there and the worst? 

      A: Best foods…I haven't had anything super crazy spectacular but their fruit is a little more fresh. Fish and chips are pretty good and I don’t like fish. Meat Pies are sweet and I'm about to go eat famous chicken kabobs.
The Worst... to be honest I haven't had anything too nasty, but I have had dinners (especially with Samoans) where it gets to the point where every bite is NASTY because your about to EXPLODE! haha I'm about to eat some horsey next Monday at Brother Taukiaho's house.

I hope those were good answers. This week was good. I have kind of been holding on to a lot of Eternagators and we kind of let them go to refocus our finding efforts. We were able to find some pretty sweet families and new investigators. I don’t think we will have any baptisms the rest of this month, but that's okay. We are lining up a lot for October. One funny experience that happened this week was we went to Ann Marie's house. She is 18 and we met with her once, taught her L3, and invited her to be baptized on the 29th of September. She was keen, but this week when we came over her less active friend started getting us off track after reciting the first vision in L1. Then out of nowhere she gets up and leaves and takes a shower... haha. Maori's…they sometimes have a lack of manners.

Elder Tafiti and I made good progress this week. We talked a lot about honor and finishing his mission strong.  I told him that I would be a failure if I didn’t do my part to him do just that. Long story short…there have been heaps of improvement. 

 

Elder Ward and his district

I’m trying to think... what else happened this week. Uhm we started reading scriptures at night time with a less active family in our ward. At 8:00 we go over and read from the BOM as a family. It has reminded me of how important it is to do that and I hope you’re still faithful to Trevor's challenge even after he gets home! To be quite honest, I think that's what makes the difference in a lot of families.

I just want to bear my testimony that Jesus Christ sure does love all of you. No matter what you might think your self worth is, He obviously thought you were worth enough to sacrifice His own life for you. Never take that for granted... NEVER. Everything unfair or hard in life will one day be made right and we can find so much hope and security in following the gospel of Jesus Christ not only in the life to come, but in this one as well. (Mosiah 2:41) Today I just want all of YOU, my family and whoever reads my e-mails back home, to consider on your happy and blessed state! And BE GRATEFUL!!! If you aren't blessed and happy, that probably means you have got a little repenting to do.:) My advice...don't wait. Life is too short to be miserable, and Eternity is way too long to not be prepared for it. I guess that's why wickedness never was happiness (Alma 41:10)

Arohanui,
Elder Ward #2 (soon to be #1)

p.s. I'm bringing my journal back with me next week when I write.  I like giving you details day by day it's a whole lot easier with my journal. GOOD QUESTIONS!

Ancestors protect me!  (Maori butterflies=ancestors)