Cool Miracle!

Dearest Forever Family Forever,

I am pleased to write you on this fine Gisborne morning. The sun is out, it is very nice outside, the bee's are humming and sweet birds singing. I'm not going to lie the letters sounded pretty depressing this week. It’s okay. I would rather know these things and it’s hard to stay positive when speaking about death, sickness, and stuff, but it’s always comforting to think what if I wasn't in the church? What if I didn't know what I know? It's one thing to believe that there is life after death and that everything wrong is one day going to be made right, but it sure is awesome to FEEL and KNOW that these things are all possible through Jesus Christ. Also, to understand that God really does LOVE all his children no matter how dark things get he is there, and there is a reason for it. If we have forgotten, it’s because Satan lied to us and somehow convinced us otherwise. Pssshh…father of all lies…spit on those lies and have faith for good things to come.

Trevor way to get back into the dating game bro! Get good grades at BYU and don’t let me down my broseph. Mom and Ava, I'm sorry you got sick. I hope with all those priesthood blessings dad was giving he thought to give his beloved wife and daughter one as well. It's cool dad that you are active in the church and worthy to administer priesthood blessings. I started reading the Miracle of Forgiveness this week because I've heard a lot about it and I found a copy in our zone leaders flat (apartment) on a trade off. Dang, that book states things pretty clearly…what is right and what is wrong. I just read about mothers today and how they should stay at home because the house needs them. He told a story of when he went to go do work with a stake president and he was sitting at his house on the typewriter and worked until about 3:00pm when all the kids started getting home.  Long story short…all 4 kids came in at different points asking the same question, “MOM”?  They all got similar responses like, “I’m upstairs come up if you want” or “Do you need anything?” None of the kids went upstairs or asked for anything, but went on to go play with friends or do homework. It was just comforting to know that MOM was home. Then he said, “Could you imagine if those kids just heard she will be back at 5:30 day after day. They would stop asking” and... yeah that's all I remember.  I couldn't help but think of the home movie we have of Collin as a little boy repeating over and over again. Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. Then mom, ignoring Collin, yells out the window, “HEY TREVOR WHATCHYA DOIN?!”   Collin continues…mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. :) Sorry mom! You know I love you! If it makes you feel any better, I think if you didn't make those few mistakes every once in awhile and didn’t have a diet coke habit, you would already be exalted. I say it every week, but I’m grateful for a worthy, priesthood holding dad and a mother that puts all others to shame.

Let’s see though…me and Elder Denham are doing well. We still haven't set anyone for baptism yet but we have a large teaching pool now! In fact, I would be quite angry if I were asked to pack up and leave. The ward is starting to trust missionaries again and life is just peachy clean. The only thing is…I wish I had my birthday package... oh well!! I think I might get it next transfer. Oh speaking of which, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVOR!! I might be too lazy to send you an actual email but I will glorify you a little in my letter to the whole family and maybe mom will put it on my blog.  You are the man!! I was just thinking the other day as I was listening to my companion explain about how he wasn’t always the best example for his younger siblings. that I am so blessed to have such a righteous example of a brother as you. Sure it has its upsides to have an older brother to see how to act around the ladies, to mooch cool music off of, to wear their clothes and do basically all the cool things they do (volleyball, wakeboarding). But…having an older brother who served a mission and showed the rest of the family that it is the right thing to do to serve the Lord goes a whole lot farther than one would think. You are the MAN for everything you've done for the family, but especially all the things you have done for me... even making me tougher by giving me hidings when I was younger. Happy late birthday bro, go kiss a girl, and eat heaps of cake!

A cool miracle that happened this week is that we cover thee biggest area in the whole entire mission. We cover about 4 branches and a ward. We go out a long ways driving distance. The longest distance is probably 1 hour and 40 minutes to hit the farthest limit of our boundaries. That is huge for NZ. Anyway, we haven't ventured that far yet because the previous missionaries used all of our kilometer's doing long drives before they left the area. GRRRRRRRR. Anyways, we found a lady on the former investigator’s list who lives far out in the country. We felt prompted to go out and see her. It should’ve taken about 20 minutes to get out there, but we got kinda really lost on the way because we had a pooey map. By some miracle though, we found the house down some strange street at the very end of a very long strange driveway. They were so happy to see us and this lady was KEEN!!! We asked her what the past missionaries had taught and they said they would just talk. Disobedience DESTROYS power and authority. That's why Jesus Christ taught with so much power because he was obedient with exactness. Anyways, long story short, we had a good lesson with her. At the end, we learned of a bad relationship with an ex-husband that was causing a lot of anger and bad feelings, and it was hard for her to let go of the anger. We had to go, but I let her borrow the Mormon Messages dvd with the story of Chris Williams whose family got killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. I owe you big time mom for sending me that. She was super grateful as well.

Anyways, I think that is all. I will hear from ya all next week. Please send me more pictures of the fam if you can. I forget what you guys look like! It was cool seeing Ava so BIG!

Love,

Elder Ward

P.S. Collin, I just realized yesterday that you NEED to go to the NZAM (New Zealand Auckland Mission) because the islanders here worship KFC. Every missionary always has leftovers in their fridge and they seriously go all out. It tastes fresher in NZ as well along with all other restaurants like Subway, McDonalds, and Burger King. You would love serving here!!