Never Procrastinate Doing Good

Ooolllloee Whanua,

Darn it! This is one of those days where I realize I don’t have my journal by my side and I really have no idea what to tell you about... Good job Ava going on JAGUAR!!! [at Knott’s Berry Farm] I love that ride!!! And my goodness! Aubrey and Ava both sure do have a lot less fear than I did when I was that age! I remember being practically forced to go on Tatsu and being absolutely terrified the whole way in line... Then I remember that ride just being crazy fun and me laughing like a mad man the whole way through it. Good times.

I am glad everyone is doing well and, yes, I do remember the crazy 7 hour practices. Usually 3 of those hours were talking about pointless stuff and being ridiculed for being a 1 out of 4 on brain power, or hearing the same stories over and over and over again. I still love coach Vee to pieces though and we have to take into consideration the good she has done for hundreds of boys that have gone through her program. Endure to the end Collin!

Here is a little bit of what happened in my week! We had, yet again, another MASSIVE transfer! Yup, I am staying in the beautiful land of Tauranga in Papamoa. The day was just madness arranging rides for everyone to get up there and stuff. We took the 3 hour drive to Auckland early in the morning to make it just on time to unpack everything and get things shifted around. Luckily we only had one missionary leaving our zone—Elder Denkers. I will miss that boy. Anyway, the meeting was pretty dang sweet. I think there were 27 new missionaries who came in. When they were introducing all the new missionaries they would have them stand up and say who their companion is, where they are from, and where they will be serving. I heard Elder Ward's name (the new Elder Ward) called. I just threw my fist in the air when he stood up and President Lekias and his wife chuckled at that a little. I did the same for another missionary who was from Gilbert, Arizona!!!! Anyway, we got all our new missionaries saddled up and we went to go get some Wendy’s before we traveled back. I got so lucky. I was hungry so I bought two 5-dollar chicken meal deals complete with chicken sandwich, fries, drink, and frosty. Anyway, I bought my food and took it out to the car when Elder Tebano brought another order of the same thing out telling me that the cashier said I forgot my food... I went back in with the food in hand and told them the mistake and they just let me keep it. I was a happy man. I told the other missionaries that’s what happens when you work as hard as me. J

As far as the people I got to meet this week, one is named R. She has been taught by the missionaries HEAPS!!! But she is afraid to get baptized for some reason. She asked to take a break from lessons for a little for her job and kids and stuff, but when we were driving down the street I felt like we should stop and see how she was doing. We knocked on her gate and she proceeded to tell us that her house was possessed and that she doesn't feel safe and that she hears loud noises in her house at night. She said she had a pastor from a church come to bless the house, but he said he could only alleviate the problem..... We offered to come and do it. I have no idea why we planned to do it the next day, but she got freaked out over night and moved to her mum’s house in Whakatane. So lesson learned, never procrastinate doing good. EVER! I feel stink now.

On the other hand there is a bright side to the week. We are teaching an awesome Kiribati [pronounced “kiribus”]family! G, R, and D. They love having us come over and being taught. There is a pretty big language barrier but we make it work. We invited them along to church and the dad (G) got really sick from eating bad fish. He didn't sleep at all the night before and was using the toilet every hour, but he still came!!! I was so happy to see him at church. We had a good sacrament meeting with good speakers... Our bishop even got up and sang hymn number 335. I believe it’s "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy." He got emotional halfway through so the congregation helped him finish, but it was POWERFUL!!! We offered to give G a ride home after sacrament because he was not doing well, but he really wanted to stay! So sure enough we did! Cool thing is too, we invited a lot of less active Kiribati families to come along and help be friends with G and his family to help show them around and there was about 10 Kiribati people who showed up. We had to move our gospel principles class to a bigger room, and I got to teach a class of about 20 half in English and half in Kirabati about the importance of the scriptures. I drew a picture of Lehi's dream and the IRON ROD and explained the importance and we spent a lot of time reading really important scriptures in Kirabati, and English and explaining the meaning.

I think that's about all I can remember that’s worth telling but I will have to send some pictures and cool stuff like that! I love you guys so much and miss you and think about you every day. Stay strong! Love everyone you see and BE HAPPY!!!

Love,
Elder Ward