Missionary FUN!!!

Zone Leader Council

The hills by Elder Ward's flat hiding the beach.

Elder Hatch...Elder Ward's Comp

Wellll HEY HEY HEY!!!!

I was on the computer and I couldn't think of what subject I should put so I just typed in the letter Y and “yea man-keen az” showed up! Gotta love Kiwis and their funny sayings and accents. Which reminds me….the latest one that I have picked up that I am having a hard time getting rid of is STRUTH!!!! It kinda means like “whoa that’s true”?! So when I heard about Collin's thunderous block, I let out a big STRUUUUTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHH BRO! It's funny because I think I can remember Todd Brown saying that. You might have to email him and ask him about that! But good on ya Collin! I am glad you housed the heck out of that ball, but more importantly I am just glad you’re having fun! That was something I didn't really let myself do when we had our last out of state volleyball tournament. I kinda just let it get in my head.

Hahahahaha…sorry about that dog story…pretty good aye? Perfect timing to being read at Easter dinner with all the extended family gathered. I don’t think I could have planned that any better. I really need to get out of the habit of playing jokes and stuff I think they are going to get me into trouble. I actually want to show you a picture of our last zone leader council. I tried to do a serious kinda blue steel model pose. I am not proud of this one, especially cuz I look horrible compared to everyone else. So I have learned to take it easy with the joke playing...

What else happened this week? Oh yup, I forgot to mention Butterfly or Subwebwe got confirmed this weekend just yesterday. That was a great experience! I learned a lot this week especially during zone leader council. On the way up we stayed in Papakura, my old area, in the Zone leaders flat…Elder Galt, one of the old missionaries in my district, and Elder Read, one of the funniest guys you will ever meet in your life. We caught up with each other and talked for a long time about our missions and missionary work. I asked Elder Galt about how he feels being a zone leader. Of course he is overwhelmed and other things, but we both kind of realized that the hardest part about being a Zone Leader is having to be and do our absolute best. I realized that from the very start of my mission I didn't have a clue how to teach people or how to help them progress and overcome their concerns, and now I have the opportunity to teach the new missionaries how to do just that. I don’t know exactly why I’m telling you this stuff... but really that is what most of my week consisted of. We did a ton of driving up and down from Auckland and doing trade offs with other missionaries to help them in their areas and teach them.

I forgot if I told you or not but Dallin H Oaks is coming to our mission!!!! I am so super excited for that! I learned this past Wednesday how the mission split is going to work out for the new Hamilton mission. Wherever you end up or get transferred to come July is where you will be staying. So if I get transferred to anywhere south of Manurewa or if I just stay in Tauranga, then I will be in the Hamilton Mission!!! If I end up getting transferred up north to anywhere abouve Readoubt road, then I will stay in the Auckland mission!!! Pretty cool and exciting! They announced that a lot of people would be changing the trasnfer before, but I will make sure to keep you updated.

I got your Easter package. Thank you MOMMY and Ava for the good looking picture you drew me. I took a picture of me holding the one you drew for me.  I will try and send some of those pictures off to you. Sorry, I feel bad cuz I don’t have a whole lot of cool stories to tell this week, but one was with a girl named A who is 8 years old and stays with a less active family. We went over to go have a lesson and A was sick! So, we gave her a blessing. We went over the next morning to bring them to church, but they had just gotten back from the hospital. I was worried that it would have damaged the family’s faith that her condition worsened, but when they came out of the car the dad actually insisted that we gave her another. We went inside and sang, “I Feel my Savior’s Love” as we huddled around a chair to read from the Children’s Hymnbook and gave her another blessing. The whole family felt the spirit really strongly. It was great too because we were able to use that experience to teach about the Priesthood for our gospel principles class. The Spirit was super powerful as we talked about the Priesthood and brought a lot of people to tears including G who spoke about the blessing he was given when he was in the hospital a few hours before his baptism.

It sure was another great week for Missionary wor...ur ugh I mean Missionary FUN!!! The church is true and I love you!

Love,
Elder Ward

Oh and hey p.s. Be good

Elder Ward trying to recreate the picture Ava drew of him.