Elder Connor Ward's Mission: Heavnenly Father Knows Us and is Mindful of Us

Me and my boys...Elder Rasband, Elder Hammar, and Elder Misbach

Dear Family,

My time is very very short today because this is the last p-day of the transfer!!! So the whole zone is getting together for a massive PDAY experience where we will have an eating contest and other crazy and stupid activities. One of our district leaders is buying two cases of Dr. Pepper which is a huge deal for us American folk, We are doing an eat off between three elders in the zone who are all tanks and then we are going to play a mean game of touch rugby.

First item of business, I think I have gathered that I still have all the money in my checking account from home. I would like you, mom, to take all of that out except for 500 dollars and give the rest to you and dad. I DONT WANT you guys paying for my mission. I know I didn't earn enough for all of it but I want to come home a very poor man, and I want to know my money is being spent on my mission. I know my dentist fee is around 600 dollars. I already took out 300 hundred for part of it, so I will take out the other 300 maybe today. So just keep enough in there for emergencies and stuff but other than that I want all my money out and paid back to you guys for helping with my mission funds.

It sounds like exciting stuff is going on over there. I am glad everyone is doing well. I appreciate your guys emails so much every week! To answer your question mom we are still all in the same place and we all attend the same branch... in fact I just sent in a request to have another two sets of missionaries to come down and help out in this area. So we will more than likely in the near future have 4 companionships attending this one branch... how about that?! MOM SAMMIE JONES!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She and I were pretty good friends my senior year of high school. I went to some dance with her…I think it might have been the one in the fall.

So let me tell you of two awesome experiences I had this week. One was in Waitara where two elders had a baptism happening for S and B. It was happening at six o clock that Saturday and when I got there the elders were stressed to the MAX. One was even angry because he had gone through probably one of the worst days of his mission and then to make things worse, they forgot to fill the font so the water was going to be freezing and a combination of a lot of other bad things. I pulled him aside and tried to be as cheerful as possible and said look this is normal…Satan is trying everything he has got up his sleeve to make you feel like junk while your doing something so good. Now you have worked for months to have this happen so we are going to say a prayer to make sure that you can enjoy the thing that you've worked so hard for. So I said a prayer for him and he still wasn't doing the best... especially when he got in the FREEZING COLD WATER!!! Later that night though he called me and he thanked me and told me that as soon as he baptized her the spirit just rushed in and it honestly felt like he was getting baptized too. It was a good day for everyone. :) We even had J, the lady we have been bringing to church, come! And she loved it!

Another awesome miracle that happened this week was we were visiting the C family who is from Fiji. They are a less active, part member family. We had a great visit with them and after we were done I asked if I could use the toilet (because they say toilet here instead of bathroom…if you ask for the bathroom they will think you’re weird and wonder why you want to go take a shower) Anyways while I was in there…which by the way I NEED TO GO ALL THE TIME NOW!!! I don’t know if its cuz I actually drink a lot of water now or what but I go like 10 to 20 times a day. Anyways, back to the story… I felt we should go out and visit our branch president who lives all the way out in the Whop-Whops. I pondered more and never really said no but the thought came back with just a little bit more force three times. After we left I told Elder Misbach…I don’t get obvious promptings a whole lot but we should go to the branch president's house. So we drove out despite it already being 8:30 at night. We got there at like 8:45 and when Sister C answered the door I explained we felt prompted to come and asked if we could do anything. She invited us in and grabbed her husband from upstairs. We sat down in their living room and I told them what I experienced at the C's house and felt like we needed to come. President C then broke down into tears and told us how the past two weeks have been dreadful for him. We all felt Heavenly Father’s love that night and it helped me gain a stronger testimony of how much Heavenly Father KNOWS us and is mindful of us.

I will end with those and try and send some pictures love you guys heaps!

Elder Ward