Perfect Baptism

J's Baptism

Dear Family,

It sounds like you had a mean Thanksgiving week full of heaps of reunion, volleyball, and TURKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, in New Zealand they don’t believe in Thanksgiving so it was easy to forget that all those cool things were happening back home. Anywho, I am doing quite well this week even though for some reason I had crazy bad allergies and my eyes were buggin’ out and goin’ completely red on me. Other than that it was simply marvelous! Oh and I checked myself for DA BEETUS!!!!!!! And I am all sweet Mom you got me a little nervous there for a second.

We had Jo's baptism this weekend and it went off just about as perfect as any baptism I have ever been to. We had a good turnout. People remembered spare clothes. The branch president was there. The branch mission leader conducted everything. The water was warm... Elder Rasband and his trainee are the ones teaching her so they were left in charge for everything which is STRESSFUL!!!!!!! I was able to help Coach Elder Rasband through everything he needed to do and prepare for. He did a great job! I had to help quite a bit but he still did well. I will send a picture of her baptism day.

Other cool things that happened this week … we had AN AWESOME zone conference! President Rudd is the man! He started off by telling us that we brush over the first bullet point (God is our loving Heavenly Father) too quickly... He explained that until people really know and understand who He is and what He is all about it will be very hard for people to have the desire to want to figure everything else out. Then we did a lot of other trainings and workshops and stuff like that. It was weird being the OLDEST missionary there.

Also, random experience for the week... I would like to have you know I ran over a ducky the other day. It was just chillin’ in the middle of the road and I was wondering why the cars in front of me were swerving out of the way... until I saw him. It was too late. There was a big sickening THUD!!!! and I destroyed Mother Ducky while all of her family was watching from the other side of the road... What is funny is I felt pretty bad. I think my mission has changed me heaps more than I expected it to.

Lately I have been working HARD in the east side of New Plymouth. Basically from Ground Zero... My missionary sons are GREAT but the problem was they got stuck seeing a lot of the same people who would accept visits but would not keep a single commitment. So now we are kind of weeding out the wheat from the tares. I think I might need you guys to pray for us to find more investigators again because the WEST SIDE is still SUPER PROSPEROUS!!! Good things are happening down here.

I think this a pretty boring letter. I don't have much to say about this week other than that. So I will just tell you guys that I have really loved every bit of my mission. Mom, I thought a lot about what you shared with me from Alex's mission conference and it is so true. I think this is the closest I have ever been to REAL LIFE than anything else I have experienced before. I love New Zealand. I love EVERY SINGLE PERSON I talk to like they are my own family. Then once again, I think I mention this almost every week but serving out here has made me gain such an appreciation for MY OWN family. I love you guys so much and the sacrifices you have made for me. I am grateful for all of your good examples and for helping me love serving God and being a part of this church. You guys are GREAT!!!

Love,

Elder Ward



Another Baptism in our Zone

 

 

New Zealand Currency

Elder Andrus' bicycle burnt hands...Ouch!



P-day at the TSB Bowl

New Zealand Ice Cream

Another random P-day picture