CRAZYYYYY RIGHT?!!

Dearest Family,

I’m sorry my time is very limited today... so I will have to quickly tell you all about the crazy madness that happened this week. First off…CRAZYYYYYY RIGHT?! The New Zealand Hamilton Mission!!! We learned at transfer meeting this week that there would be a new mission here, but we have no idea how they are going to go about splitting the mission.  Also, we had to make the 8 hour drive up from Gisborne to Auckland because… big news…I GOT TRANSFERRED!!!! I was surprised when I got there because with the 40 new missionaries I thought were arriving I expected the chapel would be absolutely packed, but I figured out that with the MTC change they are now out of sync with our mission. So, we will be having the massive transfer happening in three weeks time, but the coolest part is I was actually called to be a Zone Leader in Tauranga! My companion is Elder Florence and he is from Canada. We currently also have a third companion, Elder Wright, who is from Australia and was also in my zone in Gisborne. I also got to see my “son” (trainee) at transfers, Elder Loffhagen. We had a warm embrace and talked for a bit, and he was so proud to tell me that he is now a District Leader!!!! That was a happy day for me!

So, yes, I am in Tauranga and I literally live about 200 feet from the beach. We live in a pretty nice apartment complex and I was surprised to see how wealthy this part of the country really is, especially when I just came from one of the poorest parts of the country. We visited our Elder’s quorum president who actually has the beach as his backyard…that was cool. Anyway, I apologize, I’m using this keyboard and all the keys are shifted weird and my pinky is starting to really hurt. So sorry if I’m misspelling words and stuff because this delete button is tiny.

One of my first nights here, we went to go give a priesthood blessing to someone who had been in a serious car accident. I also got to do a baptism interview for the coolest little girl who is just a year younger than Aubrey. She reminded me a lot of her and her baptism was awesome! She was even brave enough to bear her testimony after.

I’m sorry I don’t have much to report on or much to write. My mind is pretty blank and much of the past week was basically heaps of driving.  But, I do have one more thing cool that happened. On our way up to Auckland, we ran into Nana Paul who is just about the sweetest 70 year lady you could ever meet. She had a bad day cuz one of the missionaries that she was most attached to was leaving to go home and she travelled 8 hours just to go see him off, but the missionary, Elder Gubler, left a little early. She was bummed out and crying because she just missed him and now, Elder Wasden, another one of her favorite missionaries, was leaving as well. We met her in Whakatane (fa-ka-tawn-ee) and she said her last goodbyes to us at least. We had all ran into her on trade offs or at church and she gave all of us a hug and a nice little necklace. She gave me a necklace called the eternity loop. It's pretty cool.

Anyways, I love you fam! Aubrey thanks for writing me. I will send you something next week. Be good, and Collin hope you can survive your last season of volleyball. If I can give any advice, I would say enjoy it while you can, because once its gone you will never go back. Whether it’s school or a mission, just enjoy it while you have it. I think that’s enough from me though. Let me know about any funny coach Vee stories...

Anyway family, read the scriptures! Mom is right…do it with meaning and you won't regret it! Those scriptures are unfailing and always point us in the right direction, but it's up to us to be able to understand where they are pointing us to and then how to get there. I love the scriptures and trying to understand and apply them in my life. The more you read, the more converted to the gospel you will be. Check out Alma 37: 5-9… I think. Also consider John 17:7. Read the doctrine, live it, then gain a personal testimony of it or KNOW it.

Love you heaps whanua,

Elder Ward

 

I am so Happy Right Now!

Dearest family,

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

So that shout out up there I just let out in the family history center where we are emailing. I kind of gave the other elders a fright, but I was almost in tears and had to fight them back. Elder Loffhagen just informed me that Tutukanara and Reynold got married and baptized!!!!!! Remember them?! Elder Loffhagen DID IT!!! Also what makes it cool is his companion is just as new as he is!!! I know last week I was saying baptisms are great and all, but I should have made that a capital GREAT!!! I am so happy right now I can’t even believe it.

Transfers happen this week!!! I reckon that Elder Denham and I are both going to be staying here. Which is all right with me. It's a tough area to work in, but I know we can make things happen here. So, some thoughts for this week, I will be honest, I am coming a little blank. Okay. I got something. Soooo, in our mission we have a funny legend. It's if it rains on your badge your wife gets prettier, and if you drop your scriptures then your wife gains weight. Anyway, this week Elder Denham "dropped" his scriptures at least five times. Three of those times kids got a hold of them and threw them smack dab into the ground. When Elder Denham and I saw that we just went dead silent and our faces dropped. Elder Denham is going to have a heavy Mrs.

What else. N and J are coming along great! N has been smoking since he was 7 years old. We bought him heaps of lollipops—I think 150 total. They have been working big time. He has only been smoking 1 a day the past few days! GOOD ON HIM!!! Also, remember the ward mission leader’s girlfriend? She is keen beans and we were finally able to have a real sit-down chat with her this past week. It turns out she referred herself to the mission office, but it went to the other missionaries and when we finally did a trade off with our zone leader he and I went over there. She knows the church is true and even had a dream of herself bearing her testimony at the pulpit.

We had a good dinner with the Browns who just sent their oldest son off on a mission to the Aussie Perth mission. They are a great family and they could tell how much good it was doing for not only for their son, but their whole family as well, I don’t think there is a more proud father than him in that ward.

So I don’t have much to say today cuz heaps of missionaries need a ride everywhere, but one last story. This week we knocked on a door and a man opened it so we could hear a big, angry Pitbull barking its head off in the other room. The guy asked his wife to put it away so he could talk to us and I even asked is your dog mean? He said, “Yup.” I asked does it bite? He said, “Yup.” Next thing I knew the dog darted around the corner and this thing was HUGE! I was kinda frozen, but for some reason the dog just put its head down and took a few steps closer almost in a wimpering puppy kinda way. The owner then reacted fast, grabbed it by the neck and chucked it inside and closed the door behind him. So, I don’t know if that was just luck, or if the dog wasn't as vicious as the owner said, but I felt like the Lord may have had His hand in that one... That was cool.

Anyway, I love you Mom, I love you Dad, I love you Trevor, I love you Collin, I love you Aubrey, and I love you Ava! Keep being good and stay out of trouble!

Love,

Elder Ward



Elder Ward and Elder Denham on the way to Ruatoria

Sword fighting with Tobais

Sheep on the road...only in New Zealand



Ancient New Zealand sacrament tray

 

Absolute Most Fun Thing: Teaching People to Understand the Spirit

Dearest family,

This week was a good one! I loved hearing about all your experiences, especially COLLIN, ya dork! At first I was thinking YEAH!!!...that is hilarious, but Mom and Dad were right to give you a consequence. Something cool about commandment number 5 is that it's the only one that comes with a promise. I don’t have a set of scriptures, but I think it says that thy days may be long upon the land. It's true bro, if we didn't have parents to correct our bad behavior or even a Heavenly Parent who allows us to feel Godly sorrow when we sin or make mistakes, I don’t think we would really grow. It's sad to see parents here in New Zealand who do not have the gospel that do everything opposite of The Family: a Proclamation to the World. In the words of Ava, “I am glad I got you too.” (Sorry, I’m not supposed to say anything negative about areas I serve in. Don’t think for one second that I look down on them for it at all. I love them to death and I understand that Satan is good at his job and Amos 8:11 is true. A lot of people have not found the gospel.)

Danny McBride…poor fella…let him know that he is in my prayers. Also, I think he could appreciate the story of Job when he got boils and I think oozing sores all over his body. It's funny too, Dad, because I just rememorized that scripture in D&C 13 and I was pondering on that part, the ministering of angels. It's cool that Heavenly Father trusts that authority with 12 year olds. He will be fine and dandy in no time. How is his brother doing by the way? I miss Alex! I heard his Spanish is getting better!

Hmmmm... So I need to tell you some of the funny things that happened this week. I think the one that tops everything was my trade off with Elder Wasden. He is from Canada and he is a little crazy and anyway he really likes cats. Long story short…we found one and he picked it up by the scruff of its neck and kind of twirled it around. I will send you a video of it if I can except I don’t know how. Oh and a member of the Seventy Presidency called Elder Denham this past week too! He is helping with a criminal investigation. So, yeah, that was cool talking to him.

Oh and Dad, I feel ya big time on memorizing the shortest scriptures possible! We are doing the master teacher, teaching guide which involves memorizing 15 scriptures for each lesson. My scripture mastery scriptures helped a ton because I remembered where a lot of good scriptures were and had a lot pre memorized. I decided to challenge myself a little more though and memorize some of the bigger scriptures. It's awesome how much you get to learn on your mission!

Now enough of that…lets talk spiritual matters. I said I would update you on things. C moved to Ruatoria…sad day! N is SOLID! She is more likely than not getting baptized at the end of the month. Just needs to break a few bad habits but she is getting there. We made a calendar for her and she has cut down heaps. She did slip a little this week, but she said she felt super guilty so that made me happy.:) L is from a part member family. We are helping to baptize and reactivate her family. Her niece killed herself, and she took it really hard. It was good being able to bring hope by letting her know that there is life after death.

N and J are a really young couple we are teaching. They are keen to learn and we have gone over pretty much every day in the past week to help them feel the spirit and understand everything. We had them pray to know the BoM is true and N actually had a dream where he couldn't see anybody or face of any sort, but he heard a voice just saying the BoM is true! It gave him crazy goose bumps and he woke up and couldn't go back to sleep... pretty cool huh? J then asked why God didn't answer her the first time she prayed. I really had to think. Yeah, why doesn't he just let everyone know it's true the first time they pray?! But Isaiah 55:8-9 came to mind and we explained that God wants her to know but he isn't going to give an answer until she’s ready. He knows exactly when you need it most. I don't know if I've already explained this, but baptisms on the mission are AWESOME!!! However, I think helping people understand the Spirit and the truth and recognize answers that God gives is one of the absolute most fun thing about serving a mission.

The work is going good and I’m learning heaps. Also, Elder Denham and I are getting along great! In fact, apparently our mission president used us as an example in Zone Leader Council about how we are an ideal companionship in getting along and that there are too many missionaries that fight, bicker, argue, etc. and just cant wait to get transferred. Apparently he praised us saying that we are serving in the slowest part of the mission, we came into an area that had nothing from past missionaries, and we have other difficulties we have had to work through, and even with all those challenges they still manage to be happy and get along. YES!!! That felt good to hear that! Also, I finally got my birthday package!!! YAY THANK YOUUUUU!!!

I think that is all I have to share. Feel free to ask me any questions! Also I forgot to tell you there are 40 new missionaries coming into our mission!!!! There are over 250 missionaries in our mission or at least there is going to be over 250 next transfer. I love you guys so much! The Church is true!

Love,

Elder Ward

I Love Teaching the Gospel!

Dear family,

Good letters…a lot of love and spirit felt behind each one. Let’s see…I honestly don’t have much to say in response, but mom I don’t think anyone could really answer that question Ava asked with relative ease (Who made Heavenly Father and Jesus?). I get that asked a lot. I usually just say nobody has a clue who made God, but you can know that He is there. (I think I already explained this in previous letters or you might have heard it before.) We can’t see God but we can feel that He is there and see the affects of His hands in our lives. Just like the wind…we can’t see it, BUT! we KNOW that it is there because we can feel it and we can see the affects of it in our lives. Dad you are the man at being the young men’s president. Don’t get prideful…that’s a sin, but if everyone fulfilled callings as the Savior would the Church of Jesus Christ would probably be lifted up into heaven right next to the city of Enoch.

What else…thanks Aubs for the pictures…your hair is long!!! Also, Collin good luck on those volleyball tryouts. Make sure you help console some of the kids who are publicly humiliated in front of the whole team when they get put at the very back of the line and are told that their mental capacity is at a 1….haha poor Bryce. By the way is he trying out? Give Trevor my regards and hope that he gets better!

Now let me go on to tell you some of the awesome spiritual things that happened this week. We finally set some people for baptism one named N. who was a hard out drinker and smoker. We refound her by some awesome miracle and have been teaching her. She wasn't confident at all that she could quit, but as she has read the BOM she has become so much more confident, and I absolutely love going over to teach at her house. At first she said she would get baptized at the end of March, but as she felt the spirit more and more we were able to help her see that she could be free from addiction/sin by the 23rd of February. WHOO!!!!

We finally started teaching the ward mission leader’s girlfriend. We asked her to fellowship this person Charlie that we brought to church and she actually came to our missionary gospel principle class! It was a good experience. I love teaching the gospel so much now! It is almost an adrenaline rush being able to help people feel and then recognize the spirit. I will admit that when I taught primary I learned heaps and I grew a ton, but I didn't really put my heart into it. Now every chance I receive to go teach or to answer someone’s questions I am just thrilled to do it.

Another cool experience we had this week was when we were having our ward conference. One of the speakers in the stake presidency was speaking and he just asked the audience to feel the spirit speak to you and say your name or something along those lines. When he said that I started pondering on that and I just gently felt the spirit say Elder... Then I got this warm feeling throughout my whole body. I thought it was cool that it just said Elder…no Connor or Connor Ward….not even the Ward, but just Elder that was a cool experience.

Also, one last thing this week I want to share.  We saw a few people crowding around a lady who was bleeding and looked in a lot of pain. Anyway, we pulled over and ran down to see if we could help. Nothing too special happened, but I felt sick not being able to help this lady who had been hit on her bike by a car and smashed the windshield. She had no idea where she was or how she got there and her daughter was taken to a nearby house to go get a drink so she wouldn't have to see.  The mom didn't know this though, so she was yelling for her daughter. I felt so sick and helpless not being able to do anything, I have no idea why I’m writing this, but now thinking about it as I typed this out I remember Bishop McBride’s words about how if we were to pull someone out of a burning house that would be great, but to pull someone out of the depths of sin and hellish darkness means a whole lot more. I'm grateful for what I can do for those who are suffering spiritually. I think I’m typing this more for myself, but something you can ponder on as well is to think of those who might be in a house on fire (spiritually speaking) and run in and see what you can do to help.

 

Love,

Elder Ward

 

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!!

 

Talking to Everyone that Breathes

January 20, 2013

Whanua,

Okay mom, here are some answers to some of your questions. Elder Denham is Aussie. He has been on his mission for about a year and a half. We are driving a car and it took a little more than 6 hours to get from Auckland to Gisborne…probably seven. There are two other sets of missionaries besides us, but for the most part we are kind of exiled out here. In fact, President had to fly down to do interviews. We’re that far away, but I will let you know more about it later. Thank you everyone for your letters to me. It means a lot even if it’s a small paragraph about your skiing experience. Oh, and sorry mom, I forgot one of your questions. I did get grandma and grandpa’s letter but I have not gotten the package. I think I will just get it at the next zone meeting in February.

So I have a lot to say! The area is great! I can see why it gets the rep that it does and a lot of the members have some bad feelings towards missionaries, but with all the missionaries serving in Gisborne at the moment I can see it starting to lift. Me and Elder Denham of course have very little people to teach or had very little people to teach, but we had a great week! We knew that in order to find people, we were definitely going to have to talk to everyone that breathes.  I will admit I hate jumping out of a car and running people down and I prefer tracting a whole lot more, but it just makes sense to talk to people who are already in front of you rather than guessing if they are home or not. Anyway, so I told Elder Denham that I hate it and I need help with it. It turns out he hates it as well. So we started a new game where we just take turns and we pick or dare each other to go talk to people... It's really affective!!! Even the people that might be drunk or littered with tatoos that we would normally pass, the other missionary dares the other to go talk to them! So the first day I brought the game up, two bone thugs were walking down the street and elder Denham said, “I will start. I pick them...” When I saw who he was pointing to, I just let out a moan and said, "Oh Elder don’t make me do it!" So yeah… that’s our story. It has definitely helped me overcome my fears and make talking to strange people a little more fun.

Lets see…what else…I am a little jealous of the volleyball. That sounded pretty dang awesome. Trevor, let me know about home teaching Jessica Barney. That is really weird. Also, Collin giving a talk?! I hope he puts in the not being worthless part. He will make an outstanding missionary and I am sad that I missed out on hearing his talk. Tell him I felt the spirit coming from the church building in Gilbert all the way to Gisborne…his talk was that good!

Lets see…miracles that happened this week…our ward mission leader’s girlfriend is preparing herself to be baptized. She has been waiting for a long time and she has been going to church the past 3 months pretty consistently but the previous missionaries weren’t really teaching her. We met with our ward mission leader this last week and he was actually pretty on top of things in the area and what not, and he asked us to start teaching his girlfriend. So yes we do have some baptisms coming up for the month of February already, so that will be AWESOME!!!

Me and Elder Denham are getting along great. He is a great missionary and works hard. He is a bigger guy and he is half Tongan. Mom, you can rest at night knowing that I am going to be protected with him.   

We had interviews with President this week as well. He was really sympathetic and he explained to me why he put me here. He feels that me and Elder Denham really needed to be together and also he needed two experienced missionaries who wouldn't quit in the missionary graveyard of Gisborne. It was a really good interview especially too because he started with us first out of 230 missionaries. After interviewing all those missionaries, I would imagine it would get a little hard to be unique and exciting. He also showed a VERY GOOD VIDEO CLIP, “Missionary work and the atonement of Jesus Christ”. It has Henry B. Eyring and Jeffrey R. Holland on it. COLLIN you HAVE to watch this NOW!!!

That is all. I will see you in a year! Love you guys heaps!

Elder Ward

 

I'm in Gisborne!!!!!

Dear Family,

I don’t have heaps of time but that is okay even though I have a million and one things to respond to but I just don’t have the time. Good job on everything everyone is doing, and YES the temple work did make my day! No, I did not get the package on time which stinks because I got some big news!!! I'm IN GISBORNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (giz-bin) is how it sounds. Elder Denham and I got double shifted in because the past missionaries....let's just say....needed a shake up. The beautiful land of Gizzy is cool because I see the first rays of sunlight for the day if that makes sense. You should look it up on the internet!  I am far east enough that I see the first rays of the rising sun before the other 7 billion people in the world. So that makes me feel special.

It was really sad to leave my precious Redhill Ward. I received some notes and some heartfelt goodbyes and I gave some last gifts and notes. I went to go say bye to the Lemalus. I guess Sister Lemalu forgot the rule. I stuck my hand out to shake her hand but she just gave me a big hug and looked a little offended that I would only offer my hand... I hate how awkward it is to have any physical contact with women now. Anyway, when I got called I got paired with Elder Denham and I was told I was not going to be a district leader anymore and that I was going to be the senior companion in Gisborne. Honestly, I didn't have a good attitude. I thought I had sinned or something and honestly Satan was trying really hard to get in my head and tell me that only worthless missionaries go there (cuz it's kinda the joke place of the mission). Anyway, transfer meeting was good and I actually ran into president at transfers and  he explained a little bit of the situation there and it encouraged me and made me excited to go.

We got in on Thursday night and well the flat was dirty, smelly, and just gross. The area book had dust piled on it. There was not even a note telling who the bishop is or what time church is or anything. Oh, and we had no food and no money to buy food. We found some movies though (haha) and some weird rotten pumpkins.  

Anyway, the next day I fasted...kinda easy to do since we did not have any food.  I just fasted to love the area, the people, and my new companion. It was good, even though it was really, really hot and I got kinda dehydrated. We started from scratch and visited formers and members. It turned out to be an alright day.

My birthday was good. I forgot until like after my shower. Then I remembered, oh yeah... its my birthday. We went out and worked and then rewarded ourselves with some Dominos pizza. It was just a good rewarding day. It honestly didn't even feel like my birthday at all and I didn't even really feel bummed that nothing special happened on it. Oh actually, President called and he and his family sang happy birthday to me real fast. What else...oh yeah...on Sunday I met the ward. There are some interesting people in this place. It's going to be challenging, but in all honesty (and I'm not just saying this to put mom's nerves at ease) I am happy and confident that good things are going to happen here. Then I'm going to the Cook Islands. :)

Love,

Elder Ward