NZAM, MT ROSKILL, BHB

Hello again from the hot, sunny land of Auckland. and when I say that I mean it, it's usually like 80 degrees here with the humidity. It's crazy hot!! But it's beautiful!!

So this week has been solid and rough all at the same time!! Not too much action during the week but the weekend we had some big things happen. 

We were driving to our chapel on Saturday and one investigator named Jeffery called and asked to meet up later that night. So we set up a time and sat down with him. He told us about a lot of struggles at home. He told us he was ready to change his life and start fresh. He wants to join the church and be clean he said. So we set up some times to meet with him and started to go! He is super keen and has been prepared!! 

Then yesterday I was sitting at the sacrament table looking out on the ward, and I noticed some one staring through the door. Then as I was blessing the bread the phone went off. Luckily I turned it on silence probably 3 minutes before it happened ;) It was this lady named Maria! She had brought her whole family to church who aren't members!! But they were 20 minutes late and she said they were too embarrassed to walk in... but she wants us to come by this week and start teaching!! The work is moving in the wonder BHB ward!! Hopefully my companion and I can be humble enough and in tune with the Spirit to help these people out and come close to the Lord.

As I was finishing this email, Elder Nakamura just bit my shoulder... Why, I have no idea. 

Hopefully you all have a good week!! Send some snow my way please!!! Love you all!!

Mid Jan Already

Hello once again from the great NZAM!! Crazy to think transfers are next week already. Time is starting to pick up speed and it's flipping crazy!

This week was good. We have an investigator name Donald, he is very old and stubborn haha. My comp and I spent a lot of time with him yesterday trying to help him understand the priesthood and the gift of the Holy Ghost and how it was all passed down to our prophet today. He's a good guy and really pushes me to learn and do more so it's good!! He's helping with my teaching skills and my patience cause he's rough haha. My comp gets very annoyed with him so it's good haha!

We had a pretty cool experience yesterday tho. We met this guy named Mark a couple weeks back. Haven't done much teaching with him yet. He is super chill. Likes fishing, motorbikes, being outdoors, really humble and strict man! He told us that he was being taught like 13 years ago and was wanting to get baptized but something went wrong and he just turned away and hasn't been in contacted with anyone from our church since. So my comp and I are slowing working with him, just keep going to visit him. He said he'd try to come by to church but he ended up not coming cause the weather was too nice not to ride his bike. BUT he came by after church to say hello and sorry for not coming. AND he asked us for a new Book of Mormon so he could do some studying again and talk to us more! He is ready!! It just helped me realize that once someone plants the seed in someone heart, it'll never go away. We as members now need to continue to plant and water the seed of non-members. Every member is a missionary. 

Love you all and hope you have a safe week!!

Potential is out there!

Hello everyone! Hopefully you all had a good week. This week has brought some good stuff towards me and my companion. We have a lot of potential with 5 investigators and one other who is set for baptism! His name is Jeffery and he told us the little part of the BoM that he did read he believes it is good and true and will be good for him and his family. We gave him a Taglog book since that's his native tongue and he was so happy so he could finally understand fully!! We had to push his baptism back a little but he told us he was already telling his friends and family that he was getting baptized and he was super excited! We will be holding his service on the 24th! 

I know that by constant pray of wanting to find someone that was prepared, Heavenly Father answered me and my companion and blessed us with Jeffery. He told us that his wife wants to learn more also when she comes back to NZ in a week. 

I hope all is well back home and you are all staying warm with the snow!! Love you all!!

Happy New Year!!

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful new year! We didn't stay up at all, just crashed as soon as it hit 10:30 cause we were tired. 

This week was pretty average! We had a lot of trade offs with the zone leaders again because one of them has the Chicken Pox so we all had to babysit him haha. But we had some fun! I got to be with Elder Maxfield a lot this week and just talk with him and learn a lot from him! He's from Farmington Utah so it was good to talk with someone who lives close!

We had two people set for baptism this week. Andrew and Jeffery. But neither of them came to church so we have to push them back further. Andrew is still smoking pretty bad too, and he has a really bad chest infection and was coughing up yellow slim balls, yummy. But we aren't giving up hope on him just yet! Jeffery is just super busy so we will keep working on him!

This week should be good! Lots of potential out there that we are going to try and find! Just have to keep having the faith! 

I love you all and I'm super excited to be able to serve for one whole year as a missionary. I know 2016 will bring many miracles and I'm excited to see what comes!

Christmas

Hello once again everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this last week! Here it was a good 80 degrees and we had a couple of BBQ's and some good meat!! 

This week was pretty good with everyone being out of town! We had Andrew at church and he is really improving. He reads the BoM every single day and is praying all the time. He is slowly moving closer and closer to the 9th of Jan for his Baptism!! Then we taught Donald after Church and he is very interesting! He might be another set by the end of this week so keep your fingers cross!!

Other than that not too much went down besides just hanging out as a zone. They really made this Christmas a special one! Made us all feel right at home so we can really all feel happy being away.

I hope you all had a good week and have a Happy New Year!!! Next time we talk it'll be 2016 :) Love you all!!!

MY SON!!!

Hello everyone!! Just wanted to wish you all a very merry christmas!!! 

So this last week we had transfers again, crazy how time is flying by!!! But as you can tell by the Subject I am now training a new missionary!!! Crazy only 3 months in and I get to train!! It's a big responsibility that the Lord and President Balli has given me!! I am super excited!!

My new comp is Elder Syndergaard, he is from Nibley (Logan) Utah and went to Mt. Crest High this last year! He really wants to work and get the job done so we are gonna smash it!!

One highlight from this week was a referral we got from Bishop. It was actually just yesterday so we haven't contacted him just yet! But He came to church last week all on his own, walked up to the door and asked for the Bishop. So he had a good meeting with him, and then he came back this week and had another meeting with him. He said many years ago some missionaries gave him a BoM but he never bothered with it. Until just a few weeks ago he picked it up and started reading. He is already in the book of Jacob and he told our Bishop he believes what he has read so far is all true!!! Talk about PREPARED RIGHT?!?!? So he gave bishop his contact details and we will talk with him this week and try to work out his concerns! Miracles are coming to BHB!!!

My last thoughts to everyone is just to have a wonderful Christmas! Be smart and safe and enjoy the time with your families. Remember why we celebrate and what Christ Birth did for all of us. I love you all so much and will talk with you soon!!

Elder Syndergaard and Elder Maughan