November 10, 2013

Dear Family!

This week was a very exciting one! To start of the week we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. We took the train down to Upper Hutt. When we got there we found out we went to the wrong station and we were supposed to get off at the next one. So we had to buy another ticket and get back on the train to get off at the correct stop. All together the trip took maybe about an hour and a half. Then we met the Zone Leaders at their house. We got to do all sorts of good stuff. I was with Elder Tinei who was just called to be a Zone Leader. He is from Auckland, is 25 years old and is half Samoan half Tongan. He is a really great missionary. He is very soft spoken yet bold. He taught me a thing or two about having fun while we are still doing work. For example, we were door knocking and we would give each other a color that we had to mention sometime in the conversation. So one door I gave him the color orange. He said "ok just watch this" So he knocked on the door and started talking to the guy that answered. We got a return appointment and then just before I left he says "it's been a really hot day, you wouldn't happen to have an orange for me?" I was shocked with this man walked away and came back with three oranges for us. It was really really funny! So that was really neat. We then came back to Masterton to have an interview for Kent's baptism! And he passed! So we set in stone the baptism for Saturday night. Tuesday night we had four of us Elders in our bedroom. We only had two mattresses so the Zone Leaders just slept on the boxspring thing beneath the mattresses. That was funny. Except that I didn't sleep well at all. Elder Tinei was snoring like a freight train. And it was really hot! We then had district meeting in the morning and the Zone Leaders left. 

Thursday morning we went to a funeral for the long time ward adviser for the Masterton ward. He was also a part of a big family here in the Wairapa. We just helped with preparing food the whole time. I was kinda sad because I thought we were there to meet nonmembers and less actives that came and to give them the opportunity to learn from the missionaries, but oh well. I am sure our service helped a lot, just not in the way I expected. There was heaps of food afterward and I was definitely filled up. We then got a ride home from a member senior couple from Carterton. Masterton is like an extra 10 minute drive from Carterton so we were really happy for them helping out with that. Friday we went to have dinner and a lesson with Michelle and her family. We had some real good BBQ and some very tasty dessert. It was wayyyyyyyy too much food. It always is over at her house. We then taught the rest of the Plan of Salvation. We then invited them to be baptized and they all accepted! Michelle was especially excited! We set their date for the 7th of December, which is out of this transfer so we were kinda sad about that but it will be all good! They then set off fireworks after the lesson. This is the only week fireworks are legal in NZ so it is kinda exciting. They had some that shot up little ones into the air that popped. So Brad, the son, set some off. But the firework bundle fell over so they started shooting these fireworks every which direction. It was actually quite scary! There were some that went toward a shed in the neighbor's yard. It was a close call a couple times but nobody got hurt! It was probably the most exciting fireworks I have ever watched haha

Saturday we had our baptisms, two in the district! One was the sisters investigator down in Featherston, about 30 minutes away. The other was Kent! It was a really cool service. A recent convert, James gave a  talk on faith and repentance that was real cool. Elder Christensen was the one to perform the baptism. Kent's father and brother attended the baptism and he was very excited about that. They were unable to make it to sacrament meeting yesterday so the Bishop decided that he should be confirmed that night. He asked me to perform the confirmation. I was apprehensive because I thought that the confirmation was supposed to be at the sacrament meeting. But I went ahead and did it anyway. I had a couple people tell me that it was a beautiful confirmation which made me feel good since it was the first one I had ever done! It was an overall great service. I am very grateful to see the fruits of the work that we have put in. It for sure gives me confidence to keep working! 

Yesterday we moved forward a baptism date to this weekend. The investigators name is Laurie. He is 18 or 19 years old and is a real cool guy. He has really enjoyed coming to church. So we might be having another baptism this weekend and a couple more in the next couple weeks! Laurie may baptize his mom, Brenda, once she is ready. She has not been able to attend church yet so it is going to be at least another couple weeks. The bishop is going to be out of town next weekend when the original date was set so he told us to either move it forward or back a week so we did. The zone leaders weren't too happy though, it means they need to make another trip down here. But oh well! So that is about it for this week. Lots of exciting things happening! We also had some really yummy food given to us. It is called Paua. It is a shellfish that is maybe about the size of the fist. I first had it a couple weeks ago raw. It was good then but yesterday we were given 4 whole ones that we fried up for lunch today. Real good! They grow very slowly so the ones that we ate were probably 80-100 years old and worth $150 each if they were sold in China. Crazy. They are pretty much the delicacy of New Zealand. Well that is about it for the week! Lots of exiting things happening! Hope all is going well at home!
Love,
Elder Burnham