January 5, 2014

Dear Family,

This week has been a pretty good one! Right now we are in Lower Hutt, closer in to Wellington, at the start of our exchanges. This time, I drove "over the hill" and all is well! Pretty weird that it isn't weird to me anymore driving on the wrong side of the road. 

So New Years on a mission is pretty uneventful. We actually were told to go back to the flat early because it is just too dangerous with all the people doing crazy things. So we got KFC for dinner and went back to the flat at like 7:30. Did some writing in my journal that night and just hang out. Maybe even went to sleep early, I don't really remember. But we did set an alarm for 11:55 but we just slept haha We were tired. On New Years day we were invited to a BBQ by a member family from Auckland who were visiting some family. They made some real good food and of course, I ate too much. There really hasn't been many too exciting things this week. We got permission to go our to Castlepoint again but we are having trouble finding a family who can take all 6 of us missionaries. We have a couple who could take just us but we want it to sorta be a district thing. Transfers are next week and that P-day would be when we would go. So I will let you know next week what is going on with that. I really have no clue what my companion or I will be doing but there isn't much time to worry about it, just gotta work! 

On Saturday we went down to the other elder's area, Martinborough. It is a nice little town, but little for sure. And most of the houses and stuff there are holiday homes so there are a lot of people who don't care to listen because they are on vacation. We just did a lot of finding that day. When you do a lot of finding, you meet a lot of odd people. A lot of cool people too though. I will share a couple experiences. The first is when me and my companion split up with the other Elders. So I was with Elder Uasila'a and we were just door knocking. We asked this lady if she wanted to hear a message and she just said "sure, take a seat." We were pretty surprised but just hopped into sharing the Restoration. When we started talking about prophets she said "hold on a second, I just need to get my daughter." We were really excited and were like "YES BRING MORE!!!!" So we started talking more about prophets and the Restoration. Then we got started talking a bit about the Plan of Salvation. She had heard a lot of different things from other Churches about what happens after death but she was really excited when she heard what we believed. We left her and her daughter with a Book of Mormon and a couple of booklets on the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. It was really cool to have a doorstep lesson like that! The next neat experience was with me and my companion. We went to the home of an older couple we met the last time we were in Marty. We talked for a bit, she gave us some Christmas cake that wasn't my favorite, and then as we were leaving, she gave us this little wooden dowel things that her husband had made. They were grocery bag holders! So you put the bags on the holder then just carry the holder. Pretty awesome! A couple minutes after we left, we saw an older woman carrying some groceries. So my companion went over to her with Elder Uasila'a and gave her the thing! It was really cool to see the smile on that lady's face. Another time, me and my companion were door knocking and we met this woman who had just moved back to NZ after getting a divorce. She previously lived in Indiana. She wasn't too interested but she referred us to another house who had three German shepherds. So we went to the house. And there was a car parked in the drive: Aston Martin DB7. And this guy got to sit in it! Pretty awesome! They weren't interested though. So while we were there we got a call from one of the members of the Bishopric up in Masterton saying that he bought us ice cream at the dairy. We had seen him and the other counselor of the bishopric and a less active member in the car just a couple minutes ago and they said that they would get us ice cream but it sounded like they said they were kidding then just drove off haha but they were serious so we enjoyed some yummy ice cream! The last experience is a sorta funny and weird one. Me and the other missionary, Elder Jacobsen, were door knocking. We are both in the same intake. So we were on the right side of the street and on the left side of the street was a group of like 6-8 people all drinking and smoking. We got to the last house on the right side of the street and then went over to the other side of the street. We had no intention of really talking to them but we couldn't ignore them so we had to acknowledge them. A couple of the women were particularly drunk. And they started hitting on us saying we were "so gorgeous" and asked us "why we weren't married already." That just made us laugh. So Elder Jacobsen gave them a Word Of Wisdom pamphlet. That was really funny because they could hardly read so we were thinking they would wake up in the morning, be really hungover, and read that and just laugh! But yeah that was an interesting experience. 

Yesterday we had Michael come to church with us again. He really enjoys when he comes. This time he said that he "really felt God speaking to me."
We were so excited when he said that. He is really close to being baptized but we are still looking for that one thing that will put him over the edge. We are going to try our very hardest to set a baptismal date this week before one of us leaves (possibly).
Well that is about all that is exciting for me this week. Sounds like some fun things going on back at home. Congratulations to the Chapman brothers on deciding to serve a mission! I think one of my roommates friends is serving down there but I don't think either of those missions. Elder Fowers (my roommate) is serving in the El Dorado Hills Ward!!!! So if you see him around, tell him I say hi! I was really excited to hear that from him! Maybe he will go on exchanges and serve in our ward for a day or something! Congrats to Greg and Aurora on the new car as well. Something a little more practical for the snow and a family huh? haha better get out to the lake before it rains! I would totally try to walk out to Mormon Island! That is crazy!!! Well I love you all and hope you are having a great time!!!!!

Love,
Elder Burnham