The weeks sure to fly by! It was a pretty great week this week. Nothing too out of the ordinary except on Thursday, we had a Zone Conference. It was in the nearest big city, Palmerston North. I am not too sure how many people live there but it is for sure bigger than Wanganui. There is also a University there which is cool because there aren't too many of those in New Zealand. We had a good zone conference. It is always good to hear from President and Sister Kezerian. They are wonderful and they are sure going to be missed when they leave in July! That took up most of our day on Thursday. Other than that, this week was pretty much normal. We can't spend as much time finding people to teach as we could if there were four missionaries here so we haven't had any new investigators for a while. That is kinda a bummer but it is ok. I am sure it will all get better in a couple weeks.
There is one investigator here that says that he wants to get baptized! His name is Mitch. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a little while I think. The teaching record also says that he had a problem with drinking. We taught him the Word of Wisdom again and he committed to live it so I think that shouldn't be a problem. It would be pretty exciting to have a baptism this month! His date is set for the 29th of March. Unfortunately, I don't feel a big part of it because it is the other side, not my side, of Wanganui. But I guess I helped in my own part of his teaching. Should be exciting!
Another cool thing that happened this week is that one of our less active members that we have been working with came to church yesterday! He only stayed for Sacrament meeting but it is the first or second time he has come since I have been here. He had a big smile on his face after Sacrament meeting so I think he enjoyed it! I think that we just need to invite him to come every week and he feels more motivated.
Also, we have an "eternal investigator" (he has been meeting with missionaries for about 6 years) that is working on getting back together with his ex wife. He is a really interesting guy. His name is Philip. He used to be part of the army but now his main focus in life is supporting his 15 year old son. This last week he sent us a text that said he received a great blessing and he would tell us about it when we visited next. Turns out that he decided to give up smoking and the money he would have used buying tobacco, he is using now to pay for a motorcycle. He was very excited about the bike, and I was excited about the quitting smoking. He has had a baptismal date in the past and I think smoking was something that held him back. We could see some progress there!
The last cool thing for this week was that there is a less active member who says he is preparing to receive the Melchezidek Priesthood who came to church, not yesterday but last week. He is a really cool guy. His name is Wayne. He's about 45 or so (I think) but he looks like he is at least 60. But he had a nice rugby league jersey that he showed us and we thought it was awesome. So this week he told us that he ordered a couple, one for me and one for my American companion. I guess he is making weekly payments on it from now until November. Pretty awesome. So he told us to keep in contact when we leave because he wants to give them to us! I sure hope he isn't just pulling our chain!
Well that is about it for the week! I am doing real well! Everything is going great! Hope you are all doing well! Love you lots!!
Love,
Elder Burnham
Hey Mom!
I am doing good! The trio is still working well. It is actually pretty fun and we are always busy which makes time go quickly! So I would say for the most part it is a good busy. Sometimes I wish we could work more in my area but that is just the way it is. Gotta sacrifice some good things for things that are better or best. We had a couple of chilly days this week. And one or two mornings with lots of fog! It was like being in San Francisco because by 12, it was a clear sunny day. Got really hot that day too! The weather here is pretty all over the place. We are driving Corolla Hatchbacks. Pretty good cars for us. Don't seem to have any problems and they are pretty cheap too. I actually have no idea if they celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I would assume they would use just about any reason they can to drink. There is a lot of alcohol in NZ. There seems to be less people who are religious here than in the US. I would say the predominant religions are Catholic and Anglican. Much of the city of Wanganui was founded and built up by the Anglican church. There is one religion that is predominantly Maori and that is the Ratana faith. It is kinda a funny faith from what I have heard from it. It is a Christian Church but they don't like to talk about Jesus Christ because they think too many people say bad things about Him. So they focus on a man who they think was called to be a prophet. There are also some pretty radical thoughts in the Ratana faith. I met a couple who are part of the leadership and they have a plan to have all the Maori people pull their names out of the social security type thing and by doing so they will collapse the whole NZ government. I also heard that this same guy said that the US would have fallen by Christmas and that didn't happen. So interesting faith but very kind people. It is big here because the place where is was founded/is centered is only about 20 minutes drive out into the country, a town called Ratana. So that is a bit about the Maori's and religion. There are also quite a few Maori's in the Church because of some Maori chiefs who prophesied the coming of the "true church" such as that they would come in twos, speak their language, and raise their right arm when they prayed. Pretty cool stuff! So there is your Maori history with the church for the week!
Well that is about it for the week! I am doing real well! Everything is going great! Hope you are all doing well! Love you lots!!
Love,
Elder Burnham
Hey Mom!
I am doing good! The trio is still working well. It is actually pretty fun and we are always busy which makes time go quickly! So I would say for the most part it is a good busy. Sometimes I wish we could work more in my area but that is just the way it is. Gotta sacrifice some good things for things that are better or best. We had a couple of chilly days this week. And one or two mornings with lots of fog! It was like being in San Francisco because by 12, it was a clear sunny day. Got really hot that day too! The weather here is pretty all over the place. We are driving Corolla Hatchbacks. Pretty good cars for us. Don't seem to have any problems and they are pretty cheap too. I actually have no idea if they celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I would assume they would use just about any reason they can to drink. There is a lot of alcohol in NZ. There seems to be less people who are religious here than in the US. I would say the predominant religions are Catholic and Anglican. Much of the city of Wanganui was founded and built up by the Anglican church. There is one religion that is predominantly Maori and that is the Ratana faith. It is kinda a funny faith from what I have heard from it. It is a Christian Church but they don't like to talk about Jesus Christ because they think too many people say bad things about Him. So they focus on a man who they think was called to be a prophet. There are also some pretty radical thoughts in the Ratana faith. I met a couple who are part of the leadership and they have a plan to have all the Maori people pull their names out of the social security type thing and by doing so they will collapse the whole NZ government. I also heard that this same guy said that the US would have fallen by Christmas and that didn't happen. So interesting faith but very kind people. It is big here because the place where is was founded/is centered is only about 20 minutes drive out into the country, a town called Ratana. So that is a bit about the Maori's and religion. There are also quite a few Maori's in the Church because of some Maori chiefs who prophesied the coming of the "true church" such as that they would come in twos, speak their language, and raise their right arm when they prayed. Pretty cool stuff! So there is your Maori history with the church for the week!
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