December 29th, 2013

Hello family!

That was great to see you all on Christmas and talk with you. We had a really good Christmas week and had some great meals with Bishop and his family, and a couple other families. We went to an old folks house and sang to some old ladies and gave them some Christmas cards and chocolate, haha. That was fun, the ward had a couple fun activities we helped with as well. It was awesome to see Thomas holding onto the toy and walking and falling haha. heres a couple pictures from the last week! i tried lamb tails for the first time as well.  Love you all, have a happy New Year!!

December 22nd, 2013

Hello Family!

It is crazy that it is Christmastime already. We met the husband this past week of the family who has just started coming back to church who recently moved down from Auckland, that was awesome. The husband came to church with Felila too! We are very excited for this week.We are going to sing some carols and do a little bit of service! It will be different being away for Christmas, but I know I'm where I need to be. Love you all, look forward to talking to you this week!

December 15th, 2013

Hello Family,

We had a really good past week. There was a Savior of the World play put on by some of the members and choir and we got to go to it yesterday because one of our investigators came! That was awesome, we are preparing for Christmas now and very excited for it. We are seeing if we can help with a soup kitchen or do caroling at an elderly home for Christmas eve, Christmas, and Boxing day. Boxing day is kinda like Black Friday back home, Its bigger than Christmas I hear, so that will be different. We also did a walk for life and suicide awareness which was awesome to be a part of. We met this Maori guy on the way who is running for Maori Parliament and it turns out he is investigating the church up in Gisbern. That was fun talking with him, he even spoke at the event when the walk was over. They also gave out free food, that was the best part after a long walk. Well, Love you all and have a great week!

December 8th, 2013

Hey family,

This has been a great week with some sadness while I went around with my companion and he said goodbye to a lot of families, but I'm excited to work with my new companion Elder Matai'a. An awesome family that we have been wroking with came to church yesterday! They are Less Active and moved down recently from Auckland. The son, who just turned 17, brought a few friends as well! Even though him and his friends went to the english ward, I was still happy they all came to church! The mom is also trying to stop smoking and she is doing very well. That was definitely the best miracle for the week. We also ran into this funny guy from India who goes doorknocking selling electronic stuff. The funny thing is we ran into him the next day too, and then we ran into some of his coworkers. He was amazed that us young people leave our families and do something as crazy as serving a mission, and then I told him missionaries usually save up and work for the oppurtunity to serve a mission, and that was crazy to him too haha.
heres a picture of us atan unveiling, after the ceremony we went to the gravesite of one of the boys who past on a couple years ago from an awesome family in our ward. Everyone here loves and remembers him, he and his family are like the Heart of Flaxmere, where I am currently serving. Well, Love and miss you all!

December 1st, 2013

Hello Family!

It has been a great week. We have been in a group of three missionaries because A young man named JJ from our ward got called on a mini mission with us! So it has been a lot of fun, I am also getting a new companion this week. Elder Vagaia is going to the Hutt, I am going to miss him, but I am excited to be with Elder Mata'ia. We had an awesome Zone Conference this last week. President Kezarian is a great mission president and helped us focus on resolving concerns through scriptures in the Book Of Mormon. Well Love you all and miss you all!

November 24th. 2013

Hello Family!

How is everyone doing, I am doing good and almost done with my first transfer in my new area! I had to give a talk yesterday at church and I bore my testimony in Samoan! That felt awesome and my companion shared a wonderful poem called "He has been there before" by Elder Whittle. I am getting excited for Christmas in the summer, even though I will be away from home I know I am where I'm supposed to be and I can still feel of all of your Love. We have Zone Conference this week and Transfers next week! I Love you all and miss you all.

November 17th, 2013

Hi family,

How is everyone doing? I am doing well over here in Hawke's Bay. This week was a lot of service, again. Pretty much all day saturday was weeding and mowing lawns, but it is fun and we have a new family to visit and teach that came through our service. I am excited for Christmas because it will be perfect for introducing the gospel and why we celebrate it. We were all happy to hear about the missionaries in the Phillipines being safe because their are parents of those missionaries here as well as over there. Well, I will try and send a couple pictures, Love and Miss you all! One picture is a sunset when we were filling up the car one evening, the clouds seem so close to you over here in New Zealand. The other pictue is our Flaxmere distict, it has changed since this photo was taken a couple weeks ago, but anyway there are some Utahs, a couple Tongans, a Samoan, a Hawaiian, a Tahitian, and one New Mexican!