Kia Ora! and Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow it is just weird its already almost Thanksgiving again. I remember last Thanksgiving I was in the MTC. It is really crazy how time just flies away when your serving the Lord. Sometimes the days just fly by so fast because I am so incredibly busy serving the Lord. I have to work really hard to find time even to write in my journal. I haven't done the best at that but I'm really trying to do better. I used to write about everyday...I am still going to try and catch up. I don't know if i ever told you about my day...like the schedule but here it is:


6:30a.m.-wake up, pray, and exercise
7:00-get in the shower, get dressed, eat breakfast
8:00-personal study
9:00-companion study
10:00-Leave flat and begin proselyting
9:00p.m.-Return home and plan for next day (30 min)
9:30-call elders in district and report to zone leaders
10:15-prepare for bed and pray
10:30 lights out and sleep


That is a usual schedule of my day out on the mission field. I am just really busy. When a missionary is exactly obedient and a leader like me there is like NO time to do anything. I have to work really hard to find little bits of time to fit in something else. It is a sacrifice and it really is tiring to be a hard working missionary but the Lord Jesus Christ has done so much for me and this is all he asks from me is to serve with all my heart might mind and strength for two years. Each and everyday I am truly trying my very hardest and am giving it everything I have.


Anyways it was really good to hear from you mom and dad. It really is something I look forward to every P-day. Sounds like everyone is doing great and your all just staying busy. I cant believe it is snowing there already. That's crazy!! Well I am so sorry about not saying anything about the Halloween Package. I was so happy to get it and I loved it. It just kinda spaced my mind that I never said anything to you guys. I'm sorry about that. But thank you so much. I really loved all the candy and snacks. I miss all the American Stuff haha. I also was glad to get the pumpkin letters and face wash and stuff. Unfortunately the New Zealand government took out leaves or something before I got it...so I don't know what leave thing was in there. But my absolute favorite part was the Books of Mormon with your testimonies all in them. Wow that was amazing and it really was very special for me to read. It meant a lot to me and I still have them so I can read your testimonies. I will save them for some really great investigators that are around each of your ages and I will give them to them so they can read all your testimonies. At first before I saw your testimonies in them I was like what the heck? Why would they send Books of Mormon to me??! I am a missionary and like have A TON of Books of Mormon everywhere! I thought you guys were a little crazy! hahaha....just kidding :) but then I saw the testimonies and understood. I felt the spirit as I read each of your testimonies and it was something I loved to read so thank you all.


So yeah these past couple of weeks have just been great. I am loving being District Leader and it is very rewarding. I have received a lot of blessings from the Lord. There are 6 great elders in my district including me. There's myself and my companion Elder Petty. Then there's Elder Eckery (from Wellington New Zealand) and his companion is Elder 'Afa (my last companion) and then there's Elder Saunders (from Riverton Utah) and his companion is a brand new missionary named Elder Naicker (from Fiji). They are all really great missionaries. It is crazy because we are in the country instead of the city (you know Auckland) so we travel a lot. Well I do because I have to go on trade offs with the elders in my district. So I go down to Tokoroa and Tapo and Tarangi a lot. They are all really beautiful little cities in NZ. A couple Thursdays ago I told you guys I went down to Tapo and stuff. Wow it was just amazing. It was a great Trade off and I learned a lot. The lake Tapo is a beautiful lake and the city is a really big touristy town. We need to go there someday. I was able to give my first couple of baptism interviews to some people. it was kinda scary but I know the Lord helped me know exactly what to say. Saturday (13th) Lydia was baptized. It really was a great experience for me because I have been with her every step of the way and then got to baptize her. It was a very spiritual and meaningful experience for me. Yeah and then the last weekend we got to head up to Auckland. It was funny because there was like 5 of the exact same type and color of cars heading up one behind the other in a caravan all the way up to Auckland. And all the cars were full of missionaries. I wonder what someone would have thought driving by haha. Wow the mission conference was just great. It was all day event. It was great to have 3 general authorities come speak to us about missionary work. They kept saying how pleased they were with this great mission. I took heaps of notes.


This past Wed i went on another trade off down south again. We worked a lot in Tokoroa and had a cool experience down there. Then I interviewed a kid named jerimiah for baptism. We drove down to Tarangi and I got to see the French family (French is there last name) get baptized and also I got to interview two other young adults for baptism. Wow the Baptism of the French family was amazing. They live in a little branch with no baptismal font so they got to be baptized in the Lake Tapo. It was just an incredible experience . It was amazing to see them get baptized in the beautiful lake. It was a great experience to watch Bro French get baptized and then to get confirmed right on the beach then get the priesthood then get to baptize his two kids. (they usually don't do it that way anymore). This week I also witnessed a miracles. We prayed specifically for a new investigator and we had faith the Lord would lead us to one. So we looked at the map on where to go. One area looked just stood out to me so we went there. Then a certain street stood out to my companion. I got a prompting that the Lord had prepared someone and they lived on that street. I knew we had to go down that one. So we did and started knocking on doors. We were a little apprehensive about that street because it was a lot of really rich houses. But we had faith. The first door we knocked on was just horrible. It was one of the worst rejections I have ever had. A lady started screaming so loud at us even before she opened the door. Then she looked at us and screamed so loud and said that we woke up her baby swore at us and slammed the door so hard. Ouch! That hurt a little. We wanted to leave the area but I knew we should keep going. So we did and a couple of houses later a miracle happened. A lady let us right in her home and we had a incredible lesson with her. She really wants us to come back, She is really prepared by the Lord.


Well I'm sorry but I got to go now. I will try and send some more next week. But an answer to your question about my Christmas package. I would love slip on shoes and even some more black slacks, if you think it would be better you can just send money and I can buy them here. Its up to you whatever it best. Maybe another cool tie too. And about the candy or whatever. I don't know if you can send any doughnuts, but I miss those. They would probably get moldy. I don't care really. Anything I'm really easy. But I just love you all so much. I'm sorry if I left out anything. If there's anything from the last two e mails I forgot to answer please just ask it again in the next e mail. Thanks for everything.


Love Elder Kitchen