Sunday will come

Kia Ora Everyone

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week and that everyone is doing well!  

Well this week started out a little slower appointments falling through and nobody to see! It a got a little frustrating!  So really nothing had happened this whole week, and then Sunday came and first thing one of our investigators came to church! it was awesome to finally have someone come to church! our prayers were answered! But it doesn't stop there after church We went with the Bishop and his councillors to do some baby blessings and when we got there we found out that two of the kids are over 8 and they asked us to come and to teach the kids, so we yes obviously but we also invited the kids to be baptised and they said yes! and then come to find out the parents are not baptised so we invited them also so we now have 5 new investigators to teach and 5 baptisms set for the end of August! it was incredible after a whole week of nothing working out on Sunday we get an amazing miracle!

This made me think of a talk that Joseph B. Wirthlin a former member of the quorum of the twelve gave.  In the talk he talked about the crucifixion of the Saviour, and the sadness that it brought to his apostles his mother and really all of the members of the church of that time.  But one thing they had forgotten was that in three days time Sunday would come the Saviour would rise from the dead, and all of the pain and suffering of those other days would be worth it.  Many of us now are passing through trials in our life that we feel we may never escape, but as Elder Wirthlin taught we must remember that "Sunday will come".

I testify that Sunday does come I know it because I have experienced it... Literally.  Hold firm trust in God have Faith and alawy always remember that Sunday comes.  I love you all hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Joy beyond measure

Kia Ora Whanau!

How was everyone's week? it seems like just yesterday that i was emailing this week flew by!

Well we will start of the email with a really funny story, well i thought it was funny, so we are at Amy and Logan's house making pizza and we decided to make four pizzas we ate one and we were like wow good thing we made 3 more so i go over to get the other two out and i open the oven and they weren't burnt but they were just a little crispy so i pulled them out and Elder stephens came over to cut them and he was having a really hard time cutting them and we had them on wax paper on the pan so me and elder stephens have the wonderful idea to carry the pizza over to the table by the wax paper and thinking it through i told elder stephens put your hands on the bottom so they don't rip through so he did and we are making our way across the kitchen and elder stephens goes "ah its like hot lava under there" and then lets go of the pizza the pizza then slid over onto one of my hands and it was like hot lava and long story short the pizza fell on the floor... we were all laughing really hard and then we burnt the other pizza haha but they all still were really good and we made them work haha.

Then on wednesday we went on an exchange i went up to the little town of nuhaka with elder rios and he was sick so i was in the flat with him all day.  Well i was in the flat while he slept all day, i had some really good studies though pretty much read the whole Book of Mormon haha.  

We have been having some pretty good weeks but there has been one problem we have been having and that is we haven't had one investigator come to church for the entire time that I have been here and that frustrates me a little, so we will for sure be working hard to get people to church because they need to come to church to get baptised!

Also I got to give a talk yesterday in church on repentance I used the parable of the prodigal son for the talk, that is such a wonderful parable and applies to all of us so well, I just think it is so wonderful that we have a loving father in heaven who is always willing to forgive us and loves us so much to send his son to suffer for our pain so we don't have to, and also for our older brother to love us enough to do that for us!  We are so lucky, and it is wonderful that it doesn't matter what we have done who we may have been in the past but as long as we like the prodigal son return to our father with a broken heart he will forgive us!  I testify that Jesus lives that he is the Christ and that he loves us and that the Atonement is real and we can be forgiven of our sins and we can through the saviour experience a "joy beyond measure" I know this church is true I know President Monson is Gods Prophet on the earth!

Have a wonderful week everyone I love you all!

Pumpkin pie and Pizza

Kia Ora Everyone

I hope everyone had a wonderful week, Me and Elder Stephens have still been trying to get over our cold and we finally have kicked it in the butt and it isn't bothering us anymore which is good!

The highlight of this week was for sure when we went over to a couple that we go and do service for and what not named Amy and Logan, and we made homemade pumpkin pie and homemade pizza! and it turned out great! it was awesome because they don't have pumpkin pie here in NZ so the pressure was on me and i think i pulled through cause they all really loved it! in fact they loved it so much that we are doing it again tomorrow!  

I week wasnt really to exciting besides that but it was still a really good week we visited with lots of people and did a bit of service which is always good! 

One thing i will share for this week is last week after p day we were at the bishops house and when we were leaving this lady started talking to us on the street, she told us that her husband was an atheist and that it would probably be easier to convert the devil than him, and then she told us that she supposes she is an atheist now and the same thing it would probably be easier to convert the devil himself so me and elder stephens looked at each other then looked at this lady and said "challenge accepted" haha so maybe we will stop by and visit her this week!

but that is really all i have but before i finish this i have to give a shout out to my friend Zac Waters who is opening his mission call tonight! congrats man! cant wait to hear where you are going! you are going to be one awesome missionary!

have a good week everyone love you all!

He's been out 5 months!

Despicable Me footie pajamas

Elder Holmes and Elder Stephens

Having fun

A little NZ landscape

July 5th

Kia Ora Whanau 

                                               

Sorry this is going to be short running a little low on time right now! so we will get right in to it!

First off this was a really good week other than me and Elder Stephens both came down with a cold or something and that gave us a nice kick for a few days but that didn't stop us from working hard!

We invited three people to be baptised and got two new Investigators! and so we will now work to set dates for those people that we invited to be baptised!

The other exciting part from this week is we again went and mustered some goats and we caught about 80 something goats this time which was awesome!  

One thing i would like to share with you all just because the experiences were so short today is that, I know there will be times when our faith will be shaken and people will try to tear the Church down, But I just want to bear my testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Saviours only true church on the earth today and that it is the only church that holds all the keys to administer all of the saving ordinances that are required for salvation!  I know that Thomas S. Monson is Gods living prophet on the earth today! I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth and translated The Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God!  This Church is true, I know it!

Have a wonderful week everyone and thank you for all the thoughts and prayers love you all!

Arohanui

Goat Mustering

Tena Koe Everyone

Well I hope everyone has had a wonderful week, it seems like just yesterday I was emailing so the time is for sure flying by!

This week was wonderful Elder Stephens and I worked super hard we talked to a lot of people and taught a lot of lessons! the best thing of the week we received a refferal from the office and when we contacted him he turned into a new investigator which is awesome he is a great guy and we hope to help him to have the desire to get baptised!

Also on Saturday we had a baptism! but it was a ward baptism Elder Stephens performed the baptism so we will take a little bit of the credit for that one! but it was a wonderful experience and it reminded me of the time I had the wonderful opportunity to Baptise my little brother!

One story from last week that i forgot to tell was, me and Elder Stephens went and did some service out at an investigators farm and we helped them muster some goats! cause there are heaps of them around here and they can sell them to the meat works for some cash.  So we went out and mustered some goats it was really fun a little scary but fun, we caught about fifty or so of them so it was a good day of mustering!

Now trying to think of all the other experiences from this week has made my mind go blank and i cant really remember any of them it was a rather crazy week and i am still trying to get used to the area so i'm not really even to sure what happened haha, but i will just close of this week by telling everyone that i know the church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that we have prophet on the earth today who leads and guides this church!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! love you all!

Wairoa

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well first off I have been transferred I am no longer in Tauranga. I am now in the bottom of the mission! literally... if i go any farther down i am in the wellington mission. But my new area is Wairoa it is a pretty small town but i really like it so far! and my new Comp is Elder Stephens he is from Auckland and he came out a transfer after me and we are getting along great he is the man and it is going to be a wonderful transfer i can already tell!

Now there is a lot to tell about this last week but i dont know if i have time to try and type it all!  Mostly the last week consisted of just last visits with people trying to say goodbye to everyone which is just incredibly crazy! but we still taught a lot of lessons and did a lot of great work!

But I think the one experience I want to share this week was the miracle that happened, so after transfers meeting we all get in our cars and drive to our new areas, and since my area is out in the boons we have to drive for about 9 or so hours and so we go on our merry little way stop in a town called whakatane for dinner and then go on down to Gisborne when we are about 126 ks away from Gisborne we notice that we are pretty low on fuel, but at this point we are like in the boons and there are no petrol stations anywhere and then all of the sudden this warning light comes on and is flashing low fuel and me and the elder i was driving down with look at each other and are like ah crap so we drive for about a good 10 or so minutes with it on E then all of the sudden the low fuel light shuts off and it says we have more fuel! And i know what some of you are thinking we may have not been flat so the fuel wasnt level or something but that wasn't the case we were driving on a flat road so the car was level! So i look at the Elder driving and i was like did you say a prayer? and he said no did you? then i said no but i am now! so i said a prayer, and we drive for a little while longer and we pass a sign that says gisborne 76 Ks and then the low fuel light comes on again and we were like uh oh... but long story short when the fuel light comes on that means you have approximately 35-40ks and we went 76... so that was a nice little miracle because we made it to Gisborne safe and sound and then quickly filled up with petrol!

So that was nice haha.

But i hope everyone has a wonderful week, and before i go i have to tell the Cobble Creek ward youth thank you very much for the wonderful package with all those nice treats and all the wonderful notes! I am so blessed to have a ward back home that does that for all of their missionaries! wish you all the best!

Arohanui 

 Excited about their new sandwich maker!

Silly missionaries

June 14th

Kia Ora Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a great week! I know mine was absolutely wonderful!

it is funny because sometimes out on the mission you think you week was ok and then you look back on it and you realize it was just absolutely incredible or you have one visit and it just makes it all worth while!

I have to say that the best feeling in the world is when someone informs you that you have been an answer to their prayers, or someone tells you that because of you they see a change in someone else.  Recently we have been working with two of the youth who are less active their mom informed me and my companion that we are the first missionaries to ever really connect with them, she says she can now slowly them starting to change!  I don't want to give to much information but these two youth are changing and it is incredible to see!

also one of the young couples we are teaching who we have had a hard time seeing lately we have seen them twice this week which was awesome and every time we had awesome lessons with them and they have told us that the Gospel makes sense to them and they feel like they have heard it before, then we explained to them how they have heard it before and just pretty much blew their mind!  it is wonderful to see the change in peoples lives but also to slowly see the change in your own life.

I hope everyone will look for opportunities to serve others this week, and seek to help those that are struggling.

I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Elder Holmes sporting his new hair cut