Jul 10

Kia Ora Everyone!

Hope all is well with everyone! Boy was this a busy week!
This week we took President and Sister Cummings around the whole mission so that they could meet everyone, we finished all that up yesterday and got back at about 3 in the afternoon so needless to say Elder Ith and I are very tired!

We didn't have time to teach to many lessons this week but we did on Tuesday have another really good lesson with Stevie and Melissa we talked about the Holy Ghost with them and as we were talking we asked them how they feel when we are here and when we are teaching them and they said they can feel a difference when we are there and so we asked them why do you think that is and they both go cause the spirit is here and then when you go it leaves. So it was really cool to see that they recognise the spirit and the difference that it makes in our lives

We then went and visited with Mason, and Lil Mason and Maea and had a really good visit with them, Lil Mason and Maea have gone to stay with them mom in Aussie for the school hollidays for the next two weeks so we wont be able to see them for a little while, but we will be going over to see Mason. We will hopefully be able to start preparing to have the kids baptized in august that is the goal right now anyways so we are gonna work real hard this month to make sure we can do that!

Sadly that is pretty much it for this week! we had a whole lot of driving and don't think you really wanna hear about that haha. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!


Also a big BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO MY SISTER LINDSAY even though your birthday was last week on Thursday still thought i would just say it again! Happy Birthday Linds Love you so much!!!!

Remember everyone the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true, and it is the Lords kingdom once again established here on the earth!

July 3

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well the week has come and gone and all the craziness has kinda settled down. We only had enough time to teach just a few lessons this week but we had some really good ones.

We started Monday night off with a Family Home Evening at one of our ward members home and we had a great lesson on God is our Loving Heavenly Father and we talked about that with them for some time, that is such a wonderful principal i would encourage everyone to study that concept in depth it really is something very remarkable that knowledge that we have of our divine relationship with God.

After that lesson we went to the Chapel and had a little farewell thing for President and Sister Rudd with a lot of members from the community and that was really awesome.

And then then the next few days we helped President and Sister Rudd get all packed up and on their way. I feel so blessed for being able to work so closely with President and Sister Rudd, when i opened my call almost two years ago i did not think that i would get to be this close to my mission presidents. President and Sister Rudd have had such a wonderful influence on my life!

And now i am having the wonderful opportunity of helping President and Sister Cummings get settled in here in New Zealand and that is such a wonderful thing, One thing that Elder Ith and I noticed about about President and Sister Cummings right from the first moment we met them was that everything happens for a reason, apparently the airline lost some of their luggage and they were just like it was a good thing that happened or else we wouldn't of had enough room in the car.
Hopefully I can develop that attitude from them as i get to serve close by with them.

I want everyone to know that the Gospel is true the church is true all of this is all true and that is the beauty of it all its all true dont ever forget it!

Love you all have a wonderful week!

Jun. 26

Kia Ora Everyone!


Wow I cannot believe this week is finally here, the last six months has been gearing up for this week and it is here and i cannot believe it! it will be a busy week but i'm sure we will survive.


This week was pretty good we spent a good amount of time proselyting and working. A cool expience we had this week we were going around and knocking some doors in our area and we decided to try this guy that works over by a camp ground that the church owns and so we went to his house and knock on the door and this guy answers and just looks at us a goes "oh you fellas" we started talking to him and he wasnt interested at all but we keep talking and turns out he is not even the guy we are looking for apparently that guy moved out, so we keep talking and then the guy just goes oh would you guys like to come in side and sit down and so we were like yeah sure, so we had a good talk with him we would kinda bring the gospel up in just little bits and pieces cause he didnt really like it when thats all we would talk about but it was cool they told us that we could come back and me and Elder Ith both have a pretty good feeling about them.


We also had some great lessons with Stevie and Melissa this week, they gained a pretty good testimony of prayer this week because of some things that were going on with stevie, so it was pretty cool.


sorry this is so short again, we have been preparing for the new mission president to come so my mind is pretty blank right now haha we are focused on other things. And next week we will let you know how the first week went with the new mission president!


Once again I just want everyone to know that I know the church is true! I know our saviour lives and he loves and cares for us, God is truly our Father and he loves us, and there is no greater joy that one can experience than to be able to return to live with them. I know that the commandments that God has given us are a roadmap to be able to return to live with him and by following Gods commandments we truly are blessed, I love you all!


Arohanui!

Jun. 19

Kia Ora Everyone!


Wow where did the time go! this week went by really fast!


So this week we were going on the farewell tour for President and Sister Rudd, we did four tours and so we started on tuesday up in Auckland and ended in Tauranga on Friday, I think i liked Fridays the best because it was at the Marea located in my first area and it was so nice to be back there.


It is always nice to go an travel around with President and Sister Rudd, this time it was a little sad though because it is the last time and it was pretty much to say goodbye, at the end of all the meetings we would stand up and start singing God be with you til we meet again while they were walking out, the spirit was really strong and it was a really cool week that we had. President Rudd gave a good last little speech to everyone and really pumped the whole mission up, its gonna be hard to see them go next week.


We had a really good visit with Mason and his kids on Tuesday and they came to church on sunday which was awesome and we have a family home evening with them tonight at one of the members homes and so that is going to be really fun!


We haven't been able to contact our new investigator we found last week they have been gone every single time we have gone over but we will keep trying.


We were walking around Temple View on Saturday and were just knocking on random doors and we started talking to this one lady and it turned out she wasnt a member and we were really shocked that no one had known there was a non member at this house, she wasnt really interested in talking to us at all but we will still probably go back anyways haha.


We had a good visit also with Stevie and Melissa on saturday to and it was really good because melissa came and sat in on the lesson again which was good she for sure felt the spirit to which is really good.


Me and Elder Ith have both decided that it is really time for a baptism here in the Temple View area so we have decided that we are really gonna kick it into high gear and do a whole lot of praying and fasting, and we have started to see a few good things come our way so we know that if we put our trust in Heavenly Father we will begin to see some miracles!


I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who leads and guides us each day, I know that God is more than just an all knowing being who created the earth, but he really is our Father he has a body of flesh and bones and he loves us even more than we can comprehend. I am also so very grateful for my Dad and the wonderful example he is to me i hope i can be just like him some day. Today i want to end this email by saying thank you to my Dad he is the best Dad in the whole world, I am who i am because of him and the example he has been to me Thanks Dad for always taking me to go on jobs with you thanks for playing catch outside with me and thank you for teaching me all about the Gospel and helping me prepare to come on a mission you are the best! The church is true, Jesus is the Christ.

Jun. 12

Hey everyone so this is going to be really short cause i'm really short on time today but i thought i would share one quick story from this week.


So me and elder ith were biking around the area on friday and we were going down one of the streets and we saw some members who are from my first area in tauranga and elder ith served there also so he new them also so we start talking to them for a while then all of the sudden these people walk out of this house and i look at them and think hmm thats wierd they dont look like members, anyways we keep talking then when we finish the people were about halfway up the street and elder ith looked at me and said "are those people members" and i said i dont think so, so then he said"should we talk to them" and i was like yeah but it would be really awkward to just rid up beside them like that so we remembered there was a little shortcut that goes through one street and connects back to the street they were on, so we booked it in the other direction and got to the short cut and elder ith biked up it but i was way to tired so i got off and was just kinda huffing and puffing up haha but finally right when we got to the top the people were right there so we timed it really really good, but i was totally out of breath for the first half of the conversation so it was really funny cause i'm trying to teach and i couldnt breath haha. but we got a new investigator from it so that was awesome!!!! we will be visiting them on Thursday of this week!


I love you all and hope you all have a really really good week!

Jun. 5

Kia Ora Everyone! Hope everyone has had a wonderful week!


Fist things first for this email I have to wish my Best Friend Nathan Walton a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! hope you have a good day Nathan dont play to much Wii! Cant wait to play Super Smash Bros with yah!


Well transfers went well this week, it is really weird that this was president and sister rudds last intake. So that was a bit sad.


But the rest of the week me and my new Companion Elder Ith went on an exchange with some of the Zone Leaders and also had some really good visits with some of our investigators, We were visiting with Stevie and Melissa this week on Friday night and we got Melissa and her daughters baptism all decided and everything was going great, then the next morning we got a text from Stevie telling us that Melissa has read some stuff and doesn't want her or her daughter to be baptised any more, so we went over and visited with them and tried to see what we could do but she is pretty against being baptised now. It is really sad you grow really close to people and see them grow so much and then it doesn't really work out. It had me pretty down and we were talking to president Rudd after and he just said to us "The Lord will provide" so i have been thinking about that ever since and how true it really is, all of us are constantly facing trials and sometimes we dont see how anything good can come from a trial or really where the trial will end. I suppose Abraham was thinking the same thing when the Lord commanded him to offer up Isaac as he walked up the mountain I assume he was wondering how anything good could come from this, maybe he was trying to think of a way out of it, I'm sure whatever was going through his mind was not pleasant for him, but then Isaac asks Abraham where the lamb is and Abraham says "The Lord will provide himself with a lamb". Just at the moment when Abraham needed it the most the Lord commanded him to not lay his hand upon Isaac, We don't know what the Lord has in store for us this week or in the next month and years to come but we can feel confident that he knows what he is doing and the Lord really does provide, although it is hard when you have investigators drop I know that the Lord will provide a way, but we will most likely have to climb a mountain first before we find what he has placed in our path. I love you all and I love the church so much! I know it is true! and I know that our Saviour lives!

May 29

Kia Ora Everyone!


Hope everyones week was great we had a really good week this week, the missionary work in Temple View is going great!


Well this week we went on exchanges during the morning and on one of the days it started nice and sunny and it was me and Elder Gutke and we were riding the bikes and all of the sudden it just starts raining hard out on us! we got so soaked haha but it was really fun gotta love that.


Our Investigators Stevie and Melissa are progressing really really well on tuesday we went over and did the stop smoking program with them and so far they have been doing really really good, its been 6 days and they havent smoked so it is going great! we had a lot of good visits with them this week. On saturday we were getting lunch and all of the sudden we got this text from them that said. "we are bored can you come read scripture with us" Me and elder tibbitts looked at each other and were liek what the haha it was super funny so we went over and had a really great visit with them, and really helped them with a lot of questions that they had. And it was great because Melissa also came to all three hours of church yesterday and really liked it all, tonight we are going over and having a FHE with them and the kids so we will tell you how that goes next week!


I love you all so sorry this email is super short but duty calls.

May 22

Kia Ora Everyone! Boy it has been a long time since i have written one of these sorry about that!


So a cool experience we had a few weeks ago our stake presidents son goes to a school in town called St. Paul's Collegiate, and one of his teachers started asking him questions about the church and then asked him if he could have some people who are from the church come and talk about the church, so we went and gave a little presentation and it was really cool we talked about the book of Mormon and how it came about and Joseph Smith and the whole time the Reverend was looking through the book of Mormon and after the class he told us he wants us to come back again! he also told us after that what we said about the book of Mormon helped him a lot cause from what we said it makes more sense to him.


Now the next experience which was a really really good one, i was on exchange down in rotorua, we had been having a not very good day no one was home, it was wet and rainy, we had gone through all the plans and we had no where to go, I don't know anything about the area so i looked at the Zone Leader I was with and I said ok we got thirty minutes lets make something happen where are we going. He then said he had one more person we could try, so as we are driving to this persons house there is a man walking up the sidewalk pretty close to the house we are going to, I saw him in the corner of my eye and I had the impression that we needed to talk to him, so we park the car across the street from the house we were going too and i was not planning on talking to this guy who was walking up the street, but the prompting came again and so I said hello to him started talking to him and then among some other things he said some bad words and started walking away and telling us that God isnt real. But I knew i received a prompting to talk to him so i kept walking after him and kept talking to him finally bore my testimony to him that God is real and that he loves him, and then this guy just opened up to us and his whole attitude and everything changed, we set up a time for the elders to go and visit him again and as he walked away he had the biggest smile on his face and he said you've changed my life. Now i haven't heard anything else from the elders about him but i know that we did good, whether or not he gets baptized at least he know that there is a God in Heaven who loves him.


There is one thing that i try to tell everyone before they shut the door or walk away and that is that God is real and that he loves them, and that he knows them personally. That is such a wonderful thing that we know, and it does change lives ive seen it, I hope that everyone can look closely this week and see how the knowledge that God is our father has blessed your life and then to share that with someone who doesn't have that knowledge, this gospel is to precious and to wonderful to be kept to ourselves. I love you all and am so grateful for everyone's love and support. have a wonderful week everyone!


Arohanui!


Also a big happy birthday to my bro Austin! I should say happy golden birthday 26 on the 26th hurray!!!!! Have a great week :)

May 1

Kia Ora Everyone!


Well I hope everyone has had a fantastic week! Our week was pretty busy we had our mission tour with Elder O. Vincent Haleck of the Seventy which was a great experience, we started at the top of the mission on tuesday up in south Auckland and had five of the Zones their for the meeting, The meeting was great but it could have gone a lot smoother, but it was ok cause Wednesday went so much better all of the videos worked and the sound in the building was awesome, where on tuesday it wasnt really working at all! Then on thursday we had our Mission Leadership Council with Elder Haleck and that was really good, all the Zone Leaders went through and gave a report on their zones, and then Elder Haleck and President Rudd just answered questions that anyone had, we came up with some good ideas that we as leaders need to meet with the stake leaders more often and plan some stake activities for members to bring their nonmember friends to.


We had some pretty good lessons for the amount of time that we were in our area though this week, and we are starting to see some of our investigators that havent really been progressing start to move just a little bit forward, but we have also seen some of our investigators who were progressing really well start to move backwards sadly, but we will keep working with them and keep praying for them. One thing that I have really learned this week is how we need to help people act, it's nice to teach a really good lesson, but if they wont act then they cannot really feel the Holy Ghost, so we have decided that now we are going to base all of our lessons off the commitment we want to extend to those we are teaching and we know that we will begin to see success from that.


Once again I appologize for the short email and also the lack of pictures my camera is being really dumb and it wont show any of the pictures on the computer so we are going to sort that little technical difficulty out and I will get heaps of pictures sent to you all!


I love you all and am so grateful for the love and support and all the prayers I can feel them. I hope everyone has a good week! Remember God is our Heavenly Father he loves us all and he knows what is best for us, if we put complete trust in him, he will strengthen us and help us I encourage everyone to remember always to trust our Loving Heavenly Father an you wont go wrong.

Apr. 24

Kia Ora Everyone!


Well lets just say this is going to be a short email because I have some other stuff I need to get to for this week. Transfers went great and nothing went wrong which was good and we werent too stressed!


So cool expierence last week on Monday we got a text that one of our investigators was in the hospital and she wanted a blessing, so we go to the hospital and we find her room and there is like this sign on the door that say to the affect: DANGER: Airborn disease see nurse before entering... so I saw that and was like oh wow haha, so we see the nurse and we have to get all this gear on to go in the room I felt like i was walking into some sort of radioactive explosion haha it was cool. But we go in give her a blessing and she was telling us how they thought she was going to be in there for a week or so well we had a lesson with her on saturday she got released the day after we gave her the blessing, her rashes had all gone the day after the blessing so she was able to be released it was pretty crazy they said she had the measles and i didnt think that was that bad but guess she caught a bad strain or something... The priesthood is real folks so there yah go!


I know this is super short but I do just want to end my email with my testimony again that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are real this is there church! the Book of Mormon is true and it always will be, Thomas S. Monson is a prophet just like Moses, Noah and Abraham and all the prophets of old! I love you all and hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Apr. 17

Kia Ora Everyone!!!


Once again another week has come and gone! It is so crazy to think but this week is transfers! that is so crazy this eight week transfer is over and now we will be back on our six week cycle!


So all last week we were helping President Rudd do transfer planning and that is always exciting! But last week we had to make several trips up to the airport so we were out of our are for a while but we still managed to have an incredible week and with the short amount of time that we had we saw some great miracles!


So last week on Monday we had an appointment at six and that fell through so I texted our investigator who was set for baptism on the 14th of may to see if we could come over, and he texted back and said sorry i'm not interested in being baptized anymore.... so that was one nice shot to the gut so that had me pretty down on Monday. But we recieved a refferal from the visitors centre for some people in Temple View and to be honest I didnt have a very good attitude about it, i was just like its in temple view they are probably just some less active members we go and visit them turns out there are four people there who have not been baptized and they want to be baptized! So we have had two lessons with them this week and they have been really good! what is even more crazy is that one of the girls her grandpa is the bishop down in Wairoa(my second are)! and that is also where Elder Tibbitts started his mission so we both know her grandpa really well so we were freaking out when she told us that and we were like man what a small country haha.


Then on saturday we were going to visit one of the part member families that lives in temple view and we got out of the van and there was this girl walking down the sidewalk and we recognized her cause she lives at the same house as the kid who dropped us on Monday so we started talking to her and she started telling us how her and her friend talk about the church sometimes, and then she said we talked about the three kingdoms last time and so we were like oh yeah you know it talks about the three kingdoms in the bible and she was like really and so we showed her and she was like wow my mind has been blown haha, so she said we could come visit with her sometime.


But another cool expierence we were visiting an older sister who stays in one of the wards and it wasnt a very effective visit we were basically just doing the home teachers job so we were just about to leave and then her Less active daughter comes up and is like oh elders stay right there ive got someone who wants to meet you, so she walked down stairs and came back up with this guy and was like this is my sons friend he wants to be taught by the missionaries, and to be honest I was just standing in this room thinking to myself what the heck is going on right now haha it was so awesome so we are going to have a lesson with him this week on saturday up at the visitors centre so I will tell you all how that goes next week!


But in total we found five new investigators this week in our area and in temple view that is un heard of because i can literally drive around temple view in five minutes and show you all 5 non member houses haha so it is so cool that we have found these people!


It goes to show once again that the Lord does answer prayers after Monday I had been praying really hard that we would be able to find people to teach and to baptize and the Lord blessed us this week with people who are prepared to receive the message of the Gospel. The Church is true, Jesus Christ is the son of God and he heads this Church of that I bear my testimony!


Arohanui!

Apr. 10

Kia Ora Everyone!






Well another week has flown by and boy oh boy was it a busy one, we didn't really have any proselyting time in our area so no real exciting things to share this week.So on Tuesday night we had the chance to visit several people in our teaching pool. We started the night off by visiting one of the LA families in one of the wards and turns out they moved but their son is still staying there and he asked if we would come over and teach him and so we had a wonderful lesson with him, we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the most emphasis on repentance, the spirit was strong and it was a good visit.

After that we went over to Mason's to visit with him and the kids we talked about Tithing and that was another awesome lesson we used some chocolate coins and gave them to the kids and said how much would you give heavenly father and they figured it out quick they are two super smart kids! At the end we invited them all to live the Law of Tithing and they accepted. Elder Tibbitts and I both shared experiences from our life when we had seen the blessings of paying tithing, the spirit was strong and it was anther great lesson!

After we went over to Taylor and Nina's and visited with them, we had a good visit we really talked about a lot of things with them they had a few more questions they wanted us to answer and they really opened up to us a lot more which was great. Then on Wednesday morning we went back and helped taylor out on the farm for a little bit which was good, it is nice to do some manual labour every once and a while haha.

Then on Wednesday we drove down to Tauranga and had an exchange with the Zone Leaders there I went with Elder bowman he is like six six so i looked super small next to him it was so funny! We had some great experiences together found them a few potential investigators and we both learned a lot from each other which was great.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel most likely because of General Conference, but as i have gone throughout this week I have thought to myself how grateful I am for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the opportunity that we have to repent to start fresh to begin again to forget the past and move forward with a "perfect brightness of hope"(2 nephi 31:20) I hope everyone is constantly repenting and feeling of the renewing power of the Atonement, I hope we all also remember to let others repent don't hold things over someone's head move on forget about it forgive those who need your forgiveness so that they can forgive themselves. We all must remember that we are not a finished product we can keep progressing and keep bettering ourselves, choose the harder right as President Monson said in Conference and I know you will be blessed.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true that is a fact the Atonement is real it works use it, trust Heavenly Father and he will support you in all things. I love you all and hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Apr. 3

Kia Ora Everyone!


Well this email will be pretty short because this week was so busy but it was filled with adventures that i am sure you all are not very interested in haha. But the Temple was just as amazing as it always is, and it was so nice to get to go 3 days in a row! you really learn a lot when you go three times in a row that is for sure!


I learned a lot this week and grew a lot in my testimony of temple work, I know that what goes on within the temple is something sacred and special and that the ordinances done there really do bind families together forever! I am so grateful for the knowledge that i have that my family can be together forever because of what is done within the temple.


We had the opportunity this week to teach one lesson haha that is all we had time for in our busy week so we went and visited Mason and his family and had a good visit with them, we are going to start teaching him and his kids about the commandments and help them to start living all of them. We have a FHE tonight at a member of the stake presidency's house and he has invited Mason and the kids over and so it we have an exciting time planned for that tonight and it will be great to help get members more involved with Mason and the kids.


During the weekend we were down in Taranaki in a town called New Plymouth we had the opportunity to be with president Rudd and help him with the district conference down there. It was great to learn from President Rudd and see how he administrates in that environment.


But the work is progressing along down here in New Zealand we have issued a challenge to all the missionaries in the mission, In honor of the restoration of the Aaronic preisthood we have challenged every companionship to baptize on May 14th and 15th. That is the day that we have set our investigator Cooper to be baptized and so we are really going to focus on seeing him more each week to be able to really prepare him to be baptized on that day! Exciting things are happening down here and the mission just keeps getting better and better!


I love you all and thank you all for you love and prayers! Please remember that the church is true and that it always will be. I know Jesus Christ lives and that he died for our sins I know he loves us he is our older brother. Never forget this and share it with all of those you meet.


Arohanui!

Mar. 27

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well what a week it was it went by really fast but was really crazy at the same time!

So this week we went on heaps of exchanges with Zone Leaders, On tuesday after district meeting i went and was in east side of Hamilton with one of the missionaries that came out into the mission with me, we had a really good exchange taught some good lessons and worked really hard.

Then on wednesday we drove down to a place called Rotorua its about an hour and a half from hamilton we got there had some dinner and then were waiting for the elders and they were not showing up so we decided to get out of our van and we just started walking around and ended up meeting two people on the street who were interested to learn a little more haha, so finally when the Zone leaders showed up we were like hey got two new investigators for you haha.

Then on Thursday we had to take a sister missionary to the airport because she had completed her mission and then I spent thursday night and friday morning up in my old area up in Manurewa that was really fun went around and saw some of my old investigators who are all still working towards baptism and even met a few new people and taught them the restoration and the spirit was super strong and it was a really cool lesson.  then we hurry and drove back down to Hamilton to make a lesson that we had set up with Taylor and Nina and we were able to have a really good lesson we them, we taught them the plan of salvation mixed in with the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was just really awesome they had some questions and they would go right along with the lesson so we were able to answer them.  They didnt come to church yesterday sadly but that is ok we will keep working with them!

Well that was pretty much the summary of the week, this week we have some really great things planned one of which is the temple! I'm am looking forward to the temple very much!  it is going to be a great four days!

Well that is all for me this week I love you all! especially those who have been such wonderful examples to me like my Grandma and Grandpa Anderson and my Grandma Holmes thanks for all of the love and support best grandparents in the whole world!

Remember the church is true and it always will be!  Love you all

Kia Kaha, Kia Ngawari

Mar. 20

Kia Ora Everyone!!!!


Well another week has come and gone and this week was a good one!
First off on Monday we went and had a visit with one of our investigators we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a really great lesson and really awesome, then at the end of the lesson we asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes!!!! and then we also invited him to say the closing prayer and he did and it was probably the first time he has ever prayed in his whole life! and it was awesome it was incredible he did such a good job! He is a really cool kid he is 18 and he just moved down from Auckland, i think i have already talked about him before. But he was super keen to work towards baptism I believe the words he said was he would put in the "Hard yards" so that he can now the truth of what we have shared. We also had a ward Party on saturday and we invited him to that and he came and we got to introduce him to a few members of the ward which was good, he even ended up meeting a member of the ward who is a relative haha it is a small world down here in New Zealand everyone is related haha.


We also had a few exchanges this week which were really good! it is so good to go around and learn from the other missionaries! there is so much to learn from others and that is what I love about getting to go on all these exchanges is learning from all the incredible missionaries we have serving here in the mission.


last night we had a really incredible lesson with one of the members of on of the wards we cover who is preparing to leave for his mission, he had a few of his cousins over from Japan and he asked us to come and visit with them they are less active and so they know a little bit about the church and the gospel and so we sat down with them and began to talk about the restoration the spirit was so strong during the lesson but it was incredibly strong when this member their cousin bore his testimony at the end and then one of the other members of the ward who actually is also a cousin of these two less actives and they were two incredibly powerful testimonies!


It is so awesome to see how much of an influence members have on the teaching I hope everyone will look for those missionary opportunities each day and help the missionaries to teach because when a member bears testimony it is incredibly powerful!


I love you all and hope everyone has a wonderful week thank you for all of the prayers i for sure can feel them! Remember the gospel is true!

Mar. 13

Kia Ora Everyone!




Well i'm pretty sure i was just writing an email like yesterday these weeks go by way fast!!! Anyway hope everyone's week was wonderful my week was full of excitment and craziness!



We had a lot of interviews this week and we started off the interiews up in south Auckland so while president Rudd is interviewing the missionaries of the zone we are giving a training to the rest of the zone, we started off in my last zone Manurewa! and then went over to Redoubt! after the interviews we went on exchange with the Redoubt Zone leaders and that was really awesome especially since one of the Zone leaders Elder Ith came out to the mission with me i met him in the Salt Lake Airport so we have literally known each other our whole mission! anyways we went into a lesson tuesday night with a less active member she was super nice and we had an awesome visit with her and at the end of the lesson we invited her to say the prayer and she was like ah i will next time and then Elder Ith was like you said that last time and the time before that and she was like i really mean it this time haha and i'm thinking to myself there is no way we are leaving here without this lady praying so i say to her if i sing a solo will you say the prayer and she was like yup and i was like al all right someone give me a hymn book haha i sang the solo then she said the prayer only she cheated she said the prayer in Maori! haha but it was all goods Elder Ith said they had been trying to get her to pray for ages so we were satisfied with that.


Then the next day on wednesday we were just walking around the area and it came to lunch time and we got back to their flat and my comp and his comp werent back yet and they had the key so we just decided to keep walking we walked around the corner and walked through the gate of the first house and just started talking to the two guys one was in his 20's and the other was like 19 and we had an awesome talk with them, they said to us that they always were so unsure about missionaries but after talking to us they think we are the coolest people ever haha so that was a pretty cool miracle and so elder ith and his companion are going to keep trying and visiting with them.


The rest of the week we were doing more interviews and that was literally the rest of the week but it has been great to go around to all the different zones and visit with them all and give our training it is pretty cool cause the training is like second nature now we can just go up and do it, i guess that is what happens when you have done it six times haha.


On sunday we also had the opportunity to go with president and sister rudd to the Tauranga stake conference which that was the first zone i was in so i got to see all of the members from my first are which was really cool and it was really cool to see that they all remembered me also so that was nice. and the sunday meeting was awesome too the authority who was speaking did awesome and it really good for me at that point in time!


But that was pretty much the week I have been sick the whole week so part of thursday and all of friday we were in the flat so i could try to feel better but i still felt pretty gross throughout the weekend and am finally starting to feel better!


Well I hope everyone has a wonderful week and please be safe! Love you all and remember the church is true!!!!! and it always will be! that is a fact of life!!!! 

Exchange with Elder Ith

Dax calls this one "I got ya Cindy Lou!"

Mar. 6

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well hope everyone's week was sublime!

We had a really good week down here in Aotearoa, now the challenge will be me trying to remember everything!

First we started off last week with a really good preparation day, because of some craziness that we had to deal with President and Sister Rudd decided to take us to lunch  and then we went to this old car museum which was really cool!

Then on Tuesday we had our Mission Leadership Council that is when all the Zone Leaders come up and we have a council haha but that was really good.

Then this week we had a really good Lesson with Mason and his kids we had them set for baptism on the 19th of this month we might be pushing it back but that is all good we are working really hard with Mason to help him be prepared to baptize the kids and so we went over and just had a really good visit with them and when we left we gave them  all the commitment that before they walk out the door in the morning to go to school and work that as a family they each need to read one verse from The Book of Mormon they said they would and then when we went back the next day we asked them how it was and they said it was incredible that it made such a difference in their day! 

Our next good visit we had this week was with another investigator who we haven't been able to see in ages and we were a bit worried because he was progressing so well and then all of the sudden nothing, but finally we got to visit with him and turns out a member of his family kinda led him to some anti-mormon material and so we sat down with him and answered the questions he asked us it wasn't anything really intense but we did tell him we will answer any question he has and we will prove it all using the bible, and then we will prove the answer from the bible using The Book of Mormon.  I told him also I said we can give you all this physical evidence that The Book of Mormon is true, we can tell you about all the evidence in america they have found and all the evidence in the middle east they have found but you will not gain a true knowledge of The Book of Mormon that way, a true sure knowledge of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon will only come from reading and praying and sincerely asking God if it is true, that is the only way that we will be able to be 100% sure that The Book of Mormon is true.  So we committed him to read and pray and we will keep visiting with him and we will see how it goes but we feel confident about it all so we are not worried.

We also had stake conference this week and that was really great the theme was becoming self reliant both in the world and spiritually.  There were lots of wonderful talks given and some wonderful life experiences were shared.  I got a lot of personal revelation in those meetings so I have some things to do for the next little while to keep myself busy in studies so i am super excited to have some good studies!

Well that is all the time I have this week I hope everyone has a great week and that everyone will read from The Book of Mormon this week and "feast on the words of Christ" The Book of Mormon is true that is a fact of life read it and see how wonderfully it blesses your life! have a good week everyone!

Arohanui!

Always a Lesson to be Learned

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well sorry that I didn't get a group message sent last week it was easily the craziest week of my entire life and you all can ask me about it when I get home and I might tell.

I hope everyone is doing well though! and hope you all had a great week!  Heard the CV basketball team did really good in state! so Shout Out to my bro's who play on the team Abe and Job Hux!!!

Well last week we had to take all the missionaries that were finishing to the airport and then pick up the new missionaries it seemed like just a few days ago we were doing the first pick up but amazingly it has already been six week!  Now we have this transfer which is a bit different because it is going to be eight weeks long! But it is going to go by way fast because we have a lot of things planned for this transfer so I am super excited for this transfer.  

Besides all the craziness that happened last week we had a really good lesson last night with the LA dad and his kids that we have been teaching and last night we set them for baptism!!!! and they will all be preparing to be baptised on the 19th and then the dad is preparing to baptise them that day! so we are super excited the spirit was so strong in the lesson and the kids were so excited they both have been wanting to get baptised for a long time so they are really excited!

Also we were able to see last night a few of our investigators that we haven't been able to see in a while and they hadn't been answering our texts and we finally saw them last night and it turns out he put his phone on top of his car and now he cant find it so that was a relief also!

But that is really all for this week and some of you might be thinking really? but i'm being totally honest when I say we didn't get to do any missionary work the whole week until Sunday,  but it is okay because we had great visits with those who we did get to see and Heavenly Father was for sure guiding us throughout the whole day yesterday!

The thing I learned the most this week is to just always remember to never ever let your circumstances get you down their is always a lesson to be learned in everything and we will always learn and grow more when times are tough or we feel weighed down, my challenge to everyone is to always remember how good life is and remember that our Heavenly Father has given us all these things for our benefit and for our good, I have learned the best way to handle all situations is to ask myself what does Heavenly Father want me to learn here and instead of having a bad attitude have a learning attitude and everything works out!

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

Arohanui 

Make Miracles

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well hope everyone has had a wonderful week!

My week was pretty full on.  We had nothing but exchanges this week and that was crazy it was a whole lot of driving and whole lot of sleeping on floors.

We went from one coast to the other this week we started the week on Tuesday in New Plymouth down in Taranaki and then drove to my favourite area Wairoa had an exchange with the elders there and then up to Gisborne to have an exchange with the Zone Leaders and then to Rotorua to have exchange with the Zone Leaders there also.

The great thing about all of this is it is all such a wonderful learning experience getting to be with other missionaries and also getting to know all the missionaries in the mission.

This is really really short dont have any time left but hope everyone has a wonderful week.  One thing i learned this week from exchanges was so many times in life we think that we just need to constatnly be seeing these amazing miracles in our lives, but what i learned this week is we dont learn anything from miracles that just come to us, we need to learn to go out and make miracles that is something Heavenly Father has been teaching me that if we want miracles to occur in our life go out and work for them and make them.  Love you all hope you all go out and make miracles in your lives this week!

Best Mission in the World

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well what a really good week we had down here in New Zealand and more specifically in the New Zealand Hamilton Mission the best Mission in the World!

Hope everyone had a good week also and that everyone is doing well!

First off for this week was we had our three days of Zone Conference and those ended up going great I felt pretty good about my training and after doing it nine time i had it pretty much down and knew it like the back of my hand, and yet I kept changing it a little bit each time, it was interesting to see the way the spirit guided the conversations and each one was really really good I thought so hopefully everyone else thought they were good also.

We did a total of three days and each of the days we broke up all the missionaries in to three groups so we all gave our training three times which was really fun and all the missionaries were really good and everyone participated really well and it felt like everyone walked away with something they had learned!  Me and Elder Tibbitts got to rid to all the conferences with President and Sister Rudd which made it even more fun they told us heaps of stories and we told them some stories also and we all just kinda got to know each other a little bit better which was really cool!

On tuesday after the Zone Conference we got to Hamilton at about 5 o'clock and texted one of our investigators to see if we could come over and usually when we text they are like yeah sure come over at seven thirty, but this time they were like yes please!!!!! so we went over and we had been talking about what we wanted to share with them as we were driving over and when we got their on of the partners came out and she started telling us what a stressful week it has been since she just started school and all this stuff and so we went inside she was telling us a little more and then she said when she was driving home she had this thought come into her mind and it was "the missionaries" she said when she thought that she just felt this relief come over her and she felt like a weight was lifted off her, so we asked her what she thought that was and she said well I assume it is the spirit cause that is what you guys always talk about, and we were like yeah that is the spirit haha.  But then the other partner started telling us he had a really stressful week and so we started sharing some scriptures with them and helped them to see how they can find Comfort in The Book of Mormon and other scriptures and then before we left we gave them both blessings and they were both just blown away by that they thought it was amazing!  it was just a really cool visit though because they learned to recognize the spirit for themselves it wasnt us explaining everything to them but we were just guiding them and they were answering their own questions it was really really awesome!

We have also been having some great visits with a part member family it a dad and his two kids that are 9 and 7 we are helping the dad come back to church and he is making leaps and bounds it is awesome he has stopped smoking and is starting to come back to church! He should be able to baptize his son here soon and then his daughter also.  We went over Monday night and gave both of the kids blessings for the start of the school year and after he said he hopes that he can do that next year and we said we will make sure you do it next year!  he is such a great guy and his kids are awesome too!  

One thing that I focused on in my training for Zone Conference was having charity when we teach, we can ask all the right questions and teach really really well but if we do not have charity it doesnt matter(1 corinthians 13:1) And so that is something that I have tried to start applying in my missionary work and i'm starting to see it slowly work its way into my teaching and it is really cool to see and to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for everyone.

Charity is important in so many aspects of our life.  I feel it is the sum of all the Christ-Like Attributes and with it we can accomplish many wonderful things, when we have charity it will cast out the fear to share the gospel and we will be driven by a love for the people more than anything else.  I hope everyone will study more about charity this week and apply it into your individual lives and use it for the purpose of sharing the Gospel, the Gospel is to precious of a message for us to keep to ourselves so I encourage everyone to "Pray unto the Father with all energy of heart that ye may receive this Love"(Moroni7:48).  I love you all have a good week everyone! 

Kia Kaha!

Hump Day!!

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well hope everyone’s week was great! Our week down here was very crazy!

So on Tuesday we were at President Rudd’s house planning for our Zone Conferences we are having this week, and then he starts to tell us that he got a call from the Area President who told him that D. Todd Christofferson is coming to New Zealand and wanted to have a missionary conference now this was on Tuesday that we found this out and the conference was on Saturday so we had to hurry and organize how to get 200 missionaries up to Auckland and then figure out seating and all sorts of stuff but it all worked out really well and the conference was amazing!  I can now say that I have shook Elder Christofferson’s hand twice!  The whole time he was cracking jokes and answering questions.  It is really cool to see how great of a knowledge they have of the scriptures and just how they can flip to scripture after scripture and answer all the questions so well it was so cool!  There were lots of other really good talks also but don't really enough time to write everything!

Anyway after that we came back to Hamilton and we went and visited one of our investigators and we were going in planning on teaching him about the Doctrine of Christ or the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we had this nice plan set out and we went in and we just started talking about the Book of Mormon ended up answering most of his questions and literally everything he said you can just tell that he has really been prepared to receive the gospel and so then in the lesson we invited him to come to church and he said yeah i was actually thinking about asking you where it was so i could come and me and elder Tibbitts were just like ok this guy is awesome! haha anyway he came to church and loved it literally the whole meeting seemed like it was tailored around his needs and the best part was he recognized it and was like wow that was just for me!

We also had another family come to church the Dad is a member just hasn't been active for a while we have been helping him quit smoking and he is doing really good! he has a 9 year old son who is not baptised and a 7 year old daughter who is turning 8 in a few weeks and they both want their Dad to baptise them so we are working really hard to help the dad to come back to church and be able to quit smoking so he can do that for his kids.   And yesterday a little after sacrament started we looked out the doors and saw them walk in and that was just the best thing ever it was so good to see them! That probably made my whole week!

But this week was great we had so many wonderful lessons and just all around good visits all week.  

This week we have our Zone Conferences and so we will be preparing for those today because the first one is tomorrow and then the other two are on Wednesday and Thursday and i will have to give my training three times each day so if we do our math 3 X 3 = 9 so i will be giving my training nine times and that will just be crazy so i could really use those prayers haha.

But that is all for this week it was a really good week and it was so fun to be able to hear another Apostle my testimony was strengthened so much by his Witness it was incredible how powerful the spirit was when he bore witness you couldn't deny it the spirit hit me like a rock or something harder than that it was more like a train but that doesn't really describe it good enough the spirit hit me really hard and I know that he is an Apostle of Jesus Christ without a doubt.  I love you all and am so grateful for all of you and the ways that you all have blessed my life.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Love you all!

Baptism- Nina (10) Toka (9) Caterine (8)

Enjoying NZ weather

Happy Hump Day!!

Jan. 24

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well I hope you everyone has had a wonderful week, my week was pretty good and pretty busy!

I'm pretty short on time today and so i will be sure to share those really cool experiences that we had this week

First one we were at the Visitors Center on Monday having a lesson with some less actives and some member families and what not and after we had gotten done with a few of them and we were about to leave to go visit with President Rudd Elder Tibbitts grabbed me and handed something to me and it was a receipt and on it someone had written "I'm not a member teach me something" and then he had written some other things on the back and it basically said don’t ask me questions... so we go into one of the teaching rooms and we started to try to get to know the guy and see what he wanted us to teach him, we started talking about the basics and well let’s just say he knew a lot more than just the basics and then he was like teach me something I don’t know.  So Elder Tibbitts was talking to him and the whole time I was just thinking man what can we teach this guy I hope he doesn't ask me a question because my mind was totally blank, then all of the sudden some of the sister missionaries come in and take elder Tibbitts because a member family had showed up who we had set up a lesson with so i was left there with this guy and I'm supposed to teach him something he doesn't know, now this guy’s wife is a member he has two sons on a mission and a daughter who is leaving on a mission shortly.  So I said a quick prayer and just started talking I can’t really remember everything that I said but he started asking me questions and telling me how he thinks it’s stupid that his sons are on missions and how his daughter is going on a mission and then he said to me do you really believe this (meaning the church, book of mormon etc..) and I looked him in the eye and I said "No, I don’t believe it.... I know it" I wish you all could have seen his face when i said that but his attitude totally changed and he said "That's something I've never heard before" he sat there for a little while and thought and then he said "You have given me some things to think about, thank you, you have answered my questions"  That was easily one of the craziest experiences I have had on my mission and it was incredible I think I know how Ammon felt when he was with king Lamoni and he asked him a question and he didn’t answer and so the spirit gave him a question to ask and he was able to discern his thoughts because the Lord put thoughts into my mind that were not my thoughts and I was able to say exactly what he needed to hear.  It was 100% by the spirit!

Next story I was on an exchange with one of my old companions Elder Stephens and we were in their area and he told me there is a house that has an American flag outside and so I said we better go knock it, as we were walking to the house he pointed to another house and said a Member family lives there we can visit them after we knock on the other house, after we passed the driveway we both were just like you know what let’s just go right now, so we knocked on the door they let us in and we were talking to them and the sister in the house said "so as missionaries are you just constantly impressed to knock on doors" and we were like yeah sometimes but more often than not no and then she was like it seems like every time missionaries knock on our door it’s just at the right time and then she paused and was like "I think this is one of those times" her and her husband began to tell us how they just ended a fast because their youngest sons family is going through some struggles, they then asked us what more can we do and we just explained to them that prayer and fasting are very powerful so trust in those things, we then shared the story of when Elijah met the widow and had her make him some bread even though that would mean she wouldn’t have enough for her and her son but then Elijah promised her that if she made it for him first that the barrel of mill would not go empty.  we promised them that if they put heavenly father first trusted in him that everything will work out.  We then went and knocked on the American flag door had a talk with those people, then we back to the member home for dinner and when we went in the dad was on the phone and when he got off they said that he was on the phone with their oldest son who just got off the phone with their youngest son, then they said that was the answer to our prayers we didn’t think it would come this quickly, then they said thank you to us...

Really awesome experiences this week that have really helped my testimony grow even stronger! I love you all hope you all have a good week!

Temple View

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well what a week this week was transfers and boy was it crazy! The missionary department put out a new rule that we are no longer allowed to do transfer meetings so everyone has to get to their new area by using a the buses and man that was a little crazy especially since this is the first time that we have ever had to do this in the mission so it was a learning experience for us all, the good thing was that I got to the office after all the major stuff had been done so now we are just trying to figure out how to get everyone their bikes... we will let you know how that goes!

But enough about that boring stuff!  I am loving my new area Temple view is great there are so many members in temple view it is useless to go tracting because everyone is a member! I feel like I am back in Utah again!

But this week on Tuesday we took all the missionaries who were returning home to the airport, and then on Wednesday went to the MTC and picked up all the new missionaries and drove them down to Hamilton to the Mission Office and then had the new missionary orientation at the mission office then at president rudds house then on Thursday we shipped them all off to their new areas and boy was that just a mess!  but we have learned so now next time we know exactly what not to do haha.

But everything is going great we have alot of really good progressing investigators in this area and i a have already gotten real close to a lot of them! their is so much that can happen here in this area and so Me and Elder Tibbitts(my comp) are planning on working really hard.  And we need to because President Rudd wants us to be the examples so if we do well then we can hold the rest of the mission accountable but if we are not then they wont really want to listen to us, so it puts a little pressure on the shoulders but it is good.

This week we have heaps of lessons planned at the visitors center it is so nice to have the temple so close and to be able to take people to the visitors center, we had dinner with a member family and some of their friends that are not members and after dinner we took them to the visitors center showed them a video and had a great lesson with them, and when we saw the member family yesterday at church they said that after it got that family thinking so that is good!

Well that is really it for this week, this week is going to be really busy so i will try to remember it all for next week so i can give everyone all the details!  Love you all thanks for all the love and support that you all give me i can feel all of your prayers they help so much!  Have a good week everyone!

Goal Setting

Kia Ora Everyone!

I hope everyone had a really good New Years cant believe that it is now 2016!  where did 2015 go!!!

I hope everyone has set some good goals for this New Year and i hope that you also haven't already broken the resolutions you made haha.  Goal setting is so important M. Russell Ballard says the if we do not master the art of goal setting we can live our life to a ripe old age and find out that we lived under our potential!  I would encourage everyone to study Goals in chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel!

Well we will get right in to it this was a really wonderful week and really crazy also!  New Years was insane!  the best experience of  this week we were visiting with one of our Less active members who has three daughters that haven't been baptized yet, and me and elder noa had been teaching them and me and elder gutke still go over and visit, elder noa and i had them set for baptism for the 28th of November but because of some stuff with their family not being members and not believing in the church the mom wouldn't let them get baptized, but we went this week for a visit and the dad told us that he wants them to get baptized now and the mom gave permission and so they will be getting baptized on this coming Saturday!  it was a really cool miracle and it was really awesome it made my whole week!!!

Another really really cool thing about this week was yesterday we had 13 investigators at church!!! 13! it was amazing we were so happy especially because so many of the people who came we have been trying to get to come for ages! and they finally came and they had a good time!! The Lord does bless us when we keep enduring and keep going.  Just because the blessing doesn't come on our time doesn't mean it is not going to come.  Remember to hold fast to the iron rod and "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ and a perfect brightness of hope" - 2 Nephi 31:20

We also had a really good lesson with a Part member family, we taught the dad who is not a member about the Restoration of the Gospel and the spirit was really strong, we then started really focusing on The Book of Mormon and because that is the "fruit" that Joseph Smith brought forth if you want to know he is a prophet read The Book of Mormon and pray and ask God if it is true, the spirit was really strong and we are really eager to have another lesson with him this week!

Now I know I know this is short again and I did promise a big email last week but these miracles are really all i think i need to share this week and remember "by small and simple means are great things brought to pass" - Alma 37:6

I love you all and I hope everyone has a really great week and that you all begin this new year of 2016 off strong,  make good goals and plan how you will accomplish those goals and you will be able to have a wonderful year!  Love you all!!!!

Christmas All Year Long

Kia Ora Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas mine was really great!  the best part was for sure getting to call home and see my wonderful family!

I wish i could have been able to see each and every single one of you but what do yah do.

Well it was a really crazy week and not much missionary work really got done this week on Wednesday we had a our mission Christmas conference and that was really fun we all learned the actions to the new mission Haka which was really cool even though i wasnt very good at it haha but it was still really fun!  

On Christmas eve Elder Gutke and I literally were Santa Claus we were driving around all day giving people their Christmas packages and just when we thought we were done we got a call from some other Zone Leaders telling us they had just picked up mail and there was mail for elders and sisters in our Zone so we went and met the other Zone leaders got the mail and started all over again that went until like 4 O'clock.  

then we had one of our members text us and tell us they had a ham they wanted to give to someone for Christmas and so we went and got the ham and took it to one of our families we visit and they were very grateful and it really softened the Fathers heart which was awesome, and after we set their nine year old son who we have been teaching for Baptism on the 9th of Jan and the Dad was like "yep thats you my bro" it was awesome!

Small and simple things bring to pass great things, small and simple acts of service bring about wonderful blessings.  I have learned this Christmas once again how much better it is to give than it is to receive,  that is how we feel the true spirit of Christmas by giving.  My testimony of that has grown even more this year, I hope we can all remember to have that giving attitude throughout the rest of the year, the world may think Christmas ends after the 25th but we can keep the spirit alive all year long as we all have an attitude of giving for this new year to come!  When we are in the service of our fellow beings we are only in the service of our God!  as we serve others we serve our Heavenly Father.

I am sorry this is a really really short email  not really to much to report on this week, and i really just can’t remember but next weeks will be alot longer cause we have got a great week ahead of us!  I hope everyone has a good week and a good new years finish 2015 off strong and start 2016 off strong!  Love you all!

Dec. 20

Kia Ora Everyone!!!!!

How was everyone's week? 

Mine was pretty good also!  Can’t believe it is already Christmas this week time is just flying by on the mission!

First off for today I hope everyone has watched the videos that the church has put out for Christmas and has made an effort to share them with others whether it was putting it on social media or sharing it some other way.  Remember the message of the Gospel is too precious for us to keep to ourselves.

One pretty cool experience from this week when we went to go visit one of our investigators when we knocked on her door she was busy but this guy was just leaving the house and he started talking to us turns out he is a member of the church and he has made a few mistakes in his life but he wants to get on the right path again, so we talked to him for a little bit then set up an appointment to meet with him tomorrow and help him to start coming back to church!  It was a really cool experience of being at the right place at the right time to find the One.  It is incredible how Heavenly Father leads you along and really sometimes he does it without you even knowing it!  I think that is something i have learned this week and what seems to have been a recurring theme from the Apostles is that we are actually doing better than we think we are.  Sometimes we think we are just going somewhere just because but turns out there is a greater purpose and we didn't even know we were listening to the spirit.  It is wonderful how the spirit works!

We had a super spiritual Sacrament meeting yesterday I love the Christmas programs they always have such a special spirit.  And the best part we had several investigators at church and i'm positive they felt the spirit!  Christmas time really does bring a special spirit and i'm sure it is because everyone turns their thoughts even more towards the savior at this time of year it would be really wonderful if there was this feeling all year long!

I know this is a really really short email, but i just wanna spend the last of this to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!! I love you so much you are the absolute best Mom in the whole world!!!!!  I dont know what i did to deserve such a wonderful Mom, you have taught me so much and i am so very grateful for all that you have done for me and for all that you continue to do for me!  Thank you for always reminding me to stand up tall,  thank you for always being so nice to me and all of my friends and making us some really good food for lunch.  But most thank you for always staying up late when I was out with friends to make sure i got home safe and thank you for staying up even later talking to me about how the night was.  There was never a night when i came home that you didnt still have TLC on and you were awake waiting for me.  I am so grateful for those times and the awesome times we had together watching movies and just having fun you are the best mom in the whole world and you have taught me so much!  you are so caring for others and you are always worried about others that one still hasnt sunk in on me yet but hopefully it will get there soon!  You are the best Mom!  If anyone happens to see my mom in this coming week be sure to tell her happy 25th birthday, also if ya’ll wanna throw it up on facebook and what not feel free to! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JELLO!!!!!!!!!

Love you all sorry this is short but hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and family can’t wait to talk to you on Christmas!!!!!!!!!