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

June 7th

Kia Ora Whanau!

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful week, mine went by pretty fast and I had a pretty good week, not really any exciting experiences but it was a good week.

To start off on Tuesday and Wednesday I was on an exchange with the district leaders companion his name is Elder Gish and we had a blast on Wednesday we were going to visit one of our potential investigators and when we pulled up to the house it just didn't feel right and I felt like we should go to one of our less actives and so we did and it turned out Elder Gish's last area was where this member used to live and they started talking about people and places and it made this members day!

on top of that we also had a great lesson with a couple we are teaching it is amazing every lesson with them is led by the spirit and it is them asking us questions and us answering! every question they ask there is a gospel principal as an answer.  It is pretty amazing, but that is what happens when the church is true.

We also on Saturday got to have two of the youth in the ward come out with us which was way fun it threw me back to the days when I would go out with the missionaries!

but really the rest of the week just consisted of us driving from place to place trying to see people and no one being home, but it is just a test of patience and I look forward to showing this test whose boss!

I need to say happy birthday to my Best Friend Nathan Walton sorry I cant be there to play the wii with you this year but I look forward to coming over and playing super smash brothers with you when I get back!

Also Grandma Holmes thank you for the wonderful letter and news paper article! I love you so much!

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson thank you for all that you do for me and I appreciate the love that you give me each week! your amazing!

I hope everyone has a great week I appreciate all the prayers they give me strength each day!  I hope everyone will take time this week and study and ponder The Book of Mormon, it will change your life as you study it.  You will start to see your life become better you will respond to challenges better and you will begin to see true joy and happiness!  I love you all! have a fantastic week!

Elder Johnson, Holmes and Gish

Enjoying Taraunga

Mission Conference

Kia ora nga whanau

Well first off I will start off this email with the best experience and that is that Elder Cook one of the Twelve Apostles said Amen to me! yep I said the opening prayer at the mission conference on Saturday and Elder Cook Said Amen to my prayer so pretty much I'm really special haha nah just kidding.  But it was a wonderful opportunity and that is something that I will for sure never forget! Also we all got to shake his hand and that was really cool also, it is funny how I have lived in Utah my entire life and I have to come to New Zealand to meet two apostles haha.

But other than the mission conference we had zone conference on Tuesday and that was really great!  President Rudd is just incredible I am so happy he is my Mission President!  Elder Cook said something that was really cool, and that was that when they assign missionaries to a mission they feel that they are more so assigning missionaries to a mission president not a country or a specific people.  And I have a for sure testimony of that I feel like I have known President and Sister Rudd my entire life and yet its only been four months!

Also along with the mission conference which was up in Auckland I had my first long distance trip as the driver in New Zealand which was just a wonderful adventure, I drove from here in Tauranga to Hamilton then up to Auckland and then from Auckland back to Tauranga, probably the longest trip of my life... but it was fun we didn't get lost so that was good.

But other than all that excitement there was really no missionary week done this week haha so not really anything else to say...  Other than I hope everybody is remembering to keep the Sabbath day holy!  We have six days to do whatever we want but the 7th Sunday is a day where we do what our Heavenly Father wants us to do, I encourage you all to study the sacrament prayers and ask Heavenly Father to help you better understand them!  The sacrament prayers are wonderful and by studying them this week I have gained a deeper knowledge of them and there importance! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Arohanui

At least we know he won't go hungry...

At the mission conference

Mastered the backflip

Tena Koe Everyone

How has everyone’s week been?

Well as sad as it is and as much as I hate to say it this week was really another one of those weeks where nothing really interesting happened and it was a real test you could say.

But last week for P-Day we went to this trampoline place and that turned out to be.. not fun haha it was really small and there was like nothing to do, but I did master the backflip so that was a for sure plus!

This week we had Zero investigators attend church with us and our investigator that we have set for baptism on the 6th of June when we visited him this week he was drinking coffee and about to light a cigarette...  and your not really supposed to be doing that when you are preparing to get baptized...

But some good news is we are having a zone conference on Tuesday and then on Saturday we are going up to Auckland for a mission conference with Quintin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve so that's a "Pretty big deal" and something I am for sure looking foreword to and I will be sure to tell you all about it next week!

Sorry it is so short not really anything to report on this week.  but I hope everyone has a great week and has a wonderful summer break! winter is just coming in to season here so I'm looking foreword to that... not really haha

Have a wonderful week everyone and constantly remember the things the Lord has done for you!

Arohanui!

May 17th

Kia Ora Everyone

                                       

Well this wasn't a very eventful week, except for the fact I got to see my Family which was awesome! can't wait to do that again in like seven months!

this week I came down with a bit of a cold but I didn't let it stop me! we still went to work and I had probably the best week I have had to date on my mission!

The best experience I would like to share with you all from this week was, you might remember a few weeks ago... or maybe a month or so idk, I talked about I had an impression to knock on a door and they ended up inviting us in and all this stuff, we have visited them a few times since but we went by this week and they told us the day that we first contacted them the one who answered the door was telling us how all these other people have knocked on there door and he has used some language that I can't use as a missionary to tell them to go away, he said when we knocked on their door he was trying to tell us to go away but he couldn't, and when he opened his mouth instead of go away come in came out.  We then taught them heaps of stuff they told us the reason they weren't married is because marriage ends after this life and we were like boy do we have news for you! We taught them about temple marriage and now they are very keen to get baptised!  They have a few problems that they need to work through but they should be baptised in this transfer!  We will be seeing them again today and we are going to watch Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration!  So pretty much its a movie night haha!

That's really all I have to tell from this week, One last thing before I finish is I want everyone to know that I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of us all especially in the hard times, Sometimes we think he is not there because maybe things are not going our way or maybe life got a little bit harder, but remember that the burdens of Alma and his people were not taken away but that the Lord said "I will also ease he burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs", remember to be patient in afflictions because the lord does visit his people in their afflictions.

I hope everyone has a great week, I love you all and want to thank you for all the prayers and love that I feel coming from you all!

May 3rd

Kia Ora

Well I hope everyone had a great week, mine was rather crazy and hectic!

So we will start off with the exciting news on Tuesday we went and had a visit with our investigator Shane, we had the best lesson that we have ever had with him in the months that I have been here and we set him to be baptised on the 6th of June!  It has been an amazing experience with him he has made incredible progress from when we first started teaching him, he comes to church every Sunday and has even started answering questions in some of the classes which is a plus! He just needs to stop smoking and it will be all goods!

The next experience I would like to share is a very interesting one... we were visiting a less active and him and his friend were rather... drunk and possibly other things but that is usually how he is, but while talking to us him and his friend asked us if we wanted to go for a ride, I then replied "You probably shouldn't be driving haha" they then said "oh not in the car, we will take you to an alternate universe" the less active said he would take us to where we live which is not on this earth, and his friend told us he would take us to where we die... it was interesting.  Then when we were leaving his friend brought out a crucifix and said you want to hold it? then said oh you better not it will burn your hand, my comp said yah we wont hold it then, but me being me haha I put out my hand and said ill hold it, he gave me a pretty shocked look and then slowly reached out and put it in my hand and low and behold nothing happened haha.  He asked me if it was getting hot I said no, then gave it back to him and when he grabbed it he said wow that's hot its really hot, and I replied that's how strong my faith is haha! it was a very interesting experience!

But that is really all the excitement for the week, one thing I would like everyone to think about this week is there fears, yes there fears, because the quote of this week is "when you find out your fears, your find where the edge of your faith is" make sure that we are all rooted in our faith so that when we face something that is hard we have the courage to keep walking. 

I would like to thank everyone for the love and support that you all give me I'm am the most blessed missionary in the entire world I feel all of your prayers for me everyday and I thank you all for that!

have a good week everyone!

April 26th

Kia Ora Everyone!

Well to start off all I hear from my wonderful mother is how all of you want me to make my emails longer... and I hate to break it to everyone but this will not be the week that happens but I will try to make them longer in the future!

To start off this week I went on an exchange out of my area up to a small town Called Katikati it is a little tiny branch of like 15 people, there is well not a whole lot to do there... but it was good. 

So it now gets dark here at about 5:30, and that makes it really difficult to knock doors because people do not like it when you knock late... apparently 6 is late... so it made it a little difficult to find things to do when all our appointments fell through, and me and my comp were just sitting in our car wonder ok what are we going to do now...  long stories short we couldn't find anything to do.

So really there was not to much excitement this week, we were supposed to have several of our investigators at church and they didn't show up or texted us sunday morning and said they were not going to be able to make it.   but that is all part of the mission life.

But something I would like to share with everyone this week is to never lose faith!  Thank our Father in Heaven for everything, yes even the trials, if you don't understand what I mean read 1 Nephi 18, Nephi has such incredible faith and is always grateful to the Lord! It is hard being out on a mission away from family and friends but if we have faith we trust in Heavenly Father everything works out! I know that.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week sorry this week wasn't very exciting in Tauranga.

Ka kite