"You could buy me a burrito and some beans and rice."

Kia Ora everyone!

Been a great week here in Te Aroha!

On Monday after emails I got to climb Mount Te Aroha and look out over the town. It was a fairly difficult hike but Elder Patea and I got up there in about and hour and a half but it takes most people 2 1/2-3 hours to get to the top. We were so sore when we got to the bottom but I think it was totally worth it. We spent the next couple of days walking kinda funny because of how sore we were but it still didn't hold us back all that much. 

We had a pretty good rest of the week and had our last district meeting. After our meeting we had some popcorn and talked about good object lessons we can do to help our investigators so if anyone has any good lessons or activities you can do for teaching people, tell me! 

On Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference and Elder S. Gifford Nielsen was the presiding Seventy. There was some really good talks given but we didn't get any of our investigators there which was kinda stink. Katrina was also pushed back for the 19th of December but we will continue working with her to get her more prepared.

I am getting transfered this next week and I will be serving in the Gisborne Stake with Elder Christensen. Gisborne is a city that is really far away from Hamilton (about 5 hours away) and is supposedly really beautiful but I have not seen it yet. I am really excited to be going there!

Kia Kaha

Elder Mitchell

attached are pictures of the hike we did on Monday and one of me and the radio tower on top.

"Do you have any other skills, like typing?"

Buenos Dias!

It has been a pretty rainy week here in Te Aroha but we have had quite a few things happen.

On Thursday we met with Amon and while we were over there, his daughter came out and started talking with us as well. Amon was freaking out because he did not expect his daughter to be into the whole church thing but she was asking a lot of questions and trying to learn more but it seemed like she was just curious. We committed her to pray about what we talked about and set an appointment for the next day. It turns out that she forgot to pray that night but we recommitted her to pray and invited her to attend church with us. She accepted but still didn't show up on Sunday, why must it be so hard to get people to come to church.....

Other then a whole lot of finding, milking cows, a whole lot of crazy people who yelled at Elder Rios and I, and a pretty funny district meeting; I would say we had fairly normal week. We have officially run out of doors to knock here in Te Aroha and have been trying hard to find other ways to get new people to teach. We have only had a few of our investigators drop us but we have only picked up a couple. We have transfers next week and I have a feeling that I will be leaving but I keep on putting in requests to be with Elder Lingwall but he is Zone Leader so I am not sure how that will work.

All is well here in Te Aroha!!!

Elder Mitchell

"Calling each other names like 'dork'"

Good Day!!!!

Very good week here in Te Aroha and we got a lot of work done. We met with some very prepared spirits and managed to do quite a bit of service.

On Tuesday, Elder Patea and I set Katrina (the lady I told you guys about last week) for baptisms on the 12th of December! She is so accepting of the truths of the gospel and she even came to church on Sunday and brought some of her very delicious baking. She has been doing pretty good but is looking for a job because there is no work here in New Zealand. We gave her the Book of Mormon and committed her to pray about it but when she extended the invitation she said: "I already know its true I just want to make sure God is okay with me taking this step". When we went over on Tuesday she asked if we anoint our sick with oil and we replied that we did, she said that's good because that's what the bible says we should do.

On Monday after our P-day ended, our FHE for the night fell through so we were not able to go to that but it turns out God had other plans for us. I felt prompted to go knock doors on this particular street and we drove over to the other side of town. We knocked on 7-8 doors and were met with little interest but then we met Amon. A couple weeks ago his wife passed away suddenly and he was left with a daughter and a whole lot of sadness. We talked with him about eternal families and how death is only a temporary separation. It turns out that he is a inactive member and stopped attending church 30 years ago after he left Church College (a LDS high school across the street from the Hamilton Temple, which has since shut down). We invited him to church and he accepted but said that he will only come if he can get his daughter to come with him. He wants her to learn of the things he learned as a child.

Miracles are happening here in Te Aroha!

Elder Mitchell

Attached are a photo of our Zone and of a Blokhedz set I just completed

"There is no more unethical treatment of the elephants."

Kia Ora everyone!

Well we did pretty good this week here in Te Aroha! After a really good week last week we made some really aggressive goals to get the work moving here. We got out there and made the miracles and met some very prepared people to preach the gospel to. On Friday we had an appointment to go over and teach one of our less-actives but when we got there we found out that he was not home. We decided to go and walk around to try and find some people we could talk to and we saw this lady sitting on her porch. Her name is Katrina and she has had a hard life, her husband died after 10 months of marriage and wants some peace and comfort knowing what his fate will be. We taught part of the Plan of Salvation and set up an appointment for Tuesday where we plan on setting her for baptism.

This week has been full of learning experiences such as the times were Elder Patea and I would slack on small things like getting out of the flat 5-10 minutes late, we would almost always get the door slammed in our face or get yelled at when we got to our first door. We have definitely learned the blessings of exact obedience and now as we are working harder then I have ever before, we cannot afford to loose some of those blessings.

I don't really have too much time because we are getting ready to hike a mountain near Te Aroha but I just want you all to know that I love you and I am so very grateful for all that you guys have done for me and for all the letters/emails of encouragement!

Have a good week!!!!

Elder Mitchell

#MakeTheMIRACLES

"Wait outside all night to find 20 dudes in a conga"

We killed it in Te Aroha this week.

After getting Elder Patea back from the doctors on Wednesday night (he had a boil in his butt), we hit the streets hard. We found heaps of new people to teach and spent most of our time out teaching lessons and talking with people (we set an area record for total lessons taught). We are going to be working really hard to get some more people to church this week but struggled with helping people make and keep commitments. I ran every morning this last week which was really nice but I think I am out of shape, I need to work really hard because I think I am putting on some weight over the past couple of months.

As for spiritual experiences this week, I think that the one that sticks out the most is on Wednesday when I was with Elder Gemmell. We were walking down the street and there was a  guy who was walking towards us. When we got closer, he said "Mormons?" and we replied "Yup!". It turns out that he is a member but went less active because of some of the worldly stuff that he had gotten into, and that he wants to start coming back to church. We went by his house on Saturday and talked with him about some of his goals and he said he would like to serve a mission but that he doesn't think it will be possible because he is 26 but he still wants to get his endowments which was pretty cool to hear. He is a very good guy but just lost his way somewhere along the track.

It is so awesome to be able to find people like him and although he is already a member, he still has a need of the restored gospel.

Talk to you guys next week!

Elder Mitchell

Attached is a picture of a hedge on the outskirts of Te Aroha.