"waiting for a call from my family...they forgot about me"

Won't be a long email because I will be skyping home but.....

This week was awesome!!!

We killed it for the first 1/2 of the week but after that we sort of got stuffed by a lot of people dropping appointments but were still able to be somewhat productive with the rest of our time. The Traveling Assistants came down on Wednesday and we had a really good couple of hours with them. Elder Wark (from Scotland) came with me and we were able to be a part of a couple of miracle moments.

1. One of our investigators finally answered the door with pants on. (He never wore pants)

2. We decided to go see one of our members and he was about to call us to ask for a blessing but we showed up at his house anyway.

3. Elder Wark got beat up by one of our semi-active members and then he showed us some Karate moves.

And that was only in like 2 hours of actual proselyting!

Elder Christensen and I have been doing some pretty good work down here and have been getting along really well! He is such a good missionary and I feel like I am being trained by him but yet he has only been out like 9 weeks! It has definitely been a humbling experience for me!

That'll be all for this week but I will talk to you guys later on Christmas!!

Elder Mitchell!

#KiaKaha #MakeTheMiracles

"Get your hand off my tail, you'll make it dirty"

This week.... WE GOT ANOTHER SET!!!

So after a pretty slow beginning of the week with Elder Christensen being sick on Wednesday and basically all of our appointments fell through on Tuesday, we had Zone Meeting with the Assistants. They gave a training on how to use the baptism tracker and how to best extend the invitation to be baptized which we then used to set one of our brand new investigators for the 16th of January on the first lesson. He accepted all the commitments but we think there still might be some concerns because he cannot read very well but hopefully that doesn't turn out to be a huge problem. 

We have been trying to work as hard as possible but since Elder Christensen is being trained and didn't really get to know the area very well when he was with his last companion because he did everything for him. I have been trying to help out as much as possible and am starting to learn the area fairly quickly which I have had to do in my past 4 areas because all my companions have left after 1 transfer. It is pretty interesting to be a follow-up trainer now because I have to try and break him out of all the bad habits his trainer got him into and help him relax a little bit because he is super stressed out. He reminds me a lot of how I was when I started my mission but it is also nice because I know how to remedy it.

Other then a few new investigators we have found throughout the week it was a pretty normal last couple of days. We had a Christmas Fireside at our chapel but I forgot my camera so I won't send any pictures till next week. I am definitely loving it here in Te Hapara Ward!!!!!

Elder Mitchell

Ps. If any of yous see my older brother Nik, tell him happy birthday! 

"You think that might be what you fancy?"

This week has been crazy!!!!

So we found out last Monday that I was being transfered from Te Aroha to Gisborne in the Te Hapara Ward. I thought my work was done in that area but I was mistaken. After almost losing one Katrina to a hard core Open Brethren Bible-Basher, we went and had a Family Home Evening with Katrina and that guy decided that he should come along. He spent the whole time trying to find something he could disagree on but Bro Whitehead (one of our awesome members) kept on shutting him down. 

While we were at the FHE, some guy came in and sat down as we were giving the lesson and after about 30 minutes he got up and left but told Bro Whitehead as he left that he would like to start meeting with the missionaries. We set up an appointment with him for the next day and after teaching him the Restoration, we set him for baptism. There was a couple problems though, {1} He used to be the President of the Black Power {2} He is on the Rolex (what they call it when you are on probation) so we had to set him for the 30th of January which is when he gets off and {3} He isn't married to his partner but they only sometimes live in the same house (he has multiple houses across the country). He is a really nice guy who honestly wants to change his life but has been in a bad situation for so long, it will be pretty tough to get out. 

Even though I have left Te Aroha I know that it is being left in good hands and hopefully they can continue on progressing our investigators in that part of the Lord's Vineyard. I am so thankful for the opportunity I have had to serve the people there and I hope that the people there feel the same about me! 

Gisborne has been a very interesting time haha!!! I am now serving with Elder Christensen and the last couple of days have been a blast! I really enjoy serving in cities because of how close you are to everyone else so we get to see other missionaries all the time and we actually have stuff to do on P-day! I am follow-up training Elder C. and since he is my first step-son, I hope that I haven't ruined him too bad already but there are some bad habits that his previous companion got him doing that are not the best for successful missionary work. Hopefully my experience can help him to progress his skills as a missionary! 

I am definitely going to have a good transfer!!!!

Elder Mitchell

 Attached are photo's of the Volunteers for the Riding for the Disabled in Te Aroha and of Uncle Tony McLaren and I "fighting"