"Can you believe we're flying on homemade pillow wings?"

We had a mean week here in the Thames Valley (the name of the district which I am covering)!

We had exchanges this week with the Zone Leaders but since they are down in Hamilton we had them meet us up here and then we blitzed the area for a couple hours. We split up to go make some miracles so I was with Elder Van Thiel and Elder Niu'unga was with Elder Greep. It was a good exchange as we were able to visit a lot of people but as we started the exchange, it started raining (It didn't stop for 3 days). We started the day in Waihi which was pretty interesting because we blew threw 2 hours of plans in about 15 minutes and so we spent the time before lunch walking the streets and talking with people.

While we were tracting later that day, we met a Christian couple (they didn't tell us which denomination they were from) who tried to preach to us why there is no need for Prophets in these last days because the Holy Spirit was to guide us in a "unity of the faith". They proceeded to smash on us about why we did certain things in our church, but we just stood there and listened and when they finished we thanked them for their time and left. I have learned to never argue with people like that and while I was in Gisborne I bought a Triple Combination ( BoM, D&C, PoGP) so I would not be able to Bible Bash. It has continued to pay off :)

Our Branch Mission Leader got released on Sunday because of some of the problems that he has been causing in our Branch. Brother Whitehead will now be our Acting BML until a new one is called because it might take a while to find someone else because of the small numbers in the Branch. The members here feed us really well which is nice and they make sure that we are always being looked after, they love the missionaries (it also helps to have a Tongan companion in a branch that is largely Tongan)!

Loving it here in Paeroa!!!!

Elder Mitchell

The attached pictures are

1. A predicament that I had in one of our Less-Active members homes. I hoped that I could perform a miracle like the feeding of the 5 thousand but I was on my own with this one.

2. One of our members pants, Wow so style, 10/10 cool, very look,

"Turns out he's dead!"

Kia Ora everyone!

There hasn't been much exciting stuff that has happened here in Paeroa but we have been able to rustle up a few new investigators that we will start teaching next week. Because of how big our area is and how many different areas we have to cover, We can only spend about 1-2 days in each town group each week. This makes it hard to have daily contact with investigators who live far away from the town you are visiting which is difficult to get people progressing. 

On Monday we spend the day in Waihi (where our flat is) but since it is our P-day we ended up just hanging out at the chapel and playing games with Shane-o (our WML) because it poured rain all-day. Tuesday was still rainy but we managed to go up to Thames to help Bro. Whitehead (2nd counselor in the branch presidency) at his shop. I have gotten to know Bro. Whitehead pretty well when I was back in Te Aroha because his metal-working shop was in our area so we would always go help him out and he would come with us to lessons. His new shop in Thames is much nicer then the old one in T.A. but we are still trying to get it fixed up so he can focus on making new product. 

Wednesday was mostly spent driving from one dropped appointment to another. We ended up walking around Kerepehi most of the day but did manage to find some new people to teach in that area so we will definitely have some work to this week! Thursday was Zone Meeting and it was basically the same training as the last Zone Meeting but they did tell us about Interviews with President and a Mission Tour with some of the people from the Missionary Department. Friday was spent mostly at a Tangihanga (Maori funeral) which was alright because we got fed pretty well. I got called on (as missionaries always do at funerals) to give a talk about the deceased but since I had only been in the area 8 days, I didn't ever get to meet the lady. I ended up testifying of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and bearing my testimony and after I sat down, they all stood up and began to sing Maori songs. It is a good thing I have been to a few of these before so I new some of the lyrics but I still didn't understand what I was saying. 

The rest of the week was alright but not much progress happened on either Saturday or Sunday but we did get to do MCM after church which will definitely help for this next week. 

TTYL

Elder Mitchell

PS. I also want to give a #ShoutOut to my older Brother Nik and my new sister in-law Alexia for getting married last week. Love you guys and I am so happy for you and your new bond :)