Sunday, April 24, 2016

"Sometimes my rhymes are polite."

Greetings from Aotearoa or the Land of the Long White Cloud!

This week was transfers and I found out on Tuesday morning that Elder Coconut Lobster (Niu'unga) would be leaving to South Auckland to the Tongan program up there. I also found out that my new companion would be Elder Finau who was in my intake when we came into the mission. He is a great elder but has been in the Tongan Program for most of his mission so he has a lot of habits/expectations that are not the best for country branches. Elder Finau is from Saint George, Utah so he has a drivers license so when I get too tired to drive I can ask him to take over while I rest. All of the driving we do really takes a toll on you....

We went on a run this morning and he kept up with me most of the way but at the end was just way too tired so he wants to bike next to me now instead of running. While we were out running we found a gym that we might try and go exercise at but will still need to find out how much it costs and if it is worth it. I have been trying to get back into shape and have been doing extra workouts at night to drop off a few Kg's and get more fit.

I love all you guys and look forward to seeing you in a few short months!

Kia kaha!!!!


Elder Mitchell

Monday, April 18, 2016

"You know what it means when I'm down to my socks"

April 10, 2016

It has been a really good week here in the Paeroa Branch.

Since we are on the other side of the world, we don't get General Conference until the next week so we saw General Conference yesterday and on Saturday! The talks that were given were so powerful and I came out with answers to many of my questions that I had been having over the past couple weeks and months. My favorite talk from Conference was President Uchtdorf's in the Sunday Morning session although I am not sure if we are supposed to have a favorite talk haha :).

The rest of our week was really rough. On Tuesday I woke up with a sore stomach and at District Meeting I threw up only minutes before I had to present a training. After resting for a bit at the chapel we went back to Waihi so that I could rest because I would not have made it to Thames and back. I could barely stand as I gave my training and as I was driving home I had a hard time staying awake but I ended up making it home. I felt much better on Wednesday but still could not exert myself too much because of the lack of energy.

Other then that the week was really quite slow. We spent most of the week walking around on the streets and knocking doors because 3/4ths of the plans that we made the night before had fallen through. We did end up with a few new potential investigators so we were pretty excited but none of our investigators are keeping their commitments so we struggled with that as well. We have been working to make this next week the best week of the transfer!!!

Hope all is well back home!

Elder Mitchell


I am a Spanish genius!

Kia Ora Fam!!!!

It seems that the closer I get to going home (nearly 5 months now) the less enthusiastic I am about sending emails. I am sorry if it seems like I am not doing anything because of how my emails reflect my work. I just can't be bothered since I will see you guys soon anyways and I can tell you my stories then, but I will try and get better.

This last week was actually a pretty good week. We set a goal to beat all of our bests from previous weeks in the transfer and we beat all of them except for Investigators at Sacrament and Progressing Investigators. The jacket you guys sent me last winter is super nice here because it keeps all the rain outside and all the warm inside. 

We met a Chilean Less-Active last week and since I can speak more Spanish then my Tongan companion he thinks that I am a Spanish Genius. We helped her out with her lawn and did some clean-up around her section before her husband got home. 

We also have transfers this week but we think that Elder Niu'unga is leaving because he has been here the longest.

That's all for today but I will send pics next week when I have my camera. 

Love you guys and hope all is well back home!!!
 




 

Monday, April 4, 2016

"He'll have to walk home tonight."

Sorry for the late email Fam! I have been at the chapel to help prepare for the Family Home Evening tonight (it's Monday here). This will just be a short email because we have to go home and get changed to go back out and proselyte (work hard, play hard) in a few minutes.

We went to the temple this week and I came out with a few answers to my questions and received a lot of revelation for the people in we are teaching but I came out with a few questions that I have been pondering about which have the subject of my studies since then. 

The rest of the week was pretty interesting. There was a retro car show going on in Whangamata so we changed our plans on Wednesday so that we could go up and catch some of the people that would be walking around up there. It turns out that Wednesday was the day that they prepare for the party/show so we ended up just seeing some cool old cars and a few rich dudes who weren't interested at all in the gospel.... Yay!

That is all the exciting stuff this week had to offer so kind of disappointing but we are just keeping our heads up and trying to be as obedient as possible.

Love you guys!!!


Elder Mitchell

Sunday, April 3, 2016

"Oh no! His pants are too tight."

This week (like many other weeks before) we drove a lot...

On Monday we drive down from Waihi to Paeroa (about a 40k drive round trip) to email and then back to Waihi at night after we are done seeing those people we need to while we are down here. This week we had a FHE so we just stayed at the chapel basically all day.

Tuesday and Wednesday are usually spent between Kerepehi, Ngatea, Turua, Waitakaruru, and Thames which are about 50-60 Ks away from Waihi (where we live) and all of the people that we visit are far away from each other so we end up driving another 10-20 around the area. If we get stuck on a bad day we end up driving for about 2-3 hours.

Thursday is spent in Paeroa as well as anyone we need to see on the way through Karangahake Gorge. Its usually a pretty effective day as we don't have to drive a whole lot but sometimes we end up having to run errands for our Branch Presidency around the area.

Friday is a tough one. We drive up to Whangamata (about 30k one-way) plus if we have an appointment in Pauanui then we have to drive about an hour just to see a couple of people before dinner.

Saturday is spent in Waihi which gives me a break on driving so that's nice. But Sunday has us driving back to Paeroa then Thames to finish off our week. 

We usually end up driving about 700-900 Ks a week depending on if we have to drive to Hamilton or not. Sorry for not making it easy for anyone who is not familiar with the metric system so you'll just have to convert all the distances (LOL, homework for all the Americans).

That's what a typical week looks like here in Paeroa Branch. This week was a pretty slow week because of said driving but hopefully the new people that we found will continue to progress and make all of that gas worth-while!


Elder Mitchell