District Meeting Pictures

Elder Mitchell, Elder Gajultos, Elder Crank, Elder Noa, Elder Hirschi and President after District meeting on September 26th.

See you in 9!

Kia Ora Family and Friends!

This will be my last email that I will be sending home I just wanted to share my testimony with all you before I return home.

These last 23 and a half months have been some of the best months of my life. I have seen people who have come from some of the worst backgrounds, turn their lives around and accept the gospel. I have seen families on the brink of divorce and seperation turn to Jesus Christ and be sealed in the Temple of Our God for time and all eternity. I know that this church is true, not because of the miracles that I have seen but because of the mighty change of heart that I have seen in others and in myself. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and Joseph Smith DID translate it by the Gift and Power of God. 

I love each of you and look forward to seeing you in a short while.

Arohanui, 

Elder Mitchell

It's almost time....

This will be my second to last email that I will be sending home.

So after getting the 'hint' we will be covering Kawerau last week we finally got a confirmation from the Zone Leaders that we will be moving over to K-town. Elder Gajultos and I were pretty happy about this as you could probably guess as the members here in this area are amazing and are a huge blessing to us as missionaries. We spent Tuesday saying our 'goodbyes' in Whakatane but since we are just moving down the road we will still be seeing the members over there every once in a while. Elder Holmes and Elder Lambert (A brand new elder from Idaho) replaced us in Whakatane and they seem to be doing well because we haven't got any calls yet so we assume they are doing alright haha:)

Wednesday we spent packing up the rest of our stuff that was in the Whakatane flat and moved all of our food over because we needed some extra stuff in our pantries. We spent Thursday through Saturday passing out invitations to General Conference which was kind of sad because none of the people that we invited actually came even though most of them committed to come to the Sunday Sessions. 

Anyway, This last week was really good actually even though we didn't have any one come to Conference it was actually really good to watch it. There were so many great talks, I especially liked the Saturday afternoon session where Elder Christofferson spoke about unconditional love. 

My companion did some calculation and he determined that I have just over 1 million seconds left serving in the mission field so I think that he is more trunky for me then I am. We have been working as hard as we can to fill those last 1,000,000 seconds with the best work that I have ever done in my previous 23 months. 

Love you guys!

Elder Mitchell

I promise I'm not trunky.....yet :)

Kia Ora family,

It has been a sad week here in Whakatane and Kawerau. On Tuesday after District meeting I had a really sore throat and a mean headache so I went back to our flat to change and to go out to work. We went and saw a couple of people but I felt so bad that I had to go back to rest. I got worse and worse throughout the day and so I called our Mission Presidents wife and she told me to stay in and rest so I did. That was Tuesday evening, it is now Monday afternoon and I still have not gotten better. I have an appointment with the doctor today so hopefully I will not lose any more time.

Anyway, we got a call from the Assistants a couple of hours ago about transfers. They told us that Elder Gajultos and I would be getting double-shifted out of Whakatane so we should pack our bags. I asked him where we will be going to and he replied that we will be staying together but we wouldn't be going very far. They wouldn't tell us but we are pretty sure that we will be covering Kawerau this next transfer (for me 3 weeks). If this is the case then this is the answer to my prayer I just hope that this can improve the missionary work in Whakatane.

That's all for today and I am sorry I don't have any pictures but you don't get to take many good pictures inside your flat...

Elder Mitchell

It's my birthday 2016

Kia Ora fam!

Been a great week here in Whakatane and Kawerau! We were fairly busy most of the week and actually got quite a bit done considering how much time we actually spent in our area. We had a couple conferences and meetings this week with the other missionaries and that took us away from our areas for most of the week. 

On Saturday, (My birthday) we were in Kawerau and for the first couple hours of the morning we went around and tried to visit people but no one seemed to be home. We finally gave up and went to Kawerau Woodfest (which is were everyone else was) and started to talk with some of the people there. We watched some of the woodskills competitions and saw some really cool stuff actually. I have some really cool videos of the events that took place but you all will have to wait till I get home to see them. We also went and watched a tree-climbing competition which was pretty cool but I didn't even think that it was a sport.

On Sunday, (Elder Gajultos' birthday) we had church in Whakatane and then went to Kawerau for a 'branch council meeting' which ended up not happening but in its place they threw a birthday party for Elder G and I, and one of the members here who knows Elder Gajultos' mom from back home (She's Filipino) made us a cake for our birthdays. I am taking Elder Gajultos out to eat today for his birthday but I tried to make his 1st birthday in the mission the best it could be. It's crazy to think that this is my last birthday in the field and in 30 days I will be home back in the freezing Utah weather:)

Elder Mitchell

Attached are some poor quality pictures of the Woodfest sign with the log round that I got while I was there. Also the Cake that Sister Matthews made us.

It's just been raining on my face

And he is gone!!

Elder Bwebwetaake left on a bus this morning to go up to Hamilton. So it will just be Elder Gajultos and I for the next couple weeks until transfer when we get a new companion to replace me when I leave here mid-transfer. 

Anyway, this last week has been pretty good, we didn't actually see much progress from the people we have been visiting for the past couple days until sunday when two of our investigators came to church in Kawerau! They only stayed for sacrament but they said that they will be able to come for the whole meeting next week. Elder Gajultos has been going very well with his training and I have tried to not show how trunky am I getting but I will just say that it has gone by so fast. I feel like just left my first area.

Elder Mitchell

Here are some pics from our last couple P-days.

1. Is from a statue here in Whakatane

2. Is from Lake Tarawera

3. Is a pretty crack up sign here in Whakatane

The Human's are dead.

September 2, 2016

I spoke at a Tangi (Maori Funeral) yesterday, one of the members in Kawerau died so they had President Hohepa and I to speak at the Marae which was kind of awkward but I think we did pretty well. Elder Bwebwetaake goes home next week on Tuesday and after he leaves it starts the countdown to when I go home. Elder Gajultos is doing much better this week, he is really getting into the missionary life and is not seeming to have any problems with the mission rules.

I have some really good pictures but I forgot my camera cord so I won't be sending them this week. 

Sorry this is kind of lame but I promise to send a better one next week.

Elder Mitchell