"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"