"That's why they're called business socks"

Kia Ora Everyone!!!

We had a pretty busy week and on Thursday I got to go the Temple for my birthday! I asked President Rudd if we could do our Zones Temple Trip on the 24th because the rest of the mission was doing theirs this week and he said it was all good! We had to wake up at like 5 in the morning to drive from Te Aroha to Temple View (suburb in Hamilton) which was only like an hour drive but we had to fight traffic the whole way so it was like 2 hours (Stink way to start off my birthday) but the Temple was totally worth it! I got to do a session of Endowments and Baptisms which was pretty cool! I got the chance to receive some of the answers which I have been seeking and received some that I didn't even expect!

We had Milking on Wednesday and Saturday which was pretty good, I have gotten to the point that I don't even look anymore, I can just feel where the teets are and then I put the cups on them haha:). We had a really good lesson with Paul and Maria afterwards and we committed them to pray every morning and night as a couple and individually to get the answers that they need to progress in the Gospel. They have been attending church regularly for the past couple of months but Paul still struggles with the Word of Wisdom and has been hiding some of his addictions over the past couple of weeks.

I hit my 10 month mark last week and I realized that if I was sister missionary, I would be more then half way done with my mission haha! Time just flies by when you are having fun eh???

Elder Mitchell

No Pictures this week.... Nothing was really interesting but I did catch some cow poop on Saturday because my companion bet me $10 I wouldn't do it. After all it is just digested grass!!!!!

MILKED COWZZ!!!!

Man since I have been on my mission I have gotten to do all kinds of things and this week I......

MILKED COWZZZ!!!!

Since we are serving it Te Aroha, we don't get to do a whole lot of teaching and preaching but we do get to do a lot of service around the town and on peoples farms. Every week on Wednesday we go over to one of our investigators (Paul Mcvicar) homes and help them milk cows and then afterward they feed us dinner! It was the first time I have ever done it so I was really nervous because the cows were pooping all over the place and I was scared that I might get kicked when I put the cups on their teets. It went pretty well and I only got a little poop on me and I didn't even get kicked!

After the milking we had a really good lesson about the Word of Wisdom with Paul and his wife and we committed him to pray about the WoW and how it can help him the health problems that he is facing. We were about to leave and I realized that we didn't have our keys, and we couldn't get very far without them. After searching for a good hour with no success we eventually called the Zone Leaders to see what we should do because we are the furthest area from the rest of our zone and it was getting pretty late. They told us to pray and have faith that we would find the keys and be able to return home. We knelt down and had a prayer with the family and asked him to help us find them and when we got up I had the impression to go to the ATV that we were driving around the farm on I took it to mean that we needed to go check the farm again (it was a fairly big farm).

We eventually gave up on trying to find our keys in the night time and decided to go back to the house and see if we could find it there. Paul thought it would be a good idea to check the under the seat of the ATV and guess what! It was there, His wife busted into tears and we all knelt down and thanked God for helping us and for showing us that he does answer prayers. We came back on Saturday to help milk cows again and we decided it would be best to leave our keys inside the house while we were out on the farm haha :)

A few small things happened this week but overall it was a fairly good week here in Te Aroha. We are going to the temple this week on my birthday (the 24th) so that is pretty exciting! 

Elder Mitchell

Attached are some pictures of our zone and one of me and some cows

Our Zone.

Me and some cowz.

Parlez-vous le fracais?" "Uh...non"

This week we had transfers and....... I'm not in Raglan anymore :(

I got a call on Tuesday to tell Elder To'angutu and I that we were both leaving which is exactly the opposite of what President Rudd told our Branch President earlier that week. We had 1 day to get all of our stuff packed and say our goodbyes which was really hard because we had gotten pretty close to some of the people there. I was really mad about the transfer until I realized that maybe its not about what we want it is what the Lord wants.

Anyway, my new companion is Elder Temenaha from Tahiti and guess who trained him??? Elder Lukens (My trainer)!!!! I am not serving in the Morrinsville Branch but we are actually living in Te Aroha which is like 25 minutes north of Morrinsville. This is a pretty big area with not a lot of people considering that the people who are in our branch mostly live in Morrinsville so we have to drive like 20-30 minutes to visit members who live out on dairy farms because the Sisters cover the main city. It is a small town and everyone seems to know each other which is good for missionary work because once you know someone, you can know everyone!!!!! 

Other than that we got to see a few people this week in Morrinsville and one of the recent converts here has a really cool story, he used to be a part of the Black Power but after speaking with some missionaries he decided to change his life for the better and has gotten out of the gang with his life (they usually will kill you if you try and leave). He is preparing to go to the temple and his son is preparing to go on a mission in a couple years.

Hope all is well back at home and look forward to seeing what this next transfer brings!!!

Elder Mitchell

Attached are a picture of Me, Elder Lukens and Temenaha and one of us with Barney (one of our recent converts) on our last night in town.

This is with Barney

Me, Elder Lukens and ElderTemenaha

"No one even mentioned my casserole!"

The week before transfers is always crazy here in Raglan!

One of our members brothers died on Saturday so we have been helping out with that for the past couple of days. We went over and mowed his lawn and trimmed his hedges just so that he will be able to do the proper preparations for his funeral. We went over to the Marae yesterday and paid our respects and it seems at every funeral I get invited to I get called on to speak regardless of how well I know the person. When I got up to speak yesterday my mind went blank and after having a short prayer in my head I began to bear testimony about the first principles and ordinances of the gospel and how the final step in the gospel is to endure to the end and how Bro. Eketone has done just that. 

I remembered a scripture in the New Testament that I had read earlier that week in my personal study and it says "And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." (Luke 12:11-12) and how literally it was and has been fulfilled but only if I am open to inspiration and worthy to receive it. 

We spent the rest of the week contacting less-actives from our ward list and former investigators from our area book and we have a few set appointments for this next week but the majority of them said that they "weren't really interested in the whole Mormon thing anymore". I love the people here in Raglan but sometimes they just need a slap (haha not really...)

Hope all goes well this week with transfers and everything but I am probably going to stay here in Raglan. 

Love you guys!

Elder Mitchell

Attached are a picture of one of our recent converts at the space center

and my companion playing around with a 'sheep stick'.

"I'm not gonna wear a ladies wetsuit, I'm a man!"

This week in "Rags to Riches" we got a bunch of work done!

We spent the whole week just basically walking around our area and contacted all of our former investigators from Elders in the past and their were a few that were interested but the Elders just stopped showing up one day. We wondered why this would happen but after looking over some of the previous people who have served in Raglan, there was 2 Elders in particular who basically just went swimming and played basketball all day, needless to say they were sent home but they had been the cause of a lot of bad feelings towards the Elders. We have been able to repair some of the relationships but a few of the people here just don't want anything to do with us. I have been able to meet a lot of different people here in Raglan. For example in the past 3 weeks I have met people from...

Ireland 

Australia 

Denmark

Netherlands 

Scotland

Germany

England

Italy

Greece

Afghanistan

Iran

Canada

Papua New Guinea

Philippines

Saudi Arabia  

United States

Tonga

Samoa

Fiji

Cook Islands

India 

China

and many more!!!

So many different people make for some really interesting conversation which is always great for missionary work :) 

On Saturday we got to go to the Te Awamutu space center and check out some of the exhibits there! It was pretty cool and we got to learn a lot about space and space exploration. It has made me think that we need to get our space program back up and running so that we can get to Mars!!! I have attached some pictures but there are a lot more things that I couldn't fit in this email. We have transfers in 2 weeks but I am pretty sure Elder To'angutu and I will be staying here.

Lovin' it here in the NZ!

Elder Mitchell 

This week in Ragland!

I only have 30 minutes of email time because the computers at the chapel aren't working so I won't be able to send much this week. I spent the last 1 hour on hold with the LDS Global Service Center just to have them tell me that I need to call our stake tech. specialist on a number that doesn't even exist...

It sounds like you guys are doing awesome! It is so nice to have people back home asking about me because it feels like most of the emails I receive are ones from other missionaries and automatic ones from Countdown (one of the grocery stores here in New Zealand)  We have been killing it down here this past week and have been making huge progress with some of our investigators. Elder To'angutu and I are getting along really well and I think he is definitely in my top 3 companions on my mission haha ☺. I just realized that of the people that came into the mission at the same time as me, I have had more companions then any of them. They are.... Elder Lukens (Trainer), Elder Jensen for 2 transfers (Follow-up), Elder Otto, Elder Rochefort, Elder Gutierrez, Elder Hunt, Elder Landis and Patea, and Elder To'angutu. That's 9 companions in 7 transfers, but the last 3 happened in this last transfer. Its been nice to be able to meet all sorts of different people and to be able to work along side some of the greatest men I have ever met but it has also taught me that although I don't get to choose my companion I do get to choose my eternal companion and how important that choice is.

This week we went and helped the Gillards (one of our part-member families) put up a fence around their front gate, we got really dirty and I almost put a nail through my boots and got hit by a falling fence post but I have a guardian angel watching out over me so I am fine haha :) Although we don't get to teach much here in Raglan we do a lot of service projects for members and non-members which is really nice because before I got here they didn't really want anything to do with the Elders but now they give us referrals almost every time we go over and they are always dropping off food. I think this might be my favorite area I have served in so far. 

That's all of my time this week but I might be able to email a little bit more at our Branch presidents house tonight!

Later!

Elder Mitchell 

"Why does this phone have a camera glued to it?"

This week we......

Drove up to Auckland to see David Enchilada (Archuleta) and Brad Wilcox for a mission conference! It was actually pretty good and Brother Wilcox gave a really mean talk about the 12 Tribes of Israel and our responsibilities as Ephraim (My Tribe). He also talked about the priesthood and explained some of the parts of Genesis a little bit better that I have had questions about. Bro Enchilada talked about some of his experiences in the mission field and then he sang us some songs which was pretty cool. I tried to get a picture but they all came out too blurry but I did get to shake his hand!

On Saturday we went and helped out one of our part-member families with some farm work so I got to wrestle sheep and hold them while they cut the poop off their fur and put tags in their ears. It was really tiring work but I had a lot of fun and we got to bond with them pretty well so we will probably be going over next week to help them out again. They had the cutest little lamb and I got to feed it while they were making us lunch! 

I also got to give one of our recent converts the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday which at first really scared me because I have never done it before. He is going to the temple in a couple of weeks for the first time to do endowments and he wants us to come with him! The Branch Members are taking really good care of us here and they just dropped off a fridge full of food which was really nice so we don't have to do shopping and we get fed more often then we did when I was in Hamilton and Raglan is a tiny branch! 

Been a great week and looking forward to whatever is coming next this week! 

Elder Mitchell

David Archuleta visiting the area.

Me holding down a sheep. See...it did happen!