"waiting for a call from my family...they forgot about me"

Won't be a long email because I will be skyping home but.....

This week was awesome!!!

We killed it for the first 1/2 of the week but after that we sort of got stuffed by a lot of people dropping appointments but were still able to be somewhat productive with the rest of our time. The Traveling Assistants came down on Wednesday and we had a really good couple of hours with them. Elder Wark (from Scotland) came with me and we were able to be a part of a couple of miracle moments.

1. One of our investigators finally answered the door with pants on. (He never wore pants)

2. We decided to go see one of our members and he was about to call us to ask for a blessing but we showed up at his house anyway.

3. Elder Wark got beat up by one of our semi-active members and then he showed us some Karate moves.

And that was only in like 2 hours of actual proselyting!

Elder Christensen and I have been doing some pretty good work down here and have been getting along really well! He is such a good missionary and I feel like I am being trained by him but yet he has only been out like 9 weeks! It has definitely been a humbling experience for me!

That'll be all for this week but I will talk to you guys later on Christmas!!

Elder Mitchell!

#KiaKaha #MakeTheMiracles

"Get your hand off my tail, you'll make it dirty"

This week.... WE GOT ANOTHER SET!!!

So after a pretty slow beginning of the week with Elder Christensen being sick on Wednesday and basically all of our appointments fell through on Tuesday, we had Zone Meeting with the Assistants. They gave a training on how to use the baptism tracker and how to best extend the invitation to be baptized which we then used to set one of our brand new investigators for the 16th of January on the first lesson. He accepted all the commitments but we think there still might be some concerns because he cannot read very well but hopefully that doesn't turn out to be a huge problem. 

We have been trying to work as hard as possible but since Elder Christensen is being trained and didn't really get to know the area very well when he was with his last companion because he did everything for him. I have been trying to help out as much as possible and am starting to learn the area fairly quickly which I have had to do in my past 4 areas because all my companions have left after 1 transfer. It is pretty interesting to be a follow-up trainer now because I have to try and break him out of all the bad habits his trainer got him into and help him relax a little bit because he is super stressed out. He reminds me a lot of how I was when I started my mission but it is also nice because I know how to remedy it.

Other then a few new investigators we have found throughout the week it was a pretty normal last couple of days. We had a Christmas Fireside at our chapel but I forgot my camera so I won't send any pictures till next week. I am definitely loving it here in Te Hapara Ward!!!!!

Elder Mitchell

Ps. If any of yous see my older brother Nik, tell him happy birthday! 

"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"

"You could buy me a burrito and some beans and rice."

Kia Ora everyone!

Been a great week here in Te Aroha!

On Monday after emails I got to climb Mount Te Aroha and look out over the town. It was a fairly difficult hike but Elder Patea and I got up there in about and hour and a half but it takes most people 2 1/2-3 hours to get to the top. We were so sore when we got to the bottom but I think it was totally worth it. We spent the next couple of days walking kinda funny because of how sore we were but it still didn't hold us back all that much. 

We had a pretty good rest of the week and had our last district meeting. After our meeting we had some popcorn and talked about good object lessons we can do to help our investigators so if anyone has any good lessons or activities you can do for teaching people, tell me! 

On Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference and Elder S. Gifford Nielsen was the presiding Seventy. There was some really good talks given but we didn't get any of our investigators there which was kinda stink. Katrina was also pushed back for the 19th of December but we will continue working with her to get her more prepared.

I am getting transfered this next week and I will be serving in the Gisborne Stake with Elder Christensen. Gisborne is a city that is really far away from Hamilton (about 5 hours away) and is supposedly really beautiful but I have not seen it yet. I am really excited to be going there!

Kia Kaha

Elder Mitchell

attached are pictures of the hike we did on Monday and one of me and the radio tower on top.

"Do you have any other skills, like typing?"

Buenos Dias!

It has been a pretty rainy week here in Te Aroha but we have had quite a few things happen.

On Thursday we met with Amon and while we were over there, his daughter came out and started talking with us as well. Amon was freaking out because he did not expect his daughter to be into the whole church thing but she was asking a lot of questions and trying to learn more but it seemed like she was just curious. We committed her to pray about what we talked about and set an appointment for the next day. It turns out that she forgot to pray that night but we recommitted her to pray and invited her to attend church with us. She accepted but still didn't show up on Sunday, why must it be so hard to get people to come to church.....

Other then a whole lot of finding, milking cows, a whole lot of crazy people who yelled at Elder Rios and I, and a pretty funny district meeting; I would say we had fairly normal week. We have officially run out of doors to knock here in Te Aroha and have been trying hard to find other ways to get new people to teach. We have only had a few of our investigators drop us but we have only picked up a couple. We have transfers next week and I have a feeling that I will be leaving but I keep on putting in requests to be with Elder Lingwall but he is Zone Leader so I am not sure how that will work.

All is well here in Te Aroha!!!

Elder Mitchell

"Calling each other names like 'dork'"

Good Day!!!!

Very good week here in Te Aroha and we got a lot of work done. We met with some very prepared spirits and managed to do quite a bit of service.

On Tuesday, Elder Patea and I set Katrina (the lady I told you guys about last week) for baptisms on the 12th of December! She is so accepting of the truths of the gospel and she even came to church on Sunday and brought some of her very delicious baking. She has been doing pretty good but is looking for a job because there is no work here in New Zealand. We gave her the Book of Mormon and committed her to pray about it but when she extended the invitation she said: "I already know its true I just want to make sure God is okay with me taking this step". When we went over on Tuesday she asked if we anoint our sick with oil and we replied that we did, she said that's good because that's what the bible says we should do.

On Monday after our P-day ended, our FHE for the night fell through so we were not able to go to that but it turns out God had other plans for us. I felt prompted to go knock doors on this particular street and we drove over to the other side of town. We knocked on 7-8 doors and were met with little interest but then we met Amon. A couple weeks ago his wife passed away suddenly and he was left with a daughter and a whole lot of sadness. We talked with him about eternal families and how death is only a temporary separation. It turns out that he is a inactive member and stopped attending church 30 years ago after he left Church College (a LDS high school across the street from the Hamilton Temple, which has since shut down). We invited him to church and he accepted but said that he will only come if he can get his daughter to come with him. He wants her to learn of the things he learned as a child.

Miracles are happening here in Te Aroha!

Elder Mitchell

Attached are a photo of our Zone and of a Blokhedz set I just completed

"There is no more unethical treatment of the elephants."

Kia Ora everyone!

Well we did pretty good this week here in Te Aroha! After a really good week last week we made some really aggressive goals to get the work moving here. We got out there and made the miracles and met some very prepared people to preach the gospel to. On Friday we had an appointment to go over and teach one of our less-actives but when we got there we found out that he was not home. We decided to go and walk around to try and find some people we could talk to and we saw this lady sitting on her porch. Her name is Katrina and she has had a hard life, her husband died after 10 months of marriage and wants some peace and comfort knowing what his fate will be. We taught part of the Plan of Salvation and set up an appointment for Tuesday where we plan on setting her for baptism.

This week has been full of learning experiences such as the times were Elder Patea and I would slack on small things like getting out of the flat 5-10 minutes late, we would almost always get the door slammed in our face or get yelled at when we got to our first door. We have definitely learned the blessings of exact obedience and now as we are working harder then I have ever before, we cannot afford to loose some of those blessings.

I don't really have too much time because we are getting ready to hike a mountain near Te Aroha but I just want you all to know that I love you and I am so very grateful for all that you guys have done for me and for all the letters/emails of encouragement!

Have a good week!!!!

Elder Mitchell

#MakeTheMIRACLES