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

This week...It's a boy

Kia ora whanua!

Elder Bwebwetaake and I got a call Tuesday morning telling me that we would be staying in Whakatane and Kawerau and that I would be training a new Missionary! We went up to Tauranga on Thursday to pick up the new Elder from the bus station and since they didn't tell us his name, we didn't know who we were looking for. The new guy is Elder Gajultos from the Philippines and he is a pretty crack up dude. He is from Manilla so he is kind of a city boy so on his second day we took him to an investigators house to split firewood which was really cool and afterwards, the lady that we split wood for gave us a mean as feed. 

We had a branch activity with the Kawerau branch on Saturday which was pretty crack up because it was Christmas-themed. We spent most of the afternoon on Saturday helping them cook the hangi (Maori way of cooking meet) for the party. A lot of people showed up to the activity which was really cool because a lot of them came to church the next day for the linger longer afterwards. 

The rest of the week we were just driving around and trying to show Elder Gajultos both of the areas which has gone really good. He is a very smart missionary and is picking up the work here just fine. He will need to learn the area fairly quick because in 17 days Elder Bwebwetaake finishes and 41 days later I finish. Hopefully I can pass my knowledge onto him before I leave...

I'll send you more next week!

Elder Mitchell

"Your favorite jersey is covered in lint..."

So I am sitting in our flat Thursday Night just waiting for a ride to go to our dinner appointment (our car had been in the Panelbeaters since Monday) and we got a call from our District Leader: Elder Olsen who is serving in the Kawerau Branch telling us that he would be coming to our flat to talk to us about something. He told us that they are shifting to Katikati so Elder Bwebwetaake and I would be covering both Kawerau and Whakatane until further notice and that I was the new District Leader. We went out with them that night to visit some people because we don't know their area very well and we were pretty well received by the members there in that area. We didn't get our car back until Friday afternoon so we couldn't go out to Kawerau for a couple of days so we spent most of the week walking around in Whakatane so both Elder Bwe and I have mean blisters on our feet. 

We went to church in Kawerau on Sunday and I just have to say that the members here are some of the nicest people I have met! Because we are covering the two branches they are doing all they can to support us and earlier today Sister Bray (wife of a member of the branch presidency) offered to do our grocery shopping for us. We had dinner with the Kawerau Branch President yesterday to discuss missionary work and to suss out some kind of schedule so that we know if we will be in Kawerau or in Whakatane throughout the week. After we saw the other member of the Branch Presidency later to talk about the referrals that he had given the elders that they had not contacted yet. 

We are both pretty excited to what is happening in both of our areas and are trying to get the members behind us so that we can keep both area progressing!

Gonna be a mean week!

Elder Mitchell

"Insert funny title here"

Kia Ora Fam and Friends!

So we have two sets here in Whakatane and so we needed to go and visit one of our sets for the week on Saturday before church. As we were driving up Elder Bwebwetaake saw Sierra (our set) through the window of her house so we went in to go see her. We talked to her boyfriend at the door and he said that she had gone to a birthday party so we thought that Elder Bwebwetaake had mistaken her for someone else but as we were leaving, we heard the guy yell out "Sierra they are gone! Sierra, they are gone, you can come back!".

That story basically describes the work here in Whakatane which is kind of sad. Other then that we didn't get to visit many of our Investigators but we did have Zone Meeting this week and one of the new sisters in the mission is Sister Mitchell so that's pretty cool haha:) 

I don't really have much else to say but thanks for your prayers and faith!

Elder Mitchell

"You know you're not in high finance"

wrote this email last week but I forgot to send it, sorry guys!!!!

Looked at my emails and it seems like everyone back home is ready for me to come home haha :) 

Last Monday after emails, we had a district P-day with the Opotiki and the Kawerau Elders at Ohopi beach. We started off playing some Rugby on the beach (turns out brand-new elders are pretty rubbish at touch) and after Elder Bwebwetaake and I scored a couple of uncontested tries, they were ready to give up and so we went on a hike. We ended up getting to a section where there were some maintenance going on the trail so we had to turn back.

The rest of the week was pretty mean as we were able to visit our sets and help encourage them. One of them keeps dodging us so we haven't been able to do a whole lot with her but the other is super excited which is really nice. Willie (the more excited investigator) is really cool, he works at Pak N' Save (which is like a worse version of Costco) as a night sweeper. Whenever we go over there, we have to be careful because he can push the conversation or lesson in a direction that isn't favorable. 

Now the last 2 days have just been weird as. The Opotiki Elders locked themselves out of their flat so we had to get the keys from the Zone Leaders and it turned out that none of the keys that they gave us worked. They ended up having to stay Saturday night with us in Whakatane and we took them to Church in Opotiki on Sunday morning. The sacrament meeting might have been the weirdest church meeting I have ever attended. During the speakers we had people talking to the speaker while he was talking and whenever someone would say something that they agreed with, they would say "Kia Ora" which is basically how they do it at the Marae (Maori meeting house).

Hopefully everyone back home is not dead because the only email I got today was from the Mission Cards haha all goods :)

Love you guys!!!

Elder Mitchell