Sunday, May 25, 2014

April 13, 2014

So I guess last weeks e-mail wasn't to much fun to read for you guys.
It is unfortunate for Eddie. I hope he does all right in the future.
I have certainly moved on knowing that I have done my best. I do
continue to pray for him.

Elder Walker is a fantastic Elder. He does some pretty good voice
overs of some of the General Authorities. He even does a Bane
impression from batman, and the midget Boss form the Incredibles. He
is pretty hysterical. This week has been a bit slow. Elder Walker and
I have been dropping a lot of our investigators, because they are just
simply not willing to keep the commitments nor change. We often commit
them to read the book of Mormon and they will say "Ya I'll do that",
however when we follow up we often get the "Oh I have just been real
busy lately". I get's pretty old, but we always, testify to them about
what they are missing out on, and what they need to do if they want to
really gain that desire to change for the better. We have been really
focusing on seeing the families in their homes and encouraging them to
reach out just to one person that could be interested. Missionary work
really comes down to the members reaching out to their friends that
see the how the gospel works in members lives. Being on a mission
really puts into perspective how tough it can be to find knew people
to teach who are sincerely trying to find out the truthfulness of the
message. I know that when I come home off my mission, I will put a lot
more effort into helping out the local missionaries with finding
people to teach. In fact Elder Walker looked through our area book and
saw that nearly all the baptisms that where recorded in it had some
sort member behind it also helping the missionaries.

So we are currently teaching a fellow named Nigel. I think that I have
mentioned him in a few past e-mails. But hes seems pretty kean on
reading the Book of Mormon. He has even told us that "he wants it to
be true". SO we are pretty excited for him. I think that the only
challenge for him will be coming to church, and maybe a Wow issue. He
has faith in Christ, it's just that he doesn't necessarily agree with
organized religion. He has seen, as have many other people, the faults
of other churches in that they often disagree with what there pasture
is often preaching, and how they in a sense control the congregation.
I hope that he can see something different in our church. In how we
pay tithes, and in how we teach. Something that I explained to him was
that we teach only according to the inspired interpretation of
inspired doctrine. Or in other words we teach according to how God
sees's it, not how we see the scriptures.

Sis Vacapora I think I have mentioned in previous e-mails, is pushing
to work out marriage requirements. She all ready wants to be baptized
in the church just as her daughter Sis Alberton, and her son Gabriel
have been. Gabriel was the first to be baptized by the missionaries.
Before he was living a not so happy life, but he has a strong
testimony of how the gospel has really blessed his life. The same with
Sister Alblerton (Sister Vacapora's daughter) and Brother Alberton.
They where baptized and gained a testimony of the gospel , and now
they are the most active members in sharing the gospel with others! It
really does amazes me to see the spirit so strong in their family. In
seeing the blessings come to Borther and Siter Albertons family,
Sister Vacapora also want's the same for her self, and the rest for
her family. Sister Vacapora's husband however is part of a Methodist
church that he is really holding on to. The Bishop has challenged him
to come to our church, and he will go to his methodist church in
return. (:D Sister Vacapora , and Brother Vacapora are not
married,(there are often faulty relationships through out all of New
Zealand. It's quite sad. Their are lots of broken families with single
mothers on their own.) So once that is straightened out and then
Brother Vacaporas Father's heart is softened things should work out
for her!

Other than that we have had to drop Niko. He is willing to sincerely
pray about the Book of Mormon. He unfortunately wants a perfect
knowledge of it right off the bat. He is not to willing to think
through the idea that Catholic church no longer has the power and
Authority. It's almost as if he reasons that the world is flat,
however he is not willing to allow us to take him on a boat to view
the curvature of the Earth. He will explain many doctrines in his
church with reasoning, such as with baptism by sprinkling. For example
when Peter baptized 3,000 people, his reason is that it would be
physically impossible for Peter to do such a thing, however we reason
that it may not have been just Peter baptizing, and that it may have
been over a period of time that he baptized All those people. He is
not willing to accept that our explanation could be correct, and that
his could be wrong. So in doing so we have had to stop seeing him and
spend or time and efforts else where.

Other than that we do have a few other investigators such as Puanga.
who comes to church, however isn't willing to take a deep dive into
the Book of Mormon and really receive that strong spiritual testimony
of it. But his countenance has changed a bit. He is a bit happier to
see us, and we are hoping to continue to teach and resolve his
concerns about the need to be baptized immediately.

Well here in New Zealand we view General conference a week after it is
broadcast-ed. So I got to see all of this last weekend. I absolutely
loved it. There where some great talks in there. I took heaps of
notes, and I really built continued to build up my testimony of the
church, and made me want to share what we have with everyone. I guess
you could say that I loved all the talks. To be honest General
conference felt quite short this time around. We missionaries like to
refer to it as Christmas, because we are sitting listening to awesome
talks. It's the only movie we are allowed to watch, so it is pretty
sweet. It's a nice break form being out on a bike all day long( which
is awesome to of course).

Well Stuart sound like he is making so good money. I think I would
only make about 800 a month working a Subway, so that's a pretty sweet
job. He should have a enough money for his mission in no time.

So glad to have e-mails form each of you guys. I do miss Marie. It's
hard for me think that it has been 2 years. Mom if you could send me a
picture of her that would great! I have forgot to mention that a lot.
I am so grateful for the Plan of Slavation. It really does bring peace
because of it.

I hope that you guys received that package that I sent to you guys let
me know if it has come!

Love you all so much

-Elder Ward

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