22 June 2015 Invitations are important...

For this week we really worked hard to invite people to the showing of Meet the Mormons. We had one of our members (Brother Mills, who has e-mailed you guys before) print out 200 flyers and we put up posters as well. We handed out all the flyers. We organized to have warm soup there as well with some refreshments. Sunday evening the time came and we went to the town hall of Waipu and set up the event. Brother Mills came with the projector and video equipment, we set it up and got the chairs all organised. It fell together quite well. Many members of the Branch came and supported us. A few of them had not seen the video either so it was their first time. We waited for people to come and join us that we had invited. My heart breaks to report this, but no one came. There was not a single non-member there. Not even DJ was able to make it. It doesn't matter though. The Branch saw this and was invigorated in their own personal desire to work harder in their missionary efforts. They saw it as a great act of faith before the Lord, in our desire to share the gospel. There are many reasons why people may have not come, maybe it was just not a good time, a "cold/freezing" (as NZ'ers put it) Sunday evening. We don't know, but the first thing Brother Mills said to after we watched it was, "Give me a date and time". Needless to say we are going to keep trying. We have 3 main towns that we work in... ( They are not too big, you could walk form one end to the other in about 7min and are surrounded by farm land) and we are going to organize to have showings there as well. Try even harder to advertise and invite all those that we meet. I know our Father in Heaven was pleased with what we did as missionaries and as a Branch, and I know because of how I felt inside, good warm and happy, or the Spirit.

Good things are happening. Raylene, I am not to sure if I mentioned her before, is the  grand daughter of a very active Grandmother, and great Grandmother. Her father is LA and is not interested. However though her extended family have faithfully been taking her to church for quite a while. She hasn't been baptized yet because the family simply does not want to push her into it and then watch her decide not to go to church one day. She seems to be coming around. She came to church last Sunday and a question was brought up about the baptismal interview questions. She was nervous about that idea. I took out my handy dandy planner and turned to the page with the questions on it handed it to her so she could read it for herself and know that there are no surprises. She felt much better after reading them over quickly them. We will be teaching her tonight. We are going to show Meet the Mormons, as that is what her Great Grandmother asked us to do. Lots, of people should be there, and LA's even and she will enjoy it as well.

DJ has been doing ok. It is a bit tough at the moment because he has 2 older Sisters. both converts. The older one (20's) is active as, and the younger was recently baptized in March. She is struggling a bit though because certain circumstances( I won't go into details for now), and that has thrown a wrench in the system. The big concern now is the older Sister who is struggling  before we really can help DJ move along.

Well that's about it for this week. We are doing well Elder Mahreza and I. I want to keep working hard and use all the time that I have left on my mission to it's best. It goes quick. Mixed feelings for sure as with all missionaries when they get near the end of their missions.

I know Heavenly Father loves us all. I am thankful for his son Jesus Christ, I know that he lives, and how wonderful is his sacrifice. 



Love,
Elder Ward

So there is another Elder Ward in our District, he is going home tomorrow, he is a great missionary. We are related.. I just had to ask if he was related to Hyrum and he said yes and I said "Sweet we're cuzzies!!!" as they say here in NZ. 

 And then also you have a picture of the event! It was a great success!

 So I got a chance to eat a raw oyster... It was all right. It wasn't to bad actually, and I had 2 of them. A LA fiance pretty much insisted that Elder Mahreza and I eat it.

Kinu is guess..................... Sea Urchin. It is a bit of an acquired taste. It wasn't to bad though. It's like the Moari caviar. It tastes, like it is from the sea, and it is pretty strong. Thats the only way I can describe it.