February 6, 2017

Kia ora whanau!! 

This week was neat. We had our exchanges with the district leaders (yes, leaders, our district is so big that we have 2 district leaders, crazy, right??) and they drove up Monday to have P-day with us. D and K were going to Dunedin for D's knee surgery and had asked for a blessing so Elder R and I cut p-day short and drove to the Chirstensen's to give D and then K a blessing. It was such a sacred experience for me. I've loved being able to see the two of them grow in faith and testimony. 

I spent a couple days in Gore and we taught a couple lessons so that was neat. We also spent quite a lot of time helping the some elders move out of their flat. I don't think it's been cleaned since the missionaries moved in 5 years ago. It was pretty unpleasant at times, to say the least. 

While I was on the exchange, one of our investigators committed to baptism! He doesn't have a date yet and he still works Sundays so there's some challenges to overcome still but we're really feeling good with him. We called him yesterday and he's sick but he's been reading! 

I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Benjamin 

January 30, 2017

Kia ora whanau!! 

What a week. As I'm sure you all know (or surely will know soon) we had a world-wide training broadcast this week with the missionary executive council. It was such a good broadcast. I learned a whole lot about the Doctrine of Christ, my purpose as a missionary, and other things. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was how remarkable the Apostles are. Elders Oaks, Bednar, and Anderson are all a part of the council and their remarks and teachings were given with such humility, spiritual power, and wisdom. I know that they are called of God. 

After the broadcast, we all went to the Beckmans (a senior couple in Gore) and had waffles! I miss American breakfast so much. Oh my life it was good. Then Sister Christensen had made cheesecake for my birthday and I was in heaven. 

On Saturday, Sister McLean made me a cake as well. So it was a pretty neat week for food. 

We spent a day and a half in Alexandra this week so that the Elders there could teach us the area. It was good to meet the few people there,

but it does add to my stress because there's almost no work happening there right now. They don't have anything of a teaching pool so we'll have a lot of work to do when we take over.

I love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Benjamin

January 23, 2017

Kia ora whanau!! 

This week was pretty neat. It seems like one of the only things on my mind and that we've been doing is planning the consolidation of our area with the Alexandra elders' area. I'm getting pretty excited for it and I'm really hoping that we'll be able to work more productively and have more success. 

We had a lesson with S again this week on Tuesday morning and he's so much fun to teach. It's really different. He doesn't have much of a Christian background (he's really only known about Jesus Christ for a few months) and we take a lot of time for him to read what we want him to know in Vietnamese and then talking about it in English. He's excited about the Book of Mormon though and he read from the introduction to 2 or 3 chapters into 1st Nephi! 

We saw D as well this week. He and K just reapplied for permanent residency (they've sent in over 30 visa applications since they've been here in New Zealand) and we're hoping things work out. They're still having a pretty rough go of it but the end is in sight, things will settle down, and we'll be able to start teaching K

again.

On Thursday night, or Wednesday night a number called that we didn't know. It was Elder Micheli!! So we went to meet up with them and spent about an hour talking. It was so much fun to be able to talk to them for a bit. 

I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Benjamin 

January 16, 2017

Kia ora whanau!! 

A couple days ago, President Hudson texted us and said, "Please call when it's a good time for you." Then, of course, the thoughts followed of, "What did I do wrong? What does he want? I haven't done anything wrong. But what the heck does he want to talk about?" Then we called him. And guess what. We're consolidating with Alexandra!!!!! Alexandra is technically a part of the Queenstown branch but they meet separately because of the distance. When we do consolidate, it will take us 2 1/2 hours to get to the furthest town of our area. Like, what the heck. Planning is gonna take on a whole new meaning. And we'll be in the car all the time. 

The biggest thing I've felt though, is a sense of peace. I've just felt that this is what God wants to happen and that everything is going to be alright. Such a blessing. 

I've been pretty stressed recently about how big my area already is and so I would've thought that doubling it's size would double the stress but the opposite has happened. It's the coolest thing. 

Not a whole lot else to report on this week. It was a bit slow. 

But I did make chocolate chip pancakes. 

And we got fed 3 times!! 

So yeah. 

Love you all! 

Love,

Elder Benjamin 

January 9, 2017

Kia ora whanau! 

What a week. It was pretty neat.

On Wednesday, we drove clear down to Gore (it takes 2 hours to get there, my district is bigger than some missions) and then we took the mission trainers back home with us.  I'd served with both of them before so I was excited to see them again! They gave us a training (surprising, right?) about our focus and priorities in proselyting. Basically, they told us to work with members, less-actives and part member families, and then investigators and stuff. It's all stuff that I already knew, I guess I just needed the reminder to work with our members first, then go out onto the streets. 

My companion has been pretty sick this weekend. We were able to go to church because he felt well enough Sunday morning, but then he got worse after church again so we spent the rest of the day in the flat. We spent Saturday in the flat as well. 

So I guess the week wasn't very eventful. But that's okay. I actually figured out that between things like sleeping, studying, language study, meals, meetings and travel time, we only spend 5% of our time proselyting. Crazy right?? 

But that's all good. I'll have more to share next week about all kinds of things like new investigators and baptismal dates. 

Love you all! 

Love,

Elder Benjamin 

Transfers

Kia ora whanau!! 

Well, I said goodbye to one of my friends this week. It surprised me how hard it actually was to say goodbye to Elder T. I didn't realize how much I loved him. I'm excited for the change though. 

It felt like, because of the holidays and transfers, there wasn't much we were actually able to do. We spent about 12 hours in the car and in the airport this week. So that was rough. 

On Saturday, we had a lesson with our investigator from Vietnam. We finally got the Vietnamese Book of Mormon and pamphlets so he is just now beginning to understand the Restoration. He also said the closing prayer in his language instead of English and I could tell by the spirit in the room as he prayed that it was more meaningful to him. 

My new companion is great. He's from Samoa, just like Elder F, and he's just as loving. He's already cooked us dinner, told me he loves me, and he shared his testimony on Sunday. I'm real excited. 

Love you all! 

Love,

Elder Benjamin 

 The wind was blowing so hard I thought I was gonna fall off the mountain

Christmas

Kia ora whanau!! 

So the week went by real quick and it's a bit hard to remember what we actually did. It seems like we spent quite a lot of time preparing the area for the transfer. Elder T is going up to Hawkes Bay to cover a Samoan ward and I will get a new companion.

On Tuesday though, we drove down to Gore for our Zone Conference. It was all about the Savior, which was fitting. We talked about a talk by Elder Oaks called "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" and one of the things that struck me is that a large part of faith is trusting the Lord's will and timing for us and being willing to submit to them. In the words of Neal A. Maxwell, "Indeed, when we are unduly impatient with an omniscient God's timing, we really are suggesting that we know what is best." 

This Sunday at church, we had to use literally every chair in  the building and there were still people standing so that was pretty neat! I always love all the visitors coming together to worship with us. 

Love you all! 

Love,

Elder Benjamin