Week 21

Kia ora everyone! This week has been pretty great! The highlight was getting transfer news and finding out I will be staying in Wedt Harbour with Elder Iuli! This area has been so amazing the members are so great and help us out so much I cant be more grateful for them. But anyway here's how the rest of the week was.

Monday we had zone pday and we went to go play some laser tag. Man did we have some good players in our zone or I just suck I'm not sure which one it is haha. Anyway it was way fun! We said goodbye to a sister in our district that was going home and than headed home to relax a little before heading back out to work. We also had another baptismal interview for the sisters in the district and we had to have the guys brother sit in the interview to translate what I said into tongan and what he said into English it was way interesting but pretty cool! The guy got baptized this last Saturday.

Tuesday we had a combined district council with the district next to us and that was way fun getting to see the other missionaries again. We than set goals for the district for the next month. Setting goals is pretty fun and takes a little bit of time cause we need to pray about the goals we set quite a bit. We than went to go have lunch with Brother Wihongi. We visited with him a bit and got caught up on some less actives we need to help him out with and visit more. We than did some tracting and potential visits. There was also a stake missionary correlation meeting and the stake pres talked heaps about how the members need to help out with missionary work more and kinda let the leaders have it haha. After that we were informed on our transfer news. I'm super excited to be staying one more transfer!

Wednesday we didn't have anything to special happen just some tracting and other normal stuff haha.

Thursday was kinda the same haha. I dont mean to be boring during my emails bit nothing to special has really happened haha I cant remember what happened these two days sorry haha.

Friday was kinda interesting. We visited a guy that was interested in learning about Joseph Smith and his message but when we tried to teach the whole of lesson 1 he didn't care about the beginning stuff cause he already knew about God and his love for us and about his prophets. All he wanted to know about was Joseph Smith's message so he could see if it matches up to the prophecies he has been studying. Well we talked for a little bit about Joseph Smith and tried to talk about the Book of Mormon and he kept trying to avoid it and he kept going on about the bible and a bunch of other things that I cant really remember haha but in the end me and my companion just stopped him and said that things weren't gonna work out with us trying to teach him cause in the end he didn't really care about learning from us. So to get him to stop talking about bible stuff I told him if he really wanted to know what Joseph Smith's message was than he needed to read the Book of Mormon. I told him that if he believes that God calls prophets and truly called Jospeh Smith to be a Prophet than he could find out by reading the Book of Mormon. If the Book is true than Joseph Smith WAS a prophet called by God. If the Book is true and Joseph was a prophet than the church is true! Than we kinda just left him at that.. not sure if he will ever read the book but we invited him to do so and said he can know the truth if he just reads and prays. I've never felt so confident in talking about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon when I said all that to him. I felt the spirit and I know he did too. Pretty interesting discussion but a great learning experience. That's the main part of Friday.

Saturday was full of visiting less actives and other members. It was a pretty good day. Did some tracting in a place called Hellensville and got heaps of rough rejections but we kept going haha. Pretty good day though.

Sunday was great. Had a great time at church and than had an awesome lesson with Erica. She has been progressing so much and has been reading the Book of Mormon and had some good questions about it as well. She has been really good. We taught about the commandments and the importance and blessings that come from going to church. She was very accepting about tithing and fasting so she has been absolutely great! We made sure she was still okay with the baptismal date we set her on and she is all good! It has been exciting working with her and she gave me and elder Iuli a little key chains that she said reminded her of both of us and it was a very touching gift! She put a little key on it and she said the meaning behind the key is we were the key to her eyes being opened to the blessings and knowledge from our Father in Heaven and how we have helped her learn more about the Gospel and how it has blessed her life. It is probably one of my most favorite gifts ever! I'll send a pic of it! Cutest little thing ever!! I cant wait to see her get baptized!

This week has been pretty good. Even after all the ups and downs you can look past all of the negatives and find peace joy and happiness in helping others learn about our Saviors love! I love the church i love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I love all of you! I hope you all have another great week! 

Ofa atu! 

Love, 

Elder Wilding 

Week 20

Kia ora! This week has been interesting. Pretty long week but in the end it wasn't too bad..

Monday we just relaxed a little bit and tha. went to go hang out with the zone leaders and than came back and I had a baptismal interview for one of the sisters in our district. It was pretty cool. The lady was amazing and bore her testimony after every question haha. Interviews are only supposed to last about 10 maybe 15 minutes and this interview took over an hour haha. Pretty crazy but she was amazing and got baptized on Friday.

Tuesday was...well it was a struggle. We had district council and the zone leaders were there as well and it was pretty good. The meeting was fun and than after Elder Iuli was sick so we stayed at the flat all day... made for a pretty long day.. but later that day we had another Baptismal interview for the same sisters. They've been rocking it lately! This one was way short though so it was great. We also gave Brother Prasad a blessing he was super sick as well and it was pretty cool. I felt bad for him though.

Wednesday was spent at the flat all day again... pretty rough.. being sick just kicks your butt..

Thursday was better still pretty sick but we tried to get out as much as we could. For our zone pday the zone leaders decided to go paintballing so since the paintball place was in our area they wanted us to go pay for it. So we drove all the way there (40 minutes into a forest) and waited there for about an hour and a half and no one showed up for us to pay them. So we canned the paintballing idea and now we will be going to play later tag. After all that we did some visits but couldn't do much from both of us being sick still.. we did have another baptismal interview for the other sisters in the district though! Its been crazy! Our district has been smashing it! 

Friday was weekly planning which was good for us to have a little more time at the flat to relax a little bit but after that we did our best to get out and work. We went to go do some tracting and visiting some members. It was a pretty decent day and we started to feel a little better but still struggling haha. Friday I had permission from the mission president to do another baptismal interview for the district leader right next to us. That was pretty fun. We've had heaps of interviews lately it's crazy.

Saturday was pretty fun we did some tracting and potential visits and it was pretty good. One person seems pretty promising and will let us teach her kids when they get home from Australia in about a week I think. We went to go visit the Prasads again to see how Brother Prasad was doing and then they ended up trying to help elder Iuli get over his sickness and it started to rain so sister prasad made us stay longer so we weren'tin the rain haha. We stayed for ages haha it just wouldn't stop raining! Later we went to our dinner appointment and than went to a missionary farewell party and talked to heaps of members there it was good. One guy that showed up to support Teancum was an RM and he served in Australia and he started talking to me and come to find out he served with Bracken Degn from malad. Pretty crazy. Small world. But that day was pretty fun.

Sunday we did some running around trying not to be late to everything haha. We had our dinner/ lunch appointment after church cause the family couldn't do it later so we went there and than had to leave right after eating to go to our appointment with Selena and her sister erica. We taught about lesson 3 and lesson 1 again to make sure she knows it. And than told her she needs to come to church so she will continue to progress and its necessary for baptism. So hopefully she comes next week. Transfers are on Wednesday and erica is very nervous she doesnt want us to leave. It's been a very fast transfer and I have no clue what is going to happen haha. I would love to stay but I feel my time here in west harbour is coming to a close. But we will see in a few days!

It's been a pretty Interesting week to say the least. Being sick on the mission sucks and just kicks ya right in the gut. But the work must go on!

I hope everyone had a great week. I love you all. 

Ofa atu

Love, 

Elder Wilding 

Week 19

Kia ora everyone! This week has been pretty interesting and fun! Monday we had district pday and went on a ferry ride to the center of Auckland it was pretty cool! We than went to the museum and spent a few hours there looking through the war history and the old Moari tools and antics it was so interesting and really fun! 

Tuesday we went to the Auckland city mission and served the poor again it was super busy that day and man were we running around trying to make sure we had everything stocked up and ready to go. It was way fun and exciting. I love going there and getting to talk to the people! 

Wednesday was alright. We had district council and I gave a training on goal setting and how to help achieve them. It was pretty fun. We did heaps more tracting and we went to go visit a less active bit his step dad opened the door and we ended up talking about his life for like 30 minutes or so. He's about 85 I think and told us all about what he did and it was so interesting. I love listening to people talk about the days back in the 60s or 70s haha. 

Thursday we spent most of the day tracting and visiting or attempting to visit members haha. Nothing to special went down that day haha.

Friday we had weekly planning and than went with Brother Prasad to do some gardening for a friend of his and that was pretty fun. Weeds are kinda easy to pull here they dont root down like back home haha. It was super hot though but I think it's better than being cold aye! We than had lunch at the Prasads and than went to go tract again. We know there is someone out there for us we just need to go get them. 

Saturday was pretty fun. All our plans went our the window and than we got a call to fill the font for Bishop Pillings granddaughters baptism. So we got to attend that and that was really fun. The members support each other so much and I love it! Sad thing about Saturday was the family that was supposed to feed us apparently went to the beach and forgot about us so we ended up getting ourselves dominos pizza haha. Pretty fun day though and we even talked to a potential person and he said he was interested in learning more about Joseph smith and what happened with him so hopefully that turns out good. He is a scientist that believes that God created everything not science so he's on the right track! We hope to see him this next week. 

Sunday we went to church and than had to take off to a members house to take them the sacrament. This lady's husband has cancer and her son had a stroke a few years back and is partially disabled. So they aren't able to go to church sometimes when her sons legs get bad.. but it was great to visit with them and help them out with all we could. Had another lesson with Selena and her sister on the plan of salvation this time. It was amazing. We had a great lesson and at the end of the lesson we set her sister Erica to be baptized on the 16th of February! I'm excited for her and hope that this will be another big step for the rest of the family excepting the gospel into their lives! We attended another ward baptism as well and got to visit with bishop and his wife about the baptism for Erica. The ward seems very excited and is super supportive! Very exciting day. Sadly Jimmy didn't show up to church so we didn't get to talk to him.. hopefully next week though. 

This week has been really good. It's nice seeing the work move forward in my district we have 7 people set to be baptized and they are all solid sets and it's going to be an amazing next few weeks! Transfers will be coming up soon so we will see if I will get to attend Erica's baptism. I'm hoping I stay for 1 more transfer! 

I hope you all had a great week. I love you all and wish you the very best! 

Ofa atu! 

Love, 

Elder Wilding 

Week 18

Kia ora!

This week has been full of ups and downs and in the end it came out pretty great!

Monday we had pday and went to Muriwai Beach again but this time we took a young man named Teancum who got his call to serve in Guam. He spent the whole day with us and than after 6 we went tracting to help him get a head start on missionary work. It was pretty cool. He was pretty nervous and didn't know what to say when he knocked a door but he will get there.

Tuesday we had district council and I gave a training on how having a good attitude while serving the Lord will bring us many blessings and miracles. After we did some finding and found 2 new potentials. We went to go pick up Teancum again and went out with him again before he took off to Hawaii to go through the temple. He did way better that day which is really good he will be a great missionary.

Wednesday we did heaps more finding and did some member visits nothing to big happened just heaps of rejection haha.

Thursday we went to a place called Hobsonville and found a guy from IDAHO. pretty crazy haha. He was from Boise and he invited us to come back and teach the 1st lesson the next day. It was pretty exciting. 

Friday we decided to fast for the appointment we had with the guy from idaho and than we did heaps to prepare for it and when we got there he wasn't home.... yea that kinda sucked.. we went back later and he still wasn't home. So we ended up not having a lesson. So we took off and did more tracting and trying to visit some potentials and former people being taught.

Saturday we had a service with the people we cut down trees for a while back. And can you guess what we did?! Cut more trees down haha. It was pretty fun though. And the guy finally went to church and the sisters were very excited. We did some less active visits and that was alright not too many people home because of the holidays.

Sunday was AWESOME! So we had the 2 hour church which was cool but after Sacrament we were sitting in Sunday school and a member pulled us out and there was this guy walked to the church and said that he wants to change his life and get back on track. His name is Jimmy. His son was already baptized but he wants to reactivate him and join himself. It was so awesome getting to talk to him and get to know him and we told him we can help him get on track! He will come to church with his son and maybe his wife next week! We are super excited! All the fasting this week brought us such an amazing miracle!

After church we had a lesson with Selena and her younger sister and that was awesome so we will be teaching the younger sister, Erica again soon! 

Over all this week has been amazing and I'm excited to see what happens in 5he next few weeks! I hope you all had a great new years and didn't stay up to late. I celebrated new years for America here haha

Ofa atu! 

Love,

Elder Wilding