March 29

Dear Family and Friends,
        This week has been a pretty crazy week. The weather has really settled down and we have been enjoying our work here. I really do like serving here in Porirua. We have so many opportunities to share the gospel with those around us. Partly because there are just way more people here and partly because people are a little more open minded here. I can honestly say that I am enjoying my mission right now. Thats not to say that there arent challenges, but I can see the good that this gospel does for people and I want to share it. This week was especially interesting because I went out on exchanges twice this week. On Tuesday we exchanged with the district leader, so I went to the Papakawhai elders area to be with Elder Tavo from Australia, it was very interesting because he is a convert and is 26. So he has a lot more life experiences than I and most of the other missionaries have now. He is a very good missionary. We had a very busy day. I really enjoy seeing mission life from the perspective of a leader.
        Getting back to the area was good though because I really want to get this area down and start getting more successes. Also on wednesday I was able to watch "meet the Mormons" for the first time. It was a very inspirational movie. I really liked the story of the Coach at Annapolis Naval academy. It was cool to see how he carried himself and led his family the way he does. But I especially liked seeing the story of the missionary mom. I liked seeing the impact that the gospel had in her life. That is what we have to offer people, a second chance. I really just love this church. It is just way too cool. On Thursday we had district meeting, It was pretty cool because we had the mini missionaries come that were preparing for there full time missions. They are pretty well prepared and I am excited to see what the future holds for them. We also had a couple lessons afterward, one of which was kind of wacky, we went in to teach this guy and we thought he was just socially awkward but it turns out he had a serious mental disorder and couldnt comprehend what we were teaching, one of gods chosen spirits. haha. That night though we had a really good lesson with Himanshu and Roena. They even had there flatmate sit in on the lesson. It was a very good lesson, we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. I really had a good time. I love seeing them grow in understanding, it is awesome.
      On friday we had this a couple cool encounters. One that we had was when we were contacting this former and knocked into a different person, it was this 14 year old muslim kid. He said he was not committed to the muslim church and was looking for another one to attend, we told him about the restored gospel and got a return appointment. Then we door knocked into this young couple who just invited us right in they offered us water and told us to take a seat, to be honest, I was a little apprehensive, i thought they were going to grill us but They were cool and were interested in learning about our faith. We got a return appointment with them also. That night we had exchanges with the Zone leaders so I went to Tawa with elder Smith. It was great. Elder Smith is one of a kind. He is just so good in teaching situations. He helped me with some questions and some of the goals I had and overall it was a very productive exchange. We had a dinner appointment with this Fijian Indian guy and His family. It was so good. We had goat curry, it wasnt too hot until they broke out the chilies and I just had to take one. It was very hot, Elder Redding if you are reading this, it wasnt as bad as the wasabe though haha. We had a good lesson with him afterward about how god answers prayers. It was like perfect missionary work in action because the fellowshipper and his family were there the whole time and he was the one who made the return appointment not us.
      Althought he is the zone leaders investigator I truly had enjoyed teaching him. We had a pretty good time at church they are planning a hangi next week, it is like a moari cultural dinner, sort of like a luau. It is a fundraiser to help this member bring his family back home to him. It is cool to see the ward come together to help there own.
      I have to give a special thanks to Eve Simmons for sending me a package and to mom for Sending a surprise Easter Package. Thank you all so much, I love you all so so so much. I hope all is well in Bountiful, Please keep me updated.