Hey there! Hows it? Probably going great or something like that. .

 

My week has been pretty good, just reaping the benefits of fasting, it has been a very good week in that sense, although our actual numbers have gone down this week. A bit embarrassing actually, just didn't happen this week and apparently the district took a hit as well. But hey, so goes the Northland area.

 

 Started out with a P-day at the top of a Mountain in Pipiwai where we prayed and blessed the area to help us find the elect. That was a mean experience, some of my feelings were powerful. Then we went into a P-day with the other Elders in Whangarei, which was good. Just relaxed with Elders Johnson and McKeon. Elder McKeon looks like Liam from One Directon and apparently he used to bully Zane from One Direction as well in his school. Beans & Carrots if you ask me, only about the Zane part he does kinda look like Liam, especially in a sweater vest. We also ordered some customized hats, excited as for those to come in!!!! Also I picked up some music from Elder Johnson, Kim-Walker Smith and Skyler Smith, album: "Home". Absolutely incredible, they are songs about our connections to the Saviour and they are powerful songs, you should look them all up.

 

Tuesday we had a District Meeting and we made some good plans to have members out with us this week and involved the branch more and work to get Tamatea out on his Mission!!!! A bit of a process but absolutely worth it. The next day we ran into a Brett who expressed his desire to come back to church but he refused to let us do anything to help him and then he stumbled away looking heartbroken. It hurt, surprisingly enough it hurt heaps. We had a mean lesson with one of our Investigators, now we just need to get him to move away from his Ratana Pa belief. Turns out Ratana is an off shoot of the church here in New Zealand. We also met up with one of our less actives who is ready as to come back to church, he just doesn't have the motivation to come and he is a bit afraid that the people will come up and make accusations about where he has been. Ahhh. Just come to church!!

 

Thursday was a bit of a bum out day, not too much got done with our investigators. Everyone was feeling dodgy that day. Did have a feed with the Ratana's (member family). They may be my favourite family in the area, Jimbob and Cassie. We also tried to work with a few of our potentials but one was just interested on converting me to a socialist perspective. He did a pretty good job though, raised some pretty good points. Although with him everything came back to Thailand, where his wife is from and he tells me that it is the best place in the world, along with Singapore. Everyone apparently makes $60,000 minimum in Singapore with a 0% unemployment rate. Other than that, no one was really home. Friday involved another bike ride out to Te Kopuru to visit people that didn't end up being home, which happens. . . heaps. . . Fun fact: my voice left me around 2:00 pm and it was just super scratchy the rest of the time. And then we went out to Baylys Beach which was beautiful, you can hear the ocean from everywhere in Baylys. And this is where we had our first lesson with Reese, the Niece of a Less Active family that is staying with them. She seems curious as and she is really in touch with the Maori spiritual side of things, we just have to bridge that to with what we know to be true and show her how they do complement each other! The sad part was that she was laughing at me the entire time because my voice sounded funny as being mostly gone. My companion was being an egg and making fun of me most of the time, but we were able to teach her the first parts to the Plan of Salvation lesson which she enjoyed.

 

Saturday the big thing was a sneak attack on Stephen which was good and bad. Good because he is okay with us dropping by randomly and bad because his baptism has been pushed back. Also our appointment with Sherman fell through and he looked in a bad state, stink. Although we did have Tama out with us, which was good. He's a good kid, just has some problems with his mum being in the music world which isn't always the best environment.

 

Sunday I was just tired as the entire day. I have been tired this entire week, not sure what is up at the moment. Something is up though, and my throat was acting up again, bugger, o well. I was able to manage without speaking too much. The unfortunate thing was that none of our investigators showed up this week, which doesn't look good on the weekly report. Definitely know where we are going to improve this week.

 

That was about it for the week, a bit of a slow week, but the elect are slowly appearing and the Lord is working miracles according to our obedience. He is such a merciful God, whether we feel we deserve it or not his arms are still reaching out and will be until the end and at that point we are the ones who look him in the eye and deny his love. I am starting the feel that as we talk with people. We share a message and they say they aren't interested. Did the Saviour feel disappointed that his church would always be the minority in the world? That in the end of days moste of his brothers and sisters wouldn't use his Atonement and Sacrifice fully or even deny it? I don't know, but I know that I love him. He has given me a chance to exercise how deep I am willing to let my love go. How willing am I to change myself to become more like him? Do I love God more than myself? Goes back to Conference and a few of the talks speaking of the first commandment. Everything we should be doing as the Saints in the Latter-Days should be because we keep the first command, to Love God.

 

Kakite Ano

 

Matua Roa

Elder Long

Happy Halloween!