Kia Ora! Tena Koe?!

How is my lovely family who almost forgets to write me?! Punks :-) Nah jokes, it's all good! (Zach typically emails at 4:00, it was just before 3 pm when he emailed asking why the boys hadn't emailed him yet!!  ha We set our clocks back last night and New Zealand doesn't set their clocks back!  oops--so now he will email around 3 pm!)  It's so good to hear that you guys are alive and well! ha How's that snow?!  Nice and hot over here...ha ha ha.  It makes me even happier to hear that the Cardinals lost ha ha!  I hope Brans gives Kayd a little noise! :-) Anyways, what a crazy as week!  You are not going to believe what happened!  Everything was going all good with Chevon aye, she was our Golden Investigator!  We're talking quit tobacco, alcohol, tea, coffee, EVERYTHING in three days!  We had her baptismal interview on Wednesday, her baptism was planned for Friday.  After her interview our district leader, Elder Utai, came and talked to my companion and I and said that he thinks she's already a member.  I called the mission office and requested a record check.  Sure enough, she was baptized and tried to pull a fast one on us and get baptized again! ha ha Man, that was such a downer!  When we had to tell her, oh man, luckily I was on a trade off but my companion had to break the news to her that she couldn't get baptized and she straight up flipped!  They calmed her down and she is now in the repentance process so that's good, aye! :-)

On a good note, we were able to have a baptism.  The Tapania family, they were less active as and they had three kids who were of age to be baptized.  It was amazing.  The father came a long way to be able to baptize his kids.  He's kind of slow...but he was the man, aye, when it came time for him to baptize his kids.  It was a really good experience for me.  They have little kids that I always joke around with (the ones in the picture).  We were also able to participate in a musical number.  We sang Love at Home in Samoan and the other verse in Tongan.  Man, that was sweet as!  I love picking up on these languages.  I can communicate a lot in Maori, not so much in Samoan or Tongan yet.  I love this beautiful country and the blessing it is to be here.

Tapania Family Baptism

Yesterday I was able to be a part of the Mission Wide fast to find the ELECT!  That was powerful!  We had to get up early this morning....and travel to the top of Whangarei and we had a testimony meeting and our zone leader gave a blessing for the land in which we serve and that we would be able to recognize and find the elect.  It was an amazing experience!

This week we were riding bikes and it was raining hard out...and I was just chapped!  It wasn't a successful day, I was easily annoyed (due to my English companion talking more about how good he was with things back home rather than focusing on the work!)  anyways, I was not in the mood!  This brotha was walking down the road and I felt prompted to talk to him and of course there was the feeling of "leave him be, he's just gonna be rude like all the others in this area" (white people area) but as he got closer, I saw that we was Maori! ha Yay!! So, I went up and talked with him, and it turns out that he had been thinking a lot about church lately and he was just waiting for an opportunity to hear the gospel.  Whooooo!!  So we will be teaching him this week!

 

 

On a door they knocked on

 

Happy Halloween!

 

Far over the misty mountains cold

Kina, the best seafood ever, Dad would puke ha ha

Just a little Legolas action in the flat

The Falls

Wally's Baptism--from Elder Viliamu Brother Brown and Wally

That's my week!  Pretty good, I guess.  It's so good to hear from you! I miss you all!  You are the best!  Have a good week!! 

Love your son and brother,
Matua Hone Hana Elder Johnson

From Elder Viliamu:

Thank you for the updates of what is happening at home...aka my home in America!  Wonderful to hear that all is well in the family.

I am doing well here in the Kaikohe Stake.  This morning we've had a wonderful 45 minutes drive to a place called Opononi.  What a wonderful area to go to.  Last Sunday, we, the whole mission, had a fast for finding the elect.  One of the things that I like about doing missionary work is to find those that receive you or the elect, because that's how we build up this church.  Of course, while finding the elect, we'll come across other people that may not yet be ready but we're planting seeds for them in the future.

Of course in that same weekend, just passed, we had Wally's Baptism.  It was a wonderful baptism.  He almost cried because he was overwhelmed by the Spirit, his first experience where he felt the Spirit so strong in his life.  He is getting the Priesthood next Sunday.

By the results of our fast on Sunday, we found a part member family!  I consider it as an elect family that we're looking for.  More updates next week when we get to see them on Thursday.

Oh, by the way, tell Elder Johnson that we're going to kill a pig again at Brother Brown's house.  That should be fun, but tiring.  We'll see what happens.  I sent some pictures home about the last pig that we killed and the chicken that I strangled (not my intention) but mom thinks I'm fat and I live in the bush, hee hee.  That's it no more photos for you until I lose weight! ha  No good.

That's the mission--have a wonderful week and enjoy the Sabbath Day.  Next week on Tuesday is our Mission Conference, the whole mission is coming together, so I will definitely see Elder Johnson and then in December we will go to the Temple, yeeeh!  Our mission President got permission for the mission to go to the Temple.  That's sweet!  This is a work of our Father in Heaven.  We can see his hand in the work and He promised us that he will help us!  This is going to be a wonderful week!

Love Always,
Elder Viliamu