Group Email 1/24/16

This week has been great and I have been very happy!!! We only had one short lesson on the Book of Mormon with a kid named Logan but that is enough. Because ONE soul is precious in the eyes of God. If i'm working my best to help just 1 soul including myself, I'm doing my part and I can enjoy the spirit and eternal blessings that I am working for on my mission. I'm finding my self much closer with the spirit and our Heavenly Father and Savior. As members when we study,have faith and act, eventually you will see it becomes knowledge and fact. (didn't mean to rhyme or anything I just came up with that)

I know through my own experiences on my mission that our Savior lives and that He has already saved us. 

This week I was able to enjoy a trip to Queenstown! Wow. What a place. It is filled with people from all over the world and insane adventurous opportunities. It was kinda freaking me out how many people and cars there were and how stuffed it was!! I haven't been in a city like that for ages!! Gore is so quiet and low key and I guess I have just gotten used to that!! 

We watched a missionary broadcast this last week that was pretty powerful and awesome. I'll just pull out a few notes..

"Share the Book of Mormon on the silver platter of your own faith"

"Teach repentance and Baptize converts"

"Real intent means desire to receive an answer and ACT on it"

my favorite one is by David A. Bednar - "Have the faith to press forward and GO"

I'm excited for this great work that we are all a part of. This Gospel is true and is the only way for us to enjoy real and everlasting happiness. My growing testimony is what makes me excited for my future. If you are going through something hard, work on the small seed of faith that we each must have. It takes care and attention. But it will root and you will be able to get through anything. 

I love you all and I love being a missionary.

-- 

Elder LaMunyon

Atearoa

3 months and 15 pounds later I am still doing great! In this last week not a whole lot has happened.
I went on exchanges with my District Leader who had his 1 year mark on my birthday so we got to celebrate together which was fun! We went to Kaka point and Nugget point for the day and went on a little adventure just walking around just enjoying the ocean and beautiful beach!

Gore has been pretty tough.. finding people is near to impossible here. With such a small branch, not many members help out or share word of the Elders. So we are pretty much on our own. Lot's of door knocking. Which so far hasn't gotten us any new investigators or anything. Sometimes Satan tries to get into your head by telling you that you aren't working hard enough, or your not a good missionary. But lucky for me and the other missionaries out around the world, we have the chance to have an EXTREMELY close relationship with Heavenly Father, and I know when he is working in my life, I'm a successful missionary. All it takes is patience and prayer through long suffering. D&C 24:8.

Many of you may be wondering how my accent is coming along... It's not. hahahahah It's too hard. No person from america could train there mouth to move as lazily as a kiwi or maori moves their mouth 😅 But i'll keep at it!!! I'm going to start working on my maori phrases as well. I've been learning a few lines in Tongan from my companion which is super cool. like... "Oua nake eke omai taimini" (That's for Christian Bain).

Anyways!! Love you all! Please email me with updates about life and stuff (:

Ofa atu.

--
Elder LaMunyon

Week 9! -email dated 1/3/16

a little background:  over the holiday, Bryson got news that they were consolidating his area, and instead of having 2 sets of elders plus the senior couple, it would just be 1 set of elders plus the senior couple.  so, a lot more ground for Bryson and his new companion to cover.

So.. This week I began my 2nd transfer as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I killed off my trainer and he is now home which is super weird to think about.

My new companion's name is Elder Fetafehi Vaha'i and he is "straight out of tonga" hahaha. That's something they say to explain they were born and raised there since many of the islanders move around especially to New Zealand.

Not a whole lot has happened this last week because of the holidays! Everywhere is shut down and people are just spending time at home with families. Which means they don't want to talk to missionaries. We did door knock for a few hours this week with no success really. It's funny. You pray for success and you expect success but when you go out and give it your all and don't see any new potentials or investigators, for some reason you feel fine. Sometimes it's harder than others but when we pray for success and don't see any, I feel the Holy Ghost comfort me when we only get doors shut in our face. It would be nice to see some people have interest but so far in Gore it isn't happening. Someday, even if it isn't me, a missionary will be able to come in and reap the planted seeds by me and my companions. 

New Years day was actually pretty fun! We drove to Balclutha (hit another bird) and had a BBQ at our members house! Her name is Jackie and she is soooo nice. She works with sheep shearers and loves being a Kiwi. She is very proud to be a New Zealander haha. She has such a cute family and it was great to have some member interaction here in Southland for once!

I love being a missionary. I love building my testimony. I love all of my friends and family. 

-- 

Elder LaMunyon