Merry Christmas & New Years challenge...

Merry Christmas!!! That is basically what this week was all about! So you get to hear about Christmas all over again! So with it being Christmas heaps of people were not home... So because of that we basically did a whole lot of nothing... Monday we went to a place called Peha. Its a really cool popular beach. Lots of surfers, and tourists! But then Tuesday we got up to basically nothing. 

    

    For Christmas Eve we went to a family in the wards house, The Semu's. We spent until about 7 there and then we went caroling with the Zone to see peoples Investigators and sing to them! So that was really fun! The families were really happy to see us and to get to see so many missionaries! Then we had a Zone sleepover with all of the Elders! We were up so late just having fun and making a mess. We then woke up and Elder Willardsen and I went home to open presents and get ready for breakfast at 10:30. So we had Christmas Breakfast with a Chinese Lady, She made chicken, Rice, and Dumplings. We stayed there for an hour ish. After that we went to the flat for a break before lunch at a Tongan families house. We had a HUGE feast there. They are a really rich Tongan family so they went all out on everything. So we got Oti (really good fruit drink), Ham, Roast beef, Potato Salad, and Taro. Then we had another break at the flat before we went to go to the Prasad's house for the rest of the night and there we played games and just hung out. Then we spent the last hour on Mt. Pukamateco. Its a Mountain that looks over the entire stake and you can see everything. We met the Zone up there and were able to spend the time with them!

   

    I woke up on Tuesday morning with a big red spot on my leg and I know believe that it is a spider bite. So I that has been going on for a few days and it hurts and yeah... I decided to wait until Sunday night to call the mission doctor about it and she said we will just put heat on it and try to get it to go away. So we will see what happens.

    The 26th was a great day. I was able to Skype home to my family and talk with them. It was actually pretty hard to talk to them and have to say goodbye again but it was such a blessing to see them! After that we played games at the Semu's home and we went to dinner and played Touch with a big group of people. So it was really fun!

    This week with New Years coming up I just want to extend a challenge to everyone. I would love for everyone to look at real New Years Goals. Among all of the goals I would love for some of them to be Spiritual minded goals. Whatever you can do this next year to come closer to Christ. I would love to hear about those Goals next week and If I can do anything to help you meet those goals I would Love to help you with that. Please Pray and possibly even Fast so that you can honestly see the things that the Lord would want you to improve on. 

Thanks for the great Christmas spirit! And as always thank you for your love and Prayers!

Love Elder Seelos!

That is the Prasads family...where we went Christmas evening

Me and Elder Willardsen at Piha

Christmas morning

Mt Pukamateco

This is what happens at lunch when its really hot and humid. 

Transfers! And it's a small world.....

Hello family!

This week was really good! We did a lot of fun things! So Monday we went to the Beach and got to be with most of the other missionaries in the zone! So Tuesday we had District Meeting, which I thought went really well! We just had a discussion about how to best work with our members! It was probably one of the better district meetings I have had. After that Elder Leung (Elder in my district) was feeling sick and didn't really want to go back to his area and walk around the whole time so I went with him and took the car there. We spent like half the day in the flat because he had a nasty stomach virus. But there were people he wanted to see because he was transferring so we did get out a bit to go and see them! 

So for any leadership changes President usually calls you to tell you that your changing leadership, and that usually happens Sunday or Monday. So after getting no call I figured I would be staying and not moving. So then while I was on trade off the Zone Leaders called to tell me all of the transfer news to tell the district. So they called and said that I would be moving to Henderson! I will be District Leader over there and have a new district and new everything. So yes I was transferred. I am now in the West Harbor ward with Elder Willardsen. It's actually interesting... Remember how Hayden Hale (a missionary from Mason's home ward) had a missionary leave from his ward on the mission to Auckland? Well his name is Elder Willardsen, and he is my new Comp! haha. What are the chances??? He come out in November so I am Follow-up Training him. So 6 more weeks of Training! 6 solid months! haha... But whatever! I'm happy!  Elder Willardson is the Man!!! He is so good! He is 19 and just came out. He went to UVU for a semester before he came. He is confident and ready and loving it. He is a great missionary! He's really fun and has a good sense of humor! So I am really excited to spend a transfer with him!

So the new flat... That is interesting... Its ok... Not terrible but makes me miss my old flat. Its just old and falling apart and kind of gross. But that's what I signed up for right! haha. It's a basement house that is being rented out. It's all good and the area is MASSIVE!!! Like HUGE! really. Its like an hour to and hour and a half to go from the bottom to the top of the area. But we have the same amount of K's as my last area so we will try to get more! Its been really fun so far. Its a pretty white ward, so that's good and bad I guess. I'm use to more of an Island ward but I'll re-adjust. 

Well Wednesday was really hard. That is when I had to say goodbye to everyone. Some were hard some were harder... Its almost like leaving home again. I had gotten to know all of those people so well and then I just have to get up and leave. Idk if you remember Alvin and Cheryl. But they are a less active family I found my first transfer and I have been visiting ever since. That was probably the hardest people to say goodbye to. I ALMOST shed a tear. Almost. But they gave us a Christmas gift and there was a letter inside that had my name on it.  So that was cool. I really love them.

Then the end of the week has just been meeting people, and setting up Christmas. It will be fun to be here. I'm loving it so far!

Love you so much!

Love Elder Seelos

P.S. Oh did I tell you I got a package from Ben and Brenda and from Grandma and Grandpa Seelos?  Thank you!!!!!!  

P Day hike

Danielle and kids...Alex is the one closest to me that I baptized a few months ago.

This is Alvin and Cheryl.

and their dog Woody :)

Brother Takau and kids

My zone (picture sent to my mom from Elder Dalton's mom) Missionary moms LOVE Facebook!

Enjoying beautiful New Zealand!

Temple trip & transfers coming up...

Hey Family!!! 

     How is everyone? Im glad to hear all about your week! I love getting to see what you are all doing and how everyone is doing! 

      So this week had been good. I will start with the Highlight of the week! That would have to be the Temple! I loved getting to go there and get to go through the Temple and feel of the great spirit there! I was able to go with all o f the missionaries from my zone and from a different stake also.  We did a session & Initiatory.  So I got to meet new missionaries and talk with them! So it was really good! I was talking to a Missionary from Mt. Roscall Zone and he is from Farmington and went to Viewmont! He graduated last year. We knew a lot of the same people. His name is Elder Maxfield. Apparently his little brother is on the bike team with Ty! Hes a really nice guy and it was nice to get to see him and talk about home!

       The next good thing about this week was the Christmas Party the ward had! We got to go and just have fun with the ward! I love getting to see them all and talk to them and just help them trust us and develop friendships there. Danielle (the mother of the kid I just baptized) showed up. We were able to talk with her because we haven't seen her for a while. She came with her Ex-partner. He is the one who went to Jail for restraining order issues. He is apparently changing and coming back. So we will see what happens there. He is a really nice guy and so I hope that he has changed and can help motivate Danielle to keep going. 

         The other great thing this week was yesterday the stake showed the First Presidency Christmas video. Usually to go to things like that we have to have an Investigator with us. As we were texting people trying to get someone to come so that we could also go the Zone Leaders texted us and told us that we didn't have to have anyone and could go either way but to try to get people there. So we got to go and it was an hour long and I loved it so much! It was so great! I loved the spirit it brought and to be honest made me a bit home sick thinking about it all. But I'm so grateful to be out here serving Christ this year!

       So the last thing is my investigators. I guess this week has been really slow and it seemed like all of our investigators are either gone or really not moving anywhere. I just cant figure out what it is that these people need to progress. Whether it be coming to church or it being reading the Book of Mormon or just doing what we ask. Its just hard to see people I care so much about not progress. So please just keep them in your prayers.

      Last of all it is that time again! Transfer week! So I will let you know next week what happens. I have very mixed feelings. I don't know whether I want to stay or go... I love the people but I want to see new areas... So just pray for what is right.

    Thank you for the 3 levels of Christmas article mom.  Christmas is such a special time and I am also really hoping that it means that I can focus on other things this Christmas. I love the thoughts of having a more meaningful Christmas.

          Thank you for the prayers and love!!

                             Love Elder Seelos

My Christmas Tree...Thanks mom & girls.

Hanging out

Elder Inglis & I at the temple

Elder Dalton & I enjoying our ice cream

Our temple trip.  It was awesome!

Sister Balli sent me this picture from the bus ride home from the temple.  Poor Elder Inglis had a long day.

A baptism set...I hope!

     Hey Family!! I'm glad to hear that Festival went so well! I have to say that I'm actually really jealous that I missed it. So you better keep doing it when I get home. Because I just love it there! It's honestly the best! It is the best feeling in the world. There is no better way to get into the Christmas Spirit!

      So this week has been... Interesting. Last week I'm not sure if I said this or not but we had a set baptism date!!! Her name is Raewyn and she is preparing to be baptized. She is a Former Investigator that we just decided to stop into and see a few weeks ago and she decided then and there she wanted to be baptized so we have been teaching the lessons to her again. So we have taught the first three lessons (Restoration, Plan Of Salvation, and Gospel of Jesus Christ). So while we were teaching her Gospel Of Jesus Christ, she broke down and started to tell us about all this stuff that is going on with her and her Ex-Partner, don't want to  go into much detail but in the end she basically told us that she was feeling suicidal and so we called the Relief Society President (Sister Tina Pauga) and she was able to come over and talk to her more and they called an ambulance to take her to the Hospital to be watched and get some help. So that was on Saturday Night so we have to push back her date because she missed church yesterday. So that's the exciting story of the week. After that lesson we had like half and hour to an hour tell we had to be home and both me and Elder Inglis decided we needed an easy calm down visit with someone so we went to one of our favorite Less Actives and talked to him and basically hung out tell 9 and were able to relive our stress. So that was nice. 

       So this week we had Zone Training and so we talked about our members and how to best work with them to help us in our work. So that meant no District meeting so that was really nice! I didn't have to prepare anything. After Zone training on Thursday we had Trade-Off with Mt. Albert Elders. I went into their area and walked/biked all day and it was actually really fun! It was fun until we started to head back to the Flat at like 8:30 which was about 2 K's away so like 1 mile ish. So we were riding and I tried to shift gears and the chain came off and got stuck in the pedals, and after 5 minutes of twisting and pulling and stress we decided that it wasn't coming off. So I got on the bike and I was going to push it, but then I realized that the wheels still work so I put one foot on the pedal and I pushed with the other foot like it was a Scooter or a longboard and I did that for like 20 minutes up and down hills all the way back to the flat! It was SOOOOO FUN!!! Haha. I'm very grateful for my longboarding training for that. Elder Mahreza tried to do it and gave up after like 2 minutes because his leg was shaking and he couldn't hold himself up like that! Its was awesome!

      Yesterday one of my mission dreams came true. We were at the Flat and the Samoan Elders had stopped by and we were talking during Lunch and all of a Sudden we heard a knock at the door, and we looked over and through the glass we saw the outline of a little plump white guy. So we started to freak out thinking it was the flat inspector and our flat may have been a bit dirty from the lunch we just made. After having a little heart attack and opening the door we realized it wasn't the inspector it was someone better! It was a "missionary" from Jehovah Witness. So we talked to him for a bit and I will promise you that they are just as annoying and crazy as everyone says. It was crazy! It was also very funny! He sounded more like a sales person then a religious person. It was so weird...

     I have some very great news for everyone! We were informed by President Bali this week that this year the mission will let us SKYPE home for Christmas!!! So I will get to see you guys!!!! So yeah that's some pretty great news!!! Also I got all three Packages. Thanksgiving, and Christmas from mom & dad, and I got a Package from Grandma & Grandpa Hanni! I loved them all! 

     So that's my email this week. Please pray for Raewyn that she will be able to work through her issues and work towards baptism again. Thanks for the prayers and thoughts! Love you!!!

Fun day at the Auckland Museum.  And another ugly thrift store shirt...(that last part added by mom!) 

I'm adorable

The stocks

Me & my cars....

Food...feast or famine

    Well this week was good. I guess not all that much happened.  So just starting off we had a great thanksgiving with heaps of food and it was so good!! There was lots of good food and everything turned out great! The turkey was awesome and we had lots of fun talking and hanging out. I'm glad that everyone had a good time at thanksgiving! Mine definitely wasn't the same without everyone there! 

      So to start off we had trade off again with Mt. Albert just like every week. I got to go into their area and see the people there! But because I'm the only Elder in the District that can drive, the car stayed with me so we drove in their little area. We met a man named Trevor and he is a less active who has some mental issues. He's a super nice guy but has a few problems. But he lives alone and gets pretty bored and doesn't have a lot. So we took him HEAPS of food from the store and we went in and we ate with him and he was so happy and he loved it all!  It was so fun to see the smile on his face!

      We have a part of our area that is basically detached from the larger part of our area so when we go up there we try to spend 2-3 hours because it takes a lot of K's to get there. So we were up there on Friday and we spent the entire afternoon there. We started out knocking doors and we meet some nice people and were able to talk with them about Family History stuff! Then we started to visit some people and we went to see a Potential and they were not home but across the street some people were waving at us and we started to talk to them.  I knew they were members because I tried to visit them with Elder Pennington and they were acting like they were not members.  But then they told us that they were members and they felt bad so they invited us in for some ice cream because it was hot az! ( note from Mason's mom..."sweet az"  or "hot az"  are typical sayings in New Zealand...it's fun to see these phrases pop up in his letters ) So they are from the Samoan ward and we chatted with them, then we left with a prayer and we went to go see a Less Active family in the area.  We went over and they invited us in and we started to talk and then the Mother (Old Lady) told her daughter (Semi Active) something in Samoan and so then the daughter left and we were talking and then the daughter came back with a new tub of ice cream and they fed us heaps of ice cream too so then we went home after that for dinner and neither of us were hungry! 

     Then on Saturday the Sisters asked us to come to a lesson with them to teach a New Investigator at the chapel. So we were going to meet this guy there at 4, but me and Elder Inglis were in the area and didn't have anyone to see and so we got there about 20 minutes early.  When we got there we realized that there was a Samoan Wedding going on at the chapel. So we called the sisters and they said it was all good, we would just take one of the empty class rooms. So we got out of the car and as we get out an old white guy walks into the gate and so we figured he was lost because it was a Samoan wedding and he looked very white. So we started to talk to him and it was the guy we were going to teach. So we walked up to the chapel to get out of the rain and as we walk up everyone at the wedding recognizes us as missionaries and they of course started to offer us food because thats what Samoans do. So we told them we were ok, and that we were just there to teach this guy. But then one of the Samoan Missionaries came up and said in our culture it is very rude to not accept food when we offer it. So they shewed us into the kitchen to get food and we ate as we waited for the sisters to come and teach this guy with us. Good food again! So after that we started to teach the white guy and he is a crazy Christian guy and just really wanted to Bible Bash so we were stuck talking to him for an hour and a half. Which of course made us late for dinner...by 40 minutes. I was so done talking to him, He was just crazy...

     Oh and guess what!!! I've used the Family history book a few times now! I used it last week for a lesson at church about family history and I also used it in a lesson with an investigator about family history!!! And then we were doing Family history work and I was trying to connect grandpa Seelos' parents to my tree and I was like "I don't know enough about them to find them!!!" Then I remembered the book and I was able to use it to find them and its all connected now!!! haha. It's awesome!

     So the last thing to talk about is the fact that we had very little food all week at our flat. We have had a lot of visitors, mostly the Zone Leaders, because Elder Long is obsessed with Hanni Dip. He loves it so he has been over eating all of the left over dip from Thanksgiving. When they come over they also eat a lot of our food.  So we ran out of food fast. So on Friday we basically finished off our food with the Zone Leaders and so we didn't know what we were going to eat for the weekend. We managed Saturday morning and afternoon, but then we had dinner with a Tongan Family and we left there with 4 burgers, 2 Pizza's, Ice cream, and cake. On top of the 3 burgers and 1 other Pizza we ate for dinner while we were there. So we figured we would be fine for Sunday and Monday. Then we had Lunch after church yesterday with another Tongan family and they fed us HEAPS and then we left with like 2 more full meals worth of food! So my spiritual thought this week is that prayers do get answered. Because that was an answer to prayers. Haha.

Love you all so much!!!

Our Thanksgiving feast!  Complete with Hanni dip!

Me emailing you!  I didn't take too many pictures this week.... I'll send more next week, we are going to the Auckland Museum today! 

A picture sent to Mason's mom from his buddy, Elder Dalton

Not by my power....

 So this week has been really exciting. Lots has gone on. So I guess I will just start with the topic of the email. This week we have had so many things fall through. Like heaps. But every time we would have blown though our plans something would end up happening. So the first time we were trying to go spend some time with our members and we had like 2 hours devoted to just that. So we were going around and we went through more then half our plans in like 30 minutes. So we were sitting there and like "what is happening?" and I was feeling like something is about to happen, and then like no kidding 30 seconds later we got a call from the Elders in the district and Elder Mahreza was feeling sick and it was wet and rainy and cold and they were far from the flat so he wanted us to come get him. So then that filled a good amount of our time! So that itself was good!

      Then yesterday we had basically the same thing happen. We went through 2 hours of plans in 45 minutes and no one was home. So we had one last backup and it was one I had basically put down because we needed to fill a name so I put it down. It was a Former that we had visited a few times but she really showed no interest so we had put her in the Former list a month ago and she was just in the area so I put her name down. But we decided to visit her. So we go over and she answers and says "oh hello elders!" and we asked her how she was and we started talking and she invited us to come in and chat. So we started to talk to her and she started to tell us about all this stuff that's going on with her children's father and things like that and we started to tell her that we know that Heavenly Father will bless her as she trusts in Him, so we gave her a blessing and we decided to pick her up and we are going to teach her all the lessons again and she is agreed to be baptized! So that was a really exciting day!

       That's my spiritual thought! You may not know what people need or who needs something or who will be ready or who is there for you, but Heavenly Father knows. He not only knows us perfectly, but he knows everyone around us perfectly also. He knows what everyone needs and if you trust in Him and follow His spirit, He will trust you to be a part of His work. You don't have to be a full time missionary to do missionary work.

       So now just about random stuff. Me and Elder Inglis were driving to visit an investigator, his name is Tonu hes a 16 year old guy who I found with Elder Dunn and we taught the restoration but he's been gone ever since so we haven't seen him. So we were trying to catch him and we parked and we looked down the road and there was a white Christmas tree laying there. We decided that if it was there that night when we went home we would snag it. So that night when it was dark we pulled up and Elder Inglis jumped out and grabbed it and threw it in the back seat and we took it home! It was raining all that day so it was wet so we let it sit and we were straightening out the branches all night. So we decided that we would make it a year round decoration in the flat and we were going to have Elders put badges and pictures on it and just let it collect things from Elders in the flat! 

      Last Monday we went Thrift Shopping with the Elders and Sisters. We just messed around the whole time and had fun. It was really fun. 

     Yes we are doing a Thanksgiving Feast. We are having a feast tonight with the zone! We are all really excited! We even got a Turkey. And the Sisters will hopefully be making a pumpkin pie! So hopefully it works out! 

Love you all so much! I'll talk to you soon! Love you!!

Don't try to burn things in plastic buckets

Our new addition

My thrift store shirt is awesome, and I don't have to hear my mom tell me how ugly it is when I wear it!

Learning the role of district leader...

   So this week was actually really good. I really like it here, and I'm having a blast! Last week was kind of hard, I kinda thought I was going  to move because I've been here a while. I was hoping I would move so it was hard last week but this week I have just realized I'm here and I'm staying so lets get to work and do this!  

   So as a district leader I am in charge of looking after 2 other companionship's and helping them in any way I can. I do bi-weekly phone calls with them and get there numbers and talk about the people that they are talking to. Then do studies and trade offs and stuff. The position of a leader is really just to be a servant to the people that you watch over so I am really trying to be a better servant to them! I am in the Waterview Zone. Thats where the City is. So the zone leaders cover the city and we are the outlying suburbs 

    Last Monday we went to the beach and hung out on the rocky area that is usually covered with water but it was low tide so it was open and we just played around and took pictures! So that will make mom happy! haha. I bought a hat on Monday. We can wear it on Mondays so it is awesome to have a hat back on!  It's for one of the Local Rugby League teams called the Warriors.

   So we actually got to do some service this week! The first time my whole mission. We have been trying to set this up with a Less Active family in the ward just doing garden stuff. We have been trying for about a month and a half and we were actually able to do it this week! We weed whacked her flower bed and then we were cleaning up a Palm tree and ripping all the dead leaves off of it and then used a chain saw and I started to trim off all of the stringy hairy stuff on it. So we were there from like 2 to almost 5. It was the BEST day of the week! So this family is a Tongan Lady, Maree. Her daughter is Mariah. And her Samoan partner, Malcom. Both Malcom and Maree were born and raised in the church. Maree in Hawaii and Malcom right in this ward. But it was cool cuz I have been visiting them the whole time I have been here and nothing has moved forward. But she told us that last Monday when they saw us driving Malcom turned to her and asked if she wanted to go back to church. She said she did but only if he came too. So she was there yesterday!!! He wasn't but we will be working with them more now. They are so great, and we love them so much!


    Remember Sina and Feagai? Well they have been home for about 2 weeks now and we have been texting her and she hasn't answered so we were in the area and decided just to stop in. When we got there we talked to the Sister-In-Law and she said that they were both back in Sa (Samoa) because her mom just passed away. So they spent about a week home and then had to go back. So we don't know when she will be back. Just keep her in your prayers. I'm sure that this is hard for her.


   So being district leader is going great! Training is really fun! I have decided that I'm going to do trade off's every Tuesday after district meeting with my Elders. So we had it last week, and it went really well. It really helps me develop  a better relationship with my elders! So I'm loving it!

Mom- I'm excited that you are going to lunch with some of the other moms! That will be so fun! Elder Dalton is actually in my zone. He's in the other district, but I play touch with him every morning! It's sweet az! 

Love you all so much!!!
Love Elder Seelos

My district!

Elder Ingles, my new companion

Playing around at the beach on p-day

Me and my rugby team

Me & Elder Ingles on our first p-day together

So yeah.... Transfers.

      So I guess the exciting this this week is all about transfers. So I guess I will just get that out of the way! So Monday night me and Elder Dunn were planning and all of a sudden the phone started to ring, so I picked it up and it said President Bali. So most of the time that we get phone calls from anyone in the mission it’s for Elder Dunn, So I usually just hand it to him, So I said "Here it’s for you!" So he took it and started talking to him and then President said that he had an assignment change for him and he was going to be the new Zone Leader here in Waterview.

     So then right after Elder Dunn accepted President asked to talk to me. So I started to talk to him and he says "Elder Seelos I have an assignment change for you. I want you to stay in your area and be the District Leader then, AND I would also like you to train a new missionary." I answered back with "And Train?" and he said "Yes, We take things serious here in this mission. Are you ok with that assignment?" So Of course I said yes! I literally sat in my chair for 10 minutes after I hung up shaking... I was quite nervous... Like I don't even know my stuff and I'm supposed to teach someone else, and then teach Investigators without the backup help. Like what?! I know that I can do it but I am pretty nervous. So yeah.

     My new companion is Elder Ingles, He is from Australia. He is older than me by 4-5 months. So yeah, it’s strange. He’s a really good guy. He is still pretty shy, but he’s still really good. He opens up more when he knows the people he is around, but he has to warm up to them, so he was pretty quiet the first day then the next day he started to talk more and it was good. I’m just hoping that I can be a good example to him and be able to help him.

      We went to the Zoo on Monday! So that was way cool! I loved it! Lots of cool animals and it was good to get to do something different. They had KIWI'S!!! They were awesome! Haha. It was about the same size as the Utah Zoo but just with some different animals. They had Lions and Hippos and Monkeys and things like that and then like Red Panda's, and Wallabies, and an Emu. So that was pretty cool to see!

      So we got haircuts on Wednesday because we were called by the Zone Leaders and they said that the assistants wanted us to go with them and we were going to go and take some of the new missionaries out for the night. So we went and me and Elder Dunn both got a greenie and we went into the city and just Talked to people there. The Elder I was with was just basically in shock the whole time. It was kind of funny. But it was good!

      So then transfers was on Thursday and we drove there in my car and the Zone Leaders drove their car and they had the trailer and then they had to leave early for an appointment and so they took my car and I drove the trailer home. So I'm glad I learned how to drive a trailer at home.

    On Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference. We had Elder Cummings of the 70 come and preside at the meeting and he spoke at them both. The Saturday session was all about missionary work among the members. Our Recent Convert Mariella spoke about the family that has her over for FHE every week and how they have befriended her and how much that helped and I thought it was really good!

So, Steven wasn’t at church this week. We haven't seen him for a little while so its hard. Danielle, The mom of my recent baptism, hasn’t been coming to church the last few weeks and we are trying to catch her and we can’t get her. So it’s getting hard to see her. But we are having faith

     One thing I have learned this week about light is also that sometimes you are in that dark room and you’re just waiting for someone to turn that light switch and enlighten the path I guess but lots of times you have to work for the light. It doesn't just come. You have to search out the switch only then will the light turn on.

     Love you all so much and I miss you so much!

          Elder Seelos

A great day at the Zoo.... yes those are Kangaroos in the background.

A full flock of Elders

It's a Waterview tradition. It's called a "Nametag Pic"

They took away my car and replaced it with this. The nice thing is that it always remembers
 where we are going. the bad part is the small trunk space.

Ouch!

So as you can tell by the title this week hurt... 

     So last P-day was super lame, we were just at the doctors all day cuz Elder Leung got his cast off. So we were literally there for 3 hours... 3 hours... Yeah, it sucked. I hate free health care. The doctors are so slow, and they really suck... So yeah that's all I will say about that. 

     Every week we meet with our Investigator Steven. Hes the 9 year old boy. His dad is LA (less active) so we have been teaching him for a while but they won't come to church so we have to keep pushing back his date. But this week we went over on Tuesday and Thursday at 4 like normal and both days the son was gone so we just talked to the dad and we read the Book of Mormon with him because he is trying to read the Book of Mormon. So we are working through the Isaiah chapters with him. Its actually really good because its making me really have to listen and pay attention to what it says so I can explain it to him. It actually really has a lot of awesome things in it. It really talks a lot about Christ and the second coming!

     So the other great thing that happened this week is because Elder Pennington is leaving tomorrow he has been just visiting a lot of people and tell them good bye and so he has been in our area a lot and we say him on Thursday and talked with him for a while. Then after that we saw him on Saturday. We were at the chapel at the combined ward Halloween party, combined with our ward and Avondale ward. But we were on trade off with the Zone Leaders so they were both at the party, the sisters from Avondale ward were there, then the Samoan Elders had an investigator coming so they were there, then the Tongan sisters showed up for some random reason. So most of the Zone was there. Haha. But Elder Pennington showed up and we were like what the heck are you doing here and he said he was saying goodbye to Sina and Feagai, So then they came!!! And I was talking to them and we didn't have dinner that night and so they told us they would feed us! So me and Elder Long went and had dinner with them! So Sina said we can stop by and see them whenever now that shes home. That made me really happy. And this will make mom happy, She made me promise that if I ever needed anything at any point of my mission, I have to call her and she will bring it to me where ever I am. So I saved her number if I ever need it! haha. Oh, the other good part of the party was Steven was there! (the 9 year old with the LA dad.) We talked to him and his dad and they were planning on coming to church the next day!

      So we were at church and Steven came!!! Finally! So now we can actually progress to Baptism. He still needs to come 2 more times tell he can be baptized but we are hoping that he will still come! 

     Now the bad part of Sunday, we went to visit a guy that just keeps dropping our appointments and try to set up another appointment, but we parked and got out of the car and the door shut on my finger!!!! It hurt so bad... I was holding it and just pacing around the car saying how bad that just hurt for like 2 minutes solid while Elder Dunn was laughing at me the whole time... And guess what, the guy we went to see wasn't even home... So now my finger hurts and there is blood under the nail and I'm trying to poke a hole through it to drain the blood... I called the Doctor in the mission, Sister Bath (got a cool story), and she said I can try to poke a hole and if it still hurts at transfers that she has a heated needle that she can do it with... So that's the painful thing that happened this week. 

     Now the cool story about Sister Bath, I called her this morning about my finger, and when I told her my name she said she needed to check something and she came back on and said that her daughter from Utah is the girlfriend of one of my uncles best friends. So she looked at it and said that her daughter is dating Bill's best friend! Like what?! Apparently you may already know that, but yeah! haha 

Now about the All Blacks Rugby team....THEY WON!!! Its crazy! 2 world cups in a row! That's the first time ever! It's so cool! 

Love you all so much! Thanks for your emails and your prayers!

Love Elder Seelos

 This is at Browns Bay. We had to go get money for Elder Dunn there from is Aunt. 

Road trip to Browns Bay

Look!! My street!

Cars and Meet the Mormon's....and a sore butt!

This week was interesting. Lots of run around.

So to start off Monday was fun! We went to the beach and were doing the BBQ and then it started to rain  and so we went to the Chapel and ate and played games. 

So now the interesting things. We started the week and we found out Tuesday night that our headlights were out. So we had to use the Fog lights to drive around. So we called the guy in charge of cars in the mission and he didn't answer. So then we waited tell the next day and we were just about to go see a potential that we had named Courtney and we got a call from the Sisters in Avondale and they asked if we knew how to change a tire. We had to go and change their tire. We got there and jacked it up and then we found out that they didn't have a tire wrench so we called the Tongan sisters who have the same car as them. They said they would be like 10 minutes, but then there was an old guy that drove into his drive way. So we asked him if he had a wrench and he did... so we went to get it,  then Sister Slade said she wanted to take the bolts off and she started to twist it and the car rolled off the jack..... right after I spent 10 minutes jacking it up... Yeah. So THEN they put the parking brake on and I jacked it up again and we took the tire off and changed it. 

Right after we left we called the car guy again and he said that we would have to take it to the dealership to get the lights fixed. He also said we should change the tires too and get new ones. So we made appointments to change the tires and fix the lights for the next day (Thursday). That meant that we had to walk that night because we can't drive in the dark without lights. So after studies on Thursday we went to the car dealership which is like 20 minutes away on the motorway. So we took it in and they said it would be like 2-3 hours. So we called the Zone Leaders and they said that they could come get us in 1 hour so we went to McDonald's and got lunch and waited there and we went back to the dealership and they had finished it. Both headlights had burned out.

After that we went to the tire place and as we pulled in we got a call from the Zone Leaders and they needed help because they were on the side of the road out of gas... So we had to drive to the hardware store to get a gas can and fill it up and take it to them. So that took another hour. Then we got the tires changed and we got back to normal things at 4. So useless day.

We have had to bike. We are low on K's (miles) and so because of that we have had to bike. So the last 2 days we borrowed Elder Longs bike and we are biking around our area during the day and then get the car out at night. I don't think i have been on a bike for like 6 months. My butt hurts so bad. 

We have still been trying to work on finding this week but yesterday we had a lesson with an investigator Anthony. He's African. He is like 22 and does painting/lawns/construction during the day. He has a daughter that he has on the weekends and the mom has her during the week. So that makes him really hard to catch and he is terrible at texting back. But we got an appointment yesterday and we got there about 6:40 and he was playing an online game, so we waited tell 7:15 for him to be done with that and then we went into the living room and watched Meet The Mormons with him. The whole thing. He cried!!! It was so cool! I didn't even cry! Which was good! But he loved it. So we are hoping that will lead to some progress that hasn't really been happening. Its amazing how powerful testimony can be. Even simple easy testimony's can invite the spirit and really touch the hearts of everyone. 

Overall I'm good. Transfers are coming up and so I'm torn. I really want to stay because there are people we have started working with that I know I could work towards baptism if I stayed but I would also like to go because I just feel like this area is so slow and  there is so much more I could be doing. But I guess where I go is where I am suppose to be. Transfers are next week.

Mom- Smile and be myself is great advice. Thank you. Like I said this was a hard week and I need to remember to smile and just go for it no matter what.  And don't worry about me needing more money for food. We wont starve! If it came to us having no food we have lots of members that would feed us every day if we really needed it. We have a less active that every time we go to his house we leave with food. He is an RM that served in Salt Lake which is cool. But he knows how we feel so he always either gives us food or gives us cash and tells us to get McDonald's on the way home. So we will be fed fine!

Love you guys all so much! Thanks for the Emails! I have letters I'm sending this week! Sorry I'm super behind!

P-day at the beach

Me and my sweet ride