Sunday, September 27, 2015

Same area...new companion!

Interesting week for me!

So transfers were this week! And GUESS WHAT!? I didn't move. BUT Elder Pennington did. Ha ha. I got a new companion. He's been out for a year and a half. and the best part. Hes from FIJI!!! Hes the only Elder from Fiji in the whole mission!!! And he's my companion! Although he is from the other side of Fiji its still super cool! And because he's from Fiji he can't drive, so that means that I"M DRIVING!!! Isn't that awesome! Well...for me it is! For mom it's probably not! ha ha. I love it! It feels so normal now. Its nice. I love driving so it makes me really happy.   I like Elder Dunn more so far. I got along fine with Elder Pennington, he's just a lot more serious and he was actually pretty trunky. So that was hard. But its always nice to have a change of pace.

So because of the transfers we changed around districts also. We have one set of sisters now and one set of Elders. Its the Elder that broke his wrist. Ha ha. So now we get to take him to the doctor when he has to do stuff cuz they don't have a car so we are now their transport everywhere! YES!! ha ha.

Last Monday was really fun. We had our party for Elder Booth cuz he left on Tuesday. So we played games and had TONS of food! The Dip was a hit! Everyone loved it! We didn't go to bed tell like 2am so it was a super short night! But its all good! I was really tired the next day but it was worth it! Then on Tuesday and Wednesday Elder Long came with me and Elder Pennington cuz he didn't have a Companion so we got to go to the city and I love going there! its sooo fun! 

In response to your question about when I watch  conference...So the week after you do is when ! will watch it!  So yeah! I'm really excited! So don't spoil it for me!! Although we will be fasting through it with the zone. That will be 3 fast Sundays in a row. We fasted yesterday with the mission, next week with the stake and the week after with the zone.  Yeah. Lots of blessings right! haha

So that's really my week. We didn't really get any lessons in cuz we were super busy with transfers all week so we were always doing something. We did get to have one lesson with the Less Active family that we are working with. They are super nice. The parents are like 30ish and they have 2 kids. One is like 7 and the other is like 4 or 5. But they are always really fun! We talked about the Book of Mormon and the Book of Mormon really is amazing, it brings such a sweet spirit to any situation. I made a new goal to give away at least one Book of Mormon a week. Its easy to give out Pamphlets but the Book of Mormon is a lot harder.

So my spiritual thought is about the Book of Mormon. I want everyone to read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon. Its like the 4 page. But I want everyone to tell me one thing that stands out to them and why. 

I will start. Mine is the First sentence in the 2nd paragraph. it says " This book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of Prophecy and Revelation." I Like it because it says that it was written through Prophecy and Revelation. The things in the book are things that God told the Prophets to put in there. It wasn't a Journal or a Diary. But a book of Revelation.  

Well  love you lots! Talk to you next week!!!
-Elder Seelos
And he has a Fiji Flag!!!! It makes me soooooo happy!!! I seriously missed that flag! Its so cool!

This is us yesterday by a huge sheep farm we found!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

X-Rays and Zone Conference

  Hey guys! How are all of you doing at home?

     This week was a lot like  last week.  I guess the highlight this week was trade off!  I went into the city again with Elder Long this time. We had Burger Fuel for lunch then we were making phone calls to talk to some of the Potentials and then at 4 we had a lesson with a recent convert of theirs. During the lesson we got like 5 phone calls. So when the RC ( recent convert ) left we looked and it was the other elders in the zone. They are in the opposite district, Elder Leung and Elder Vetten. We called them back and we found out that Elder Leung had fallen off his bike and we needed to take him to get an X-ray because he may have broken his arm..... It was stressful and very funny at the same time! haha. We called Sister Beckstead, shes the Medical Director for the mission, and she told us to take him to a clinic to get it checked. We picked them up and we took them there. When we got there we found out the X-ray machine was closed and we had to go to a different place to get it checked. We bought some ibuprofen for Elder Leung and he was very suspicious of the drugs we were giving him and he finally took it and it helped he said. So we found the other place and we got an X-ray and he fractured his wrist. So it was a very exciting day!

    We had Zone Conference this week. That was on Tuesday and it was basically all day! It was a lot of sitting and listing. it was really all about goals and raising our goals as a mission and that we can do better. One thing I really took out of it was that I can do better. No matter how good the thing is I'm doing... I can do better and I just need to keep that on my mind that the Lord knows that I can do better and He expects it.  No matter what happened Yesterday just move forward and do better the next day and our Heavenly Father will be happy.
    The other really good thing is I got to help Elder Booth make a video for the Zone. We had pics and videos of the zone and all the stuff we have done and so we worked on it Sunday night tell about 10:30 at the chapel. Then we were going to meet at 7 again to finish it by 9 and we got there and something went wrong and we had to start over... So we had to make a 12 minute video in 2 hours. It was sooo stressful for me because I was kinda the only one who knew what they were doing when it came to editing so I was doing a lot of it. Then we finished it at 9:45 so it took us a while but we got it done and it was awesome! So i really enjoyed that. It felt like I was back at school having to cram a big project into a few hours! haha. I love that feeling!

     I got the package yesterday! Thank you so much for everything!! It was so much bigger than I thought it would be! I really am very grateful for everything! It means a lot and everyone was jealous!  I loved the seasoning salt and the otter pops! I laughed. Everyone was so confused! But I loved all the pictures. Thank you so much.

    So today is Elder Booths last day! He's going home tomorrow and so we are kind of throwing a party tonight. We are just going to have a ton of food and hang out and play risk! It is going to be a lot of fun! But I was wondering if I could get the recipe for Hanni Dip. I wanna see if i can make it!

Love you all sooooo much! Thanks for the letters and the Prayers! They mean so much!
My new haircut!

A really cool hike last week to some caves

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Knocking doors and my first Baptism

   Hello Everybody.

     It has been a great week. We had Zone P-Day! That was really fun! We went on a hike then we went to the beach again and we played Touch Rugby in the sand. I am actually getting pretty good. 
     
    The other big things from the week all happened this weekend. We had a Baptism on Saturday!! It was a long time investigator, shes 12 and has been trying for like 3 years to be baptized but her dad wouldn't give her permission and then he finally did so she got baptized! yes!!! So it was really already all set up before we even came into the area and so it wasn't stressful or anything. Super easy. But she asked me to speak on Baptism. So i talked about Mosiah 21:35. Really great scripture about what baptism is!

     Then the other big thing is that our Less Active family came to church!!! They are the Family that Feagai told us to visit! We had FHE with them on Thursday and then they said that they would be at church! When we got there they were there before us! That was really exciting and an awesome thing to see! We had our FHE about prayer, We watched a video called Hope of Gods Light. Awesome video! So we talked about prayer and then we were about to leave and they said wait, we have actually made dinner if you guys want it! Haha. They made Really good spicy heat sauce with rice! It was really hot! Like comparable to my hot burrito from California!!! But it was Yummy!!! 

      Other then that our week has consisted of Knocking A LOT of doors and just trying to teach where we can and trying to contact where we can! I can feel your prayers every day and I want to thank you for them all! It really helps knowing that I have an amazing support system at home cheering me on! 

      My Spiritual thought this week is a Question. Why do we pray so much? This was shared in sacrament yesterday. We pray in the morning, evening, and over each meal, and lots of other times every day. So why do we pray so much? So i think we pray so much because we have a lot to be thankful for and we have a lot that we need. No one will ever have enough or run out of things to be thankful for. Our Heavenly Father Loves us and wants to talk to us!

      Love you all and thank you all for your letters! They mean so much to me! I am working on writing you all back!

      I love you guys too! Ill talk to you next week! Lots of love and prayers going your ways!
              
                                                                                         Love, Elder Seelos

Just Hanging out at the Warf

Under the Warf with the Sisters

My Zone - Touch Rugby on the beach

Just a cool road side sign - They have crazy town names down here

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Fleas & Puke

Hello Family!! 
    How are you all doing today?! So as you can already tell this week was very interesting. So I will just start into it! At the beginning of the week we found out that we have Flea's in our Flat! Yeah! Haha. So I have a bunch of bites all over my body. They itch and don't feel that great! I just try not to itch them all the time. haha. But we used Permitherine to kill them and we are hoping they are all dead. We sprayed the beds and washed our sheets and I sprayed down my blankets. So pray that they are all gone! 
    Now let me clarify. I did not Puke. Elder Pennington did. haha. we had dinner at a members home yesterday. So our fast Sunday dinner. Their name is the Moutama's we have actually had dinner with them for 3 Sundays in a row now. Its an older couple. They are both Niuean, so Elder Pennington loves them!!! Back to the story. So we sat down and started eating and they filled us right up! We ate so much. Ham, Tarro, Corn Beef, Rolls, Chop Suie. So much food! then they brought out dessert! Chocolate log and cream and peaches. So good! Then we ate that and then they made us Milo. So Milo is Basically Hot Chocoa. but its not as sweet. so you put sugar and cream into it. but we were drinking that and Elder Pennington drank his cup super fast, which was not good for him. haha. We kept talking and Elder Pennington kept burping and it was super weird, then he asked if he could use the bathroom. they told him where it was and he stood up to go and he threw up!! He caught it in his hands and then went to the bathroom and finished in the toilet. I couldn't stop laughing!
    So we met with our Investigator, Feagai. You say it Fayungi. He's super cool! He loves cars too!! We went to his house to see him and Sina (They are getting married in December, She's the RM). We met with Sina at their house and then they called the next day to make an appointment for later that night. So we met with them at 4 that night, and he is a hard out Christian. So we talked about Prophets and The Book Of Mormon. After an Hour and a Half of answering questions and talking about the Book Of Mormon mostly he said "There is only one word to describe how i feel, and that word is Believe." HE SAID HE BELIEVES THAT THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!!! Like just from us explaining it!!! it was so cool! But him and Sina are going to Samoa on the 12th so we will have to wait for them to get back to meet with them again. At the end of the lesson we were walking out, and he was showing me pictures of his cars, he told us that he has a friend that is a member that lives down the street. We didn't know him so he must be less active! So we went to that house to meet his friend Alvin, that night!
    We went over to the house and they (Alvin and Cheryl, his wife) were surprised to see us! They said they moved in 2 months ago and didn't know that anyone knew they lived there. So we talked to them for a little while and they both said they wanted to go back to church but just haven't. Cheryl is a convert from 2009. So we said we would help them however we can. So we planned a FHE with them this Thursday! That was an exciting day!
     So last week we did a lot of door knocking. We usually do 1-2 hours a day. I am trying hard to get good at it but its hard. Some people are nice and will talk to us, but lots just turn us away when they see we are missionaries. Most people are pretty nice about it though. Nothing to crazy yet. 
      We have a member in our ward that is semi crazy... He is an old guy. But last Monday he woke us up at 5:30!!!!! He thought that we would be up! He said that he felt inspired to talk to us and he wants to talk to every person on his street with us... It was weird. So we said we would call him if we had some time.
       So my spiritual thought this week is about a Spiritual Marathon. There are 2 kinds of runners in a Marathon, 1. Sprinters- They start off really fast and then they run out of steam and have to stop then sprint again and stop and start and stop. 2. Slow and Steady- They start off at a nice easy pace. They just run all the time and finish the race. So what do you want to be? Do you want to have big bursts of spiritual stuff and then nothing. Or Lots of little things all the time?
Love you all!
Elder Seelos
Prep time with Elder Pennington

Hard to see...but a panoramic picture of my flat.  A lot of missionaries have left their mark here. Not an inch is left bare!

My buddies

Auckland