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!