Christmas in New Zealand!

 Merry Christmas Whanau (Family)! Christmas as a Missionary is interesting. Especially in NZ. It was a great week overall. Its amazing to see how many people go out of town for Christmas! Its also amazing that noone really wants Missionaries knocking on their doors on Christmas Day uninvited! haha. Jk we didn't do that!

     So our Christmas Day consisted of food games and church. We started at 8 with Breakfast at our Ward Mission Leaders house. That was mean! The Apiata Family is the best. Just made us feel like we were part of the family! We then had Church at 10 for 1 hour. We had a few Less Actives and Investigators there also which made it even better! After that at about 12 we went to a Less Active Part Member Family for Lunch. They ended up having lunch at about 2 so we started to play with the kids toys and played a pretty mean game of Scrabble. (I got 2nd BTW) After a good Samoan feed there we had another member at 3. We showed up there right in the middle of the Feed and so we had to eat more. We then had a pretty intense Nerf war with the kids and made a mess with the Nerf Bullets. Very fun!!! We had Dessert at about 5. at around 7 we had a Zone Party with the missionaries. We did a secret Santa so we exchanged gifts and then lit off Paper lanterns. Just a side note.... Paper Lanterns from the Chinese Shops are not that great.

        We had the chance to go to the temple on Wednesday as half of the mission! That was great! It was awesome to get to be in the temple and get to feel of the spirit there! The Temple is honestly a great place and the spirit there is so great! There is so much that you are able to learn from the special Spirit that is in the temple! I had many questions answered that I attribute fully to being in the Temple!

      Sorry for the short Email this week! Love yous!

           Love Elder Seelos

Best Christmas present ever! 

Ups and Downs and Merry Christmas!

   Good morning everyone!!! And an early Merry Christmas to you all!

    I want to start out with my sad news for the week. So we had set up to see Shelby on Tuesday and to teach her a big lesson to get her closer to be ready for her baptism. Well when we went over to see her no one was there.... So we went over again that evening.... No one... So I got worried.... Well we ended up trying again to see her on Wednesday and she was home. So I was on trade off with Elder Maughan and we stopped by... Shelby basically told us that she wasn't ready. She had googled before baptism lessons and she saw how many lessons we still had to teach and she realized how much she didn't know and it scared her... Then she saw something talking about Abortions... That scared her even more cuz she has had an abortion so then she asked us about that. Well after some talking and some explaining she felt better about it all. She said that she still didn't feel ready for Saturday but she still wanted to do it. She has a SOLID testimony of The Book Of Mormon. She recognized that she has been prepared to hear the gospel and that she is ready to listen and knows its true. So there was no baptism on Saturday, but it will be soon! Just keep your eyes out! Please over all keep her in your prayers though! 

      One thing that I have been working on this week is the Gift of Charity.... Its really hard to get along with people some times... I have been use to having Zones that get along and usually the issue is they get along too well.... This transfer has been different. We have had a lot of drama and issues between missionaries and its just been working through those issues... So its hard to love missionaries sometimes. So I am working on loving people who are hard to like. One thing that I have learned is the Charity isn't just Christ like love. It literally is Christs love. His love for us. He loves everyone just as much as He loves us. Sometimes its hard to remember that. Even with the choices that everyone makes. He still loves them! Even if they reject Him and mock Him, He still loves them. When we can grasp that in our heads its easier to love those who are hard to like.

       With Christmas coming up I thought I would give you an idea of what Christmas is over here. Green and Hot. The last week has been around 20-23 Celsius and there is NO snow over here. Some houses have lights, most don't. The big Christmas traditions here are BBQ at the Beach and BBQ with family! Heaps of time outside. Very different than home Christmas!

       We had our Come and See Fireside yesterday. That is a Fireside that the Mission puts on every month. Its for us to take our investigators and Less Active members to. Its musical items and speakers that talk about their conversion stories and its just always a mean fireside! We were able to take Grace with us. She is at about the same place... She is just waiting on Dads permission to be baptized... Idk when that will happen. So she is still there!

       I am VERY excited for Christmas! This Light the World Challenge is really helping get everyone into the Christmas spirit! It is actually amazing to me how many members don't know about it. We have to explain and show so many members the Challenge! One thing that I have done this week that goes along with the Charity study I have been doing is the 13th. Jesus showed Humility and so can you! I have been trying to just Humbly accept people and their ideas and try to listen and understand their decisions. It has been hard, but it has helped!

      I LOVE the "12 ties of Christmas"! That is literally the BEST idea. Every day for 12 days I open a tie and a letter from someone who has been influential in my life.  This week in order I got Grandpa Seelos, Tim Hodgson, Bishop, Billium, (uncle Bill) Pete Petersen, Josh Christensen. I love the idea! I also love getting new ties!  Its really cool to read their letters and just reminds me of everything that they have done to help me in my life! 

Hope yous all have a Merry Christmas!!

Love Elder Seelos!

District Leadership Conference 

This is called a Kinna. They eat it here. Its a Sea Urchine. Not terrible! Not too good... We got like 5-6 of them from a member this week

HUGE spider!!

District Leadership Conference

A cold baptism and the great clean up.....

    I am alive! Haha. Sorry I was so late today. We had a "Spring

Cleaning" today.... That sucked. So we have been cleaning off and on

through the last few weeks. Just taking an hour or two at breaks here

and there. So today was the inspection. We had the Senior Couples come

and do the walk through and inspect everything. We took EVERYTHING that wasn't

ours out. So clothes, blankets, etc. Our Zone filled 2 trailers.

Overall it was good. It was kind of unorganized so we had like no idea

what was going on... I thought that it could have been done heaps

better but not up to me I guess! All goods. Thats why we were late

today.

       This week was a good one over all! One highlight of the week

was yesterday! There was a ward baptism last night. We helped get

the baptism ready... Then major fail! The heater in the font wasn't

working.... So the water was pretty cold! Sam will always remember

that!! It was good to get to be there. I just love baptisms!

       Speaking of baptisms, Shelby! So she got home on Saturday

morning and we called and talked to her that night. We knew that we

had to talk to her about Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity soon cuz

you know... Problems... Well we called her on Friday but she didn't

have her phone on so we called when she got home. Well she told us

that she doesn't drink or smoke. Her only issue is tea. So.... Thats

not a huge issue! So that made us pretty happy! Then!!! She came to

church yesterday! She could only stay for Sacrament but liked it! We

basically told her that we will have to come over everyday this week

to get her ready for her baptism. She is so Golden though. She asked

me what she can do herself to prepare for her baptism... My jaw almost

hit the ground.... I was so shocked... We met her like a month ago...

She is getting baptized this week! Heavenly Father works in amazing

ways! He always puts those in our path right when we need them and they need us! He

knows what we need and when we need it. If you rely on Heavenly Father

he will provide for the things that you cannot. You don't need to use

drugs, alcohol, tv, movies. Just rely on Heavenly Father.

       For some good news! We stopped by to see Dora and her mum was

there. I haven't seen her since Elder Boyack left almost 6 weeks ago.

Well we were talking and 1. She told me that she will find me a NZ

Meat Pie Recipe to take home. (She works at a Cafe) 2. She told me

that I am losing weight!!!! I have lost around 3kg's in this area!

That doesn't mean that I am not getting fed! Its just more normal food!

So just know that I am not gaining heaps of weight here!

       Loving the mission! Loving the missionaries that I get to serve

and serve with! I love my ability to share the Gospel and would

suggest it to anyone who has any desire to serve!

           Love Elder Seelos

The Mighty NZAM missionaries

Zone conference fun

Sam's baptism was awesome!

3 handsome guys

Service, our golden investigator, honoring my parents, and a MEAN as hike......

Man.... All I can say about this week is wow.... Just wow. This week is one for the Books! 

     I will start with our MEAN AS P-day last week! We took a hike to a waterfall and I have to say it was a looker! It was worth the hike. Ill send through some pics today, but this is a place that I will be coming again!

     Tuesday was good! We had trade off's with the Sunnyvale Elders. Elder Gibson and Canoy. I went into their area and was able to just have some fun. We were able to do some service painting a members deck. I love getting to service! Its always fun!

      We had MLC on Wednesday. So we went to the Mission Home to meet with President for the day. Overall it was a lot about service and what we can do as a mission going into a new year to improve the mission! It always good to be at MLC with the group. There are a lot of great missionaries there! I have come to love so many of them so much!

       December 1st! World wide day of service! Boy, did we serve! Normally after MLC we have a Zone Training but we had a Zone Service project instead! We went to a Maori social service work place and they had us help them basically just clean up the carving facility. They teach heaps of people how to carve. Its mainly for the ex-convicts and the homeless to get them jobs and something to do. Its a really cool organization! We wrecked desks, weeded gardens, cleaned bathrooms, and kitchens, carried heaps of things to new places. It was overall really fun! I loved the chance to work! We did that as a zone together! Its interesting to see the commitment of everyone, even in missionaries. Most of the missionaries worked and put in their 100%, then there were some missionaries that did basically what they were asked then kinda took a break... They started talking or learning how to carve... Idk its just weird to see how there are even missionaries that cannot really put themselves into it...

         Next December 2nd. Honor your Parents! I didn't really know what I could do to really do this... Can't really call my parents... So I found a way that I thought was good! I looked at remembering my ancestors and the work that they put in to not only share the gospel but to live the Gospel.. So before I left my flat I switched out my badge with my Dad's mission badge that he gave to me before I left. Then I jumped on the bikes and got to work. It was actually a really spiritual day. I could feel power and help come to me that I know wasn't mine. I could feel the power of those still on this earth and those not... They were all behind me that day and I could not be stopped. One weird thing that I have been able to feel not only on my mission but even more on my mission is the presence of my Grandpa Nielsen... I have had many experiences where I felt like I could feel him. I know he was one of those people...  We talked to so many people and had great lessons. We got to do a service project and visit some members! It was just overall a great day of missionary work. I got to spend the day with Elder Zacher. He has been here for 2 weeks now. This was his first day on bikes and I will say that I put him through the worst of it. We went so hard. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has put in the work to make missionary work easier for me.

         Now for the Miracle of Sunday! Shelby our investigator left for Australia on Thursday. She will be back this Saturday. She went over to see family for her Brothers 21st Birthday Party. Well we were a bit worried about that. Not really seeing her and not knowing whats going on for a week. But the Lord comforts us. Just before I ended my fast on Sunday we got a text from Shelby. I was kinda worried to be honest. Basically the text said that she had been talking to her cousin who is a member and her cousin wants to come to her baptism but cannot go on the 24th. So she asked if we could move it to the 17th. Like next week! We will have to teach her heaps the week before her baptism after she gets back but she seems committed so we are going to do it! We are so excited!!! Shelby is a serious miracle! She is Golden!

            Thanks for everything! Love you heaps! 

                                                   Our P-day hike was amazing

View of the waterfall

Doing the Pukana Face

By the way...I'm engaged

"Honor your parents day"- wearing my dads name badge

Blessings and a selfie stick....

This was an amazing week! This week was overall just a great time! Elder Oakes and I got great work in and were able to catch up with all of our investigators! 

     We got to have Trade off with the Assistants on Tuesday! That was fun. I went with Elder Hixon to the Shore and we spent most of the day doing office stuff. It is kind of fun to see how much goes on behind the scenes that no one sees. Its also fun to see how normal President Balli is. Like he is just a normal guy. Its weird to think that I was ever nervous of him or that he was scary to me. Being a Zone Leader we get to see President heaps more than the other missionaries would. So we actually gain a relationship with him. Its also funny to see how new missionaries are scared of the Assistants, like Elder Bass. We have a new missionary in our zone that when he saw the assistants he was nervous and asking why they were here. Its just funny cuz I know them so well and I was companions with Elder Bass. Like I know how they are. They aren't perfect. Just funny.

     Thursday was an interesting day... We had trade offs with the Samoan Elders, Elder Ualesi and Elder Zacher. I was with Elder Ualesi in the Samoan ward. So our car had to be serviced that day.... At 8am. So because Elder Zacher is new we figured that Elder Ualesi and I would take it so that he could have his studies. Well we took it in and they told us that it would take a few hours.... So we walked. We dropped it off at about 8:15 and they finally called us at about 3. So we walked for a while... And yes. Thursday was probably the hottest day of the summer so far. Just our luck! It was fun though! We were blessed with a mean dinner that night! We pigged out! 

     Now for our HUGE miracle! Shelby came to church! This is her 3rd time at church overall and her first time in our ward! So we sat down during Gospel Principles and it ended up just being us and her in the class. Brother Apiata (our ward mission leader) usually takes the lessons, but he wasn't at church so we took the lesson and we talked about the Sacrament with her and then lead it into Baptism. She had told us that she would want to be baptized and we had just left it at that for a bit. But as we started talking about Baptism her son, Trey (3 years old), said that he had to go to the bathroom. Well she left and Elder Oakes and I looked at each other and we decided we were going to set her right then. She came back in and we asked her straight up, "Will you prepare yourself to be Baptized on the 24th of December?" Well of course she said yes! If she didn't I wouldn't be telling you this story! She said that she wants to and that its important but she is a bit nervous. Just of the unknown and of committing. So please keep her in your prayers! 

     This week overall was really awesome! I feel like Ammon in Alma 26:1 "And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?" There have been so many great blessing's in my mission. I am so grateful to the Lord for everything that he has given to me! I am honestly so grateful for this opportunity to be here to serve the Lord on a mission! 

      Love yous! Love Elder Seelos!

                                    Hey we found a selfie stick!  Lots of pictures from our hike last week.

Primary, Zone devotioals, and haircuts....

Good Morning Family and Friends! 

        I have to say it is great to get to talk to you today!! This week has been like weeks past... Elder Oakes was sick this week. Again. So I stayed in the flat a lot this week. But! I have something to show for it! I realized this week that the last hair cut I got was 6 weeks ago... Yeah, thats a long time. So I decided that 1. I needed a hair cut. 2. I didnt want to pay for a hair cut. 3. I am tired of doing my hair. So I just used some Scissors and my razor and now I am bald! Haha. Just kidding. I know that mum had a heart attack right there! I am not bald but I did buzz it pretty short. Ill send pics! But I did cut it myself! So thats kinda cool!

      One great step this week was in Shelby! We had a lesson with Shelby on Thursday. I went with Elder Maughan to the lesson cuz Elder Oakes was spewing... We had visited a member on Wednesday night and asked them to come to the lesson with us. So they came with us and we sat down and basically just introduced them to eachother! She has been reading her BOM and she said that she is still keen for Baptism! The members invited her to come to church with them and offered her a ride. Unfortunately she was out south over the weekend, but she still went to the YSA ward. So she did go to church! She is defiantly our miracle this transfer! Shes so cool! Very prepared!

      Transfers! So I stayed. Yeah. Thats about it. Elder Oakes and I are still together. Still in Henderson. We are happy to get to stay together! We have heaps to do and heaps of work to do, so we are not ready to leave! Transfer day was crazy! It took all day... From about 9 to about 5 or 6 we were doing stuff... Happy its over.

      I taught Primary this week... That was.... Hard. One of the teachers asked us to teach her class of 7 and 8 year olds... All I have to say about that is that I am glad that its over. They were just crazy the whole time. Kids these days are just disrespectful! They dont listen, they say stupid as stuff. Like half the time I was like How on earth do you know about that? So that was my Primary Experience.

      This morning we decided to start the transfer off right! We had a Zone Devotional at the top of Mount Pukemateko. Its a lookout on in the mountians that looks over all of Henderson and you can see EVERYTHING! Its a really cool view. So we went up there with everyone and we talked about what we want to do to find that one that our Heavenly Father has prepared for us this transfer! So we were just trying to modavate everyone! Then we took heaps of pictures! 

       Other than that, that was basically my week. I was able to go on trade off's a few times to make some visits or to fill our dinner appointments. So I did go out. I didnt go crazy! I am just hoping that Elder Oakes is better this week! We have a lot planned this week!

Love yous heaps! Love Elder Seelos

Saying goodbye to this guy was hard!  Elder Summers was an awesome companion!  He is headed home!

My haircut!

Zone Selfies

More Zone selfies...

Awesome Zone devotional!

My parents google earth picture of my flat:)  It's the red brick house in the back.

I'm getting SO sick of my flat!!!!

      So I am going to start out with the lower points of the week. So Elder Oakes woke up on Friday with some bug bites and they KILLED him! So yeah... Elder Oakes gets sick a lot... So we were in the flat again Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. So that was pretty stink... I am very tired of not working.... I know that people think that sounds like heaven for missionaries... Get a break, can rest, just hang out.... Well no, we can't. We have nothing to do... Like nothing. So I read Scriptures, and listened to music and just laid there....

          Update on the Investigators! The biggest thing that happened this week was Shelby. She was our New Investigator this week. We sat down and taught her the Restoration. She is super keen! She's awesome! Her friend referred her to us, then she went to church with her friend on Sunday! After teaching her the restoration we asked her if she would be baptized if she knew this was right. Without even blinking she said yes! It was mean! Just goes to show you that Heavenly Father is working on many people behind our back's. Also how important Referrals are... We NEVER would have met her! She lives in a random as street in a house in the back of a house. Like we never would have found her... Heavenly Father is very mindful of not only us, but all of his children!

        We haven't seen Grace for 2 weeks now... Idk what shes up to. Hopefully shes ok. She won't answer our texts or anything... So I really hope that everything is ok.

        Dora is doing well. We had a lesson with her where I learned an important lesson.... I need to listen more... When we give her time to speak more and just leave the time quiet she brings things out. All I have to do is give her that time! 

       We had interviews this week with President Balli. It's always great to be with him! Its a different relationship with him now that I am a Zone Leader. I know that he is a normal person! Like I have a relationship with him. Its not the scary guy in charge thing any more. I honestly Love him for all that he does and has to deal with.

       Now for some funny stories! So we got the Samoan Elders back for the Ducks and Roosters... We broke into their flat and we filled up their bathtub with water and we went and bought some fish at the pet store and we put the fish in the tub. Then we had 2 dead fish. We put one in the bath tub with the live ones, then we hid the other one in the closet and let it rot in the closet for a few days. Well they found the live fish fast and then about 4 or 5 days later they smelled the dead fish and found it... So that was pretty funny!!! Until they got us back.... First was rice all over the flat.... With the live fish in the tub and the dead fish taped to the back of the dresser.... We cleaned that up fast. Then they did it again.... They caught 2 live eels! yeah..... those were in our tub..... Yeah. We caught those and then we let them go. We tossed them over a bridge into a stream. So that is our funny story! We made a deal that the pranks are over. Elder Nielsen goes home tomorrow also so we don't have to worry about that any more!

        Well that's basically my boring week! 

              Love you! Love Elder Seelos

P.S.  I didn't even know there was an earthquake until I read emails..... Awk... but I'm fine, didn't feel a thing.  It was really far south.

Saying Goodbye to the Singh family who moved this week
 

Aren't we funny...?

MLC, Fireworks,and Pies...

 Hello Family! Just to start off, yes. We were healthy all week. No issues in our week. Well mostly. We were on trade off this week and Elder Oakes called me and told me that he had gotten the Chicken and Rice that we had on Thursday and heated it up after it had been sitting on the counter and in the car for 2 days. Well he ate it and about 30 minutes later he un-ate it. So he took a bit of a break. We were on Trade off so it didn't do anything to me! 

       So big news in the Land of NZ! Saturday was Guy Fawkes day. Idk if you remember it from last year,  but its a stupid holiday where England and all of the British colonies celebrate when this guy was going to blow up the Parliament but they stopped him. So they light off heaps of fireworks... I dont understand the logic..... But that's what we do. In Henderson they do a big firework show in the city every year. So we had 6 of us come to our flat and we climbed onto the roof and watched the fireworks all over the city for a good 45 minutes. It was really cool. We were just worried about the roof caving it! Luckily nothing happened.

        Most of our investigators are in just about the same place... Not much of any improvements with them this week. We had 5 Investigators set up and committed to come to church, but they all were build up's. None of them actually came. That was pretty sad. 

        Our biggest Miracle this week was Shelby. We got a referral texted to us from the mission. It was a referral that was sent to us online. So her friend Destiny sent it to us. She is from the YSA ward out south. Well we went over and contacted her and she was confused as at the beginning. She had the look of "Why the heck are you talking to me and how do you know my name?!" So we told her that her friend sent us and then she was like "Oh, yeah. Makes since." So we talked to her for a while and she already had a Triple Combination. Like she has been getting prepared for a while now. She was so keen to listen and was asking us about church and how to go and what we do. We ended by committed her to read 1 Nephi 8. We are going back tomorrow! 

     MLC went well!! It was fun. Its always good to get to see all of the missionaries. Its kinda funny because all the zone leaders become close and talk heaps because of that... So we become friends with each other! I learned about not judging. We talked about gossip in the mission and how we need to have clean and right perspectives of missionaries. We cannot listen to others opinions because they usually aren't true!

       One fun thing this week! We had a Youth activity this week and it was a Halloween Carnival. So they asked us to do an activity or game or something. Well we decided that it would be fun to do a Pie throwing game. Well yes, the youth had the chance to throw pies at my face... I only got hit like 5 times. It was totally worth it! Heaps of fun! Love the youth in our ward!

Love yous!

       Love Elder Seelos

October Zone conference

November Mission Leadership Conference

Fireworks on the roof

The girl in the middle hit me pretty good with a pie!

yummy!

Cleaning, Studying, and Train Rides....

    This week was good. It was more work than last week, but Elder Oakes was sick again this week and so we missed a few days of work... I still kinda made him go out and work, Just not very hard, and we kept it slow. I was just tired of sitting in the flat... I'm ready to get a good hard week of work in! Although I was a bit more productive this week. I washed the car with a mop in the drive way. Then I did some cleaning in the flat. It was a bit more productive! Everything is clean and tidy! Just keep our health in your prayers please so that we can stay out!

     One big step that was made this week was with Grace! Although she was sick all week also and we didn't get to see her until Sunday, we got to have a good talk with her on Sunday! It wasn't a real lesson or anything, but it was just a good talk. So Grace's hold up is her Dad... He is a JW and doesn't want her to be baptized. He is happy for her to come to church and youth and Seminary, but not to be baptized. So she is just waiting... Just waiting for permission to be baptized and finally be a real member! She goes to everything already, she completely qualifies for baptism, she is so ready! Its so hard. So we talked to her and she was just saying that we need to just fill up the font and she will accidentally trip into it and we will just dunk her right there! So it was funny, but it also showed us that she really does want it. She is waiting for it. I had a study this week devoted to her and what we needed to do to help her. I studied Alma 12 when Alma speaks to Zeezrom and basically rebukes him for what he is doing. Well the thing that stuck out to me came when Alma was talking about agency. I realized that we need to make sure that its really what Grace wants. We need to make sure that she is doing this cuz its what she knows is right, not cuz its just a fun thing to do for now.

     Dora is slowly fading away... Its so hard to see where she is now and know where she came from... She is still good to see us and for us to come over... Its just so freaking hard to see the desire going away... When we first met her she loved learning! She loved feeling the spirit and she wanted it! She wanted to go to youth! She wanted to come to church! She wanted it all. Now she isn't showing it. She just kinda sits there while we are teaching, She is having a hard time remembering what we have taught her. She was so golden... She was so close.... Satan is so real. He knows the work that we are doing and knows how much its going to bless these people... Its so hard to see others making these choices when we just want them to be happy! We know that the spirit is more powerful than Satan, but everyone has to choose... the Spirit cannot force anything upon anyone... Its all about agency. We have to choose to be happy.

      There have been some Disappointments this week with our Investigators but its all going to change this week! Elder Oakes and I are ready and Going HARD this week! We are going to switch things up and get things moving!

       One really fun thing this week though! I was on Trade off with Elder Maughan on Tuesday. So we had about 30 minutes until Ward Council started. So we decided to just go to the mall and talk to people. Well this lead us to the Train Station. At the train station we both said that we hadn't ever ridden the train. We both had always wanted to, we just never had. So we ran to the car and we got our suits and our papers and then we ran to the train.... Right as it left... So we missed it. But! We waited. The next one was 5 minutes away. So we waited and we got on the train and then we got off on the next stop. Now this is where our Eternal Mission story comes in. It started to rain... Then we walked faster. So in a few minutes we were running through the rain in our suits to ward council! We made it and had a great ward council. Then we walked back to the train and got on and went back to our car! It was just overall a good fun time! 

     Thanks for everything!

             Love Elder Seelos!

KireKire Falls

our amazing train ride adventure