On the countdown....

   Just saying, this is weird. This might be the last email that I send... So thats weird. I will return home next week on Tuesday. Still doesn't sound real. 

     This week was pretty normal. One thing that we did get to do was attend a baptism in the Zone Leaders Branch. They did the service at the chapel and then went and did the baptism itself in the creek behind the Branch Presidents house because they dont have a baptismal font. So thats cool. Thankfully Heavenly Father blessed us with a nice day for it! It was the first day of the entire week that it didnt rain... It was still cold as though. But thankfully it was overall good! 

     One person that we got to see this week was our Recent Convert Leilani. She was baptized in April right before we got here. She is really cool! Well we go over often to help grow her understanding. So we went over last night to see her and her 2 siblings and her 2 sons are here for School Holidays. So we got to do a bit of a lesson with her sisters who had a few questions. They are 16 and 12. They went to church with Leilani and so they had a few questions. So it was a good thing that we showed up! Really on to it girls. Too bad they will be going back to Auckland next week.

     We also had Trade offs with the Kaitaia Elders. That is Elder Berger and Elder Ateo. I went with Elder Berger, he finishes in about a month, to Kaitaia. We had heaps of fun! Elder Berger is from Utah as well so we got to talk about home a lot. Heaps of fun! Ha. We got to meet their new investigator who they started teaching this week. She is really cool! Very prepared! Its amazing to see how Heavenly Father is always preparing people we just have to be ready to receive them! 

     I was given the opportunity to speak in our Branch yesterday as well. It was cool how easy it was. I spoke about how important our behavior is. So I talked about how we all need to be examples to others and how what we do can influence if others will accept the gospel or not. I shared a scripture from Alma 39:11. Alma is correcting his son Corianton for running away from his mission and told him that many people didnt believe his words because of Corianton's actions. Its amazing how impactful our actions and words can be on others. 

Love yous all and see yous next week! 

Love Elder Seelos

                          

                       New Zealand is si beautiful.  I’m going to miss it so much.  

Digging, farming, praying, & meeting my new Mission President...

   Morning everyone! 

     So this week was interesting. The big highlight of the week happened on Saturday. We had stopped by the Matene family on Thursday night and they had said that they had a funeral on Saturday for Sister Matene's Auntie. So they invited us. Well in the Maori Culture when they have a funeral their family will dig the grave before the funeral by hand... This one was partially culture and partially because I don't think we would be able to get a digger to the cemetery without a helicopter. The track to the cemetery was pretty intense. Wet as, and there was a stream that we had to cross about half way through that was about 10 meters across... Then up a huge muddy hill. The trucks that they had barely made it up. So they had to use a tractor to get the casket up there. Well back to the story. The Matene's asked us if we wanted to help dig the grave. So of course we said yes! It was pretty cool! Just imagine that your digging a hole about the size of a double twin mattress 6 feet into the ground... Then when you get about 2 feet down it becomes solid clay. Yep that was basically what we did. We started at 8 and didn't finish until just after 11. Then the casket came up they had the burial and then we filled it in about 15 minutes. So that was a mean experience!

     So we got to meet our new Mission President this week as well. President Walker from Hawaii. He is a great man! His wife is full Japanese and moved to Hawaii during school and was baptized when she got there. We had Zone Conference with them on Thursday, we then got to have interviews right after that. He seems like a great guy. Definately different than President Balli, but will be great! He is really focused on the little things and making sure that we are following Preach My Gospel as best as we can. He has made a few changes but nothing really big. Mostly just reminders. Its weird to think that I will only be serving with him for a few weeks. I will get one more interview with him and then I'm done. Thats about as much as I will see him. 

     One thing that I really learned this week was about Prayer. President Walker talked about Prayer and how to get the Highest of blessings, & that we must ask for them. There is a law that is given which all blessings are given and a lot of times those blessings are based upon praying and asking for them. So that is something that I have been applying this week. I have been praying for an out pouring of the spirit in our area, for more love for my Father in Heaven, and for guidance. It has been a great experience. If you are ever wondering if Heavenly Father is really there then pray and ask. Its the best way to know those things!

     We got to do some farming as well this week. When we went to Brother Matene's he was cleaning out a shed for the new calves that he just got and so we helped his clear those out. Then the calves had gotten out and so we started to chase them around. Well we got them all in the shed except one. So we were trying to chase in around and then Elder Taranaki ran up to him and just picked it up. Thats the Maori way. Just get in there and get 'er done! 

     We had trade offs with our Elders this week as well. I stayed with Elder Tuaputa in our ward. Its funny because I am the only one that can drive in those 2 companionship's. So I always have the car. So Elder Tuaputa and I went and did visits. It was fun to be with him. This is his 3rd transfer so he still has the Greenie spirit. So thats always nice to be with again!

Love ya heaps

Love Elder Seelos

Finishing up our morning at the farm

P-day email selfie

This is the grave site. Its a beautiful place. 

Spitting wood & blessing babies...

  This week went great! Its still so funny how insanely fast the time goes by.  

     We were able to do a good amount of service this week! Wednesday was basically service all day! We started with a member family to help them chop wood. So that started at 10. Elder Inglis was pretty sick that day so he went and took a nap in the car about half way through. So we finished up the wood around about 12. There was so much wood! It was fun though! Splitting wood is my favorite service to do up here. We then went to help our Elders Quorum President rake up his yard. There were quite a few leaves there. It was surprising. We then went with the Zone Leaders to help their member cut some wood. There is a tree that is in the middle of the bush just off of a logging road that he has been slowly cutting up. So he cuts branches off and we haul them to the trailer. So that went from about 3 until 4:30. We then got to go home and get a feed. So thats how we spent our afternoon! It was great!

     P-day last week was really cool! We went to Cape Reinga. The Cape is the top of NZ and a very spiritual place for the Maori culture. It is known as the place where the Spirits jump off the land to go to Heaven when they die. It was really cool to be able to say that I have been to the top of NZ. Hopefully one day I will be able to say I have also been to the Bottom of NZ. 

     President and Sister Balli left the mission on Saturday. Its really weird to think about. Our new Mission President is President Walker. We will get to meet him on Thursday at Zone Conference and Interviews. Its really weird to think about because he will be my Mission President for only like 3 weeks. It was sad to see President Balli go. It will be really cool to see what changes are made. I am really excited to see the effect that it will have on our mission. 

     It was exciting to get to see the Baby Blessing for the daughter of a Less Active member that we have been visiting the whole time that we have been here. She is a single mum of 2 kids and her youngest was blessed yesterday. She has been to church 2 weeks in a row now. So we are really proud of her! We stopped by the family house after church and they had heaps of family there. It was great to see everyone there. Sister Tait, the mum, was so happy to see everyone there! 

     My spiritual thought today is from 3 Nephi 9:14

Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.

     This is Christ speaking to the people after the Destruction happens as the sign of his death. He has told the people that they have been saved because they are the most righteous ones in the land and then calls them to him. Christ calls all of us to Him so that he can save us. Even when we are doing the wrong His arms are still extended to us.

     Sorry for the lame email. Don't have too much going on! 

Love yous!

     Love Elder Seelos

                                                         

                                         Cape Reinga

A baptism & a goodbye to President Balli.....

This week as been awesome! I swear that the longer I have been a missionary the faster the weeks go by and the more people ask how much longer I have. I have to say that I was a bit excited and a bit sad that I was able to tell people that I only have a month left. 

     The big highlight of this week was of course Ataahua's Baptism! It went so well! We had a few hick-ups at the start but overall it went well! It just shows that Heavenly Father is totally behind missionary work and wants these things to happen. He really will put his hand in these things! It was cool to see all of the family behind not only her but her family. They have heaps of family that are really great to them and awesome examples even when they are choosing the other roads. It will be sad to see them go in a week. We have really come to love that family. They are awesome!

     Still doing heaps of service this week. We got to go and chop more wood with our members. Its starting winter now so everyone is just now deciding to get their wood for winter. It gets really cold here and so they are all getting ready. Most houses have fire places so they all need wood. Its great that they let us help though. Most times members wont let us help, but up here they do. Its great!

     We got to have trade offs this week as well. That was fun! I went with Elder Taranaki to the Zone Leaders area. They cover 2 branches, Opononi and Outaua Branches. They are mean area's. It takes about 30 minutes just to get to their area so they are really in the bush! Elder Taranaki is from New Zealand. He lives in the Hamilton mission area, but still in the Ysa ward area. So I know people that he knows from back home and I know where his house is. Its really funny to talk about! 

     We got to go down to Whangerei this week as well. That was a pretty sad experience. We went down to have our last Conference with President Balli. He goes home on the 1st of July when our new Mission President, President Walker comes in. Its really sad to see him go! Its been so great getting to have him my entire mission and getting to learn from him. It will be great to get to meet President Walker, but will be hard that I will only really get to spend about 3 weeks with him and really only see him like 2 times before I go. It will be really interesting to see what he does with our mission. 

     My spiritual thought this week come from Matthew 25:14-30. This is the Parable of the Talents. The Lord in the story gives 3 men talents or money and then leaves them. 2 of the men double their money and one hides his so he doesn't lose it. The Lord comes back and rewards the first 2 men with them keeping their money. But the 3rd man he rebukes and takes the money from him. I imagine our conversation with Heavenly Father one day will be much like this one. He will ask us what we have done with the blessings and talents that he has given us. We want to come back and tell him that we have used it and grown it, not that we have hidden it and are still the same.

     Sorry for the boring as email this week! Seems like everything every week is the same! But hopefully we will have some more good news next week! Love ya heaps!

Love Elder Seelos

Waffles....yummy

The baptism.

The 2 girls poking their tongues out in the photo are the Kiro girls. The one on the Right is Ataahua

Temple, Apostles, the flu, & lots of blessings....

     I just have to say that this has probably been one of the best and worst weeks of my mission! 

     Start off with the good. The TEMPLE! I was blessed this week with the opportunity to go to the temple. I got to attend a Sealing with Brother Malua Fatialofa. I was able to be a part of his teaching, conversion, and Baptism in May of last year. Elder Bass and I were able to go down on Friday and be with them. Well as we showed up to the temple at about 7 am we were waiting for another member to show up to be the Escort. Well another member showed up and said that Elder Anderson was outside... Like the Apostle. So of course we went outside. Well he was right. Elder Neil L. Anderson was walking around in his Track suit and a baseball cap exercising with the NZ Hamilton Mission President. He seemed a bit annoyed that we were asking for pictures while he was dressed like that, but he did it anyways. Then we told him why we were there and he switched right around. He was so happy for these two. It was cool. 

     Then we were able to go into the Temple and as we checked in the Temple worker told us that Malua had to wait for the 11:30 Session and that there was an 8:30 Session that we could make if we wanted to. So knowing that would be our last time in the temple on our missions we took the chance. So we got to do 2 Sessions that day. It was amazing. I learned to much. Then after that we went down stairs for the Sealing and that was just amazing. They were both crying and just so happy. I was so happy for them. Unfortunately the Sealing was done in Samoan so I didn't understand much, but I could defiantly feel the Spirit of it. Also on a side note. It was the Manukau Stake (my last area) Temple week, so there were heaps of members that I knew at the temple that day. It was another little blessing.

     Now for the normal news. Ata'ahua is set for this Saturday. YES! Everything is getting set up for that this week. Just have to finish the lessons. Everything is pretty solid there. Just wish us luck that she will be brave enough to do the Interview. She is an extremely shy girl! So hopefully that will go through. Her Dad came to church yesterday as well for the first time in a while and so that was mean to see him there and he stayed the whole 3 hours and for the Shared Lunch afterwards. It will be sad to see them move in a few weeks.

     We had our Branch Primary Program this week. That went well! It was fun to get to practice with the Primary kids a few times for that. It was awesome to see so many kids coming to church and so much of their family there. We had 56 in our Sacrament meeting and probably about 25 of them were kids and probably about 30 people were Less Active that came for that. It was so great! 

     Now for the Worst part of the week. I have been healthy just about my entire mission. Maybe a few colds. Thats about it. Well of course the week that has the most things and the most important things on is the week that I will be sick... I basically woke up with the flu on Thursday Morning. The day that we are suppose to bus down to Auckland. So I threw up a few times that morning. So my stomach was empty. So I just took some medicine and didn't eat. Well we took the bus ride at 1:50. Sat on the bus for about 4 hours then sat at the bus depot for 2 hours then took another 15 minute ride to our stop. We were picked up at 7:45 that night. Again I was sick the whole time. Thankfully I was empty so I didn't throw up that whole time. Well we then stayed in a flat in Auckland and went to the temple the next morning. Again just didn't eat so I didn't throw up. I was fine in the temple(Blessings). Then on the way home we stopped for food. So I ate. Thankfully I was able to sleep the rest of the car ride so I was fine. I haven't thrown up again but haven't really had an appetite the rest of the week.

     Well thats my week! Its been a great week! Transfers were this week and I am still here. So thats good. Still the same! Love ya!

Love Elder Seelos

So cool meeting Elder Anderson!

 Brother Malua Fatialofa , his wife Tara, & Elder Anderson

Best day EVER!

My new waffle maker!

Loving our branch, teaching lessons, & mini golfing.....

     Starting off sorry we were late today. We decided to go Fishing with a few of us Elders. It was fun. Very unsuccessful but fun none the less. Lets just say that NZ is an awesome place!

     GREAT NEWS!!!!! We were able to teach Ataahua (Wesley’s (LA) 9 year old daughter) a few times this week. We talked to them on Sunday after church and she is going to be baptized on the 24th of June. So we have to hurry up with the lessons but we can do it! She is going to be staying here with her Uncle who is on the High Council in the stake so she will be solid as when she moves. I am really excited! The Lord answers prayers. This will be the first Baptism in the Branch this year I think. So thats really exciting! 

     On that note. I honestly love the Awarua Branch. They are literally the best. We got to go to the branch on Sunday and the love that you can feel there is just so great! Its just a place that I want to be and I want to bring my Investigators! The members are great! They are all just like a huge family. Everyone knows everyone, they all do things together. When Sacrament started we had 26 people there. We were blessing the sacrament. Like its so small but full of spiritual giants! 

     We got to have Zone Conference this week. That was in Whangarei. Thats about an hour down towards Auckland. We had to be there by 8 so we left at about 6:50. As we were leaving Kaikohe the sun was coming up. There was fog everywhere. It was mean! Then as we were getting back the sun was setting. So it was a long day in Kaikohe. President Balli talked about using the Book Of Mormon to help solidify our Investigators. He promised us that if we could get our investigators reading the Book Of Mormon then they would not drop. So thats our focus!

     I got a GREAT Phone Call on Friday. Elder Bass called and said that the Fatialofa's (Malua, the Guy that Elder Bass and I Baptized in May last year.) are getting sealed this Friday. A mission rule is that if one of your converts are getting sealed you can go. So I called President and he said that it would be fine. So I get to take a bus to Auckland by myself on Thursday and then go to the temple on Friday and then come back to Kaikohe on a bus. Again by myself. So that part is going to be weird but will be so fun! I am so excited! 

     Transfers are this week so that is a thing. I am about 99.9% sure that I am staying here with Elder Inglis, but Ill let yous know! 

     Love ya! 

        Elder Seelos

p-day mini golfing

Our unsuccessful but very fun fishing trip

Fishing crew

More golfing fun....

We found this car in the middle of no where...so we decided to investigate!

Birthday, Area 70, & lessons with investigators....

  So to start off my email this week I want to give a great thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate my birthday! Thanks for the emails and just thinking about me. Special thanks to the family for the wonderful book that I was sent to be able to celebrate with all of yous this year! 

     My birthday was great! I got to spend some time with the elders and we went out and had lunch at our Branch Presidents house and played with his goats. We then got to go and visit families for a while and jsut have a normal day. We also got dinner with a member. Then we finished our night with the Clarke family. They are great. One of the families that get close to all the missionaries. 

     This week the Kaikohe Stake got to have Stake Conference. Elder Coward from the Area 70 came to preside over our Conference. One great story from our conference was about my companion. So we went to the Priesthood leadership meeting at 3. Well during that meeting Elder Coward asked a question about Elder Hollands talk in General Conference October last year. Well he just asked what it was about. Elder Inglis, My companion, stood up and said "Save Souls." This was a sufficient answer we all thought. All of us except Elder Coward I guess. So he said "You know, That reminds me of something. It reminds me of my kids at Family Home Evening when they were young. They would be falling asleep and we would ask them a question and they would wake up and say "Faith" Or "Pray." Now these answers are right, but not really helpful." So we all started to laugh and we realized that my companion got roasted by an Area 70. So lets just say that has been the recurring joke the last few days!

     We finally got to sit down with Wesley this week. We saw him on Wednesday and then also on Thursday at the Kaikohe Markets. He was selling Hangis at the market. So a Hangi is a traditional New Zealand Smoker basically. They dig a hole in the ground and then put in Fire then Rocks then the food and then cover it. So the food is cooked. Its really good. Well we got that for dinner that night. Then we got to see him yesterday. We stopped by and saw the family. Well we are officially now teaching his daughters. Atahua, and Rangimarie. They are 9 and 8. He is leaving to Australia on the 4th of July and wants them baptized before he goes because Atahua is staying behind with his sister. 

     We are headed to play mini golf right now with President & Sister Balli!  They are the best!  We love them so much.  They will be going home in just a few weeks.

     Well sorry for the short email today! It was a great week though! 

     Love Elder Seelos

Birthday fun....

Playing Monopoly...

Good times....

My mean haircut from Elder Taranaki....

Elder Hopgood & I.... 

Cows, Wood, Horses, and Rolled Cars.....

     So as you can tell from my title this was an interesting week! 

     We started the week off well! We had a great Trade off with our Elders in Kaitaia. I got to go with Elder Ateo from Tahiti. He was practicing his driving so I got to sit in the passenger seat the whole time and it was mean! Good to have a break from driving! Their area is huge and so its a lot of driving. It takes about an hour to get there from here so yeah. We had fun though! Elder Ateo is the man. He is still working on his English, but tries really hard. Fun guy!

     Following that Thursday was a fun as day. Our Member, Brother Matene, asked us to come and help with some service. So we happily accepted! We went over around 10 and we started chopping wood. He had the Chain saw chopping up trunks so we could split it with the axes. We chopped for like 2 hours. Overall it was so fun. But I was so sore the next few days! I also have the blisters to prove it! Ha. Well the next day we went to go and visit his family nextdoor to him and his son was there and we talked to him and he said that his dad was in the back yard. So we went to say hi. Well he ended up asking us to help him move some of his cows down the street to a new paddock. So again we happily accepted and thew on our gum boots in our boot. So we then ended up driving 6 or 7 cow about a Kilometer down the street. Stopping traffic the whole time. That was pretty fun. After that his son asked if we had ever ridden a horse before. Then he let us ride his horse. That was fun as too! Just an average week her in Kaikohe!  

     Last week we got to do some Bone Carving with a Less Active member in the other ward. His name is Graham. I started on a pretty mean carving. I am going to make a necklace out of it. I am pretty keen to try to get into that when I get home. Its pretty mean and is a better hobby then Xbox all day! Ha.

     We got to meet with a few investigators this week. We finally caught up with Wesley yesterday. He told us that he is moving on the 4th of July. So its set. Well we talked to him for a bit then we asked him about baptizing his daughters. He is going to talk to his wife about it cuz one of them is staying in New Zealand with an Auntie and Uncle when they move. So we might get her baptized before they move away. 

     We also got to go to our branch yesterday for church. Got to bless the Sacrament for the first time in ages! It was funny when we sat down after the sacrament our Branch President came down to us and said that they were short a speaker so asked if we would talk. When he said it we couldnt tell if he meant just me or both of us. So thankfully we both started to prepare. Well the 2nd councilor then announced that Elder Inglis will speak to us. Then never called me up! Ha. So I missed that one. Well 2nd hour we basically did set up to try to teach a kid that came with one of our members. His name is Holden. He has been coming off and on to church for a few months. He has been pretty regular at seminary as well, so there isnt really much holding him back other then the fact that he is a 15 year old boy and they are all stubborn and just do their own thing. So we are going to hopefully teach him this week. We then got into combined Elders Quorum and Relief Society and no one had prepared the lesson. So they all just said to have us do it... So we did. They gave us the book and we taught just straight from nothing. Just a solid testament that the spirit help us when we need it! 

     So last crazy story this week. Sorry this is huge. So we got a call on Wednesday around 3:15. The assistants told us that the tracker on the Zone Leaders car had sent into the office that their car had flipped. They tried to call but were not answering. So they wanted us to go and see if they were okay. They gave us the street they were on and we found it quite easy. They are in the bush. So just heaps of farm land and dirt roads. So very little cell service. Well we got to the street about 30 minutes later. We drove the entire street... No car. So we drove about half way up again and got cell service. So we called the mission office to ask again where they were. Well they told us that the car had moved..... My question was how does an upside down car move? Well they had moved about 20 K's up the street.... What? So we drove there. We found them about another 30 minutes later and they were fine. They had just hit a bump and drifted a bit and they just didnt have cell service so they didnt see us calling... So yeah. We then got back at about 5 just in time for dinner! Ha. 

     Thank you for all the birthday wishes!  I had over 30 emails to open this afternoon!  Love my family.  

              Well thats my stories for this week! Heaps of fun! 

                     Love yous heaps!

                         Love Elder Seelos

Working on my carving skills

My mean as carving....

Our adventure finding the Zone Leaders

Trotting along after working hard...

Muddy work boots & loads of work...

     This week was honestly so fun! It rained heaps this week so Elder Inglis and I spent a good amount of time in the mud! Good thing for Boots! There is HEAPS of less active work to do out here! 

     We were able to have Trade offs with our Zone Leaders this week, Elder Frew and Elder Taranaki. I stayed in the area with Elder Taranaki. It was cool because Elder Taranaki started his mission in the same area that I started. So we were able to talk about all the people that we know from that area. We actually had heaps to do that day! We had Rescue night with our ward, we had an appointment with a Less Active member, Kerehopa Tait, and then we had a lesson with our Investigator Troy. Gotta Love trade offs!

     We got to do another Service on Tuesday with our Member, Sister Tait. This is Kerehopa's Sister. Well she has a goal to paint her house for her Land Lord cuz the Land Lord is letting her live there for pretty cheap. Well she is trying to paint it and there is a lot of prep work to do. So we started to help her sand the house. We got about half of the first wall done and then had to leave to dinner. So we are going to go back and try to finish up the job soon so that we can start painting. We announced it in Priesthood Yesterday that we could use some help with it so hopefully that will work out.

     We truly LOVE our Branch. We are trying to spend as much time out there as we can. We have a less active member out there that we started to visit this week. His name is Westly. He is a convert but has fallen away. He is alone right now with his 4 kids cuz his wife is working in Australia to make more money to build the house that they want. So he has one girl that is 9 that our Branch President wants us to try to get baptized. He also has a daughter that turns 8 today. So we are really going to work on getting them active and Baptize them! 

     One fun thing about our Branch is the fact that it is just farming land. Its just a big long street with houses on either side and a few small side streets with a few houses. So that makes addresses easy. The only issue is that they are terrible with addresses over here. Like way bad. There will be houses with no addresses. There are always numbers skipped. We will see number 6547 and then the next one could be 6503. No houses in between. Just fields. We also found this week a house that is number 34 on the odd number side of the street. Like what the heck? Gotta Love New Zealand!

     My spiritual thought this week comes from Mosiah 26 Verse 14 

          14 And it came to pass that after he had poured out his whole soul to God, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying:

     What I get out of here is the fact that Alma got revelation from the Lord only after he Poured out his WHOLE SOUL unto God. Are we willing to work that hard for the answers to our questions?

                              Love you all!!

                                      Love Elder Seelos

Its COLD!!!!

Our mean as gumboots!

Working hard & lookin good.....

Service, splits, and skyping....

 Hello family!

     The Northland has been so Great! It is very cold and different, but it has been heaps of fun! Its fun to be in the bush! Our area is heaps of little towns along 2 main roads so we do a good amount of driving which is fun! Its super green up here and there is always things to see! 

     On Saturday we got to do a service with one of our members. They had cut a good amount of trees in the bush behind their house and they needed to trek them out of the bush into the trailer and then unload it at their house. There were 2 trailer loads. It wore us out! Then after that a member called asking if we were busy and if we could come over and help him mow an older sister in our wards lawn. So we went right over to his house and helped him. So we did service from about 12 until about 4:30 then we went to our dinner appointment at 5. It was a fun day! 

     So our area is covering a ward in the "City" and a branch in the bush. The missionaries before us didn't do too much work in the branch and the Branch has been kinda neglected so Elder Inglis and I have made it a goal to work there. So we spent all day Wednesday there and visiting. We didn't get to see all that many people but the branch was so happy with what we had done when we reported at Rescue night that night. There is a whole lot of work to do there and I am so happy to be able to be the one to do it!

     I want to wish a Happy Mothers day to all the Mothers out there! Hopefully it was a good one! I was happily able to skype my family today and talk with them. Its crazy to think that was my last skype session for my mission. For Mothers Day both our ward and our Branch did a Linger Longer after church so we all stayed after to have a feed. Because we cover the ward and the branch we can only go to one of them on Sundays. So we went to our branch Yesterday at 10 and stayed the whole time. Then because the Ward starts at 11 we left the feed with our branch and went to the one with the ward and we had heaps of food! It was a good day!

     We had rescue night on Thursday with our ward and so Elder Inglis and I did splits with a few members. I went with a member of the Elders Quorum Presidency Brother Maxwell. We went to visit a guy named Sam. Well first off it was raining hard out and then he had a steep gravel driveway and so I was just glad that we made it up in our car. Then we started talking to him and he told us that he didn't like the church and had all of these issues with it. Well then right before we finally left Brother Maxwell shared his testimony with this brother and then we left. Brother Maxwell said afterwards that he has visited that man for about 5 years now and every time he goes his goal is to share his testimony and so for 5 years he has shared his testimony with this man. That's persistence. 

     My spiritual thought this week comes from a lesson that we had this week. We were helping one of our returning Less Active Part Member families explain what the Atonement was to their 6 year old daughter. After much testing and trying we got her to finally understand why Christ suffered for us when we asked her if she liked being sad. When she responded with a no we told her that Jesus did that for us so that we don't have to be sad and so we can be happy! It was a really sweet spirit when we saw it click in her head!

Love,

Elder Seelos

My Seelos Family

Happy missionary

Best Mothers Day present EVER!

Hello Elder Inglis!

This Mountain got half a hair cut!

Stupid dog your not a cat!

We played a game with one of our members families!

Saying goodbye & headed up north....

  Well Kia Ora Whano! As you all know now I have been transferred to the Northland. I am in the Kaikohe Zone. Kaikohe is the most North Zone in the mission and in New Zealand. So we have the top of the country here! It took a 3 and a half hour bus ride to get here. Nice long day! It was totally worth it though! The northland is so nice! Heaps of fun! Its the biggest Zone in the mission because its just full of Bush. There are a few small towns here and there and other then that its just bush! Fun though! Haha. My companion, Elder Inglis (My son from October 2015), and I were double shifted into the area and so we both new and trying to get to know everyone! We are covering the Kaikohe 1st ward and the Awarua Branch. So there is a lot of work to do!

     It was defiantly hard to say goodbye to the YSA ward. I honestly loved it there and was super sad to leave. There were quite a few people there that I really loved and enjoyed working with. I will miss them! It was a slow area and not much really ever happened but the ward was fun and it was nice to get use to that environment before I have to go to one!

     One of the hardest parts about leaving was saying goodbye to the missionaries. I will most likely finish my mission up here and so I probably wont see a lot of these missionaries again. At least not until I come home or they come home! So that was kinda hard! Ill get to see a lot of them back in Utah though! So that will make things easier! There are quite a few missionaries that are going home in 6 weeks and so that is sad that I wont get to see them before they all go.

     Kaikohe has been fun to be in the bush and in a tiny little town, but it has been FREEZING! It is so cold here. There are no big buildings generating heat, very few cars, no smog to trap the heat in... So it gets cold as! Thankfully our flat stays warm at night and we have a heater that we use to keep it warm. We have a car, so that stays generally warm during the day. So we never really get too cold. One issue about New Zealand is that its not considered an extreme weather country so they dont really ever insulate any buildings. So it will get really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter. They are just a bit behind...

    So far the area has been good. It was nice to get to meet the members Yesterday at church. The Elders seemed to have some good work going, but we have to start all over with everyone because they kept Zero records... Like if you were to look into our area book you wouldn't even know that they were here. You would think it was October of 2016 because those are the last records in the area book... So we are starting over basically. We will see how it goes. The flat was fine when we got here. Thankfully the Zone Leaders cleaned it while they were waiting for us on the bus so it wasnt too dirty but it was still pretty nasty. So we have been cleaning it for a while. Its almost there! 

     That has basically been the week so far! Nothing too crazy going on for us. Love yous!

               Love Elder Seelos!

Goodbye YSA

Goodbye rugby with some of my favorite elders

Elder Ingles & I