A baptism, a ward leadership change , & a trailer...

   Transfers left me here where I was! Elder Clark and I stayed the same and we are both still in the YSA ward! We had heaps of changes in our Zone though! We had quite a few changes in the Zone. Which were good! We are now calling our Zone the Perfect Zone! We had a lot of the Missionaries that we didn't get along with too well left and we got some new missionaries and 2 brand new missionaries in the Zone so we are on a huge buzz! Its great to see everyone working harder! 

     This week was a lot of running errands for Tranfers. We took basically the entire day on Wednesday transporting people or peoples stuff. Lets just say that I am getting better at driving big trailers and driving all over the place! One embarrassing/funny story of that... We were going to leave the trailer at our flat for the night and so with the tiny roads here I decided that I would just push the trailer down the drive way. Well we unhooked it and then we starting pushing it into the drive and then it hit the curb. I am just going to say that this curb must have been built wrong... We got it stuck in the gutter and it was heavy and so we couldn't really push it out... Well long story short our neighbor saw our struggle and he came out and helped us push it out and with his help we got it out and into the drive way... So lets just say that I was defiantly a humbling moment for me. Awks.

     It was so great!!! It was honestly so great walking into the chapel and everyone was there! Like I was just smiling from ear to ear. We just sat in the back and everyone was surprised as to see me! It was so awesome to see her finally get baptized. She walked into the font crying and one of the YSA that she was close to baptized her. It was just a great time! It meant so much to her. I was just happy that it all went well! Dora was there too and I talked to her and she is getting a lot stronger! She is coming to church and is really coming to understand everything. I am so glad that she is progressing! She will be baptized one day!

     We finally caught up with Lima this week. She canceled her appointment on Monday. So we tried a few times this week but finally caught her on Sunday. So she was on her way to work so we didnt get to teach anything but she told us that her next day off is this Sunday. So thats stink that we have to wait that long but we are excited to get to see her then and hopefully get her to Church on Sunday! 

     The ward here is really good! Its full of great people and I honestly love it! Its really sad though because it is really changing.. Its amazing how the Ward Leadership can really change the entire feeling and atmosphere of the ward... Its sad to see when things go down hill because of the Leadership... This ward is hard because if they dont like it they can just go back to their home wards... So there is nothing really forcing them to be here. We are really just hoping to help the ward to create that warm and welcoming feeling so that when people visit or investigators come they want to stay and come back.

     My spiritual thought this week comes from Alma 44:4 

                "Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith." 

     Here Moroni is telling Zerahemnah the Lamanite leader that they are only going to fight if they have to protect their selves, and if they have to fight they are going to win because of their faith that they have in God. They only way that they will lose is if they fall into transgression. The same is still true to us today. If we keep our faith then the Lord will protect us and if we chose to fall into transgression then the Lord will not protect us. We are all in a spiritual battle everyday and we cannot afford to lose them! We need the Lords protection. 

Love Elder Seelos

Grace was so excited & ready to be baptized!  I was so glad to be a part of her day.

Happy faces

Getting a trunky call, a baptism, and some cracker jacks....

     Hello family and friends!

    We had set up to do hair cuts with one of our members. His name is Tuli. Just to say this is the first hair cut I have had in this ward! So that's like more than 6 weeks... Also quick note... It has been 6 weeks here. Transfers are this week... So weird! I'll update yous when I know whats happening!

      One great thing that happened this week was our New Investigator! His name is Nick! He is half Fijian Indian and half Indonesian. He went to the temple with his friend who is a member and the missionaries at the temple sent him to us! He is agnostic. So he believes in a higher power just not necessarily a God. He is totally open to learning though! He wants to understand what we are all about and he felt a big pull towards the Christus statue at the Visitors Center. So he is really keen to understand what is it that we believe and what he needs to do! We have our next appointment with him Tomorrow at 5 and we have a member coming out to that with us. We are very excited to see what he thinks. He also said that he wants to try out our church soon but was going to wait until we talked to him a bit more about it!

     Biggest news of the week probably happened on Saturday. I am still buzzing out about this. So usually about 3 months before a missionary goes home they will get a call asking how they are planning on getting home and where they are going to. We call it our "Trunky Call". So one of our senior couples is leaving....Well now left I guess. They left on Sunday.  Sister Jackson was the Mission Secretary. So she would do all that kind of stuff. So we got a call from her on Saturday and we figured she was calling to say goodbye and to tell us to get in touch with her when we got home... Well nah. She said "Elder Seelos, this is your Trunky Call!" I almost died... Seriously. They did it early and so I still have like 4 months but I was so surprised!!!! So guess I am coming home soon... My Release date is the 25th on July. I will be put on a flight leaving Auckland that night at around 7:30. Just so you know.

     Remember Grace from Henderson? Well she is getting baptized on Wednesday and I am going! I am so excited!!!! So that is super exciting!

     We were able to meet with our Investigator Lima on Wednesday. She forgot that we were coming over and was just waking up. She still sat down with us though. We went through the Restoration Pamphlet with her because she hadn't read through it yet. She was great with it all until we talked about how Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus and that he brought the only true church back on the earth. So she basically asked if that meant that her church wasn't true... Well we told her that it kinda meant that but not fully. So we tried to help her understand but then she had to go so we are seeing her tonight. Fingers crossed it all goes well!!!

    So my spiritual though comes from an article that I read last week. I just looked to try to find the article but it is nowhere to be found. It was on LDS.org last week. So it was about how to make our prayers more meaningful. They talked about how after asking God for everything we think we need we can follow the example of Jesus Christ and tell God that not our will but His be done. If we truly mean this it will make a huge impact on what we see and the trials that will go on in our lives. I have been doing this for the last few days and it really has helped me to see why we go through what we do. I really would love to invite you to think about this and making it a part of your prayers. 

Love yous all so much! 

     Love Elder Seelos

Just because I was thinking of my dad, I went to a huge Botanical Garden the other day.  These are a couple of their aloe plants.

They are HUGE!!

We get excited about weird stuff here.....one of our members gave us a box of cracker jacks!  

Lucky me!

Just chillin...

Ward conference, FHE, and last minute birthday party....

     Lets just say that YSA ward is Bomb. We had Ward Conference all week this week and so it was basically activities every day. Monday we had 2 FHE's. Tuesday we had Rescue Night. Wednesday we had Institute and games. Thursday we had a Cottage evening. Friday there was a Ball (We didn't go to that one :)). Saturday there was games at the chapel. Sunday was church and then a linger longer feed after church. So overall it was a great week!

    So to start with our 2 FHE's. 1. A new member in our ward, named Gups, invited us over for an FHE with some of his neighbors who were former investigators. So on Sunday night we went over and invited them to the FHE. They seemed really cool and keen to come over. Well Monday night came and we showed up.... and they didn't. So eventually we had to leave and go to our other FHE and then after we left that family home evening we got a text saying that they came like and hour and a half late... So all goods.  We will try again.   Our next FHE was with a member in our ward. Her name is Lose. Interestingly enough she was actually one of my MTC teachers. She was the one that seemed to not like my comp and I. Well she likes me now! Ha. So she had a less active friend coming to the FHE and so she invited us to come and meet/get to know her better. That also went well. 

    Skip to Thursday. For the Cottage Evening (Basically a long FHE for all of the YSA) they asked us to be in charge of it. Its suppose to be a place that YSA can bring their friends and so we can meet them... Doesn't really work like that too well... Our theme for the Conference was "The Greatest Work That You Can Do Is Within The Walls Of Your Own Home."  So that's what our Cottage Evening was on. We made 3 groups and they were given one of three topics. FHE, Family Dinner, or Family Scripture Study. Then they were given 3 objects that we got from the $2 store. For example, an ax or a bat (like a rubber animal bat) or a football or an inflatable baby or a stuffed pokeball. Just random stuff!  They had to make up a skit using these items showing a good and a bad example of how to do this. Lets just say that most YSA are bad actors... Haha. They were pretty funny. Most of them didn't really make too much sense but it all worked out! We then talked about how we all can make an impact on our own family things. Even as YSA they can make a FHE or a family dinner better for their families so that they can grow and become closer from that. Overall it was great and then after that there was a huge feed. #everyeventhasfood 

    So Saturday was heaps of fun! The games started at 6 so we went over and there wasn't very many people there so we were kinda gutted... But then as the night went on the place got packed! There were so many people there! There were heaps of new faces there and then it was great to get to see them come to church yesterday! We had so many people at church yesterday!!! It was awesome! Again. Tell them there will be food and they will always be there!

    On Thursday around 3 Elder Clark randomly asked me if I wanted to know a secret... So I said yes. Well he then told me that it was his birthday... It was 3 o'clock... I was kinda annoyed... So then I told him that I had to go to the bathroom and so we went to the chapel that was close by and I had the phone so I texted some of our missionaries and told them and so they set up a surprise for him when we got home. Then I texted our Relief Society President and told her and so they all sang to him at the cottage evening. He was so mad. He was trying to keep it a secret and not tell anyone.  (he had told everyone that his Birthday was in July) So no I am not the worst companion ever. But I figured it all out and then we had a party. #winning

  Our investigators this week were pretty build ups! One hard thing working with YSA is that they are never home and they have crazy schedules. That makes them very hard to catch and hard to set solid appointments with. So most of our appointments fell through this week. It was also really stink that none of them made it to any of the ward conference.. So we have a lot of work to do. Although with Salote we will be seeing her this week. She kinda fell off the radar becuase her partner came back to town and he kinda tries to keep her from us.. Which is annoying. Well he left yesterday for 5 weeks. So that's 5 weeks that we get free from him where we can teach her! She is keen herself and loves us coming over but he isn't I guess... idk. Please pray for her!

   

     My Spiritual thought this week is from the beginning of the Book Of Mormon. As I was studying from Preach my Gospel this week a sentence really stuck out to me that I haven't taken notice of before. It says "Encourage them to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning, including the testimonies of the three and eight witnesses and the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith." The part that I really loved was how it shows that the testimonies of the 3 and 8 witnesses and the testimony of Joseph Smith are really important and impacting passages! We need to read them and they can teach us and help us feel of the spirit just as much as the rest of the Book can. So I want to invite yous all to read those this week and to read it wanting to learn something and I can promise that you will learn and strengthen your testimony of the Book Of Mormon.

       Well there is my week! Love yous heaps!

          Love Elder Seelos!

Miranda Beach 

Seriously the most beautiful place on earth!

Miranda Beach

Last minute birthday party for Elder Clark

We know how to party:)

Bricks, ice cream, and 3 new investigators!

 This week was great! I felt like so much happened and so little happened at the same time! I know that there is so much to talk about but I can't remember what it all is! 

    So first off I will start with one of the things I am going to miss the most about NZ! The Ice cream. First off on trade offs with Elder Hixon, I went to the Shore and he told me about a place that had a sign for the Biggest Ice cream in Auckland. So of course we had to try it! Well... we went and we got 2 big scoops for $3. Pretty good deal. I have to say that it just might live up to the title of Biggest Ice cream in NZ! I got 1. Choc Nana 2. Orange Chocolate Chip. Best 2 flavors. So that was my first round. Then Elder Clark and I on Saturday had a service in a place called Waiuku. So this is about an hour and a half from Mangere. Gotta love the YSA ward! Well after our service we decided to go to a place called Pokenoes. This is the famous ice cream place that everyone stops at on their way back to Auckland from the Temple. Its just about half way back. So we had to stop there. Now this ice cream was bigger than the first!  2 scoops $3. 1. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough 2. Pineapple Chocolate Chip. The other 2 best flavors! Haha. Lets just say that the ice cream in NZ is to die for. Its great! 

      Now to talk about the service. So imagine someone calls you and asks you to help move some bricks that their dad is using to make a wall. What do you imagine?? Just a big pile or stack of normal red building bricks right? Well we were wrong. So we showed up and we saw the bricks. There was 3 palettes of 45 bricks each. So this makes 135 bricks. BUT each brick weighs 40 Kg's so 5400 Kg's of bricks. That is 11,904.96 pounds... and there were 3 of us... And I was the biggest one. We had to carry them about 20 yards. If even that. It took us just over an hour. I was exhausted... My arms were shaking, my back hurt, my legs hurt, my arms and legs were all cut up from the bricks... It was a long hour. But I can now happily say that we did it!

       Now for the great success of the week! We found 3 New Investigators! 1. Lima 2. Sinta 3. Arlene. So they were all Potential Investigators that we have been trying to make our Investigators for a while now. It just seemed to never work out until this week! We were able to teach all 3 of them real proper lessons this week and we are seeing them all again this week! So Lima is a 20 something year old Samoan girl. She has a lot of bible knowledge. She is keen to learn more and is really open to truth. She is great! Then there is Sinta. We took Sinta to a Come and See Fireside a few weeks ago and she liked it. Then we have tried to have lessons with her for a few weeks now and it just never worked out. So we finally caught her home. She is a 19 year old Samoan girl. Last but not least Alrene. She is a 19 year old Maori girl. Her sister Jane is a member in a family ward but she is Less Active and so we are trying to get her back on and in our ward. But she is also been hard to catch but we just sat down and did a lesson this week! Gotta love Missionary work!!!

        Something that I have been sharing with people this week comes from 1 Nephi 5:9.  " And it came to pass that they did rejoice exceedingly, and did offer sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord; and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel. " So this is right after Nephi, Lamen, Lemuel and Sam get back from getting the Brass Plates. Lehi and Sariah have to show their faith in the Lord to trust that their sons will come home safely. Now that verse is the first thing that they do when they finally get back. They immediately thank the Lord for the safety and guidance in their journey. I have been encouraging people to remember to be more Grateful to the Lord for everything that He has given them and I want to extend the same invitation to yous! By doing this I know that the Lord not only will help you see all the great things that you have to be grateful for but will give you even more things to be grateful for! 

     Love yous! 

           Elder Seelos 

Mission Leadership Conference last week.  President and Sister Balli sent this picture to our new incoming Mission President!

Seriously the BEST ice cream in the whole world!!

All the missionaries that are going home on the same day bought these ties...they are sweet!  We bought about 20 of them!

Elder and Sister Bath, and Elder and Sister Jackson took Elder Clark and I out to lunch for helping them clean out a senior missionary flat.  Totally worth it!