June 26th, 2011

Hey there everybody!! :) I hope everyone had an awesome week once again! Things are going great here!  This week was a good one.  We're trying to pick things up and find new investigators and new people to teach.  They've all been baptized now so we got to replace them!  The baptisms the other week was great one was a woman named Dionne and her three kids that were baptized.  Than Isabell's was the next day.  I'll be sending all the pictures soon so you guys can all see Niue and other parts of this wonderful journey.  This week we had my first district meeting which actually went alright but it still was hard!  And it's funny the subject on this District Meeting tomorrow is on "lock your hearts" haha!  So this should be a fun one!! After district meeting we all hit up the bk like always!  I swear it has been fast food non-stop since I got here it's disgusting!  That's all the members give us but finally we snapped out of it and three days straight we had good ol subway!! Heck ya! :)

 But this week was alright.  We had some pretty big disappointments with our sets falling through for certain reasons.  It was a bit rougher this week but we care not!  We move forward as always!  The sisters in my district are little drama queens!  They're always down I have to pick them up all the time!  We had a comp study where that's all i had to do was be a motivational speaker I swear! They're funny like that but you get that with sisters I guess! Haha the Tongans are awesome in my district and my good MTC comp is doing great! So things are looking good! Especially for this transition with President, and Sis. Porter with Lekias.  That's happening this week so next time I write ya I'll have a new mission president and mom! :) I'm excited for that! Something way funny this week cuz if ya know me back home I like to do prank on people or freak them out. 

Well I told ya that story of Espino earlier where I scared him bad.  Fuataga is such a funny guy but he got me way good the other night!  Man it was hilarious I seriously was terrified! He was way good! We've had a lot of fun together.  It really picks each other up and we have fun with missionary work while we work hard.  So it has been a great transition for me from Niue to here.  I'm very grateful for him and for that.  The pic’s are of Dionne's baptism, a couple from Niue, and me and Futz.  Ha not me one of the Tongans but that's my comp with the no lens glasses. Funny guy! Anyways I love this area and ward it's been absolutely great! But we are struggling to find more people to teach! We're doing our best and we know those miracles and blessings are on their way.  They better be cuz we're qualifying for them!! So things are good here I'm still breathing so don't you worry! I love and miss you all and hope and wish you all the best!!!! :)

Love the one and only Elder Devey!!

Father's Day

Hey everybody!! :) I hope everyone's week went wonderful and that everyone is doing great! I know you all are cuz I know how God blesses families as their missionaries serve and I know they're feeling it! This week was a great one! It's such a refreshment to be back to a "civil" world! And to be able to do how I do with missionary work! Back to the grind! And man oh man was I thrown in the deep end. There's a lot of pressure and responsibility with where I'm at.  It's one of the best districts in the mission and they save souls like crazy!  But right now we're not doing to great. But this last weekend was awesome though!  My comp and I had 5 baptisms which consisted of a mom with her 3 kids, and than a single lady the next day.  Even though I wasn't there for most of that it still was a wonderful experience to see them make that promise with Heavenly Father.  So this last weekend our district had 6 so that was good but that's it for the month and there's only one weekend left.  So we're hoping, praying, and expecting miracles here!!

Ha ha But things are good! I enjoy my district very much!  We have the Tongan zone leaders in it with the Samoan sisters.  My old MTC comp and his comp.  And me and my Samoan bro Fuataga!  It's been a lot of fun.  They are all very good missionaries and work so hard.  I'm grateful to be here serving alongside them.  This ward I'm in is absolutely amazing to.  Such a great area.  A lot of members! Feels like Utah!!  They're great at helping out.  It's definitely my favorite ward so far.  Our apartment is pretty good! We get warm water so that's all I could ask for!  It's been cold and wet lately but it's just the time of season so I'm not complaining.  So this week I did some of my first baptism interviews! haha those are fun!  And than we got to do a temple trip! The first time I got to go through the New Zealand temple.  It was president and Sister Porter's last time with us.  It was so much fun.  It was a beautiful experience. It's been a long time since I went through.  So that was a very powerful inspiring moment.  Feel all refueled and just full of energy!! While at the temple I ran into a temple worker who was no other than good old Bro Watene from my first area and he is such an incredible man.  Atkin and I would always say he's demanding his spot in the Celestial Kingdom! Ha that was cool!  On the way home I was sitting up front with the Porter's next to the bus driver.  It was funny I like did a lesson with the guy with them right there! That was scary! haha  I really enjoy my calling but now i don't have any time to ever write in my journal or anything!  So hopefully you're saving all of these mom!! :/ 

Everything else this week went really good.  We set more people for baptism in July!  More miracles the Lord is just so merciful and loving it's been great!  I'm still trying to adjust back to the rigors here but it's been great and Elder Fuataga and I have a lot of fun!  He says hi to everyone by the way! He's way funny he's awesome so it's been great! He's an incredible singer, like a Chris Brown or something I don't even know!  Him and the tongan elders always do musical performances at the baptisms or firesides it's awesome.  After the temple we had a last conference with the Porter's.  They bore their last testimonies and than let us ask anything and everything not regarding missionary work! Man did we learn a lot about them and their story! It was hilarious!! I'm going to miss them so much... But luckily they're moving to Draper because he's working with the church now!  Can't wait to see them again!  Our new president should be here soon so can't wait for that either!  We had a last fireside with them all last night it was very very good.  But change is good and I can't wait to see where this mission goes!  I have my first district meeting tomorrow so please pray for me!  I’m nervous about that! ha I went on a trade off with Beckstead this week. 

 Oh man felt like back at the MTC again!  It's been fun being here and being in leadership.  I'm learning so much and already feel like I'm growing heaps again! The mission's just amazing how literally you are just shaped and molded to something new and so much better in such short amounts of time.  I love it and I thrive on that baby!! Ha ha so I'm loving being back! I'm just trying to find "joy in the journey" and not to get to caught up and stressed out with everything.  So it's been fun!! :)  Please pray for me because I shall be praying for you all!! I hope the best for all of you!! Have a wonderful week and I can't wait till we chat again!! Later!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!! :)

Love Elder Devey

Back to New Zealand

Hi everybody!! :) I hope everyone has had a wonderful week this last week! I hope and pray that all is well with you and your families!  Sounds like things are going good back home! That's what I love to hear! This last week was a really good one! So let’s start from the top shall we?!  The last week we still did heaps of service but it was finally confirmed and we got everything done for me to be leaving that Friday!! :) So the last week we visited a lot with the people.  Went to both branches to bare my testimony.  Finished up last things and than the other branch did a fiafia for me this time on Thursday night.  We had a service and than had a feed and played ping pong after ha-ha!  At the end I got a lot of gifts.  People just love giving gifts! Ha the day I was leaving a lot of the people gave me different things.  Like baskets, the kehe(necklaces like the layes!) shirts, lava lavas, etc! A lot of cool island stuff.  A member even made me a niuean cricket bat that they all carved cool designs on.  But I don't know how that thing would get back to America and I ended up forgetting it at the airport... I feel horrible! But I'm close to the airport so we'll try to get it back another time.  Anyways so it was a really fun last day.  Hard to say goodbye already.  I'm going to miss that island very much.  It's such a wonderful place there and the people are so great.  Hopefully one day I can go back again.  The Hekesi family which is their own little band we're playing as I was leaving so that was special.  Said goodbye to everyone and it was time to hop on the plane again! It's really funny cause the next times I ever thought I'd be on a plane was to go home not to travel to and from a little island! I'm so grateful for the experience I had there and all of the things that I learned.  It was such a unique once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget.  

But now time to move on and to get back to work! I mean we were still working there but back to reality hard out missionary work not JUST service! :)  When i got off the plane here people in NZ thought I was getting back from my mission because of the necklaces and gifts! ha-ha  I got picked up by the Tongan zone leaders who are in my district and went back to work that night!  So about my new area it's in Papatoetoe in South Auckland again.  Really close to my greenie area.  This zone we're in is the best in the mission as far as baptisms go.  And unluckily enough the district I have is the highest baptizing district in the entire mission! This freaked me out a bit!! ha-ha I am very lucky and blessed to be serving here it sounds like an incredible area!  This upcoming weekend our companionship already has 4 baptisms on Friday and one on Saturday.  My comp is the man!! The last week since I was delayed he didn't have a comp! He'd stay with other elders but during the day he'd be with members all the time keeping our area going.  He's great.  His name is Fuataga, he's a Samoan from Australia.  He was in my greenie district I even remember going on trade offs with him back in the day.  So we were really excited to be with each other.  And definitely excited for all that's coming up!  This Tuesday I don't have a district meeting which is good because I don't even know what i"m supposed to do! Because there's a temple trip! So I get to go through the New Zealand temple finally! YAY!! I'm so excited for that!! So things are good here, just getting to know my area and district! Turns out while I was outcasted they allow district leaders to now have cell phones and also to text members and investigators! Crazy, eh?  Missionary work has to be updated I guess.  This will be a powerful tool!  Anyways Things are good here; please pray for me because I need the help!! Don't know what I'm doing but I know the Lord will take care of me! In the district we have Samoan sisters, Tongan elders, English and us English.  So good size district! my MTC companion Beckstead is in this district he now has been made a senior companion so it's a lot of fun to see him and mess with the guy again!  People made it sound a lot colder than it really is! It's not too bad but it is really cold, when it rains that's when it's really rough!  So things are great here! Excited to be back and excited to go save souls!!! :) I hope and pray you all have a wonderful week and that our Father in Heaven will watch over you all and that you'll feel the Saviors' love and mercy on a daily basis.  I love you all and wish you the best in the coming week!! :) I love you!!!!  OfaAtu!!!! :)

Love Elder Devey

Here's some pictures....

One last week on Savage Island

Well turns out I'm stuck here for one more week! 

This is my last email here! The new missionary's visa didn't get all the way ready in time or something! It's kind of confusing but it wasn't done in time so they had to cancel the flight so I'm stuck here for one more week it looks like! Haha :) All goods, I get to live in paradise for a little longer! I don't feel I was ready to go yet anyways there was some things that I wanted to finish up before I left so now I have a chance for that.  So it's all good! I just wonder what is happening to Losalu's comp and my comp to! They're probably companions for this week I don't know. And I also wonder what's happening with my district without their fearless district leader! Haha JK!  I do feel bad for Losalu though because he doesn't want to be here longer! 6 months is already way to long for him.  Now it's probably another 3 months so he's kind of down about that so I've been trying to pump him up.  I do kind of wish I was able to be here longer, but I think it was long enough.  Now I want to go back to work! Haha enough of this vacation stuff! It's game time now baby!  So this last week been getting gifts from the people and such.

Also last Sunday was fast/testimony meeting so we went to both branches so I could bare my testimony to the people one last time. That was very special for me.  So maybe I needed to stay this one more week for that reason.  So this next week I'll just be trying to prepare myself for what's coming up! The bitter cold New Zealand weather that I'm not excited about! Almost was about to skip two winters in a row! It's like at its coldest point right now and it rains heaps! I'm pretty sure I'm on bike to because I'll be in Papatoetoe in the city.  (You don't say it like papa -toe-toe! its papatoi!)  This makes me more nervous because this zone is always the most successful in the mission.  President calls it the "flagship" of the mission.  I'll be in one of the most successful districts as far as baptisms go! So a lot of responsibility! But I'm excited! What a challenge and an opportunity to grow!! I can't wait! My comp is a Samoan from Australia so he speaks really good English which will be nice for a change! Haha I've gone on a trade off with him before he was in my very first district when I came out.  His name is Fuataga! He's really funny but likes to mess around too much so I'll have to slap him around a bit! So fun times on its way!! This last week I was packing and getting ready to go and last second they cancelled the flight so next week now!! Haha and I got my camera back so now I’ll go around for this week and take tons of pictures!! Got to have some memories of the rock!!   Ya, this last week they had that last fiafia for me and other goodbyes and lots of food! But besides those things just lots of service as always and doing what we do here on the island!  I don't know what else to really report! I hope you all have an awesome week and I pray and think of you all!! Next time you here from me I'll be back in Aotearoa!! Hopefully :/  LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Hi Mom!

You’re long lost son here! I can't believe it all my friends basically are all out on missions now! It's just incredible!  Exciting times for all I love it!! I did get the camera! Lucky I didn't leave here because it would have come here and then I would have left and never have gotten it or they'd have sent it back to New Zealand. So lucky I stayed another week and got it! I love this camera, it seems very strong!! So hopefully with the childproof strength I won't break this one! Thank you guys so much for that! Sorry for all that trouble! I loved the movies and the pictures you guys just had already on it for me to see! Wow Peyton is just incredible! Last I saw him he could only crawl! He was running around and talking and waving, man I was shocked!! The yard looks great! Thank you so much for all of that! Well mom I hope you have an amazing week!! I love and miss you so much!!!!!! :)

Hi Pop!

 Thank you for your words! Ya, I am very grateful for the new calling because I as well understand how much I'll be able to grow and draw closer to my Savior. So I'm very excited for that because I know how much this will compel me to be humble and to be a better missionary and instrument in the Lord's hands. So I'm definitely grateful and excited for what's ahead. Yes I'll definitely be keeping the shirt on and knocking doors and teaching and declaring repentance and baptism like crazy!! Can't wait I’m just gonna go nuts! I've felt cooped up for way too long! So I'll be in Papatoetoe in south Auckland again.  It's pretty close to my greenie area, Manurewa. The mission apparently is on fire there so hopefully I can add on my gasoline to the fire! Haha and don't worry these callings or trials that lay before in no way make me prideful. I just take them as an opportunity to grow in my relationship with God and also how to learn more how to help others to do the same!  It compels me to be humble if anything because I have to rely completely in the Lord and trust him in all things.  So I'm excited, and thank you for your prayers and support.