Talking with my family for Christmas!!

December 25, 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVeryone!!!!!! :):):) Great to hear from you all!! What a wonderful Christmas it was this past year!! Oh the joy that comes with the season it's beautiful!!! My last Christmas on the mission but it was one I'll never forget it was so much fun!!! Thank you all for your support, love and prayers.. I really appreciate all that you do and am very grateful to all of you!!

 

As you can see I'm starting to do paragraphs due to a special request from Dad on the phone! haha So it's easier to read I guess! Well from the top of the week we traveled up North on pday and spent the beginning of the week with the missionaries in Kaikohe and also Kaitaia:)  That was a lot of fun but also a sacrifice on our part!  We were out of our area for a little too long! We spent some of pday with them, and on Monday night did blitzes in their areas.  Went to their district meeting and than after that hopped in on the missionaries serving in Kaikohe.  Went in threesomes and that was really fun.  I got to work with our new district leader and his new missionary.  Elder Ngalu and Lamb.  That was awesome they're great missionaries! On the other hand the other two missionaries in Kaikohe are a bit of a struggle!! More stuff we had to work out.  One of the missionaries completely denies listening to any of his leaders because he says he's out here alone and has things to work out.  One morning he just wouldn't leave the flat! Just laid there not saying a word and than all of the sudden he freaked out at around 12 and started throwing things and ripping things off the walls! Crazy eh?! So President gave him a call, crazy missionary!! Interesting guy.. Anyways besides that the trade offs were really fun and we were able to learn a lot! I love trade offs and working with other missionaries! That's like my favorite part about this whole Zone Leader thing.  So Wednesday night we drove back to Whangarei.  On the way Elder Spence nailed a massive feasant! That was pretty funny!! So got pics with our kill.  We've killed quite a few animals on the roads on accident of course!! haha All this traveling business!

 

So back in Whangarei we went right back to work! Got back our faithful Elder Singh to us!  Brownie was set to be baptized on Christmas Eve so we tried our best to contact him right away!  Called and texted him heaps! Went over there a few times, even got members to pop in every now and again and we were never able to catch him before the weekend! :( So that was the sacrifice about all those tradeoffs.  Because now we are going to have to wait until New Years Eve to baptize him!! All good his soul will be saved and that's all that matters!  Dec 23 was Joseph Smith's birthday so that was cool! ha Christmas Eve was fun because we were able to set up solid appointments that night which was lucky! I was a bit worried we'd have nothing to do because everyone was with their families.  But Christmas eve was good! Some of the other elders had 3 baptisms so we went to all of those! Nothing like watching a baptism!! Especially on the Mission!! :)

 

Christmas day was so so so  much fun!!!! :) We went to our ward at 9 for just an hour and had a Christmas program and everything.  Than we had to stay for the next ward for Elder Singh.  And it was scorching hot it's a joke!! Doesn't feel like Christmas at all!!! After church we went to Bishop McDonald's for lunch, our bishop.  Heaps of family there that was a lot of fun!! They gave us quite a lot of presents as well so that was very nice of them!! Got quite a few presents from members and such so that was fun!  After that we went back to the flat and talked with the family!!! :):):)  Best Christmas present ever!!!! Nothing beats that!! It was a lot of fun the whole family was there!! Everyone sounds exactly the same!!! Even says the same sayings I swear!! Ben being a dork:) Krystal defending him as always! Brooke saying "very good".  Amber proving she's the best at writing me! haha everyone was exactly the same it's crazy but it was so good to talk to them all!! Made me miss everyone that much more!! Oh how I love the family!!! And mom and brooke making it a tear jerker! haha And than of course Dad being strictly obedient and making sure the call didn't go longer than what we're supposed to! But it was wonderful to hear from everyone again!! :) All my siblings, spouses, and the new additions to the fam! What could be better?!  After I pulled myself together we went to Moko and Yvette's for even more food!! They had a massive kai ready for us it was awesome!! :) I love them to death!!! They are recent converts of about a year and were not going to church much anymore so we helped them best we could! A few lessons, dinners, and blessings later they're doing great again! So it was fun spending time with them and little Zion!! :) Adorable little girl!!  After that that was about our Christmas!! When we came back there was even more food left on our porch!! haha The members here are wonderful!!! It was a great Christmas!!! Guess it's still Christmas for you guys!!! So Merry Christmas!!!! Really cherish this time, especially with the family and please remember what it is truly about... Our Savior.. As our loved ones are near let us express gratitude, and give praise to he who loved us he even gave his life for all of us.. I love my Savior and I know with all my heart that he lives.. What a time of hope and peace, celebrating the birth of Jesus the Christ.. For he is the Prince of Peace, our hope, our salvation. May we never forget and remember and reflect upon these truths again and again...

 

I love you all and wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!! :):):)

 

Love Elder Devey

December 18, 2011

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!! :)

 I wish you all a wonderful very merry Christmas!! What a beautiful time of year! The best time of year!! Hope you all have been enjoying it very much and that you will continue to do so!! May we all remember Christ more fully in our lives and strive to rededicate ourselves more fully in following his loving footsteps.. I love you all very much and I hope you all know that!!!! :)

 Things have been absolutlely wonderful here!! Miracles have been poured out to us this Christmas season and also during Elder Spence's "overtime"! haha He past his 2 year mark a couple of weeks ago, this will be his third Christmas in the field! Crazy huh?! But we've been blessed greatly! We were able to witness the baptisms of Roimata Louder and also NarissaMay on Sunday morning!! Most stressful baptism ever though!! Because of circumstances I wasn't able to get pics I'm so sorry!!! These ones will have to be mental pics! But it turned out to be wonderful and we're so grateful that we were able to be a part of it and to witness it!! There's always such a beautiful spirit when life saving ordinances are being performed.. I love it!! Nothings better and it makes everything worth it!! :)

  So starting off with the beginning of the week!! Last pday was utterly destroyed!! I won't give you too much details but an elder in our zone got sent home early.. It is very sad, but because of whatever was going on we had to do all sorts of crazy stuff for President.  He kept calling us and also made sure that this elder was with us constantly! So we had this companionship with us ALL the time and it was pretty strange and creepy because we basically know everything that happened! So awkward as!! But that elder is gone now and we have his companion, the awesome Elder Singh, a Fijian stayin with us now! Goofy Fijian guy he's the man!! So now we're in a 3some til the end of the transfer.  So pday we didn't do anything, just had to hang out with them at their flat! Oh well!

 But monday night was fun! :) Saw all those we usually see on Monday nights, had some fun lessons, and got the man Brownie to do a Harmonica solo for us, he's incredible!! He's been a musician for like 40 years! It's way cool!! Anyways on Tuesday we had our Christmas Conference with the Zone.  Like I said before Elder Watson came up here.  It was WAY fun!!! :)  Massive feed it was insane!!! Elder Watson is awesome!! Learned so much and it really kicked it in for the Christmas spirit!!  So that was a lot of fun!! Everything else was going good just getting things organized for the weekend for the baptisms!

 On Wednesday something happened pretty funny! We had an appointment for our car to be serviced and this was the only time that they could do it.  It turned out to take a lot longer than we thought and we were stuck walking everywhere.  And not kidding we scaled like our entire area on foot for two appointments that fell through while it was raining! It was a trial that's for sure but we talked to heaps of people on the way and just had fun with it so it was all good!! It's all about our attitude! Felt like the days back with Baraniko where we walked all the time with his two broken arms!! haha So that was a good experience for us but it wiped us out cause Elder Spence and I are getting fat just being in a car constantly! So it was good to get some exercise!!

 We did a trade off with some of my favorite elders in a little farming community called Dargaville outside of Whangarei.  I was with Elder Bills who is a brand new missionary that I love! He reminds me so much of Jarin Lamph! So it's always fun being around this Elder!  On Friday we went to have a lesson with Brownie at the end of the night where we found him in very poor shape... He's still remaining faithful and has basically quit smoking overall.  But his exgirlfriend pulled a horrible move and ended up taking a lot of Brownie's money.  Brownie had only baked beans in the cupboard. We gave him a blessing and with the 3 of us we used our funds to go buy him food at the end of the night, miraculously before paknsave closed and got them their food and they were able to have dinner that night and have more food to help them out.  We got the ward on him now because they were struggling!  So things are good now! Brownie has to go to town and busk for money.. He uses his talents and makes quite a bit in town but things have been getting hard for him lately.  It's great to see the ward fulfill it's purposes and help those in need. Just like in Manurewa back in the day this happened quite a bit with our investigators.  So glad God uses us as instruments in his hands to help others, especially those who really need it.. So Brownies doing good now and he's still looking great for Christmas Eve!!

 I've been blessed greatly on my mission during this Christmas season it's beautiful!! :) So things have just been absolutely wonderful as of late!! So Saturday is when some chaos happened with the baptisms, and it's amazing how the Lord provided for us!!! Saturday night we go to see Roimata and it turns out she's staying the night at her \grandmas which freaks us out because she's getting baptized at 8 before church the next morning!! the dad won't tell us where the grandma lives because the family there hates missionaries or something.  So we go to see Brownie and we're like what are we gonna do! We pray for God to show us the way.  Than at Brownies there's this girl we've never met before and we just randomly ask her trying our luck.  Do you know Roimata? She's like ya she's my best friend!! Than we ask her if she knew where the nan lived and she did!! Haha we go there a bit hesitant cuz we have knocked this house before and they freaked out at us!! We knock and there's people home but noone would answer so we keep knocking and we did like 7 times forcing them to answer! Than this big Maori guy with heaps of tattoos comes out and looks angus as!  We're like uh oh!! Than we just politely ask for Roimata and he's like sure! oh yep! She comes out and she's all good so we just arrange for a member to pick her up in the morning from there.  Than we rush to finally find whites that fit! Stressful as! The next morning was worst! The fonts heater broke so it was freezing, white dress didn't fit one of them so they run to find something else! Roimata still needed an interview from bishop and they came late!! Sacrament was about to start and heaps of members we're coming in when we finally started! haha It was pure chaos!! But than it invited such a special spirit when it did happen because so many people were there, right before church started. 

 I had the privilege of baptizing NarissaMay.  Brother Bourne our ward mission leader did Roimata's.  Than we did the confirmations and of course Brother Ngawaka called on me again.  So I did NarissaMay, and Elder Spence did Roimata's.  More blessings hold on! Clayton the man got the priesthood that day as well and he asked me to bestow it upon him, that's the first priesthood ordination I have ever done! So more blessings of missionary work!! Than Elder Spence and I got to do 10 minute talks each!!! :) Than we teach our classes!!! Etc etc etc!!!! Just a super busy awesome Sunday!!! It was one of my favorites so far in the mission field it was so much fun!!!! Pure chaos though!! I swear we both lost all our hair!! haha but it was all totally worth it that's for sure!! So we've been blessed with 3 so far this month and we got Brownie next weekend on Xmas Eve!!! So Merry Christmas!!! Things have been wonderful!!!! :):):) Well I love you all so much and wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

 

Love Elder Devey

Mount Whangarei and Clayton's baptism

December 11, 2011

Merry Christmas!!

Hi there everyone!!! :) Well can I just say especially at this time of year I miss you all very very much!! It finally has started feeling like Christmas season even though it is blazing hot here! Haha and that's because of the Spirit of Christ as of late! Things have just been going super lately! The Lord has blessed us greatly! I hope that he has been blessing and watching over you all as well this special time of year.  Though I know he is! I pray for you all always and wish you all the best!! :)

 This last week was an awesome week! A few miracles to relate and also just nothing better than serving the Lord I'm telling ya!! So starting off last Pday was really fun! We went with the whole Whangarei district up to a peak that overlooks the city of Whangarei and took pictures and things and went and played touch and such! So that was fun I'll attach pictures of those. That monday night was super busy with lessons with some keen wonderful people! Things are looking promising!! As they always are I suppose!

  On Tuesday, due to how the mission did last month President has been doing "specialized trainings with all of the missionaries in each zone.  So he and the APs came up and did this training and also went forth and did trade offs with all the missionaries! Cool huh?  That's what I really like about President, he loves getting on the battlefield and joining the ranks! So that was a lot of fun!! :) We then on Wednesday had another Zone Leader Council, they just come and go so fast! So we traveled down and stayed the night and went in the morning.  I always love those meetings.  Get to learn so much and it's always such a wonderful experience!  And I got Christmas packages from the family and from the ward!! Yay!! So thank you to all who participated in that! It's always fun getting gifts!!

 On Thursday we had a miracle! Roimata, a girl we've been teaching for awhile is the coolest girl ever!! She's goes to church all the time, has even given a talk and is just awesome! But the dad is a staunch Ratana(a Maori religion)(Break off from our church).  And he refuses to allow her to get baptized because she was Christined when she was young.  Anyways we've tried talking to him before but to no avail.  So we decided to get our bold pants on because she can only progress so far without baptism.  And it strengthened my testimony seeing how Christ is the WHY of everything, and also his doctrine.  We just taught him baptism, why we do it, what it's for, etc and his heart was softened and he is going to allow her to be baptized!!!! :) Miracles!!! She was ecstatic when she found out because she has been wanting it for forever!! So that was exciting!! So her and NarissaMay will be this weekend coming up!! :)

  And this last weekend we were blessed to witness the baptism of our man Clayton Wihongi! My second Clayton on the mission! haha might need to name a son that I dunno! It was an awesome baptism and it's breaking the way that we may be able to bring in the rest of his family! The dad's a member but the mom and two older brothers aren't.  So hopefully more miracles come because of Claytron! We're hoping so! I've been able to see that quite a bit on my mission where a member of the family paves the way for the rest of them to join! So we'll see!! So that was a lot of fun! Church and the confirmation on Sunday was really special! More good stuff! Oh the blessings of serving a mission! Things like that just make it all worth it! :)

  On Sunday, due to some incidents with a missionary that I can't share with you.  We've had to do like a 4 day trade off and on Tuesday when they all come up for Christmas Conference he'll be E-shifted out.. So that's been interesting the last couple of days!! He wasn't allowed to go to his ward so I went with his companion.  And of course when the ward sees a new face what happens?! A 15 minute talk like always!! haha So that was another good growing experience for me.  I used to hate stuff like that but now I love it!! Felt like Niue again where every sunday I gave like a 30 minute talk!! haha So I didn't mind! 

 So last week was a great one and last night we got a chance to watch the First Presidency Xmas Devotional.  And oh my goodness that was so incredible... One of the best I've seen it was just wonderful!!! :)  So coming up this week we have our Christmas conference this Tuesday where the leaders of the  mission are coming up here and also Elder Watson of the Seventy who used to be a secretary to the first presidency for 40 years will be addressing us!!! So that'll be awesome!!! :) And it's just our zone not the mission so that'll be a lot of fun! I love being with the whole zone!! Also NarissaMay and Roimatas baptism this weekend so please pray for that!!:)

 Well I love you all and hope your enjoying this beautiful time of year!!! Always remember what it's truly about and cherish those thoughts and memories!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! :)

 

Love Elder Devey

December 4, 2011

Tis the Season to be Jolly!!

Hey everyone!! :) How are you all doing?! I'm just doing absolutely fantastic!! I hope everyone has the spirit of Christmas and is enjoying the winter time!! It's way too hot here! haha

 Things went really good this last week! We worked our tails off that's for sure!  The week started on fire that's for sure! Monday night was just on fire!! And we kept it burning throughout the week.  That's our little zone theme up here anyways! "The Bush is on Fire!" We're up here in the bush as they call it in the Pacific and it's been on fire lately!

  So a week ago I forgot to tell a couple of cool stories! First of all we were invited by good ol Jigs Ngawaka to come and speak at multiple funerals on Marais.  Which is the Maori, sacred cultural halls that they do everything in.  They're so cool! Anyways he never got to get a hold of us so we weren't able to go and do it! I wish we were! That would have been so much fun!! That would have been an experience of a lifetime. Whole villages come to funerals because everyone is family in the Maori culture.  So it would have been intense! Also last week Sister Ngawaka turned 70 and she invited us to her family dinner celebration thing at a nice restaraunt.  So we spent our dinner hour there.  The Maoris when they do these family gatherings people are called up to say some words and than to give a musical talent.  And so during it we're sitting there minding our own business and there's heaps of people there.  Just eating out steaks which I haven't had since home by the way! And Pamela calls the missionaries up to say some words! haha there's heaps of less-actives and non-members there.  Elder Spence right away looks at me and says you know them better than I do!! haha So I have to go up and say some words about Sister Ngawaka! After I'm done than I realize  have to do some sort of musical talent! I was like uh oh!!  Good thing the Murray's were there and of course my faithful companion:) So got them to come up, Brother Murray on the Eukalele and we sang I am a Child of God haha! So that was a fun experience!!

 Anyways back to this last week! We did a few trade offs which are always fun! I love working with other missionaries and learning from them and their strengths! For some reason this week, like never before since I've been here, we did over 5 blessings at a nearby hospital for members which was a great experience.  We love having opportunities to exercise the priesthood and God's power given to man.  So that was great experiences!!

  Also two companionships fought actually, but it began with one of them first.  A tongan and a canadian!  A bad mix! They got in a fight and we had to go over and snap them out of it!!! When you walked into the flat you could just feel the tension!! It was crazy!! So we took them into separate rooms and talked to each one.  Of course I took the Tongan my Masi!!!! And we worked things out, brought em back and talked all together than got them to hug and make up!! haha fun stuff!! :) Also another companionship has been grinding heads to! One came in with me Elder Sorenson.  So we had to go on a blitz with them and work them out as well!!! It's a joke! Though Islanders may be prideful in their own ways but also very humble, some palangis have a hard time with them.  I love em to death I don't see how you can't get along with them!!! So we're helping the missionaries there!   So that's been some funny stuff!

 We reset Brownie, the musician(man he's incredible no joke!) to the 24th Of December!! I'm dreaming and hoping of a white Christmas!! He has quite a bit of word of wisdom issues which everyone does!  So we gave him a blessing and he's been doing great! He's pumped about baptism as well!!  This Saturday missionaries here in Whangarei had quite a few baptisms so we went to all of them! That's what I love about being a Zone Leader, getting to see all the baptisms!! One of them couldn't get anyone to preside so we had to! haha that was a new experience as well:) Sunday was really great in Whangaruru again.  We love it so much there! Had lunch with our fav's the Saddlers who are just the coolest people ever!!  And the same old story out there! Just teachin and preachin!!

 hmm... Think that's all that's worth tellin!! So things are great here! Hoping this is my 6 month area!! Love the Northland of New Zealand to death!! :)  Hope you all have a wonderful week and Happy Holidays!!!! :)

 

Love Elder Devey