August 26, 2012 Kia Ora!!!!

Kia Ora Whanau!!! :) How is everyone?!?! I hope absolutely fantastico!! I can definantely say that I am!!! The Lord has been blessing us abundantly it's unreal!! Oh my goodness how I love this work and life!! Sorry I'm just pumped right now! And you might say ah that's cuz the bro is trunky and he's excited to come home! But not even!! Just looking back at the mission, the experiences and the memories.. I think I have tasted a sample of a "fulness of joy".. I'll forever be eternally grateful for this sacred opportunity and privilege I had to be in his service... How I love this work and how I love the Savior whom I serve.. I do not want to part this chapter of my life and the people I so love.. But I must move on.. It's a part of life! :( I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon! Just warnin ya i'm not as dashing as I once was! haha :) But nonetheless I would hopefully say that I am the new and improved Elder Devey!! :) Hopefully I make ya'll proud! Don't wanna dissapoint! So may I tell ya of the week and the happenings thereof? Alright I'll get into it don't you fret!! So last monday guess what we did?! Well just the two of us so we went and kicked it at a nearby beach! Where we live and the area we conver is on a peninsula out in the ocean so there is beach everywhere! That'll be weird bout comin home! Some of my areas especially Niue I could see or hear ocean at all times! Soon that will be no longer! haha but anyways so we took heaps of pics and videos and all that good stuff:) The night was quite decent had some lessons and all that good stuff! Tuesday was really good!! We went on a quick tradeoff with the Assistants! My first son Elder Espino came with me and we went to a couple of lessons. That was super fun! Wow he has grown so much! Everyone wants their son to succeed past them! haha That's my boy!! He shared some comments with me and thoughts that meant a lot.. About when we served together and things we learned from eachother. He said some very sweet things in regards to how I helped him and the effect I have had on his service. It meant a great deal to me.. How I love Elder Espino!! I've loved all my companions so so much each and every one has been so incredible and I'll forever be grateful for laboring with these choice servants of the Lord:) So that was a great little tender mercy from the Lord on Tuesday! It was fun savin souls with him just like in the old days!! Some members that night brought us a new couch for the flat which we love and adore!! lol This area is so beautiful! I know I say that about all of my areas but it is!! And the members are as well!! I've really loved serving in this area and it's amazing how the Lord has provided for us.. It has been ALL him and his spirit and it's amazing to see the miracles that have taken place over this last transfer!! On Wednesday we had a Missionwide conference!! Back to my roots in Redoubt Rd Stake Centre in South Auckland, Manurewa!! :) My very first chapel and area! So that was special and also because the ENTIRE mission got to get together and that would be the last time I'd see mostly all of them... At the conference Elder Christiansen of the Presidency of the Seventy was in attendance with his wife. Also Elder Pearson of the Area Presidency over the Pacific and his lovely wife. Many others and all the senior couples and all of the missionaries. It was so great and so special. Great opportunity especially here towards the end of my service. That was a lot of fun and the spirit was so strong.. Just like at transfers as we were singing "Called to Serve" as a mission the emotions could not be withheld. I realized that'd be the last time I'd sing that beautiful song with the great NZAM... It broke my heart!! I was basically bawling as we were all standing and singing.. Missionaries were probably like what's up with this Elder?! haha :) Na they know me better than that!! So it was really hard saying goodbye to those whom I have come to love... Devestating!!! I hate goodbyes!! I'm a wimp when it comes to such!! Things are gonna just keep getting harder from here on now.. Buckle up!! :) So that was a wonderful day!! Turns out my last trade off ill ever have to go on started that night with our Zone Leaders!! It was super fun!! I worked him to the ground that's for sure!! haha just kidding! We did work very had and witnessed even more miracles!! So it twas quite enjoyable!! We done quite a lot of service this week! Moved two families and moving is a pain I tells ya!!! But they very much so appreciated it!! Partmember families and less-actives so it was super good!! And a lot of fun as well!! I love doin service!! No better way to softening hearts and being like Christ!! :) Already within this area though it has been a short amount of time I have come to love the peeps here very much as well!!! :) The people we are teaching are incredible and so amazing!! And the converts that are coming in are awesome as well!! From where it was when we came in to where it is now it's incredible!! :) Oh the miracles I tells ya!! Oh ya it was my birthday this last week!!!! :) I'm now 21!! Which is a big deal in NZ!! ha So it was fun!! I didn't tell to many people though!! That's when we moved one fam! They had us over that night as well for dinner(fishnchips) and cake!! So it was mean as!! :) That's bout it for my bday though!! It was really fun!! Nothin better than serving the Lord on your bday!! Got quite a few calls from missionaries and others wishin happy bday though which was fun!! Though some of em were disobedient:) haha President and his wife called and sang to me! Than the assistants and president sang again later!! Than some missionaries I'm super close to from other areas called and sang with their comps haha! :) So those were all nice surprises:) Than on Saturday my bday weekend guess what?!! We saved a soul!! I realized on all my bday weekends of the mission I've had baptisms and also Christmas and the Eves as well!! So those have been huge blessings!! :) Alred Tuiaki was baptized!!! :) Our tongan uso!! It was fun!!! :) Nothin better than savin souls!!! :) It was a really special baptism he's the man!!! Later that day we saw Et Low whose lookin awesome for the 1st!!! It's still on for them gettin married, baby blessed and baptized all on one day!!!!! :) They're so excited as well it's incredible!!!! They're such a miracle!!! :) I love em heaps!!! The ward has been awesome with it as well!! He's the center of attention for everyone the relief society has organized so much for it and same with the priesthood it's gonna be a pretty big deal can't wait!!! Gonna be a miraculous last weekend!!! What a blessing it has been for these last 3 weekends to have a baptism each one.. Even with the tough as area!! The Lord is so merciful!! And the 4th weekend the very last one in NZ on the 8th my parents with I get to go witness the sealing of Junior and Allison for my last weekend here.. How amazing is that!!!!?? :) I love this work so much!!!!! :) On Sunday it was really fun!! Got to give my last talk!!! :) The whole sacrament meeting was a missionary themed sacrament meeting and it was really special getting to speak in front of the people... An experience and a feeling I'll never forget..:) It's amazing to see the changes in that ward.. Going from not having a baptism for 2 years to 2 these last 2 weekends!! They're all pumped about it!! The Spirit is workin and everyone has caught the fire and are contributing so much!! So that's been heaps of fun!!!! :) The bishop got up and even talked about that same change! OUur WML there is incredible!! Bro. Rapata I contribute all of it to him and the Lord!! The works rollin!! :) Yeeehaw!!!! So ya most of our attention has been to that ward! We saw the challenge, accepted it and have worked our tails off and the Lord has provided as he always does:) So Super fun Sunday and than Elder Luamanuvae got to do his first confirmation which was very special:) So wonderful birthday weekend!! Yay!!! Things are going wonderful here and looking forward to this last weekend that's gonna be super busy and fun!! Can't wait!! I miss you all and love you all so so much!!!! :) May God continue to watch over and bless you all!!! I LOVE YOU!!!! :) Love Elder Devey

August 19, 2012 Kia Ora, Kia Ora!!

What up everyone?! :) Oh my goodness!!! It's gettin close ya'll! you're all probably pumped to see the new and improved Parker man! Hopefully i don't dissapoint! I remember always seein missionaries come home and it was a black and white difference! They grow so much! So hopefully you guys like the new version! I tried! :) haha but I'm still the same goofball i've always been! I think i've just learned some very important lessons that have changed my outlook on life completely! Not that I'm thinkin of comin home or anything! But it is kinda closer than i realize.. It's finally hitting me I've noticed.. But not really? Feels like home is SOOO far away and almost like a dream, like it never happened and I've been here my whole life it's really weird. And I'm pretty sure that soon the mission will seem like the dream which is a sad thought... People here are always talking about it and sayin such things! Freakin me out! :( I miss the Whanau(family) and can't wait to be reunited more than anything!! But also.. There's so many things about New Zealand and about the people that I so do not want to leave.. It tears at my heart the even thought of it.. Lately there has been a few times lately where I have just started bawling out of nowhere just by the slight thought of not seeing these people again or not having these incredible experiences.. It's going to be hard.. But this day had to come! I gotta keep going!! I'm so thankful for everyone's support and love from back home.. I have felt it and am so grateful for your prayers. I'll forever be grateful! :) I love you all so much!!! So let me tell ya of the work and what's happenin in this part of the vineyard! Well.. Miracles of course!! No doubt bout that!! :) So last pday was actually pretty enjoyable! We drove on down to play some ball with our district! Elder Dyumthi one of my all time favorites is in our district so it was super fun kickin it with him! He's hilarious!! :) Another one that it's gonna be hard to part ways with! But anyways so it was a good pday! Came back and had a FHE with a family in Torbay! Always good stuff the members in these wards are HILARIOUS!! It's been way fun!! :) On Tuesday we had Zone Conference! President has been super funny lately! You can see how much he has loosened up especially with me cause it's gettin close! He's like this is your last one isn't it? I was like President how darest thou?! And he just laughed and hugged me and told me to keep on keepin on as always!! He's such a wonderful man:) So zone conference was good! Good to be with all the missionaries as always!! :) We've been havin heaps of lessons with our main man ET!! :) More miracles with this guy!! So it's all planned out that it will happen on the 1st of September my last weekend. At 430 he will have his baby blessed, they'll get married, and he asked me to baptize him!! :) So we're pretty pumped about that!! Great last Saturday that will be!! :) Pretty exciting stuff!!! He's the man he's been eating it all up!! He loves it and it's amazing to see the changes that have been happening with him! He came to a activity that we had and enjoyed himself maybe too much! haha and he also came with us to a missionary fireside last night which was a really good experience as well!! :) So we're excited for him and his family and are really looking forward to that! Our bappy supposed to be happenin this weekend with our Tongan Alfred we gave him over to the Tongan missionaries. It will be a better situation for him! He's got mates there and speaks better tongan so off we sent him!! :) God speed Alfred!! um.. what else durin the week? Oh!! That Japanese girl named Kea that I told you about that came to church and was a pure miracle!! So we've been teachin her and we have an RM that speaks japanese with us to translate. They've been the funniest lessons! She's an absolute sweetheart!! She's keen as!! Just doesn't speak a lick of English!! But that's all good cause we learn by the Spirit and she's super receptive!! Some members are bringin to our flat some couches and things tommorrow so I'm pretty ecstatic about that! :) Ya than the Minute to Winit activity on Friday was a lot of fun! We got quite a few investigators there and they all really enjoyed it so that was good!! Than Saturday we had baptism day!! Elder Luamanuvae's first!! :) What a great experience that was! She's amazing! Her name is Dinah and she's Maori, she's 50 years old. Elder and Sister Nelson who are senior couple missionaries played a great role in it. She lives up in Warkworth but there is no font up there so they came all the way down to Hibuscus. We got everything set up and it was incredible! Heaps of her Whanau came and it was a very spiritually uplifting experience for all in attendance. Elder and Sister Nelson go home tommorrow and it was a wonderful mission ending event for them. Elder Nelson baptized her. I've drawn really close to both of them throughout their missions and love them very much! So it's tough to see them go as well!! :( On Sunday they picked us up and took us to Warkworth branch for the confirmation. Of course me and my comp both gave talks! As is custom first time missionaries come. The branch is TINY!! Smaller than my Niue branches!! It's a little rented out building with like only 12-15 people who come. So we blessed the sacrament, gave talks all that jazz! :) It was fun and the confirmation was very good as well!! We saved another soul!!! :) Whoooo!! It was fun driving back with the Nelsons! They're all about home now just talkin it up! and Elder Nelson is like don't distract Elder Devey! and than she's like he's basically going with us he needs to think of these things! So that was fun!! Beautiful drive as well, just such a gorgeous country!! :) Um... besides that?! Just workin to the end!!! :) I love you all heaps and hope you have a great week!!! Can't wait to see you all soon!!!! LOVE YOU!!!! Love Elder Devey

August 12, 2012 Another week in paradise...

Hi everybody!!! :) Hope you have all had another wonderful week and that everything is going awesome with you all back home!!:) My prayers and thoughts are with you!! :) Things are going great here!! The miracles have started coming after the trial of our faith!! So let's begin shall we?! So last monday was pretty lame cause we're still exiled out here on our own so we didn't do to much! We went to Orewa beach which is stunning and took heaps of photos! So that was really good! :) But besides that just laid around and did little errands and things so nothing too exciting! We had a feed with the Rameka family in Torbay and got a very good referral from one of the daughters:) Believe it or not he's tongan of course so he's keen! haha we've been teaching him at their home and the first lesson with the family we set him for baptism on the 25th of this month!! :) Whooooo!!! Miracles!! He's the man but we might hand him over to the tongan elders to baptize him or we still might not to sure! :) So that was a lot of fun!!! On Tuesday was the usual district meeting But we found out another miracle!! So up in Warkworth there is a boy who wants to be baptized! Just a wee lad I think 9 but without us being able to make it all the way up there the branch and the senior couple up those parts have been teaching him and he's coming down to our chapel this saturday to get baptized! haha :) More miracles! We cover Warkworth but we can't make it all the way up there because of our k allotment! But the Lord still provides regardless!! :) Also that night there's a girl we've been teaching named Tamsyn and we invited her to be baptized next month and she accepted as well!! Oh how I love this work!! The Lord truly does provide!! It probably has been my hardest area so far but he still provides a way and that's incredible to see!! :) The members here are really awesome and so much fun as well!! They've been fun to be with!! The Rapata's in Torbay ward have been some of my favorites. He's our ward mission leader but he does so much for us! I love him it's been fun having him around! We've also been blessed to find some new people to teach. On Sunday two random miracles showed up to church who are pretty keen!! One miracle is this Japanese girl who just moved in with a member family and apparently the other day they had motab playin and she walked in heard the music, stared at the cd player and started crying! So they brought her to church and she's keen to be taught! She doesn't speak much english though so we're grabbin a rm who served in Japan and he's gonna translate for us! Mean aye?! Also at the other ward we're sittin with our investigator and this random guy walks in and sits next to us and he smelled like smoke so we knew, (well hopefully) that he wasn't a member, brought him to our gospel principles class and he's the man! He said he just moved there looking for work and he had a strong impression to come to church so he came! So we'll be teaching him this week as well!! :) So quite a few miracles this week the biggest would have to be ET!!! :) so we started teaching him when we first got in the area. He's a great guy and he does wanna get baptized but someday! He's not married and he made it very clear that he didn't want to get pushed or forced. So we've been easy on him and have thouroughly enjoyed teaching him. Well the other day things all went downhill for him! And he kinda lost it! And in his angry upset state he called us and freaked out at us and told us to never come around again! That was super weird and interesting and that didn't sound like him. So I call his fellowship and let him know what happened. Our fellowship, our WML bro Rapata is the man! Calls him when he's cooled down and has a good talk with him. Than the next day we show up with bro Rapata and bring him lunch just to see what's up. That evil change of heart goes through another change of heart while we're there and help him resolve concerns. By the end all of the sudden he said he wanted to get his baby blessed, get married, and baptized all on the same day!! We're like what the?! He did that himself!! :) We didn't know if he was just having another good moment just in the right direction but we saw how serious he was when he took us upstairs with all his parents in laws and his partner up there and basically proposed in front of all of us! haha :):):) He told her what he was thinking of doing and how he wants to do it in the next couple of weekends!! So we knew he was serious!! Haha his partner is less active who we've been bringing back with ET:) So she was shocked!! The parents are members and they were absolutely pumped!! What a miracle!!! So we're gonna find out on Tuesday their legit plans and commitment to when it's all happening!!! But what a miracle oh my goodness!!! :) It's all good if it happens after I leave but I sure hope it's while I'm here!! So this week was just full of miracles!!! Though this area is a bit tougher the Lord has definantely been providing and blessing us greatly!!! I just never want this work to end!! :) I love it so much!!! But I'm also SOOOO tired... I'm feelin it now!! My frame doth shake and tremble exceedingly!! haha :) It's gonna be a fight to the end!! But there is no other option!!! :) And aparently while my parents are here we're gonna be able to go see a temple sealing of some of my converts!! The Lord is just so merciful and loving!!!! :) I love this work!!! We've been working hard and have been reaping the benefits!! :) I love you all very much and hope you all have a wonderful week!!!! Arohanui!!!! :) Love Elder Devey

August 5, 2012 The Green Mile...

Hi everybody!! :) Quite the title for the email I know! haha I thought it was funny but probably not! But I guess it is getting close which is crazy I can't believe it! So I'm not going to! I hope and pray that all of you had a wonderful week this last week and that all is going good!! Well I'll tell ya of the haps here in Aotearoa!! :) Last pday was pretty lame! We're too far away from everyone so there's not much to do!! There's beautiful beaches around but it was pouring so we kinda just kicked it at the flat! we're lucky and have a little nice set up of weights so we worked out heaps on pday which was fun!! That was bout it! ha The week was really good! We're really getting a feel for the area and have been findin a few people to teach which has been good! The members are incredible and have been helping us out heaps! They've been very supportive and and are so funny! I've been loving the members here so far!! :) We had a few dinners with some of them this week and also have gone and visited a lot of them and that's been good. We're just doing our best to get missionary work rolling in these wards! On Sundays we have to split up during church. Both of our wards start at the same time. We still haven't been out to our Warkworth branch it's so far away!! lol but I went to Torbay ward again. I really really like that ward! It feels like home! :) Elder Luamanuvae and I have been getting on great! He's funny! So it's been good but it feels like we're completely alone here! haha I'm used to seeing missionaries all the time and now it's just the two of us each and every day!! But it's great! It's been a good last transfer so far! Keeping me focused and working hard which is what I need!! :) So nothing to complain about and nothing really to report on either! haha just working hard trying to find people to teach and baptize!! It's a little harder here but I know God prepares his children everywhere! So we just gotta go and find them!! So it's been fun!! Well I hope you all know how much I love all of you!!! :) More than you can handle that's for sure!! Please pray for me I need it! I pray for you all and I miss you all very much!! And I also want to thank you all for your support, love and prayers. It has been my inspiration and motivation throughout my service.. I thank you for that and will be forever grateful. You all have a special place in my heart!! I LOVE YOU!!!! :) Love Elder Devey:)