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