July 25th 2011

Hey what's up everybody?! :) How's everyone doin?! It sounds great as always! I miss ya'll very much and in about a month I'll be out of the teens!! Can't beleive it! I'm an old guy.. Ha not really but freak that's crazy! Not droppin any hints or anything but it's my birthday soon! haha :) Next year I'll be almost coming home! Not getting trunky or anything of course just sayin.. Sounds like everything's going great back home and that's what I love to hear!!

 

This week was good! It's all kinda the same everyday now! haha but I feel I'm gettin a better hold on this DL stuff.  Finally gettin a little comfortable and used to it.  A whole lot more organized now! It's been fun I've been workin with the missionaries a lot doing tradeoffs and comp studies and such.  We're very close this transfer I feel it's been a lot of fun so I'm loving it!  August my bday month should be a big month for my companionship!  We gotta a lot of promising things coming our way so we're very excited! :)  So things are going great here!  We're just doing our best to qualify!  This week we talked to I think about 240 people! The most on my mission so far we've been going nuts working very hard!  Still had lots a lessons we just talked to heaps! It's been great! I love E. Rangi! He's the man! Very humble and willing to work hard!! So it's been great with eachother! We're going hard out! So things are great here! Not much else to update! Just having fun serving!

 

We had a few miracles this week with these investigators that are a young married couple.  They're so awesome they're like way good friends of ours! Anyways lessons have been powerful and now they're both preparing for baptism!!  She had to work this sunday and we were'nt expecting them at church but bam they just showed up!! She skipped out on work so they could come!! They're awesome we're really excited for them!! :)  We've been working with a few part-member families reactivating them and teaching the non-members.  Have a kid looking for Aug 20th as well!! So things are picking up and we're loving it!!! :) Thank you for your prayers in my behalf and your support!! I love you all so much and wish you all the best this upcoming week!!!! Love you all and God Bless!!!!! :)

 

Love Elder Devey

July 17th 2011

Hey everybody!!! :) How's it going?!  

I hope things are going awesome! This week was a really good one!! Some new changes as always!  That's all the mission is i swear! haha But Fuataga got transferred and I have a new companion again.  This one's name is Elder Rangi and he is from the Cook Islands!  I've had comps from all over I swear!  He's been out about 6 months and he's awesome!  Very humble willing missionary so I'm excited to be working with him!

He's funny but he doesn't just mess around all the time like Fuataga gosh darn!! ha so it's good to have him here!  The weather has been bitterly cold so it makes it a bit hard on the bikes!  But we manage and that's all that matters!  So enjoy your wonderful weather over there I"m green with jealous rage over here! just kiddin but things are great!

  I love this area it just has heaps of chinese and indian people so it's hard to find but we're doing our best to qualify!  The district's doing good, but not as good as they should be doing!  So everything's a work in progress right now!  But we're doing the best we can.  I love being here and having this calling.  I have been learning so much and can see the changes within myself already and I love it!  I'm very grateful to be here and I'm excited for what's to come!  There's been a lot of changes in the mission which is normal with a new mission president coming in! I've loved it and there's a lot of new leaders like myself who are strugglin so I'm not alone! haha It was sad to see Fu go he was way funny!!  He became a very close friend, but I gotta admit it was hard to work with him because he mostly just wants to have fun so I had to slap him around a bit.

Things are good with missionary work.  We got a couple of sets for August so that should be a great month!  Well of course it should it's my birthday!!! :) Not that I want anything from anyone... ;) hehe.  It's funny having a phone I'm texting investigators and members all the time to arrange stuff it feels like back home with a cell phone! haha texting a lot it's weird!  Anyways I don't know what else to update!  Just working hard and having fun doing it!  I love this work.. It means the world to me..  But I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week!! 

With my prayers and love

Elder DEvey

Days are flyin by

Hey everybody!!! :) How's everyone doing?!  I bet you're all doing awesome and I hope you are! You better be or else!! This week was good not much to report!  We got to meet our new president and have a little conference.  He's awesome! Great little family!  Sister Lekias acts just like Sister Porter it's funny!  He's good just seems very very strict I was like oh no!! Na it's good!  It was them and his three daughters.  Good little family we're definantely excited to have them here!  Looking forward to the changes that will be coming and the new leadership.  It's gonna be awesome! 

I hear that the Porter family got back to Utah:)  I'm gonna miss them so much.. They were so incredible, just wonderful consecrated servants of the Lord.  But it's good to hear that they've already met you guys way cool!! Besides that.. Man!! Just a normal week don't know what else to update you guys on wow I'm sorry!!  We're working hard! Still strugglin a bit to get solid sets.  We got two more for this month but they're pretty shaky.  We've gotten lots of new investigators but none really progressing.  But we continue to do what we can! Our area has the most Indians out of any area so it's way hard!!! They're all muslim or sikh!  Good people but they don't want anything with the gospel! So it's hard there's turbans everywhere here! haha but the islander people of course are so awesome and beleiving!  So ya things are good the district is picking it up so that's good!! 

This district usually pumps baptisms! We got 8 for june so far looking the same for july.  Not as good as it has been so we're trying to pick it up!  Trying to get them all workin harder because 4 of my missionaries are going home next transfer so I think they're getting trunky so they're not working as hard so it's rough!  But I love this district it's a lot of fun!  All the missionaries are studs so it's great:)  Well things are good here.  Just loving living like this! Just wish I had your weather!  But I miss you all and love you so so much!!!! :) Sorry not many more crazy stories like in Niue, now it's back to the grind of missionary work! We pushed a few cars this week that broke down.  We just happened to be in the right place at the right time of course as always!  Got some good potentials from that.  But ya things are going good here I'm always praying for you all and I love and miss you all so so much!!!! :)

 

Love Elder Devey

July 4th, 2011

Hey everybody!! :)

 I hope and pray that you are all doing wonderful as always! This week was a good one! Not too much happened.  Not too much to update just serving and having fun in doing so!  Pday was good we basically just play basketball all pday so I love it!  Our district meeting was a fun one.  It was on "Locking Your Hearts!"  So it was pretty funny it went really good.  My district has been doing awesome lately!  They're saving soul machines!  It's a pleasure and an honor to be working with these valiant servants of God:)  Something very sad this week.. The Porter's are now officially gone.. Lekias has taken over as of this week!  So now the Porter's are in Draper! Back to our town yo! Excited for the new changes that will come and the fresh ideas that will come with the new president.  It's going to be really good!  He's gonna be coming to our district this wednesday to have interviews with us all individually so it should be wonderful! I'm really excited! :) 

Well Happy 4th of July!! I can't beleive I'm not there for that!  That was always one of my favorite holidays and now I'm in the cold.. But of course it's the best being here in the service of the Lord but still I'm bummed out I'm not there for that!! :( Also missing Lake Powell last week and Transformers!! Gosh darn!! haha Gotta remind myself that this is temporary! haha I'm not missing out you're all missing out ya know what I'm saying?! :)  But ya this week was good still trying to pick things up like I said.  We found lots of new investigators this last week so that was really good!  We still got that faith and hope that we'll baptize weekly this month like last month.  So we gotta get to work!! I've been kinda sick lately so that was a little bump but we aight!  We keep pressing on as we always do:)

 So I love ya all more than you can understand but I love being here more than anything!  Just wish it was a little warmer I'm jealous of the weather back home! But you all keep having fun in accordance with God's commandments of course you crazy partiers! Because this is true happiness and I testify of that with all my heart... I love you all and have a wonderful week!!!! :)  Peace out!! Or in other words Peace be unto you:) LOVE YA!!!!!

Love Elder Devey

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