BIG NEWS here in New Zealand!!!!!!!! I am now ZONE LEADER in GISBORNE (gisbone) and we got DOUBLE SHIFTED IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I received a phone call from President Porter before my alarm even went off! Pres. Porter asked me if I am worthy before the Lord and then said that he is giving me a "special assignment" and sending me to Gisborne. And making me a Zone Leader! I was completely humbled, stoked, and in shock when I received the call! He told me that I would be a Zone Leader with also a brand new Zone Leader, Elder Perry Sessions from Mesa, Arizona. He was a District Leader for a long time, been out a year and four months. And told me that he is stacking Gisborne and wants to turn it into a South Auckland, which is the ring of fire in our mission. It was a big shock. Don't know what he was thinking, sending two inexperienced missionaries to be Zone Leaders in the hardest place to baptize. Gisborne has always been a very hard place to baptize. But he said that he wants us to set the Zone Best and turn into a baptizing Zone! He went on to tell me more about why he sent me to Gissie. He said that this is where I'll have to rely soley on the Lord to provide. He said that if you look at a lot of my Assistant Presidents, they have served in Gisborne at a young age. He really talked it up. That this is where the top of his missionaries go. I just woke up, and he put all of this on me! Telling me about Gisborne was enough, let alone telling me this is where he test his missionaries to see if they can become Assistant Presidents and such! So overall, very excited!!!!!!! But very humbled!
When I was telling our Zone Leaders they couldn't believe it. And to be honest, if it hadn't happened to me then I wouldn't believe it either! Because to be a Zone Leader in this mission you have to be GREAT! And every Zone Leader has been District Leader and has also trained. But I'm the only Zone Leader who hasn't done either. And me and another guy that came out with me, we are the two youngest Zone Leaders in the mission. I still don't know why or how this even happened. I don't feel deserving of it. But the Lord qualifies those he calls. I know that much! My boy Whaanga is now TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am stoked for him!!!!!!!!!! He's training a guy from Samoa! And he's stoked. Very proud of him! And I left with four people set for baptism!!!!!!! Rayna got baptized on Saturday!!!!!
MORE BIG NEWS!!!!!!!! Our boy ELDER SHANE REEVES!!!!!!!!!!! is now the Assitant President in the Oakland/San Francisco Mission! He's such a humble guy, he hasn't even told me, he emailed me today to say that he is sending me a letter. I found out from another friend in Oakland! Been out 10 months and Assistant President!!!!!!! Crazy!!!! He is the man!!!!!!!! Elder Bracken Nipko is now a District Leader!!!!!! And Elder Kitchen is back from Niue and training a guy from Tonga!!!!! So a lot of BIG things happening!
My 2nd day here in Gissie I got food poisoning and was out for the day! NO good! I am sick of being sick! NO fun! I'm doing much better now though.
I have to tell you about church! We cover four branches and a ward. And we have a baptism in one of our branches that is 40 min away, a Tongan boy, 17 named Adrian! We went to church up there and there was 16 people total, including us! lol! There is pretty much 3 families! So it's different. But the Spirit is still the same, doesn't matter where you go! We have tons of work, and I have a great companion! We work really well together! I miss Whaanga, but Sessions is the man! Gisborne is the first place in the world where the sun rises! I'm in the wamp wamps, big time country! Lots of Maoris! I cover all of the East Coast! Go check this place out! Go look up Gissie on google earth! Check it out! I love it! We drove most of the coast, and it's beautiful. So go give it a look!
Things are good, I took Birthday pictures so when I send pictures you can check it out!
THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!
I REALLY NEED YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!!
WE NEED TO BAPTIZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MISS YOU ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XOXOXO
Elder Belnap
FULLY INVESTED.... IN SAVING SOULS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Set another!! (Sept. 19)
Kia Ora!
This week was the funnest week yet! Whaanga and I had a blast!!! I don't know what made it so fun, but we just made everything fun and it turned out to be a GREAT WEEK!!!!!
We were looking for someone that we could set this week. And sure enough one of our recent converts, Patrisha came through! She was talking to her cousin, and her cousin is keen! She wanted to know everything! So the next day she had us over and we taught her! Her name is Rahapa! She aks all the right questions! In fact when I was starting the lesson I asked her what she wanted to know, and she gave the perfect answer. "How do I become a Mormon?" That was music to my ears! The Restoration lesson went great and at the end, she wanted to be baptized!! She is set for Oct. 23!!!! A major miracle for us!
We had to push the baptism for Reyna and Mystique to this upcoming weekend because of family and stuff. We were supposed to have the baptism for Mystique on Saturday but something came up, I was supposed to baptize her, but with transfers coming up this week I'll probably miss their baptisms! But that's ok, as long as they get baptized!!! We have 4 set to be baptized right now!!!! And they all are really solid!!! We are being super blessed!
The power went out on Friday, and we haven't had hot water since lol! So the past couple mornings I had to heat hot water up lol!! I miss having a nice shower! Oh well, you can't have it all! The weather was crazy this past weekend. We had a storm the size of Aussie come through, lasted Friday to Sunday. When we went to work Saturday morning, there were trees and fences knocked over! It was crazy! The wind was insane and when it rained it poured!!!! Luckily we had tons of lessons for the weekend!
Transfers is this week, and it looks like I'll probably be getting transferred. But that's all right, another adventure and more souls to save! It's crazy that this transfer will be my year mark transfer! And the next transfer is Christmas! It's going by so fast! I can't believe it!
Our boy Simi came out with us the whole day Wednesday! Man, he's going to be the bomb missionary when he goes out! And every night Whaanga and I before we go to bed have been playing basketball. We have this little basketball hoop and basketball, and have games every night lol! It's too much fun! And Simi's sister made us this huge amazing cake!!!! So good! Almost as good as yours Mom!
LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!!!!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!!
KEEP PRAYING FOR ME, ESPECIALLY WITH TRANSFERS!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE YOUR MISSIONARY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael
This week was the funnest week yet! Whaanga and I had a blast!!! I don't know what made it so fun, but we just made everything fun and it turned out to be a GREAT WEEK!!!!!
We were looking for someone that we could set this week. And sure enough one of our recent converts, Patrisha came through! She was talking to her cousin, and her cousin is keen! She wanted to know everything! So the next day she had us over and we taught her! Her name is Rahapa! She aks all the right questions! In fact when I was starting the lesson I asked her what she wanted to know, and she gave the perfect answer. "How do I become a Mormon?" That was music to my ears! The Restoration lesson went great and at the end, she wanted to be baptized!! She is set for Oct. 23!!!! A major miracle for us!
We had to push the baptism for Reyna and Mystique to this upcoming weekend because of family and stuff. We were supposed to have the baptism for Mystique on Saturday but something came up, I was supposed to baptize her, but with transfers coming up this week I'll probably miss their baptisms! But that's ok, as long as they get baptized!!! We have 4 set to be baptized right now!!!! And they all are really solid!!! We are being super blessed!
The power went out on Friday, and we haven't had hot water since lol! So the past couple mornings I had to heat hot water up lol!! I miss having a nice shower! Oh well, you can't have it all! The weather was crazy this past weekend. We had a storm the size of Aussie come through, lasted Friday to Sunday. When we went to work Saturday morning, there were trees and fences knocked over! It was crazy! The wind was insane and when it rained it poured!!!! Luckily we had tons of lessons for the weekend!
Transfers is this week, and it looks like I'll probably be getting transferred. But that's all right, another adventure and more souls to save! It's crazy that this transfer will be my year mark transfer! And the next transfer is Christmas! It's going by so fast! I can't believe it!
Our boy Simi came out with us the whole day Wednesday! Man, he's going to be the bomb missionary when he goes out! And every night Whaanga and I before we go to bed have been playing basketball. We have this little basketball hoop and basketball, and have games every night lol! It's too much fun! And Simi's sister made us this huge amazing cake!!!! So good! Almost as good as yours Mom!
LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!!!!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!!
KEEP PRAYING FOR ME, ESPECIALLY WITH TRANSFERS!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE YOUR MISSIONARY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael
Sunday, September 12, 2010
2 MORE SET FOR BAPTISM!!
Kia Ora!!!
Hi everyone! Things are good here in Ranui! Quick update on the earthqauke. You probably already know, but... they are waiting for a 9.1 earthquake to happen in the south island. Insane! I can't believe it, neither can the rest of New Zealand. It's pretty drastic. They are flying people up here to Auckland. Anyone that has money or is just freaked out has been trying to make it up to Auckland... The earthqauke was really bad and they are still experiencing more aftershocks. It's really crazy, I haven't felt a thing. And it's not really a big deal to anyone up here in Auckland.
We had a really good/crazy week. We set this girl named Mystique for baptism this Saturday!!!! We set her on the first lesson!! She was really prepared! Heavenly Father has seriously blessed us. Whaanga and I have been fasting and praying that we would be led to those people that we could baptize this month. And as you have heard we had no one set at the beginning of the month, but since then we have set two for baptism!!! And they've been set on the 1st lesson! MIRACLE!!!!! It really builds my testimony that this is God's work and when we qualify, He blesses us tenfold! I am really blown away with the amount of love Heavenly Father has for me and my companion. He always comes through. We have had a hard time getting 20 lessons the past couple of weeks because we dropped tons of investigators, but somehow at the end of the week when we total our numbers, we always get the mission stardard of excellence. Very blessed.
This Saturday we will have 2 baptisms! Mystique, and the Georges cousin, Rayna! Super Excited!!!!!!
I had another Tradeoff in the Samoan ward. Man, it seems like I've been in the Samoan ward every week lol! But now I'm offical, I've got my New Zealand driver's license!
Things are going Great!!!!
I Love my companion! He's the bomb! The funniest guy you'll meet!!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!
THEY ARE FELT AND HEARD BY OUR LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER!!!!!!
LOVE YA TONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Belnap
P.S. 14 more months! CRAZY!!!!
FULLY INVESTED..... no longer in BYwho after that embarrassing loss................
Hi everyone! Things are good here in Ranui! Quick update on the earthqauke. You probably already know, but... they are waiting for a 9.1 earthquake to happen in the south island. Insane! I can't believe it, neither can the rest of New Zealand. It's pretty drastic. They are flying people up here to Auckland. Anyone that has money or is just freaked out has been trying to make it up to Auckland... The earthqauke was really bad and they are still experiencing more aftershocks. It's really crazy, I haven't felt a thing. And it's not really a big deal to anyone up here in Auckland.
We had a really good/crazy week. We set this girl named Mystique for baptism this Saturday!!!! We set her on the first lesson!! She was really prepared! Heavenly Father has seriously blessed us. Whaanga and I have been fasting and praying that we would be led to those people that we could baptize this month. And as you have heard we had no one set at the beginning of the month, but since then we have set two for baptism!!! And they've been set on the 1st lesson! MIRACLE!!!!! It really builds my testimony that this is God's work and when we qualify, He blesses us tenfold! I am really blown away with the amount of love Heavenly Father has for me and my companion. He always comes through. We have had a hard time getting 20 lessons the past couple of weeks because we dropped tons of investigators, but somehow at the end of the week when we total our numbers, we always get the mission stardard of excellence. Very blessed.
This Saturday we will have 2 baptisms! Mystique, and the Georges cousin, Rayna! Super Excited!!!!!!
I had another Tradeoff in the Samoan ward. Man, it seems like I've been in the Samoan ward every week lol! But now I'm offical, I've got my New Zealand driver's license!
Things are going Great!!!!
I Love my companion! He's the bomb! The funniest guy you'll meet!!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!
THEY ARE FELT AND HEARD BY OUR LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER!!!!!!
LOVE YA TONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Belnap
P.S. 14 more months! CRAZY!!!!
FULLY INVESTED..... no longer in BYwho after that embarrassing loss................
Monday, September 6, 2010
TEMPLE WEEK!!! SET 2!!!!
KIA ORA!!!!
We had a GREAT WEEK!!!! It started off with us going to the Temple!! That was a wonderful experience. Just to be worthy to enter into the House of the Lord is a good feeling of comfort! And in the Temple I had another really good experience.... with the #11 lol! The person I went through the temple for was baptized on August 11! How cool is that? In the Temple I was able to account for my Temple Covenants, and that was a good thing for me to have an accounting for the Lord. Over the past 4 months (over the winter season) we as a mission have really been trying to live up to our covenants. And as a result we have been seriously blessed as a Mission! When I went through I was able to learn so much! And it was a great experience for me and my companion!
After the Temple we had our Zone Conference!!! I love Zone Conference; it's too bad that we only have it every other transfer now, but it's all good. This is going to sound really dumb. But the 1st Presidency has come out with new material to teach the missionaries. It's not what we teach the investigators, it's material to teach the missionaries how to become better. And the first part is teaching the Doctrine of Christ in EVERY lesson. And the Doctrince is: the Atonement, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost, and Enduring. Well, that's what we should be teaching anyway in every lesson. And to an extent I do. But after we had Zone Conference, it just clicked with me on how I am supposed to teach!!! And so the very next day, our very 1st lesson. We set a person named Wiki! And she came to church on Sunday!! Then a couple of days later we set another person on the 1st lesson!! And she is SOLID!!! She came to church on Sunday as well!!! We started off the month with no one set!!! And I was really worried, stressing out that we had no one set for the month. And we had just dropped tons of our investigators! And we weren't really teaching anyone consistently and I was worried. I just prayed my guts out to my Heavenly Father that we would be able to qualify to baptize mulitple souls this month! And Heavenly Father has provided in a BIG way! Blessing us with two people!!! And the one, her name is Rayna! She just flew over here like 13 days ago, and is living with one of my favorite families!! The George's! I don't know if I've told you about them! But I just love the George's, and they have been trying to find someone for us to baptize, then, their cousin came to live with them and isn't a member! We are stoked! And it goes to show that Heavenly Father does provide. And that he does PREPARE people for us to baptized as Rayna was very prepared to be able to set her for baptism on the 1st lesson!!!
This week we had a Sunny Day, the Whole Day, YEAH!!! LOL!
And I should be getting my New Zealand license this week!!!
Things are good!!! The ward is doing well!!!! And the work is GREAT!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!
KEEP SMLING!!!!!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!
Elder Belnap
FULLY INVESTED
We had a GREAT WEEK!!!! It started off with us going to the Temple!! That was a wonderful experience. Just to be worthy to enter into the House of the Lord is a good feeling of comfort! And in the Temple I had another really good experience.... with the #11 lol! The person I went through the temple for was baptized on August 11! How cool is that? In the Temple I was able to account for my Temple Covenants, and that was a good thing for me to have an accounting for the Lord. Over the past 4 months (over the winter season) we as a mission have really been trying to live up to our covenants. And as a result we have been seriously blessed as a Mission! When I went through I was able to learn so much! And it was a great experience for me and my companion!
After the Temple we had our Zone Conference!!! I love Zone Conference; it's too bad that we only have it every other transfer now, but it's all good. This is going to sound really dumb. But the 1st Presidency has come out with new material to teach the missionaries. It's not what we teach the investigators, it's material to teach the missionaries how to become better. And the first part is teaching the Doctrine of Christ in EVERY lesson. And the Doctrince is: the Atonement, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost, and Enduring. Well, that's what we should be teaching anyway in every lesson. And to an extent I do. But after we had Zone Conference, it just clicked with me on how I am supposed to teach!!! And so the very next day, our very 1st lesson. We set a person named Wiki! And she came to church on Sunday!! Then a couple of days later we set another person on the 1st lesson!! And she is SOLID!!! She came to church on Sunday as well!!! We started off the month with no one set!!! And I was really worried, stressing out that we had no one set for the month. And we had just dropped tons of our investigators! And we weren't really teaching anyone consistently and I was worried. I just prayed my guts out to my Heavenly Father that we would be able to qualify to baptize mulitple souls this month! And Heavenly Father has provided in a BIG way! Blessing us with two people!!! And the one, her name is Rayna! She just flew over here like 13 days ago, and is living with one of my favorite families!! The George's! I don't know if I've told you about them! But I just love the George's, and they have been trying to find someone for us to baptize, then, their cousin came to live with them and isn't a member! We are stoked! And it goes to show that Heavenly Father does provide. And that he does PREPARE people for us to baptized as Rayna was very prepared to be able to set her for baptism on the 1st lesson!!!
This week we had a Sunny Day, the Whole Day, YEAH!!! LOL!
And I should be getting my New Zealand license this week!!!
Things are good!!! The ward is doing well!!!! And the work is GREAT!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!
KEEP SMLING!!!!!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!
Elder Belnap
FULLY INVESTED
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