Kia Ora!
We had an AWESOME week! It was filled with the Spirit!
We had Anna's Baptism on Good Friday, and it definitely was a Good Friday! We had soo many non members and investigators there! I was blown away! We had so many people there that we had to hold the meeting in the Chapel. I spoke on Baptism. And the Spirit was soo strong. I was feeling it even before we started. When it was time for me to speak, I was just soo overwhelmed by the Spirit. So and I started off my talk not on baptism, but on the feelings of the Spirit. And I tied that into how and why we need to be baptized. I was pretty blunt on what I said concerning the Spirit and being baptized is the only way to enter into the Kingdom of God. Haha I really wanted to commit everyone there for baptism because the Spirit was soo strong. I have NO DOUBT in my mind that EVERYONE there felt the Spirit. All of the baptisms I've been to are wonderful and the Spirit is always there. But Anna's baptism was one that I will never forget. It was quite amazing! I wish you could've experienced that incredible day! Her baptism was great too! She told me after she got baptized that when she went down that her eyes were closed and it was dark, but it seemed like it was soo bright, especially when she came up out of the water!
And yesterday I got the honor to confirm her and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost! Afterward she said, that she never felt like this before. She said it was an incredible feeling.
And she gave me a letter on Saturday. And it was the best letter I could've ever received. As a missionary you love it every time someone makes that change in their life and they get baptized. But as a missionary you wait your whole mission for a person like Anna. In this letter, she said everything and more that hit me like a rock. The things she said in the letter made me realize how important my role is as a missionary. I have to tell you what she said, (this is the part that made me cry)
"Elder Belnap you are such a positive role model to all those around you. Because it is definitely so clear that the Holy Spirit just beams through you. I am so incredibly thankful you shared as much of that pure light with me as you did. Now you might be thinking "How in the world did I do that?" (Yes you are thinking that right now! lol) Well I'm about to tell you. (yay!) It was your extreme passion & love for the church that made me want to desire to know more, because you are seriously the most happy chappy I've ever met & I know it's because you know the church is true. Basically what I am trying to say is, KEEP DOING WHAT YOUR DOING because in my opinion it's "Belnaps Best" (yes, yet another silly nickname) It is so clear that you are blessed with such an amazing gift & I pray that people all over the world get to experience your brilliant teachings, your love towards the Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ, your passion for the gospel & your extreme motivation to helping people!"
After I read that I was filled. You always wonder if your doing what your supposed to be doing, if your doing a good job, am I really doing any good. And she answered all of questions and concerns. She's wonderful. You probably got a chuckle from some of the things she said, she's quite funny. I love her! I am soo happy for her! And I'm glad God gave me Anna and to be a part of her Spiritual Journey!
I bore my testimony in both wards yesterday, it was sort of like a good bye speech. Because transfers is coming up in 2 days, and we find out what's going to happen. And I have this feeling that I might/probably will be moving. So we'll see what happens. Whatever the Lord wants me to do, I'll do.
And I was looking at my old planner when I got here in Tauranga. Seeing how much work has been done since I've got here. Now, none of this is to boast or brag. But when I got here, we had 5 investigators. When Magleby left we had roughly 50 investigators, and we still have heaps of people were teaching. The Lord has definitely blessed this area soo soo much! And I am lucky enough to be a part of this marvleous work and wonder here in Greerton/Tauranga/Otumoeti!
HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYING CONFERENCE!!!!!!! WE GET IT NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!
LOVE YOU ALL WITH ALL MY HEART!!!!
HAPPY EASTER!!!!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Mana's Baptism!!
Hi everyone!! Things are good in Tauranga!
We had a baptism on Friday! It went great! He's 12 and his name is Mana Kahn! He's got a cool name, I love it! He's going great too! And he's soo excited to be a member now! I just love it when you see that change in people after they get baptized! It's really cool to see that!
I've been reading "Jesus The Christ"! That is a great book! I've really enjoyed that! I've really come to a better understanding of the Savior and gotten to know Him more as I've been reading that, as well as the Gospels in the Bible. I'm soo thankful for our Savior!
This moring was good! You won't believe it, but I was up at 6 and went to the chapel and did a workout! It was good!
I had interviews with Pres. Porter! And we had a really good chat! And we talked a lot of progressing and we discussed the whole thing where I thought I had wasted my first 4 months. And he really wants me to work on my faith, and really exercise my faith. And he's really pushing me to exercise my faith with my Preach By the Ways (talking to people). And so I told him that I would do it. And I've really been relying on the Lord and praying a lot to have him help me, and my PBTW's have gotten much better! Also in my interview we talked about my area. And he pretty much told me that I'm going to get transferred and it's time to go to Auckland. He said that I've progressed as much as he wanted me to down in the country and it's time for something new and fresh. So he said that I'm highly suspect to change. So we'll see what happens. But I've got a feeling that I'm going to get booted up to the big City! And a new adventure awaits. But a change is definitely in the air. Though I don't know what it is, I can tell something will be happening. So we find out next week on the 8th! Pray for me lol!
Things are going GREAT in the NZ! I'm definitely loving it! Great Experiences! Great People!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORTS IT'S GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!!!
Elder Belnap
We had a baptism on Friday! It went great! He's 12 and his name is Mana Kahn! He's got a cool name, I love it! He's going great too! And he's soo excited to be a member now! I just love it when you see that change in people after they get baptized! It's really cool to see that!
I've been reading "Jesus The Christ"! That is a great book! I've really enjoyed that! I've really come to a better understanding of the Savior and gotten to know Him more as I've been reading that, as well as the Gospels in the Bible. I'm soo thankful for our Savior!
This moring was good! You won't believe it, but I was up at 6 and went to the chapel and did a workout! It was good!
I had interviews with Pres. Porter! And we had a really good chat! And we talked a lot of progressing and we discussed the whole thing where I thought I had wasted my first 4 months. And he really wants me to work on my faith, and really exercise my faith. And he's really pushing me to exercise my faith with my Preach By the Ways (talking to people). And so I told him that I would do it. And I've really been relying on the Lord and praying a lot to have him help me, and my PBTW's have gotten much better! Also in my interview we talked about my area. And he pretty much told me that I'm going to get transferred and it's time to go to Auckland. He said that I've progressed as much as he wanted me to down in the country and it's time for something new and fresh. So he said that I'm highly suspect to change. So we'll see what happens. But I've got a feeling that I'm going to get booted up to the big City! And a new adventure awaits. But a change is definitely in the air. Though I don't know what it is, I can tell something will be happening. So we find out next week on the 8th! Pray for me lol!
Things are going GREAT in the NZ! I'm definitely loving it! Great Experiences! Great People!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORTS IT'S GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!!!
Elder Belnap
Sunday, March 21, 2010
New guy!!
Kia Ora!
Hi everyone!
I got to go on tradeoffs with a new greenie elder named Elder Halavaka from AUSSIE (Australia)! He's AWESOME! I love him. Now he's only been out like 3-4 weeks, and he doesn't really know his area that well or his investigators. So we just went out ready to work. Because all we know how to do is talk to people and find people to teach. So you had these two fresh missionaries doing the Lord's work! And we had an amazing day! We talked to 50 people that day about the gospel! Which is a huge number of people to talk to!!!! Like that's pretty much unheard of. 20-35 is a really good day. So we pretty much blew that out of the water! Which was awesome! And we taught like 4 or 5 lessons that day! It was a great day! I love Halavaka! We get along soo good, hopefully one day we'll be able to serve together!
HOPE ALL IS WELL!
I'm doing good! The mission is great! It's going by so quick! It's flying by!
And President Porter said that he is sending missionaries back down here. So they'll be splitting the wards up again. Because right now we are covering both the Greerton ward and the Otumoeti ward. So it looks like I'll probably be down here another transfer. If the Lord wants me down here. But I'll go where ever he wants. I'm just excited to get more missionaries down here!
And tomorrow we have our interviews with President! I love interviews with President!!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! GOD BLESS!!!!!! AND KEEP SMILING!!!!!!!!!! MISS YOU TONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XOXOXOXO
Elder Belnap
New email:
michael.belnap@myldsmail.net
Hi everyone!
I got to go on tradeoffs with a new greenie elder named Elder Halavaka from AUSSIE (Australia)! He's AWESOME! I love him. Now he's only been out like 3-4 weeks, and he doesn't really know his area that well or his investigators. So we just went out ready to work. Because all we know how to do is talk to people and find people to teach. So you had these two fresh missionaries doing the Lord's work! And we had an amazing day! We talked to 50 people that day about the gospel! Which is a huge number of people to talk to!!!! Like that's pretty much unheard of. 20-35 is a really good day. So we pretty much blew that out of the water! Which was awesome! And we taught like 4 or 5 lessons that day! It was a great day! I love Halavaka! We get along soo good, hopefully one day we'll be able to serve together!
HOPE ALL IS WELL!
I'm doing good! The mission is great! It's going by so quick! It's flying by!
And President Porter said that he is sending missionaries back down here. So they'll be splitting the wards up again. Because right now we are covering both the Greerton ward and the Otumoeti ward. So it looks like I'll probably be down here another transfer. If the Lord wants me down here. But I'll go where ever he wants. I'm just excited to get more missionaries down here!
And tomorrow we have our interviews with President! I love interviews with President!!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! GOD BLESS!!!!!! AND KEEP SMILING!!!!!!!!!! MISS YOU TONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XOXOXOXO
Elder Belnap
New email:
michael.belnap@myldsmail.net
Kia Ora!!
Hi everyone!
I had an AWESOME night last night! ha the whole Sunday was great! We had 9 investigators at church which is fantastic!!
But last night we had the Area President come to our stake last night here in Tauranga! And it was an invitation only event. And I got President Worthen to get us in! And he let us bring some of our investigators with us. It was so cool to meet a General Authority! I got to help out a big with Elder Callistar! He's a great man!
Anna came and sat with us. And after Elder Callistar got done with his talk, he came and talked to her, we were sitting on the front row, and he asked her if she was a member. She said not yet, but is going to get baptized on Good Friday! And he had a nice little chat with her, she was actually the first person Elder Callistar talked to! And Anna just started to cry (tears of joy) it was an incredible event.
In fact one of our other investigators came over to me and said that she wants us to come by and push to get her children baptized! The whole event was awesome! We were so fortunate to be able to attend, because we were the only missionaries that could go to this once in a lifetime event! He gave us some good words of encouragment.
Elder Callistar talked on the Atonement, He wrote a book called "The Infinate Atonement" and he really put the Atonement into perspective for me! I am very thankful for the Atonement and all that our Savior has done for us!
That was the main highlight for the week!
I spoke again in Sacrament, this time in the Otumoeti Ward! I talked on Covenants, I thought it turned into a pretty good talk. I pretty much put it together the morning of lol! Ha, I just let the Spirit guide.
We had a great Zone Conference! I really went into it looking how I can become a better missionary. And I really need to work on and get better at my Preach By The Way (talking to people or trackting, that's just what we call it.) And the whole conference was basically on that! So now I'm pushing myself to be able to talk to people.
You wouldn't think that I have a hard time talking to people, and I don't, but about the gospel I struggle sometimes, and sometimes it's hard just to go up to this random person and ask them if they believe in God or whatever. But I'm working on it! And I know that through the Savior I can become GREAT at it. Though it will take time!
The CHURCH IS TRUE! So keep smiling!!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
GOD BE WITH YOU!!!!
Love Elder Michael Belnap
Elder Belnap's address:
Elder Michael Belnap
New Zealand Auckland Mission
PO Box 33-840
Takapuna
North Shore 0622
New Zealand
I had an AWESOME night last night! ha the whole Sunday was great! We had 9 investigators at church which is fantastic!!
But last night we had the Area President come to our stake last night here in Tauranga! And it was an invitation only event. And I got President Worthen to get us in! And he let us bring some of our investigators with us. It was so cool to meet a General Authority! I got to help out a big with Elder Callistar! He's a great man!
Anna came and sat with us. And after Elder Callistar got done with his talk, he came and talked to her, we were sitting on the front row, and he asked her if she was a member. She said not yet, but is going to get baptized on Good Friday! And he had a nice little chat with her, she was actually the first person Elder Callistar talked to! And Anna just started to cry (tears of joy) it was an incredible event.
In fact one of our other investigators came over to me and said that she wants us to come by and push to get her children baptized! The whole event was awesome! We were so fortunate to be able to attend, because we were the only missionaries that could go to this once in a lifetime event! He gave us some good words of encouragment.
Elder Callistar talked on the Atonement, He wrote a book called "The Infinate Atonement" and he really put the Atonement into perspective for me! I am very thankful for the Atonement and all that our Savior has done for us!
That was the main highlight for the week!
I spoke again in Sacrament, this time in the Otumoeti Ward! I talked on Covenants, I thought it turned into a pretty good talk. I pretty much put it together the morning of lol! Ha, I just let the Spirit guide.
We had a great Zone Conference! I really went into it looking how I can become a better missionary. And I really need to work on and get better at my Preach By The Way (talking to people or trackting, that's just what we call it.) And the whole conference was basically on that! So now I'm pushing myself to be able to talk to people.
You wouldn't think that I have a hard time talking to people, and I don't, but about the gospel I struggle sometimes, and sometimes it's hard just to go up to this random person and ask them if they believe in God or whatever. But I'm working on it! And I know that through the Savior I can become GREAT at it. Though it will take time!
The CHURCH IS TRUE! So keep smiling!!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
GOD BE WITH YOU!!!!
Love Elder Michael Belnap
Elder Belnap's address:
Elder Michael Belnap
New Zealand Auckland Mission
PO Box 33-840
Takapuna
North Shore 0622
New Zealand
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Shaniqua's & Son Matika's Baptism!!!
Hey EVERYONE!!!!
We had a GREAT weekend! We had 2 baptisms!!! It was awesome! They both went great! And the spirit was very strong at each! It's been a long process with both of these wonderful people. But I'm glad that they got baptized!!
I spoke in Church two sundays ago. I think I forgot to tell you about that lol! But I did. I spoke on Elder Oaks talk, "Love & Law" It's a really good talk. I related it to our lives here on earth and how we have to learn that God gave us Laws because He loves us. And then I related it to the Plan of Salvation. I'm not going to lie, I think I did a good job on that talk. Ha, I was pretty blunt in that talk. So I hope they took it the right way. But it was good. Afterwards I had heaps of people come up and thank me for my talk. And one of the members asked for my talk haha. But you know how I do my talks lol! I don't really have it written out lol! So I gave her my notes and the talk that Oaks gave! I love speaking though!
My boy, Brother Adam Hart is the new Ward Mission Leader!!! I love him! If I lived over here, we would be Best Buds, no doubt! He's 25, works at a gym and lives at the gym too! He's rip! And we get along soo good! Hes the one in the pictures when he's making us that food! Man, he's a good chef too!! There's a few pics with him, me and Magleby are in one too. So I'm pumped to have him work with us! We had dinner with Jess and she's a good cook too!!
Then we have Mare (Ma de. R's are pronounced like a d)! He's awesome! He's 17! And we taught him before with Magleby but he dropped us, (because his mom is anti). But he started coming back to church and has been there like 6-7 weeks in a row now. And last sunday in class, when we were introducing ourselves, he said, "My name is Mare, and I'm not a member "yet"!! That was the key word! We are going to teach him this week again! I'm stoked for him! He's way into basketball! And we get along great!
Things are good in NZ! Our car is going up to Hamilton for awhile to get the roof fixed, so we will be back on bikes 100% for awhile starting Thursday! I hope we can get it back soon though!
And this week on the 11th, that'll be my 4 month mark! Crazy! It doesn't feel like 4 months at all!
Lovin' the NZ! It's great!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!! XOXOXO
Chau for now!
Elder Belnap
:) Smile
We had a GREAT weekend! We had 2 baptisms!!! It was awesome! They both went great! And the spirit was very strong at each! It's been a long process with both of these wonderful people. But I'm glad that they got baptized!!
I spoke in Church two sundays ago. I think I forgot to tell you about that lol! But I did. I spoke on Elder Oaks talk, "Love & Law" It's a really good talk. I related it to our lives here on earth and how we have to learn that God gave us Laws because He loves us. And then I related it to the Plan of Salvation. I'm not going to lie, I think I did a good job on that talk. Ha, I was pretty blunt in that talk. So I hope they took it the right way. But it was good. Afterwards I had heaps of people come up and thank me for my talk. And one of the members asked for my talk haha. But you know how I do my talks lol! I don't really have it written out lol! So I gave her my notes and the talk that Oaks gave! I love speaking though!
My boy, Brother Adam Hart is the new Ward Mission Leader!!! I love him! If I lived over here, we would be Best Buds, no doubt! He's 25, works at a gym and lives at the gym too! He's rip! And we get along soo good! Hes the one in the pictures when he's making us that food! Man, he's a good chef too!! There's a few pics with him, me and Magleby are in one too. So I'm pumped to have him work with us! We had dinner with Jess and she's a good cook too!!
Then we have Mare (Ma de. R's are pronounced like a d)! He's awesome! He's 17! And we taught him before with Magleby but he dropped us, (because his mom is anti). But he started coming back to church and has been there like 6-7 weeks in a row now. And last sunday in class, when we were introducing ourselves, he said, "My name is Mare, and I'm not a member "yet"!! That was the key word! We are going to teach him this week again! I'm stoked for him! He's way into basketball! And we get along great!
Things are good in NZ! Our car is going up to Hamilton for awhile to get the roof fixed, so we will be back on bikes 100% for awhile starting Thursday! I hope we can get it back soon though!
And this week on the 11th, that'll be my 4 month mark! Crazy! It doesn't feel like 4 months at all!
Lovin' the NZ! It's great!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!! XOXOXO
Chau for now!
Elder Belnap
:) Smile
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