I'll be training!

Talofa lava!

 

Sorry about the late email we had technical difficulties you can say.

Man this transfer (6 weeks) has gone by soo fast. Seems like yesterday I just hopped off the bus in Rotorua. Last Monday was a beautiful day we spent it at the park playing all sorts of sports, then had a mean feed afterwards. Had our last District Council Meeting as well that was pretty fun. Wednesday was a hell of a day spent doing service for an investigator, a massive yard job that took us about 4 hours and we only did half of the job lol lucky we had other Elder's to help out and some from the Elder's Quorum to help out and make the work easier. Saturday we went to Taupo to support the Elder's baptism there, man the spirit you feel when you attend a convert baptism and their testimony they share is truly powerful. After the baptism we went to Turangi to see H and do some service down there, H will always have service for us to do lol but always good to see him and his family.

Monday was lit we hit up Skyline Rotorua where they have this thing called the luge, basically riding down the mountain on a go-cart type thingy then take a chair back up to go again. Man we had soo much fun and so many accidents haha I completely went off track and fell off my cart and slid down the hill lol luckily just a scratch on me knee nothing too bad. The view is great from up the mountain overlooking Lake Rotorua and the town itself.

Well, since it's transfer week we got the news yesterday about transfers. My companion will be leaving to Hamilton after serving 6 months in Tokoroa definitely going to be missed by the ward. President called me and told me that I'll be training next transfer, so yea I don't know what he's thinking but yep I'll be training some Elder fresh from the MTC lol feel sorry for this guy hehe.

But yea that's it from me hope you guys enjoy your week untill next time.

 

Elder Purcell

The bike life is for me.

Kia Ora!

Well it's been a pretty dull week, if I do say so myself. So a quick email this week. So we parked our car up this week cause we had to lol. So you know ya boy was biking the whole week last week in the rain not to mention 3 degree weather, tryna get these gains  but yea if it was warm biking would of been good. Best thing about biking was to see a lot of the people walking on the street and just spark up a quick conversation which was pretty lit, met some cool and interesting people sadly no one was interested.

 

Our District Council Meeting was lit though, the spirit was just overflowing within the room, with the message and training we had. Testimonies shared touching us with the spirit was really something we needed to help us go through this week.

We did exchanges on Wednesday, got to meet a cool as family in Taupo, one lady shouted us some maccas so you know exchanges was lit lol, but for reals though the view in Taupo is something else and man Lake Taupo is beautiful. Well exchanges was over and I went back to Rotorua to find my companion got injured falling off his bike  but to be fair it wasn't his fault, the other Elder stopped suddenly while they were going down the hill while he was following and to avoid hitting him he swerved onto the road then jumped off his bike cause there was a car coming and pretty much jump into a parked car hitting his ribs then slid on the road scratching his hands lmao.

 

Highlight of the week was our dinner, we had the same night with Brother Hall, not the food but the talk we had. A very nice message we shared but by the end of the night we got some referrals from him, quit a few in fact which boosted our morale for this area and the work to be done. Sadly because my companion was injured we couldn't really get around to doing much this week, but this week there's no excuse to do something about those referrals.

But tell me why our dinner yesterday was soo good. Sister Ah Lam and her family prepared the best meal I've had in ages and being your traditional Samoan family... Yea the royal treatment. Kids reminded me of my siblings and I when we would have guests over and yep good ol' days. Man we had oka, palusami, bbq lamb (you would think lamb would be cheap in NZ... nope), fa'alifu fa'i, pig on a spit with that Cook Island Potato salad and some steak damm it was a good Sunday feast. Worst thing was we had to bike back home =( yea the 30 mins bike ride up hills.

Now it's Pday again and it's pretty much the last week for this transfer so next week is transfer week, I'll be staying but hoping my companion stays too, which is like a 1% chance since he's been here for 6 months now. Exciting times ahead.

Well time to ball, untill next week.

Alofa atu,
Elder Purcell

"We must work hard in our areas because time is short and doesn't belong to us"

Wass happening yo?!

Man it's been one hell of a week, I'll tell you that. Last Monday was the meanest build ups of P-Day. Yea the plans for panic escape room... Nek minute, people want to be Bob the build ups and cancel. Then went to the bank to deposit some dollar bills yo and then westpac trynna steal my money lol but all goods everything got sorted. Afterwards to the chapel, nothing like a good sweat playing ball to save the P-Day.

 

 

 

We had Zone Conference this week first one for me in this Zone and man the drive to Tauranga is beautiful, and enough scenery to last till Christmas. Zone Conference was lit, learned so much with the trainings from Sister Cummings and the AP's on how we can improve ourselves to be a strong missionary through the mission and finish the mission strong as well as being effective teachers, teaching by the spirit and with concern. The best thing was President with the spirit so strong made a promise to us that if we arose at 6:30 am everyday we will have miracles happen in our service, it was something good for me to hear because that's one thing I struggle with, not getting up on time everyday. You can really feel the conviction and spirit when he said it. 

 

It was great meeting up with some of the Rewa squad again, the future Utah Jazz PG Elder Grow, my mish sis Sister Iremia and also the office man Elder Fangatua. Reminiscing about the good ol' days of a couple of months ago lol but still good catch up. The rest of the week was standard not much else besides the missionary work. Until Sunday my companion and I had a good.... Epiphany I guess you can say, wanting to strive for that blessing President promised and to also work harder in our area to remind ourselves how short our time is here and that time does not belong to us.

 

Well, that's all for this week. Hope all is well with everyone till next time. 

Alofa atu,

Elder Purcell

 

"Heavenly Father gives us commandments to protect us not imprison us"

Talofa, Malo e lelei. Kiaora and G'day!

Hows everyone's week been? For me, let's just say it's been fun, maybe too much  but hey eshayy!!

Last week Monday we hit up the ten pins and got our bowling shoes on, and hit them lanes. Sadly, I couldn't get over 100 let alone 70 but hey we had a good time with good laughs, and then our budget as feeds cause we broke after bowling yea the sausage sizzles.

District Council was pretty lit even though it went for 2 hours but still the Zone Leaders Elder Karsson, Elder Latu and their trainee Elder Hipolite from Brisbane. Of course Elder Latu being there and teaching a lesson with Elder Karsson the spirit was just strong, the spiritual giant Elder Latu is. Not long into the meeting the AP's show up Elder Ete and Elder Ellsworth. So yep pretty interesting District Council but very spiritual none the less.

Saturday was a lit day of service and a ward baptism to finish it off. Finally got to meet the legendary H who lives in Turangi, he's not a member but all the missionaries pretty much know about him and how awesome he is. I heard great stories about this guy from my trainer. If you're a missionary serving in NZHM mission then going to Rotorua District and meeting H is a must. He provides lots of service and loves the missionaries.We drove down with the district about 1.5hr drive from Tokoroa and started right away.

 

H took 4 of us to an elderly man (forgot his name but we'll call him old man Willie for now) and well we pretty much dug holes lol 1 metre deep and 8 of them for a big fence he wanted to put up. Took him 2 hours to put one so it was good that we were able to help and dig out the remaining 8 holes in 1.5 hours. As we were about to leave old man willie comes with fish and chips for us, I mean you can't say no... you just can't, so of course we had a quick feed and man the fish here is good.  After we left and headed to a Marai where we painted the walls of a room and the toilets. Then of course there was another feed this time a massive hangi with tables of food... yea the imaginary weight loss 

After the mean as service we headed back home and got ready for the ward baptism, it's always good to end the day on a spiritual note cause right after the baptism we went home and straight crashed and was knocked out before 9 lol. Well then it was Sunday and after a mean as sleep we got up for our wonderful Tokoroa ward conference, a mean spiritual Sabbath to start the week. Had great talks from the Stake Presidency and our seki as choir. 

 

One thing that stood out from President's talk was that there are rules and guidelines for example, the commandments that Heavenly Father has set out for us, are to protect us and keep us safe not imprison but to bless us and He makes it clear what we have to do to receive those blessings. He also makes the consequences clear when we don't follow them. There are commandments of Commission which are the commandments that tell us things we have to do in order to receive blessings and commandments of Omission are commandments that tell us not to do certain things to receive blessings, the commandments of Commission brings us closer to being like our saviour and the latter takes us further from being like our saviour. So love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and love thy neighbour as thyself.

Sorry, bit of a long email but that feed after ward conference though, so much food and so many varieties of cake
#fatlife #starttrainingtoday 

Alofa atu,

Elder Purcell