Sunday, April 24, 2016

Elder Johnson from Mesa, AZ!

Kia ora whanau,

Man oh man, be prepared for a massive email! I have heaps to say today! :)

Okay, I have some of the greatest news of all time! We went over to the Langi's the other night to drop off their plate. Brother Langi comes outside, and whispers to us, "We have dog."  One of their Tongan mates killed it and brought it over! I have been waiting for 21 flippin' months to eat the blimmin' Kuli (dog), And now I can say, my mission food list is officially complete! :) It was quite different honestly, it had the texture of a lamb, but had a different taste to it. We smelled like it the rest of the night. :)

Next, remember how I got a call from President last week? Well I received another one about two hours later telling me that the plans had been changed a bit! I would still be a single zone leader, but I'd be with a missionary that has been struggling a bit, and wanted to go home. So they sent me Elder Johnson, who I know really well! I was his zone leader in Tauranga, when he was in Whakatane! He's a flippin' baller! We get along great! We've had some mean success as well! He's from Mesa, Arizona! 

We played some mean volley this morning with the Langi's and heaps of others. It was honestly mean as! Our bishop, this little white fella, is the flippin' man! So much fun!

We got another set this week! I'm almost to the end of my mission, but I have a goal to get 5 more baptisms. That would put me in the 20's, which is heaps for our mission! So the success has been wonderful lately!

Seeing Zesiger go was pretty hard. He was the man! I love that fella! Before he left, Sister Tarangutu gave us a present. She handed us a bag and we opened it and found the meanest Kiribati ties ever. Her family made them back home, they're flippin' sick! I'll send pics.  

My stinking trainer got married a few weeks ago. I just got the announcement. It was typical Wangsgard honestly! ;) So funny! Talk about trunkiness as well! There is nothing more trunky on this planet than getting a wedding announcement from your trainer! :/ Speaking of weddings, one of my mates from the mish, Elder Smith rocked up to Papakura the other day and hung out for a bit with his flippin' WIFE!! :/ They're living in Farmington now, so we'll probably run into them sometime! 

We played a mean game of gridiron (football) last Monday! Sadly we lost! But it was all good! It was at a field right next to Hunua falls! Pretty solid! Also, I'm sorry I've been slack on the pics lately. Batteries cost heaps, and I didn't feel like buying any, so I didn't have a camera for two weeks! ;) 

Well, my email was shorter than I thought. I have heaps of other things to tell, but theyre for other people! ;) But yah... mean as week honestly! :) Love you all heaps!

Laterz,
Elder Butler 

Me and my new companion, Elder Johnson! 

Me and Zesiger!! @ the bus station! 

Bus station with the crazies (our sisters!) 

"Gosh dang Elder Bauder, take a good flippin' picture!!"

Bus stop selfie with Sisters Tarangutu and Marsh

My new tie!

Here's a close up of my tie, to show you what it's made out of! It's like a kind of flax! I was honestly so happy when she gave them to us! 

The Tongans brought over 5 kgs worth of food the other day! Who knows why?Johnson and I ate a few plates of it, and didn't even make a dent. They also brought over a whole pitcher of Otai! :) I love these fellas!




Thursday, April 21, 2016

General Conference and a Little Horse

Hello everyone!

What a good week here in Papakura! Much better than last week, that's for sure! ;) 

First off, General Conference was the flippin' bomb! Every single talk that was given was straight-up beautiful! The spirit was amazing the whole time! 

Okay honestly, I had a mean email planned, but I can't even think now. I just got a call from President. My flippin' companion is getting transferred! I never expected that. :/ And to top it off, he's giving me a "special assignment" to be a single Zone Leader, while training a new missionary! Holy flip! So my thoughts are now all over the place. There hasn't been a single Zone Leader the whole time I've been on my mission! 

Alright, so General Conference was definitely the highlight of my week! But coming in a close second was a call we received the other day from the Redhill Elders. It was pretty late at night, probably around 8 (which is super late here). They said they had some food for us, so they came over and brought us two tin foils of nice food! Let's just say, I marked another food off of the list of things to try! This week I ate some lo'i hoosi....horse! It was so flippin' nice! It was shredded on top of cassava, drenched in coconut creme. Nice as! 

The same night they brought us horse, this little Tongan lady in our ward named Sister Fanguna spent $80 at Burgerfuel (really similar to Five Guys) on us! We were so sick after! We ate a ton. It was a wonderful night though! :)

Okay, so back to General Conference! It was mean as! I can't even say which talk was my favorite because they all were amazing! The ones that touched me the most were given by President Eyring, Sister Oscarson, Elder Stevenson, and Elder Holland. Cool story about Elder Stevenson's talk--The morning of conference I was sitting there thinking about the Priesthood, and how I could define "priesthood keys" because of a question we were asked a few days before. I was frustrated when I couldn't find a very solid definition. Then we went to Conference, and it was literally answered perfectly! It was honestly shocking how perfect it went with the questions running through my mind. Sister Oscarson killed it as well. And my goodness...how about that finish from Elder Holland!

Now it's time for my shout out to Sister Thalman for sending us some mac n' cheese and oatmeal! It hit the spot! I'm pretty sure it's almost all gone. Thank you so much! Also, mean as packing job sis!! ;) 

Now for the big fella--Dad! Happy Birthday my bro! For those of you who don't know, my pops is like my best buddy. So please treat him well on his birthday, as I am away and can't do much for him. I hope you have a great day on the 25th! Now you're almost as old as mom! You're almost 1/2 century! That's pretty impressive! ;) Love you bro! 

That's all for today! Kura is still killin' it! I'm going to miss my companion though! He's the man! So it's pretty disappointing, but good at the same time. It's going to be pretty cool having this new/unusual responsibility. I love you guys heaps!

Love,
Elder Butler

p.s. I had a horrific dream last night! I just arrived at home after my mission, and I was showing you all my souvenirs and lollies from NZ, and my blimmin' Tim Tams melted! It was horrible!   

Goodbye to Elder Zesiger... :( 

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Wish we had Do-Overs This Week...

Kia ora whanau,

What a crappy week that was... to say the least.

I'll start off by saying some good things, then finish off with hell. 

We all went bowling. I thought I was good at bowling. Long story short, I got absolutely wrecked. ;) It was still fun as though! I love these fellas. 

I went on a mean exchange with Elder Tu'ipulotu. We were in the Tongan program, so I didn't understand anything the whole day. It was pretty funny, we were teaching this man in Tongan, and I just totally zoned out and fell asleep. Tu'i woke me up to say the prayer! ;) Haha! 

We were trying some potential investigators that were in our area book this week, and we came across this Samoan part-member family. So we knocked on his door, and he told us to come back in a few days to his mama's house. We got there on Saturday afternoon, and she prepared the meanest feed for us! There was luau, taro in coconut cream, chop sui, sandwiches, heaps of stuff! Mean as!

There was a full on drag race on our street the other day. That was kind of funny.  Also, our neighbor ripped off $450 worth of Raybanz from the shops...idiot! ;) What a great neighborhood we're in huh? ;) 

Okay...that's about it! Now let me tell you how the majority of my time was spent this week! I can't tell you too much since this is going on my blog, but we had to send some missionaries home this week. 2 sisters got caught up in some bad situations, wouldn't tell us the truth, and lied to us for ages. We pretty much learned that it was going on all transfer! The branch president was mad, the branch is now wondering where they're at! Gosh, it's flippin' ridiculous! So we were going all over the place trying to deal with it. The assistants had to come up too. It was honestly heartbreaking as well because of the lack of success in that area (when there is HEAPS of potential there) due to selfishness and stupidity! Very, very upsetting and disappointing!

That's all for now. 

I love you all heaps!

Elder Butler 

#bowlingchamps (well kind of). 

The big fella, Tu'ipulotu on the far right. kicked our butts the first game, then Muli in the middle, smashed us the second game! (nobody expected Muli to win because he bowled a 50 or less the first time, and was getting ridiculously lucky this time!) ;) ha 

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Another Mean Week in the Kura

Hey there people on the other side of the world!

Another mean week here in the Kura. 

First off, we had a mean baptism on Saturday. His name is Alwyn. He looked mean as when he rocked up in his new suit and new hair cut. He looked like a flippin' missionary! Such a wonderful experience! BUT during baptisms, when the person getting baptized is getting dressed into their clothes again after they get dunked, the missionaries usually give a presentation. (Which is usually teaching The Restoration to all the nonmembers there.) But the Tongans had the bright idea to get up there and invite all the blimmin' missionaries up to sing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer." Right when they said that, me and Zesiger were like, "You idiots!" (That's the flippin' hardest song in the Hymn book!) So long story short... It was honestly the worst missionary presentation of all time! ;) Ha, but it made for a good laugh! 

We went to the Whare Tapu ki te Ariki on Friday! (The Sacred House of the Lord... The Temple!) It was another great experience like always! I love the temple! The peace that is felt in there is indescribable. It's always nice to be in there with 40+ missionaries as well! Also, we get the cafeteria food for free after! Wow... I filled my plate up so much--it was like a mountain! Temple food is so good.  You know, you can't get much better than that--the temple, AND free food! ;)

On Monday last week, we played volleyball at 6:00 in the morning. So we rocked up at like 5:45. All of our Tongan members were there because it was a public holiday, and they were all off work! It was mean as! A couple of days later, the sisters were talking to us and said, "Man, the Langi's can't stop talking about you playing volleyball!" Haha, they all got a kick out of the white fella smashing it better than the locals! ;) Haha, too funny! 

Missionary work is going to start getting really hard now. Especially after dinner. It was daylight savings for us yesterday, so after dinner, it's dark! And in New Zealand, when the sun goes down, everyone's in bed! So it's more dangerous. It seems useless most of the time...it's hard to do anything really. :/ But all good...it just takes better planning. :)

We went on blitz days this week as well! A blitz is when heaps of companionships smash out one specific area for a certain amount of time to try to pick it up a bit! So we took a few Tongans with us to Pukekohe, Tuakau, and Pokeno to help the Pukekohe elders and sisters. It was a great time! It was nice getting out of Auckland as well! Those areas are considered part of the Waikato! So it was nice, and beautiful! It was hard though because we were out in the country, and I'm used to the city now! Then we did a blitz in Redhill also... to help a few more missionaries. So me and Zez weren't in our area for the whole day! It was quite fun! ;) 

Last, but definitely not least! I just wanted to take the time to give my dear mama a nice little shout out! If I calculated correctly, it's her 30th birthday on Wednesday! :) I love my sweet mother more than I can say! I can't wait to see her again, and give her a big hug! Love you heaps mom! :) Have a wonderful birthday! Also.. I heard it was Grandma/Grandpa Butler's birthdays! I love you both heaps! I hope you had wonderful birthdays as well! 

Love you all! Have a wonderful week! Until we [speak] again, in one weeks time! :)
Elder Butler

p.s. I'm flippin' jealous as of all of you! We don't get to watch General Conference for another 2 weeks! We get it way late here in Papakura! :/ But all good. I know it will be worth waiting for!

 Me, Alwyn, Dylan, Odin, Elder Zesiger #baptism

Traveling through the jungle!! (I'm up front).