I Love You

I love you so much and I hope everything is going well. I hope Caleb's face gets better! (Referring to a basketball injury)

Now to the Questions:
1. The temple was way cool, it is a really small one. But in the Celestial Room there was this older Polynesian lady who shook every missionaries hand and was crying and it really touched my heart.
2. That 100 dollars was for some things for my bikes like lights and a little carrier thing for my bag.
3. Christams call as far as I know will be for 60-80 minutes. And we will be calling you on your Christmas day.
4. I do not know if Elder Perry is here yet.
5. I don’t know my actual address. Sorry mom.

So I really do love you and I am looking forward to my Christmas call! I have some questions for you. What is up with Kyle and is Mitch in Mexico?

Thanks for your support! I can really feel your prayers for me while I am here! I love my mission and I know Jesus is the Christ. While I have been out here I have truly realized how real the gospel is I just love it!

It was a very very good week, of course we had challenges and opposition but overall it was an incredible week! Man I love being on a mission!

Building the Kingdom of God:
Te Atawhai and Teraumiria Lake: They will be entering the waters of baptism December 19, 2009! This past week we set the date and we are on our way! This was the highlight of the week for sure and I am excited to see my first baptism.

Judy Chang: I love Judy she is so sweet and feeds us every time we go over. This past week we taught her about the Atonement. She is having a hard time understanding why it had to happen and how it works. So we did our best to help her understand, but she was not getting it so we just promised her if she would pray that she would be able to understand. She was very excited to hear that. After the lesson she had us edit her essay for uni ( She is learning English right now). I laughed at the fact that she wanted me to edit it. Only if she knew how well I did in English.

Brendan: He is a new investigator. He is a member referral and his girlfriend is in the ward. So we started teaching him this week. We taught the Restoration and did a chapel tour. It went really well, not because of us but because of his girlfriend. We as missionaries would bear testimony and he would be like cool that sounds good but then we would ask his girlfriend to bear her testimony and she would start crying and he would get misty eyed and after he would do anything we would challenge him to do. Member referrals are amazing!

As of right now these are the most promising investigators, Elder Vernon and I are working hard we tract heaps and talk to everyone. And it is not like we see tons of success from it but Elder Vernon said Tracting is Miracle insurance, I thought that was funny.

My Week:
So this past week both Elder Vernon and I have been under the weather. I have had a cold and he has had Asthma problems, Elder Vernon actually developed asthma while he was out here. So it has been tough to keep working but we have been doing the best we can. The other day we were going to do service for a single lady in the ward so I wanted to take some cough medicine before we left so I did. It ended up being night cough medicine so started getting real tired, which was not good because I was using a wippa snippa (weed wacker). That is not a good combo, a tired sick man using a dangerous piece of machinery! I am such a dork, but the Lord was watching over us and nothing bad happened.

So I had another exchange this week. It was with Elder Cai, he is from Northern China, somewhere near Russia, he doesn’t speak the best English so I was worried how the exchange would go but everything went great and I had a blast. I learned heaps of phrases in Mandarin like hello how are you, I belive in Christ, My name is Elder Brough and my favourite, Can I have Orange Chicken and Chow Mein. I needed that one so when I get back to the states and go to Panda again I can impress all the workers and maybe get a discount. You never know. Also with Elder Cai we tracted tons. We knocked on this crazy man's door. So we did our approach and he said I believe in Christ and we were like great that’s good we love teaching about him. He then said yeah Satan’s angels used to come to me at night and they would tie me down and beat me and sometimes even Satan would beat me. It was horrible and then I would wake up bleeding. Elder Cai and I looked at each other and then in a think Chinese accent Elder Cai said would you like a restoration pamphlet. He declined but it was way weird. I love how you run into so many interesting people! I love being on a mission.

So while I have been out here I have learned so much about myself. I love it and hope to learn more, but this week something really stuck out to me. I was sitting there just about to go to bed when a thought came to me, Why is this so hard! Will I ever become the missionary I thought I would be. Right then it hit me,I am becoming that missionary. One of things that I have wanted to do on my mission was develop my relationship with Christ, and I have! While on your mission at times you won't know who to turn too or where to go for help. And over the past two months I have realized to a whole new level that God is always there and I have found my relationship with him has strengthened so much! It is truly incredible! I love my mission and I know I need to be here, slowly but surly I am becoming that missionary that I have always wanted to be, it will take time but it is coming!

I love Sister Brinkerhoff! The other day I received a letter and inside was an article written by Sister Brinkerhoff on Mormonwomen.org you should check it out! So if you are reading this I love you Sister Brinkerhoff! Thanks for everything you have done!

Thanks to those who wrote me this week, I love your letters and are so grateful for them. They are like little shots of morale booster and they get me way excited to be here and it is awesome to know people out there are thinking about me!. I have not had tons of time to write back but I promise you, if you wrote me or will write me you will receive a letter and a picture!. I just love hearing from you guys!

Random Thoughts:
Those who will be serving missions soon please give your mission office address to my parents because I would love to stay in contact with you.

So I was thinking about it, everyone thinks I am going to come back with an Australian accent but to be honest if I stay here much longer I will have an Indian accent!


Interesting things about Australia:
1. So most bathrooms here don’t have toilets in them, which is weird. So if you have to use the bathroom you have to ask where the toilet is. I find it weird and a little bit disgusting.
2. All Australians think that America is full of people who have guns and just shoot each other. It is quite funny. Only if they knew where I came from, it is not like I am from Compton or the Bronx!

Well I love you all and I hope you enjoyed my weekly update.

Elder landon Brough