Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I loved your E-mail this week and I am so excited to talk to you on your Christmas, I will be calling at 10:30-12:00 my time so I hope you can figure out what time that is for you, sorry about the big window, Elder Vernon won't give me a straight answer… weird I know. I love Sister Brinkerhoff when I got that article I bawled my eyes out. I am such a dork! I just love her. Jordan, Ben Walters is the man he is in the Elders quorum Presidency and his wife is so cool! His wife just had a baby this past week. Dalton Caleb…. I love you what need I say more! Mom and Dad thanks for giving birth to me! I am so thankful for this opportunity to be here at this exact moment! Oh man the church is true! I am so jealous that you played Frisbee man I wish I could play a game. Surprisingly I am exercising pretty regularly. Elder Vernon and I go jogging a few times a week and I am working on my pex and abs… I have a long way to go and the meat pies don’t help. For real I am stoked to talk to you in a few days!

Now to the questions:
1. Alma 26:16. It is the same way I feel. (we asked him what scripture he wanted on his missionary plaque at the church)
2. Yep Watkins road is the one it is on. That was the first street I tracted. (we got on Meetinghouse Locater to find his church building, then googled it on satellite and checked it out)
3. One Ward. Winston Hills
4. I will be calling you so no worries we have one of those minute calling card things
5. Pavlova is delicious we had it at the zone conference.
6. The toilets are in their own room and in our case in the laundry room. And you can't really tell that the water spins the other way.

My Questions:
Were you able to watch the videos on the cd there were quite a few?

And I need Grandpa Brough's dad's name. There is a senior couple who has the last name Brough and they work in the family history center and they want to figure out how we are related.

Man! I love you guys!

It was a good week a very very very good week!

Building the Kingdom:
Te Atawhai and Te Raumiria entered the waters of baptism this past Saturday and it was so sweet! When we first got there the chapel was dirty the programs had heaps of spelling errors and we didn’t start on time so at first I was stressed about making it good and run smoothly. It all worked out the spirit was so strong and to see how excited they were to do it was incredible! After the service they had refreshments and their dad ( A less active member) stood up and thanked everyone in Maori of course and in the culture after you thank someone you then sing a song which was way cool because all the Maoris that were there joined in. It was an incredible day!

Judy Chang: We visited her with Brother Egan, the ward mission leader, and explained to her that she doesn’t need to understand everything to have a testimony. And Brother Egan being a convert himself really emphasised that. So hopefully she will continue praying and reading and attending church.

Brenden Burke: He is a manager at Pizza Hut ( pizza here has nothing on America's) He is way cool and attended church this week. We taught him this week and emphasised prayer and how important it is to receive a witness for yourself. We don’t want him to be baptized just because his girlfriend wants him to.

My Week:
We had Christmas Zone Conference this past week, it was so much fun. We started off with a Temple Session which was amazing and it was so cool to see a room full of missionaries. The temple president had a question and answer thing and that was way cool. After that we met at a near by chapel and had a feed and a talent show which consisted of the sisters singing songs. Then the winner of the Biggest Loser Australia, Bob Herdsman came and spoke to us. He is a member from Perth and he weighed 347 and he lost 52 percent of his body weight. He taught us to have courage to change. It was way cool. We then watched Forever Strong, which was kind of embarrassing because here we have all these Australian and New Zealanders who all play Footy (Rugby) and they watch a movie about Americans playing Rugby. They all had a good laugh about it. After the movie president asked the Maoris to do the Haka. It was sweet as! It is so much cooler when you have real islanders do it then a bunch of white football players who really don’t know the meaning of it. Man it was so cool! They then had a Christmas devotional and then we received our Christmas packages. ( Mom I received both). It was a good day.

Oh, I spoke this week that was kind of intimidating. I spoke on the birth of Christ. I felt it went real good and made them laugh a few time and the spirit was there. So what more can you ask for.

So this weekend they had Carols by Candlelight at the temple. They put lights on the temple grounds and have a concert. First off the Sydney Temple is beautiful, there is no doubt there but it has got nothing on the Temple lights in AZ. Man I love the Mesa Temple. It was way cool to see so many members show up and bring friends and what not. But of course I got stuck directing traffic. Lucky me! But I could hear it in the distance!

Interesting about Australia:
• 21 is the big birthday and when you turn 21 you get a big key… beats me I don’t understand it but everyone does. I guess it is the key that opens the door to adulthood?
• Sweet “AS”. When you want to say something is the best of the best you say as. Sweet as, funny as, cool as. One missionary said something was big as the other day. I had to double take.

Sorry this one is shorter I am crunched on time. I love you all so much and thank you who wrote me. I just want to let you all know I only have three hours for preparation day during December so I barely have time to buy groceries and write home so once December is over expect a letter. I love you and feel your prayers everyday. The church is true and I see it bless so many people from so many different backgrounds. Jesus is everyones' savior.

Elder Brough