September 21, 2014

Oh yes, excitements galore!! I love this area so much, it has so much to offer! We might have to push the top guy back a week because he missed church one week, but he is doing good otherwise. The one that loves to pray showed up at church by himself, that was the one, so cool! Then this week, we had 3 investigators at church!! 3!! All young men, and so now we pretty much will have a deacons quorum if they all get baptized!! It's so cool!! They all seem to have pretty good intentions other than just hanging out at church, and so we should be making great progress with them. This week was pretty awesome to say the least.

Zone P Day was the bomb!!!! First one my whole mission because Pres. K wouldn't allow it, and now that Hudson does, so awesome!!! We won't have one a lot but because this one worked we will be able to have others too. It was awesome!! 

We also had an amazing Culture Fest at the Stadium here, and the school we go help at had a little presentation, and then the other schools from around the region also did something and then our youth were all involved in them, I'll show you the videos, I'll upload them, they are pretty sweet. Then the college (High School) kids had one at the end, they did All Of Me in Maori and then a mean as Haka, it was amazing! I love the culture here, so cool! The weather however was not that great..... rain and wind and then rain, stopped, rainy as, stops and then crazy wind and rain then nothing...it's pretty ridiculous...but that was only from Thursday onward so we will see how long it continues to last :P My favorite group of scripture this week, I have one this time haha has been Matthew chapter 12, coupled with the House Divided video on Mormon channel Bible Videos. It is probably one of Christ's best rebukes, and also shows how he is a master teacher. Love that stuff. New Testament hero: Christ. 

pretty awesome week all in all though. sport day is still a big hit, when it isn't rainy as :P still doing awesome with people, it's a new transfer now, and Foremaster and I are still staying!! WOOHOO!!! We are gonna go hard and just teach and baptize like its our job, which it is :) Love the area, love the people, just, a great part of my mission right now. Love and miss you all, have an awesome week!!! 

Elder Passey

http://www.mormonchannel.org/bible-videos?v=3385676452001

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/matt/12?lang=eng

September 14, 2014

this week, what a week...it has been really good overall. Exchanges with the District Leader, I went to Dannevirke, not a bad town I liked it. 
We had a mean sports day, we had like 20 kids show up, and that capture the flag game was epic!!! We also played Bullrush which is like the New Zealand rugby version of British Bulldog if you ever played that in school  it was super fun, Foremaster was able to withstand like 8 kids holding on at once for a minute or two, that was nuts.

 One of our new investigators showed up at church yesterday all by himself, no reminder, no nothing, and he came in a suit and tie and everything!! he's the man, just gotta teach him now. But pretty normal, did some driving around our area to try out more towns, yeah...pretty useless.....smaller than Pahiatua is not great. Still love the area, Foremaster and I get along great, and we always have more to do! Hope you all have a great week as well, we have a Zone P day today, first one of the mission!!! President Hudson said yes, so today is going to be EPIC!!! Love you all!!

Elder Passey

September 7, 2014

Dear Family!!  
 Probably one of the best weeks ever, give or take :) Wow could this week have been any better!!! Started off with exchanges with the Zone Leaders, we don't normally have them but they decided to. I stayed in Pahiatua with Elder Smith, we had some fun times, played Dominos at the rest home, contacted former investigators to get new ones, and just had a good time. I did finally get the package as well, it seemed to take ages but I got it, Thanks for all the great stuff, I always love new pens! And the redvines...yeah they're gone haha :) 

Great week, our sport day is EPIC!!! We had at least 4 new kids come along, we had the meanest game of capture the flag, and it was sick!!! That was the most fun we have had in a while, and then one of the new kids that came along, and we just had a prayer at the end, and he loves to pray now! He lives on our street actually, just across from us, and so they come over to see if we can play another game or something, when we have free time we do, but we are pretty busy. He always asks if we can pray now and it is super cool! He's the man! Also, miracle, our top investigator is now set for the 27th!! He had to ask his grandma but she said it was up to him, and he's all good! So we just have two more lessons and then sort it all out, but I think it will happen! He's the man!! We drove through more of our area too, I posted those pics, it is a very pretty place up here in Tararua, we went through the Makuri Gorge and then we went to Waihi falls which was way cool!! Also on Friday we got asked by our Relief Society President to help out at the school that she is a principal for, and so we went over to the stadium in Pahiatua and we reffed their volleyball team for like 4 hours that day! It was awesome!! We had a super fun week! 

Talks aren't really that bad for me, i just throw together some material, get heaps of scriptures and then use my mission stories, easy. Our investigators are pretty good, we have some work to do with a few of them, but we do pretty good overall. 

Love and Miss you all, have a great week! 

Love Elder Passey

August 31, 2014

Dear Fam!

Hey Family!

This week has been busy as, as usual for little Pahiatua haha! We were busy pretty much every day except Tuesday, but we solved that problem too. We had our interviews for the rest home, so now we will be able to help out there a lot. We went around on Wednesday and spent some time with the people, they are really cool, the staff already love us, and so it's going to go great! 

New investigators, yes! We met this guy named Paul who is a scout leader here in pahiatua, said he has an open faith, and also willing to learn about us, and already started reading in the Book of Mormon! Awesome! He said we could go around to Scouts any Monday we want, so we will probably go tonight. That will be sweet! 

We are very busy! We get fed pretty much every day, all except Mondays sometimes. But other than that, feeds all the time! I love it! We do great for food. 

Man this week, it has already been another week since our year mark, and that was a sweet party we had!! haha we burned shirts, had heaps of junk food, took lots of pics which I will upload, and then just reminisced for a while...It was awesome! I will upload all the pics. Great scenery pics too, on the way to District meeting in Dannevirke. it was great! Pretty full on week though, just busy, and meeting with as many people as we can. It all goes on though, just continues, and it rocks! I love this area and my comp, so that's all I can ask for. Oh yeah, one of our investigators has been thinking seriously about getting baptized....SWEET!!! He just came out and said he wanted to...so we will see how that goes...also helping a youth in the area come along too, he had great friends at church, and he's doing really good. So we will see how this week goes. Hope it goes great! Love you all, have fun, remember the Lord loves you! my favorite thought for this week has been Alma 36: verses 26 and 27 I believe...Anyways, have fun!

shirt burning 

at least he isn't starving :)

August 24, 2014

Dear Fam!

My new area is the best! Well, I love Hastings too, but Pahiatua and Woodville and Eketahuna are pretty legit towns. We have so much going for us here, and actually, i think we do more than I did in a bigger area, because we always are trying to fill time, and so we just do anything and everything to stay busy. Work on the farm, less actives, volunteer at rest homes and schools, anything and everything. It's awesome!! 

This week I saw two cows give birth...the first one....stillborn. It came out, flopped to the ground, the farmer guy kicked it a bit to try and restart its heart or something, but nothing....he had to reach in and pull it out too so that was kinda gross, but cool at the same time...it was Elder Foremaster and I's first time seeing a cow birth, so kinda sad...but the second one, all goods! We saw the calf tongue wriggling as it came out, so that was pretty neat. Gross a bit, but neat. 

We also found out this weekend from some members that the Brethren church owns like 80% of the whole town. All the major businesses are run and owned by them. Most shops, and then some other random stuff too. It's crazy, there's a big brethren church right by our house, and they all come in huge lines on Thursdays to go. We heard about how it is inside, and it sounds spooky. The fire brigade took two months to get permission to go inside, and they said if anyone is stuck inside with a fire, they're pretty much dead. It goes down into the ground, like a spiral staircase, then he said in the bottom middle are these two horse statue things around like a coliseum area, then benches with straps on them, 10 inch thick steel doors that only open from inside, it sounds more like a compound than a church. he said I can only imagine what goes on in there.... scary.....real scary...Foremaster and I were debating whether to go in yesterday, but we were thinking we wouldn't make out out alive.... anyways, so a big church runs half our town. Awesome!! :) Looking forward to that... other than that, we have been meeting with new people, finding new investigators, and doing the best we can. I love this area, and my comp and I get along great and it makes it so much easier! I hope you are all doing well, remember who you are and what you stand for! Love the Lord with all your heart might mind and strength! 

Love you all!

Elder Passey

August 17, 2014

Dear Family,

Pahiatua (Pahi:Atua) - God passing, or, passing the place where God lived. 

I am sooo happy to be in a new  area with a new companion!  The 4 days I have been here in Pahiatua have been busy all day, every day! Tiny as but also a mean as area! I love it here! The branch is really small, probably like 20 people at church yesterday, but they are all pretty cool. Elder Foremaster is the man, and I love the area!  We stay busy, and do awesome! We have a few good investigators, and plenty of Less active work to do. There are about 125 less actives on the list of members here, and 20 come to church....so yeah...we have heaps to do. 

I saw some members from hastings yesterday, they were coming back from a place called Linton by palmerston North, and they stopped in and saw us. We had dinner with the first counselor in the branch presidency and he lives in the valley in between here and Palmy, so they come and pick us up every time and we had an awesome dinner. Both converts, and their story is really cool! It was awesome!! I love this area...cool people, cool place, just so much to do! I love it! 

Looking forward to this new area, lots to do, more people to teach, and doing awesome! Love and miss you all, have fun!

Elder Passey

August 10, 2014

Woohoo!!!! Transfer!!!!! haha funny thing, I'm actually not going to be District Leader anymore, no reason why, just happens. I don't even mind, I'm going to be comps with Elder Foremaster from my intake, and so that is going to be a BLAST!!!! It's a tiny as area, but it is going to be awesome!!! 
Yeah John got it(the Ensign), he loves it, he really enjoyed the Isaiah article, he reads that guy every day. He's nuts!! haha but he loves it.

Well this is a sad but joyous moment. Said goodbye to some great members, getting a new comp, I got a kuwowo from a less active Maori guy, he has this huge collection of carved Maori stuff, and he just gave it to me when we were about to leave. I'll send you pictures of it. I can't figure out how to play it yet though.... But I am so looking forward to this transfer, and to new places and people!! Hope you all have a fun week, enjoy the weather! Here it has been warm and cold at night, but freezing in the morning, yesterday there was like a quarter of an inch of frost on our car. Taste of home right there...only a small taste... anyways, love you all, have fun!!!

Kuwowo