March 1, 2015

Dear Family,

haha yes 18 months out, it is crazy, but who's counting right? Getting a bit trunky are we? haha don't worry mom, Elder Savage's mom has done the same thing, his family had a countdown and are telling him what's going to happen when he comes home, pretty funny I must say. 

Yeah we were sad we missed the training but we did get to hear about it, this week there was a meeting with Elder Bednar about marriage that we heard was pretty good, President Morris even said we should have been able to go to learn about it at least haha I thought that was funny. 

Dad's email, can you say mind blown? woah, I was so not expecting that, he has been in the bishopric for as long as I can remember and now he's the Bishop, that is nuts. haha I bet he's ready, and for you, well, a new adventure :) It'll be awesome!

That family that had the child get baptized is doing alright, they missed this week because the baby was having a problem I think, but one of them could have come, but oh well, we will work on it for next week. Our other members are doing pretty great.

We had the old Senior couple that served here come down from Gisborne, and they came on a bit of a slow day, we only had 29 at church down from our 40 something last week. Crazy how we get so much fluctuation. I wish it would stay up, and so does President Morris. 

This week was awesome though! My birthday was great, the members treated us pretty solid, we had 3 cakes! It was nuts! I did get to use the candles you sent :) We had an incident coming back from Palmy where the alternator belt on our car snapped and so it was in the shop for most of the week and then the other Elders in Dannevirke came and picked it up. Luckily we were already in Dannevirke dropping the other elders off when it snapped, so nothing too bad. 

Had a great weekend, a great lesson with our new investigator Bobby about the Plan of Salvation, and then another great one on the same thing with Mary. The Morris' are helping us with both, and they are hopeful that they both turn out into baptisms, as are we. Mary has a lot of questions, but yesterday, the craziest thing happens, she told us that she had asked and prayed 20 years ago to know if the Book of Mormon was true, and she said she still remembers the distinct feeling she has, but she just didn't act on it and apparently the Sisters she was working with didn't have her questions answered like she wanted it either, so that was a bit of a let down, but, she still had that experience, so that is so cool! I hope she does this again! It was so cool to see that she is still wanting to find out, she said she does want to read and find out if this is something that will be good for her and her family. I am hoping and praying she does. 

Great week though, just great. Awesome lessons, great investigators, and the area is awesome too. I just have the feeling that this is my last week here. Transfers are a week from Wednesday. Last night was probably my last night at the Roches too, next week they are taking Shaun home and going to Wellington, a bit sad, but 7 months is awesome to have here. 

Love and miss you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Passey