March 9, 2014

Well, new week again, and this one started with a bit of a bang...no....theft actually. My companion's bike was stolen...we were talking to some of the boys outside a cafe, and we went in to go have a game of pool and talk to them more, and not even two minutes after we went in, his bike was gone! We had locked up my bike, but I guess we missed his and it got swiped...I feel bad, not even a week and his flash new bike is already gone...well we called the cops and filed a report, but for now, we just have to hope it shows up.... so far it hasn't though, but he did get a new one from another missionary, not a new new one, but a bike all the same.

 Mission Leader Conference was in palmerston North, really cool drive, I wish I had my camera out, we drove through this beautiful gorge, it was awesome! But sadly I didn't, maybe we will go through again someday. It was really good, President Kezerian is a lot more relaxed when it's just the leaders in the mission, and I think he's trying to prep us all for when President Hudson comes in June. It's working though, I just hope everyone doesn't get antsy about it. 

Lets see, we also had Zone Conference here in Hastings on  Friday, that was also good, it hurt having two all day meetings, but we caught up, and still reached a few of our goals. Six elders for a ward that has half of Hastings in it, small areas like Clive and Whakatu, and Waimarama, so overall about an hour or more across our ward. Wow...I've never even thought about that. An hour or more at least. Crazy. 

Singing was good, the choir director was going crazy the morning of because it wasn't Tab Choir material. It worked though. We had a ward Movie Night, and it was a disney movie and we had investigators there, so we got to go, and we watched Frozen! I loved it! It made me happy to watch a movie, a good Disney one too. Tell Alyssa I watched Frozen, she'll like that. Oh I got her letter too, so tell her I watched it. We had a car wash at the chapel, helping the YSA, busy all morning, but fun too! Not much else..

All sounds good at home, birthdays and movies and Scriptures. Our ward is doing 3 pages a day so we will read the B of M twice this year. I'm already at once but the second time is a lot slower. 

Love and Miss you all! 

Love,

Elder Passey

photo credit: wellingtonnewzealandmission.blogspot.com/

Leadership training Hastings

photo credit:wellingtonnewzealandmission.blogspot.com/

Zone Conference Palmerston North

March 1, 2014

Hello Family!!!

The new DL is doing AWESOME!!!! My new comp is so cool!! Elder Schumaker, he's half Samoan, and cool as! We get along great already, and he almost came pre trained, but I'm second phase training him, so it's fun. Lots of new big things for me to learn and do, but I love it! I think it's so much fun! I know it's been so crazy how fast it has all gone!! 6 months out already, I'll be home before we know it! :) 

 We have 6 missionaries in the ward, so lots of feeds to go around for all of us, and we have to have our dinners separately too so we aren't all tied down, but it works. 

Well, basically this week has been getting BASHED on!! Man, we bashed with Baptists, and then this crazy hippie lady came up and was all," WE don't need to argue the word of God, we just need to have the Holy Ghost tell us what to do, it just hits you and you will know! We don't need words! blah blah blah and she went on for 20 MINUTES about how we DON'T need words....really annoying. Then later this week, we got told all about Islam and the Muslim faith, and then he said we should go study the Quran and learn to preach, and we offered a Book of Mormon for him to "study" and he said," Oh no I don't need it..The Quran has everything." A chapter all about Mary and how she's a holy goddess and how if you cut your nails on your door you will become the poorest man ever...what?? Okay man, whatever...They make no sense at ALL! We talked for an hour with that guy, and got nothing from it. So lame. Bashing weeks, gotta love it. What else...we are in the ward choir, singing next Sunday at Ward Conference, that will be fun. Did you think to pray and Joseph's First Prayer to the tune of Jesus Lover of My Soul. Real good. I found my watch in a Casio case in town, my 20 dollar Wal-Mart watch, it's $80 here!!! haha that sucks!! Man I hate New Zealand pricing....Anyways, pretty good fun week, lots to do. We have Zone Conference and I have my first mission leader council this week. 

Hope you are all doing great, miss and love you all! 

Elder Passey

Elder Passey with his new companion Elder S.

Feb 23, 2014

This first part he sent out to a bunch of his friends for an update.

hey guys,

so just a little update on what's been happening. 

1- it's my birthday tomorrow, so if anyone wants to send me anything...haha jokes you don't have to.

2- well, another transfer has come and gone, 6 months on the mission and my time has now come. I am being made District Leader in the Hastings District, and I will also be training a new missionary coming in. So, lots of responsibility coming up, but I am very excited and willing to take on this new challenge to help me grow and be a better missionary. 

3- I have a baptism date set for May 10th for this guy John we have been teaching, and he is progressing very well, always comes to church, and I think he's going to want to make it happen sooner than May. He just has WOW problems, but he is going very well and doing good. 

4- anyways, just a heads up on what's been happening, still doing the work, still going hard, and still trying to learn and grow every day. 

Always remember to be obedient to the principles of the gospel, it will help you in everyday life and help you to become better. Attend the temple if you are worthy and able to as much as you can. Here on my mission, the temple is inaccessible, and so I miss it a lot. Take advantage of it. Read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover if you haven't yet. That book contains so much that we can all use for everyday life. I have such a great love for it and the material and wisdom it contains. It is an inspired work of God, and I know that we can get closer to God with that book than by any other. 

I love this work, I love this gospel, I know it to be true, without a shadow of a doubt. I miss and love all of you, and remember, KIA KAHA! 

Love,

Elder Passey

The package actually already arrived, so I have balloons galore and candy!! haha thanks!!
It's so crazy, almost seems too much, but I know if that's what the Lord thinks I can do, then I'm going to do it! It will be hard I know, but I'm really looking forward to it! (his response back to me about becoming District Leader)

Besides that, my week seems slow I guess...

Had an exchange with Elder Pelo in Napier, that was really fun, Elder Pelo is the man! It was pretty hot up there, like 26 C, but on saturday, I was going to die...35C!!! That's like 100 F! We had our Stake Helping Hands on Saturday too, so we were out in the sun for 3 hours...I put sunscreen on, I didn't get too sunburned, but I still just felt the sun killing me....It was the hottest temp in the country on Saturday, so pretty bad....some members made us Cafe Rio though! It was good, but not as good as home..I think she took out too much of the juice so it was a bit dry, and no home made tortillas, so not as good, but tasty still. Also, yesterday we were in town street contacting, and a member, high council man, from Flaxmere talked to us, drove down the road, then turned around and asked if we had lunch. we had eaten a bit earlier on, but he said come on I'll come buy you something. So he took us to this Asian place, we ordered, and then he left, he was going down to Wellington. So Elder Taufa and I sat in an Asian restaurant on Sunday eating Asian satay. Pretty great. Only on my mission in New Zealand. Besides that, just the training call and being DL, so lots of work for me now. I'm excited though, and I hope I can do good. I loved all those picture quotes too! I'm going to put them on my signing journal for the cover. 

Anyways, still doing good, it is a lot cooler today too, so lots easier to be outside. Going to have a District P day today, playing touch rugby at the park, which I love! It's so fun! 

Hope you all have a good week, miss and love you all! 

Elder Passey

Had to send him some birthday balloons!

The crazy Hastings District

Elder Passey and Elder Taufa

Feb. 16, 2014

Dear Family

Yes my week has been AMAZING!!! Wow, so much!!! Fantastic exchange with Elder Langi, I uploaded pics, so cool, so much good stuff. He's so powerful, and knows exactly how the mission life is, he's the man!  I also almost found my other street! It was Plassey instead of Passey though, dang...so close!! Maybe someday I will have my full name in Streets! We did have rain the beginning of the week, then it stopped and got super hot! I was dying all day, but then I came back to Hastings and got the car again, all good now :)  The exchange was in Havelock North, which is a rich little village like a mile out of Hastings. Kinda hard area, but hey, gotta do it,. and it was fun anyways.

 The next best thing this week was a leadership training we got to attend that had Russell M. Nelson there! It was a broadcast from Auckland, but so cool!! That was such a powerful meeting, and I gained and learned so much to use as a missionary, even when it was for church leaders, so powerful!! I hope we have more of those! 

Elder Nelson said this, three things we as missionaries do to help hasten the work.

1-Gather Israel using the Book of Mormon

2-Seal families in the holy temples, or get them there

3-Prepare people for the second coming. 

Loved it, the whole thing was so awesome! I hope we have more down the line. It was funny as well, Elder Hamula got up after him and started describing how Elder Nelson is almost 90, 90!! and Elder Nelson gets up again and says, you know, in the word of wisdom it says you can walk and not be weary, walk and not faint, and ski with your grandchildren! haha so great! They are just normal guys inspired of God.  

Behind us? Probably just orchards and paddocks, there is so much fruit in Hawke's Bay right now, so much, and it's all so good!!! Variations and breeds of plums and apples, delicious!

I told him about our Stake Youth Conference coming up this summer that is all about missionary work....

Wow that sounds great!! that should be good for the youth to do that, it helps prepare a lot when you experience it more back home. So nice to be able to have those opportunities too! The noble generation moving forward! well, all seems well back home.

The bishop here in the ward just gave us a challenge, well, the ward, to read the Book of Mormon twice this year, I'm already at one, so I'm going to surpass that by a lot. I love that Book now, so much. More than I ever have. 

Well, I'm a bit out of time now, well, we are heading out, Taufa has been done for like 20 minutes. I have too many emails haha :P oh could you send me the recipe for cow pies? I thought of that one this week. Love and miss you all, thanks for everything!! 

Love,

Elder Passey

Elder Passey and Elder Langi

Feb 9, 2014

Dear Family, 

well, it's been a rainy and wet week here in Hastings, but at least I haven't been able to be sunburned this week! :D Yay! Miracles do happen :) anyways, had a busy but great week this past week. We set a new baptismal date with John  for the 10th of May, so whether I am here to see it or not, he's on the right track! Maybe we will do something to help him move it up. I hope so.

That's what the whole world is trying to push, open your mouth to be able to share the Gospel. I actually do get nervous sometimes, it gets so nerve racking when all these people are around you and you are trying to share a message, it just feels really overwhelming. I gotta do it though, and some days are better than others. Some days I get real intimidated, and others I just go hard and talk to everyone, but it works.  

 I had an exchange with Elder Vagai, (van-yai) and I again did not get a picture with just us, but he's in our district photos I put on. We had Waitangi day here in Clive, just outside of Hastings, which is the celebration of the day when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, the Treaty for peace between the Maori and Europeans I believe. It was cool, lots of people, lots of food, we had ice cream on a watermelon all cut up, that's really good! Just take half a watermelon, take a knife and cut diagonally inside it a few times, mix it up a bit, then plop ice cream on the top, delicious! I have a picture that I will get from Elder Purcell to show you all. Oh yeah it was his birthday, and so at District meeting we had cake and ice cream, and then celebrated with him yesterday with more cake, we got him a NZ scarf. It was pretty great. We walked around in the rain for a good 5 or 6 +hours this week, just for fun, we walked around trying to street contact and into Ton, which is a good half hour walk, but then three or 4 besides that, so lots of rain, and we got pretty much drenched. Fun stuff, look forward to that one Jaydon! Other than that, just pretty much more street contacting, visits, and doing missionary stuff. Hoping for more great people who are willing to listen and doing the good work here in Hastings! Hope you are all doing good, and have a great week!

Elder Passey

Buildings in downtown Hastings

Feb 2, 2014

Dear Family, 

The area is awesome, I truly do love it! This week I had an exchange with Elder Godinet, who is real cool, good guy, and he only has one transfer left, pretty much done. great times with him, he's pretty crack up! 

Yeah I felt nothing from that earthquake, it was actually kinda lame...I don't want to be in a huge one, but I want to know how it is I guess....

The members said if I give them mexican food recipes or other stuff from home they will make it for us when we go there, so maybe anything you want to send me, go for it! Meatballs, cafe rio, and anything else.

So pretty much the coolest thing happened this week, I met Sid Goeing!! The temple President in Hamilton, the great Rugby star, played 11 seasons for the All-Blacks. He's so cool. Got a picture with him to send to ya, 

We had Stake Conference this past weekend, pretty much the Saturday session was missionary work, and the Sunday one was womanhood, and praying and reading scriptures. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Very cool. Their stake calendar, fantastic. I love Hastings, it runs just like home. My week was overall great, nothing too special, just did heaps of street contacting and stuff. No one new, still working with John, still comes to church and to both sessions of conference. He's doing great. Hope all is well back home, love the work, miss and love you all!

Elder Passey

January 26, 2014

Hey family!! This week has been awesome!! I love Hastings!! My companion, leaders, District, Bishop, Ward, and all of it! Fantastic!! Great area, but hot as! President has been putting stress on using sunscreen, apparently lots of missionaries get skin cancer from this mission, sweet. I'm done for..anyways,

This week has been...weird, fun too, I had an exchange with Elder Johnson from orem, cool guy, also ginger, and we played a game of pool with some drunk guys, so legit. We lost, but it was still really fun! the weird things started up this week.  We have come home at night and lights have been turned on in our flat, no one was there, but they were on. It started out with one or two, and then we came home after church yesterday and ALL of our lights were on. Not one, or a few, ALL of them.  We were like, what the heck is going on, and then, second weird thing. Elder taufa and I each have a lamp by our bedside table, but neither one was plugged in, and neither one was on the bed stand. When we got home, mine was on the table, plugged in, and pointed straight at my bed. What the....I think that it could just be missionaries screwing with us, but then after we left again, we locked everything, and the same night, it happened again! We are so confused...oh, and our attic was opened too! That's no easy feat either, you have to get up on a chair to pop open the panel. It just flips open and sits on the edge, but man that was really weird. Elder Taufa shut it and checked up there, nothing....so weird...if it happens again we will probably call President and then maybe wait it out and see if anything happens...I video'd right when we got in, and I'm maybe gonna call it Paranormal activity mission edition, but until we find out who or what it is, untitled. anyway, besides that, still doing good. 

(Yep, sounds like he has some Elders messing with them) :)

Oh, we have Maori bread for sacrament, which is really sweet and pretty fattening, but man it is good, just a random fact that is completely unique to NZ. Really cool stuff. We had an earthquake up here on Monday, it was about 50 miles west of us, but we felt nothing. I guess Hastings got a little bit of it, but it was P day and we were at the park, so nothing. On our exchange, Elder Johnson played me and said I had to eat all the food from their ward mission leader who fed us, and so I tried, but just couldn't...you'll see the feed on Dropbox. I have a couple with the feed, potatoes, corn, chicken, beet root, corn on the cob, pork head stuffing, which is really good, and then a cheesecake for dessert. He makes it all himself, and it was like a 5 star meal we each should have paid 60 bucks for that we got for free. I have a couple with the start, and then one from what I was able to eat. I wanted to explode after...well, I fed old people for my first time, we do service at the rest home and I fed this old guy juice and some different colored mushes. Cool stuff, it was actually fun, we also talked to this crazy old lady who likes us but was always telling us to go away, and bugger off haha. Great week, I was volunteered by the Bishop to teach class in Gospel Principles because our teacher was gone, so I taught the Godhead with 2 minutes prep time. Pretty sweet. Our investigator John  who walks an hour and a half to church every week, said I had a "good speech", so it must have been good. Great times here in Hastings so far. Oh, so today I tried pancakes for breakfast, but they didn't turn out good, what is a recipe I can use just with like flour, water, sugar, and other stuff? Hope you are all doing good, miss and love you all, have a great week! 

Elder Passey