Hello Family and Friends!

THE DISTRICT

Just a quick update on what's been going on here in the Auckland New Zealand Mission! Miracles are happening! My companion and I are getting along really well and it's making the work so much easier! If there is any advice for a future missionary. This is it...Stay humble and be patient and Heavenly Father will take the reigns to control what needs to happen. My companion and I have been fasting for a good portion of our week. Seeking inspiration on what HE needs us to do with those we know! And it has been working. Humility in fasting brings more blessings:)

Not a raincoat....ARMOR!!!

We have had miracle upon miracle this past week with meeting new people and meeting potential investigators. Everything here has had to be through the members and our members are on board the Lord's train to success! It's a huge blessing! We have been working with a returned missionary, Melody Parker, she is the BEST...actually her whole family is AMAZING!:)
We get referrals like crazy from them and we are getting worked in this ward! I love it! Our goal this week is to have someone set for baptism this week!


My goodness I love this area! We are not..I repeat not going to become discouraged this week! I know this is His work and I know that he will provide his purposes!

Have the greatest week!

All is well here nothing has changed, just the fact that Elder Fine and I have been using a car...It is a blessing and a burden at the same time. We are not really able to talk to many people on the roads so we have had to improvise our efforts in knocking on doors in the area surrounding the contacts we have on one street.

A few highlights from this week. We found six new investigators!!!! YES!!! All coming from fasting and prayer. They both work and are GREAT tools to gain extra help from Heavenly Father! Meeting the ward this past Sunday was quite interesting in itself. So multi-cultral in North Shore, from South African to Chinese. You name it we've got here in "Taka's Brew." It's beautiful here, SO GREEN! I will for sure miss the foliage because everywhere you look there are trees or bushes. It's sweet az! But adjusting has been difficult but it will take time after being in Papatoetoe for about 8 months. The members are the best! We are double covering Aeroview Ward and Aeroview North Woop woo!!! I believe that this area is prepared it's just going to take our efforts to find miracles here.
There has been a lot of negative talk about Harbour Stake, but we will be putting all of that to shame!

THIS AREA IS THE BEST AND WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR WHAT IS TO COME NEXT!!!

Elder Matua has been transferred to Harbour Stake, and is assigned as a District Leader, covering the Aeroview Ward. He says that his area is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, but then again, what part of New Zealand isn't beautiful, right??? His new companion is Elder Fine from Nukualofa, Tonga. He is so excited to be serving in a new area, but as you can see by the pictures, he's made some eternal friendships with families in the Papatoetoe area. We will be forever grateful for the care and concern the Saints in Papatoetoe showed him during his time there. Faafetai lava!!!

Last picture with his district and the Irvines in Papatoetoe.

New Companion, Elder Fine from Tonga

It's getting colder here.

Sorry everyone, I know it's been over two weeks since the last post but it's been kind of a stressful two weeks. Let me start by saying that the Lord has granted miracles on Elder Matua's behalf. The first miracle was that New Zealand wasn't impacted by Cyclone Pam as we had initially heard. Elder Matua said that they prepared for the worst but in the end they got a lot of rain and some wind but nothing life threatening. The second miracle is that he's doing better physically. We heard from him at odd times on email days because he was really sick. He had to be driven everywhere. He spent a night in the hospital and then a week in bed. I won't go into details, other than to say that it was serious enough physically that he almost had to be down for 6 weeks. But thankfully the Lord has allowed him to recover and he's back to full activity and loving it. Being down for a week was driving him mad (and I'm sure his companion).He's still in Papatoetoe, going on 6 1/2 months, but transfers are this week and he's pretty certain that he'll be moved. So, we'll update everyone next week. He got an AWESOME surprise this week!!! Elder Burns (his former companion) and his family are in New Zealand and they stopped in to visit him and drop off his Easter treats. He was SO happy to see them!!!

The Elders and the Burns Family

Anyway, he didn't send a weekly rundown the last couple of weeks due to illness, and then we were out of town this last weekend for Spring Break and Easter and we didn't have good reception for phone or email.

REUNITED with Elder (Kris) Burns

Hopefully we'll get a better picture of what he has been up to for the past couple of weeks.