Doubled into Deer Park

Elder Newell and Kaanapu in Deer Park

Wow this week was a massive change to what was going on in Tasmania, my new companion is Elder Newell from Alpine UT and he is a great missionary focused and hard working, I've already learned so much from him about being organized and about being a leader because he's been a Zone Leader for a while so he's really helped me just be a better leader for the other missionaries. 

 

He and I got doubled into another area (doubled in means we both got transferred to an area where the last missionaries got taken out) called Deer Park with mostly Samoan and Tongan members in our ward. Completely different then Tasmania with mostly Aussies. Here in the past like 4-5 days we've gotten like 6 feeds! Members just always want to feed us every time we even set foot in their home but hey at least we won't starve so that's good. I'm not too excited about the weight that I'm probably gonna gain BUT Elder Newell is a work-out kind of guy so we'll be right. 

 

I love this area already though not because of the food but because the members are so kind and active in member missionary work, we've talked with a couple families about people that they're working with and helping to bring to church themselves which I am so excited for because I know that member missionary work is the best way for the church to grow. My testimony of member missionary work has increased so much just because of the willingness the ward has to talk to us about people they know, and to actually take responsibility of those people that they're helping. We're going to focus a lot on that as we're serving here because the Bishop seems to be really into it as well. The first time we met him was for dinner and we talked about plans for a family mission plan that we could introduce to the ward, when we met with him and his Councillors the following Sunday, he told us that he felt the spirit so much when we talked with him the first time that he is already following the plan! His Councillors also agreed so we're going to fire up the ward with missionary work! I'm so grateful to be a part of the work here, I love serving a mission. Elder Kaanapu