Best/Worst Week

Okay, now for the week's events. So they week started off pretty dismally. I was getting mad at my companion partly because he was being lazy and partly because I was going along with it so I was blaming him in my head. I was also disappointed because last montyh we had over the goal of weekly baptisms and this month was looking really stink in comparison. I know I should be happy with the 2 bap. dates we had set but in this mission that sucks. The people here are so ready for the gospel, especially in our area, so there's no reason not to baptize weekly. Anyways, I was steaming about how bad we were doing and how we weren't teaching any new people until we had zone conference on Thursday.

At zone conference we had a member of the area presidency, Tad R. Callister. He spoke about a ton of topics here and there but the last thing he spoke on was on being a consecrated missionary. Essentially a consecrated missionary is one who puts everything he has on the alter of sacrifice. He gives up his time, talents, fears, thoughts of home, girls and life there. He gives up his pride and his will. A consecrated missionary gives up all of this and becomes totally subservient to the Lord. After the conference and when we went home I realized I hadn't been acting as a consecrated missionary. I was dwelling on what it will be like to come home and was looking forward to moving on out of my area. Essentially I was saying that the area I'm in wasn't worth my time. I was being selfish. Even as I realized this it was hard to just up and change how I was feeling in an instant. I was still feeling angry and was getting depressed because I hadn't gotten any mail at zone conference (we only get mail every 6 weeks). The next day on Friday I just decided to fast for strength in overcoming my natural tendencies. I naturally want to blame others for my lack of success and I naturally want to sleep when my comp is napping but I knew I had to overcome that.

Friday was probably the worst/best day to be fasting. We spent the day visiting referals and delivering their requested materials so we were biking all around town. Oh yeah, and it was raining. Well, not really raining, more like pouring. My pants were completly soaked through and I was grumbling cause my scriptures in my backpack were getting wet. Then my seat bolt loosed up so my seat was tilting way back and there was no way for me to tighten it so I couldn't ride sitting down which was super annoying. Finally, right after delivering a Book of Mormon to this guy on the farthest side of town, I hopped on my bike to find that my tire was flat. This was the 3rd time I'd had a flat tire and the worst time by far. I was so stinking mad cause then I had to walk my bike home in the pouring rain. I got even madder when my comp told me he couldn't walk because it would ruin his shoes so he would ride ahead like a mile and then wait at a bus stop shelter for me to catch up.

So there I was, walking by my self for the most part down the streets of Hamilton in the pouring rain. I could only think of how much this sucked for so long and then I started to pray that I would be able to not only overcome this, not only to endure my time here, but to do well in this area as well. As I prayed for this the scipture in D & C something came to me, the one where it's the Lord comforting Joseph Smith in Liberty jail. I couldn't remember the whole scripture but one phrase did come to mind: "and if the billowing storms should rage upon you... know this my son that it is for thy good." I kept thinking this over and over and I was crying as I kept thanking my Heavenly Father for the oppurtunity to walk home in the rain. My prayer for strength became a prayer of gratitude as I thought of all the ways I have been blessed in my area. Of coarse I've been blessed in coming to New Zealand, that was an amazing blessing in and of itself but my very specific area has been such a blessing as well. At zone conference I learned that of all the elders from my intake I've been the only one who's had a baptism and I've had 5 already. Even out of the districts in our zone I've gotten the best. My eyes were finally opened to what I've been given and I just bawled my eyes out. It was fine cause my comp was a mile and a half away most of the time so he still thinks I'm tough.

When I got home I was like totally committed, so ready to be a consecrated missionary Saturday was another rainy, hard day but I was so much happier. I think the Lord was just trying to see how committed I really was because it wasn't until Sunday until the miracles came. In one day me and my comp were able to find and set 4 new people for baptism later this month, bringing us past what we were able to do last month. I am just so happy to be where I am and to have a Father in Heaven who helps this stubborn son of His along. There's really no place on Earth I'd rather be than Hamilton, New Zealand and no work I'd rather be doing than His.

Best. Week. Ever.

Love you all,

Elder Keifer

Second Real Week - Letter Home

So this week I had my first baptisms! It was these 2 brothers, Zion and Kaya. They'd been going to church for 5 years but didn't want to be baptized until one of their friends died and that really shook them up. We've had 2 baptisms before, one a kid named Jacob and the other this guy named Junior who plays professional rugby but I hadn't ever taught them so It didn't really count.

Speaking of rugby, everyone plays it here. We play it most every p-day and it's okay but we only play touch and I hate that. I get really bored because there isn't much you can do to not get touched. We should at least play wrap up or something.

One thing that's been ticking me off about New Zealand is that everything seems to be backwards and I think they're just doing it on purpose. I already knew they drove on the left side of the road but that isn't all. If you flush the toilet it spins the opposite way. If you want to turn on a light you push the switch down. The plugs aren't parallel, they're crooked. Oh and every plug in the house or anywhere really has a switch you have to push DOWN to run the plug on. Lights bulbs aren't twisted out of sockets, I learned that when the bulb shattered in my hand. Instead they have prongs that slide like a quarter of an inch to hold it in place. Sinks have separate faucets for hot and cold water which means if you want room temperature water you have travel 7,000 miles back to the states to get it. It's infuriating sometimes.

There are some things that remind me of home. Little old white ladies are still afraid of dark-skinned men. To get a scholarship in school you have to be an islander cause if you're white they figure you can afford it. Parents still complain about their kids being on facebook and texting all the time. It's like America pretty much but everything costs twice as much.

So last week on fast Sunday My comp and I went to different wards cause we had investigators in both and they meet at the same time. Being alone, I got up to bear my testimony and basically introduced myself. There were tons of people nodding off or "pecking with the hens". Here's about what I said:

"If you look around you'll notice I'm flying solo today as my companion is no longer with us." I got some pretty weird looks at that. "I'll tell you why. When I first got here I was set on being the best missionary I could be and working as hard as I could. After a while with Elder Whaanga though I noticed my mission wasn't going to be like that. We started off okay but after a while I noticed we were leaving the apartment later and later and returning earlier and earlier. It got so bad that we were returning in the middle of the day so he could take naps. I finally realized that my mission was being wasted away by an elder who didn't want to work." At this point all the people who'd been nodding off were staring at me all wide-eyed. A lot of people were whispering back and forth and some people were outright scowling at me. I kept going. "One of these times as I was watching him sleep I just asked 'What am I supposed to do? Here I am, a greeny and my trainer is just lying here sleeping.' I grabbed my scriptures hoping for an answer and just let them fall open. The first scripture I came to was my answer." At this point I opened my Book of Mormon at the pulpit and read:

"And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me: slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. It is better that one man perish than a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief."

After I read my scripture the ward was laughing like crazy. Just to make sure they all got it I told them that I had to wash the blood from my sleeves before coming and then I saw a few that finally understood it was a joke. To save my skin I said I was joking, that Elder Whaanga was a great trainer and a hardworker and then bore a real testimony. It was a good ice breaker and people finally started asking what my name was and where I was from and stuff. This lady even asked me to come slaughter her husband. I'm just trying to get on good terms with the members here cause the vast majority of our baptisms come from them, 85% to be exact. President Porter calculated where all the baptisms come from so we could see how to work smarter and not necessarily harder. Of the remaining 15% only a portion comes from missionary tracting so whenever he hears a missionary brag "Man, I tracted for 20 hours last week" Pres. Porter calls him an idiot. We still do tract and talk to people on the street, which I absolutely hate and suck at but even for us the vast majority of our investigators have been referred to us by members.

Okay, I gots to go. I love you guys, and tell everyone else I love them too.

Elder Keifer or "E. Hibbskees" as I'm known to the youth in our ward.

First Real Week - Letter Home

Hola family and friends, wherever you all are! So I've been taking notes throughout the week so I remember everything I wanted to say.

First there's the food here. Everything here is crazy expensive, gas is $6 a gallon. Food's just as spendy but don't worry I have plenty enough. Instead of buying MY food and my comp buying HIS food, we just pitch in together. There's places here and there that we get free food too, I've gone to a Kabab place and a Fish n' Chips shop for free. My comp and I gotta find more. We have omelets pretty much every morning and top ramen for lunch most every day. I'm not complaining or anything, in fact it tastes so good! I guess I have the blessing of Lehi and his family- sure what I'm eating is junk but the Lord has made it sweet unto me! Oh, they have fast food places here but they're seriously twice as expensive as back home. I went to a Burger King and my meal was $10! I was looking for a dollar menu or something but everything on the "value" menu is $3 at least. It's actually really good though, the burgers look just like the pictures on the menu. Another weird thing about fast food in NZ- since the Maori people LOVE mayonaise they advertise their burgers as having more mayo than like McDonald's or something. There's pictures of burgers with mayo just oozing out, it's a little disgusting.

The one thing I probably miss most from back home is cold cereal. The cereal here stinks! They only have 100% whole grain healthy junk and no sugary kids cereal. My comp was tripping out when I asked if we had any cereal; apparently you only eat cereal here if you're trying to lose weight and I guess most every American he's been with asks for cereal. I've been craving fruity dino ites but dont send any mom and dad, its not worth $50 to send a bag of cereal.

As far as weather, we're at the end of summer here and the weather is really inconsistent. We've had rain one day and sweltering sun the next. I have a mean tan line from my watch.

The plants and stuff in New Zealand are pretty trippy. It's more jungley than forresty here. I heard that 80% of the plants here are exclusive to NZ, which is probably why everything nature like looks so weird.

It's not like I'm even in the jungle though. I'm in a suburb of Hamilton, where the temple is. If you want to check the place out it's at 42a Wake Street in Chartwell, Hamilton, New Zealand. It'd probably be easier to google Westfield Chartwell Mall and just look for wake Street to the just to the west. That's right, I have a mall sitting pretty much just outside my apartment.

Speaking of the flat as they're called here, it's like living in the McGlohn's house all over again. They're selling the place so we have to keep everything tidy all the time for when people come to check the place out. We're actually trying to use it as a missionary tool, we've strategically placed pictures and pamphlets all over the house to try and spark interest. Hopefully it'll work.

We already do have a lot of people to teach now though. We set everyone we teach with a baptisimal date early on so they realize what exactly they're working towards and a whole lot here stick with it. We just taught this lady for the first time yesterday and we got her from believing we were planted here by aliens anciently to believing she could recieve an answer to her prayers from God. It's cool guiding people from crazy beliefs to truth.

There's no way we could be as successful if it weren't for the members here. We can call most everyone and they'll pick us up and go to a lesson or they'll tell us about somebody who's ready for the gospel. There's a family in one of our wards, the Rototuna Ward, that had their 17 year old son just commit suicide. It hasn't even been a month and they're having us come teach 4 different people in their home. I know the culture may be different back home but we should have been better with the missionaries. President Porter gave us a statistic about new converts: 85% come from member referals and only 15% of new converts come from set apart missionaries. Our family as normal people have a way better chance of bringing people to the gospel than us guys on missions. The only difference is we do it all day, day in and day out.

Oh man, I forgot to tell you about probably the coolest thing that's happened on my mission so far. On our 1st day here we were taken directly from the airport ot the top of this landmark called One Tree Hill. It's this giant steep hill in the middle of Auckland with this obelisk at the top. From there I could see for miles and miles in all directions and I thought to myself "This is the land I will serve my mission!"

Setting Apart

Well now it's official, I'm a set apart missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Shafer was the one who did the honors.

In attendance was my immediate family (the ones still home at least) as well as grandma and grandpa Bishop.

I was also lucky enough to have Brother Russell, my friend Nate's dad, there too. I even got a tie from him, sweet!

Don was our last guest, thanks for making it out man. Study hard and pray hard, May will be here before you know it and you'll be off to Brazil!

I couldn't be more excited to go and less willing to leaving loved ones. I love you all and will miss you more than I can say here. Now off to pack and nap, I gotta flight at 6 tomorrow morning to catch.

Called to serve!

Having been called to serve in the New Zealand Auckland Mission, I will be leaving Wednesday, January 5th to the Provo MTC. This blog will be a window into the mission I will serve. Thank you all for your insights on bugs to stay away from, warnings of not to offend the giant Maoris and jokes about serving amongst hobbits in Middle Earth. It's come time to see for myself what the island of New Zealand has to offer and to show the people there what I do.