I have had a pretty good week, a lot of new things. I got my birthday package on Thursday. I believe that it was at the mission office in Auckland before my birthday but it takes a while to drive the mail up so we have to wait to get mail for when the ZL's drive down for meetings. The package was awesome though. Thank you very much, the tie is awesome, and the puzzle thing is driving my crazy. I can't get it yet but one day I will. Karisma was almost born on my B-day, that was close. She could have been my favorite cousin but now she will have to earn it. How is the family doing? What's new in St. George? How is Kolten? Weird that Chantelle will soon be one of the Summers girls. Boy's camp is so awesome - wish I could have gone. How is school going? Random tidbit of information Kylee is now home form her mission because she had back problems and got a medical release so that was some sad news.
This week:
Well there has been a lot of changes this past week. I officially hit my 6 month mark this week. On Monday we received a call from President Bali. He called just a little while after I emailed. He talked to Elder Kapeteni and asked him to serve as a ZL in Panmure for his last transfer, then President asked me to be the DL here. So now I am serving as a district leader. After serving as an assistant for all of my mission up until now, not much has changed :) I get t o do everything that I was doing before except now I have more responsibilities. It should be good though. So far I am not sure if I am enjoying my new assignment.
My new companion came up on Thursday after transfers. I spent the day in a trio with the other elders in the zone which was really fun. I miss spending time with other Elders. It takes the whole day for transfers because of the drive so I didn't get to meet my companion until about 7 that evening. His name is Elder Blandford. Elder Blandford is from Gisborne, NZ. He started his mission in Sierra Leone in Africa. Unfortunately he only was able to serve there for a few months and that's when there was an Ebola epidemic then he was smuggled out on an unmarked plane to Portugal, then to a couple other places, Saudi Arabia, Australia and now he is finishing his mission in his home country. He has been here for a little while. He hits his one year mark next month. I find it is easy to be less diligent around him. He seems to not be to excited about serving in his home country - I wouldn't be either. It probably doesn't help that his name is "bland" I know that has nothing to do with it but I just keep hearing, "Hi I'm Bland... I'm Bland." Hopefully we don't get any diseases here. We will still work hard of course.
I want to mention a member from Maromaku Ward that is probably the manliest man I have ever met. His name is Adrian Going. He is a dairy farmer, rugby player, and hunts on horseback. We had dinner over there the other night and he told us a whole bunch of hunting stories. He tracked down some dear that he had shot and not killed until past midnight. He found it in the pitch black and then managed, by himself, to lift it up into a tree. He likes to hunt alone. His is 55 'ish and still has a six pack. I haven't seen it but I am convinced that he does. I am also convinced that he doesn't make Chuck Norris jokes. Chuck Norris makes jokes about him. He has one daughter serving a mission right now and his oldest daughter is just about to have her second son. He actually went hunting down in Gisborne and it ended up that it was on my companions family property. It was a weird connection but my companion new all about it. Eventually they figured out that Adrian was the white man that my companion remembered coming and buying his favorite horse when he was a kid. The horses name is Co Chief. The horse is still alive and is living on the Going farm. My companion is looking forward to a long awaited reunion later this week.
Love,
Elder Summers