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Little do you know, that that was just Tahisian.  My companion is teaching me, and I'm picking up on it really well!

Not really.  I bet I tricked you though, didn't I?

This last week has been pretty great!  I've almost worn out Elder Temanaha's shoes already!  I'm the man!  Haha we knocked on his first doors this week, and we're doing great!  We're baptizing a 10 year old kid this week, and we're working with his mom!    We're really excited!

Nothing special has really happened, but we're moving along steadily.  I'm getting along great with Elder Temanaha! Elder Temanaha and I just click. We're going to baptize millions, just watch.  We'll make our own city of Enoch!  See you in the Millennium!

Haha I feel like the father of this area.  Whenever the sisters (even though one of them is the sister training leader, kind of like the zone leader for sisters) in our ward go somewhere with us for a dinner, the whole family and all of the missionaries just stare at me and wait for me to lead us into everything.  Especially a church.  I've just kind of been given the role of the senior missionary in the ward, and among the members as well.  The conversations with them usually go like this. 

"How old are you?

"18"

"WIHHURFIEHLFIGEHRHFK"

Apparently everyone thinks I'm almost going home, because I've been out for so long, and that I'm like 23.  I guess New Zealand eggs do something to you, because I eat a lot of those.

I'm loving it out here, and just the other night I had such a burning inside that came out of nowhere.  I had such a feeling of gratefulness to my Heavenly Father and a love for my mission, that I really don't want to leave.  We watched the best 2 years at an investigators for a family home evening sort of thing, and when we were watching him get on the train to go home, all of us just couldn't even imagine the though of leaving our mission.  If I get two years of this, I'm not sure how in the world I could come home.  Don't be surprised if my passport gets lost mysteriously...  It's not like I thought this out or anything.

But honestly, I feel such an obligation to do this service.  Just as I had a hungering for the temple work to be done, I realize that it is the exact same work being done out here, just among the living.  I kept feeling temple-sick, but I realized that I'm doing temple work, in the field.  Everywhere where there is work to be done is a sacred place.  We just have to recognize where those temples really are.  

I love you all, and I miss you!

Elder Lukens

Hello family!

Hello family!  This week has been great!  No crazy stories or anything, and I really want to sleep... haha my companion fixed our heater and he needs it on full blast to sleep... I need it cold.  Dang it.  Haha so sorry if this email isn't the best.

At a meeting with other district leaders and zone leaders, we were encouraged to stress faith with our missionaries.  We are setting a goal for our zone of 12 companionships to baptize 21 people this month, and of course, the scripture we are going off of is Alma 32:21, keeping the 21 theme.  So this will be great!  I'm just thinking of an activity to do to make it sink in more!  I'm really excited for how this can turn out!

My area is in South Auckland, and we don't have any hikes in our zone.  We are the smallest zone in size, but we have the most baptisms of any other zone in the mission (HA!).  I basically go sight seeing while I'm proselyting.  I'm in the city, so there's not a whole lot to see, but those pictures I sent you of the trees and the bay are the only places that are nice to look at, and I see it every day, multiple times.  Don't worry, I'll move around the country!

 Tell people that I miss them back at home!

I love you all!
 Elder Lukens

 PS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't be surprised if a man named bro. Tonga comes knocks on your door with gifts from New Zealand some time after Thursday.... :)

Lots of Changes

Hello family!  

This last week has brought a couple of changes, but it's been a blast!  I got a new companion, I was called to District Leader, and we're going to baptize three people!  It's been a blast, and I can't believe it's already been 4 months!  When I realized how long I've been out, I was terrified!  There's no way!  I don't feel like I've done hardly enough!  I work hard every day, but still!  I've taught over a thousand lessons since I've been here, and I still don't feel accomplished.  If I were to go home today, I wouldn't be happy with my mission as a whole.  Yes I've baptized a couple of people, yes I've learned heaps, but I still have 20 months to go!  There's NO WAY I could be done!

So I'm going to kick butt!

But really, I was able to be here to see this area start to wake up, so now that I have to lead it, I'm going to make it hit the ground running!  I don't like it when the work is slow, and I'm sure Heavenly Father isn't too pleased with it either.  I've had some good practice, Elder Witt had me lead the area for the last few weeks he was here, and I'm completely comfortable!  So just watch this place grow!

I love this mission, and I'm having tons of fun!  My new companion is from Tahiti, and he speaks French.  He is a brand new missionary, and I'm training him.  He was on the national team for basketball, and he is a stud!  We get along great, and he is one of the happiest people I know!  We're gong to see a lot of miracles happen here, I can already promise that.

Thank you family for everything, I love all of you!  I Miss you, but like I said, there's NO WAY I could come home!  I'm not going to leave this unfinished!  It's not even my work that I'm doing!  I owe my Savior so much more than the entire missionary force could provide him.  I can't give Him that much, but I'll do what I can!  I don't want to stand in front of Him and have to tell him I didn't try my hardest.  It's actually going to happen, we're going to see Him again, and only if we have done all that we can do will we be given the full gift of what he can give us.

So, do it!

Love yous!

Elder Lukens

Elder Temanaha

Elder Witt's last day with our favorite family!  Sorry about the tie.

Our investigator's baby!  Everybody's brown out here!

Spiritual highs and stuff

Hello family!  It it super hot in this email shop.

This week started off great!  By the time Wednesday ended, we had 20 lessons! I was on such a high, I felt confident, and everything was going great, then my companion got sick and we stayed in the house for three and a half days.  Last night was the only proselyting time we got since.  I could see such growth in myself from those days before, and things were perfect, I led the area with the zone leaders and had heaps of success for two days straight, but then we switched back companions and dealt with this test.  It really put a damper on things!  I was craving so bad to go out and teach people, but he could hardly move.  I cleaned the house, I washed and organized the dishes, I read 50 pages in the book of mormon, but it just couldn't satisfy the craving I had to go out and work!  We gave him a blessing and some medicine, but it still took time.

The whole time I was confined to my companion's bedside, I was eager to leave.  I realized it was going to test me to see if I could handle some trials and not lose determination.  It may have been a bigger test for Elder Witt, but I also had a curveball thrown at me too!  We played twenty questions, shot darts out of $3 dart guns, slept a ton, and had a great time!  By the time we were able to go out and do some work, it had been over 80 hours since we had walked off of the property, and since he had walked further than the bed to the bathroom, but we taught 8 lessons in 2 hours, and had 5 potential investigators.

We realized that this was an inconvenience and it would test us, but we didn't care.  We had a desire to work, and we just waited until we could.  That night was incredibly successful and was more productive than the last three days were, and I noticed how much my desire to work has grown since I arrived.  9 hours a day is hard!  Working in an environment where the community generally doesn't accept you with people who would rather be anywhere else than with a missionary isn't the most pleasant experience at times.  But that doesn't really matter if I want to work.  That desire was the answer to many prayers, and I didn't recognize the answer until 3 months of praying when I was given a test.  

Praying is something that I've recently gained a testimony of.  In James 5:16 it tells us that the "effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much".  Sometimes I used to think that having a prayer in my heard and faith was enough, but the actual act of getting on your knees brings some extra power into it.  Prayers aren't always answered instantly, and with asking to help someone in a quality or virtue like I tried here can't be answered instantly.  Just like our Savior, we have to grow grace by grace, which we can only do if the grace of God is upon us, like it was for Him.

I love this work, and I can't believe it's already been 4 months!  I still feel brand new!  Where has the time gone?! I love you all and thank you for everything!

-Elder Lukens

We made a blanket fort

(no subject)

This week has flown by!  I really don't know what to say.  I've fasted twice in this last week and my testimony of fasting has actually grown quite well!  I've learned heaps, I've studied a ton, and I'm enjoying my time here!  There's nothing really to say this time around and I don't feel like typing a whole lot.  We didn't sleep too well last night for whatever reason haha!

My mailing address is still the same, it goes to the mission home

I actually pick up on more Tongan and Samoan than Maori.  I have a Maori book of mormon though!  Along with vietnamese and french!

The weather is starting to cool down, but still short sleeve shirt weather.

My camera works fine, I just don't keep it with me... haha!

There's heaps of fast food here!  They have takeaways where they just sell fish and chips, and chicken.  They taste soo good!  We go to mcdonalds every now and then too.  Carls jr, Burger King, subway, Dominos,  and KFC are all close by.  KFC is the most popular by far, and Denny's is like $30 a plate!  All food here is much more expensive, except for the bakeries.  The bakeries are the best!  Super cheap and better than anything else!

Keep sending pictures, I like seeing things at home!

These things are EVERYWHERE and SUPER NOISY

Cool story by the way!  We were talking with one of our investigators in a park, and a kid lights this back yard on fire and runs away.  The flames kept growing, and it was a forest of dry weeds.  We quickly ran around and told the owners of the house, and put out the fire.  Otherwise, the house would have burned down seconds later.  The fire dept came later after we had it all out!

KFC with the zone leaders

McDonalds with the Elders in the District!

this week has been pretty rough

So you all have a lot of questions, and I don't remember them all.  so... yeah.

Haha this week was pretty rough, all (8) of our investigators stopped progressing, and not a lot is happening.  We've met a few new people though!  The ward is almost useless in helping with the missionary effort, but we're getting along pretty well.  The neighboring ward is the highest baptizing ward in the mission, and the missionaries are hardly doing half of the work!  Members are really the most important part of missionary work.  Don't get me wrong, I love it out here and we're working our butts off, but sometimes things are harder than they should be...

I don't have any crazy stories from this last week, but things are starting to get better!  The members just need a wake up call and get off of their butts.  My teaching is starting to get a lot better, and I always seem to have the right answers to even the most vague of questions.  All of the missionaries ask me questions about things, and I seem to know where to find them in the scriptures!  It's a really cool feeling.  I honestly don't feel like I know anything, but I know enough!  I'm learning tons every study in the morning, and it never seems to stop!  Joseph Fielding Smith is the man!  I've read two of his books so far now!  I am dying to find Doctrines of Salvation Vol. 1&2.  I have vol. 3, and I love it!

Never stop your reading, that knowledge is a blessing, and even a gift of the spirit!  Knowledge is numbered among the Christlike attributes, and is a result of the Melchizedek Priesthood!  I've definitely seen the promise in Ether 12:27 come to pass when he tells us that our weak things can become our strengths!  Now I need patience, because I want all of this progression right now!  Haha I'm loving it though!

Love you all, I'll see you all soon!

Elder Lukens

Excuse the cheezy smiles and the untucked shirt, but this guy is Jericho Tanuvasa.  He just left off to Aussie to play semi professional rugby for the Panthers!  Remember this guy when he hits it big!

New House!

So we just moved out of our flat, and this new one is nice!  We have a deck in the back, we have a long driveway, and quite a bit of space in the house!  We have a cool secret door that leads to our garage too!  It feels like you go to Narnia every time you use the door!  

The land here is beautiful, and we went to get my camera back, and it wasnt there!  they sent it to the wrong place, so they just gave me a new one!  So I have pictures now!

The baptism was pretty crazy.  We show up to the Chapel around 3:30 to 4:00 to fill up the font, because it takes a good 45 minutes, and we had a dinner appointment at 5.  We figured it out, filled it up, ran to go eat dinner, the members decided to drop it off 30 minutes late, we scarfed it down, and my companion's bike broke at the front axle, and it's ten minutes until the wedding!  So we are in our suits and everything and we start running to the chapel, and a member finally finds us while we are just a few hundred yards away from the chapel, give us a ride the rest of the way, and we barely make it on time.  We go through the Marriage just fine, and when it comes to the baptism, we all go and change into the baptismal clothes.  While we were there, we checked on the font and everything to make sure it was alright, and it was just perfect.  We get changed, and go to start the program in the Chapel.  It takes about 25 to 30 minutes to get back to the Font.  Everyone is moving over, and little kids are running ahead of us then coming back yelling "THERE'S NO WATER!!!".  I wouldn't be fooled though!  So I kept walking not believing them saying "Of course there's water, we checked twent-OHMYGOSHTHERE'SNOWATERINTHERE!!!".  Somebody who thought they were doing (satan) a service decided to empty the font right after we left.

We started filling it back up, and in the meantime, everyone went to start eating instead.  It took a good 45 minutes to fill it again, and at this time it's around 8:30 at night.  We try to get everyone back into the room with the font, but they were all hooked on their food.  So we just decided to go ahead with it with the 8 people in the room.  We had the baptism, it was great, and it was very cold.  This one was a special baptism though, because Satan has tried so hard to stop this couple.  We just know that they will accomplish great things if they just keep their covenants with Heavenly Father.  

This week has been pretty great, and I've had other great experiences, but I think that's it for now.  I love you all!  I'll hear from you next week!

baptism!

Deck in our back yard!

This is why you ask for the "toilet" instead of the bathroom.  They're separate!

Farewell for a member!

Secret entrance in a closet to the garage!