Sister Heal in Auckland, NZ: November 2014

3 November 2014
Transfer 6 Week 1

Uhhhhhh Transfer 6? What the!!! End of this transfer will be my 9 month mark. I have definitely had a mid life crisis realising how short I have left. But it's all okay, because mid life crisis has brought increasing motivation/obedience which increases miracles/blessings/happiness.

Elder Gulliver, who I was in the MTC with, dropped us off
some chocolate this morning... best DL ever!!!!

So increased miracles/blessings/happiness is a bajillion (ok like 3) have agreed to baptism, and are genuinely excited, and came to church... but do not a specific date for baptism. So we are working on that! They have some pretty big concerns to get through... marriage... disowned by family.. etc. BUT, we know through Christ all things are possible! We spoke with our rad Zone Leaders and they are coming to all our lessons for the week to try help us. As much as I hate admitting it, we need help, because we have the best ZL and they can solve the world... and we are going to save souls in November :)

The asian lady at the butter chicken shop (lol yep) gave
us some candy for halloween...

Church yesterday was interesting. Out of the many many testimonies given, only 1 mentioned Jesus Christ. It reminds me of the quote by some apostle.. it's not a thankamony, or a travelamony, or a cryamony.. its a testimony, where you testify of the spiritual truths you know to be true. I think I butchered that quote, but still.

Decided to be matching today............ unity or?

Thanks to mah sister Sister Kuhn for the clothes :)

But since nothing else happened this week to write about I would just like to share with all you my testimony of Jesus Christ. No matter who you are or if you are religious or not, it doesn't even matter.. because Jesus Christ is your Saviour too. We are all at different levels in our relationship with Christ. I know that he is my brother, my Saviour and redeemer. We often talk about Him in some past tense (oh 2000yrs ago..) But that's not the case, He is present. Jesus Christ is a very real and living person. Right now everything you go through every small trial, hard day, challenge in life, heartache, feeling of inadequacy.. He has been through it all. Not just for you, but he goes through it WITH you. Through Him you can become better than you ever dreamed possible. So open your heart a little wider, let Him in, and just see what will happen. If you allow it to the Atonement will carry you, and lift you high.

Sister Heal xxxxxxxx

10 November 2014

Transfer 6, week 2

Hecccttiiccc week this week!!! Honestly, such a good week :) One of the best on my mission!!!

Monday... So We had the genius idea to be real 'Sister Missionaries' and bake cookies for all our investigators and less actives. $30 and 3 hours later we have a wasted pday (missed out on lazer tag), broken oven and hardened cookie mix. Because of the egg, we HAD to cook it by Wednesday night.. so on Wednesday we had 3 members on the same street, so we went to one during dinner, then house/oven hopped (because of time limits at members houses we only got 2 bakes in at each house... had to remain obedient!) and then we made hand written cards and put it all together. TASK ACCOMPLISHED

Tuesday... we had tradeoffs with Sis Brown and Sis Van Zyl. I was blessed to go to the promised land again (southside) and was with Sis Brown. She has been my Sister Trainer Leader (STL) since my first area, so she has sort of been in it for my whole ride. We had really good chats about progression and my time so far as a missionary and what I believe to be my next step. It was perfect and exactly what I needed!!! Trade off was great, a few awkward moments.... we were teaching this tongan man and his wife comes out "no no no, he doesnt know what your saying or want to be baptised etc etc etc" (she is a less active member) and then it got real awkward real quick. Then he yells back "no you shoosh, I do want to listen bla bla bla". Anyway, domestics right there, and then he turns around and says he was baptised when he was 8, uhhh. Moral of the story is it was an excellent day and sister Brown is literally Jeffrey R Holland.

Wednesday... So in NZ there's a thing called "guyfawkes" and it's where for 3 days you can buy fireworks

and then every one lets loose on wednesday. It was nuuuttsss. We were at Bishops house playing with his daughter during lunch, but missionaries can't touch fireworks, so we had sparklers... but we watched her play around and it was pretty rad, then she chucked some at us, crackup! That night was the most annoying night of my mission, sounded like you were in a war. Fireworks going off everywhere!! It was cool but it has carried on the last few nights and the novelty has worn off. I feel sorry for hospital staff.. :)

Thursday.... one of our investigators is set for baptism on the 22nd and should be getting married on the 21st.. ITS A DREAM COME TRUE! Wedding and baptism!!! It was on my mission bucket list. But no celebrating until it actually happens sooo ill get back to you in 3 weeks on that one!!

Saturday.... so our lovely family that we met with the bajillion twins who we did service for a while ago... we did it again! This time, Bishops family came and also a couple of YSA. It was excellent. Had a team of 8 of us who mowed, whippersnipped, organised, built a chicken coop etc. The ward was excellent with fellowshipping and we are now TEACHING the family. Sooooooo excited. I honestly have so much love for them! The kids are the cutest!

Oldest boy is 5, then 3 sets of twins (4, 3 and 1yr)

Then we did our neighbours lawn as a surprise act of service, we had borrowed a lawnmower so figured, why not, the grass was knee high and it was fun engraving our name..

Then we had stake confrence. All about missionary work. How great is it being a missionary when they talk about missionary work? Talks were inspired and hilarious! The Mission Pres and his beautiful wife came and we had a good chat with them. I seriously want to loose my temple recommend just so I can have an interview with him - he is going to be an apostle one day!!!

Sunday.. stake confrence again was amazing. Then we went on splits with 2 sisters from our ward and covered a lot of ground. A less active who hasn't been keen on us coming opened up and said they decided they want to get married and come to church and for her daughter to be baptised. Miracle!

And that's the week. So much more happened but no time to write. In the words of Ammon.. MY HEART IS BRIM WITH JOY

Love you all!!

Sister Heal

ps. the reason why I'm wearing black in all the photos is my companion had a close relative pass away. Tongan culture is you wear black for a year.. but as she is a missionary she decided to do it for a week and I joined in for support. There has been a lot of deaths in this past month, I am grateful for the testimony and knowledge I have of the Plan of Salvation. Christ broke the bands of death, so that death has no sting.

17 November 2014

Transfer 6, week 3

Elders tried to fix my bike buuuuut made it worse haha

Despite it apparently being summer, it has poured and poured and poured this week. But we made the best of it and visited a lot of less actives. People took pity on us and invited us into their homes!! Honestly I am convinced there is a positive to everything!!! We have had 2 less actives come back to church recently and 3 part member families where the member spouse is taking the lead and coming back to church and trying to bring their family along! Miracles all around in the great NZAM!

So heaps of awesome stuff happened this week, general missionary and all. But today there are 3 things I would like to talk about........... The Book of Mormon, Pride and the Atonement.

Morning exercise. I rode home without shoes as
they were so wet and heavy haha. Classy missionary!

This morning I finished reading the Book of Mormon again and as I do every time I finish it, I kneel down and ask if it's true. Every single time I receive that confirmation that the Book of Mormon is from God. Every single time!!!!! It is something that not only brings us closer to Him and his son Jesus Christ but it also brings a happiness like nothing else.

So pride is the ultimate killer in so many things and I just feel like the world should read this talk and I can promise that you will grow somewhat from it!! (Thanks to Sis Kuhn for sending it to me.) https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng

The Atonement.. there is this awesome japanese art where they take broken pottery and fix it with gold. So the broken plates/vases etc become more valuable than they originally were, despite being broken and repaired. This is like the Atonement. We make mistakes, we get cracks and chips and sometimes our life smashes into pieces. But if we allow Jesus Christ's atonement to repair us then we are worth more at the end of it.

Love Sister Heal

Got home drenched at 9pm to this sticky note on the door and chocolate on the floor.. that's Elders!!!

PS. In regards to the million people who have asked. Yes I have gotten fat but it's ok as I bought a new blender today and am doing nothing but drinking veggies for the rest of my life :) Thanks for pointing it out!!!!

PPS. .

We were so wet that during the dinner hour we decided to have some fun at the park near us. Well worth it. Closest thing youll get to swimming on the mish! Don't worry, there were no people watching and I wore my helmet for safety ;) I made my comp go first, just in case haha!!

24 November 2014

Transfer 6, Week 4

THANKYOU SOOOOOOO MUCH SISTER BOADEN AND CHRISTIAN FOR THE PACKAGES!! Honestly I am SO blessed. I will send a pic next week of them and explanation. But they were so thoughtful and apprecited!!!

Not much time to write today folks! We are... GOING TO THE ZOO WITH OUR STL and having A ZONE PDAY (Which have been banned for the last year) So we are emailing for the shortest time possible so we can hit both up. We had a study with Sister Brown and Van Zyl this morning and they got permission for all of us to go to the zoo together, how cute. Plus our Zone Leader sprung a surprise zone pday so we have that at 2:30. Busy, busy pday for us! No time to shop... but hey, who needs food!!!

This week was an EXCELLENT week. Can I just say, Heavenly Father is blessing us abundantly? It was one of those weeks where things go according to plan. Yep - according to plan. What the, missionary work never does that! Appointments didn't fall through, we hit all our goals for finding and teaching, and we recognize that NONE of it was because of us. It's all because of Heavenly Father! This is his work not ours. There is nothing we did differently this week compared to every other week... other than telling Heavenly Father we are his willing servants and will go wherever he wants us to. We have had a massive mission wide focus on planning and really planning by the spirit. Even if things aren't convenient, do it anyway if the spirit directs. So we have been back and forth from one side of our area to the other and we are exhausted from so much bike riding, but it is sooooo worth it.

This week coming is full on... a ward missionary activity on Saturday in a park and HEAPS of people are bringing friends! Our members are the best. Then Sunday morning we have our special sacrament meeting and Sunday night we are having a ward fireside. Our Mission President is coming to speak! We are so blessed to have him come. So this will be a very missionary minded week.

Also, I got given some horse to eat last night, erm. Not too sure how I feel about that!!! Tongans ;)

Sorry for lack of photos, we are at a dodgy convenience store and I think it will tear our camera and USB to shreds, until next week. Also sorry for lack of stories, too many things to do and not just sit and think!

Sister Heal

Zone Pday pics: