March 2015 - Apostles and Waterfalls

2 March 2015

This week I will try keep it to the best stories, so I will just write everything in dot point.

NIELSON: So Elder Nielson of the '70' came and did a training over 4 areas of missionaries. It was the 'bees knees' and they honestly spoke so much on marriage, all of us were like.. err.... but it was still so amazing. Biggest quote I remember from the day is "OWN YOUR PROMPTINGS!" He was absolute crack up. Got to see Sister Faiva and all my lovely other missionary people. Happy days!

BEDNAR: OK, so this was my first experience being in the same country as an apostle let a lone the same room!!! Auckland Mission, Hamilton Mission, MTC... all in one place. It was crazy. He asked us some questions and then gave us an opportunity to ask him some questions. A few missionaries got owned in front of everyone, I'll admit, too scared to raise my hand! He cracked a joke about how great it is being one of the 12 apostles because all he needs to do is point at someone to strike them with fear. Crack up!!! OHHHH FUNNIEST THING HE DID.... One sister asked something along the lines of "I'm a perfectionist, how can I know when I'm doing enough and stop beating up on myself" etc. He was like "OK, I'll get my wife to answer this but before I do, let me tell you a story. You take a guy and give him 10 tasks, he will fail 9 of them and do a mediocre job of the 10th and say I'M THE MAN. You give a girl 10 tasks and she will do 9 of them flawlessly, but on the last one, it wont be perfect but still a B+, she will cry and think she is a failure because she didnt get an A".  So true, for the most part :)

BLESSING: So my companion was sick, and asked the Elders for a blessing and they said NO (what the heck!) but all good, we forgave them, so we ended up asking our District Leader for one. He dropped his appointment and came straight over. Well over the next 4 days there seemed to be every investigator and less active needing a blessing and we had to call him so many times as no one else was available on the day! It gets to Friday and I have an ear infection and can barely talk let alone chew. But we didn't want to ask the Elders that said 'no' again and didn't want to ask the District Leader as we had heaps already, sooooo I just tried to get over it. Anyway at dinner my companion was staring at me in pain and she said she was praying, asking Heavenly Father to send someone to give me a blessing or to relieve my pain etc etc. Literally 60 seconds later, I saw a text on the phone from the Elders saying "hey Sisters, we know this is weird, but just got a prompting to message you, is everything ok, do you need something?" I was oblivious so gave it to my companion and she just started crying!!! Then she explained it to me. We were saying how mindful Heavenly Father is of us. Then that was said in the blessing - Honestly. He is soooooooooo good!!!! Oh, and I was fully healed… the power of the priesthood works!

CHURCH: So, last week Sunday ,we had 8 investigators at church and this week we had 5 at church. Plus both weeks we had to teach lessons to Youth and Relief Society. It's an understatement to say that we were over worked on both days BUT something that helped so much is all the members being amazing and taking our investigators and showing them around, being their friend, etc. So go out there and talk to your missionaries and see what you can do to help on Sunday!!!

BAPTISM: Last night we went to the baptism of this 17yo girl and it was just beautiful. It reminded me so much of mine. 

THIS WEEKEND WAS MY 6TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY FOR BEING BAPTISED. It's the first time it's landed on the exact dates.. Saturday 28th and Sunday the 1st. It was a huge weekend full of reflection and simple gratitude and love. Gratitude that I was able to find the church and receive my own spiritual witness of it's truth, and love for my Saviour Jesus Christ. Honestly every problem in life can be solved by following the principles of His gospel. Sure there is happiness in places, but not true and everlasting happiness. That can only be found by following Christ. Still the happiest day of my life, the day I was baptised. Words can't even explain!

P-DAY. So the week before P-day went to these beautiful as, waterfalls,  and last week we played touch in the rain (so kiwi now) , and today were all going to an old folks home!!!! Whangarei is pretty rad.

Sister Heal

9 March 2015

I dont even know what happened this week. It was such an intense week and such a blur - full visits to the police station, possibly getting split up as a companionship as my licence is expiring (all sorted now though), trip to Auckland, Sisters Conference, Family Fun Day, 3 new sets for baptism and just who knows what else! I have such a strong testimony of "opposition in all things".

So the 3 new 'sets' are all individuals that we are teaching. One set for the 21st and two set for the 4th. The best miracle is NAN. Nan and Pop are the cutest old couple that we visit! They live right opposite the chapel. She has been investigating for a long long time and has been through several sets of missionaries. She comes to church every week, prays, reads her scriptures, even has Visiting Teachers! She has never committed to a date of baptism as she wants to be 100% sure. Yesterday we  may or may not have had a 2 hour visit and gone way overtime (we call that righteous overtime, lol) but by following the Spirit entirely and being bold with love we were able to set a date with her for the 4th. When she said "yes", each of us cried and had this cute little 4 way hug thing. We are having a girls day in 2 Monday's time to shop for her Whites! She is so excited and so are we :) Honestly.... all you need to do as a missionary is qualify for the spirit and prepare. You do that, and Heavenly Father does the rest!

So we went to Auckland for a Sisters Conference. It was nice but felt like a waste of time... because we travel sooooo far and it puts a huge dent in our missionary work as we are out for 2 days basically. BUT one thing I did learn "if you need something, ask a man.... if you need something done, ask a woman!" hahahaha. Literally that's the only note I took down the whole day. BUT it was so so lovely just spending time with all the other sisters and seeing my old companions and friends. So for that purpose it was lovely! I got a little sad when I realised a lot of my favourites are home from their missions and a lot are about to leave. I had better start learning the newbies names or I'll have 0 friends! But it's so, so good hearing about my old areas etc.

The Family Fun Day

I know this news isn't too exciting. I have probably had the most intense week on my mission. But email can't really convey that and a lot of things are too personal for either myself or my companion to share. But we both learnt a lot. Especially about how when all else fails, just rely on the Savior. For EVERYTHING. Spiritual and temporal needs. He is in complete control and we need to just trust Him!!!!!!!!!

I read a cool quote the other day in this book called 'Happy Like Jesus' (such a good read btw) and it's along the lines of... "One of the greatest measures in life is how close a man can become like Christ, he who loves him most will be most like him" - President Benson

So, I sort of butchered that. But it's such a boss quote and I can't 'google' so you should all should look it up!!!

Sister Heal

16 March 2015

Don't worry everyone, I'm still alive!  The cyclone was all build ups, so it's all good!!!  We were told to go home at 7pm (it was only raining) but naturally we decided to take the long way home and go to a part of our area we haven't been before, which turns out is where the storm was hitting first. So we drove towards a cyclone. And then got out and got soaked... and THEN went home. It was excellent. 

Caught in a storm

We have 5 preparing for baptism over the next 3 weeks so that's exciting and takes up the majority of our time. We visit our sets every day, so that's 4 hours of our day on that!!! 

Oh cool story... so we fasted this weekend and when we fast we always feel 'horha' (tired) and it disrupts our missionary work as we start talking food. So we skipped Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast so we could eat after church. We had stake conference which is ages away from our house, but we closed our fast but didnt want to drive home and waste time, plus it was a Sunday and couldn't buy anything.. what to do? what to do..? We were walking past this room and naturally I smelt food so I looked in and saw some on the table. My companion followed and walked into the middle of the room. Stake President's wife was sitting in there by herself and she says "SISTERS! come join us!" and we were like "oh no, it's ok, we would feel bad for the other missionaries who missed out" and she was like "oh c'mon, you don't care about them, just join!" and we were like "true... OK!" So we go in and sit down.. the next thing our Mission President and his wife and his whole family walk in, then the Stake President and counsellor's family, then Elder Coward (from the seventy) and his wife came in, and then the Temple President and his wife came in.... they removed the covering sheet and there is this fancy as food underneath. So we got to be fancy and have fancy food with fancy people. Then of course I kicked a drink over and it went everywhere, including in my shoe, luckily no one really noticed. Shame. 

Arohanui

Sister Heal



23 March 2015

DUPREY GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!

Duprey's baptism

That was probably the highlight of the week. So Duprey is this little 10yo kid who is literally boy genius. He has one of the most incredible memories and comprehension. We asked him how he felt when he prayed and he replied "I feel sometimes like Jesus comes down and kneels with me". When he said that the spirit pierced my heart. That little man is a spiritual giant!! The baptismal service went well. It was supposed to start at 6pm and it got to 5pm and we were wondering "why hasnt anything gone wrong yet". One thing I have learnt as a missionary is how something always goes wrong on baptism day!!! So it gets to 5:30pm and it turns out the guy who was baptising doesn't have white pants. We call the Elders (who are already on their way) and Elder Adams was like "IT'S ALL GOOD, we were in the car and about to leave and I felt the spirit tell me *go get your whites*.   I thought 'na, it's all sorted, don't worry' and went to drive off but it was persistent so we owned the prompting, ran inside and got them, dont worry!". 

Something so small, but... the church is so true its rediculous! Who can deny that spirit? Science can't even explain that!  Anyway, Duprey's mum (who he hasn't seen in a year) came to the baptism as a surprise for him and that was a sweet experience. Then we all had a big 'feed' at the park after, of course :)

Companions

Also on Saturday, we had a 'mormon helping hands' project in OT. Which is like the ghetto of the ghetto. There were a few community groups that got involved and we looked awesome in our yellow helping hands top. James and Tayla who are preparing for baptism on the 28th came as well with their daughter Soph! It was so great to see them getting involved! There was a true community spirit, happy days indeed :)

Sister Heal