March 31, 2013

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great Easter! Yesterday we had an absolutely fantastic day. We have been seeing many miracles here in Ashburton this week, and Easter just topped it off! (Honestly - this week was great. We usually have like 298347893 like seriously intense crisis that we have to deal with, but not this week!) We had four investigators at church this week (hooray!!) and our gospel principles class went really well; we talked about gifts of the spirit. After church, one of our investigators received his first priesthood blessing and it was so powerful! The spirit was so strong, and he felt it! 

On top of that, we had a musical Easter fireside that evening. We had about 8 groups from the ward sing and we had scriptures about the Savior and Easter in between the songs. There were some powerful songs! Our ward mission leader and his wife sang, a family of 15 sung, and a bunch of other groups. My companion and I sung "His Hands" by Kenneth Cope together as well. It turned out really well! We were nervous, but that's okay :) The elders in our district came from Timaru to participate in the fireside. With all the new missionaries coming in from the MTC, transfers have been kind of crazy. Three weeks ago we had transfers, and the amazing Sister Paongo and I were assigned to stay here in Ashburton for the next transfer and our district was to stay the same. However, a week ago we had transfers AGAIN - because all the new missionaries were arriving! So, last transfer was really like 8 weeks long. We have three new elders in the district and a new district leader. They are all super fun and this will be a fun transfer with them! 

Fun fact: I met a member from Christchurch that grew up in Beaverton, Oregon. Her name is Rachael Beck, if I remember correctly? She's lived here for the past like 5 years. Also, a guy on a business trip from Mapleton, Utah joined us a church today, as he's a member. Small world!

So Michael and Henry both have baptismal dates!! Please pray for them! Christine is no longer taking the lessons, and could use your prayers as well. Thanks for all your support! :) The church is true, Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer! As Elder Holland said, missionary work isn't easy, but then again salvation was never easy. I hope you all are doing well!

Also! We were in the newspaper! Attached is a scan of the article. :)

love,

Sister Rose