May 26, 2013

Greetings, young and old!

This week has been another workout, which is fantastic. My companion and I have two people we're teaching that have baptismal dates, so feel free to include Jade and Lily in your prayers for their upcoming baptism on June 8th! 

I forgot to include this miracle that happened last week, so I will share it now. Ready, GO! So my first transfer here in Ashburton, we met this woman on the street. (Sometimes we drive around looking for people and pull over and talk to them.. cut us some slack, there are not very many people that live here in Ashburton, and everyone's on shift work here so door knocking at dinner time isn't all that terribly effective). Anyways, this is one of those cases - drive by contacting! We hopped out and talked to her. She was on her scooter, and told us she was a Jehovah's Witness that was not practicing. She asked a lot of questions and wouldn't tell us her name or where she lived or anything for us to come see her and answer all of them. But she did ask a question about the Mormon Batallion. I readily answered it, she was satisfied, and then she left. I kept thinking about it, and next time we were on lds.org i checked to make sure i was right, because i kept thinking about her. it turns out I was WRONG! NOOOO!!! So i kept asking God to let us meet her again so I could correct myself. I felt horrible, I gave her false information. Okay, now fast-forward to like 1-2 weeks ago, in my third transfer here in Ashburton. We were door knocking on a street Monday night before we went home for the evening, looking for lit windows so we have the "okay" to knock on their doors. Lo and behold, we knock on a door and there this woman is, with a huge smile on her face, and immediately invites us in! Her husband was there, and he is a practicing Jehovah's Witness. We had a good discussion (no Bible bashing, it was fantastic), while the wife made us hot chocolate and asked, "Do you want two pink marshmallows, two white, or one of each?" We have been back to visit them a few times, and the wife is very interested but the husband prefers we don't come around anymore. I think it's just a matter of time before they are both ready to hear the message about the restoration. And when they both are, they know exactly where to go to find it. Moral of the story is that God answers prayers, and lets us fix our mistakes. (I did get to tell her the right answer to her question, fyi.) What a merciful, loving God! The church is true!

love you all!

Sister Rose

May 19, 2013

Hello hellooooo!!

This week we had interviews with President Kezerian. Hooray! We don't see the mission president and his wife often, so it was good to see them! Sister Kezerian got to come to a lesson with us, which was awesome! It was so powerful!! The investigator's name was Lily. When my companion told the account of Joseph Smith, the spirit was so strong. We asked her how she felt, and she said she felt like her chest was warm, and she was really happy. At the end of the lesson, she said, "It hasn't gone away yet!" It was then that she was ready to make some real commitments. SO exciting!! We came back later in the week and she had read 3 Nephi 11 TWICE, not just once. MAN!! So exciting!! 

Also, i have included a picture of a really fat cat that lives on the corner of our street. We see him all the time and finally got to meet him today. 

We are getting a set of elders here in Ashburton in September, which will be a big help. And LOTS of sisters are coming in in the next 2-3 transfers. SOOOO exciting!!! 

The gospel is true, life is good, my companion is the bomb, this mission is the best ever, and the fish and chips here are way better than at home. (I'm gonna be 91032819208 pounds when i come home. seriously, they are so good.)

love you all!!

Sister Rose

May 5, 2013

Greetings everyone!

On Wednesday we had Sister Mauigoa with us!! She is a youth from our ward and she was on her mini-mission! She spent wednesday-sunday with us and it was awesome! It was great to see her faith grow and to see her get more and more comfortable with the work. Her door approaches got so great! Man, she is awesome. She is totally pumped to serve her own mission in a few years :)

We had stake conference up in Christchurch this weekend as well. We stayed in Cashmere at one of the sister missionary flats. Holy cow, it was powerful. One man told a story about his mission in Chile and how they taught a woman all discussions in 3 hours, she was baptized later that week after being miraculously healed from a priesthood blessing so she could walk to the chapel (she couldn't walk) and then when we came out of the water she was able to see after being blind for a number of years. Crazy!!! man, we really were spiritually fed. 

I hope you all are doing well! The gospel is true!

love,

Sister Rose