Well, not much time to write
this week. We are seeing SOOOOO Many miracles here, I can't even believe it. We
found a Bolivian family door knocking, so the Spanish will live on! My
companion spent some time in Africa and we found a family from Zimbabwe that's
interested, and we will begin teaching them this week. Our next door neighbors
want to learn more as well, and invite us over like every day (young married
couple with a "miracle baby" named Saphire). The ward is great and we
had a whopping 14 people at church on Sunday :) The weather is exactly like
Oregon and I feel just at home in the pouring rain and random sunshine. The
beach is down the street and it's just like the oregon coast - as soon as you
touch the sand it starts raining. I love it, God is real. He is a living, real
person that cares about all of us - he cares about YOU!!
Love,
Sister Rose
Sister Rose
Email from Elder and Sister Little, senior missionary couple serving in Ashburton:
Hi family,
Okay, here is the finale of the story, "And it came to
pass that Mihi and Te Whetu were baptized... : )
" sorry to keep you hanging but last week was a wipeout
preparing for Saturday's final youth temple trip fund raiser... a Saturday
morning garage sale at our place.
I think we finally caught the vision of the way that Sister
Rose had envisioned the baptism happening.... once Sister Rose heard there was
a portable font in the mission she set about to track down it's location and
see if we might borrow it because Ange, Mihi and Te Whetu's mom, wanted the
baptism to be local so that her family and friends could be present at
this important occasion. In the end, Sister Mapu Patea's insistence that the
baptism and the service all be at one location made history... we now have the
baptismal font before we have the new building... it was an idea whose time had
come... someone to insist the baptism be held locally... the Bishop to make a
missionary budget... warm spring weather so baptisms could be held outside and
the stores to start displaying their summer stock.
When we first came to Ashburton, way back in Jan/Feb we
were teaching Mihi and Te Whetu, but it petered out. Then Malcolm moved in with
Henry Bartlett after Henry's baptism... then we started having family home
evenings at Henry's home and Malcolm started inviting his daughters to that
family home evening. But the tipping point came one afternoon... Sister Rose
was doing a split off with Jade Cairns, another recently baptized sister and
they visited Ange... Ange said she was really busy, but then saw Jade, who is
either a cousin or close family friend and invited them in... before they
left, the missionaries had been invited back for tea the following Wednesday
and the baptism arrangements had begun to hatch. There were a few more lessons
before the baptism had been scheduled Sep 14th and these took place at Henry
and Malcolm's FHE's and the last one not too long before their baptismal
interviews, Wednesday, Sep 11th, with Elder Vimahi.
By Saturday afternoon, the following text was sent out...
portable 'font' in place... water filling... solar blanket in place...
immersion heater has arrived, courtesy of Queenstown Elders... baptismal
clothing organized... baptismal program being program being prepared at 3 pm..
special musical number ready... the Lord will be present at 11 am Saturday at
the chapel for Mihi's and Te Whetu's covenant baptism. We made a run up to
Rakaia that evening to pick up a couple of baptism dresses from Bishop Pongia
and the Sister missionaries also picked up another baptismal dress from the
Iakopo family that Te Whetu wore.
The next morning I went over to the Church to check the
water and texted out the news that the water was warm... but that turned
out to be a little premature... as I felt the side of the pool, the temperature
got progressively colder toward the bottom, so I stirred the water with a broom
handle and I was surprised how cool the new average water temp became... so
stuck the 12" immersible heating element back into the water and the
water temp was much better when the baptism actually happened.
The musical number, A Child's Prayer, was absolutely
heavenly as the Sister missionaries and the Elders blended their voices singing
the first and second verses together as the third verse. The Bishop asked if
they could sing the musical number again for yesterday's 'special invitation'
Sacrament meeting intermediate hymn... celestial.
For me, Mihi and Te Whetu's baptism was another of the
miracles that Bishop promised we would see while serving here in Ashburton. It
seemed that the Lord created the perfect storm of positive events so that
this baptism, which Mihi and Te Whetu wanted so much, could happen. I know the
Lord intervened so that this baptism could finally come to pass and the
seeds that countless missionaries had sown for this baptism were harvested
Saturday so Mihi and Te Whetu's Dad, Malcolm, could have the
honour and privilege of baptizing his beloved daughters.
There is another aspect of this story having to do with the
location of the baptism... this is the second time that I had wondered if I
might have to swallow pride and go and ask the Baptist Church for some
help... you will remember we needed some large size baptismal clothing for
Henry and Michael's baptisms and I was thinking I might have to go and inquire
about borrowing some clothing at the Baptist Church... that time the Lord
sent Roger McCormick right to the door of our Church...
Rogers just 'happened' to have the needed white coveralls, which,
with a little work, were turned into baptismal clothes. This time an even
bigger miracle was needed... an actual baptismal font... what was the
vision that Sister Rose had seen?? ...I did not want to go and ask
the Baptist Church if we could rent their font but our choices were narrowing
down... ...where is your faith Elder Little? "Is anything too hard for the
Lord?" ...lift up your eyes and look... the 'ram' is in the
Warehouse 'thicket' over behind your house... and again the Lord had
provided the answer to our prayers and fasting. You are beloved
Dad
Sister Rose, I hope you can get a flavor of this wonderful
baptism from the attached pics...