September 22, 2013

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

 

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...

First Week in Westport 9-15-13

Here we are, in Westport!! :D There are about 3,000 people that live in this town, and we have a set of elders as well as us here. There is a "traveling" senior couple that goes around the Nelson district called the Turners and they will see us every two weeks when they are in town. There are about 10 active adults in our branch. :)

This zone is the most beautiful part of the mission. And that's what President told us, so i believe him although this is only my second area. Elder Vimahi and I bussed from Christchurch to Greymouth last week, which was a phenomenal experience. It was rainy, but beautiful nonetheless. My camera died, though, so didn't get to take many photos honestly. (And i lost the chord to charge it - we're in big trouble.) Here's a photo - there are HUGE mountains in the back hidden by the clouds. We drove through Arthur's pass. We would have taken the train but there was a storm the night before we left and trees were all over the railway. 

I met my companion, Sister Woodbury, who is from Kaysville, Utah! She i a vegetarian, and tall and  blonde and super awesome :) She's 19 and it's so great to see her faith and desire to serve!

The drive from Greymouth to Westport was the most beautiful thing in the whole world. WOW!!! (camera was dead..) We were driving on a cliff along the ocean. Wow. It was amazing. As we drove to our area, the elders told us that door knocking does not work in our area. This was confirmed by our branch president, who served his mission in Australia and baptized one of the elders that was serving here last transfer (watch for this story in the ensign - they submitted it and it should be out soon!). One of the first things our branch president said was, "Do not to normal missionary work in Westport. You could door knock that place in 2 weeks. Do community service," he said, and then handed us a list, " and find all these lost people." We took the list from him and he said, "And don't get bored." It's great that the is a return missionary and gave us this advice! We could have messed up big time, otherwise.

SOOOOO this is going to be completely and totally and utterly different than Ashburton. For example, street contacting is more "having a 5 minute conversation on the street" instead of anything else. The people here like to talk, and they don't hand out trust like cookies either. So today we were walking to the nursery to  buy plants to create a garden at our flat, and we met this woman. She we started talking to her, and she invited us in. She told us that people on the west coast want to talk and get to know you - they will respect you if you make time to talk to them. My ability to have small talk was at a 3% when i came out, and now it's probably at a 59%, but soon it will be at 100%! yaaaaayy!! 

This weekend we had district conference up in nelson. Another BEAUTIFUL drive!! Elder Hamula from the quorum of the seventy was there. He is doing a mission tour and we also had zone conference. It was awesome. We feel so motivated, and we are really going to try to use more of our talents that we already have to help the work move forward. And focusing on service was just reinforced as well. Wow, it was absolutely amazing!!! :D

SO, life is good, we're just trying to figure out everything. Love you all!! The church is true!!

Sister Rose

September 8, 2013, last week in Ashburton!

Sister Nuitupuivaha and I are training :)

Well.... i have to admit, we knew this was coming because bishop and the zone leaders told us ahead of time. But I'm leaving Ashburton. I said goodbye to people on Sunday and i felt kind of embarrassed saying goodbye. i remembered when i moved out of canyon terrace last year, to the FLSR, and never actually said goodbye to anyone. I don't like goodbyes, i'd rather just leave and not deal with it, i guess? But my companion reminded me it'd be polite, so i complied. What was the result? We wound up going to 3 meals in 3 hours on sunday. i thought i was going to die. I think that's breaking the word of wisdom, ae... haha! My bad. 

Serving here in Ashburton has been the most amazing experience in the entire world. We have seen SOOO many miracles here. There is a baptism this weekend, but i will be leaving on Wednesday. The investigators talked about moving the baptism to tonight instead, but I told them not to. This is my gift to my companion's new companion who will be fresh from the MTC. People come to New Zealand with the attitude that no one ever gets baptized here. I want her companion to come into the field and know for a FACT that we DO baptize here and that she can do it, too. This week was the baptismal interview, and i was up in Christchurch on exchanges, while my companion stayed here for the 2 days. Missing the interview was sad, it's such an exciting part of the baptism process. But the sisters we were on exchanges with feel bleh - like they can't get anyone moving forward. And i think a big part of that is just the attitude. So we arranged it for the senior companion from Christchurch to be there for the interview. Hopefully this will pump her up as well, and remind here that the Christchurch zone is a place where people DO come unto Christ through the waters of baptism.

Do you remember Henry? Malcolm started coming back to church and moved in with him. Their house is "God's house" as Henry puts it. We started doing FHE with them, and Malcolm brought his two girls every week - one 8 and one 9. This has been going on since Henry got baptized. Now the girls come to church every week, and their mom is coming back to church as well. Their baptism is this weekend :) Can't wait for them to send me picture. I wish i could be there, but I know this is the right thing for them. 

I love this work. I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOVE this!!! I have never loved people like this before. The people we teach - i have never felt this kind of joy before knowing that they are progressing towards Christ. I will leave my heart here in Ashburton.  Hopefuly i'll grow another one ahah :) Coming on my mission was the best decision I've ever made in my life. When i have said that, Elder Little always says, "Yes, after baptism." But i didn't know how good of a decision baptism was until I cam on my mission, honestly. I love this.

Love, 

Sister Rose