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...