November 17, 2013

So, although it may be getting cold in America... we are beginning to experience SUMMER here!! Finally!! It feels like I have winter non-stop for the last year. What does that mean? It means our clothes dry on the line quite quickly, instead of getting an extra "rinse" or two when the rain inevitably comes (electricity is very expensive here - so we line dry 97.2% of the time). The towels dried in an hour today - whaaaah?! Yay!

Remember that group of teens I mentioned last week? Turns out they all live in this one house together and now we are teaching them and all their friends. Whenever we go over to visit or teach, there is always someone new there that is excited to learn more. At our lesson Tuesday night, we invited all of them to our youth night on Thursday. This may or may not have been the first youth night EVER in Westport. The Elders came and Elder Danner came up with the most awesome activity - human battleship using water balloons!! We divided into two teams, and layed down on either side of a volleyball net on the ground. Each team had a thrower and they blindly tried to hit people on the other team. SO FUN!!! It also may or may not have turned into a massive water balloon fight. The girls are now coming up with ideas for upcoming youth nights! This week they want to do a barbeque. We said, "We can only do that if you help recruit people." They said, "Of course!! We'll get everyone to come and bring some food. So just do whatever you had planned at the beginning and we'll end with a barbeque." Um, could this get any better?! I think not!!! Can't wait for Thursday night :D

Also, church was amazing on Sunday. There were 6 active members there, 2 investigators, and 4 missionaries. Such a tiny room, but the spirit was particularly strong that sunday morning. I just felt so incredibly lucky to be with people so devoted to their God that they would come to church when barely anyone else was there. I felt so humbled to be among the chosen few to worship with those amazing souls. And for some reason watching the Elders prepare the sacrament on Sunday was just so powerful. I wish I could describe the way I felt, but I don't think I can. I am just so grateful for what Jesus Christ did for us, that we never have to feel "stuck." We never have to feel like there is nowhere else to turn, or that we are out of options because God is there. I am so grateful that we can repent and change course. I can't express this with words, Hopefully God understands the way I feel at least.

I love you all heaps :) 

Sister Rose

PS here's a picture of where we went during last p-day. Tuaranga bay :) So pretty!!

November 10, 2013

Have I mentioned lately that I love being a missionary? Like when I say love, i mean LOOOOOOVE. :D

As a companionship we have been focusing on testifying. Missionary work is simple, really - tell people what you know, and invite them to find out for themselves. And can i tell you, this has transformed everything!! This week we were walking down the street to a teaching appointment. All this other stuff fell through and we were like 30 minutes early to the appointment. But we just decided to head over there anyways. We saw this woman reading a book on the bench off the main street in town. We walked up to her, Book of Mormon in hand. We asked what she was reading and she said, "Oh, i wanted to read up about Jesus Christ from a book other than the Bible. I just checked out this book from the library." My jaw probably audibly dropped to the floor. We sat down on the bench with her and began to talk to her about the Book of Mormon, and testify of our Savior, our Redeemer Jesus Christ. She lives about 2 hours away, but we had a trip planned up there for later this week. Can't wait to see her!!!!!!!!! How cow, isn't missionary work amazing!?

We were riding our bikes down the street on Saturday and saw about 6 teens sitting on the lawn outside a house. They yelled to us, making fun of us or something. The "every day" me would just ignore it. But my companion suggested that we turn around. So we went back and talked to them. A few of them were drinking and others were smoking. We talked to them, and among them was a girl we had shared a message with before, and could never get ahold of her again. We asked if we could come back and share something with them, and this girl said, "Just share something now." I kept thinking, "This is not a good situation for us to be in, we are missionaries.." and then my copmanion's voice came into my head, how she always talks about how Jesus Chris spent his time with the "publicans and sinners" because that's who needed him. I repented haha :) We began to teach, and found out that one of the people there was actually baptized up north, and never came to church here. They all wanted Books of Mormon and 3 of them came to church the next day. So cool :) what a miracle, ae? 

i love the Lord, I love the spirit, and I am so thankful for the doctrine of Christ. This church is true, and I am so lucky to be a missionary.

Love you all!!!!!!!!!

Sister Rose

November 3, 2013

So every Sunday night we have a movie night with one of our less-active families. One of the ladies is good friends with us, and she's awesome. Anyways, we ran out of things to show them, and so we went through the videos at the chapel - all VHS. We found one tape and took it over to this family's house. Since we have no VCR, we could not preview the video. It was a bunch of short videos, and one of them was a 30-minute long video about chastity. Seriously the most awkward thing to watch with this family - it was from the era of President Kimball and was the most blunt, straightforward thing ever. They haven't brought it up since, but for the past 2 weeks they've been "busy" on movie night. Awkward... haha!

We went up Karamea way this week with the elders. I'm not gonna lie, this week was quite hard for me. I wouldn't say discouraged is the right word, "worn out" perhaps. This transfer I have learned more about how to live the gospel than ever before in my life, I think. And God has allowed us to find SO many people to teach. Sounds like a successful time to me, but sometimes missionary work is just hard. Anyways, Before we left for Karamea, I turned to my companion and said, "We're going to see 15 miracles today." And I don't know about 15, but we saw heaps. We spent a lot of time trying to find certain people, driving in the middle of nowhere - and the Lord put people in our paths that needed to be there. We asked a lady if she knew where a man named Kelley lived, and then asked if we could come in and share a message with her. We taught her about Jesus Christ being the Good Shepherd, and about the Book of Mormon and it was amazing, we'll be back later this week.  We found another man who actually knows some of the members and taught him about how the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ. Many, many miracles! Perhaps the way i'm describing it makes it sound not-awesome, but trust me, it was awesome and miraculous.

This less-active lady showed us a journal yesterday that she got when her granddaughter was born. she's filling it with stories and stuff and will give it to her on her 21st birthday. SO COOL!! 

Also, i cut my hair again. Here's me in front of an op-shop (like goodwill - they are all over the place here!) with my new 'do. Pretty soon all my hair will be gone if i keep this up!! 

i love you all, This gospel is the most precious thing I have and i love being able to share it with people. I know that living the gospel is the way to peace and joy now and in the eternities.

love,

Sister Rose

October 28, 2013

This week we were gearing up for our open house. We had two bouncy castles (one was an obstacle course), cotton candy, sausage sizzle, fresh baked cookies, a free clothes swap, kids games, and a family history workshop. We delivered invitations to literally every person in Westport and had a pretty good turnout. We had missionaries up from Greymouth and Hokitika, the other areas in our missionary district (have to make that distinction since we're not in a stake anymore haha). At the end of the totally awesome, fun-filled day the Branch President gathered all the missionaries together and told us we were about to find out who was the best missionary!! First, we raced our companions through the obstacle course bouncy castle. Somehow I won - SIster Woodbury did NOT take this competition lightly!! Then i versed Elder McKenna, who is serving in our branch as well. I really only won because Branch President was running beside me yelling my name, "GO SISTER ROSE!!!" So it eventually came down to me and one other missionary.. Elder Adams, serving in Hokitika in the Greymouth branch. Elder Adams is the same size as I am, if that helps you visualize this match. We tied to the first time, but in order to bring honor and glory and pride and luck and whatever else it is that you receive when you win an obstacle course race to the Westport branch, i declared a rematch. The second time, a bunch of kids ran after Elder Adams and pulled him down so she couldn't go any further. Third rematch - i lost! Noooo!! But it's okay I guess. Second place in a major sporting event, I'll accept that. 

As we were passing out flyers to the open day, we were about to cross a street. And then a TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR occurred. Seriously, I've never seen any rain like this before. It was literally raining sideways, and it was like needles were stabbing through my 2 layers of tights that i always wear because skirts are far too breezy and i get tired of always being cold. I didn't even know what to do, so i just stood there and laughed! Then my companion yelled, "Shelter!!!" We started looking around, and we saw that we were standing right outside one of our investigator's homes. We ran to the front gate - couldn't get it open (kind of like in the wizard of oz) and so we ran around the back against the needle-rain and went through the other door. The woman opened the door, looking quite surprised. We asked if we could come in, and she brought us a towel. We started talking, the rain kept pounding. The rain kept coming long enough for us to find out that her 16-year old daughter had moved out that day. We sat down with her, talked, and prayed together. The Lord truly MADE is go inside so we could comfort her in the time of uncertainty. Whoah, the Lord is all-powerful, that is for sure!
My companion and I discovered this lovely scripture - Abraham 2:16. "eternity was our covering and our ^brock and our salvation". Everyone write back to me and tell me what this means to you :)

Also, there are two German ladies that work at the library. Still debating whether to use the 2 words i know in german on them - some of the germans we meet think it's amusing, others think i'm an idiot. I happens haha :)

i love you all! The Church is true!! 

Sister Rose

October 20, 2013

Greetings, one and all :)

Well, this week was all over the place. Some days we were running around trying to make it to every appointment on time (i feel like i'm late all the time now, this is new for me), other days we felt like we got nothing done until we came home that night and tallied up our numbers only to see that we actually did.

We have been volunteering with the Department of Conservation here in Westport - planting trees, etc. We met a group of volunteers through this service and they invited us to come help them maintain a tramping track (hiking trail) in Charleston, about 30 minutes south of Westport. It's called the "Bromula Track" and we have heard a lot about it, but didn't have a reason to go see it UNTIL NOW!! It was seriously the most fantastic, exquisite, amazing outdoor experience of my life. One minute we were in a rain forest, the next in a field, the next on the cliff over the ocean, the next in a massive flax forest type thing. The man heading the trip gave my companion and i knives to cut flax (kind of like a grass, but really tough - they weave it into baskets, etc) away from the track so it's easier to walk through. The other volunteers had machetes and whacked at different parts of the trail, removing invasive plants and other plants that were in the way. THIS is what i imagined my mission to be like haha! It was seriously the most amazing outdoor thing I've ever done, I think. (The first photo is me standing next to some flax. And don't worry, we didn't have to swim to that rock in the last photo haha) 

I know that the message of the Restoration is something that every single person needs. And that the truths that we have because of this glorious event are something that every single person needs and, on some level, wants. We had our first lesson with a family this week, and the mother was brave enough to say the closing prayer. The room was so noisy and loud, and her daughter got up do something straight after. However, the mom sat there at the table with us and started getting choked up. In the midst of the loud, distracting noise, she felt God tell her that He loves her. She told us she was angry at him for a long time, but it was time to finally let go of all those things. I know that Gods WILL reach out to us if we let him. All we need is a willing heart, a humble attitude, and a desire to grow closer to him. 

Having the Spirit constantly work through you is the coolest thing ever. We were on the street yesterday and saw a man. We said, "Hello!" and he said, "Hello!" From that one word, the Spirit prompted me to ask, "Do you know Peter?" He said, "Yes, i live with Peter!" Peter is a man that came to church 2 weeks ago that we met on the street. We said, "Peter came to our church a few weeks ago, and said he was going to come again. Will you come to church with him?" He said yes, and ran off. Um how cool is that? Really cool!

love you all! May the Lord be with yous!

Sister Rose