Most of this week, anyway. (: I have developed some sort of hideous cold and it just won't go away! But I'm not letting that stop me! I am going to keep trucking on! And doing the work. (: Because that's what I came here to do! (: I love this work and time is actually FLYING by. It feel like just yesterday that I was dropped off at the MTC. Before I came out I heard that the mission feels a lot like a dream and so you have to make the most of it and I can actually testify to you that that is true. It is a wonderful dream, but a dream that is going to end all too quickly. (:
So, this week I experienced one of the weirdest things that I think I'll ever experience on my mission. It all started on Tuesday when we called Elder Hester and asked him a question. After he answered the question, he told us that he needed to talk to us about something. It turns out that Sister Leung-wo had gotten reported for being "too flirty" and he told her to back off a little bit and all that jazz. Well, we asked who had reported, just so that we would know how to fix the problem and it was one of the families that we had invited to our family home evening nights. We'll call him M1 and his wife W1, just to keep the privacy. Well, a couple days passed and Thursday rolled around and we got a call from Elder Hester saying that he was driving out from Waiuku to have a meeting with us. Well, the meeting rolled around and we met at the chapel and Elder Hester told Sister Leung-wo that he had gotten more reports about her flirting. So, Elder Hester told us to go and apologize to M1 and W1 and tell them that it wouldn't happen again. So, we did that. Moral of the story...we are no longer allowed to visit or associate with that family. Things were just getting out of hand and so Elder Hester just told us not to go near them anymore. It's actually quite sad, and the reports that were turned in about Sister Leung-wo were mostly fake and made up to black mail...but it's all good. Move forward every day, eh?(:
So, thus far in New Zealand, I haven't really enjoyed Samoan food, but yesterday, we had the BEST feed! One of the part-member families in our ward, the Ah Sui family, fed us! It was SO good. They are Samoan and it was seriously so good! There was this egg plant dish that was so good! And they had chicken hearts that were so good. Funny story: chicken hearts taste like chicken! Who knew?! Then they had this meat that was SO GOOD! It was just chicken, but the way they cooked it, man, it was so good! Then there was this yum as crab salad that had huge chunks of DELICIOUS crab, tomatoes, capsicums, and lettuce. It was seriously so good! Then we had Ice Cream for dessert. (: Which is always yummy. (Reading over that paragraph I realize that I said, "so good," like 25 times, but it was a seriously stellar meal. (: )
I love the people here. I can't even believe how much I have learned and how much I have grown being here in New Zealand. When I first got my call, I knew that I loved the people and I knew that I was called by a prophet of God, but until you start serving and until you put your heart and soul into the work, you don't really understand how much you can love people! The people of New Zealand are so beautiful! And even though there are the ones that don't accept the message and the ones that are just flat out rude, the work still progresses! There are those people who are ready to accept the message, who have been prepared! And the part that is the most fun is when we find those people and their faces light up as they start to remember what they once knew! Even the sceptical people feel the spirit and they actually can't deny it! It's a beautiful thing. The Lord cares about every aspect of our lives, He really does. And so when we start to align our will with his will, we begin to see things with our spiritual eyes. We'll never be able to help people if we don't look with our spiritual eyes and hear with our spiritual ears. And even though it's sometimes really hard to look past outer appearances, everyone deserves the gospel! EVERYONE. (:
My companion, Sister Leung-wo, is really amazing! When we were first put together, we didn't get along. At all. There was always tension and just bad vibes between us, but these past two weeks, we have been getting along so well! We finally developed that understanding and that charity and love for each other and our whole companionship has changed from it. We finally developed that friendship that everyone talks about! We are able to feel the spirit more and we are definitely able to work better together. I can't believe the benefit that comes from being exactly obedient and loving your companion! Even our district has noticed the change, which in hindsight is kind of embarrassing, but it is still a really awesome feeling! We worked so hard for our companionship and our hard work paid off. It's a little disappointing because we could've gotten along this whole time, but we just chose to be stubborn. But! That is the past and now we are getting along really well. Even though there are some major cultural differences, it's such a fun learning experience! No one wants to be miserable and the way to be happy is to love your companion. (: Because you are literally with them 24/7. (:
4544 -> This is (from left to right) Sister Samataua, Sister Leung-wo, Sister Me, and Sister Bird our Sister Training Leader. (: This was after dinner at the Ah Sui's house.
4541 -> This is after our little jaunt in the pouring rain...we were literally sopping wet. I could've wrung my skirt out if I had wanted to.
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