I SAW THE ROYAL COUPLE!!!! - April 7-13

This week was absolutely amazing!! It started out a little rough, but the finale was STUNNING!! So, it started on Tuesday with a visit to one of sort of keen investigators. His name is Shayne and we had been teaching him on his porch because his partner was in Christchurch. So, we were teaching him on his porch on this breezy Tuesday afternoon and he mentioned in passing that his partner was back from Christchurch, which was good because he was worried about her. Anyway, so we are having a PERFECTLY HARMLESS lesson with him and all of a sudden, his partner comes tearing through the house, swearing her face off, grabs Shayne by his neck, yanks him into the house, through some pretty evil words told us to leave, and then proceeded to slam the door so hard that #1-I thought I would go deaf and #2-I thought the door/glass in the door would break. Sister Amituanai and I just stood there looking at one another shaking our heads and trying to recuperate. As we're getting back on our bikes to leave, she continues to yell vile, evil things about us through the door and so we just hurried on our way! I'm still not entirely sure what I'm meant to learn from that, but I have a feeling that we'll continue to have experiences like that. It's all character building and I'm loving it!! (:

Well, we're going through our ward list and trying to visit all of the less actives and we chose a family called the Howards. So, we rock up to their house and the door is open and the cars are there, so there are obviously people home. Well, Sister Ami knocks on the door and I'm looking inside and I notice this gigantic water bowl on the floor. I knew that I a huge as animal had to accompany said dog bowl, but nothing had barked or anything when she had knocked. (Fun Fact: Sister Amituanai probably has the biggest fear of dogs on the planet.) Well, she knocks again and then we go to walk around to see if there's another door. And I started walking back to our bikes and Sister Amituanai was walking in front of the window. All of a sudden Sister Ami's face goes ghostly white, and she's brown so that's saying something, and her eyes went as big as saucers and she kind of whispers, "Oh, my gosh." Then a couple things happened at once...I heard this bone jarring growl and then this bark that could only belong to something huge. I panicked a little, but I mean, I was pretty calm.

Sister Ami on the other hand bolted, then I saw this HUGE AS DOG come out of the door. I didn't know what to do and I was a little more than scared at this point. I sort of hid behind the car and accepted the fact that I was probably going to die. (Dramatic, I know) As this dog is coming out of the door, Sister Howard's son came and got it and so I calmed down a little bit. Sister Howard came out and I came out from my hiding place and then remembered that I'm a missionary and I have a companion and I started frantically looking for Sister Ami. From the time she had seen the dog to the time that it got retained she had leaped over a hedge and hid in the next door neighbor's yard. Man, we were all cracking up. It took us a moment to recover, but then we started talking. 4833->is him behind a gate...the pictures don't do him justice...4832-> he's over half the height of Sister Howard...SITTING DOWN...on the porch. He's a South African bred dog and they are bred to protect their families from Lions. So, it makes a little bit more sense why he's so big, but he's not even two yet...

Whoo!! I got to go to the temple this week!! It was absolutely amazing and I feel so blessed to have been able to go to the New Zealand Hamilton Temple!! I got some amazing personal revelation and I felt so close to Heavenly Father! (: BUT as full-time missionaries, we are here to do work for the living and not for the dead, thus only 2 times a year do we go to the temple. (:

Okay, okay, conference was absolutely stunning. I'm not entirely sure if I'll ever be able to comprehend the awesomeness that encompasses the general authorities!! But one thing that stuck out with a resounding triumph to me, was Bishop Stevensens's talk about running the race set before us. It made me realize so many things and helped me to see the importance of running the race that Heavenly Father gives to me. I also, really enjoyed President Uchtdorf's talk!! Holy slap in the face, Batman. (: And Elder Holland's. He was bold and direct and awesome!! I just loved conference. (:

On our way to conference on Saturday morning, we saw the Royal Couple entourage driving down the road...so that was actually really cool. (:

Anyway, it was an absolutely amazing week!! I am having such an amazing experience here on my mission. (: Something that I learned from personal study this morning was that in order to be a consecrated missionary, we need to not only change our behaviours, we need to change our nature. And I started to reflect on what of my nature has changed since I've been on my mission are there are really too many things to count. I love being a missionary and I am loving to see Heavenly Father lead and guide me to become the best person that I can be!

Love you all!! Alofa, Arohanui,
Sister Pearce (:

4815-> This is me and little Eva...she's so cute!!(:

4827-> This is Sister Brown, Sister QaQa, and I. (:

4828-> Sister QaQa and I are pukana buddies. (: