Monday, June 2, 2014

Wow! This week was really awesome. (: Even with a broken arm! On Monday, after emails, we went food shopping and then the Zone Leaders took us back to our flat where we changed and went up to the chapel to play sport with our district. Well, Sister Brown and Sister Doole didn't want to stay and so we all decided to go to Hamilton Gardens. It is basically this awesome place in Hamilton where they have decorated different Garden areas to look like different areas of the world. I'll attach some pictures. 4979->Is just a tree that looked really cool in the dusk. 4982->This is a waterfall that flows into a lake in the centre place of the gardens. 4991->This is the Italian Renaissance Garden. It was absolutely gorgeous! The Waikato River, the longest river in New Zealand flows behind that building. 4998->This is the Indian Garden...it SCREAMED Aladdin to me. (:  5000->This is the Chinese Garden, which SCREAMED Mulan. (: It was so cool!!

On Wednesday, we had Zone Conference! It was at a Maori Marae, a sacred place for the Maori people. They have funerals and stuff like that there. Anyway, we basically went there to learn all about the Maori culture and it was SO awesome. So, in a place called Kawhia, Ka-fia, the Saviour came and visited the Maori people! I had NO idea. And there's a tree there that they reckon has been standing since then, that has been named Tangi Te Koro Whiti, which in this context mean, The Holy Man who bought the resurrection. SO COOL!! And then throughout New Zealand they built Wanangas, or Sacred Schools of Learning, where they taught about Kauhanganui, or the High Priesthood of God. Totally cool, right? There is so much culture and spirituality that the Maori people posses. Then President Rudd talked about how  the main doctrine of the gospel and the one that people need to understand is that fact that we are ALL children of our Heavenly Father. He told us that if we are struggling that if we remember that we are children of God, that that doctrine alone will help us. (: It is so true!! So, true. Then he talked about how everyone that we meet on the mission has already accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ...they accepted it in the Pre-Mortal Existence and we are just here to help them remember! So awesome!! He also said this and it really touched me, because we had been talking about all of the missionaries from the past New Zealand history, but President Rudd said, "It's great to talk about the miracles of the past, but we are creating the stories of the future! We still live in a day of miracles-FIND YOUR MIRACLES!" The Spirit was so strong when he was talking to us. I know that President Rudd is called of God to lead the Hamilton Mission to greatness!!

Well, transfers is this week and honestly, if I get transferred, or if Sister Amituanai gets transferred, I am going to be gutted! I love this area and I love my companion, but I know that if we do get transferred the Lord needs us both elsewhere!

Just as a closing...we were watching the Other Side of Heaven with one our investigators and it turns out that half of the actors in it are Maori! Crazy, eh? Go back and watch it and the girl that "twists her ankle?" She's Maori and she is her mother! And Feki, his companion, is on a New Zealand Soap Opera. And I recognized a lot of the New Zealand accent in a lot of them. It was a total mind blower!! (:

My cast is off and my arm is healing quite nicely. (: I am so good and I am still loving the mission! I love my companion and I love the New Zealand people and I wouldn't change my mission for the world!!! 7 months have passed so quickly, I can't even imagine the remaining 11...(':

Arohanui,
Sister Pearce






No comments:

Post a Comment