Monday, May 4, 2015

The Last Melon (:

What a joyous journey this has been, eh? I have enjoyed every minute, every heartache, every trial, every laugh, every cry. I have learned so much and I will never be the same. The Lord has changed me so much and I am so grateful that I have been able to serve this mission for the Lord. I struggled at the beginning, but I pushed through it and I came out stronger on this side. (:

Well, this week, Gwen got baptised!! It was such a stressful day! We had to fill the font in the morning because the heater takes three hours to heat up the font. So we waited for that. It was good, I got to play the piano and Sister Perry and I had some good laughs. The Elders Quorum had an Amazing Race at the chapel and one of the things that they had to do was eat a baby octopus. Well, guess what we found? A baby octopus that someone hadn't eaten. They just left in on the bench in the kitchen. So, Sister Perry and I decided to take photos with it. It was pretty gross. (As a side note: one of the kids later at the baptism, ate it....yeah, after it had been on the ground...and in the rubbish bin. YUCK!!)

We went out to visit some people while we waited for the font to be filled and it was a pretty cool day. Then we went back to the chapel at 3:30 because Gwen wanted to get there early so we could walk through everything. It was so cool. She said that she just felt way calm and that she was ready to be baptised. It was really cool. (:

People started coming and it was really cool to see Gwen's parents walk in and then her son and some of the friends that she had invited. She was simply glowing. It was amazing. And everything ran so smoothly. The talks were amazing and when Elder Romney said the prayer and baptised her, the Spirit was so strong. (: It was so cool. And then as Elder Christensen confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the next day, she looked happier than she had ever been in her life. And she even got up and bore her testimony!! The woman who had anxiety so bad that she wouldn't even step foot in the chapel, got up in Sacrament Meeting and bore her testimony. It was so cool (:

It's been hard to say goodbye to everyone that I love in New Plymouth, but I know that I have served as hard as I could despite the different challenges I faced.

I love the Lord. So much. I love this Gospel and I know it's true. It doesn't quite feel real to me that I have served my time and will be heading home tomorrow, but I know that this is the Lord's plan for me. Thank you all so very very much for the support you have given me. I love you all!!!

Arohanui,
Sister Rachel Pearce

0097-> The Cake that I made for Gwen's baptism (:

0101-> Baby Octopus alert!

0103-> GWEN'S BAPTISM!!!!

0119-> At church on Sunday. (:

0138-> Goodbye to one of my best friends in the whole wide world. (':