Week 27

Kia Ora Whanau

I am now in Timaru and boy is it different from Lower Hutt. It's a small city with lots of hills and it's right on the coast. There isn't much of a bush, mostly deciduous trees. There are more older buildings and the houses are a lot bigger.

Our flat is huge! It's got 3 bedrooms and a giant kitchen. It is apparently the nicest flat in the entire mission, so blessings.

My companion, Sister Tapumanaia is so great! I love her, she's so much fun but also hard working and we get along so well.

On Monday, before transfers, we had 2 dinners (typical of the Hutt). One at Seiara's house and the other with Hine and Mia. We taught Mia about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Before the lesson, Sister Crichton and I talked about maybe inviting him to be baptized, but we didn't confirm it before the lesson. Then as Sister Crichton was teaching (in Samoan) I was doing my best to understand what was going on and then all of a sudden I hear her invite him to be baptized! I was like wow she's going for it! So we invited Mia to be baptized, and he accepted! What a way to finish off the transfer!

Tuesday was transfer day so I woke up super early and flew to Dunedine where I met my new Soa, and then we drove 3 hours to Timaru. We met with some of the ward members once we got to Timaru and got to work.

Wednesday we visited a bunch of members because apparently they get really mad if new missionaries don't visit on their first day. Then in the evening, we went to the chapel to run a Zumba night for the Relief Society, and no one showed up, so sad. The ward just barely got turned from a branch into a ward so it's still pretty small and the chapel is tiny. It is totally different from what I'm used to, the members need alot more support from the missionaries to help strengthen them, and they need to learn to work with us more, but it will come. Sister Tapumanaia and I have made a goal this transfer to try work with the ward to build more trust and help strengthen them so that they can start participating more in missionary work.

On Thursday we biked a bunch and met with some people that we are teaching. We made plans with a couple that we're teaching (Donald and Theresa) to go on a hike with them next pday so that should be really fun. We had lunch at a member's house and they served us heaps of food. I ate a decent amount but wasn't planning on finishing because it was too much food. When Sister Reihana noticed I was going to finish, she looked me in the eye and said "you have to finish, you can't let that go to waste". The she stood there and watched me finish. Man what a struggle lol.

We also had ministering night on Thursday. It was pretty good, it was nice getting to go out and visit some people I haven't met yet and get to know the members a little better. All the missionaries from the zone came which was nice but because the zone is so spread out, all the sisters spent the night at our flat. It was so crazy to have 7 of us here, but we made it work.

On Friday, we had district council and I met some more people that we are teaching. We met with this one family, Josh, Sarah, and Lena and they are honestly so golden for the gospel. They are the nicest people ever and live great lives and would be incredible members. They are kind of half interested right now and so we will be praying about how to help them become more interested without being too pushy. We also had a sport night for the ward tonight, which no one showed up to again. This ward is so different from Western Hutt, it'll take some getting used to.

On Saturday we went and met with some less active Samoan members and at every house that we went to, they were making panikeke (deep fried pancake balls). Sister Tapumanaia is famous for her banana panikeke so when we showed up, all the members asked her to make the pancakes, so we made so many pancakes with members. My pancakes never turn out very round but hers are always perfect spheres. It was fun and a good way to serve and get to build relationships with less active members. Some of them even came to church on Sunday which was awesome.

We had an area seventy come to sacrament meeting on Sunday. He and his wife gave really great talks that were very inline with what was shared in general conference. They weren't very Eastery, but they were still good talks and they really invited the spirit. I had the chance to speak to Elder Ochess, and he knows the Spackmans back home so that was a cool connection to make. After church, we tried to contact a bunch of formers, but almost all of them had moved and the new people were not interested. We did find one potential though, she is the niece of Sister Reihana and she has basically the exact same name as me which was trippy. We had Easter dinner with the Paea family and it was really nice. We sang a bunch of hymns together and the spirit was definitely in their home. Brother Paea expressed his gratitude for us because his daughter is less active and her partner is not a member, but they always look forward to having the missionaries over because they feel the spirit when we come. It was a tender moment and what missionary work is all about.

That was my week. Tonight we are going to Dunedine for Easter Dinner at the Senior missionary couple's home and then we have Zone conference tomorrow which should be good.

My spiritual thought this week comes from something that Sister Ochess said in sacrament meeting. She said, "If we're not changing or moving because of the word of God, then we're moving away from him. Just reading you're scriptures or praying is not good enough anymore, we must go home, repent, and act." This is so true. We can no longer passively participate in the gospel. If we are passive, then sooner or later we will find that our testimonies have failed us. We must actively study and live the gospel so that we can continually strengthen our testimonies so that we are able to survive spiritually. We must get up and act. So this Easter Sunday, think, what are you going to do to more actively participate in and live the gospel?

Ofa Atu

Sister Olson

Koutou Katoa Ra