the joys of tracting begin

So the first day here we went tracting around Rangiora in a neighborhood.  I had been watcing my companion do it for a while so we came to a house and Elder Tinker asked me if i wanted to talk this time, so I said for sure!  We knocked on the door and there stood this 300 pound Maori, about 50 years old, looking really mad.  I said, "hi, how is it going?"  He stood there saying nothing for 10 seconds, then he looked at his clock and says,"it's 7:30 at night,why are you knocking on my door?"  I didn't know what to say so I said, "me and my friend are with the LDS church and we are sharing a message that God has called a prophet to this earth again, are you a religious guy at all?" He says "yes, I'm Maori/Tongan and I pray to the Maori Gods", in a really harsh and rude tone.   I said "oh that's great", then told him about the Book of Mormon and he said, "where is this book?"  I took it out of my bag and showed him the Book of Mormon and he started yelling, "put that book away, put that book back in your bag!"  I was so scared I was shaking and wanting to cry, we talked for like 10 more minutes with this tired grumpy 300 pound Maori being so rude until he says, "I'm George, my wife was just baptized, we were playing a joke on you!"  

Ahhh!  It turns out that the missionaries have been working with them for a while so they do that to every new missionary.  We went in and he and his wife are so nice, really poor but really rich in heart and giving.  They love the missionaries. 

We are working with a married couple in their 40's.  Their names are Grant and Carolynn.  Carolynn knows the church is true, but she doesn't want to get baptized until Grant does.  But they came to church yesterday and loved it so maybe they will get baptized soon.  We are going to challenge them on Sunday the 30th.  

Me and Elder Tinker visited a part member (all inactive) Samoan family, and we talked about culture the whole time. I talked about lava lavas and about how Kayla is Samoan and they were SOOOO stoked and it feels like they like me more because of it!!! haha. Then they gave me a red Samoan lava lava and I wear it around the house. They are so nice and giving.