This week has been great. Maybe it's because I thought that my mission would seriously never end before, but now as I inch closer to the day I go home, I realize that it will end, so I gotta really thrust in my sickle! I'm enjoying every moment of being out here, trust me I'm happy, and I'm enjoying the land and the people here. There's a guy named Rodney, he is the coolest member in the Tawa ward, he was less-active a year ago, and has came back with FULL HEART and LOVES the gospel. Rodney met a girl named Amy, Amy is from England, Rodney and Amy started dating. Amy got baptized into the church. Amy and Rodney wanted us to come over to their house and teach them for fun, they were both active so Elder White and I thought that we would ask them to invite some non-member friends, they invited Juliet and Kaydee. Juliet and Kaydee were baptized 3 weeks later. There was a ward activity this last week, Juliet and Kaydee invited their friend named Richard. Richard is 20 and has had a hard life and truly needs the gospel, Richard came to church and we're teaching him on tuesday, we're going to set a baptismal date with him! LOOK AT THE SNOWBALL EFFECT! It's so freakin cool to see people come into the gospel and have so much joy that they wanna reach out to their friends!

You've got the cutest little baby face!

Picture of Zone Leader Elder Rawle at zone conference. He calls this picture his baby face. Haha. He hasn't lost his sense of humor!

A Special Gift

Kia Ora Family,

This week has been really cool and really uplifting. The work has been going good, and I've been really happy.

I've gotten up to Wellington and I've fallin in love with New Zealand, the people are really cool up here, and the culture is a lot stronger. I had a really cool experience this past week. There is a family in our ward named the Waihirere's, I'll teach you how to say that when I get back haha. They are very Maori and real cool. They are married in the temple and have 2 cute kids. They are moving up north so it was our last dinner with them down here. They have taught me and my companions a lot about the Maori culture and people, it's been really cool to learn about all of it with them. They've also fed us some real native food that may make you wanna throw up ha. But anyways, we sit down at the end of the night and start talking and getting each others info so we can stay in touch, then the father starts speaking to me, and starts telling me about his greenstone necklace around his neck.

Greenstone is very sacred to the Maori's and is only given as gift, you don't traditionaly buy it for yourself. He talks all about his and what it means. It is the design of greenstone that was put on the end of a wood stick, and used to carve the Maori designs on what they call a marae, it's a carved meeting house. He said it was a very noble thing, and you can't just become a carver because you're good, you have to work your way up to be one. He takes off his greenstone necklace and hands it to me as a gift. I couldn't believe it because it was the necklace that he's had around his neck since i've been here and that someone gave to him many years ago.

We stood up and we did a Hongi, which is the Maori greeting where you put your nose and forehead against the nose and forehead of another persons. I put the large greenstone neckace around my neck and we did another Hongi when we left. It was a really cool experience, I've always wanted one, but to get one from a family that I've become so close to means even more to me. I will always wear it with pride, knowing where it came from, and it will help me remember my time in New Zealand.

The work is going very well, we have one baptismal date for a 10 year old Maori kid for this sunday named Trent. He's basically been to church for 3 months straight, he's really cool. He has no family that are members of the church but his parents support him by taking him to church every Sunday. His Mom wanted to make sure he was ready to be baptized and not just doing it for fun so she asked him why he wanted to get baptized, Trent replied, "I want to be baptized so Jesus Christ can take away all of my lies and bad things I've done, and so I can feel clean again." It was really cool when his Mom told me that story, hopefully she'll be baptized too! Who knows, the Lord works miracles.

I miss you all, I hope you're doing well, always keep me updated on what's going on back home! I've been out 14 and a half months now, it's going by fast, it's crazy but I love every moment of it out here. Wellington is a beautiful place, I love serving here so much. Stay strong, be safe! God be with you till we meet again! That's it for this week.

Cya. -Elder Connor

Green Stone

North Island-Tawa

Zone Conference-Tawa

Click to see Connor. He is the cute one in the back!

Love this letter from Connor-New Zone Leader

Kia Ora Whanau,

Well it's about time that I sent out a nice e-mail so you all can see how things are going here in the suburb of Wellington called Tawa. First of all the ward is awesome, they do their part of inviting their friends to activities and everything, it really helps the missionary work. It's nice to actually be in a WARD and not a freakin branch, branches are tiny as! We have zone leader council once every transfer which is 6 weeks, President Jolliffe just talks about what we need to improve on and what we are doing well with. When President Jolliffe first got here they baptized 97 the year earlier, now we had 350 last year and we're shooting for over 400 this year, so things are going VERY well in this mission. My zone is the Wellington Zone, there are 7 companionships, and every companionship is awesome and hard working, so I'm really excited. Every transfer my companion and I have to think of a zone theme, so since in new zealand everything is something then the word 'as', so it's like 'sweet as', or that food is 'nice as'. It's real kiwi slang and everyone says it, so I thought I would us the 'as' in our zone theme, we want a 'sweet as' transfer, so we have a little theme each week to help us stay motivated and focused on improving, first week is.....

1. Diligent as

2. Obedient as

3. Pure as

4. Bold as

5. Grateful as

It's freakin funny and all of the missionaries are already saying it, whenever we talk on the phone or anything, before we hang up they will say, "Be diligent as this week!" it's freakin funny.

The missionary work is continually progressing, we have 2 baptismal dates for the 25th of this month, hopefully they will both go through, one is really solid with a ten year old kid, his sister is an active member and his dad is less active, but the other is a girl in her 20's and she's ready for it, she's just really scared.

A lot of our investigators are pretty young right now for some reason, on sunday we had 5 investigators at church and they were all under the age of 16, it was really crazy because they were all in regular everyday clothes, so they all stuck out like sore thumbs, but who cares, whoever wants to come to church can come! The crazy thing that happened at church was with one of our investigators that's a 15 year old from Nigeria in Africa. A leader wanted him to make friends with some of the other youth, so they had some of the members of the teachers quorum show him around the chapel after sacrament meeting, and show him how to TAKE THE SACRAMENT PLATES OFF OF THE SACRAMENT TABLE, so we look over and our NON-MEMBER investigator is doing the duty of the teachers in the priesthood by taking the sacrament plates to the kitchen haha. He's a non-member and doesn't have the priesthood, but oh well it was too late to stop haha, I guess it's just sacrament plates but it was pretty funny to watch.

I'm doing great and learning a lot, I think a lot of the reason I'm on my mission is for myself, as well as the people. Myself because I'm learning a lot about the gospel, and having spiritual experiences that strengthen my testimony frequently. It's been an awesome experience so far watching the gospel shape people lives into something better, giving them hope, peace, and security.

There was a BIG earthquake in the city of Christchurch on the south island, the place that got it the worst was a town called Kaiapoi, that's 10 minutes from Rangiora and when I was in Rangiora for 6 months we worked in Kaiapoi just about everyday, no one was killed but a lot of people injured and heaps of houses damaged and demolished. Two LDS chapels had damage done that it getting repared. I'm actually grateful for the earthquake to humble the whole country!

I love you all and I'm constantly keeping you in my prayers, love ya heaps! Arohanui,

-Elder Connor Rawle

Earthquake in New Zealand

Dear Parents & or Family Members,

You may have heard on the news that we have had an Earthquake in our mission. The earthquake was on the South Island near Christchurch. We wanted to reassure you that all the missionaries in the mission are fine and that none of the apartments have been damaged. All our missionaries have mobile phones and so we have been able to stay in touch.

Thank you for your prayers and support you give to your missionary. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to e-mail us.

Kindest Regards,

Clive R Jolliffe

Mission President

Wonderful Letter about Connor

Hi President Jolliffe,

I just wanted to email you and let you know how OBEDIENT your missionaries are! I just had Elder Rawle and Elder Socco (?) drop off a dish, from a meal I had provided for them to take to an investigators home. It was about 2pm in the afternoon and I had only just got home myself and I was heating up a pot of soup for lunch. My husband is away at the moment in Papua New Guinea, and will be back tomorrow night, because of that I haven’t been able to have the missionaries here for their weekly dinner date on a Friday night.

I thought as I had some hot soup just ready I would offer some to the missionaries. It is a very cold day here in Dunedin with a very cold wind. They gladly accepted the offer of soup, but wouldn’t come in. It was absolutely perishing outside. I must admit I tempted them by saying I would stay in the family room and have my soup if they would like to come in out of the wind and sit either in the lounge or the conservatory. They were severely tempted, but politely declined and sat outside in the cold wind on a concrete block wall. I am so IMPRESSED by their obedience and desire to keep all the mission rules in every respect. You have a great team of missionaries President Jolliffe!!!

Kind regards,

Sister Jocelyn Fortune J

(St. Clair Branch Relief Society President)

Dunedin

We are waiting for more pictures from Connor. He went from training Elder Mataupu from Samoa to Elder Hussein from Fiji. He is learning about so many different cultures. He is still a district leader. He had 2 baptisms last month and is working hard for more before his next transfer. We love you Connor! Watch for more pictures to come soon!

Welcome to Dunedin district leader!

Congratulations Connor!

6 months!

District Leader!

Transfer to Dunedin!

Dunedin is in the very south of the South Island of New Zealand. Connor is on the Pacific Ocean coast in the suburb of St. Clair, which is famous for surfing. It looks absolutely beautiful! We love you Connor!

south island conference

Can you spot Connor?

He is the one with the bright smile.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Hint: Connor begins with a "C".

Connor made a list of people he has met from different countries: Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Cook Islands, Siberia, Israel, Mexico, Turkey, Austria, Germany, Phillipines, Ukraine, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Estonia, Argentina, South Africa, Nepal, Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Holland.

Unbelieveable! What an adventure! So many people from all over the world!

meet rachel

Meet Rachel. We love her! We have never met, yet feel like we've known her forever. Elder Rawle and Elder Tinker baptized her. She has been a blessing in Connor's life. Connor has been a blessing in her life. Funny how the gospel works that way. Connor will be leaving Rangiora next month. Change is good, yet leaving Rachel, her husband Kelvin, and her 3 great kids will be very hard for Connor. The bond was immediate and very strong.

How grateful we are for missionary work that brings lives together and sends blessings that last through eternity. We are grateful to Rachel. She has been a bright ray of sunshine for Connor and for us. 7300 miles divide us, but we are closer than ever.