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!