Elder Connor Rawle

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!

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