A Great Week

Kia Ora Family,

Things have been awesome this week. We've seen a lot of ups and downs for sure. I was in a three-some for a while, but now it's just me and Elder Sharkey from Orderville Utah. We were able to set two baptismal dates with a couple of our investigators that have been to church 2 weeks in a row, so I'm stoked on that. There's this lady were teaching that had a baptismal date for the 5th, she seemed to have been doing so good and progressing so well, then we show up to her house to make sure church was all good, then she says that things are going to fast, that she doesn't feel like going to church, and that she wants to slow down. It was a huge let down. I jumped back on my bike thinking in my head, why can't I just baptize a cool family, why do all these people keep bailing out? How come all the missionaries in south america just baptized whole familys? Then my companion and I kicked ourselves in the butt and started thinking positive again as we rode to another investigators house named Hinemoa. She was progressing really good but she missed church 2 weeks in a row, then we invited her again, and we didn't think that she would really show up. But we rode our bikes to her house anyways just to see if she'd be up for it and keep the commitment. She answered the door all ready for church and said that she was just about to head over. ME AND MY COMPANION WERE SOOOO STOKED! Our attitude completely changed and we we're so happy. We got back on our bikes and started to ride to church, when we were only a block down the road we see Hinemoa's boyfriend named Hoehepa that we had taught once. He had on a white shirt and everything and he runs out to the street and say's, kia ora bro!! i'm comin to churchhh!! Man me and my companion were so excited. I had to give a talk so I was on the stand, as I was looking out over the congregation I realized that we had 9 new investigators there, including one that we had never met before, that just showed up on her own. She has been reading the book of mormon everyday for a long time, she has her own that's all highlighted. She had been meeting with missionaries in the Auckland mission but moved down here and we never heard anything. She tried contacting the church trying to get our contact details but couldn't, so she found out the time of church by the internet and just came!

It was interesting to me to see how the Lord tried my faith before he gave me such a huge blessing. It was such an uplifting experience for me to see so many people the congregation smiling and loving the gospel.

Things are awesome though, I'm happy as. The weather is still hot, but it's been pretty cool lately. We moved our beds into the main room of our apartment where it has a cooler on the wall, so our room turns into a fridge at night, i love it. I've been riding my bike EVERYWHERE so I can lose enough weight to look similair to what I did before my mission. Love you all! See you in 6 months!

Youth Mini Mission

This week the youth in our stake went on a mini mission with all the Elders in the zone. There were two youth members with a companionship, so we each got a member companion from friday evening to sunday evening. They were set apart as missionaries and had to live by all the rules, they got a little name badge, and they were our companions for a few days. All of the kids were members except for one, who was my companion. He moved in with his aunt about a year ago in a small town with a lot of church history called Bridge Pa. Bridge Pa is a place where the famous Mathew Cowley did a lot of missionary work. When this youth was going to church with his member aunt that he moved in with, he started to slowly gain a testimony. He became friends with all the members, he suddenly had a great family at church with great values. His testimony grew and grew, his Mom wouldn't let him get baptized for some reason, but she let him go to efy with all the other members. At efy he finally gained his own testimony and bore his testimony there. We became companions for a few days, at first he was shy and didn't know what to say, then he got more used to it and opened up to me, I got to know him so well. This young non-member maori boy has so much faith it blew my mind. We went to a few teaching appointment where he bore testimony of the restoration and a living prophet, he bore testimony in the power of sacrament meeting, he even bore testimony of the ordinance of baptism! After the few days with him we went back to the chapel for a fireside where all of their family come and see their children bear their tesitmonies and sing. When this young man bore his testimony everyone went silent, it was so powerful! The whole congregation was balling their eyes out. We became such good friends, his mom came as well, she was crying and I hope that the spirit softened her heart. I love serving here, we have 2 baptisms coming up on saturday, I hope and pray that everything will go well. i love you all and miss you, the church is true!

Connor's New Area-Beautiful Napier

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!