Freezing Elders - 10/15/2023

I was told that the weather would be warming up by now but it's still near freezing up here in the mountains. We also had no hot water all this week and last week which was just lovely, but they got it fixed yesterday so we're all good now!


Last Monday was probably the most fun I've had on a P-day thus far; We were finally able to drive up to Mt. Ruapeha! When we got there, we took a gandala up to the top where there was a huge area for us to just play in the snow like little kids. There was also this massive cafe where we had lunch and the view from the ledge was gorgeous so we took a bunch of pictures. Then we drove back into town in time to open up our exchanges with the zone leaders.


The next day was super fun, my companion for the day, Elder Williams, and I drove up to Tūrangi and spent the day making visits and teaching lessons up there. By the end of the day I was exhausted, but I learned a lot from him and Elder Lavaka so that was awesome.


These gang members stopped us on the street the other day, which was a bit scary at first but it was so cool to see how genuinely interested they were in learning about us. I've found that most of the gangsters here are either inactive members of our church, or have family that are members of the church, so they really respect what missionaries are doing and will often go out of their way to protect us.


I gave everyone, including myself, haircuts yesterday so we're all lookin pretty for the baptism on Saturday.


Watson and I were able to give talks in church yesterday (yes I was actually prepared this time), and I feel like they went really well. Most of mine was from the heart, other than a few quotes and scriptures here and there, which was a little risky for me but I saw the Branch President's wife crying in the back row so I'll take it. Then after the meeting closed Sister Lolohea, the young women's president, asked us to teach the youth class. So the streak of improvising continues! We didn't want the youth to be bored out of their minds so we just pulled out every object lesson we knew and ran through those for an hour. It was so much fun, working with kids is one of my favorite parts of the mission!


Christ has a special place in his heart for children and I have definitely seen that special love for them over and over again as I've been able to work with more kids.


Love y'all so much!!











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