Oh my goodness, where to even start? (PS I'm pretty sure I say that every week). I can't believe I haven't even been here a week, but it's all good b/c I love it here! First off, the only limit about emailing is that it has to be family, we don't have a time limit and my comp made it sound like she usually goes for 1 1/2 hours or so, so feel free to email me! Thank goodness for email b/c, well it takes forever for mail to get to NZ from the states anyway, but since it's sent to the mission home and we live 3 hrs south of Auckland, we won't be getting mail much, prbobably only at transfers. Oh, and I LOVE my trainer, her name is Sis. Perry, she's from Freemont, CA, I am so excited I get to be with her for 3 months. I know she's going to help me out so much and I already love working with her. I had actually heard about her before I got here b/c she knew my friend Carly at BYU, small world!
So yeah, I am in Tauranga. We cover the Otumoetai ward and the Katikati branch. Katikati is about 30 min away which means we have a car, woot woot! We are so spoiled in this area, so it'll definitely be a wake up call when I leave. The sisters moved into a new flat the day before we came down here (apparently it was well known all over the mission how nasty the sisters's flat was in Tauranga) so it's nice an clean of mold and fleas (yeah, unfortunately fleas are a problem here...not looking forward to having to deal with fleas) and it's pretty big, we have a car, and compared to where my trainer has been previously (she said she's been in the ghetto of Auckland the whole time she's been out) this is a nicer part of NZ and the homes are pretty clean and the couches aren't scary to sit on, haha, so yeah, we're spoiled. It hasn't even rained since I've been here. So Tauranga is right on the coast, incase all of you didn't look up Tauranga on wikipedia like Kurt did (props to him for being the only to email me) it's right on the coast, which means it's extra beautiful. A lady I met at the temple told me that NZ looked like California, but sorry, that's a lie. It's way prettier! At least in my area. I can't get over how many trees there are and how big they are! I attached a pic, not that great. I was taking them in the car on our way to email and it wasn't sunny this morning. So I love being on the coast, but that means we'll probably be eating lots of seafood. Not so bueno. & the reason why everyone gains weight here is that they fill your plate for you and then expect you to eat everything. We've only eaten at one member's house, besides at Sis. Rudo's (I'll talk more about here later) and she did fill our plates and it was good, but the pork was so fatty and she gave us beets too and I was trying to finish those first so I could save teh good food for the end, but then I couldn't down the beets anymore. I didn't throw up, but I was gagging a little bit. The bad thing is I know I'll have beets again and I know the food is going to be a lot worse than beets. Especially from what my comp told me about the things she's had to eat. Ahh, pray for me that my tastebuds change! haha
So on to Sister Rudo, my goodness gracious, already one of my favortie people in the whole wide world! My comp had heard how wonderful she was, so we called her Thursday night when we got to Tauranga to see if she could help us out for dinner since we don't have any food in our flat, and she picked us up and took us to dinner at her house, and she dropped us off, she saw that the elders had left our fridge for us and we told her we'd be able to carry it in, but she said she wouldn't be able to sleep if she didnt' know we were okay and told us, "I'm really good a lifting!" So she helped us with the fridge. Oh, and she's prbly 80+ years old and honestly, reminds me a lot of you Granny! She was telling us how she works out everyday and she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself and loves helping others out, especially the sister missionaries. She told us she helps us b/c it blesses her, but she has been such a blessing to both of us! Since I didn't have any sheets, she lent me some, and a blanket and pillow, and then took us Saturday morning to go buy a pillow b/c she really likes the pillow she gave me and has been looking around for the best sheets and duvet at the best price, and she fed us saturday, too and yeah. She's amazing and I don't know where we'd be without her! She actually lived in Holland for a while, but I felt awful that I couldn't tell her where grandpa lived while he was there, so feel free to let me know! Any of you! But lots of other members have been so helpful to us as well, and I am so incredibly thankful for all of them!
So far here, we mostly just been trying to get things organized and figure out what's going on with all the investigators and figuring out where everything is. I'm getting lots of practice at being a navigator and reading a map. Oh, and the definitely lied to me saying that I'd be speaking English here. Okay, well I'm speaking English, but the names of people, streets and whatevs are not in English, and they didn't even help me figure out how to try to pronounce things! And it's so hard for me when we met people at church and they tell me their first or last name and I'm thinking, "did you really just say a word? b/c it sounded like a lot mumbling." haha, it's going to be a lot of work remembering the names of all the members in the ward. Oh, biggest news of yesterday was that I set our first investigator to be baptized in 2 weeks. Saturday was a little frustrating b/c we were having a hard time getting a hold of any of our investigators, or if we just showed up at their door, they didnt' really want to talk to us, and Saturday night we had been talking to this member in the Katikati branch, Ahokava, b/c the sister had been teaching his roommate, so we told Ahokava to come find us at church so we could meet him (we had Stake Conf). So he came and found us and said he came with his girlfriend, a non member, but she had been to church 3 weeks now, and she kept saying how everyone there seemed so happy, and she loves RS and it was even more exciting when she told us she went to church last week w/out Ahokava b/c she realized she didn't need him to go! So we called her last night and she was all for getting baptized and the Stake President also gave everyone a challenge to read teh Book of Mormon in 4 months and gave everyone a schedule of what to read everyday and she was all for it and ready to start yesterday! It was so exciting!
Oh, so the first picture is just of the view as you drive down the motorway, I think the 2nd pic is of my district the last day we were all together with one of our teachers, Bro. Larsen, and the last is of my comp at temple square. She's from Kiribati (pronounced Keerabus) and she was SO much fun and got me so excited to come to NZ. And something that I've been hearing about a lot lately is obedeince and how important it is, not just for me as a missionary, but all of us. We can only qualify for blessings and help from the Lord if we obey His commandments! Well this was an extra long email b/c I didn't have to take the time to read any, but feel free to write me next week! I love you all so much!
PS I blew up my straightener the first day here. I didn't even use it, haha, it blew up on the Tongan sister I stayed w/ for the first 2 days. Well she said it burned her hair, and then I looked at it and one of the plates is puffed up and yeah, not working anymore. And when I was using my blow dryer, the converter started smoking, but my blow dryer still works! haha, but I wouldn't be surprised if it quits working soon. I feel like such an ignorant American.
PPS They have all sorts of tim tams here! Ahh, it's heaven! I can't wait to buy some today, haha
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