It's Never Too Early For Christmas Music

Kia Ora! ...I actually hardly hear anyone say that, probably because there are so many white people where we are right now.

Let's see, what happened this week? Oh, so we had a very interesting feed last week with a sister in our ward. She lives out in the boonies and has all sorts of chickens, sheep and cows. We think we might have had lamb b/c it definitely wasn't chicken or beef, I thought it was pork, but then after we got home Sis Perry asked me if I knew what it was, and she thought it was lamb b/c she started telling us about the lamb she had a while ago. If it was...it didn't taste any different. She was telling us when we bring our families back to NZ to show off where we served, to bring them to stay at Auntie Dulcie's! haha, I don't think that will be happening...unless anyone is dying to have the experience to sleep on the same mattress where her hens lay their eggs.

We might have started listening to Christmas music already...it's just so good! Why not listen to it for 6 months of the year? Why didn't I think of this before I came on a mission? Thankfully Sis Perry and I have the same feelings about Christmas music. Sis Perry also told me how she feels like she has to translate for me a lot...which is so true. Kinda funny how there is still a pretty serious language barrier even though they're speaking English. We had an appt with one guy, but we couldn't find a female member to come with us, so we rescheduled, but we were walking away and I said, "So what's going on with him...I'm so confused!" & we met with this recent convert who hasn't been to church in a while, turns out she just always needs a ride, and she's quite the talker, and I was SOOOO confused almost the whole conversation b/c she wasn't using all sorts of words I didn't know what they meant and I just couldn't understand her sometimes. She's Maori, but still from New Zealand and English was her first language, haha. It's also funny teaching people here or even the missionaries who are from NZ or Australia don't know where certain states are that are big in church history like Ohio or Missouri. Or one of our investigators was saying he thinks he's heard of the Mississippi River, & I was thinking, "uhh...who hasn't?" I also asked him how tall he was and he told me 180 cm...it never occurred to me that they don't measure height in feet. The only reference I have to how tall 180 cm might be is that my snowboard is 154 cm...I think. I also never thought that they wouldn't measure in calories here, it's kilo-Joules. So who knows how bad all these chocolate bars are for me, haha.

I forgot to mention that the Rugby world cup started last week and it is a BIG deal here. We were in Katikati the night of the opening ceremony, and there were lines of cars driving down the street and people walking too carrying Tongan flags and flags all over the cars blasting music. Like probably well over 50 people involved this little parade, it was awesome. I wish I could watch part of the games. We keep getting the updates from everyone.

We did have one cool story this week: we had 2 appts right after church in Katikati, but they fell through, so we went to go visit a part member family, the husband is the non member. And we got there right after he left for work, and the wife was on the phone, so we started talking to this guy on the couch and he's a friend of the member & was over to watch Samoa play in the rugby world cup, and he is so ready for the gospel! It was neat to see his heart soften as we kept talking to him. He asked if he had a book and our contact info incase his friends were interested b/c he's heard this before, but by the end of the conversation, it was all definitely for him. He was saying how he's confused because there are so many churches and just doesn't know what to believe and is ready to make some changes b/c he was in prison a while back. He's so ready, so hopefully he'll let us come visit him more.

So I was studying about the Atonement this week and I just wish I knew so much more! I love Alma 7:11-12  because it talks about how Christ suffered so that He would know how to succor His people and that thought gives me so much comfort. I know that Christ choose to suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane so that he would know how we all felt when we're having a hard time. He could have found it out by revelation, but he chose to find out through experience and that is probably one of my favorite parts of the Atonement. It gives me so much comfort to know that Christ knows exactly what I"m going through and what I need the most when I just have no drive to carry on. I am so incredibly thankful for my Savior and all the wonderful blessings we receive from the Atonement and all that He suffered for each and everyone of us! Love you all and hope things are going well!

Love, Sis Mullen

PS No cool pics from this week, we are severely limited on p-day activities since we are so limited on our km per month, so here are some more pics from Mt. Maunganui.