Oh heyy!
This week was a LONG week. So since the goal of the new training program is to have the new missionaries were ready to train by the end of the 12 weeks, so Sis. Perry has been putting me in charge of more things so that if, and probably when, our mission president asks me if I feel like I'm ready to train, I can say yes. Sometimes I really don't like it when we sit down in a lesson and she whispers "you're in charge" and I start freaking out about what to do, but practice really is the best way to learn how to do everything. I'm quite content to not be the one in charge, Sis Perry is doing a great job, but I'm not always going to be the new missionary, so I really am thankful for this training program and the opportunity we've had to study for 2 hours everyday for comp study and will be sad when it's over! So speaking of throwing me in the deep end a little bit, haha, we were having a lesson with this less active family yesterday in the Katikati branch, and after having an opening prayer and talking a little bit, Sis Perry told me to go for it, ahhhh! I was freaking out! (Sis Perry asked me today if I was mad at her for throwing me in the deep end since we hadn't figured out what to teach them before hand because they have such young children, I wasn't mad exactly, mostly just freaking out about not knowing what to talk about). But we had talked to the 8 year old about how she had learned about prayer in primary, so I went off on that and we ended up talking about family prayer and how they've been trying to have it morning and night recently and came up with a plan to help them remember better and to also work on reading the scriptures as a family together and it ended up being perfect. I didn't realize til after personal study was over, but that experience related perfectly to my personal study about how we're not supposed to be led by the Spirit in every single decision we make. Heavenly Father gave us agency because that's part of the growing process, and I didn't have this huge revelation to know what to talk about with the Tupou family, but as I just started talking, it ended up being the perfect topic. Thankfully it didn't end up a disaster! haha
So I don't know if you've heard much about this in the states, but there was a ship not too far from the harbour here in Tauranga that had crates (or whatever they're called) of oil on the boat and the captain was trying to turn around or something and waves ended up pulling the ship over, so there's been a big oil spill and the beaches are all nasty and the parks are slowly closing as they're getting contaminated by the oil since all the parks are right on the beach and it's so sad how much it's affecting the Bay of Plenty. We were planning on having ward summer kick off bbq thing in a couple weeks at one of the parks, but now we're going to have to have it at the chapel, and now all the fish is contaminated and the saddest thing is that the beaches are all not going to be accessible for the summer. Not cool, even though I can't go to the beach. Hopefully we're going sometime this week to help clean up the beaches.
So I'm pretty sure I talked about our Samoan investigator, Tao, last week. We took one of the Elders here in Tauranga with us to Katikati to have a lesson with him since he speaks Samoan as well and even though I had no clue what was going on most of the lesson and the Elder didn't do the best job of filling us in on what was said, I could definitely feel the Spirit there and came out loving Tao so much more. He is such a good guy and really does want to change his life around (we found out he quit smoking and drinking the day he met us even though we still haven't mentioned the word of wisdom to him, umm, awesome!!) and wants the best for his family (living in Aus, but hasn't seen them in 4 years. They'll be here in Dec). He called us and left a message yesterday before we got home saying how much he loved the lesson today and how he was just lying on his bed feeling so good about everything we talked about. We've just got to help him recognize those answers he's receiving to his prayers and the feelings he's getting from the Holy Ghost.
One more thing, Glenn, who got baptized 2 weeks ago. The one who would show zero emotion & whenever we asked how he was doing, "yeah, I'm alright." or whenver we'd try to get him to committ to anything he'd say, "yeah, I suppose." My goodness, he is a completely different person now! Even on the phone he sounds SO much happier. & he came up to Sis Perry and I individually at church yesterday instead of trying to sneak out without saying anything to us and was just so happy! & before, he would NEVER have approached someone at church. Ahh, it's so exciting to see how much his life has changed since he's gotten baptized!
So the picture attached is of me getting some ice cream after we had a lesson with one of our investigators by an ice cream shop. Like I said, NZ is very proud of their ice cream and they had signs all over about being the best, freshest New Zealand ice cream. & they even put a little NZ flag in it, and I loved it, haha. Not a very exciting picture for this week, but that's what you're getting. I should have better pictures next week because we're driving to Whakatane tomorrow for district meeting and heard that there are some really pretty beaches along the way. (PS, here, I'm assuming it's in the maori language, "wh" makes an f sound, so Whakatane=Fakatanie). Love you all! I heard Kurt 2 lost a tooth, feel free to send me a picture.
Love,
Sis Mullen
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