Kia Ora! (greetings! in Maori)
It is really great here in New Zealand! It is so incredibly green it's crazy!!!
I had to drive on the second day I got here because my companion's license has expired or something like that. I will be getting my license pretty soon here from New Zealand. Should be good. Driving on the left hand side of the road is really freaking me out, and I've been driving a lot these past couple of days. Also, the steering column is on the right side of the car. Also confusing. There is a thing here called the Amercian salute. Because the steering column is on the right side, everything is switched: The gearshift, the window wipers, the blinkers. So, when I went to signal, it waved the windshield (it's called a windscreen here in NZ) wipers. American Salute. I did it a lot for the first 2 ish days.
The flight was incredibly long. projected to be 13 hours, but we had a favorable wind, and it turned out to be about 12 hours and 15 minutes. Still, that was super long. I'll attach some pictures. There were TV screens on the seat backs of every seat. There were 4 styles of seating: Economy (Me), Buisness economy, Something else, and first class. First class had huge ottomans (foot rests) and so did the one that I can't remember the name of. The plane that we flew in was completely black, honoring the New Zealand All-blacks--The NZ Rugby team. Rugby is huge here. I'll attach a picture of it. I'll send some more emails with attachments, but I am limited by the 25mb limit, so I'll attach some pictures later or something...
Anywho, my companion's name is E. Ngalu. I forgot to get a picture of us together, so I'll have to get that picture later.
I had "my" first baptism on Saturday (Friday in the US I think...). Her name is Taylor. She has been living with a member family because her parents are not too keen on her decision to join our church, or something like that. I'm not entirely sure what exactly is the story. Her confirmation was yesterday, and E. Ngalu confirmed her and I stood in. There were a total of 6 baptisms in our district this past week. Crazy stuff!!!
Oh! the region I am in is called Ngaruawahia (Naru-wahia, Ng is like in singer, but not finger. Each vowel makes a new syllable.) It's in the zone of Hamilton. So the temple is just down the road from Ngaruawahia in Hamilton proper. So that's cool.
I'm trying to learn Tongan, and it will not be terribly easy. Oh well. I hope I can do it.
There are just about a billion sheep here or something. They let them roam free all over in Auckland and everywhere that there is lots of green grass.
A lot of people here say Sweet as or sweet az. The as is added on to denote lots of it. Like, Cold as, hot as, sweet as. They use lots of words that I am unfamiliar with, and a lot of the times, I have to ask someone to write it down, because it really doesn't make sense what it is because a lot of the words are Tongan or Maori or Samoan. So that's cool. I love the accents here. It's so fun to listen to people say words in these New Zealander accents. They sound so intelligent. Everyone, even the kids, sound super intelligent. It's kinda cool. Apparently my accent is cool to them, or at least to my companion. He loves it when I say something with an R. Like Hamburger. Anyways, that's cool.
It is expensive-as to send letters to America, so don't expect me to be writing back to many people. I'll most likely just reply in an email. Jeeze. Also, you will never recieve a package from me. It costs about $60 USD to send a package to here, but about $120 NZD to send one there. That's about how much money I get every two weeks. So, I can't afford to send packages. It costs about $3 NZD to send a letter. Anyways, that rant is over. :-)
I am sitting in an Email shop in Hamilton proper. It isn't horribly expensive, but still. I wish I could email for free. I get about an hour for email, and then I have to get on with my day, so my emails are going to be generally longer from now on. Ish. :-) I have already used up 31 minutes, so it will cost me $4 up till one hour. So I might as well use it.
After this, I believe that we are going to go to the Stake Center and play some sports with some of the members and invesitgators that live nearby and want to come.
A little about the investigators that I have met:
Wero and April are a couple that are living together, and are scared to get married. However, yesterday we (E. Ngalu mostly) commited them to marriage and baptism for the end of November. So that was good. It is nothing like the MTC to teach. It feels way more real out here. (That's probably because it is real. :-) ) April also has a smoking problem, and a slight drinking problem, but she can get over those rather easily. They have three kids. Two are April's, and one is Wero and April's. A lot of people in NZ are like this, but you still love them anyways. I was so happy when they said that they committed to bap and marriage. That was really awesome. I didn't really expect to feel that kind of happiness at it, but I did. :-)
I didn't send any pictures from the MTC because the computers are slow and because we only have 30 minutes, and I wanted to write as much as possible. I will send pictures a lot more often now, because It is heaps (also a Kiwi word) to upload using internet cafe computers. I will take plenty of pictures of my areas, so don't worry Mom. :-)
Kiara, holy crap you're married. It still freaks me out. Wow... Sorry that our phone conversation got cut off. I found out later that my calling card didn't have as much time as I thought, because it cost $1.30 to make a call in the first place, which didn't leave much times for calling. It cost $1 for 4 minutes without a card, so that's why i was unable to continue the conversation. I didn't have enough quarters. :-P
Send me wedding announcements! Or if you want to save money, you can scan it into the computer and email it to me, because family can email me whenever they want. I will just only be able to check it on Mondays. Mondays are my Pday.
I'm gonna try to keep as busy as I can. Hopefully time will fly, and I will be able to get lost in the work.
There are 5 companionships in my district, and E. Ngalu is the district leader. It is pretty cool.
Another thing, here in the New Zealand Auckland mission, we save souls weekly. Literally. Like, we "saved" six people this last week in our district. We also have 50 something baptisms projected for all of October with a lot of them accomplished already. It's really cool actually. :-)
Well, I'm running short on time, so know that I am praying for all of you. I love you all, and New Zealand is fantastic, and you wish you were here!!! ;-) It's so green! I know why though: It rains just about all the time. Lol... I wish my suit was completely waterproof. It would make life easier. It's too windy to use an umbrella, and too complicated to use a windbreaker waterproof jacket.
Anyways, bye!!! :-)
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