Elder Cache Staheli's Mission Blog: Of Baptisms, confirmations, slacking fathers ;-), district splits, nature hikes, and pack-rats

Well! I recieved some letters from people, which was nice! I will try to respond to all of them today, but I might not get to it. But I shall most certainly try!

Well, anyways! This past weekend has been fan-jolly-tastic! Wero, April, Tyesha, and Chantelle were baptized! It was awesome. I finally did get some pictures of them, which I will include.

Tyesha was baptized first. She was baptized by E. Ngalu. She has like a billion middle names. It was pretty cool. She insisted on going first so that she could put on makeup without making everyone wait

Wero, the big guy in the picture, was baptized by our ward mission leader, with me standing in the font in case he needed help getting him up. I didn't need to help, but I almost did. Another thing, we had the font filled up to almost the top step, so that it would be heaps easier to baptize Wero, because you weigh something like 75% less in water. So, the more water you have, the easier it is. Anyways, we filled it to the top step. Wow! We displaced heaps of water. When Wero was baptized, the water shot over the edge into the bathrooms. Thank goodness for the drains in the bathroom. They were put to good use. The water was incredibly warm. It was really almost hot, actually. All the girls, April, Tyesha, and Chantelle, said that it burned their legs (because of shaving, I'd imagine). I thought it was really pleasant. It was great.

After Wero, I baptized April. All of them kept making jokes about how I was gonna drop her. We actually practiced the baptism with them without water so that they would kind of know how it goes. It was slightly difficult without water, but I was just fine. Well, Wero still decided to tease and to tell me that I needed to work out my arm so that I could lift her. When April stepped into the font, she said that if I dropped her, I was going down with her. Lol... I didn't drop her though. It was pretty easy. Lastly, Chantelle was baptized by her cousin, whose name is Utah. I think it's pretty cool.

Cool side trivia! It "says" the word utah in the Book of Mormon. Does anyone know where it is? :-)

Back on subject, the next day in Church, they were all confirmed. The same people confirmed, except that Chantelle was baptized by her Uncle, because Utah is only 16. It was my first actual confirmation. It was nerve wracking! I was so nervous, but the words just kinda flowed out. It was a neat experience. So, as you might imagine, 4 confirmations in church would take a long time. Also, there were two baby blessings. And on top of that, it was fast and testimony meeting yesterday, and everyone and their dog decided to get up and bear their testimony, so we finished at 10 till 12 (Sacrament meeting started at 10). So, Sunday School and Priesthood were greatly shortened.

After church, we went and gave a blessing to a man and his wife who were sick today and couldn't come to church. The wife is pregnant and due really soon here. Dec 22 I believe.

So, it has come to my attention that my Father is none too good at sending these emails out. Something like 2 weeks late or something. ;-) So, my dear Father, I am sending them to Mom as well, just in case you forget. :-)

So! This past Thursdays was transfers. My companion and I are still here in NGA. But there is a slight change. Instead of our district being NGA, Huntly, the Coromandel peninsula and part of Hamilton, it's just NGA and Huntly. Also, Huntly got their car taken away. :-) Suckers. ;-) Just kidding. That will probably happen to me in 6 weeks or so. This district change means that we can no longer go to the Stake Center and play sports with our former district. :-P Oh well. We don't need them anyways. ;-)

Nature! It's great. I went on a nature hike/walk/thing last Monday afternoon, and it was a very nice walk. I took pictures. This country is so stinking green! It's awesome! The hike was really nice.

One last thing. Pack-rats. There is this lady in our ward that is what you would call a hoarder. She keeps everything. She is very dirty, and very interesting. I have yet to go to her house, but supposedly she will invite us over to talk and do service for her. But she has a little bit of a mental problems, probably brought upon from her son dying.

Today, we are going to go buy green-stones (a New Zealand stone that is very dear to their hearts. Similar to Jade. Almost exactly the same, in fact). I hope. I want to buy me one. They are carved into different shapes, which all have different meanings. I'm too lazy to look them up, so if you actually care, you can look them up yourself. :-) But they actually have a lot of meaning to the people of New Zealand. Almost everyone wears a green-stone. So, I want to get one, because I love New Zealand.

Well, that's all I have to say.

Sincerely,

E. Cache F. Staheli

Pictures

1. These next photos are the bottles that I was talking about in the members home that talked about the plan of salvation. This one is the Pre-mortal world. In the middle are Heavenly Father and Mother. the closest white bottle to them is Jesus. The other bottles are grouped. These groups are families. Also individuals. Not too sure what the two big white bottles in the middle are. A possible interpretation: The big one is Jesus, and not the one that was close to the center. Maybe that one is the Holy Ghost. Well, the bottom one is Satan. If you notice, there are 7 bottles with Satan, and 14 with Jesus, so, 1/3 of the host of heaven went with Satan. Maybe that's what it is. Also, the surrounding is just white to mean spirit-ness...

2. This next one is being born. If you notice, the bottles up to the middle are white, signifying spirits, and then the spirits gain bodies and are born.

3. This next one is the earth, as is shown with green and blue bottles--Land and Water. The brown bottles near the outside are temptations that surround us and try us on every hand. The middle bottles signify us, but I'm not sure what the big 3 and the middles sized one in the middle are. One of the white bottles is us, and others are other individuals. And something to do with families.

4. This is death, resurrection, and judgement. As you notice, we have the brown bodies, meaning imperfect bodies, impure bodies, etc. These die, and become perfect, resurrected bodies.

5. This is the Celestial kingdom/Spirit World. The bottle in the middle symbolizes the temple that helps people be sealed and enter into God's rest. There are two grouped bottles. The one with 3 is signifying families, and the 2 is missionaries that preach to the individuals in Spirit prison that need to hear the gospel and have their temple work done.