Growth!

This week is transfers! This zone will be getting 6 more missionaries. 3 wards are being double covered. Crazy. 

Miracles!

Hello all!

I decided it would just be easy to send emails to all the people that I have email addresses for! But, if these emails will clutter your inbox, feel free to tell me! Lol...

New Area, new companion, new people, new flat (ew.), new etc.

So! I mentioned last week that I was being double shifted (transferred) out. My area got closed, because there aren't enought missionaries in the mission to fill the wards they need, so until more come in, it's back down to just one companionship in the ward. But in 4-10 weeks, it will be back up. :-)

July 14th

Kia Ora!

This week has been pretty good! We've taught a Recent Convert all of the lessons that he gets after his baptism. Our finding this week has been pretty dead. Crazy! Anyways!

Thoughts

I'm learning bits and pieces of other languages. Mostly just greetings/goodbyes/how are you? and stuff like that.

Kia Ora Whanau ko Ehoa!

This week has been a really good week. I have been really happy to be a missionary this week. 

So, this week was good in a lot of ways, and bad in others! But that's the way of life.

We found 7 new investigators this week. however, 4 of those went to the new area in our ward. We were proselyting in their soon-to-be area, and found 4. Then they went there and found 3 more. Lol... However, 3 new investigators for us! We found a very large stack of teaching records that are really old. The oldest was 2004, and the latest was 2011. So, most of the people have moved out, but there are some that have become new investigators. 2 of the 3 that we get to keep were from this. This missionary work is taking off. 

Something that we are trying as of recently is giving a copy or more of the Book of Mormon to write their testimonies in. Then we will proselyte with those. That way, instead of our word being declared "by the mouth of two or three witnesses," it will be declared by the members as well. Because it's good to hand out BoM's, but it's even better when they include testimonies. So, that will be really good. The members are loving it. A lot of them are scared to do missionary work, or they don't know who they can talk with. So this will help them to catch the spirit of missionary work. :-)

We had a goodbye conference with Pres and S. Lekias. S. Lekias was really really sad about losing us. But they wished us the best. P.S. Do those photos of Zone Conference and all those other things get emailed to you? I've always just assumed that they do, without actually checking to see if they are. :-) Lots of exciting things. The Airport is now not in our mission, so we can never go home, and the MTC is not in the Auckland mission, so they can't ever go pick up missionaries! ;-) Lol...

Patrick, the Nigerian man that we were going to baptise this past weekend turned dodgey at the end of the week, and as a result, he was not baptised. Now he's in the Zone Leader's area. So, lots of the progressing investigators are theirs now, or no longer progressing. But we are managing. We'll pick back up the pieces, and we will turn this ward into a successful ward. It already is, but even more successful.

I just read the First Presidency Message on lds.org. It's really good. It's about walking in circles. It talks how, as human beings, we naturally walk in circles. Literally. Without the guidance of the sun or the stars to get out bearings, we naturally walk in a circle. So, P. Utchdorf talked about how two landmarks that we can use to get our bearings. The Scriptures, and General conference. These give us modern revelation for everything in our life. I would like to add two more. Sacrament meeting, and also Prayer. These landmarks help us to overcome any trials of life that we may have. 

We are having great success, and we are looking forward to our last week in the New Zealand Auckland Mission. New Zealand Hamiton Mission, here we come!

Arohanui,

E. Staheli

This Picture is particularly late in coming. But this is Patrick's family. They are now in Malaysia

Kia Ora!

This week has been really good. 

Miracles on, not 49th street but, Tralee Place! Moving on...

Kia Ora!
This week was really good. This past week, like I mentioned before, was transfers. Nobody in the entire Zone moved. So, we are all in the Hamilton Mission now. Awesome! 

This past week was really great! 

We had 3 baptisms. Pictured Below. It was really good. The water was really cold though. Lol... But it was a really good experience. Their Mom (a Former Investigator), was very effected. She hopefully felt the Spirit.

This week is transfers, and most likely nobody will be moving. But this transfer will decide which mission we are in. Hamilton or Auckland. It's looking like Hamilton for me, but who knows? Could be a surprise. We shall see.

Anyways, In the end of Alma, the Nephites try this sneaky Tactic to free some of their prisoners. They send a person who is a Lamanite by birth (whose name is Laman. Ooh. that fits.) to give them some wine.
It was drugged, so they all pass out. They wake up and the prisoners have weapons and so do the nephites surrounding them. They lose. Nephites 1, Lamanites 0. So, the Lamanites, being very original, decide to try the same thing. Then comes these verses.

30 And many times did they attempt to administer of their wine to the Nephites, that they might destroy them with poison or with drunkenness.
 31 But behold, the Nephites were not slow to aremember the Lord their God in this their time of affliction. They could not be taken in their snares; yea, they would not partake of their wine, save they had first given to some of the Lamanite prisoners.
 32 And they were thus cautious that no poison should be administered among them; for if their wine would poison a Lamanite it would also poison a Nephite; and thus they did try all their liquors.

So, for us, are we cautious to not be administered poison through the things that we let into our house? Because, if it would poison a Lamanite, it would poison a Nephite. i.e. If it can poison the weak in the world, it can poison you, if you let it. So, be cautious what you allow in.

Love you all!

E. Staheli

Kia Ora Whanau a E Hoa!

I hope that yous are all doing really great. It's exciting to hear good stories from some of you. It's good to see the really good changes that are happening all over. I hope everyone is well!

3 new sets!

So, this week has been good in some ways, and bad in some ways. Oh well. I will survive. We had 2 sets up until Sunday afternoon. then 0. We had a set, Rachel, whom we found just this past week, and she was keen as, keeping her commitments, and then Boom. We got a text right before church saying "Hi. Rachael here. Im sorry, i cant attend your church as it is against my family's religion." next text: "My family told me that i can only follow the holy bible. I have to listen to my elders of my family. So sorry."

So, yeah. That was not too great. 

Some More Baptisms, and Learning to Understand Tongan

Kia Ora Whanau ko Ehoa!

This week has been great! I have loved all of the work this Ward has. It has been great! We have 3 baptisms this upcoming week, and most likely 3 to follow in the coming weeks. We have 4 in total set for this month, but 2 more shaky sets. The district is also doing good! We have many investigators coming to church. 

Transferred! Jonelle's baptism, New district, E. Oaks!

Kia Ora!

This week has been really good!

I have been transferred to Hamilton East! (It's literally like 30ks from Ngaruawahia). I didn't get to see Jonelle's baptism, but one of the members of the bishopric emailed me and told me that it went through and that it was really great. 

Rain!!!!!! Jonelle & Keisha

Kia Ora!

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the [HUUUUUUUUGE amount of rain] which God hath prepared for them [in New Zealand]" (1 Cor 2:9... kinda. ;D). I have never seen so much rain in a couple of days in my life. 

Concerning my new and incoming son (mission terminology, don't panic), temple trip, Sets, Thats it!

Kia Ora Whanau!

I got a surprising phone call from the Mission President this past Friday, "Hello Elder Staheli! How are you? Good good. Well, as you probably already know, there are a lot of changes happening in the mission. As such, we would like to extend the invitation to you to train a new missionary. You will remain as district leader in Ngaruawahia. There will be a conference call to let you know more about it, but will you except the call?" Well, I was very shocked to receive this call from President, but I accepted, so I will have my very first son. 

Concerning Drops, transfers, Temple trip, War Wakas, lack of investigators at church, conditional acceptance of money from members, etc!

Kia Ora!

This week has been up and down, but that's missionary work for you!

So, we started out this month with four sets for March. We are now at 0. But we picked back up one of those sets for April. So that's good. Sometimes you just need to push past all of the disappointments that occur on your mission, because discouragement does no one any good. So, we will easily pick back up Jenelle and Keisha. We will have a little bit more trouble with Vernon, because he doesn't want to get married, or something like that. We shall see.

Concerning Quite a lot of things. Surprise! Read on. ;-)

Kia Ora!

There are a few things that I thought I would write about! First off, there has been a new rule change! Missionaries are now allowed to email priesthood officers in their wards. Well, the next thing they said made the first statement unnecessary. Lol... They said that we can email everyone. (Within reason). The only stipulation is you need permission to email members of the opposite sex living within or close to mission boundaries. And not to focus too much on emailing. So, even though I suspect that this will only slightly increase the volume of communication that I have, you all have no excuse to not write me. Lol... Oh, and missionaries can email missionaries, just as long as they are not in the same mission boundaries or close to it. The purpose of this is to provide easier uplifting support to everyone to encourage missionary work. So, yeah. I will get on that. :-)

Changes to the scriptures, new set, visitor center trip, hangi, increase in lessons, and the dreaded (bum bum bum) Jehovah Witnesses! Oh, and Zone conference.

Kia Ora!

I was looking on lds.org to look for a talk. And lo and behold! I found out that they are releasing a new edition of the scriptures! Woah! So, Mum, Dad, that's your gift to me, since I'm just a poor missionary. ;-) Lol... I wonder how that will effect the mission. All of the copies of the Book of Mormon might have to be changed. So that means, I don't know! I wonder how much this will change things? :-) Pretty nifty.

Kia Ora,

I just came across the list of the 58 new missions being created! http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/list-of-58-additional-missions-created If I could direct your attention to the one that starts with New Zealand and ends with Hamilton. Yup! That's right! The Auckland mission is full to capacity, and it cannot handle any more missionaries, so it is being split. This will really cause the work to Boom!

Concerning new investigators, great members, transfers, and stake conference

Kia Ora!

So, this week has been a pretty good week. I don't recall if I wrote about Dayna in last week's email. Anyways, she is a friend of the daughter of one of the member familes in the ward. She and her mom and sister were taught by previous missionaries, but these missionaries are the same missionaries that bribed that one girl I wrote about to be baptized with chocolate. So, it's no surprise that they had no success. Lol... 

Concerning Te Kauwhata, Tradeoff, New/Former Investigators, Cooking, Less Active, Blessings, and something that I will think to throw into this email. ;-)

Kia Ora!

So, as district leader, I have to conduct a tradeoff every so often with each of the Elders in my district. "Normally at least once every transfer cycle, a district leader works with each elder in his district and zone leaders work with district leaders in their zone." As it says in the Missionary Handbook. Anyways, I conducted one on Tuesday. I went with E. Jubitz, the senior companion in Huntly, and E. Peni went with E. Brown. It was an okay tradeoff. I say okay because really not too much happened. They are having a really big problem with having people to teach. They are great in the fact that they are teaching heaps of lessons. However, they have very few progressing investigators, and no one that wants to be baptized. Not their fault, just it is "their lot to have fallen into the hands of a more hardened and a more stiff-necked people; therefore they would not hearken unto their words," as it says in Alma 20:30.

Concerning Pain, TWE, New Sets, and the Book of Mormon (and also, how not to baptize someone/be a missionary)

Kia Ora!

Well! This week has been a week of extremes. Well, to start off, I discovered what was wrong with my throat! When I went to the doctors a week ago, Dr. Hemi told me that I had an Ulcer in my throat. Ow. So, I had to get medications for it. I got Amoxicillin, and also Paracetamol mixed with a little bit of Codeine. If you are not a doctor, you probably have no idea what those last two medicines are. Paracetamol is a fairly moderate painkiller, and Codeine is a very powerful painkiller (not as powerful as something like Morphine, but still.). Well, to kinda give you an idea, there was about 500mg of Paracetamol to every 8mg of Codeine.

Concerning Leadership meetings, dropped investigators, New Investigators, Miracles, speaking assignments etc. :-)

Kia Ora Whanau ko Ehoa!

It has been quite the week of extremes. 

Concerning Transfers, Goodbye photos, prayers, New investigators, firesides, leadership, and mail service

It has been a good couple of days!!!

 

So, I got a call on Wednesday saying that for transfers, I was staying. I was thinking, why are the Assistants calling to tell me this? It's usually the Zone leaders. Well, my question was answered. They called me, on behalf of President Lekias, to be Senior companion with my new companion, E. Peni. 

Concerning Teeth, Crazy American Drivers, Prophecies of the Maori, Sayings of the Kiwis, transfers, and changes in the ward

Kia Ora Whanau and Ehoas! How are all of you! I am doing great. I am sad that I missed my big sister's wedding. I was actually planning on having Sis. Flood, a member in NGA, email something to be read at the wedding, but I never had time to write anything down, and it eventually slipped my mind. Oops. :-P I am happy for Kiara, and I want her to know that I think that she has made the right choice. Even though people expressed doubts about you two, I always had that feeling in the back of my mind that you would end up together. To my sister: I love you, and I am happy for you and DJ. To my Brother-in-law: It is weird to have a brother in law. But at least it's someone that I know and trust. This is usually the point when I, the brother, make a life threat about you had better treat my sister with the greatest love and respect or I'll smash you, or something... :-) But really, I am happy for yous, and I wish yous the best. Hope your life is very happy and that you enjoy the start of your lives together for the rest of eternity. Have fun!