Missionary life is thrilling! Just look at Elder Taulani giving his 'Hoorah for Israel' shout. He can hardly wait to get out in the mission field tomorrow and begin the real work of being a missionary. We lose the whole group of missionaries on Tuesday and Wednesday and greet a new Intake on Thursday. 'Hoorah for Israel!'
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| "Hoorah for Israel" Elder Taulani |
Missionary life is fun. You make such wonderful friends and feel such joyful emotions. Here are Sister Fonseca and Sister Chaves enjoying each other last Thursday at the Temple. They are both from Brazil. Alison sent them a message in Portuguese that I shared with them and they loved that. Sister Chaves, the one in the white striped sweater is from Manaus Brazil. Elder Thatcher and I watched a video this week about the saints of Manaus making a 3000 mile Caravan from Manaus, which is at the headwaters of the Amazon, to the Temple in Sao Paulo in the 1990's. The faith of those saints thrilled us. I think I sent you a link to watch it. We asked Sister Chaves if she knew any of the people that made that Caravan and she told us that her parents were in it as young adults. I thought so. Sister Chaves has so much faith and is always telling stories of her father and mother and how they helped her gain her testimony of the gospel. She has a legacy of faith.
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| Sister Fonseca and Sister Chaves |
Missionary life is tiring! From early morning to 10:30 at night you are on the go. There is a lot of walking or biking and much thinking and preparing and teaching. The missionaries expend all their energy in good pursuits. It is unusual to sit still. That is why the 1 1/2 hour drive to Hamilton and the temple had this affect on the Elders.
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| On the bus to the temple - The Elders all of one heart and mind |
Missionary life is full of sweet teaching moments. Some seem too perfect to be true. We had such a moment last Monday, when we taught the Tito and Alofa Fulutusi family. Have we told you about them? A wonderful family with 5 children, Fa'apaia, Sialai, Too, Pua, and a new baby boy- born just last week.
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| Big sister Fa'apaia holding baby brother, Alofa watching |
We first met them the same day we met Enekosi and Leitu. They live on the same street - our miracle street - Cluthe Cres. We were invited in by the father Tito so that his boys would watch the video about Jesus rather than the TV shows they had been watching. It was school vacation at the time. We had a nice visit. I remember being impressed first that Tito and his wife (that we hadn’t met) were married, and second that the father seemed so strong and loving. He told us he took the children to church every week and taught them to love God and not only talk about Him but obey Him. He invited us back.
We returned for the appointment we had set up and showed another video to the father and boys. But the next time we were met by the wife with a not very friendly attitude. You could tell she wasn’t in favor of us being there and Tito, the father was not home.
We kept returning only to find the father gone unexpectedly. Too, the older son (12) and his brother Pua (9), would make appointments for us to come back, but his parents would not be home when we came.
The last time we went to an appointment the two boys met us at the door. Tito was at work and they said their mother was in labor. He made another appointment for us to come back. I thought that if Alofa really was having a baby right then, we should go get them some food so she wouldn't have to worry about that. We picked up some KFC which we had heard is very popular in NZ and took it right back to them.
When we returned for the appointment, Alofa, the mother opened the door. She seemed changed and happy to see us. She did have a new baby son. She made an appointment for us when Tito would be home and today’s lesson was the result. Elder Thatcher describes it as probably the best teaching experience we have had - prototypical - perfect - all you could wish for as a missionary! Every family member was in attendance and we taught about the plan of Salvation. To teach a wonderful family such beautiful truths and have the sweetness of the Spirit there left us feeling warm through and through. We walked away humbled and grateful. We will meet with them again this evening. Wish you could come along.
Missionary life is filled with other missionaries. Not only do we have the privilege of associating with the wonderful fresh new missionaries at the MTC but we also work with seasoned faithful missionaries of the Auckland New Zealand Mission where we serve as MLS missionaries. This is a picture of our District. We meet each week and try to buoy each other up. We usually stop on the way and buy apples and bananas and often cookies for all the missionaries of the zone. We all meet together and divide up into Districts. We love these good Elders and Sisters. They are always wanting to learn how they can improve. They hang on every word of instruction from our Mission President President Walker, and they share the miracles of the week with each other.
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| Elder Thatcher, Elder Stringer our zone leader (Australia), Sister Tony(Philippines), Elder Hou (China), Sister Palu (USA) Sister Graf (Germany), Sister Fuimaono (Samoa) and Elder Salesa, (Samoa) the other zone leader at the piano |
Missionary life is filled with hope. When we go tracting we have people who don't want to listen to us but we also meet people that we dream about teaching. We have great hopes that something will come of our meeting. On Saturday morning we tracked out a new neighborhood - Palermo Place. We have 6 appointments for this week from that tracting session. We are excited about all of them but we are most excited about a group of 11 young men that we met, all from Kenya and all of Indian descent. They were young, about 19, 20, or 21 and all here for education. They were handsome and clean cut and so welcoming. We met 4 of them and they want us to come back when they can all be together so we can teach them all. We are hoping to face time with Jeff when we set up the appointment. Elder Thatcher can't get them out of his mind. He is dreaming of all of them joining the church, marrying in the temple, and raising families in the church. Hope is alive here. We will keep you posted.
Another of the appointments from that tracting time is with a family that we thought were LDS. They looked like Mormons. Their home was covered in Tongan flags and music was blaring from their patio and was heard by the whole neighborhood. It was the day of the big Rugby World Cup game between Tonga and England and they were dressed and ready for the celebration. They were such a fun family.
We also met another Tongan family where the father was cheering for England - he just had a feeling they would win, while the rest of the family was all in for Tonga. The father invited us to come back. He is a Pentecostal Minister. Should be interesting. He might also be a prophet since England did win in a 20-18 victory over Tonga later that day.
Quick updates - Moses and Antonina went to church for the 4th time in a row. Are you jumping up and down and cheering? We are! This weeks meeting with them we taught them the 10 commandments how Millie, Grace, Claire, and Ivie taught us to teach them, using our 10 fingers. They loved it and could tell us each of the commandments after only going through them once. We love them and our hopes are high for this little family.
Keala and Doug - they returned from Hawaii with an engagement ring on Keala's finger. Richie is out of the hospital and we think he went to the YSA Ball on Friday night. We will find out tonight when we meet with them. The Edmonds are excited to have Keala's dad staying with them for a while. He has come from Austria. The Edmonds family have a rich heritage in the Church. Her father's parents were service missionaries at the New Zealand Temple and moved to Hawaii to start up the PCC. They built and manned the Maori village there - the first ones. Keala tells us there were 9 children and only 2 are active in the church. Her fun father is having missionaries teach his wife and 10 year old son in Austria and we will keep working with Keala and Doug - Hope lives!
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| Keala and her father who is visiting from Austria |
Enekosi and Leitu - Leitu is doing a little better but still not feeling very strong. We had a sweet meeting with them and will meet with them again tomorrow. We think people have been trying to discourage them because they said things like - "Some people don't believe this Mormon book, but I know it is of God! It is the same as the Bible - one God!" Enekosi. "I don't read it but I listen when Enekosi read it to me and it is all good." Leitu We have great hopes for Enekosi and Leitu. They still seem like our biggest miracle of the mission. The Lord has filled us with such love for them. They feel like family.
Missionary life is separation from home and family. We miss all of you but are so thankful for the privilege of being missionaries. It seems like a miracle that we are here. 'How did this happen?' we ask ourselves. It does feel like the Lord has brought all of this about. We are weak servants but we are here and we are learning about how the Lord directs this marvelous work and a wonder.
Our prayers are full of petitions for you back home. That is about all we can do for you right now - talk to the Lord about you. We pray for all of you but especially for Aaron and those kids in the hospital.
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| Brig, Kaitlin, and Maddie looking cool if we do say so ourselves |
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| Ella, David and Lily having Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital - not traditional but we love the smiles |
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| Maddie on a walk in the hospital - she loves to go exploring |
It looks like Thanksgiving was fun and the weather cooperated back home.
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| Emily, Tiffanie, Jen and Andrea pulled off a delicious feast in Paradise |
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| We are happy to see that the finger-nail painting tradition survives! |
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| Ty, Michael, Josh, and James at the ever popular computer games - the boys look big to us |
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| Easton, Emma, Ray, June, Josh, Stephen, and Rachel We understand they only had to set up two tables . . . we will increase that next year |
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| looks like the weather lent itself to an epic shooting time |
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| and Anna spent Thanksgiving with the handsome KJ Patterson |
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| the Bayles', the Paul Thatchers, the Alex Thatchers, and the Matt Thatchers enjoyed the Happy Howell abode |
We are happy to see the pictures of Baby Kate and are so grateful for the help of Grandma Barbara to this little family
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| Isn't this the sweetest picture! Aunt Stephanie, Grandma Barbara, Aunt Amy, Heidi and Anne see baby Kate for the first time |
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| Heidi, Anne, and Kate - Sweet Sisters |
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| Kent holding Tommy and Katie holding Kate |
It seems so perfect that these twins have each named a baby after the other one. These babies are just the opposite of their name sakes - Tommy has dark hair and Kate will be the blond one. And isn't it so fun that Kent has four little girls and Katie 4 little boys.
It didn't feel at all like Thanksgiving here in New Zealand, but we did go out to dinner with President and Sister Briggs. We were the only ones in the restaurant and it was very quiet and peaceful. We missed the din of our not so quiet group at home.
It is the first Thanksgiving in years that we didn't fix a big meal and live on left-overs for days.
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| Thanksgiving Dinner with President and Sister Briggs |
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| We hate missing the Nutcracker this year Silvie is making her debut as a clown, Thatcher is a mouse and Lauren is the doll, a Chinese dancer, and a flower - 'It's alright, he can call me a flower if he wants to. . . I don't mind.' - name that movie? |
We love and miss you all. We are thankful for your lives of goodness and your caring for each other. To close may we just say Missionary Life is made better with messages from home.
God lives, His son is our Savior and we can be led by the Holy Spirit as we strive to live by his laws and share his truth. Missionary Life is fueled by testimony,
Mom and Dad
Grandma and Grandpa,
Elder and Sister Thatcher
