Testimonies.

Last week Sister Holmes sent this to me in a personal email. It touched me so much to hear her testimony of missionary work and how greatly it has affected her. I would like to add my testimony to hers. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that He knows/loves each one of us personally. I know that He came to Earth and suffered beyond belief because He knew that it was the only way to save us. I know that without Him, we would be lost. I know that He atoned for MY sins and would've suffered for ME and me alone if that's what it took. I know that He would've done it for YOU. You are important to Him. I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of even the little things in our lives that we think are unimportant. I know that He is always there & that we have the ability to talk with Him every moment of every day. I know that He is listening. I know that President Thomas S Monson is a true and living Prophet of God. I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true and that the ancient words of the prophets included therein are true. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives. I know that the love He has for each and every one of us is everlasting and that there is nothing we can do to make that love go away. 


From Sister Holmes:
Sometimes it seems fast...sometimes it seems slow...mission time is a time warp like no other! But I am soooooo incredibly grateful for this time. Words really cant do it justice. It has been really hard but man I have never learned so much or had so much love for these people. I have learned so much about the importance of knowing where we came from and where are going. That we lived with God and we loved him and chose to come here and we KNEW what we had to do. We understood the plan. I watched Jesus Christ suffer for my sins. I am sure I sat and cried with Him. Know He was the only way we could come back. I love My Savior and my Heavenly Father. Its unfathomable that He can love us so much. Not matter what. Not matter what mistakes we make, He is there for us. Also that missionary work never ends. haha never

I got hit in the head with a pigeon

What a great email! She provided some very spiritual insights along with some funny stories. I love seeing her grow through her stories and experiences. It's pretty awesome! 

It seems like even if its a hard week Heavenly Father always gives me millions of reasons to smile. Which is nice, because I love to smile and I smile thinking about how much He loves me! Oh and yous haha 

I crazy as pigeon flew into my head the other day. It was sick as....also I screamed pretty loud. Normally I dont scream but man I just dont like birds!  

This week was a hard week for our ward. We had two people pass away amongst other bad news. Man, I have realized that I have this problem that if someone is crying I cry too. We have these neighbors Heather and Amber and heathers husband Kenny passes awayWednesday night. Heather and Amber are just about the sweetest most loving people. They called us Thursday morning to let us know. Just that week Kenny had decided to start taking the missionary lessons.Kenny referred to us lovingly as the Nuns haha Heather was so upset as she has a right to be and I cant help but crying with her. Words cannot describe how grateful I am to have a loving Heavenly Father who has a plan for each of us. I have been reflecting on that heaps this week and my love for my Father in Heaven has grown so much more. I know  that this life on earth was not the beginning and is not the end. We have a purpose here!! Hhhhhh makes me soo happy.

Sooo I made 4 liters of cookie dough this week haha and gave them to all the people. Man They LOVED the American cookies and even admitted they were heaps better than New Zealand Biscuits. Score for America! Brother Jones severed in Colorado and he had not had American cookies for ages so we made him some. He was so excited! He said he was driving and said "I am just going to eat one...seven later" haha He brought us back some yum as chocolate from his business trip! 

And Sister Wikaria made us have Tim Tam slams or chocolate straws. Which Tim Tams are like the best things ever. Cookies with creamy middles covered in chocolate. So what  you do is bite off the ends of the cookie. Dip it in your milo or hot cocoa and suck up the milo which melts the middle and it falls apart and you have to slam it into your mouth. Holy cow. that is all I can say. Its dangerous because its so good!

haha so I decided that the only way to be a good missionary is to love the people....that is the only way to teach them. Love them like Christ would love them. But that also makes it hard for when these people use agency to make another choice! Its sooo hard! But Heavenly Fathers loves us soo much! He lets us choose.

Remember Shanti, our miracle baptism? She is doing wonderful!!! I love her! She is the cutest! She knows about transfers and that we might be leaving and she said the closing prayer for us and she prayed that we would be safe and He would watch over us. She started crying...so I starting crying! Missionary work is the best!

I just love all the people! I am so grateful for everything that I have learned being out on my mission and all the people I have met! I love everything about it! Its hard, yes. But its the hardest fun I have ever had!! and I cant wait to one day have the biggest best reunion in Heaven with all my best friends that we knew in the Pre existence we would get to hang out in New Zealand together! hhhhhh Love. love.LOVE!!!!

Well hope yous all have a supah awesome week! Love you!! 

Kia Toa

Kia Kaha

Be Brave.

Be Strong.

Sister Holmes :)

You Sisters are Not Allowed to Leave

So Sister Holmes and I have decided that we have the same brain. This week the title of my email was 'Tap Tap' and it turns out that this week she randomly said 'tap tap' to someone & thought of me. Back when we were growing up, there was this ridiculous show on Cartoon Network called The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and in one of the episodes he says 'tap tap' in this weird and annoying voice. For YEARS she would come up to me and say 'tap tap' and it would bug me so bad. Probably the most annoying thing in my life. Now it's just a fun memory. Anyway, she sent lots of pictures & even shared a recipe! She is so loved here at home & by those whose lives she touches every day in New Zealand. 

Enjoy :)

Our ward mission leader Brother Aupouri is great, in MCM-missionary correlation meeting- he said "You sisters are not allowed to leave" He loves us. haha Elders Hester's response was "Fine we will leave!" hahaha poor elders.

Recipe of the week:
Sister Wikiria's Cauliflower salad:

(you have to guess on the amounts haha use your best judgement.)-Cauliflower chopped up to small peices 

-Corn 

-Mayo 

-Sunflower seeds. 

Its simply delish! We had dinner with the Wikiria's on Friday night then we went over to do some service for them! They are such a fun loving family! Sister Wikira is supah cool! She is a sweet as Maori lady! She took us to get iced hot chocolate and smoothies after our service. She also gave us green stone necklaces. Which was so sweet of her! Its a big deal in the Maori culture. She loves us :) and we love her and her family! She also let us try on her Maori ceremonial cape things...I am sorry I cannot remember what they are called....I know they are not called Ceremonial cape things... but it was really cool!

We also did some service with Sister Anna Howard. She is so sweet! We cleaned the cob webs off the front porch. New Zealand has sooooooo many spiders! Most of them are harmless....but still haha so we cleaned them all up. She gave us some easy how to learn Maori books so that was sweet as. I am practicing how to say 'nek minit' in Maori. 

This week was a good one! We taught English to Anna out Kitibati Friend and this Sunday we went and sat in on their Sunday School class. Which was really a cool experience. Its funny I did not understand anything that was being said....but there as such a strong spirit there! They all have really strong testimonies! We are going to start up an english class for them and all of their friends, hopefully they can get better jobs and they have heaps of nonmember family and friends that we could teach which would be great!

We went and saw Shanit and her daughter Kavita. They are so sweet. Shanti was talking all about all the blessings she has received since she was baptized. She is the sweetest ever! And she gave us heaps of nail polish...which was sooo sweet, I know it doesnt matter a whole heap...but I painted my toes for the first time in 9 months. Its the little things in life that make a big difference hahaha

We went and saw Christine again. She is the sweetest lady ever! Had a mouth like a salilor but she does soo much for her family and others! We taught her the Restoration and man she loved it! She has not been active since she was young so she loved re learning about how wonderful our church is. haha everything we said she was like "far out!" "Really" "thats so cool!"

haha she is great!

I read these verses this wek and thought they were mean as. Mosiah 2:21-22

21 I say unto you that if ye should ^aserve him who has created you from the beginning, and is ^bpreserving you from day to day, by lending you ^cbreath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own ^dwill, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your ^ewhole souls yet ye would be ^funprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he ^arequires of you is to ^bkeep his commandments; and he has ^cpromised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth ^dvary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do ^ekeep his^fcommandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
I just thought about it and was like man o man. TRUTH! God created us and grants us daily breath. That we my come to earth and have agency, that we can choose for ourselves. All He requires of us is to keep His commandments and then He blesses us when we do! Its crazy if you think about it. He gives us commandments which bless us and allow us to have happy lives..then when we keep those commandments..He blesses us more! He blesses us when we live in such a way that we can be happy! It amazes me! 
Well I hope yous all have a great week! I love you heaps and heaps! and heaps and heaps! 
Live long and prosper...in the land... by keeping His commandments :) 

Sister Holmes 

My sister is gorgeous

Sister Wikaria's cape thing

Sister Wikaria & Sister Holmes