Kia Ora Whanau!

Email from Sister Holmes! She is doing so AWESOME! She even included some pictures this week! :) 

"You are the Sum total of all the you think, say, see, hear, feel and do in this life and before you change immediately with each good thought, each good act every good word changes you for the better. When you willingly obey the principles of the gospel, you are changed by the spirit of God to become incrementally more like Him."

"Every thought word and deed have an effect on us."

Positive thoughts bring positive feelings. Negative thoughts bring negative feelings. It all starts with what we think and what we are letting occupy our thoughts. If we are constantly thinking we are not good enough, we never will be. It we are always comparing ourselves to others we will never measure up. But if we remember and love the Lord, remember we are children of God we will find our purpose and meaning in this life. We will change into what our Father would have us become. 

This week was good! Leah was baptised and confirmed this weekend! It was awesome!! She was soo nervous but She is sooo happy. Love it.

I am grateful for worthy priesthood holders. You know, I have never been one to ask for priesthood blessings. I dont know why..I just dont ever ask. But this past week I was sort of struggling, not being able to concentrate so for my studies I was just went over when i was set apart to be a missionary how I felt instant calm..so I asked our elders to give me a blessing. They told me to pray to know who should give it to me...i hate choosing..I didnt want to offend either of them-they are both like little brothers to me. Anyway way we had some appointments to go to and then we met up so they could give me a blessing. I still didnt want to choose...I had made up in my head before I prayed that I was going to pick one..then when I prayed for some reason my mind was drawn to the other elder. Turns out from the moment I had called them he had started fasting and praying-I didnt know it at the time but he felt like I was going to choose him so he wanted to be ready. He gave me the blessing and I instantly felt calm. He said soo many things that I needed to hear, it was like my Heavenly Father came down and gave me a big hug and said Its going to be okay. Everything will be alright. I am proud of what you are doing-just keep doing it. Good elders. I am thankful that they can follow the spirit. haha funny too because I told sis mihaere I wanted one..but that I hate asking..nek minit the elders call and ask if we needed anything. I know Heavenly Father loves His children.

I have also noticed how easy we forget. I am guilty of it all the time! It seems like if we do not have constant daily reminders we will easily forget our purpose here. We need to always remember God and His plan of Happiness for us. "The purpose and central blessing of life is change. It is to be changed and become more like Jesus Christ. It is to incorporate into your character the qualities of His character. It is to move from one degree of intelligence and capacity to the next and from there to the next until to see God face to face and know Him and He knows you" We cannot know Him if we do not remember Him.  We need those daily constant reminders of who we are and whose we are so when we stand before God and Christ again we can declare we KNOW them and we followed them in this life.

I have been learning heaps this week and last. Personal study is honestly one of my favourite times of the day. Its like my mind is opened up and all this knowledge comes pouring in. and its all helping me to be a better disciple of Christ and just a better person. I care more for others its nice haha Love my life! Love the Gospel and Love Heavenly Father!

Hope yous all have a good day! and Week!

Love you heaps!

Sister Holmes, Leah, & Sister Mihaere

Leah's Baptism! :)

Sister Holmes lookin' fabulous & her companion Sister Mihaere

Ball of Happiness! (8/17/2014)

Crazy week! I forgot to post Sister Holmes' letter from last Sunday :( Here it is now! :)

Sometimes so much happens in one week i think there is NO way that all of that happened in one week. I pull out my planner and I check and sure enough...yep it all happened in one week. Sooo much goodness and sooo much love! Have you ever just felt sooo happy? Felt so much love and a sure knowledge that God is there and He loves you? That is how I feel. I feel like I just have so much love in my heart and so much joy that its a literally a ball of happiness and is too big to fit inside my body and it just wants to jump out and...HUG EVERYONE!

Okay so we were walking it town it was getting late, we had not eaten dinner because we had heaps of appointments and just didnt have time. We walk past a little place called the bakehouse and saw some people who looked like missionaries. Senior missionaries. We kept walking then we ended up having to turn around and walk back the same way. I saw a car that was obviously a mission car and to top it off it had a big red "U" on the back left corner of the windscreen. We walked past them again and the sister stopped us and showed us her badge. Then they brought us in and she bought us a hot chocolate. found out we hadn't eaten yet and then bought us dinner. We ate with them. It was so nice of them!

We had zone conference this week. Life changing! Wish I had time to type up all the things i learned..but I do no so I will share this quote :

"Every Challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness, tragedy, very disappointment and heartache, every temptation and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you opportunity to respond by applying in  your life the teaching of Jesus. As you do so you are changed to become more like Him"

We are always changing, we cannot stand still. We can only more forward of back ward. As we more forward we incorporate into our being the characteristics and qualities of God. As you more backward we assimilate the qualities of satan. Which way are we moving? That really hit me!

Also we I have such a HUGE testimony of God's Love for us. I KNOW with out a shadow of doubt that God love us, His children. I see it every day. We are no joke guided every day to who we need to see. Its a miracle that we can be in the right place and the right time. Yesterday we one of the most spiritual experiences ever and i was only a small part of it. When i first came to the area there was in investigator who has stopped taking with us because the sister was being really pushy (not cool) si the first and only time i met her I handed her a note from one of the other sister teaching her. (which if you know me..i forget most things..but I remember to bring the note) That was the first and last time i had seen her. One day this lady came up to the elders at mcdonalds and gave them a note and walked away. it said "why did God take me baby son" They never saw her again after that and had no way to contact her. They prayed and prayed to be able to see her again. yesterday we were picking the elders up and driving to contact some people to invite them to our fireside. We saw one of our normally very peppy and happy Returned missionaries who was obviously upset. We dropped the elders off to comfort him. We continued on. Then we had a dinner appointment with the elders and the RM was still with them. Seemed much happier and they explained something that happened. While they were talking a lady walked by, the elders said hello but kept talking. The the RM stopped and had a strong impression that he needed to talk to her. He ran after her and told her, I feel like I need to talk to you, do you want to meet my friends (the elders) So he took her over to them and immediately the elders recognized her that the one who left the note in McDonalds, the one i had remember to give the note to weeks prior. They got her info and set up a time to meet with her. Then we took the RM to our dinner appointment. He was soo happy. he could remember the good days and feel such a strong spirit and was able to help, and the elders can now teach her and her family. God loves all His children and wants us all to be happy. But it is all out choice, I read this week in Doctrine and Covenants 88:32 32 And they who remain shall also bequickened; nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing toreceive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received. It is all out choice! What are we willing to receive?? Are we going to enjoy all that we CAN receive?? There is so much good that is ours if we are willing to receive it.

We are having a baptism Saturday for one of the sweetest people I have ever met! Her name is Leah and I am pretty sure she teaches me more than I teach her! She is like a little sister to me! Such a blessing to know her! Cant wait for Saturday!

I know that this church is true and God is our Father in Heaven.

Have a good week! Love yous all :)

Sista Holmes

"Salvation Does Not Have a Bedtime!"

WOW! it's been a REALLY long time since I've updated Sister Holmes' blog! Our computer got stolen and I couldn't post from my phone (at least I don't think so). But, here I am now! I found out a friend of hers from New Zealand, Charlene, has been reading the blog so I definitely wanted to get something up here! Sister Holmes has been doing well these last few months! About 15-ish weeks left (or, as a friend of mine pointed out, 3 Fast Sundays!). I'm super excited for her to come home! I've missed her so insanely much since she's been out, but I know that it was where she was supposed to be and she has done/is doing so much good in NZ. So proud of her! Well, here is her letter:

One day I was tired and I just wanted to sleep...then I thought NO! Salvatoin does not have a bed time! haha 

Also, when you dont pay attention life will smack you in the face. Literally. I was walking and Looking at the ground and my mind was distracted...then I walked right into a tree branch! It was sharp. Luckily it didnt scratch my face up! That would have been an embarrassing story! "sister holmes what happened to your face??" "ohhh ummm I uhhh walked into a branch" I probably would have made up a story like how i stopped a run away train from smashing into huntly something like that. haha 

I got 7 Letters and a package this week. Felt so popular! Two were from Katikati! Love Katikati!! 

Oh! We have a rugby star coming and doing a fireside for us in a few weeks! Jonah Lamu! Everyone is really excited, I dont know him but I am excited too haha but because he is coming we have been going out with the ward and inviting all the Less actives and we have seen heaps of miracles! We have met a heaps of less actives that totally invited us to come back! Woot woot! 

Let us see, what else has happened this week. Gave talks in Church that was fun. We have about a million people in our ward...no biggie haha 

"whether it is the best of times or the worst of time. He is always with us. He has promised that and it will never change." Thomas S. Monson. 

I have been extremely grateful with week for being able to have the spirit. I dont know how people get on with out it! Its there to guide us and protect us. To just make us feel good! It can make us feel peace and happiness even when things suck and are not so great..haha It makes it so we never have to be alone. Never. 

I love yous all heaps and miss you heaps! 

Be good and have a good week :) 

Sista Holmes

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

They taught me a hand shake...pretty sure its a gang sign....

Email and pictures from Sister Holmes! So fun to hear from her. She is doing so AWESOME! I love it. I really loved all the comments the ward members make about the missionaries! (particularly the Sisters) It's cute. Enjoy  :)

Man o Man this week may have been the best week ever. I am pretty sure. It also my have been the most humid ever. Like really. It was really hot which I feel like I can deal with the heat...but humidity. Ah nah. Its terrible! But it cooled down heaps yesterday and today. Its been beautiful! And I got my New Zealand Drivers license today! Woo hoo! Well I got my temporary one. You know, it too like 10 minutes to get it. I was worried that is was going to take ages..you know like the dmv in Nevada..nah. It was so quick and fast and the lady helping me was lovely! So nice. Go New Zealand.

We helped a lady in our ward mow her lawn and do a bit of gardening. Man (sorry if this is TMI) But we were sweating bullets! With the humidity it felt like I just hoped out of the shower! It was insane!

We have also been helping a lady from Kiribati learn English and we have been helping our neighbor learn how to read. Man cross me off the list for ever teaching english haha its pretty hard but they are so appreciate :) Its awesome! The sister that we helping read raised her hand in relief society and shared how we helped her mow her lawn(different lady than I already mentioned)  and are helping her learn to read, she started crying she was go grateful. We have the most amazing ward here in Pukekohe. No joke.

THE THOMPSONS CAME TO CHURCH! Woooo!!! Man that was the best seeing them walk into the chapel today! You know what brother Thompson said to me? He said "You know that feeling when you haven't been to church in a long time..then go and you never want to leave? Ya..I feel that" How is that for a miracle! They also this week gave us boil up and taught us how to make Moutumout or doughboys and Maori fry bread..which is just like regular fry bread..but it sounds cooler when you say Maori Fry bread...Sounds cultural haha.

We had a pretty sweet miracle Saturday night. There is this Less active in our area his name is Oakley and we had gone over to his house and met his partner who is a nonmember she is just the sweetest ever! She told us we could come back. So we did and no one was home. Bummer. Then we saw her on the street and she told us her schedule and when they would both be home. She told us she knows that he wants to go back to church and she would be willing to learn more. Then we went there Saturday night and we talked with Oakley and Rose. We asked him a bunch of questions and all that. Then the concern of the church being for families came up. That is why he stopped going because she was not a member. Then she was like I would have come with you! He was like really?? She said yes and that she would come with him. His face was beaming! He could not stop smiling after she said she would go with him. We are going to start teaching them the lessons. Boom. Miracle. Sorry that was a long story...and its a better in person story haha It made me sooo happy.

Also the little neighborhood kids run around saying "What up holmes!" "Sista holmies!" all kinds of things! All day everyday. Everywhere we go someone is yelling to me haha its great. They taught me a hand shake...pretty sure its a gang sign....they are sweet kids haha 

I had to give a talk on Sunday haha which was kinda lame becuase all the other missionaries just had to bear their testimonies but I had to give a full on talk. All goods haha Soooo our ward really really loves the missionaries. The Sisters to be exact haha poor elders haha her are the comments made in church:
 

"If you are having a hard time getting into a house. Use the Sisters!" Bishop Tangi in Sacrament meeting. 

"We see the Sisters everyday walking up and down the Bronx of New Zealand!" Brouther Wikaria (2nd counselor)  in Sacrament meeting

"You bring the light to the darkside! We have never had missionaries so invloved in our ward!" Brother Aupouri- Ward mission leader

"We are going to protest if they try and transfer you....ahh you too elders." Brother Jones

"I LOVE when the Sisters come for Dinner!"Sister Tangi. 

"This pie is really good!" -Elder Hester

"Oh thanks, I only make it on special occasions" Sister Tangi

"Oh so you made it because we were coming?" Elder Hester 

"No. Because the sisters where coming" Sister Tangi

Yahhh. They Love us. haha And I LOVE them!!! All of them! Our ward is soooo amazing!! We had lunch at the Jones yesterday and had a mean as lesson with their family friend and she is going to take the lessons. It was great! I think if someones hear could exploded from happiness, love and joy mine would have exploded about 50 times already this week. The gospel brings happiness just so yous all know!!

I LOVE yous all!!!!! Have a mega supah sweet as week! Love all the people, serve all the people. You will find happiness and joy that will not be able to fit into your heart. You will be leaking love juice all over the place...but its love so no one will be mad haha

Have a good one :)

Sista Holmes!

Sista Holmes!

Making doughboys!

Their Meal Calendar