"Gus. Don't be exactly half of an 11 pound black forest ham"

For any of you who watch Psych, you'll get the title of this post. That funny quote was the title of the email Sister Holmes sent to me this week. Kind of random, but suiting! Sister Holmes & I used to always quote Psych and watch it together with our sister Becka. Good sister bonding time! :D Anyway, she is doing great! This week, she was transferred to the New Zealand Hamilton Mission! We all saw that one coming! She told me in her email to me that she wishes she could send the cold to Henderson...apparently it's way colder there than she anticipated! luckily the "Holy Jacket" is keeping her nice and toasty. she also said this: "Oh ps dont put anything stupid i say on your little blog haha That could be embarrassing! I went and looked at it. Also those green things are not little fruits. Everyone keeps giving them to me..they are some fruit that is all over the place. "

too bad she is so far away! she can't stop me from putting the silly things she says on this blog! Muahahaha. Anyway, here is Sister Holmes' email to her family :)

Hello!

So I would like to start off with saying whatever I said last week about it being cold? Lies. It is wayyyyy colder this week. There is frost on the ground and its insane!

Also not related but I think I swallowed a bug. Ya, I know. Nasty. Sis Qaqa and I were walking and I was talking and boom it flew right in. It was so gross I was freaking out. Bleh.

Anyway. This week was good! As some of you may have heard I was transferred to the Hamilton New Zealand Mission but we already knew that was coming. I still get to work in the VC so yey!! I love the VC I am currently working of getting us to be able to make calls to the States. They dont have it set up here!! But I keep finding people on chat who want to learn more and want me to teach them through email but it hasnt been letting me email them and there is just technical difficulties so I wanted to call and tell the investigators what the hold up was...then found out no one set it up! Getting that set up is my new project! It is going to be awesome to be able to call and teach people around the world and seeing as I am serving in Temple View with the population of like 3 nonmembers in my area...The people I teach online are the only investigators I have!!

Sooo Went on a trade off....That is where we trade companions. I was with Sister Bunting. She actually served in Henderson while waiting for her Visa. But the trade off was....terrifying!! I haven't had a whole lot of experience with Door knocking and Talking with Everyone. (twe: which is just if there is a person in your area you stop and talk with them even if you are in a car you pull over and talk to them) It is really hard for me! I need more practice for sure. By the end of the day we had gone to a bunch of houses and taught some people. We even had an Elder Come home so there was a big lunch and So I was able to go to that which was sweet. Anyway. It was a really good experience and I learned a lot.

I told you about Nick? The man with 11 kids? We went back so he could fix sis qaqa's bike which is did and he agreed to come to the VC with his kids!! He is a suuper nice (pretty big and scary) Maori guy. I am excited for that!!! Should be awesome :) :)

The VC had been good, this is a slow time so not alot of people come in. Alot more people come in around Christmas time to see all the lights. Which I hear is super awesome, I might not be in this area to see them though so we will see.

New President is coming July 1st! Crazy stuff. We had our last meeting with President last Thursday haha it was the second and The last time I will meet with him.

We are teaching an FHE activity tonight about Missionary work. We are really trying to help the members see how important they are in sharing the gospel so that is our focus this week is to teach the members how to share the gospel...and then bring those people to the VC so we can teach them!! haha

Hope you all are doing well!!

and happy birthday on June 30th to my awesome little Brother!!! Jason! You are awesome and I am proud of you!!!

Love you all :) Have a great week!

Sister Holmes

She looks SO happy!

Transfer!

So pretty!!

Temple!

 

Temple at night! Beautiful!

 

There she is! That green doesn't even look real. It's like Super-Green

 

SPIDER! yuck. I bet she DIED!

So pretty!

 

"Alpaca my bags and leave"

So good to hear from Sister Holmes this week! You can see she hasn't lost her 'special' humor! ;] She cracks me up. The whole Alpaca thing made me laugh out loud. She's still loving it out there and is doing such a fantastic job!! Love and miss this girl! She sent her family lots of pictures, which makes us all very happy! :) Here ya go! 

WELLLLL Hellooooo everyone!! Hope you are all doing GREAT!!

Its been super rainy and cold here!!! 

I had my very first "boil Up" the other day. Apparently its a really big Kiwi thing. They put everything in a pot and boil it up.. Sounds gross looks worse but tastes AWESOME!!!

Man it gets super foggy here! Its crazy!! On the way back from the VC we could only see like 5 ft infront of the car. And the temple disappeared from sight!! We joked that if you cant see the temple its time to go home haha

OH YA!! We had a meeting with Salt lake it was some additional training and they upped our chats and extended our hours which is awesome so now we can stay on longer and talk to more people!! I love chat! You get some crazy people of there but its so great to be able to teach people online! Love it!!

We went and had lunch in the temple! It was nice to be able to see the inside! Its Beautiful of course. But I forget they call French fries "Chips" also anything candy is called "lollies"

I made cookies for a nonmember family  we went and visited! They have 11 kids!! We helped them around the house and are going back this week! Awesome

We went and visited A sister in one of our wards that had Alpacas... There were 3 of them laying on the ground and she goes "Oh 3 more are dead dear..." 

I was like oh my gosh! She is so causal about her dead alpacas...they she said she was kidding and that there were sleeping. Man I was like okay I guess I'll alpaca my bags and leave...haha puns.

Ready for another great wet and rainy week!!

Happy Fathers day!! NZ fathers day is in September..

Happy Birthday dad!! You are the best!!!

Love you all!!! :)

Sister Holmes :) :)  

Becka & I joked that she probably left half of the batter in the fridge. She was super notorious for doing that here !

I'm guessing this is for the "Boil Up"

Sister Holmes and her companion :)

"It's like Utah with more Mormons!'

In her letter to me (Jessika), she said that New Zealand wasn't what she expected! She's in the city and as the post title says, "It's like Utah with more Mormons!" That's SO something she would say! She found my work key in the pocket of the jacket I lent her for her mission. It was found in the pocket with the hole in it, so now that jacket has been dubbed the "Holy" jacket. A.) because it has a hole in it, and B.) It has a missionary tag on it! 

Pretty spectacular! Here is the email she sent to her family:

This is in the VC! Sister Qaqa is my companion. its pronounced Gunga. she is from fuji 

(VC = Visitor Center)

Sister Holmes & Sister QaQa

New Zealand Auckland Mission

Here is the letter from Sister Holmes' Mission President in New Zealand. She made it safely and is eager to get started serving the people of Auckland!

5^th June 2013

 Dear Brother and Sister Holmes,

It was a great pleasure to welcome your daughter, Sister Holmes, to the New Zealand Auckland Mission.  She arrived in good health, ready to begin her missionary labours with a people who are full of Faith and Love.  She is a credit to you both and I appreciate the privilege of having her here in the mission. 

Sister Holmes has been assigned to Sister Qaqa her trainer who will help your daughter adjust to missionary life.  They have been assigned to work in the Temple View area.  We are confident that as they work diligently together that the Lord will bless them and they will experience the joy of seeing our Heavenly Father’s children progress towards baptism in His church.

Your daughter will look forward to your weekly letters of encouragement and support.  Monday is her preparation day and the time allocated to her to write emails home to you.  All mailed letters should be sent to the Mission Office (see address above). 

Thank you for all you have done to prepare your daughter for her mission.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  Sister Lekias and I will do everything in our power to help her have a wonderful and productive mission.  We pray the Lord will bless and sustain you in her absence.

Sincerely yours,

President Paul N. Lekias

New Zealand Auckland Mission

Here she is with President & Sister Lekias. She looks so happy!

Sister Holmes is right in the center! (It's winter in New Zealand)