"I like Dem Face"

Sister Holmes has been out in the field for 4 months! 14 more to go!! :D She's doing wonderfully out in NZ. I loved what she said about how the Lord doesn't always calm  the storm but instead calms the sailor. SO true and something that I certainly needed to hear this week. She shared some really excellent quotes so make sure you read the whole letter so that you can see how delightfully perfect they are. I love this gospel so much and I am so proud to say that my little sis is out serving the Lord and bringing those fabulous people of NZ to Christ! One thing that I really respect and adore about Sister Holmes is the way she can intertwine her humorous personality and her love of the gospel. I can see how that is beneficial in her teaching!! Can't wait to hear from her next week!! 

So the car? Its gone. I got into a car accident. Jokes. Jokes. I did not hit anything. But the previous elders did so they had to take it from us so that they could fix it. 

We went to the temple Tuesday!!! Man it was choice as!! LOVED IT!! We went up at 10 then went to the 11:30 shesh then stayed and had lunch with everyone if the caf. Only about half of the missionaries went. The other half went Friday. But It was a blast and really energizing! I love the temple sooo much and the Hamilton Temple is Beautiful!! All of  you should go to the temple this week! 

We have an investigator  we are working with she is 15 and from Japan. She is Hilarious! No Joke. Since she is 15 she talks about boys alot..haha She was talking about how much she loves Kiwi boys. Direct quotes: 

"I like Dem Face" 

"After 30-40 Kiwi Men are very Handsome! When I bored on the bus I look at handsome men. Then I see ahh his girlfriend fat"

She is a hoot! Love her! We are trying to get her up to the VC to show her some stuff in Japanese she was really excited that we had videos in Japanese. 

Man I love my companions and I love temple View!! I think I have talked about how we have Companion Study at the VC with all the Pre-missionaries. One came in and told us his papers were submitted and the other told us he is starting them today which we were not sure if he was going to go or not! Its GREAT!

We have continued to work with Less Actives which is really rewarding when they come back to church! 

I read a really good talk a few days ago and thought I would share a part of it. 

"At times there appears to be no light at the tunnel's end-no dawn to break the nights darkness. We are surrounded by the pain of broken hearts, the disappointment of Shattered dreams and the despair of vanished hopes. If you find yourself in such a situation I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in Faith. He will lift you up and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you. BUT he will comfort and lead you through whatever Storm you face"- Thomas S. Monson 

Reading this reminded me of something that was said in sacrament meeting. That Heavenly Father might not always calm the storm but He can calm the Sailor. Which is SOOO true! He makes us strong enough to sail the sea of despair and heartache so that we can reach the beauty that this life has to offer! He calms us and builds us up so we can carry on! 

 and "regardless of how desperate things may seem or how desperate they may yet become you can always have hope. Always." M. Russel Ballard. 

 Have hope for a better day. Hope that the best is yet to come. Hope for the calm to come after the storm. 

Oh. Apparently I was taking in my sleep last night! I feel terrible! I guess I said something about a sidewalk and I guess it was really funny because I was giggling a heap. Man I feel bad! They both thought I was talking to them! Oh dear. 

Well this week was awesome! Ready for another!! Hope you all have a great one :) :) 

LOVE you heaps! 

Sister Holmes 

"Woah. I am In New Zealand vacuuming. Strange"

Another week gone!! I love hearing from my sister. It's the BEST!! She's doing so, so, so great out there. I'm SUPER proud!!!! Kinda bummed that she didn't send more pictures! But that's okay. Here's her Email for the week :)

Question: What wears bright colors and is always smiling?

Answer: SISTER Missionaries! I Have to give credit to Elder Krull for this joke. 

Anyway...

Kia Ora! 

Well I inherited a car! At least for the next couple of weeks! and I am the driver!! Its soo weird! Being on the other side of the road and having the steering wheel on the left side?? Ahhh!! But I have yet to hit anything and only was on the wrong side of the road for like 2 seconds haha But I am the only missionary to ever drive the assistants car who was not an assistant. Yes. I am pretty cool ;) haha Jokes. 

But since we have the car we are able to go out and visit all the flash houses that are far away! They have never had missionaries come visit them! So that has been out adventure this week. Also driving alot... We have 1000 Ks and we haven't even used a fourth of that so we have alot of more driving we can do :D 

We had companion exchanges this week. I was with a Sister Baird. She is from England! So all of our plans and back up plans for the day had fallen through. I feel like when that happens there is somewhere we need to be. We just have to figure out where that some where is..and I think we did! We were walking and say this lady by her car, she was carried a heap of stuff so we offered to help. She invited us in. Turns out she was a Less active lady who had just recently been divorced and was having a hard time. We talked with her and I shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon. It was great and we knew that she was the person we were supposed to see. Dont you just LOVE Heavenly Father? He guides us to those who need someone and sometimes we dont even see how He is helping us until after. 

So sometimes I forget I am in New Zealand. It will hit me that I am in another country at random times or the day. Today it was while I was vacuuming. I was just you know singing along to my Sons of Provo cd and you know vacuuming and then all of the sudden I was like "Woah. I am In New Zealand vacuuming. Strange." haha 

OH MAN!! We GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE TOMORROW!!! I AM SOOOOO EXCITED!!! I have missed it! Its going to be heaps of fun! Half of the mission is going tomorrow then the other half Friday. YEY!! :D 

So alot of what we do is working with Preparing missionaries. One of the boys we are working with is leaving Thursday!! I am so excited for him! He went through the temple last week. Its funny how hearing and seeing people progress just makes me soo happy! Sean, the guy that was baptized in July he told me that he just went and did baptisms for the dead! Man I could not stop smiling! He loved it!!! Being a missionary is the best thing ever!!  

I do have to say that this past week has been one of the funniest weeks ever. I don't think I have ever laughed so much in my life. My companions are a crack up! Love them! 

Sunday was a miracle! We had a lady we have been working with come back to church! She stayed the whole time and brought her non member husband. I love it!! 

Want to know a funny term that I picked up? Biscuit pusher. They call cookies here biscuits. So if someone it a biscuit pusher they just eat wayyy to many cookies and are pretty chubby. I am a biscuit pusher.. hahaha! 

Well this week has as tony the tiger would say GRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAT!   Hope you all feel that way as well! I love and miss you all heaps! 

I know that the church is true! I love My Heavenly Father for blessing me with all of you! You are the best! May the Force be with you! 

Sister Holmes :) 

Can't see her very well, but she's there!

"The Church is TRUE the Book of Mormon is BLUE and I LOVE all of you!!"

Here's Sister Holmes' email for the week and also a TON of pictures! There are some funny ones that I so wish I could share...but she said if I posted them that I would die in 15 months. Worth it? Yes. But I don't want to make her upset with me so I shall with hold them. Bummer. 

Well this week had been a ball full of crazy! not really..it just went fast! 

I had a near death experience..Okay. Not really. I was taking on the trash Friday morning. I had my tights on but you know I couldn't be bothered with putting shoes on. SO I just ran outside real quick put the trash out and started running back to the house. The ground was wet as it normally because of the rain. I went and hopped up on the cement step and slipped da da da..my wet tights slid across the cement and I almost flew backwards. BUT thanks to my cat like reflexes I was able stop my self from falling. I escaped this treacherous experience with only a cluster of small cuts on my littlest finger. haha 

So President and sister Rudd came into the VC. We thought it was just a normal visit then they sat us down to tell us that we were getting another companion! She was waiting for her visa. Her name is Sister Ah Quin. She is Ahhhsome haha First thing I thought when I heard her name was AHHHkward. hahaha I doubt she will think that is as funny as I do.. She is from Hawaii. She has been out of 6 weeks and was previously in Colorado. She got here Friday which was actually a sweet as deal for sister swindler and I because we got to go to presidents house for Breakfast! Its was a blast! the Rudds are the best! 

OH happy NZFD!!! Aka happy New Zealand Fathers day! It was weird some wards had fast and testimony meeting and some switched it for next week so they could have breakfast in bed haha smart move. We went over to a members home for dinner last night and they had a slushie maker. SO we celebrated fathers day that way haha Slushies in Winter. 

Anyway Fathers day got me thinking about...well Fathers. My Heavenly Father, my Father and my Grandfather. So much so that we are sitting in one of the meetings and my eyes just kept filling up with tears! I Wasn't crying of course..Because missionaries DONT cry..But I was just overcome with gratitude for all the my Heavenly Father has blessed me with and all He continues to bless me with. Its amazing really. I do not deserve a fourth of what He gives me. Yet He showers me with blessings.   Then He gives me an earthly father to take care of me and a grandpa. They have done so much for me!! I think there is something wrong with my eyes..they keep filling up with this water like substance..I should get that checked.. Anyway. I am so grateful for everything That my Dad had done for me and how he continues to help and bless my life. Happy NZFD!!! 

So we went over to The Stone's for dinner Saturday night. What a treat that was! We ate dinner then Brother Stone wanted to play a song of us on the piano. He is 80 years old and hilarious! Anyway he has us all gather around and plays this song..He plays really well! Then all the sudden he stops! He jumps up and says AHH! We cant have a concert with out the lights!! Then he rushes over to the light switch and turns on these colorful bright lights Sits back down and continues to play. haha!! It was great! We had an impromptu concert! 

This week in the VC we have had some really keen people come in! It was really Great! 

We also have been meeting heaps on the members!! I love temple View! It is such a special place!! Love it and Love being a missionary!! 

We had the Pest control guy at our house this morning....We have...fleas. They dont bite me just sister swindler.. Which I am okay with :) haha jokes! I do not want my companion to get eaten. So hopefully the pest guy can get rid of them for us! 

It has been warming up! But yesterday we had something Sister Swindler calls "Sneaky Rain" I feel it can be sneaky in two ways #1 It can be 100% sunny out then like half and hour later...Boom. Rain so it Sneaks up on us. #2 It could be feel like Its barly raining..but then we end up being soaked! Yesterday we experienced #2 Sneaky rain. We were walking to an appointment and it was raining...didn't think it was too bad. But when we arrived. I felt like I had just jumped into a pool with all my clothes on then got out and went to our appointment. But I hear that the more rain that we work in the more attractive my husband will be..Guess we will have to wait and see ay? 

I was able to call my Bishop the other day Bishop Walton..unfortunately he did not answer.. I will have to have a talk with him about answering when I get back haha but The reason I called was because we are testing out a new phone system where we can make calls to anywhere in the world. Sweet as! I get to try and call again later this week to see if it works. 

We had a New Zealand Slang Lesson at one of our part member families home. Life makes sense now. I know all the ins and outs of New Zealand slang. Also we learned a Maori song with the actions. Pretty Awesome!  Another think they say here is "Nek Minut" which can be used in almost any situation. Sweet as. 

Well I love you all and hope you have a super great week! 

Sister Holmes :)  

Sista Holmes, Sista Swindler, Elder Mcfarland, & Elder Sun

This is the pork for her Cafe Rio pork salad...she's disgusted because it still has the little hairs on it. Gross.

Fierce

Cafe Rio salad final product