Sister Holmes: Called to Serve: Here! Take your Little As Fork!"

So good to hear from Sister Holmes this week!! :) she's doing great in NZ but we miss her greatly here. Just about 1 year to go!! :D

Well this week went by so fast! I feel like I say that every week!! haha

Subject line "Here! Take your little as fork" Was said by Georgie as 3 year old adorable little girl, We had dinner with her family a few nights ago and she tried to give her fork to us. Man I died laughing! Sooooo I wrote down a list of things to write about....and then left the list at the flat....so yeah haha I will try and remember what happened this week but so much happened!

Summer is here! Man its so beautiful! Its gets pretty dang hot though I must say. The humidity is what does me in. I am sure you do not want to hear this BUUUUTTT the humidity makes me supah sweaty! Terrible. I feel like I can share things like this with you because I am on the other side of the world so I am not too worried if you know I am sweaty haha You are Welcome.

We went on a really awesome hike today! That was great! We went with all of our elders, we all went up in a big van!! Then we hiked up to a waterfall, man It was hot as really wanted to jump in the water! It was sooooo beautiful! Then just to make it even better the Goodmans (The missionary couple who took us) got us ice cream. It was a wonderful day! This country is amazing :D I will send photos...try not to be too jealous but its only natural since I am serving in the best mission ever ;) haha

Anyway this week was great!! One of the preparing missionaries we have been working with opened his call and is going to the Marshall Islands! So that is really exciting! Now we have 2 Elders who will be going to the Marshall Islands in March!!

Tuesday was district meeting and it was great! I had to do the spiritual thought. Soo I stole this idea from someone else... but here it is. I get up and ask for a volunteer (has to be a strong volunteer haha) anyway I had him stand up by me and then I went over to the first elder and asked him "Elder Wasden, would you like a cinnamon role? " Of course he said yes and took the cinnamon roll. Then I turned to my Volunteer who was Elder Maiava and said "Elder Maiava will you do 10 press ups(push ups) so Elder Wasden can have his cinnamon roll?" Soo he got down and did the push ups. Then I went to the next Elder...said the same thing. "Elder Son, would you like a cinnamon roll" He said yes then I asked Elder Maiava if he would do push ups so Elder son can have his cinnamon roll. So he again did the 10 push ups. I went to Sister Ah Quin, asked her if she would like a cinnamon roll, she said no. I turned to Elder Maiava and asked, "Elder Maiava will you do 10 push ups so sister ah quin can choose not to have her cinnamon roll?" We then went through the rest of the elders. We all saw the struggle that Elder Maiava was having. We saw that it was hard for him. Some even wanted to help him..but he was the only one who could do it. Whether or not they wanted the cinnamon roll the price had to be paid. Just like the atonement of Jesus Christ. Whether or not we choose to repent and accept the blessings of the gospel and all it brings. Accept the blessings of the atonement the price was paid for each one of us. The price was paid by Jesus Christ. He suffered for us so that we can have eternal life. BUT we have to choose to accept it. The elders liked it but that may be only because they got cinnamon rolls. Elder Maiava...he didnt really like it toooo much hahahaha! They may never ask me to do the spiritual thought again haha

After District meeting on Tuesday we had a Zone service project. Which was actually at our next door neghibours house haha we got to help paint her house which was asweosme! I got to do something called "Cutting in" They guy said are you good at cutting in? I said I dont know I have no clue what that is. Apparently it just means painting in a tricky spot. SO he told me to do that and I could say "Cutting in? Nailed it!" or "Cutting in...ehhhhhh" haha So I got to do that. Pretty fun. I would say I am in between nailed it and ehhhh haha but I have noticed more and more that the "L" in my name does not exist here. Everyone calls me Sista Homes.

This Sunday we had to teach 3 classes. All about missionary work! It was great, we are getting the ward members pretty pumped up about mission work! We are trying to help them understand their role in the work and how important and necessary the are! They are pretty excited about it and so are we!!

This week was sister Ah Quins birthday and man it was like it was my birthday too! Man! We got like 5 different cakes dinners, lunches! It was awesome! I made sure I told everyone it was her birthday so they could do things for her since we didnt have anything at the flat haha I did make her some apple crisp-like apple pie but not- anyway that was good and we ate it for breakfast haha then we had Indian food for lunch and Wendy's for dinner. Love Wendy's because it tastes the same as america! We had frosties and everything.Needless to say it was a great birthday for the both of us! haha

Okay, so this made my whole week. I may or may not have told you About Kristen and Chantel. But they are really awesome! When I first came to the VC they were totally not active. We started visiting with them and got really close. They have been working through somethings and have been to church every week for a few months!! We saw them on Sunday and then Kristen introduced me to her sister but before she introduced us I heard her say "These are the Sisters that helped us." I dont know if she knows how great that made me feel but man it did. Maybe that is silly, but I am soooo blessed to be able to serve here in New Zealand to serve such wonderful amazing people and to serve my Heavenly Father. Its the best.

Well that is all I can remember! haha I love you all and miss ya HEAPS!! At least 3 heaps!

I apologize...this email is all over the place! May the force be with you!

Sista Homes!