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