Elder Zealand: A baptism set...I hope!

Hey Family!! I'm glad to hear that Festival went so well! I have to say that I'm actually really jealous that I missed it. So you better keep doing it when I get home. Because I just love it there! It's honestly the best! It is the best feeling in the world. There is no better way to get into the Christmas Spirit!

So this week has been... Interesting. Last week I'm not sure if I said this or not but we had a set baptism date!!! Her name is Raewyn and she is preparing to be baptized. She is a Former Investigator that we just decided to stop into and see a few weeks ago and she decided then and there she wanted to be baptized so we have been teaching the lessons to her again. So we have taught the first three lessons (Restoration, Plan Of Salvation, and Gospel of Jesus Christ). So while we were teaching her Gospel Of Jesus Christ, she broke down and started to tell us about all this stuff that is going on with her and her Ex-Partner, don't want to go into much detail but in the end she basically told us that she was feeling suicidal and so we called the Relief Society President (Sister Tina Pauga) and she was able to come over and talk to her more and they called an ambulance to take her to the Hospital to be watched and get some help. So that was on Saturday Night so we have to push back her date because she missed church yesterday. So that's the exciting story of the week. After that lesson we had like half and hour to an hour tell we had to be home and both me and Elder Inglis decided we needed an easy calm down visit with someone so we went to one of our favorite Less Actives and talked to him and basically hung out tell 9 and were able to relive our stress. So that was nice.

So this week we had Zone Training and so we talked about our members and how to best work with them to help us in our work. So that meant no District meeting so that was really nice! I didn't have to prepare anything. After Zone training on Thursday we had Trade-Off with Mt. Albert Elders. I went into their area and walked/biked all day and it was actually really fun! It was fun until we started to head back to the Flat at like 8:30 which was about 2 K's away so like 1 mile ish. So we were riding and I tried to shift gears and the chain came off and got stuck in the pedals, and after 5 minutes of twisting and pulling and stress we decided that it wasn't coming off. So I got on the bike and I was going to push it, but then I realized that the wheels still work so I put one foot on the pedal and I pushed with the other foot like it was a Scooter or a longboard and I did that for like 20 minutes up and down hills all the way back to the flat! It was SOOOOO FUN!!! Haha. I'm very grateful for my longboarding training for that. Elder Mahreza tried to do it and gave up after like 2 minutes because his leg was shaking and he couldn't hold himself up like that! Its was awesome!

Yesterday one of my mission dreams came true. We were at the Flat and the Samoan Elders had stopped by and we were talking during Lunch and all of a Sudden we heard a knock at the door, and we looked over and through the glass we saw the outline of a little plump white guy. So we started to freak out thinking it was the flat inspector and our flat may have been a bit dirty from the lunch we just made. After having a little heart attack and opening the door we realized it wasn't the inspector it was someone better! It was a "missionary" from Jehovah Witness. So we talked to him for a bit and I will promise you that they are just as annoying and crazy as everyone says. It was crazy! It was also very funny! He sounded more like a sales person then a religious person. It was so weird...

I have some very great news for everyone! We were informed by President Bali this week that this year the mission will let us SKYPE home for Christmas!!! So I will get to see you guys!!!! So yeah that's some pretty great news!!! Also I got all three Packages. Thanksgiving, and Christmas from mom & dad, and I got a Package from Grandma & Grandpa Hanni! I loved them all!

So that's my email this week. Please pray for Raewyn that she will be able to work through her issues and work towards baptism again. Thanks for the prayers and thoughts! Love you!!!