Almost 3 Months!!

Sunday, December 11, 2011 

Kia Ora Family!!!

Wow its gone by fast being here on a mission!! I can't believe its been almost three months!! The mission has been quite an experiance. I know the Savior leads me everyday and helps me. I have never felt so close to him in my life. He does live and is real. He wants to help us all, and all we have to do is do what he asks. His atonement is real, everday I make mistakes, but its a beautiful thing to be able to change those things, and its only because of Jesus Christ. He really does lead and guide this church today. I also know that God lives, he is our father. I feel his omnipontent hand everyday of my life. Revelation is real. Any question I have, he answers, whether that be through the scriptures or those around me or my leaders. He knows and loves each of us as His children. This work is true.

I dont know why I just wrote all that I did but i just felt it flow through me haha. I do love you all so much, and I miss you all so much. It was very hard at first. And still is sometimes. But I love being out here. I grow and grow so much. I read a talk in the ensign that talks about missions and how they will set the foundation for this life, and not only this life but the eternities. I know that is true. This is the most crazy thing i've ever done in my life. Its the hardest thing i've ever done in my life. Everday there are so many things to do. At times, when i'm in bed i look back and think wow, my life has changed so much, and i'll never be the same person i was before. After this mission there is no going back to wordly ways, from here on I forever serve Him. Words cant describe how i feel. I love this gospel, I love my savior, he has saved me and know he can save others because of my service to him. How lucky i am to be able to be an instrument in his hands to save his people.

I want to tell you all that i love you, and look forward to speaking to you on christmas. I'm not sure what time it will be there when i call so just have the phone by you all the time.

This week that lady who had an answer to her prayers during chruch, Sis Whetu, she is getting bapized. I think she has really seen a difference in her life as she has started to live the gospel. I know that after she gets baptized that her life will be even better. It will be a good day. This week my companion and i have a lot to do. there are many people that we need to see to soldify them and see what their concerns are. It will be a busy week but it will be a good week. Well I better let you all go. Keep the emails coming, and tell jake, blake, and kevin they are awesome and i miss them, i miss their friendship and the times we had together. Dont think i'm not focused on the work because i am, and i try hard everday, and i'm going to keep trying hard and serve my savior.

Love you all, Talk to you next week!!

Love,

Elder Rawlinson 

Hello Again!

Sunday, December 04, 2011 

Hello Family,

Thanks for sending me the line of authority! That is so cool! Its really cool to see in traced back to Jesus Christ!! Glad to hear everything is going good back home! Its werid hearing that football season is coming to a close, it feels like its not even begun because i'm not there haha. Thats wild that OU got their butts handed to them by OSU haha! Maybe it is the start of a new era! And to think I could be playing there, but i made the right decision by coming on a mission, this is where i need to be! I'm glad to hear the Elders moved in and they sound like they will do pretty well! I can't imagine how much they must love you for feeding them and taking care of them so well, rumors of you will probably spread through the whole mission and everyone will want to come to claremore haha!! Keep it up!! Thanks for sending me a christmas package! I am pretty sure i will get it before christmas, ya its not cheap sending things over i bet! And i'll try to remember to send a postcard back home for those doctors! Tell my friends i'm sorry i havent written them a letter yet! I'm just so busy!

Well this last week wasnt the best week, its still went well though, we did have a baptism on saturday for this little girl named Sharmayne! It was really cool, her parents have been inactive for awhile but are now coming back! The dad was able to baptize and confirm her so that was good!! But the last few days of the week were tough. A lot of our lessons fell through and we havent been able to get ahold of some of the sets we have for baptism. Its all good though, We just need to get it together this week and attack it and find more people.

Its getting hotter and hotter here in NZ! People arent as crazy about christmas around here. They pretty much just put up a tree and thats it. I havent seen any christmas lights yet or anything. In america Christmas is just so blown up and big its crazy! Did i ever tell you that we are on bikes? Man its been interesting riding those things! At first it was tough but now i'm getting use to it haha. My bike had to be specially modified for me haha, i dont think i told you that! haha ya but it definitely keeps me in shape!

Well a stressful thing happened today. I went to an atm to see the balance on my card. the card i have from BOK. It let me in, accpeted my PIN and everything but when i went to check my balance, it brought up a message saying it was going to keep my card for secruity purposes! It wouldnt give me my card back! So i was freaking out a little(well a lot actually), we went over to the bank that was in charge of the ATM and they said they werent sure why it did that and that they cant do anything to get it back. So i was pretty stressed out, but something awesome happened! As we got in with the member to take us back to our flat, we were shopping, as we got it he looked and said "oh"! He backed up the car and i looked and saw a truck parked next to the ATM! It was the truck and workers who load the ATM's with cash! So i ran over to them and asked if they could unlock it and let my get my card out! They said sure, so they unlocked the machine and i got my card back!!!!! It was amazing! i mean those guys come randomly to fill the ATM's!! It was crazy, but i got my card back! I still have no idea why it ate my card but i did get it back. If you could go to the bank and ask why it would do that that would be great! i'm thinking maybe since i'm here in NZ maybe it knew the card wasnt from here and ate it because it thought i stole it or something. I dont know but if you could tell the bank about it and then tell me what to do that would be awesome. For now i'm not going to do that again haha, and just keep it in my wallet!

So that was a crazy stressful experiance, but it all worked out in the end! I did say a prayer thanking Heavenly Father, because i know i had some help there haha. Anyways, this week is going to be better, and i'm going to keep working hard! I'm sending some pics finally!! sorry i havent yet! i'll try to do a better job of that!!! Most of them are from here in NZ, one is from my district in the MTC!!

Talk to you next week! Lots of love! God bless!

Love, 

Elder Rawlinson

Learning and growing daily!

Sunday, November 27, 2011  

Kiora Family!!

Thanks for all the awesome emails, i'm glad to hear thanksgiving was great for you all! They didnt have it here, and i missed it, but its all good, christmas is coming and its going to be a great time to be a missionary!! I can't believe the Elders are moving in so soon! I'm glad to here you are doing that for the ward, even more blessings will come you way now haha! I would like to see some pics of the new organized upstairs and garage and stuff lol! I am glad to hear the family is doing well and life is just ever going on!

This week was a pretty good week! We had zone conference, and it was awesome! I'm not gonna lie, there have been some things that i've had to adjust to out here being a missionary and i was a little down, but zone conference came on Friday and it got me pumped up and i have been feeling great since then and have been working really hard!! I learned so much at zone conference! It really was an awesome experiance! I just learned how i can be a better missionary and how i can keep my vision and stay on track everyday and save souls! I've really been working on talking to everyone i can and giving my testimony to everyone even though they sometimes may not be interested.

So i think i told you about that one lady who wants to be baptized now that her two sons got baptized. Well we have been teaching her this week and its been going ok. Its weird because she wants to get baptized but yet she's not sure about god and jesus christ. Weird right? but thats what the situation was. So a big thing i tried to focus on with her is how god is our loving Heavenly Father, and that she can pray to him, talk to him and come to know him through prayer. We really pushed that concept this week and invited her to start praying. She didnt do it for most of the week but kept saying she was going to pray. Then the miracle happened! So she actually prayed saturday night, and really asked god things she was not sure about and wanted to know. So the next day comes and she goes to church. We didnt get a chance to talk to her after sacrament because she had to leave, but that night we get a text from her saying how she prayed saturday night really wanting to know some things, that day at sacrement He answered her. She told us how everything at sacrament was an answer to her prayer, every talk that was given answered her! When i heard this, so much joy came over me and i wanted to cry! God answered her prayers! It was remarkable to experiance! Heavenly Father truly does love us all and will help us when we act in faith!! Her heart has changed now, she knows there is a god and is building a releationship with Him! How true this gospel is, it really is true, and like you said dad if people could just live it they would be so much happier in there lives!

Everyday i just see how the lord puts specific people in my path to meet and preach the gospel too. I wish i could explain, but i truly have a testimony of that now, i mean everyday someone is placed in my path and i am able to help them in someway or at least plant a seed if they are not interested. The prepared are out there, and as missionaires its our job to find them and convert them and baptize them. Well are just merely guides, the lord does everything. He truly does soften peoples hearts and change them when they follow the commitments we give them. Oh ya one crazy thing that happned this week was that i saw a car accident!!! some guy apparently fell asleep at the wheel and crashd into a pole! me, my zone leader, and a member (i was on a trade off) saw the whole thing! it was crazy, we had to stay and wait for th police to come and we had the member with us give the witness report because arents supposed to get caught up in legal stuff, but it was crazy!!

Anywho, they dont have black friday here in NZ. So i didnt witness all the craziness that you witnessed mom haha. But shopping is reallly crazy here, there are just shops everywhere and so many people are outside a lot. People walk around everywhere, and everyday there are kids outside playing and enjoying the day, its really cool, gives us a chance to talk to a lot of people. I havent heard any of those cicadas, people have been saying that the weather is being really weird right now, its supposed to be hot, but its not that bad and is still raining at least once a week and i guess thats odd. The weather just seems to be messed up all around the world these days haha. People are starting to put up christmast trees and its so weird!!! Its christmas time!! it feels really weird with the nice weather and all haha! Anywho, for my christmas list i could use some more ties, a new wallet, ok so i'm thinking some new scriptures, a quad would be nice, but i'm not sure about this one, my scriptures i have are in ok condition but its just that i've had them since i was eight, i'm still debating on whether i could use a new pair or not. umm.. honestly what i think would be really cool is a paper that has my line of authority, my priesthood line going back to jeus christ, I dont know how you would get that, but that would be really cool to have one. It could take a long time to get one though because i think you have to research it yourself and i'm not sure how you would do that. But anyways, thats all i can think of for now, just a bunch of candy would be nice too haha. snickers in particular lol. so i guess i will let you all go now! Love you all and miss you but not homesick hahaha, i'm all goods! One little thing the mission president said at zone conferance towards the end that really hit my soul was something. I dont know why he said it, but it was powerful, he was talking about salvation and how salvation is a personal experiance that we must all have, but exhaltation, exhaltation is a family experiance. When he said that it was really powerful. I'll just leave it at that. Anyways, love you all and talk to you next week!!

Love,

Elder Rawlinson

Loving it!

Sunday, November 20, 2011 


Kiora Family!

Well another week has gone by here in NZ! I'm glad to hear everything is going good back home and i love the new/old pacifica, it looks great!! I'm glad to hear that you are all going to have an awesome Thanksgiving!! Unfortunately here in NZ they don't have anything like that so i will be missing it this year :( But its all goods, the members usually feed us pretty good here anyway! Thanks again for the updates on football! I miss it a lot but its all good, i'm doing what i need to be here! Mom, i'm glad to hear the calling is going good! As a missionary its unbelieveable how much i have learned to rely on the spirit! The biggest thing missionaries need to do is be obident to have the spirit! the spirit for me is really the key to everything, if i dont teach with the spirit than i am nothing.

This week was pretty good! Jam full of stuff! On Wednesday i got to go to the orientation for new missionaries. A new transfer of missionaries from the MTC came in and i got to meet them all. We spend the whole day with the mission president and his wife in the mission home. It was great, president lekias is an awesome president. He has a very strong testimony and is a great leader. Sister Lekias is also a great person. She is so nice, and  reminds me of you mom because she is always so happy and smiles all the time haha. But i love them both, and really got the chance to get to know them better at the orientation thing. I also met a lot of the new elders and they are awesome! It was nice to meet other new missionaries haha. I learned a lot and it just strengthened my testimony so much!!! It got me more pumped up to be a missionary!

So the next day came and i was reunited with my companion! Now i'm in normal companionship for the first time since the MTC haha! Its actually really nice to be back to normal again. My trainer is great though, he is a really humble guy and we work hard. This week i've really been working on what we call Preach By the Way here in the mission. That pretty much means we talk to as many people as we can, anyone we see at any time, about a restored truth and bear our testimony. Its been tough but i'm doing farily well now, i just put my faith in the lord and go and do it. One problem we run into a lot over here in NZ is that people just tell us they are already christian and dont need to hear our message. This happens all the time! So i've really been trying to get into people's heads that we are different, our message is unique. I'm going to work on trying to be more bold and proclaim that is is Christs one true gospel in these latter days. Boldness is a very hard attribute to aquire, but i desire it, and have prayed that the lord would help me be more bold in sharing his message.

Since being out here i've already witnessed miracles! The lord truly does soften people hearts!! This weekend we baptized these 2 teenage boys, Elazaye and Trevon. Their dad is member thats returning. Their family is massive! I really am not sure how many kids they have, because its just crazy evertime we go over there haha. But the boys got baptized, but no one else in the home was really interested. The mom, Sis Whetu is really nice but always would ask us the weirdest questions, and was always trying to trip us up, she wasnt really ever intrested. So the baptism came and went and on Sunday they got confirmed. After sacrement meeting, the mom all of the sudden pulled us aside, we thought she was mad at us because of something, but she just told us, "hey elders i want to be baptzied, and so does my other 19 year old son". We were both just astonished! I'm not sure what changed her mind, but i guess i do, because the lord somehow softented her heart and she now wnats to be apart of our church. I think she just really felt the spirit in sacrament meeting that day and saw how happy her two boys were and really felt in her heart that it was true. It was pretty cool to witness that, i'm still just amazed. Also on that same day, we were walking home and we ran into the grandma on the street who is also a nonmember and was at the baptism for her grandsons. We talked to her and she said she was really happy that both her grandsons were baptized but wasnt interested. She was nice but said she's got her on religion. So we said goodbye and moved on. Later that night we called Sis. Whetu to get some details about something, but she randomly told us that her mom, the grandma, told her that she wants to be baptized too. We both again were just like what the heck!! Somehow we were able to help that woman by running into her on the street, i dont know what we did but the lord changed her heart and she wants to join as well!

So its just amazing how the lord changes peoples hearts and softens them! Anyway, thats my weekly miracle. I better get going! I love you all so much and miss you! Keep sending the emails! Believe me there are times where its hard, but i just push through and really grow from those experiances, we truly do grow through our trials, anywho, guess i'll talk to you next week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Rawlinson

My first week in NZ!!

Sunday, November 13, 2011 


Kiora family!!!

Well I'm here in NZ!!! What a week its been! Thanks for all the emails, and that is so sad sister hawks passed away. I will definietly keep there family in my prayers! Anyways, thanks for the update on the week and i hope life is good for you's (thats slang they use here in NZ haha!)

Anyways, NZ has been awesome so far! Quite a culture shock though and much much different than home! Right now i'm in the otahuhu ward with three companions. I have three companions because i came here before transfers which is thursday, by then it will just be me and my trainer! NZ is awesome though! It is so amazingly beautiful!! So so green! The vegetation is so pretty, so many trees and green grass, its wonderful! The ocean is very nice too, i'm in a land area but part of the sea reaches out where i'm at. The culture is interesting too! The people are pretty great so far! The slang here is hilarious! They say funny things such as you's instead of you. They use the word heaps instead of lots or a lot. They also say things like "Cool Az" or "Sweet Az". Its funny, those sound like bad words, but it actually isnt. The dialect is also heaps different than back home. I've definetly had to be a much better listener. Also there are heaps and heaps of polynesians!! There are so many of them haha, but they are such great people! In my area thats pretty much all there is, is polynesians! I am actually the only palangi (white person) in my ward haha! Both my companions are poly, and so is the whole ward! Its pretty fun though, the members are pretty good. They treat us missionaries very good and always want to feed us whenever they can. So definietly been a culture shock, but i am adjusting well.

So get this! We have a car in my area right now because there are three of us. But, the first day they gave us the car, and i had to drive!!! haha because both of my companions dont have NZ licenses! But since i have an u.s. licence i can drive for a year. But they had me drive on the first day and since then lol!!! I was so scared the first day, because everything here is oppostite than in the states. We drive on the other side. Also the roads are so much smaller! it was pretty scary driving at first but i have adjusted lol! But the roads are really really small and lanes are tightly packed! Also they dont really use stop signs here! They use roundabouts. There has been heaps to adjust too but i am getting use to it, and it keeps things entertaining haha.

Both of my companions are great! One actually goes home tomorrow, and the other will be my trainer. There names are Elder Jibas and Elder Finau. Elder Jibas will be my trainer. He's from the Marshall Islands lol! He is a great missionary though, i dont think i could have been blessed with a better missionary as my trainer. He is a hard worker and tries to talk to everyone he sees. Elder Finau is a pretty good missionary as well, even though he goes home tommorrow, he hasnt been that trunky and has been working good. He is from Utah, he is a great elder though, i'm gonna miss him even though i've only known him for a week. So we are going to save a lot of souls and build up the kingdom here in NZ!

Things are very different here in NZ. We live in what they call flats, which is just another name for house. The flats dont have AC or heating, they just use space heaters in the winter. Also here in NZ they dont use dryers, we just hang our clothes up to dry. The toilets here are differnet than back home too, there is like a button on the top of the toilet you press, i cant really describe it but its differnt haha. Other than that, the weather is pretty nice and they said it just rains a lot in the winter like you said mom. But ya shops and stuff just look different. Things are expensive here also, which i figured because we are on an island, not like way expensive, but more than back home. The choclate here is incredible, and they have this really good fizzy drink(pop) called L&P. Oh it is so good! The food here is all around pretty much better haha. More fresh and tasty lol. Oh ya one thing they love down here is KFC! haha weird huh! the members will feed us that or give that too us if they are in a hurry or whatever, but they love it haha. Its actually better here though than back home, i'm not sure why.

Anyways, i'll probably pick up a lot of greetings and goodbyes down here for tongan, samoan, and maori since there so many of them. Its cool though, i will get a little bit of everything. One thing that is really kind of stinky about the mission is that i will only get mail like once a month :(. I guess it like costs money for the chruch to send it directly to our flats. You would send home to the mission office and then they would send it to our flat, but i guess the NZ government makes them pay for that. So our zone leaders just pick up our mail at the mission office, but they can only do that like once a month because they only have zone leadership meetings like once a month. So that was upsetting when i found that out, but haha i'll get over it. My companion said it stinks at first but you get use to it and letters mean so much more when you get them. But if you ever want to send me something i wouldnt mind some more ties. i really dont think i need much, but this week i'll try to think of some things and tell you next week.

But ya NZ is great and i'm adjusting rather well. The polynesians are such great people, really happy and laid back. Oh ya one thing they love to do here is sing! We sing pretty much before everything, or anywhere haha. It really hit me though, how it says in my blessing that i will have the gift of song, remember how it says that? Well i think i figured it out, i am going to gain that gift here on my mission haha because we sing whenever we can, before lessons, before study, pretty much everything haha. its great though. the people are great and its going to be a great 2 years! Well i love you all, and i cant believe that today actually marks my 2 month mark!! its the 14 here in NZ! 2 months ago i entered the MTC. I cant explain it, it feels like its been longer than that but yet way shorter. its the weirdest feeling in the world! Well i guess i will let you go! I'll try and email some pics next week to you all! Well until then! Ofa Atu (love you, in tongan)!!!

Love,

Elder Rawlinson

I made it!!

Tuesday, November 08, 2011 


So I made it to New Zealand safely!! It was a long flight but I survived!! Just wanted to let you know everything went good! This has to be brief, but i'll just let you know that it is beautiful here! The weather is awesome, and the city and area is just beautiful! Well got to go, but love you all and our p-days or on mondays here so thats when i will email you next!

Love,

Elder Rawlinson