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