Kia Ora Family!!

 January 29, 2012

Kia Ora Family!!

Well i loved hearing from you all this wonderful day! I really cannot believe how fast this week went!!! It seems like yesterday i was emailing you!! The time is really starting to fly by now!

I mean i think back on the past week and its like a blur lol.

. It has been a tough transfer because we have not really been able to bring souls to Christ through baptism, and i feel really bad we have not been

able to do that this month. Its tough with a companion that is about to go home, its also just tough having a threesome. But even though its tough, its been a good experiance for me. To try

and work out the diffences, and to test my faith. To see if i am going to stand firm and hold steadfast, or give in and be discouraged. I feel that i have been able to be firm and steadfast, and

truly rely on the Lord.

We are teaching a lot of great people but they have some pretty tough concerns we are trying to get over. This boy and this girl named Alana and James are golden. They are awesome. They

read the BofM everyday and pray. They are striving to live the commandments and everthing. But their parents will not let them be baptized. Its really upsettting to me. They are so prepared

and ready to follow the Savior but there parents are hindering their salvation. We are really going to try hard out this week to talk to the parents and resolve that concern.

We also met this man named Jaime who is a really nice guy. He actually lives with a some tongans who are members but are less active. Anyways, this guy jaime is 27 years old but as lived

a rough life. He's been through a lot but has been able to stop doing a lot of stuff and is attempting to improve the quality of his life. There are so many people out there like him. Who didnt

have the privledge to grow up in a good family and have a bright future. Who were not taught good principles and correct ways to live. The family is so important. A lot of people are the way they

are because they did not grow up in a good family. It really hit me then when i met jaime, how lucky i am. How lucky i was to be able to grow up in a good family, where i was taught good princples.

And not only good princples, but lucky enough to be born with the gospel in my life. What a blessing. I really just want to help Jaime find happiness in his life because its something he's never really

had.We are going to see him this week and i just want to help him so bad to change is life and become a good person. Thats the beauty of the Atonement. We can change, we can really change and

become reborn because of the Savior. I love this Gospel. It really is the only way that we will ever find true happiness. So many people are looking for it so they resort to wordly ways like drugs, alchohol,

and other stuff. They think that those things bring happiness but they do not. But you really can't blame them because thats all they know. We are here to show them there is a true way to find true

happiness.

Anyways. I love serving here in Otahuhu because it is a melting pot. I mean there is literally like every religion here in this town. We meet so many Hindu's and muslims everyday. There are heaps

in this area. I never thought i would get to share the gospel with people like that, and to be honest its fun. Its tough but fun. Right down our street there is a buddhist monestary. And then not to far

away on another street is a muslim mosque. Oh and there is also a Sikh(dont think i spelled that right) temple in this town. Not to mention Jehovas Witnesses, Seventh days, catholics, baptists, protestants,

Church of Yaweh, methodists, congregational churches, assemblies of god, and some church called the Chruch of God where they preach about a heavnly mother, and then there's us, the mormons lol.

I bet the saints back in the 1800's never would have though the Gospel would spread to the isles of the see and far reaches of the world. Its pretty amazing. This Gospel is rolling forth "the stone cut without hands"

and nothing is going to stop it!

Well i better wrap this up! I will talk to you all next week! Hope the week goes good!!!

Love you all heaps,

Elder Rawlinson