It has been an amazing week here in New Zealand. A lot has happened. We had the baptism of Matekino Toetoe, a trip down to the temple visitor's center with some investigators, and a full mission conference where Elder Hinkley (President Hinkley's son) came and talked with us. This week has just been amazing.
Matekino's baptism was so very stressful. I'm not sure if I've told you about her, but her family was pretty turned off by us coming by, but because of a very intense situation with her jumping off a bridge, but no harm done, her family has come completely around. Her mum has an unshakeable faith in God, and her sister is starting to come to church with Matekino and her mum. So the night before Matekino's baptism, her boyfriend Perry and her little brother (12 yrs old) broke into the neighbors house and stole some things. Rosalund (Matekino's mum) called the police on them, and when they were arrested they found drugs on both boys. Most of it was on the boyfriend, but a little was on the 12yr old. They were all at the police station until 3 o'clock on the morning of the baptism. The family now has a 500 meter restraning order on the house. When we called that morning they said "can you come over, something has happened." We were thinking, uh oh, she probably smoked again, or something like that. After we were told of the situation we asked Matekino if she still wanted to be baptized. She said yes. I was completely blown away! Even through all of this stress and as upset as she was, she still hadn't smoked, and she still wanted to be baptised!! So on Sunday we were waiting for her to show up to be confirmed. 8:30, nope. 8:45, nope. 8:55, nope. But luckily she showed up just after church started. I confirmed her and everything went according to plan. Just after the confirmation we looked over to the foyer who did we see? Perry. When Matekino saw him she just started to cry, and her mum was about ready to throw a fit. But luckily she stayed cool. It was all a mess trying sort out how to keep Perry away from Rosalund. It was a stressful week, but an amazing miracle nonetheless.
The mission conference was amazing!! President and Sister Porter, and 3 of the 1st quorum of the 70 spoke to us. Elder Hinkley, Elder Nielsen, and President James J. Hamula. President and Sister Porter are amazing people. I'm so gutted (kiwi slang) that he's leaving in July or something. He is really big on the basics. The mission statement is being an instrument to the Lord in 3 ways. 1-Faith in Jesus Christ 2-Recognizing and Relying on the Spirit and 3-Being exactly obedient. Sister Porter said "When you are obedient you can expect blessings. When you are exactly obedient you can expect miracles." This mission is truly a mission of miracles! They happen every day here in NZAM. They gave some stats of the mission.
Maori Family we're Teaching
Temple Trip to Hamilton
Year to Date total - 1,369
2009 58%(companionships baptizing) and 25%(baptizing multiples souls)
2010 70% 31%
November
Accomplished: 38
Set for baptism: 130
Projected: 168
December set: 39
Elder Hinkley gave some Be's of missionary work. It was an amazing talk. Very uplifting.
Be Enthusiastic
Be Believing
Be Obedient and be careful
Be Cheerful
Be Helpful
Be Prayerful
Be Hardworking
Be Respectful
Be Persistent
Be Spiritually Independent
Be Anxiously Patient (Patiently Impatient)
Be Bold but not overbearing
Be Humble
Be Clean
Be Filled with Faith
Ka Kite!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen
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