A wet greetings from Kiwi-country. It has sure felt nice cooling off with all the rain we've had. Last week it rained from Sunday pretty much straight through till Thursday, Friday was unbearably humid and hot, Saturday was tolerable then rain yesterday and today. So I've had some pretty wet days. Thank you Mum and Dad for the rain jackets. I'm pretty sure they've kept me from getting sick from biking in the rain. So thats been a bit exciting.
On Saturday we had the ward Christmas party at the a beach. Helen and Ryan came and really enjoyed it and connected well with the ward. We went to a beach (I forgot the name) where nobody goes. So it was nice and pristine and just the ward. We played a mean game of touch, walked on the beach looking for shells, and had a big kai (feed). I'll send some photos. I also built a driftwood boat and had Ryan take it out on his surf board to launch it. I told him it was a tradition that my dad always did, and he felt honored to take it out to launch it. Pretty fun.
This last week started off looking really good. By mid-week we had some really good lessons, a couple new investigators, and three families committed to come to church, which is what we're really trying to focus on. Then at the end things just fell apart. Nobody came to church. I'm trying to figure out what went wrong so that we can fix it and prevent it from happening again.
With Helen and Ryan he only thing that is holding them back, that we know of, is simply teaching them. They love church, they have heaps of fellowship, and so the only thing thats keeping us from teaching them is the mum's medical condition. Still don't know what it is, or what it does, but she has a hard time timing how she'll feel, Ryan's schedule and the fellowships schedule. But I know that if its supposed to happen, which I sincerely believe it is, then it WILL happen.
We had our Christmas conference on Tuesday with Elder Watson of the first quorum of the seventy. He was amazing. He talked all about God our Heavenly Father and where He fits into everything, so that we can teach it to investigators simply. He is our Father, separate from Christ, he knows what we're going through, this is His gospel, and Christ always points to Him. It was really amazing and he told of a couple of stories from serving as a secretary to 7 Presidents of the church, starting with President Kimball.
I'm not sure if I mentioned about Adam Tahere from when I was in Tokoroa, but I found out his dad and brother live in Whangarei 2nd ward. They're a pretty Maori hard family, and when we saw them at church the dad did a Hongi with us. Thats the Maori greeting where you shake hands then touch foreheads and noses together. I think that was my first real Hongi (because everybody says that if a drunk person does it, it doesn't count).
So we had a pretty fun week last week. And Christmas is NEXT WEEK!! I'm looking forward to calling home and hearing everybody! Hopefully I'll call on our Monday morning about 10 am here and that should hopefully be about 2 pm there. Hopefully I'll also be able to call and set up a time like last call. Well I love you all heaps, and I keep you in my prayers!
Arohanui!
Sincerely,
Elder Sorensen
We caught a cool looking bird...
and brought it in the flat to play with.
Beach
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