Sunday, September 25, 2016

Door Knocking



Lo'u Aiga,
This week was all door knocking all day long!!!
But we got two new investigators so hopefully we will be able to have some good lessons with them in the upcoming week!!
Zone conference was awesome! We had some great talks about helping our investigator's pray, filling our minds with the words of life, and reflective listening!!!
Also there was a competition to see who had the tidiest car and Sister Taugaele and I were one of the winners!!! :)
We didn't get to teach hardly any lessons this week, which was sad! But something else we talked about in zone conference was measuring our success and how we should be able to feel successful every single day of our missions. What decides our success is not the numbers, but the effort and diligence, and obedience you had while you worked. Also if you helped others, and felt the spirit!! Despite not teaching many lesson this week I feel like we had a extremely successful week. Even if the only soul we brought back to the Kingdom of God was mine own!!
I love you all so much!! Alofa tele atu!!
Manuia le vaiaso!!
Sista Peo

Silliness with Iona's car after his accident

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Service day with the Leapai Family


Pictures from our service day at Napolean and Beverly's house!  With the Leapai Family!!

 Ka and Sis Taugaele







 Sis Taugaele and MJ



 Sis Taugaele and MJ













Lo'u aiga,
This week is awesome!!!
We were so crazy busy getting ready for Iona's baptism!!
Heaps of people came to his baptism on Saturday!!
We also had our ward missionary activity on Saturday, which was also super awesome!! It was just volleyball, basketball and a BBQ because it was so stormy outside but everyone really enjoyed it!!
Also we had a missionary meeting with the Stake President on Saturday! Oka oka busy as!!
Napolean and Beverly came to the missionary activity, and we recruited Napolean to play the piano for our missionary presentation while Iona changed his clothes after his baptism!! So that was awesome to have our investigator help us with our missionary presentation!! :)
This week is super busy as well! We are having Zone Conference tomorrow, so President will come up and be with us for that! Our numbers are slowly turning from all member present lessons to less active/recent convert lessons... Napolean is our only investigator right now! We are trying to do heaps of finding right now... yay for door knocking 😅 And we are helping the ward missionaries do follow up lessons for Iona (Tausili is done with his!!) and the Folasa family! They were baptised in December but no one ever did their follow up lessons so we are also going to help them with that, as they prepare for the temple!!!
Man I feel tired even writing this letter...
Cool things have been happening in this area and I know its because of the obedience of Sister Taugaele and me... Every blessing we receive is because we obey the commandments of God!!
Oh! I forgot to mention!!! FAGAMANU IS LIVING WITH A FAMILY IN MY WARD!!!!! Fagamanu is my first baptism with Sister Taituuga!!!! He doesn't remember me or Sister Taituuga, and is back to being loku pope (catholic?) right now. But all goods! Now I get to work with him again!! Miracles!!!!
Alofa tele atu!!!
manuia le vaiaso!!
Sista Peo
`pi sua (DELICIOUS Samoan food!!!)
~us and Iona!! Notice his gangsta shaved eyebrow... LOL!!
~me Taugaele, Beverley, Napolean, and our ward missionary at the baptism eating yummy food!!
~me and Fagamanu






Sunday, September 11, 2016

Sooo this week happened...

Lo'u Aiga,
This week has been epic!! Epic-ly what I'm not quite sure but all I know is that it was definitely that!!
Tilomai never came back from Hastings... She got in a fight with her family that lives here and decided not to come back! We tried to call her to ask if we could send the Wellington missionaries to her and she started avoiding our calls.... so sad.
So she is not getting baptized on Saturday but Iona is!!!! Iona is the man, he has changed so much!! His interview is on Wednesday with the baptism on Saturday!!! What a blessing that he is working so hard to change his life! We are so proud of him! He has taken the lessons many times from many other missionaries!
There were a few days this week that were  SO BITTERLY COLD we almost died!! We had planned to do 12 week and language study in the morning, but were sick of the flat, so we decided to go out and knock doors instead.... so cold!!!!! We lost feeling in our arms below the elbows and our legs below the knee!! I was wearing my ugly shoes (they aren't broken in yet) and when we got home I discovered that not only had they given me blisters on my heels but had ripped off and were bleeding way bad!! LOL!!!! So that was not very fun as I got feeling back!! So I've been alternating between ugly and worn out shoes for the rest of the week, waiting for my heels to heal! They are healing way fast though so that's good!!! Miracles!!! Miracles happen every day!!
We have had some cool referrals that we have been working on turning into investigators!!
Napolean asked us to come back and teach him lesson 1!!!!! Tomorrow!! I am so exctited!!!!
We also had two services on Saturday (potential investigator family and Napolean's family), we took the Leapai family (and their lawn mower) me and Tausili took turns mowing the lawn while everyone else chatted with the family!! Yessss! Missionary work!!!!
Sister Taugaele and I are so exhausted... the plan was to sleep today, but we had to take other sisters to a car dealership.. (I'm always the guide because I've spent my whole mission up here!)... maybe we will try to catch a few zzz's before we have to take them back!!
Alofa tele atu!!
Sista Peo
Oh and I've eaten heaps of kopai this week!! everyone keeps making it for me because they know its my favorite!!!! That's what that big empty bowl was!! LOL!! And that was a funny bumper sticker I really liked... sorry its blurry!!



Friday, September 9, 2016

Group of missionaries shot from facebook post

front row- Sister Teihotu, Sister Taugaele, me,  Back-Sister Suk, Sister Capili, Sister Kearon and Sister Urgel
Last Monday it was a sister's birthday so we sang happy birthday at the email shop because we aren't allowed to gather together anywhere else on p-days!! LOL!!!

front- me, Sister Urgel, Sister Capili, Sister Hazlet (STL) Elder Matthews back- Sister Kearon, Elder Rogers (he's in the Tongan program but white), Elder Fesola'i, Sister Taugaele
We just finished District Meeting! That's almost all of our district!!

Sunday, September 4, 2016

okaoka auleaga lo'u seevae

Lo'u aiga,

The struggle was real health wise this week!!!
Sister Taugaele was recovering from her flu for the first half and the second half I was having foot problems!! I guess we just walk heaps and my shoes just got all worn out! It was causing me quiet a bit of pain! I was expecting it to be something much worse than an old pair of shoes as the cause for all of my discomfort but there we go!! So now I have had to switch to my ugly shoes... :(
I have only worn them for I think 6 days in my entire mission... and I think 3 of those days were in the MTC... oh ugly shoes.... why are you so durable? 😝

Despite being stuck at the flat for so long this week, we still managed to get some good work in with the investigators we have!! 
Tilomai is killing it getting ready for her baptism on the 17!
We taught Iona the gospel of Jesus Christ, Word of Wisdom, and Law of Chastity!! He came to church yesterday a different person!! He was happy and laughing (normally he just sits around and doesnt have much facial expression) and participating in class!! We were shocked!! And he came up to us after class and told us he wanted to be baptized on the 17th!! Okay then!!
So now we have two people preparing for the 17th!! We are so excited!!

We have to get the program all planned out, and invitations for the missionary activity all passed out this week!! Hopefully we will not be stuck in the flat like last week!!!

Beverly and Napoleon came to games but no one talked to them and they only let Napoleon play volleyball once but he didn't touch the ball... *sigh*. People just get crazy into volleyball...
We are still working with the ward on learning how to  fellowship 😝
They said they didn't want to come this week... we will see if we can bring some people to their house and meet them... get them some friends!!

I was going to write that its finally getting warm outside but then all of a sudden a torrential downpour just started.... oh New Zealand... I honestly have never seen more rainbows in my life than I have in this time on my mission!! Probably because the people here need that reminder of God's covenant with Moses (edit from Mom: I think she meant Noah) that he will never flood the world again... some of these rainstorms it sure seems like we are going to have flood part 2!! BAHAHA!!!

Oh speaking or natural disasters, was there an earthquake? I had no idea! We didnt notice anything! No one has said anything to us about it either, so weird!!

I hope everyone is doing all right! Granddad I love you so much! You are in my prayers!!!
I know Heavenly Father knows all of us, he knows exactly what we are all going through. We are in his hands, we just have to trust that he knows the best thing to do!!

Alofa tele atu!
Manuia le vaiaso!!
Sista Peo


All of my books!
Me and Taugaele being silly
Me being sad wearing my ugly shoes...
How long my hair is now









Thursday, September 1, 2016

Email from President Cummings

Dear Parents and Family,

You may have heard news reports of a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck 100 kilometres off the northeast coast of New Zealand with possible tsunami like activity and aftershocks.

I want to assure you that all of the missionaries in the New Zealand Hamilton Mission in the affected areas have been spoken to and are safe and well and in no immediate threat of danger.

We will continue to monitor the situation with the appropriate Civil Defence authorities and take any further action that may be necessary.

We have a great love for all of our missionaries and are thankful for their dedicated service.  Thank you for your love and support.

Yours sincerely,

President Jeffrey D. Cummings
New Zealand Hamilton Mission President