Sister Hailey Moore: 29 Dec 2013

29 Dec 2013

Kia Ora!

In response to everyone's questions..... Yes, I did survive the tornado! It was the darnest thing... sheep and hobbits flying all over the place. Thank goodness for the heavy dinners, dairy products, and lollies (candies) they keep serving us. See, it can be quite windy at times, and they have a theory here: Eat enough then you'll never be light enough to get blown away. Odd eh? Actually I didn't even know there was a tornado.... I know now from everyone's emails. But here in KatiKati we are as good and colorful as our murals. :)

Christmas: The Kiwi people are very relaxed and laid back which is evident in everything they do. Almost all homes have a Christmas tree but with very few decorations on them, if any at all, and the trees were typically 1-2 feet high. No lights or Santa hats really. See its summer time for everyone right now, which means no school, no schedule, and no big deal Christmas. We had a good day. We had all our meals with ward members, dressed up for the nativity, visited some lonely people and went caroling. Funny thing about caroling.... I have never really done it before.Is it normal to have people bring out gifts to you when you sing or cut you off (mid awkward, high-to-reach note) and tell you to please go away? Well, anyhow that’s pretty much how it went all night.

We meet the darndest people here. They drink the chicken juice straight from the can, cut their toenails and leg hairs with scissors, wash the dishes without soap and eat ramen sandwiches (yeah, its what it sounds like... a whole package of uncooked top ramen noodles between two pieces of bread)... oh wait never mind, that’s just my companion who does all that. lol I love her to death. She's from Samoa and she makes me laugh everyday. Every time we hear "worldly" music she can't help herself and just starts dancing. The other day she was starting to dance down the road and we noticed that she had a huge spot of chocolate on her bum. Not sure how it got there.... we started to say, "No, no, stop Sister!" but we always say that when she starts dancing to the music. So she started dancing more dramatically... When she finally realized that her backsidewas all covered in chocolate she finally had a good enough reason to stop dancing.

Funny moment:

We were visiting with a less active member, Ian, who had left the church because no one visited him in the hospital when he was there for 7 weeks... We opened our visit with a prayer and mySamoan companion couldn't remember his name and didn't realize it until she got to "…and please bless Brother............... uh investigator." Then we started to read the Christmas story in Luke... her English isn't quite there yet and while she was reading about baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes she said and "rapping babies is swellding clothes." Normally I can keep myself pretty composed in lessons but this was just too perfect. I tried to disguise my laugh as a cough but you try holding back uncontrollable laughter and making it sound like a cough. All I can say about that is.... I tried. We must have done something right though because he let us come back.On our next visit I wanted to redeem myself from being so laughative (can't think of a better word) last time so I tried to really invite the spirit. I gave a very long prayer promising Johnblessings and protection and happiness if John would do the things he knows he needs to do...Then after the prayer IAN told me he appreciated the prayer but that he was not John. Fail. Poor Ian. We do love you.

There are many different cultures and ethnicities here in New Zealand. And I am very much a minority here, which I actually always forget. A drunken man told me that if only I spoke Maori,I would be a very strong woman. Still not sure what that means, but I thanked him just the same.

We have a lot of people from Vanuatu (an Island) who come to do seasonal work with the kiwi fruits. We are teaching a few of them and I’ve decided that they are some of my most favorite kinds of people! They are so funny and humble and good. They can only come to church if it rains, so you better believe we pray that it rains so that they can come... However, I learned yesterday that rain may mean we get THOSE workers but there are OTHERS who can only come if it does NOT rain. Hmm.... That’s a tricky prayer, eh?

I'm getting really terrible with street contacting/ door knocking. I'm scared to get rejected and I’m scared if they are interested. A typical encounter goes something like this...

Me: "HI! How are you?"

Them: "I’m not interested thanks."

Me: "Ok! Thanks for your time."

I like to think its pretty great that I said hi... haha, I'm learning and its really, really uncomfortably hard and awkward.

You're very right about the adversary. As soon as I'm happy and confident BOOM something happens and I’m completely discouraged and then I think "I can't do this, its too hard." BUT I keep my feet moving and at that moment the Lord hands me a blessing! Ooooh man! Why do I have to go through such a rough cycle!?! gah. It’s good. I’m learning to want to become more teachable... I’m not there yet, but I’m wanting to and that's a start, eh?!.

Just random and interesting:

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A phrase that everyone uses is “cool as....” Such as, “Hey man, that’s totally cool as."

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People walk around town without shoes all the time and it's like yeah, whatever, we don't like shoes and btw we're kiwis.

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People either LOVE or HATE Auckland (the city).... apparently people at Church really don't care for it because someone etched into the hymn book "I HATE AUCKLAND", maybe one day I'll find out why.

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Dairy products all taste different (milk, butter, eggs, sour cream, cheese). I'm told it’s a better quality but to me it tastes as if it came straight from the utter.... I don't even know what I mean by that but it makes sense in my head.

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Everyone’s front door is a sliding glass door. So you always feel like you’re walking up to their backdoor.

Remember to ALWAYS be a GOOD EXAMPLE of the believers! Everyone is watching you.

Love, Sister Moore

Map of where Hailey is currently serving: