23 February 2014

Soooo, yeah it was the BEST of times, it was the WORST of times. So I learned some new things this week..... 

-  We are helping a 60-something year old man as he learns how to read and write again since his 3 strokes have taken away those precious skills. We read from the children's Book of Mormon storybook and have him write down every sentence after we've read it.  SO apparently when you say period, as in the punctuation mark to end a sentence, you are suppose to refer to that marking as a "full stop".... because a period has only one meaning here.  So when I said "period" pointing to his paper, I suppose I can understand his confusion and shocked expression.... or at least I didn't until my companion filled me in later that night. 

-  That family forgave us for burning their carpet. They were even asking us to come around because it had been too long since they last saw us. Many of you asked what the object lesson with the fire was about so here’s the explanation. It’s about repentance and you start off by having the kids write down their sins on a piece of paper, or just things they have done that weren't nice. Then on a different piece of paper you write down the same list with an erasable pen.  So you take a lighter and put it behind the list written with the regular pen and watch as the paper gets dark and brown (as its burning) but the ink still stays on the paper, even as it’s burning up you can still see the wrong doings..... However, when you put the lighter on the paper written with the erasable pen the ink magically disappears leaving the paper completely blank. I suppose my companion really wanted to hit on how dirty or dark we can become by not repenting... looks like it worked though! 

-  Teaching this young family of kids (fire family). We went to their house to invite them to church. The parents were sleeping but this young boy, about 5 y/o comes out of the house in a white collared shirt and jeans and says, "is this ok to wear to church?" so cute! His cousin decided he wanted to come in his pajamas but ran inside and wet his hair down to the side. We ended up taking the 3 children (all under 8) to church with the sleepy mum's permission.... Our poor branch may never forgive us for that Sunday.  We had the primary teacher in tears because all the kids were getting rowdy (especially her own) and I had to sit with them in primary to keep them from touching each other or leaving.... but they love church. So, we'll see how to improve things next week. 

-  Men here love to wear short shorts. Short jean shorts. I think there are just some things a person can (should) never get use to. 

-  Read an amazing talk: "the strength to endure." by Elder Richard J. Maynes which pretty much sums up everything i am in need of right now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kme-6_eX0-s   Check it out. 

 

-  Life is hard as a missionary but we are all here to learn specific lessons for each of ourselves individually. That is why God wants to show us our weaknesses so that we can be aware of them and to make us stronger. I learned a lot of my weaknesses this week. But I’m trying to make turn them into my strengths.

Kia Kaha, 
Sister Moore

 

16 February 2014

The floods came down and the rains came up... No that's not right, the rains came down and the floods came up, right?  Well everything is backwards in New Zealand anyhow.

So, I think Hell broke loose this week, or maybe just my tear-ducts and/ or my mind.  So how do I say this in a positive way.....
Let's start with some positives because there were many:
-I SHOOK ELDER RUSSELL M. NELSON'S HAND!!  So yeah, he came to New Zealand and we had a big mission conference.  My companion and I decided to fast that day so that we could be spiritually fed and get everything we possibly could out of his visit. We were suppose to come seeking answers to a question because we were told there would be an opportunity to ask our questions directly to Elder Nelson. My question was: "How can we be patient with all things and in all things?"  Want to know the answer?? SO DO I!  Man, stinkin' nerves plus other Elders and Sisters stood up before me and burned up all the time..... I suppose in a way now I have to learn patience to figuring out the answer to patience... Tricky, tricky.  See what happened there?  Anyone else think God has a sense of humor?
Key points from the conference:
Sis. Hamula(sp):
• our decisions determine our destiny (check out Elder Nelson's talk on line)
• you are never too old to change and you are never too young to learn
• a pivotal spiritual strength is self mastery
Sis. Nelson:
• when you are really on the Lord's errand you will have access to His power and will not be lonely and unfulfilled (for all us single people out there)
• Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles.
• the best way to be the best companion is to be companions first with the Holy Ghost
• pray to be lead to those people who's ancestors are desperate to have their ordinances done. then watch where you are lead to.
President Rudd's father:
• Fall in love with the people. when you learn to love the people, you will learn how to teach the people
PRESIDENT RUSSELL M. NELSON:
• pay close attention to HEARKEN in the scriptures. it is a verbal footnote (it means to listen with the intent to obey).
• just as a doctor should never prescribe a one cure for all medicine to his patients before understanding their concern, so should we never try to give people the solutions without knowing and listening to find out the problems.  Once we do listen we should apply the solution (the atonement) directly and specifically to relate back to the needs of the person.
• lose yourself in the work
• ...and for all of you, my family members, you have been blessed by Elder Nelson himself that you will have health and healing powers working among you... so think of that :)

So lessons are going great.  One of our investigators is just on fire.  She is keeping commitments and reading things over and over and over, coming to church, and even telling us that we forgot to set up a follow up appointment.  Little does she know, she will be baptized next month.  Well, hopefully :)  ....Meanwhile another lady we are teaching, Maggie. oohh Maggie. She gives us her stolen avocados  :)  Her garden is full of every possible lawn ornament you could possibly imagine and her love of animals can be smelled when you walk into her home. She is one of my most favoritiest people ever.  But she has a problem with high anxiety and a fear of praying out loud. Maggie is probably around 70 and the last time we were with her she was in the fetal position on the ground rocking back and forth because she was too scared to say a prayer.  But later she calmed down and talked about coming to church....  Only now we are having a hard time getting a hold of her or trying to get her to answer the door when she is home.  She'll come around.  She's pretty overwhelmed though because after we started teaching her several different religion representatives have popped up out of no where and are trying to teach her also... sneaky satan, sneaky.
Have I ever mentioned that we go to the old folks home every week!?  It's so great.  There is this one lady, who has dentures and every time she talks they come out and slide all about her mouth and she has to pause between every word to get them back into place.  I feel so sorry for her. She is so sweet. The people there are so happy to have visitors and we are so happy to have people appreciate us!  Sometimes I pick out a few songs on the piano (it's painfully hard to listen to and even worse to sing to) but every time I always get an applause from my "friends" Bill, Joy, Lavina, the whole gang!  Want to feel better about your skills?? Go to an old folks home.  They will love you.
Time for some not so great news....
*My companion lit someone's carpet on fire..... uh yep.  Last time we ever do THAT object lesson!  But let's just say we left that carpet burn as something for the family to remember our lesson forever. gahhh :/
*I've been to the doctor's twice this week for different things.  I've had a migraine headache since Saturday (today is Monday) and it feels like someone is smashing me in the face with a hammer.
*Had some good companion inventory the past several days (aka releasing of build up annoyances and frustrations) turns out I'm not crazy just perceptive. and lets just leave it at that :)
Thank you my home ward for the Valentines Day Cards and Christmas Cards!  I got both at the same time.... Apparently they accidentally sent the Christmas cards to Bermuda?  lol
Went to church this Sunday in the first ever chapel in Katikati.  A very monumental time. WE even took pictures (possibly for the paper?) I wish I had a camera cord to show you all the pictures i have been taking :(

p.s. Megan & Brita: on that USB drive, can you please see that there are some ukulele songs on there, too? :) :) :) 
That's all folks! (Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day..... no one bothers to celebrate it here.  It's good though.  They show their love all the time and they do not support the commercial way of lovin.)
LOVE,  Sis Moore

***HAPPPYYYY BIRTHDAY to all you February Birthdayyysssss::
MEGAN!
JEFF!
DAVID!
MAREN!
TIFFANNNNNYYY
AIVA!
STELLA!
(Hope I didn't forget anyone.... This month has a lot of birthdays!)  Hope you all have a day as wonderful and as special as you are ;)  Kisses-n-Hugs and a Bop upon the Head! 

--

9 February 2014

9 Feb 2014

 g'day maties!

I am realizing more and more that I am not in America anymore... You would think that somewhere on the other side of the world would be vastly different and it is.... but subtly. 

I don't think I told you but I learned how to drive a car on the opposite side of the road and on the wrong side of the car!  ...And now my companion won't let me drive any more.  It's the strangest thing ever.  I'm not bad at it, I'm just not good.  And if you thought driving was hard TRY BACKING UP!!  Now that's something I never imagined doing before...  

So when I say things are different here it's more than just the cars... People move on a different schedule. It's like everyone moves in slow motion and talks with these long pauses that serve no purpose other than extreme uncomfortableness and emptiness for me.  Everyone wants to be seen as laid back and relaxed until they are suddenly in a hurry.  Maybe it's because I'm white, maybe it's because I'm American or maybe it's because I'm me but I am having a hard time of being relaxed and structured.  To one relaxed, it means putting our lesson on the backburner and as a last minute thought before we leave. To one structured, it means jumping right into the lesson with very little preliminary or idle chit chat.  ...GAH balance is key eh? 

Elder Russell M Nelson will be here this weekend!!!!!!! We got a special letter from our Mission President to prepare and he asked that we specifically clean and cut our nails, wash our hands and comb our hair so that we do not look like hobos… Very specific advice.  We have to wake up at 4am and catch a bus by 5:45am to get to the conference on time..... It's going to be harder than I thought to not look like a hobo.

We attended an Area Presidency Broadcast last night which was.... AAmmmaziinnnngggg!!! I thought it would be good and maybe even a little boring, but it was GREAT.  Kevin W. Pearson is a wonderfully powerful speaker (even though on the surface he looks rather stiff and boring).  He asked the members in our Stake to think of who was the last person you saved?  If you can't remember or can't think of one then you need to WAKE UP and do something.  We’ve all heard that there are people who MAKE things happen, those who WATCH things happen, and some who WONDER WHATS HAPPENING.

1.     We have faith to serve but we need EVEN MORE faith to succeed.

2.     We are involved in a spiritual work and spiritual work requires spiritual POWER:  We need to gain more spiritual power.  We can:

·       increase our faith in Jesus Christ by deepening our conversion in him!

·       re-commit ourselves to the Law of the Fast!

·       immerse ourselves in the Book of Mormon!

PEOPLE ARE FUNNY!   So we went to go find the house of some people who had told us to visit them sometime but we accidently went to the wrong house but decided to make the most of it and strike up a conversation. The man acted very casual and friendly but then would periodically turn his head and say "Leave me alone." or "Go away" and then he’d resume talking to us as if he had not spoken those words..... I say Good on him for getting the words out!.... It's hard to say what you really mean and pretend to be happy with those you are talking to.

My dear sweet Australian sister was talking to me about Washington and asked me what they call people who live in Washington but before I had a chance to open my mouth she answered her own question: "Washing-ding-dings."  Knowing better than to correct my companion I said, "Yep!" I then told her that we are in fact Washing-ding-dings but we had gotten it wrong and had been calling ourselves Washingtonians all these years... silly mistake on our part.

AHHHH THE Computers times us here.... 1 min left/

Love you all!  Kia kana

Be Strong!!

Sister Moore

QUICK QUESTION: How do you SHOW YOUR LOVE? It is through REMEMBERING and SHOWING and EXPRESSING GRATITUDE!

2 February 2014

2 February 2014  -  Here it is at 100 million miles/ hour:

Kia Ora!

Ok so today's email is going to be very, very short.... We decided to have a relief society presidency "girls day" and go shopping ALLLLLL morning at the second hand stores with our new convert.... I think she underestimated what we meant by "we will be doing a little shopping".  No one told her that 1 hour of shopping really means 5.... And that’s how we spent p-day.

So we had transfer and guessss whattttt???.... I'm still in Katikati!! :)  But now there are only two of us: Sister McCarthy and Me. Now I can say that having a companion learning English was so hard!  Imagine trying to teach a lesson while trying to help the people you teach to understand while also trying to help your companion understand what everyone is saying..... There were also a few cultural differences that proved to be a stumbling block for some of us as well. But all is well. We still love each other and she is now speaking her native language in a different area.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!! I was in a less than positive mood last week, which is why I spent last week seeking advice rather than emailing another lengthy letter about my views/thoughts/and perspectives about so many random things. But here are some bullet points of things I haven't yet shared:

·       People are so honest here... but only about things you don't want them to be honest about. This week I have been told that I am fat, have bushy hair (by a 2 year old!), my face is too oily and that my American accent is too harsh. lol sad eh?

·       My last companion (Sister Hutt) cut my hair because it wasn't even on the ends... Turns out she more or less didn't fix it as well as we would have hoped. So this week (3 weeks later) I had a less active woman "fix it" for me... (Great way to get her to talk to us!)... Even with her best attempts I am still too cheap to pay $30 to get my hair trimmed so I will proudly walk around with noticeably uneven hair.

·       SPORTS NIGHT! One of the best days of the week.... We play touch football every Wednesday and get as many investigators and less actives to come as we can.  Last week my Samoan companion decided to tackle me.... twice.  And once when I wasn't even near the ball! Everyone was concerned we weren't getting along after which was funny.  The 3 days of back pain after that wasn't so fun though.

·       ELANA!!!  I finally, finally, finally met someone that knew your Dad!  Her name is Katrina Driver and she said that your dad was one of the best teachers she has ever had!!!

·       Gas is $8/gallon here. Crazy eh?

·       Katikati-being interpreted is: Nibble, Nibble or "Nibbled by the Rats"

·       Maggie is a dear old lady who loves to give us an abundance of free avocados from work... It wasn't until after we ate them that she told us that she stole them. "Did you sisters enjoy the avocados? Yes? Good. I stole them."... I'm still not sure how to respond to that.

·       We are surrounded by so many fruit trees and gardens.  I ate a fresh passion fruit right out of someone's garden. (And no, I wasn’t stealing!)

·       Phylip shared an experience with us about his attempts to give up smoking and drugs... "I had a thought pop into my head that just said- 'Do not consume it'... What does consume mean??"   Precious.

·       When I teach I try to be like Elder Holland and Elder Uchtdorf.... and I think I scare some people when I speak but then they know its okay because they see how much I love them.

·       I feel like the most loved sister ever.  I love getting mail from all of you and having pictures to hang on to. Notts! Thank you for your letter and letting me know how SIs. Nott is doing!

·       It's getting harder to eat the food we are being served sometimes... My sweet, sweet companions will quickly put my food on their plates when people aren't looking or ask for more so that I will have more time to try to get the food down... I’m blessed with good companions

·       Elder Russell M. Nelson is coming to town in 2 weeks!!!!

·       I have been reading about Jacob quoting the story about the vineyards... ch#5.  What do you think the significance of your roots are?

·       We have had two fast this week and they get easier each time- because you are so desperate to get blessing sometimes. My companion told me that she always fasts once a week, no matter what because it is so important to get blessings for the work.

·       There has never been a prophet that has not "prayed with all energy of heart in behalf of the people." I have to pray ALL the time to learn to love people. I think I love them but there is so much more love to give. The only way to develop the real "pure" Love is to pray for it every day with ALL THE ENERGY YOU HAVE.

Now that I am a missionary I have a totally different view about feeding missionaries.

#1. Never dish up a plate for them. You don't know how much they will eat or what they really like vs. what they pretend to like... We had hamburgers at a member family's house and I hate hamburgers yet I decided to have one instead of going hungry. I picked the smallest of the bunch (clearly a left over piece of scrap meat so that I could say there was meat on my bun.)  The lady of the house grabbed the meat off my bun and told me to get a bigger one. I was so close.

#2. Always offer them water to drink. When you are talking with people all day you are pretty thirsty. Also, if offering them a drink don't say do you want a drink just say: Do you want water or juice/milo/milk I always say no, but options seem to make the decision to take a drink easier.

#3. If you chose to watch your missionaries while they eat, instead of eating with them (no one eats with us) be prepared to talk with them about missionary work- just know its coming.

#4. Dessert is so great, but right after a heaping plate of dinner food makes one feel like he/she is going to die a terrible death. We went to someone's house the other day and they served us each two pieces of cake and heaps of ice cream. They made me finish it all. "Eat Moore, Eat Moore." it was the hardest thing I had to do all week. So this week must have been pretty good :)

Our baptism was Amazinggg!

Gotta run. P-day is over. Love you all!

Sister Moore

Sorry if I didn't respond to your emails.... I haven't read them yet