19 January 2014

19 January 2014

Kia Ora, 

YOUTUBE: check out Elder Jones opening his mission call to the Bermuda Triangle.... yep, that’s my District Leader. 

If you YouTube Kia Kaha Hamilton NZ you should be able to see me and the WHOLE mission area singing a song. If you look closely and see me (which I don’t know if you can or not) you will see that I do not know the words.

So... sad news. 3 missionaries got sent home this week. There is a lot of disobedience happening. Apparently there was some lying to the president and a lot of flirting...... Not sure who got sent home but president is annnngrryyyyy..... He sent out a "VOICE OF WARNING" to everyone. Poor man, he has a big job to do. 

So we had a mini transfer this week. My trainer, Sister Hutt was moved!!!!! Noooooooo. My other companion cried and I was in shock for the rest of the day. Luckily the lord loves us and sent us sister McCarthy from Australia. She is so fun and such a blessing to have here (Did I mention she is a Chief???? She bought lots of food her first dayyyy.  We will never be hungry again! lol).

Now more than ever I feel soooo "white". I thought I knew what that meant before but I didn't. I can't really explain all that it means but part of it is not being quick to hug, then being awkward when you do (handshakes are so much more simple which is probably why all "white" people do it) gahh mahh berr gerr. My companions will tell you I am white and nerdy... and that, ladies and gentlemen, goes deeper than just the color of my skin :)   Some of the "white" people we have met are very fascinating. We met one, who wore jean shorts, shorter than his legs! It looked quite painful but it did make his legs look longer (daisy duke dude) which is the only possibly reason for one to wear shorts that short, right?.... 

One thing I am picking up from my Samoan companion is - talking with my eyes. This involves the expressive motion of moving your eyebrows up and down several times quickly in a conversation. It also means, "yah" or "yep".... when done twice in a row.   

Anyways, exciting WEEK!! This Friday our investigator Joanna is getting MARRIED! And BAPTIZED!! Everything is falling into place and we even have people donating wedding dresses and flowers and food (most of which aren't even members or investigators). But a lot of people have seen Joanna's transformation and want to give her their support. Funny story... Our Branch President (formally a Catholic) came to our class on Sunday (taught by a member) where we were to talk about Baptism in the Gospel Essentials class. By the end of the class we had talked about garments, hell, & everything in between. It was the roughest lesson I have ever had to sit through! We tried so hard to bring it back to the basics but some people just love to talk, eh?  But our investigator still getting baptized so it must not have scared her off too much. 

We are starting an ESL class this week as well as a Sports Night for the youth in the community. Because there is nothing to do in our small town everyone is involved in drugs. Soooo, thanks to the help of Sister McCarthy we are going to be creating a lot of activities that keep people busy!

Kia kaha (be strong)

Sister Moore

12 January 2014

Hardest. Week. Ever.

…So maybe I should have served in Germany. Every time I meet someone from Germany, which is more often than you would think, I tell them how amazing I think they are, because I am German too!!! They think its weird but then they become my friends and start begging to take a Book of Mormon with them.... Okay that happened once but still, I’m learning that the more love you show for a person the more they will want to know about you and what you believe in. 

 This week was hard. Really hard. The stronger we become as missionaries the more trials we seem to endure. This week we got verbally attacked by a drunk man that we had never met before. He came into the house (of good ol’ Ian) and had the neighbors all scared, that they were about to call the cops on him. When he first came in he demanded that my Samoan companion, who struggles with English, answer all his questions and wouldn't let her talk to us to help her understand what he was saying. And ended with him swearing so hard that he was spitting all over the room as we slammed the door shut on him. One of my companions broke down hard and started crying and shaking because she was so scared. He had come into the house three times and each time getting more and more aggressive. We were in the middle of a prayer to feel the spirit again when he came into the room the third time and interrupted our prayer.... after the drunk man left and we slammed the door on him, when my companion was crying, Ian started back up again, with the prayer she had started, and prayed for all of us and our safety. It was the most scared I have been in a while but also such a great experience to see Ian pray so fervently for protection and peace.... especially since he had just told us that he wanted us to stop coming by and teaching him. After that day though, he told us we can come back and he would pray again to know if the church was true. 

 Things always get scary at night. I’ve been praying for not just our flat to be protected but the perimeter around our home as well. As missionary work gets stronger the leaders in the church have encouraged everyone to re-dedicate their homes.... so do it! it will help protect your families. 

 BUT on a different note, we have been learning a lot about the Maori culture! Turns out the poi dance that they do with the balls on strings was first done by the men to loosen their wrists so that they could better use their weaponry. Now, according to our friend Wero, it has been made into a floosie dance where the women can show their flirtatious side. We also learned that they use to have a lot of women assassins. Killing men with their hair pieces after taking them to bed. Women over here are very strong. They were said to be the hunters and food gatherers while the men did the traditional work of women today.... Never mess with a Maori woman, you might end up dead! (Also the Kamate Kamate in a Haka (a traditional ancestral war cry, dance or challenge from the Māori people) means… I’m gunna die, I’m gunna die. Watch a Haka and understand my confusion.)  [EDITED to add link to BYU Rugby Team doing the Haka before their play-off game in 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DujWf34VCD0 OR, here is a pretty awesome Haka done by some men in traditional Maori get up:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bISVUxMYASo ]

 Our branch is doing well. …except that they don't understand the role of missionaries exactly.... they're a very... interesting bunch, but we LOVE them and are trying to work better with each other. EVERYONE HELP THE MISSIONARIES!!! Lip service is great but it means nothing unless you are giving the missionaries names. Thank you :)

 We are meeting some very nice people recently. Not everyone is progressing as we would hope but we are going to try harder and we will be teaching an English class soon which should bring in quite a few new people into our teaching pool.

 Lesson learned this week: It's always the small things that have the biggest impact. The people here are so chill they'll tell you that you would have to go to Antarctica to get any chiller.... Yet it is always the very simple and sometimes insignificant things that make them lose it.... Satan is very sneaky. Taking offense is his favorite tool to use because it is so easy and works every time to cause contentions and losing love for one another. 

 Love more!

-Sister Moore 

-----

Some pictures:

Me w/My Companions:

 

 Brown Tithing Envelopes!

 

Food Members Feed us:  

 

Pretty view of the bay from Katy-Katy:

Ready to do a Haka!

Katy-katy Countryside (driving on the L-side of the road!):

 

 

 

5 January 2014

Kia Ora, Dear Loved Ones!

WHAT A WEEK!  If it's not hot its cold.  It's always rain or shine.  And I mean that both figuratively and literally. 

There are some lesson you have to learn the hard way.....
SO, my trainer is wonderful but strict.  We ran out of food the other day and she wouldn't let us go to the store to get more.  You have an hour for every meal and there is more than enough time to go and get food but apparently you only do that on p-day.  As a result of our poor budgeting and planing we ate some really "fantastic" food combinations this week.  Let's just say there was a lot of (leftover holiday) candy and butter involved.... because that's about all we had.  I will allow you to imagine how you will, how we survived on that alone for days. I am still not proud of myself for the things I ate out of sheer desperation.... which reminds me, we created a new word the other day- hangry, its what happens when you are angry as a result of being hungry.
On Tuesday we went to Hamilton (3 hour drive) to have the first time ever Mission Conference!!!!  That means that EVERYONE in the Mission got together (some people had to travel 8 hours to meet us!) and got to hear from our fearless leader, President Rudd. It was great to see my MTC companion and roommates.  Turns out sister missionaries are very dramatic.  Not to go into too much detail, there have been a lot of cat fights between some of the sisters, high school mentality and boy crazed crushes on Elders..... oh boyy!  Those silly city sisters.  We are out in the country and have bigger things to worry about, like how the 40 bug bites on my feet are now 60 and how to better coordinate our dance moves and singing at the end of a hard day.  But the Mission Conference was good.  We made a goal for the New Year to have 1,016 baptism this year! Which means 86 baptisms a month, which means each companionship needs one baptism a month, which means we we had a very, very large fast yesterday.
I find that as I observe how weird some people are in NZ I am also discovering how weird Americans are as well..... I don't know if I mentioned this in the last letter or not but everyone parks their cars on their front laws or on the grass on the sidewalk. I always find myself walking carefully around the grass as if i am afraid to touch it.  Here, grass is for walking on, and that's a hard thing to understand, it always seemed so fragile in the states.
We have this investigator, her name is Joanna. and oooooooh how we love Joanna!  She's Maori and lives with her partner who is a less active member. We invited her to be baptized and she said YES! she has the sweetest spirit you could possibly imagine but she is struggling with depression, smoking, and drinking. She tried to kill herself 3 times before but has had some remarkable experiences that have made her realize that she needs to be alive still. What's hard is that there are times when we teach her and her partner and her partner's cousin decides to sit in on our lessons.  He goes through 8 bottles of beer in 40 minutes and rambles on and on about science and how humans are evil and how he wants aliens to save him and take him from this dark hole that is earth..... Meanwhile, we are trying to have a very thoughtful and deep conversation with Joanna and her partner Phillip (you can't reach someone when he is so heavily drunk, so we had no choice but to ignore him).
Phillip and Joanna don't have the highest education and struggle a bit with reading, even simple words.  The cousin mocks them every time they begin to read or we ask them questions about their reading. I have never before seen such a heartless & cruel encounter such as this!  Phillip and Joanna keep their heads down and try to remain engaged in our lesson and do not respond to the cousin (nicknamed Satan).  I was getting boiling angry, which I know is wrong because the spirit cannot be with me when I am mad.  It was like watching a helpless old man getting lashed with an invisible whip, which cannot be stopped but it's effects are clear.  Without rambling on I ended up asking Careel if he loved his cousin and wanted to help him, to which he began to ramble on more about how evil man is and how we are all worthless humans without any hope or love...... its hard to explain but there was no spirit there and you could feel things getting bad. I will never forget the simple word my companion said: "STOP". That one word has never meant so much or has ever before been said so powerfully.  And he did stop and he left.
Enough about that deep ol' stuff. Joanna has quit smoking!! We brought a garbage bag to their house and made them give us all of their smokes and coffee. In exchange we gave them a brand new bag of Milo (great drink, comparable to hot chocolate). Then we threw the bag in a trash can down the road we don't even want to be around that stuff more than we have to and we certainly weren't letting that get into our car.
The biggest lesson I have learned this week is that we are all at different spiritual levels. Everyone. Someone old and gray-haired may be only an infant spiritually. They say even as a missionary you start off like a baby and then grow and develop throughout your journey. Yet, no matter what your age I believe there is something wise in the small and simple things. Our beliefs are simple.  And so should our teaching be simple. Sometimes I think I am really wise and go off during a lesson about some great point I am trying to make. Something my companions have taught me is that even though we may have a lot of great things to say it will not matter if they are not understood. We must teach for understanding. And in order to teach for understanding it must be simple. I believe that the most powerful lessons are those that are short and simple. --------Refer to the parable of the sower.... it shows how great understanding is! ------------
This week I am trying to become more simple and teach each person I meet according to their own understanding.
So this letter is a very, very bad example of how I am trying to be more simple.
Ha,
Oh happy dayyy!
Sister Moore
p.s. LOVED that I had so many emails in my inbox today!  I only got to see a few of them, so if I didn't respond I haven't read them yet :( sorry.

Man is not evil. But there are times when he is not himself. If you are looking with your spiritual eyes you could see that every time he opened up another beer can it was when he was starting to let us in and hear us. There were brief moments of sincerity where we saw him, but mostly it felt like we were talking to someone else.

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:

 

•

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

 

•

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. 

 

•

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. 

 

•

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. 

 

•

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:

 

Pictures of the town of Katikati:

 

 

 

 

Pictures of the Tauranga bay in her area:

 

 

 

 

Sample Mural in the town of Katikati:

 

 

You can see more of the murals here:

http://www.resene.co.nz/competition/murals/Katikatimurals.htm)

 

20 December 2013

20 Dec 2013

Kia ora!  Greetings from the New Zealand Hamilton Mission.

Sister Moore arrived safely to Hamilton, and is already labouring in her new area. Her companion is Sister Hutt and they will also be serving with Sister Malaeoletama. They will be serving in the Tauranga Zone.  I have enclosed a picture of them as well as her picture with us.  We love Sister Moore already.

We look forward to serving with Sister Moore in this wonderful work as the missionary wave floods this great country of New Zealand!  We need her and are excited to serve together!  Her testimony will grow as she helps others receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. 

Arohanui,

President and Sister Rudd

23 December 2013

23 Dec 2013 

Hello All!

 

When I left the MTC this past week I literally felt as though I was being ripped away from my family. I didn't want to leave them and was scared to death to meet my new companion and start the "real thing". After the MTC we stayed in a hotel in between transfers and they served us the most wonderful food I have ever experienced eating- I swear I have never smiled so big before... I think it’s a sure tricky way to make someone forget about how scared they are by putting them into a food coma. I don't know why I was so nervous. I never got scared or homesick in the MTC- although I did break down and cry at the MTC because our teacher or "investigator" brushed us off and wouldn’t give us her phone number to set up another appointment to teach her...... hmmm. Good luck with the real thing Sister Moore.... But then I ate some chocolate and was fine. Funny how easy it is to fix my problems :) I’m gunna gain a lot of weight on my mission if this is how I solve all my problems. 

 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Mom and David for your wonderful surprise!!!  After the MTC, I got it the day I met my companions.  I tried to wait till Christmas to open it but I lasted about 2 days and opened it. What wonderful New Zealand goodies it had! I hugged the package all day when I got it.

 

The first day out of the MTC was a bit of a blurr.... I taught my first lesson, got a new investigator and started making commitments to people left and right. Everyone was nice to us and everything seemed pretty easy...Is missionary work suppose to be this easy?!  With a brilliant start, I came home to our flat and was overcome, for the first time with intense homesickness. I was pretty strong and wouldn't let myself cry though :)  The trick is to not talk. It’s a pretty difficult thing forgetting yourself and what you want to do, and to give everything to Heavenly Father. I guess that first night i was just thinking... Oooohhhh boyyyy what did I sign up for?!?  My companions don't love me (at least not like my MTC ones did) and one doesn't even speak English!! Even though there were a lot of success that first day, it still made me wonder if we could keep it up and if we could be friends with each other.  But I’ve been getting on my knees every night and pleading with the Lord to help me and to let me forget myself, adjust, and be patient and humble and as a result......... I am doing great! This is really hard work but I feel like I've met so many of these people before.

 

---Also, the letter from Anna and her kids REALLY brightened me up and made me feel really good on my first day in the area, Thank you Thank you! 

 

-We fasted the other day for our area and that our companionship would grow in love and unity (which it has, we are having so much fun together now). That day we went over to Wero's trailer (an inactive member) and helped him with some service by cutting his grass..... And that is how I had my first experience with a Machete!  Turns out cutting grass with a dull machete blade, hot sun and fasting body isn't quite as easy as it sounds. It was so much fun though! Afterwards he showed us the whole Maori village and explained the Marae (a traditional Maori tribal meeting place) and the symbolism to it. (He’s actually the chief's son, but is cast out to live in the lowest class of his village :/). 

 

So of course my computer time is cut down again today because we went to an “unveiling” this morning which took away almost all of our free p-day. This (unveiling) is a Maori tradition in which one will put words onto a tomb stone a year after the death of that person. It was a very interesting experience. There was a lot of crying and a lot of beautiful singing. Every time the beautiful Maori people sing I feel like they’re hugging me with their words. One thing I’ve realized slowly since being here is that- EVERYONE here is related!! Especially in this small town of Kati-Kati in which I am now serving. We, I mean I, call it a Mural Town. It’s this great tiny little town with the weirdest murals everywhere! Murals with big groups of pioneery people that don't smile and hold knives behind their backs.....

 

I will be Sykping home for Christmas YOUR Christmas, so boxing day for me. I’ll call mom first at: 6pm and Dad at 6:30

 

Ok I’m a spastic letter writing mess... Not sure if this all made sense but I gotta run. We have a missionary thing to get to [having a sleep over at another sisters’ apartment to save on some kilos (mileage) ‘cuz we have district meeting tomorrow]

 

Gahhhhh...... I'll write more later. Also a big THANK YOU to those who have written me--will write to you soon!

 

Love, Sister Moore

8 December 2013

Snail Mail Letter:

8 December 2013 (I’m trying to get used to their way of writing dates)

 

Dear Family

 

It’s odd to imagine that I’ve only been at the MTC in New Zealand for 4 days.  We are always busy and always working. Mom, you once asked me if they give the sisters extra time to get ready. The answer is  - No. No, they don’t.  By the time you need to go to bed at night you hardly have enough time to change, wash your face, and get into bed.  You want more time? Get up earlier, or move faster.

 

There is so much I want to say but to be honest I don’t remember everything.  We’re lucky to get 5 min of journal writing in at night and everything is just so new, it’s hard to begin.

 

Oh, here’s one thing.  I forgot to pack shampoo, towels, stationery, face lotion & any kind of hair product.  Luckily the President’s wife found some extra towels but she was shocked I wouldn’t have any… I was too scared to tell her I needed shampoo, too, but I eventually got around to asking her a few days later.

 

You would all be shocked and completely excited to hear that I, Sister Moore, have eaten ALMOST EVERYTHING they offer, Including: fish & chips (gag), poached eggs (barf), beefy stew (not bad), porridge (YUM), green Jello tri-fold*(what?!), ham (pretty sure it was really Spam), and much, much more! Sometimes I feel like all we do is eat, but I’m always hungry, so it’s great! I think that’s why all the people are so happy here, because they love and appreciate food—all day, every day.

 

I taught some Sisters on my first day how to use a vending machine.  They were from some Island and didn’t understand the concept.  My Roommate, Sister Tafa, and I taught them. And now every time we go past the vending machine the sisters are literally swarmed around it, like ducks around crumbs of bread in a duck pond.  President’s wife had to make an announcement because it was becoming a problem. “What you eat in private, stays with you in public”.

 

Curious about my accent progression??? It’s the darndest thing, sometimes I’ll just be talking and an accent will jump out of my mouth, without any intention on my part.  The worst part?? lol People always stop and ask me why I’m using an accent. Shoot! BUT, I have had several people tell me that I have the best accent they’ve heard.  Apparently it’s an Auzie accent (probably because my companion (Sister Ryan) & our Roommate are both from Australia). We have one more American in our room, Sister Miggin, from Utah. So there are 4 of us in total. (It’s kind of gross but they don’t supply you with hand soap here so literally no on is really washing their hands. (They do have soap by the classrooms just not in the bedroom bathrooms)  In some ways this is good because then I won’t get grossed out when someone doesn’t wash their hands because none of us are!!

 

Two more things about bathrooms: their toilets have 2 buttons: 1 or #1, and another for #2.  More water comes out with #2. I think it’s pretty smart.  And my last bit about bathrooms (hahaha) is that ALL of their outlets have a switch to turn on or off when you’re not using it.  People were laughing at me actually because I didn’t turn the switch on before turning on a light. …silly Americans!

 

But really, I’m having a wonderful time.  I’ve never felt more comfortable with myself among a group of people. The thought of going home makes me sick because there is SO MUCH to learn and do here.  In fact, I don’t think anyone is very homesick.  We haven’t the time for that sort of thing. lol But really, everyone has done such a great job of making us feel so comfortable and loved.

 

I feel lie I have a lot of friends but I can’t remember any of their names because they’re all foreign names.  I am literally a minority here and it’s wonderful.  But the sisters are always smiling and saying hello to me.  It may be because I tend to make a fool of myself wherever I go.  Everyone tells me they love my facial expressions and my mad basketball skills. What?!! That’s right family: yo girl’s got b.b. game!!!

 

What cool about being here is that everyday I wake up I feel so much closer to everyone here.  Imagine feeling like you’ve met everyone previously before, but you can’t quite pin-point where.  It’s strange but wonderful.

 

Well, I’m sure you’d love to hear about the actual work I’m doing here, eh? So when I first got here I think I was on an MTC high.  Everything was wonderful ad perfect and I wanted to stay in here forever and ever. I wouldn’t say that that feeling is gone but my eyes have definitely been opened to a few things:

 

1. Teenage boys are so painfully teenage boys (I’ll leave that open for interpretation)
2. Words are hard. Teaching is hard.
3. Making friends is easy.
4. There is strength that comes from STRICT and EXACT obedience!
5. Strict and exact obedience is hard.
6. The Lord calls young people for a reason.  Sometimes you just have to look a bit deeper into some people to see their special gifts.
7. Love is everything!
8. Pride is a sneaky little booger that jumps at every opportunity it can.

 

I wish I had the time to share with you every lesson I’ve learned and could tell you how I’ve adopted improved versions of definitions for things like: Faith, Endurance, Love, and the Gospel.  It may seem pretty basic and I suppose it is but there is power in the basics and a lot to remember that I think we have all forgotten to some degree.  Asking questions like: WHAT is it? WHY do we do it? HOW do we do it? will go a long way.

 

Love you all! Miss You!

Sister Moore

 

 

* - pretty sure she’s talking about “Trifle”, the popular NZ dessert ;)