Greetings from . . . Napier? January 23/24

First, a few photos:

David and his companion, Elder Triantafillakos. Are you wondering who
Elder Triantafilakos might be? Read on.

David riding his bike around the wine country of New Zealand. Isn't it beautiful?

The cat that awaited Elder Rowe and his companion at the new apartment

Elder Rowe has been quite enchanted by the New Zealand sunrises and sunsets.
 Here's a picture of one, with him in the foreground

And now for the letter . . .

Hello my wonderful family!

The biggest news first of all is that I'm not in Christchurch anymore. Crazy! On Wednesday, President Jolliffe called me and said something like "I need you to participate in an emergency transfer. You will be flying to Napier tomorrow..." Something to do with an Elder with a broken leg and one having to go home to be a witness in court, and another one something else. So I'm here, and Elder Segi and Prebble have been left to care for my beloved Riccarton.

I am now on the North Island, in Napier. If you look at a map, Napier is on the beach, but nope, we're on the west side of Napier and the Zone Leaders have the east side and the view of the ocean. But all goods. We've got hills that remind me of Utah. They're pretty tiny compared to the Wasatch front, but they're a pleasant sight after the flatness of Christchurch. My companion is Elder Triantafillakos. How's that for a name?! He is from Melbourne, Australia, and his dad is Greek. So that's where his name comes from. I would love to hear how you would pronounce it, but so that you dont' hurt yourselves, it's Tree-ant-uh-fil-lawk-oce. His name gets people to talk to us longer at the doors because they start asking about it. He's a nice guy and a great missionary who strives to be obedient, which is awesome. The funny thing about him is that he reminds me a lot of myself. It's just some of his mannerisms and character that makes me realize what I'm like. So it's weird....

Napier area is a lot different from Riccarton, for one because we don't really have any progressing investigators. So we've been door knocking for the past four days. In the rain. With little success. But all is well! When I arrived on Thursday the Elders were telling me it gets really hot here even though it was overcast that day. Well, I haven't seen the sun for the past four days. It was raining non-stop Saturday and Sunday but luckily it has slowed down today. On Saturday it was more of a mist, so that was fine. But we got soaked Saturday night. Sunday morning was more door-knocking and it was pouring! Luckily people were nice and had sympathy for us, even though they didn't want to hear about the Gospel. We had to completely change our clothes before Church started.

Church was great! The ward is tiny, maybe like 40 people were there? It's cool because a large percentage of them are Maori-- all of the Bishopric is.

So I left Riccarton in the hands of Elder Prebble and Segi, and look forward to hearing from them when a date is set for Rudo's and Kaibos's baptism. Because it's going to be soon! Even though I've been saying that for Rudo forever.

I love being a missionary! Even though I'm getting drenched, I know I am doing the Lord's work and am planting many seeds. It stood out a lot to me as I've been door knocking so much this weekend--how fantastic the message we share is. I've realized there's great power in asking people what they would think if God called another Prophet to the earth today. It gets them thinking of the wonderful possibilty even if many of them choose to ignore it. I've also learned what a wonderful tool the Book of Mormon is in getting people interested in learning more, especially after they've told us they're Catholic. Many times they accept the free Book of Mormon and show interest in us coming back. So I'm looking forward to more similar experiences.

I love hearing all about your lives and wish you all the best! 

  

Just remember:
"True happiness comes only by making others happy"---David O. McKay

Keep doing what is right, and praying day and night!

Have a wonderful week!

I love you all so very much!

Love,

Elder David John Rowe