19/20 June 2011

My dear family,

Happy Father's Day! I don't think anybody's actually heard of that here. Or maybe they have it on a different day. But Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Hey! How are ya? I'm glad to hear you had such an exciting week over in OO-tah. Mine has been good! Levin is swell! Even in the rain!

That's way cool about the Moodys. It sounds like they helped accomplish some amazing work. I'm glad Peter taught you the Haka. I expect a perfect performance when I return home. And then I'll show you how it's really done. ;) At the end of it, did Peter stick out his tongue and bugger his eyes? That's called the Pukana (something like that). I think one of the funniest/terrifying things to watch is little kids doing the Haka. It's the best. 

I was on exchanges in the first part of the week with my old District Leader, Elder Stratford, who is now my Zone Leader in Palmerston North. It was a big change for me to be on exchanges in Palmerston North. It's a pretty big city that reminds me a lot of Provo, but cleaner. But I've been in small towns like Omahu and Levin that it was kind of weird for me to be doing missionary work in the busy downtown area they lived in. I feel like I'm always saying this, but I learned a lot about talking to people. Just in the little while I was there I became much more comfortable with talking with everyone we walked past. Even though most usually wouldn't even say G'day in return. (Yes, they do say "G'day" here, just like Aussies) 

I also learned this week that ants never die. There will always be more who come through some other crack in the wall. Vacuuming ants doesn't always kill them either. 

Chris told Elder Cerros and I that he finished The Book of Mormon. I can't believe it! Well I can, it's just pretty crazy how much he's read. Our main concern is having him take it all in spiritually rather than just logically. One problem is that he's taking the whole thing as more of a history book rather than scripture, and so we just need to really sit down and have a real gospel discussion with him. We just haven't been able to see him much this week because he's too busy. But he's still doing well and your prayers are always helpful.

One of my highlights for the week was our lesson with Ace and Jackie. They're a young couple with two kids. When I say young, I mean Ace is 21 and Jackie is 18. I was pretty surprised when I found out, too. I was thinking they were in their mid-20's. But anyway, we've been talking to them kind of casually for the last couple of weeks on the doorstep or on the street when they're out for walks but haven't really had a real lesson until Saturday. They invited us in from the rain, and after the usual random chatter I brought out my Plan of Salvation cut-outs (you should know, Kathy, that I use those all the time) and we began teaching! After we said a prayer, of course. As we started asking them questions and the Spirit came into the room, they became more and more interested and kept asking more and more questions! Then Jackie said she's kind of always wanted to get baptized, and we assured her we could help her with that. ;) They had so many questions that we had to tell them to save them and we would answer them next time. So it was a really wonderful lesson and now we're actually making progress with them and they want to get baptized. It's fantastic!

I gotta go, but thank you for all you do for me. I love hearing from all of you! Don't apologize for writing too much. It's never too much!

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