27/28 November 2011

Elder Rowe at one of his many Thanksgiving lunches. Notice especially the bottle of homemade Ranch dressing in his hand, "The first one in a long, long time,"  he noted.

Another Thanksgiving feast, thanks to another senior missionary couple. The sisters were sick and missed out on the food.

It’s been a wonderful week.  As always.

I was in the tiny town of Hawera again at the start of the week, where I was able to do some delicious hours of door-knocking with Elder Robins. Elder Robins is from California, somewhere in the Mojave Desert that I’ve never heard of. We were in the same district in Christchurch, so it was fun to be able to go on exchanges with him. We were informed of a little shop that sold A&W Rootbeer for $2.50 a can and Elder Robins got way excited because he hasn’t had it for a year and a half. I’ve had the magical nectar a few times on my mission, but I think I was just as excited.  So we bought some on Monday and then went back on Tuesday to buy some Shasta rootbeer, which wasn’t as good, but it was only a dollar. They also had Tiki Punch and Black Cherry, so we splurged.

On Wednesday, Elder Tukuafu and I met back up and we went to the Taranaki district meeting/Thanksgiving feast. It was amazing! Elder Robins was way excited for Thanksgiving, probably more than any other American missionary. He was able to arrange an actual turkey for the lunch because the Branch President worked for the poultry company or something. Turkeys are about 50 bucks here for like a 6 pound one. But I think he got it for much cheaper than that. But the lunch was definitely more than I could ask for, being in New Zealand and all, a place where they weren't lucky enough to have their white and Maori ancestors get together for a feed. For the meal, we had homemade rolls and stuffing, and homemade ranch dressing, and Elder Robins and I made mashed potatoes and candied yams. Superb! All thanks to the Hirschi's, the senior couple from Brigham City.

On Thursday we had our own district meeting, and had another Thanksgiving. I have to admit, it wasn't as amazing, but delicious nonetheless. Maybe it's because we were at the church rather than in a home like we were the day before, so it wasn't as Thanksgiving-ish. And maybe because Elder Kim brought spaghetti as one of the dishes. But it was still awesome! I had more Thanksgivings than you, can you believe that?

We've had a lot of success this week (not just eating a lot), with a lot of really good new investigators we're working closely with. The Taukapos are doing good still, we've been seeing them a lot, and are mainly trying to work on the dad in coming back to church so that he can baptize his kids.

We were pretty gutted yesterday when out of the 13 people were expecting at Church, only two made it. But that was Anthony and Kitirangi, so they're pretty much our main focus right now, so that's what matters. We had our Primary program yesterday, which is always a treat. 

Thanks for all you do! I love you ! bye!

-Elder Rowe