February 5/6, 2012 - Waitangi Day

Elder Rowe out on the farm with the lion cow

Elder Rowe meets up with the cuzzies

Climb every mountain, ford every stream

A lovely New Zealand sunrise



The coolest house the Elders tracted all day. Fortunately no one was home
(allowing for the photo op)



Hello Hello!

Happy Waitangi Day!

What's the Superbowl? Is that like Lawn Bowls, the game where elderly people dress in white and roll heavy balls on a  grassy field?

I actually had no idea that it was the superbowl today. Haven't heard any announcement of it. I knew about it last year, particularly because we were in a Sports shop on the P-day it was being played. But yeah, is it the Yankees against the Lakers this year?

Today has been a great day already! Today is Waitangi Day in NZ and so it's a public holiday with most people off of work. So we had a Ward Picnic. It was great! We had about 12 non-members there, 8 of which Elder Segi and I brought ourselves. In fact, we biked to their house this morning, to the top of town where they all live (3 different families who are neighbors/friends) and we all walked down to the park where the barbecue was. It was about an hour long walk with the parade of 8 adults and two kids walking with Elder Segi and I. And the picnic was great! We had some crazy games like field hockey and dodgeball set up and then a big feed. We introduced all of our investigators to everyone, personally of course, not all at once, and they felt so...welcomed. Even though we were in the middle of a crowded park with strangers all around, the ward was able to help our investigators fit right in. What made it especially great for Elder Segi and I, was as we were leaving, our investigators thanked us thoroughly for inviting them and also for "picking them up." So yep, great things will continue to come with our friends in Highbury.

Another exciting thing of the week was our adventure day on Friday. All of the missionaries in the New Zealand Wellington Mission had a Farmer's Friday, where we all left our busy cities and went out to the farming and more rural areas of our wards. So Elder Segi and I drove out to our ward mission leader's house who lives outside of town on the army base and parked our car there. We got the bikes off of the rack and went looking for those lost sheep. Ten Seconds after we started biking, we got pulled over by the cops. But there wasn't any problem, they were just wondering what we were doing. We had been to Bro. Hunters house a lot of times, but I guess the military police were a bit concerned when they saw two missionaries biking around. But we weren't proselyting in there just biking to the areas outside of it, so they sent us on our way.

It was a great adventure we had, and the same was with the other missionaries we had talked to. Farmers have really long driveways, and some of them have dogs. But luckily, we didn't have too many problems the rest of the day. We were able to meet a lot of bizarre animals though. There was a lady with like 7 donkeys and/or ponies guarding her house, with a fence inside of her fence. Elder Segi and I weren't sure if it was dangerous or not to walk through a barrier of donkeys to talk to someone who seemed quite private. But we talked with her neighbor, who was her son, and he said she would probably swear and throw things at us if we went in, so it was probably best that we didn't take the risk. Her son became a new investigator though, and he's quite willing to learn more about the church than just what he knows from watching South Park.

Everything else is going quite nice. We've been working really closely with the members of the ward and they have been helping us heaps! I mean, a vast amount. Alcohol is a continual problem we've been dealing with lately. But then again, I guess the main concern is just getting our investigators to keep praying everyday and not forgetting. I've gained a great understanding of the importance and power of daily prayer. One, for myself and how it's helped me, but also the great negative effect it has on our investigators when they don't pray. Just those simple things can make a huge difference. "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass." However, by not doing small and simple things, great things we want to happen, don't "come to pass."

Well I gotta go! I love you so!

ttyl

Love,

Elder Rowe