Kia ora whanua (pronounced key ora fawn-ah-oo) means hello family in Maori. The pronunciation of everything in Maori is pretty much like Spanish except for some reason "wh" makes the fffff sound like "ph" does in English.
Anyways, this week was alright I suppose. We have been a little slack on using our time effectively which makes me cringe when I think about next months success. We also had a couple baptisms fall through which really stinks cause that usually doesn't happen, at least it hasn't for me yet. We did however have a baptism this Saturday which was really awesome. It was this girl named Tawera who's come from thinking about suicide to being surrounded by loving and supportive friends. At the baptism her sister then came up to us and told us she was ready and wanted to be baptised too. Sweet! She's now set for April 6. I just hope the rest of her family will open up as well.
There's this other investigator of ours who's name is Zhontee. I think she's the best investigator anyone could ask for. Whenever I feel like garbage and need a pick me up I can always go to Zhontee's and be 100% better. She's just so ready for the gospel and soaks everything up like a sponge. In Sunday school last week she was answering all the questions spot on, questions that the members weren't even getting. Her baptism is this coming Saturday. I'm hoping that once she's a member we can use her to get to her friends as well. We've had a couple of er friends sit in on lessons but not consistently.
There's this one somewhat crazy lady we've been teaching that I'm thinking of just forcing her to be baptized. Okay, not really but maybe I'll try laying down God's law a little with her. I think she has like ADD or something because when we teach her she's always looking all over the place and then blurts out the most random ideas. Like I was bearing my testimony on prayer and out of the blue she asks in the middle of my sentence if I think online dating sites are a good way to meet guys. My comp started laughing at me cause I was staring at this lady for her stupid random interuption and then got mad at him for laughing so I told her "Seeing as how I've never used an online dating site to look for guys, I wouldn't know. I'm sure my companion could help you out though." Then it was my turn to laugh and his turn to be mad. Whenever Raywin looks around now we've started going "SHH!" like the dog wisperer does on his show. We laugh about it later but it's a little frustrating at the time. I've got the most important message she'll ever hear and she's watching the wind blow stuff around.
So back in like the early 1940s I think there used to be a mission president here named Matthew Cowely. He's somewhat of a local legend because he was a man of incredible yet humble faith. There are countless stories of him holding his arm to the square and stopping the rain for outdoor meetings or healing sick or even dead people. Yes, dead people. I was listening to one of his talks and he related an experience where he layed his hands on a dead man's head and basically told him to arise. The man did and his first words were "President Cowely, I'm so glad you're here. I've been feeling very sick and would like you to give me a blessing."
Not only was Matthew Cowely a man of miracles, he was funny as heck too. I listened to a couple of his talks and he tears it up. At the beginning of one he tells the crowd something like "I've never wrote a talk or speech or fireside that I've given. Instead I stand at the pupit on my own 2 feet and give the people what the Lord gives me. There have been times however that the Lord has forsaken me... I just pray this isn't one of those times." Another time he was talking about meeting a Methodist minister. The minister came up to him and said "You know all you Mormons are going to hell right?" to which Matthew Cowely replied, "Well I'd rather be a Mormon and know I'm going to hell than be a Methodist and not know where the hell I'm going!" Brother Cowely is the man!
OKay, that's all I have time for. I love all you guys!
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