It's too far to swim home.

July 29, 2013

Whelp, this is it! This is my last day in the MTC and I leave tomorrow morning at 10am.

This week we heard from Elder Haleck who is in the Quorum of the Seventy and part of the Area Presidency. He had a lot of really great things to say about missionary work. He said that often when they are assigning missionaries, instead of selecting the mission because of the region that they are selected because of the Mission President. That just made me so excited to meet both my Mission Presidents because they will change my life! Now for the funny thing he said. He served in Samoa, which is where he's from. The first night of his mission he was in a little village on the water and he went outside and was just looking into the darkness of the water and the thought came to him, "Well it's too far to swim home, so I might as well get to work!" We all laughed but that's super true to hear. I would die trying to swim home, so I am going to stay and get to work!

This week on Wednesday we attended the Hamilton New Zealand Temple and it was AMAZING! The drive was about an hour and a half so we got to see quite a bit of countryside. I saw lots of sheep and milk cows. It was a rainy day so there was beautiful fog all along the green mountains. At the temple we got to do two sessions and they had the cutest temple workers. They have a cafeteria in the basement so they gave us our first big feed! They had so much food and treats for us. It was a wonderful time in the temple. They have a visitors’ center there with the statue of Christ and it was great to visit there as well. There were six Elders who went through the temple for the first time and their companions were their escorts. That was such a wonderful session to be in because this will probably be their only time attending the temple. They are all from Papua New Guinea and it's so hard to attend the temple. 

I've learned lots about different cultures! Papua New Guinea is growing so much in the church. They just got a second mission and apparently missionaries see baptisms every week. They speak over 800 languages in all the islands there, and they don't have any sister missionaries there because it is so dangerous. I bet you didn't know that, huh.

My companion and I had a lot of really great learning experiences this week with our "investigators". We committed our investigator Jacob to baptism on Tuesday! The Spirit was so strong as we taught about the Plan of Salvation and we didn't plan on asking, but the Spirit prompted and it was so amazing to hear him answer "yes"!

Last week I was reluctant going to class and struggled staying awake, but this week I am sad I won't be in class anymore! I've come to love class and although it is still hard, I've become better at being willing to teach and talk to my district as if they were investigators. My district has become really close this week, I'm lucky that most of them are serving in Wellington. It's crazy to think I've only been with all the missionaries here for 12 days because it seems like I've known them for so long! All the Tongan sisters have taught me words, they taught me how to dance, and they also braided my hair so I could look more Polynesian. When I pray I talk with a little accent, so that is exciting!

I'm sorry I haven't sent pictures home yet, but it's been difficult...so here are pictures! This was just a couple hours after arriving in the MTC.

I love you all and wish you the best in this week! Next time you hear from me I will be a real proselyting missionary in the Wellington Mission :)

Love, Sister Kennedy