My Week in Blenheim.

August 27, 2013

I was really surprised when I opened my emails this week and found that my parents are in Poland. What?! That's cool. I realize that everyone has started school now, good luck to you all! I'm pretty happy that I'm not stressing out about my classes and tests, but I am getting sad realizing I'll miss Utah football. For P-day we hiked the mountains of Blenheim. They're more like hills, but they're impressive and green. When we got to the top we could see the ocean dividing the North and South Island and the beautiful mountains around. The city actually looks pretty big from on top! To show my pride for Utah I carried my drum and feather flag to the top of the mountain and gave it a wave.

Sister Taleni, Natasha, and the Birthday cake we baked her!

Last week we had such a special lesson appointment. Natasha is one of investigators with a baptismal date and Wednesday was her Birthday. We came over and taught the Plan of Salvation and that went really well and they understood, which was great! After a lesson of pretending to have forgot it was her Birthday, we can to the car and brought back the cake we had baked for her and some presents. We came in singing Happy Birthday and she just got so happy! She was so surprised and when we asked who would give the closing prayer she quickly raised her hand. She thanked Heavenly Father for the Sister Missionaries and it was then we knew how much we loved her.

While tracting this week we met the most interesting man. He had just poked his head out of the window to check the mail when we were on his door step so we chatted for a bit through the window. He came out to the door so we could have a real nice conversation. When I say we had a nice conversation I mean that he ranted and raved while we listened. He was so anti-church and thought it was ridiculous for us to be out in New Zealand teaching. He told us that no one in New Zealand was religious, and that no one cared about us. He told us to go back home, get an education, and think only about ourselves. He was convinced that us offering service to others was a complete waste because not one person would reciprocate in service and help. We didn't get much of an opportunity to reply to his ranting, but it made me think a lot after we left. The people of New Zealand are absolutely religious. Most everyone we talk to has their own faith, and we see in our members their extreme dedication and love of religion. I have felt so much love serving these people. They show us so much kindness and our love for them grows every day. They continue to ask us how we are and if they can help us in any way. He was convinced that this missionary work would do no good in our future lives. Thinking about what we're giving us to serve doesn't compare in what I'm learning everyday about myself and how I'm growing! This will not be the best 18 months of my life, these will be the best 18 months for the rest of my life. This will help me prepare to be a better student when I come back, a better wife and mother, and a better servant of Jesus Christ. This guy had such passion for what he said, but the difference was that his passion was out of hate and our passion to serve is out of love.

I guess it's been long enough for me to tell my sad story. The first time I used my hair straightener in the MTC I had my power converter on the wrong setting so my straightener got way too hot. I burned my bangs and they turned into a frizzy mess. Ha I've been slowly trimming the hairs out, and when I straighten my hair it looks normal. I didn't want to admit it right away, but now I've figure out the power adaptor and my hair is all good.

Yesterday I got a phone call from the Mission Office from Sister Eames. She told me exciting news that we must be related! She's just seen a letter from Edna Stratford (I was thrilled when I heard I was getting mail!) and she told me that she's Edna Stratford. Her middle name is Stratford because it was her mom's maiden name. I had to pull out my pedigree chart and good thing my Grandma is so thorough because I had to go back to my great-great-great-grandpa Edwin Stratford to find our connection. She screamed when I said "Edwin Stratford" and she recognized the name! She's going to do her research to find how we're related, but it was sure fun to hear her excitement.

Good luck to everyone back home in all the adventures of life! This week I was reminded of a quote that I always saw at Grandma Kennedy's house: "Work as if everything depends on you, pray as if everything dependson the Lord." So true!! Study hard and work hard, so you can play hard. Go UTES!

Love, Sister Kennedy
"Two people can do anything as long as one of them is the Lord"

P.S. Another picture from this week. They had to cancel church due to earthquakes:

The classy sign that was put up on the church fence letting everyone know church was cancelled.