This is our 4 minute performance.

April 13, 2014

Good thing I brought some tape with me
so I could tape a member's ankle! 

This week has been crazy busy, but also crazy great. On Tuesday we had the new intake of missionaries come in from the Auckland MTC. It began raining on Monday and rained non stop until today, 7 days later. Anyway, so we took 4 new Sisters out in the pouring rain for their first experience of street contacting in Wellington. Needless to say it was cold, wet, and we met some really mean people. But, I started talking to this blind man and he was so nice. He's quite spiritual and just told the new Sisters that they were doing a really great work. He then said, "Oh, you're from America so you might know my brother. His name is Al Yankovich." WHAT?! Yes, his brother is Weird Al and he does that backup music for his brother. That was cool.

Saying goodbye to Sister Gilmour at the bus stop.

Then Wednesday we had to wake up early after a long night of packing to get Sister Gilmour on her bus to Hastings. A member took us and after dropping her off we heard from the District Leader, who had her bike and bags in his trailer, that the bike didn't make it on the bus. Poor sister, all her shoes were in the box and it's a biking only area ha. Hopefully she got it relatively quickly. Then we picked up my new companion, Sister Hann. She's very sweet, quiet spoken and a hard worker. The missionaries who were going home all left on Wednesday, but the missionaries who are flying to Tahiti had to wait until Thursday so we got to have Sister White with us the day! Whoo, my old companion from Blenheim. It was really fun to be with her for the day and we ran around teaching and getting things done for her. We had splits that night and so Sister White and I went to teach a lesson and it was really neat to be able to teach together and it just felt so normal again.

Sister White, Hann and Kennedy in Wellington.

We were blessed so much this week in our lessons. Eleala is a recent convert in November and she just carries the missionary spirit with her. When we've gone to her flat to teach her the follow up lessons she invites her flat mates to join. One of her flat mates, Roylina has shown great interest and this week as we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ she committed to be baptised May 10th. Recent converts are so powerful in sharing their new found belief, she'll be the means of bringing many of her friends with her. We went crazy inviting people to General Conference. We had 600 invitations that we needed to pass out and so we were talking to everyone. We had attended 3 of the sessions and Jenny and Adam still hadn't come, and they said they would. They're a mum and son who we've been teaching for about a month. We were so excited to pull in for the last conference and see them there:) I know that they felt the Spirit, so pray for them this week!

The 3 troll sisters.

Now it's time for my General Conference favourites:)

-Elder Holland: Be strong. Live the Gospel. Defend your Beliefs. Is there a tornado or natural disaster coming?! Because I felt that way with all the talks about the disasters ha.
-Elder Anderson: I loved his digital media with the tree. The church is definitely using technology to help us all learn and understand better.
-President Eyring: Will someone send me my roots to the gospel through my ancestors? I loved how he spoke of his ancestor being his hero for accepting the gospel and accepting every call to serve.
-Elder Cook: Family History work being part of the Hastening the Work of Salvation. The My Family booklet has been really fulfilling for me to fill out so I hope you all can get a copy and record your family history. Also, he spoke about technology helping the hastening and I found that especially true thinking of our convert Elizabeth who found the gospel through LDS.org. The Saturday afternoon sesson had an opening prayer by a 70 who's from Hamilton New Zealand. Sweet as.
I LOVED all the music for Conference. I think I saw Shane Donavon in the Orem choir, so shout out if it was really him! I thought both choirs also looked soo nice.
-President Uchtdorf: As humans we don't like endings because we are children of the eternities. Whoa, I loved this!!
-Elder Ballard: His story about follow up and persistence to get his wife as hilarious. Also, a shout out to the U of U whoot.
-Elder Aidukaitis: "One should not roam through garbage."
-President Monson: The best opportunities to share love is within the walls of our own homes.

Mainly I just felt so happy after Conference. It was the first time I brought actual questions that needed to be answered, and you know what? They were all answered, because God loves me and knows me. I hope you all have a beautiful Easter and that you get to focus on the Resurrection and all the beauty that the Atonement of Jesus Christ brings. So many amazing testimonies were born of Christ and I know that He is at the head of this Church and that He lives. Just like Bishop Stevenson said, this life is our 4 minute performance, the time for us to prepare to meet God and do our best. Just do it!

Love, Sister Rahera Kennedy
(Rachel in Maori:))