Fireside success.

July 27, 2014

Hello :) I'm writing a bit later today because we had a couple of YSA take us out adventuring for P-Day and they have work at 3, so we split up our emails. Anyway.. I want to tell you all about maybe the biggest event/accomplishment on my mission. Since March, here in Wellington, the missionaries have been trying to get a musical fireside in the ward. Each time we proposed it we got pushed aside for whatever reason. I'm now the only missionary left since March and I kind of said I'll do it or die trying. The date kept being changed on us and it didn't seem like the ward was very supportive of it. Nevertheless, we kept trying ha. During the past couple of months we'd assigned singers, speakers, made flyers, posters, and tried to coordinate it all.

Daniela and I playing our violins for the fireside.

Finally, this Sunday came and we were happy just for it to happen. We had a rehearsal before and it seemed a bit rough, but we thought it would come together. We were so happy because there ended up being more people at the fireside than at church, and we personally had 8 investigators come! All the missionaries in our district sang "We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet". It was a capella and had a verse of Samoan which was cool. Sister Leausa and I then joined a family who performed "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". The mum had been stressed out because her children weren't really wanting to do it. Her daughter plays the violin but didn't want to do it alone, so I asked if they had an extra one I could play. Amazingly, they had an extra full size violin, so we played a duet. It was really fun to play, and I played a bit in 3rd position to impress people haha. It worked! So many people complemented me on the violin playing. (unlike Utah, not every child learns how to play heaps of instruments, so my small talent seemed impressive.) We then joined in the closing number of "The Spirit of God" as kind of a backup choir. The theme of the fireside was "Come Unto Christ" and the speakers read little parts from The Restoration lesson of Preach My Gospel. We then sang songs that correlated to the message. In the background we had a slideshow of pictures that also went along with the theme. The Spirit was so strong and the music was amazing! We had a member, Shaqaila, playing music in between all the numbers so there was also music being played. We were so happy with how it all came together. Our new Mission President gave the closing remarks, and then there was supper and mingling afterwards. Whew! My head hurt, but I was so relieved that it was over and that it was successful. I hope this helps the members to not only have faith the missionaries can do good things, but also to get the members more involved in the missionary effort here in Wellington.

We went to the Wellington Zoo last Pday :)

Other than that, we went to the Zoo last Monday which was super cool. Since it's winter, and the kids are in school, we had free range of the park. We held a real kiwi that's dead and been stuffed(weird), we saw cheetahs just sitting on the laps of some of the keepers, and we got to see lions, tigers and bears. Today, we've been out to a couple of really cool museums all about Maori culture, and the boats of Wellington.

Life is really good! I anticipate I'll be moved in transfers which is about 2 weeks away. Sorry this is so brief, I've run out of time. I hope you all have a beautiful week!

P.S. I'm excited to hear about Brother Montgomery's engagement! someone will have to start sending me mail because I always rely on his monthly letter haha.

Love, Sister Kennedy