Cyclone in the air.

March 16, 2014

To my beautiful family and friends all over the world, Happy St. Patrick's Day!! My companion and I are both decked out in green. Naturally.

I found Kennedy Street :) Still loving my Utes.

We haven't had any real progressing investigators for a couple of weeks and it has felt hard to get people moving this time of year. But luckily, that drought is now over. We had a referral from the Elders about a month ago and usually with our referrals, we try them again and again until we just figure we've done all we've could to contact them. Sefina was one of them. We'd called her, set up appointments she wasn't home for, and knocked on her door probably 5 times. Ha we said "we'll give her one last try". Luckily this day she was in! We sat down and had a great discussion about religion and what she was looking for in life and how we could help her. We came back a week later and taught the Restoration. Usually we break the lesson up into 2 parts because it's quite a lot of information, but with Sefina she was all goods for all the material. It was so great. She is so in touch with the Spirit and just knew what we were telling her was true. She said, "To be honest, I haven't read much of the Book of Mormon (she'd read 3 paragraphs on the introduction..), but I already know it's true". Ha, amazing. 

I had my first exchange as Sister Training Leader and it was pretty cool. I got to work with a Tongan sister from Auckland and she's full of life. It turns out that two of the YSA in our ward are from her home ward, so those little connections are always the best.

You can tell I'm not too sure about this kina...

I'll just tell you about all the weird and great things I'm eating here. Passion fruit just grows here. Yum, it is so good! Chicken flavoured crisps, or potato chips are really good here. I'm not crazy about all the seafood here. I like most of it but the weirdest have been oysters and also kinas, which is this little seafood people dive for here. It comes in this black spiky shell. There's a chocolate brand Whitaker's. I can't remember if it's in the States but it's so good! They have noodles here that are a lot like ramen, but better sauces!! We also bought mangos this week. I love living in the Pacific!

This weekend there was a cyclone that was forecast to hit New Zealand. We were counselled to all go the supermarket and buy any food we needed for the weekend and even have a member's home available for us to stay if it got crazy. Cheehoo I was excited!! It definitely hit the north of the north island and some of the other islands in the Pacific, but it didn't quite reach Wellington. Let's be honest, I totally wanted to be in a cyclone!! But we did get a read good amount of rain last night with some crazy winds, so I'm counting it as a cyclone that we worked through. ( I kept forgetting what a cyclone was called and kept saying a Cyclops was coming. Ha, much cooler sounding.) Every drop of rain on our badge means our eternal companion is getting better looking;)

It loves to rain..only when we are on our bikes ha.

I just want you to all know that our beautiful and humble members and investigators often pray "that the missionaries may be blessed as well as their family and friends who are back home". Isn't it amazing to know that people in New Zealand are praying for you in Utah?? I just love it:) Thank you for all of your prayers for me in New Zealand. We are a gospel that can call on angels to help in our work and ministry and I know angels are about my companion and I to help prepare the hearts of those that we teach. I can think of countless ancestors who are serving with me with the same title as Elder or Sister Kennedy, they're just without a body ha. I love you all heaps!! Call upon angels to help you this week.

Love, Sister Kennedy

P.S. Sometimes I feel like these letters don't even tell you much about how I am doing. Ha sorry. I'm doing really well. I don't remember doing anything before I was a missionary. I've just always been a missionary. Sometimes I find it hard to obey every little rule of our mission, but I have found such miracles in being obedient to the absolute extent we can be. I am getting more used to driving here in Wellington. Being Sister Training Leader just means I get heaps and heaps of phone calls at night. Ha this week I had to help one of the companions who'd been locked out of their flat. My companion and I get along so well, I just love her! The members here are awesome, but there's just so many more people to meet since it's a ward. Last week a lady in our ward did our nails with this gel that so nice, and today I'm getting my hair cut by this amazing member who cuts All-Blacks hair. Neato:) The weather is turning colder, and it's the rainy season. I get a letter from Elder and Sister Cannon which was so great. I really want to serve by them one day... But yup, I'm doing really well!!