Days of our lives.

March 23, 2014

6/8 Sisters in the Zone.

This week has been pretty busy, but busy is best:) We had Zone Conference on Wednesday which is always great! Unfortunately the topic was entirely on obedience because our Zone is maybe not the best ha. Even if we feel rebuked for a couple hours, it always leaves us with a greater desire to show our love to the Lord and get to work. We will only be deserving of His miracles once we show our love by the work and service we render. Then Heavenly Father can bless us with His prepared children and miracles. The Samoan ward put on our lunch at the Zone Conference so it was so good!! Sister Schaumkel from Blenheim, who now lives in Porirua, even came by so she could see me. Love her! 

On Thursday our ward put on the Relief Society Birthday party- it's the best when you are so far away from home and the church still has the March Birthday party. Kim, who's in YSA, and I sang "Lord I Would Follow Thee" a capella which was really fun. I don't think many people know about us missionaries and the things we can do, so it was fun to share a bit of singing with them. All the new sister in the ward introduced themselves with 3 things and Elizabeth got up and shared great things so everyone could relate to her, and even one of our investigators came and brought things to share! It was like fellowshipping to the max after because all the Sisters now knew who everyone was and could get to know them and offer to help them.

Sister Olamaleva and I on exchange in windy Wellington:)

I wanted to tell you all more about my calling as Sister Training Leader. My understanding is that each mission does it a bit different depending on the needs and circumstances of the mission. Here in the NZWM we have one Sister Training Leader in each Zone and she looks after all the sisters. That means they call in each night before 9:30pm to report that they are safe and home, it means I give them a PPI (Powerful personal interview) (A PPI with other missionaries in Personal Priesthood Interview so of course ours is a little different.) once a transfer, I attend the monthly Mission Leaader Council with the AP's and Zone Leaders (which is this Tuesday and I'm excited because it is my first time:) It's like the Temple.. you hear bits and bobs about it but you just don't know what it is until you go) and I go on regular exchanges with the Sisters. This transfer I've worked with a Tongan Sister and Samoan Sister. That's pretty much my responsibilities. I really enjoy the calling and the main thing is that I get a lot of phone calls.. ha so that's about it!

Miracle story: There's a beautiful sister here who was just baptized in November and she was a miracle convert. She's studying Uni here and we were over one day to teach her again the Restoration as part of her follow up lessons. As we had just began one of her friends walked in. She asked if she could join in our discussion, sat down, pulled out a pad of paper and took notes during our entire lesson. We were just so shocked we didn't really know what to do. Ha she just walked in and jumped right into the first lesson. She really wanted to learn more, coming from a staunch catholic background in Samoa. So we made a return date and we returned on Thursday. Sister Olamaleva and I taught about the Plan of Salvation(my favourite lesson to teach) and we committed her to be baptized! It was so beautiful. Sister Olamaleva is a convert and so she was able to give such powerful testimony and they could relate being from the same island. It's amazing the different ways that the Lord puts people into our path. So unknowingly we do things in the day and end up meeting the most interesting people and sometimes we get the chance to teach them. I'll keep you posted more on her progress, but keep Leilani in your prayers:)

I love you all heaps and pray that this week will bring many missionary opportunities into your lives! Thank you for all your love, support, and encouraging words. I am one happy missionary, and so grateful to be serving here in Wellington.

Cheers!
Sister Kennedy