Kia ora!
Hello all! I hope you're all doing well. I'm very good! I've been in the field for about five days now and it's great! On Wednesday, we went from the MTC and met our trainers. My trainer is Sister Tony and she's awesome! she's from Malaysia and she's been out over a year, so I know I'm in good hands. we get along very well and she likes cats! There are a lot of cats here, so I give them a lot of love. President Walker and Sister Walker are both awesome! President Walker came to the MTC tuesday night to talk to the Auckland missionaries, and he just told us the history of the mission. He said that the mission used to be very disobedient and didn't live by the mission rules, but he came in and he cleaned it up. he commited us right there to be exactly obedient! of course, I said yes. He's very nice and I can feel that he is truly a servant of the Lord!
So when we all met our trainers, the senior couple said to me, "Sister Peterson, we need to get you certified because you'll be driving." I was like, "No thanks, I'm good." But I did it, and then I had to drive two hours to my area now. And I have to drive every day, so I've gotten used to it. Sometimes I panic and turn on the windsheild wipers because the turn signal is on the right and the wipers are on the left. but we haven't died yet!
The area I'm in is Whangarei (fon-ga-ray). It's all the way up north, in the Northlands. It is sooooo pretty up here. there are some bodies of water, but I haven't been to the bay yet. At night, I can see the stars so well. The people here are very nice! For the most part. I've been learning about the culture and the people, about the Maori people and the Samoans and Tongans. They sing loudly and talk loudly and laugh loudly!
I've taught some lessons and met some people. There's one investigator with a baptismal date named T, so we've been going to him to prepare him. He's set for June 16, but we'll see! His mom is named M (that's a popular Maori name) and she's less active, but since the missionaries started teaching T,she's become more interested. She's awesome! She encourages T to read and pray.
This weekend was stake conference, so I met a lot of people, but I don't know who goes where. Sister Tony and I cover two wards, Hatea and Riverside. I'll go to them next week and get to know some more people. We had the area of seventy come, Elder Johanson. He is very funny, but very powerful when he teaches. I took lots of notes and felt very edified!
Now, yesterday was rough. M said that her and T would come to stake conference, but then she texted and said that T didn't want to come. We were pretty devastated. The whole day, I think we lost our will to go out and we were counting down the hours. I know I was personally looking forward to today. but God humbled us real quick. the whole day, no one was home or they were leaving or they were "busy." The hours passed by slowly and we felt very discouraged. We finally humbled ourselves, made our prayers more sincere, and hoped for the best. At a little after seven, we came to this less active's home, a man named R. To our surprise, he was willing to hear our message! He seemed to take it well and we were happy to teach him. Unfortunately, he's going to Wellington for two months, but hopefully he'll keep his commitments and go back to church.
The mission is hard, but not because we have to go out and try to teach people. Although waking up is hard, what's really hard is getting people to keep their commitments so that they can feel the spirit and know that what we're saying is true. All we can do is invite them and lead them back to God and Jesus Christ. But I have many months to do that and I'm excited! I hope you're all doing well and I love you all!!
Love,
Sister Peterson (Hailey)
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