Kia Ora!

 Hello Hello! 

Every week I feel like I say how fast time is going.  Well, once again, the week flew by.  It was a busy week.  Monday we hiked Mount Manganui and it was so fun and so beautiful!  And I got to hang out with Sister Urgel!!!  We had so much fun together and just laughed and laughed about everything.  It's so fun to serve by her again. 

Tuesday, we smashed the area!  (As they say in New Zealand.  That means we worked really hard and did good.)  It's hard because our area is so huge so you have to drive like 20 minutes to get to the different parts of it . . .Te Puke, which is it's own little town, Welcome Bay, The Mount, and Papamoa (where we live).  But we try to be smart and not drive back and forth too much. 

Wednesday was a special Zone Conference (with all the Hamilton Zones and Rotorua) in Hamilton with Elder Halleck from the Area Presidency.  It was just so, so good!  President and Sister Rudd spoke and then President and Sister Halleck spoke.  Then we had lunch and they all four spoke again (only shorter this time).  I love conferences like that.  I am all on fire to use family history in my missionary work.  I want to go tour the family history center and bring our less actives.  After the conference, Elder Tibbits (one of the assistants) came up and said that Elder Halleck wanted to interview me afterwards!  I was so confused as to why, but it turns out that he just chose like eight random missionaries to be interviewed.  It was so good.  We just talked about my mission and where I'm from and what I have learned so far.  He told me at the end to email home to my parents and tell them that he is thankful to them for helping me and sending me on a mission.  So good job, parents! :D 

Then Thursday was another super early day of driving to Hamilton (it's like an hour and a half drive, so it's too close to get to stay the night like Taranaki, but then we have to leave in the dark, early morning).  But we had Mission Leadership Conference.  I sure love that place.  Elder Halleck was mostly conducting it.  But just like last time, I love the use of councils in the church.  We all work together and solve problems together. 

But the main thing that I felt from those two days is just how much President and Sister Rudd love us so much!  They are so good and I am going to be so sad when they leave!  But we are so blessed to have them.  They are so fun to talk to and are so inspired.

But we are so, so excited for Analiese and Acacia!  They are so excited to get baptized. We organized the program already.  It will be exciting.  We are so busy on Sundays. Like yesterday for example, I gave a spiritual thought in ward council, we taught a youth Sunday School class, I played the piano in both Relief Society hours and in sacrament meeting in the Mount Ward, and I taught gospel principles in the Mount Ward. Only as a missionary would that happen! I love it though.  And there are so many nice people to meet.

I feel like the key to missionary work here really is the members.  They are so good and faithful and excited about the gospel.  Now we just have to get them excited about SHARING the gospel.  Some are already so wonderful at it, but we want to get them all!  Haha  It will be great.

Arohanui,

Sister Johnson