Kia Ora :)

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!! So this past couple of weeks have gone by so fast. They seriously have been. Being on my mission is such an amzing experience that i have loved so much. I have done so many things within the last couple weeks that it is hard for me to kind of retract on everything. Hence why i love having a journal but yeah i have had so many spiritual experiences that they are mindblowing. So MTC taught me a lot before i came out on the mission field but i can definately say that i wasnt as prepared in what to expect from a mission. I thought it would be a certain way and i totally was gobsmacked as it was not what i had expected it to be but it is even more simply amazing. I at times dont know what to say mission life is like. It is so hard and its exhausting. Physically, emotionally and spiritually draining. It tests you to the limits and at times i felt i was incapable of doing this and the Lords work. I felt like I had so much responsibilty on my shoulders for being a servant of the Lord to go and teach people all about Jesus Christ and what he has instore for them. So two thursdays ago, I broke dwn crying. It was sooo hard and I felt like calling President to send me home. I was like findingf it so hard and just like your whole life changes. You go from one way of this is your life and going out with friends and being at home with your family, to a life where you are a representative of Jesus christ wher you live a certain standard because in reality people are watchuing you 24/7. It was hard. Last Monday I got really sick and i was sick the last week too but i got really sick 7days ago where i teared up because i was in that much pain. I didnt want to cry in front of my companion but i also did not want to go to the doctors. I was sooo grateful for the opportunity to be sick. Crazy huh i know. But no i was so thankful because I woke up. I woke up and smelled the roses and realised imagine if i get really sick that i go home, I want to have made the most of my mission. I would want to go home with knowing i done the absolute best I could and not regret a single moment on my mission. For my companion it took5months tp realise and she is 7months into her mission. Im just so glad i realised now because I now wake up happy on my mission and ready for the new day and the trials it comes with.

I have grown so much. The Lord has blessed me in so many ways that it is crazy. The Lord has showen me some of my weaknesses and strengths that i never knew i had. He has also showen me how i can improve also. My relationship with my Heavenly Father has grown oh so much since being on the mission. My faith and trust in him has developed and i know that with out Him I am nothing. He gives me the strength to go out each and everyday because I know that as I sacrifice 18months of my life to serve Him fulltime, I will be blessed beyond measure when i return home. Im so glad im not as homesick as I was before. I am so glad that I have realised my purpose on why I am on the mission and it is to bring many unto Christ. That they may know of their purpose and why they are here. Im so glad for the opportunity to share happiness and hope with people i meet on the streets of Auckland and how their life can be changed for the better. I am a convert myself to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints so I know what its like to be an outsider looking into the church and it seems crazy. But i have had the priveledge to look from the inside of the church also now as i serve my mission with all my heart, might, mind and strenth. I always wondered why people would say i love her so much after meeting that person like twice. I realised that as we serve our missions we become more Christlike and that is a blessing Heavenly Father gives us and Im so verythankful for that as I have experienced now myself that i meet somebody and i love them so much. You form the love the the Saviour had for everyone he came in contact and we have special message that means so much to us that we like to share with everybody. Its hard at times sharing the gospel at times because your heart wants everyone to accept the message but there are people that dont and wont accept the message. Thats when it hurts but we have to accept that thats what these people want because we all have the freedom to choose and i love that we do :)

A few experiences I have had since being out here since being in South Auckland, Chapel Downs Ward in the last couple weeks from that I can remember i can sher with you all. Well im not too sure if i said this last time but I knew my companion before I started my mission. Her name is Siater Davis and I love her so much. We get along great and she is from Orem, Utah. From the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!! DUM DUM DUMMMM!!! I met her at the New Zealnad Visitors Center when i came to the temple for my endowments and i was like to the sisters "oh you never know, it could be one of you that could be teaching me everything when i serve my mission" and i said to sister davis specifically, "it could even be you sister davis" hahah i know that we were supposed to be companions and the Lord works in marvelous ways. She is a sister training leader and shes been on her mission for 7months now and she looks after all the sisters in our zone whilst also I am the first missionary she has ever trained so she was super scared. But she was so grateful for me because she believed i was prepared before i even entered the mission field. She said she didnt feel like talking to people or speaking in lessons until like 3months into her mission. And she was just surprised at how outgoing i was as soon as i got out here. Memebers of the Ward thought I had been out on my mission for like over a year with how talkative I was. But nope i was like well try 3days on the mission field since i left the missionary training center. they were so shocked. Like I said, I love being a missionary. Sometimes i find it so awkward talking to people on the street but im getting better. Its so funny bercause my companion will start following them and she stops almost everybody that walks past us. It was so funny because one time she stopped somebody on the street and she started coughing and laughing whilst talking to them and she was like take over and so i did whilst laughing to myself. This person was probably thinking uh what the heck? but we had to laugh once we started walking away. We just have fun and remember to laugh because it is hard work but we all need to have fun. There was also one guy who said come to my house and teach me more and gave us his address and pointed to his house. I saw him walk past the "house" and i knew he had given wrong information and i laughed. I found it so funny that i was uncontrollably lauhing. He could have just said he wasnt interested. Well thats what I would have done. But ANYWAY lets just say my companion did not find it funny at all. She was like so annoyed that I leaughed even more. It was funny. And there was another guy who told us to go to apparently his house and he said his name was joe. He said to go to this house and when we ask for him to call him delving because thats what his family knew him as was delvin. We go to this house excited and the family answered and they were so nice and we asked for delvin and out walked this little boy and he said he was delvin. WE HAD JUST BEEN PRANKED! Sister Davis thought that this was funny so im glad because i almost peed myself because i was in that much laughter but her they told us to come back and teach them more. So unproffesional i know but heywe were able to come see them again. There are just so many experiences its hard to write them all down. But anyway there were two girls we met on the street and their names were Ebony and Panui. They were two 14year old girls that wanted to know more about the gospel and so we taught them. They loved learnigna dn couldnt wait to see us again but I had a feeling that something was up. We later found out after asking them so many times what the problrm was and the girls said that their mom was studying jehovahs witness  and doesnt want us to teach them anymore. WE were like uh we asked if your parents would be okay and you said they said yes. We felt like we were going behind parents back and so we went and introduced ourselves but the mom wasnt home and to see if it would be okay to teach them. Nek minit, The mom drives up the drive and I wave and she was not happy. She said, "I heard the sisters were coming so i rushed home from work" and then she was like sort of bible bashing us but my companion handled it so good. I probably would have crumbled and i was sharing with the mom how we know the message we share will bring happiness and comfort to them and the family because i ad seen it htrough my own experience as i used to be an investigator in the church. I saidas I learnt to not be stubborn and realised that everything i had been taught brought me so much happiness, she cut me off and was like so im being stubborn am I? i was like thinking to myself your heart is so hard but yeah my companion wanted to cry because she felt so stressed about it all and i just had to comfort her. The Mom, Mary, said i will have a lesson with you if you have a lesson with the jehobvahs witness. We said we could learn through her and she could shre with us her beliefs but it probably wouldnt be a good idea to have a lesson bcause we are not here to say other religions are wrong. We are here to invite others to come unto Christ and learn what our purpose here to do is and to follow the example of Jesus christ. I love how people have their own beliefs but we dont go around mocking other peoples religions. Just other religions despise us when they dont even know what we teach. They believe because we have the Book of Mormon that we dont believe in the Bible. False. We belong to Jesus Christs Church but yeah we had to stop giving them lessons and well it was hard saying goodbye to the girls but it was fine. We were sad for a while but the Lord blessed us that day because of our efforts. We walked past a girl on the street and she said are yous mormon? and we shared a message and she said I would love to know more and we said we would come and see her and she said "make sure you find me". It brought joy into my heart and we met a family that same day that are Assembly of God and invited us over to teach them which just lifted my spirits that day. I also went on an exchange and mowed and weeded someones house haha definately the joy of missionary work.

Now these 2 experiences are amazing. One thing they have in common is they are beoing BAPTISED April 19th and I was able to invite them to baptism. It was an honour and a priveledge and they accepted. So one is a 70yearold man and the other baptism is a brother and a sister and maybe if their baby sister and mom listen to our lessons hopefully they can one day be baptised too. But we have an investigator called Noel and he 70something years old and he was taught by elders before us and hearing of these elders made me angry. They pressured Noel to be baptised and he said he wasnt ready and so they didnt contact him anymore. So rude and this made me angry. How can you treat someone like that ya know. But anyway we were able to teach him and he really wants to be baptised now. It all makes sense to  him now and he wants to be with his wife for eternity. He wants to go to the temple and have her sealed to him. Hes like "she better be looking all cute and still waiting for me up there" in his cute cheeky voice. I hope time comes quickly for him because its hard seeing him all lonely and he just wants to be with his wife as she has passed on. The brother and sister, their names are Tyson and Tamia and they are so excited for their baptisms and able to go to the temple on the 26th of April. Baptism is only the beginning for all the blessing but i realised being here is not to baptise everybody but to baptise them so they have the first step with entering the temple and feeling of Heavenly Fatehrs love. The closest place to heaven is the House of The Lord which is the temple itself.

I love my mission and New Zealand Hamilton Mission is where i was supposed to be called to and Im so excited to walk off the plane in 17months with my badge on and retrnign with honour. Thankyou fo rall of your support and I appreciate it.

I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!!! As someone always say,

Bye for now but not forever,

Sister McFlinn x