Kia Ora Whanau,
We had a fun lesson this week. We were teaching Rangimarie Maori Traditions and the Church (it's a talk on lds.org). We invited some members to the lesson, the Bayleys. I love them so much, they speak Te Reo and all of their kids have beautiful green or blue eyes, and some of them are blonde as! They testified to Marie that she didn't need to give up her culture to join the church, which was Marie's concern. In fact, the gospel is already in the Maori Culture! And it was given as revelation to Joseph Fielding Smith that the Maori's are descendants of Hagoth mentioned in the Book of Mormon. We bore our testimonies and Marie felt the spirit, she now wants to receive and answer herself to know if she should get baptized. And I know she will, she is so faithful and goes to church, prays, and reads the Book of Mormon. The last few days of this week has been slow.

I forgot to mention a hilarious story. So Sister Toi and I had dinner at a members house, the Reedys. And they live out in the woods and they are very 'hori' I love it. Sister Toi was talking at the dinner table and said "There's this joke that someone told me & I don't understand it"  And we told her to tell us the joke. And she said:

"What's smaller than a teeny weeny flea?"

"What?"

"A flea's teeny weenie"
....
I started cracking up and she was still confused, and then The Reedy family soon got it later. Imagine telling that joke to a hori Maori family, poor Sister Toi. She is now called Sister Teeny Weenie. And now she feels bad because the joke turned out to be inappropriate. Here's a lesson: Dont tell jokes you dont understand.

Anyways, I've seen many tender mercies through this slow week. The Lord's hand is in every detail of our lives, even when we feel like there's nothing happening. In the name of Jesus Christ,  Amen.

Arohanui, 

Sister Wihongi

Rangimarie

Kia Ora Whanau,

This week we had a big conference with almost the whole Hamilton mission in Hamilton. We listened to Elder Natress and Elder Nelson of the seventy.
  I loved this conference, it was very helpful in so many ways. We talked about two amazing talks that you can find on the Gospel Library app. (I highly recommend "The Atonement amd the journey through mortality" by David A Bednar in the April 2012 Ensign.) It talks about not only is Christ's Atonement used for repenting of sins, but also for gaining strength called an "enabling power". Instead of praying to have your circumstances change instead, pray for strength to Overcome your circumstances. For example, if it's stormy outside and you pray for the weather to change, will it? No. So instead pray for a way to live through the storm.
  My companion,  Sister Toi is very much a young adult at times, but her strength is door knocking. When she is knocking on doors, there's a sudden change in her. She is fearless. I love how on the doorsteps, she is confident and bold, but when we walk away she mentions how sweaty she is because of how nervous and scared she was. I laugh because you can literally see sweat drops all over her face and neck. But regardless of how drenched and nervous she is, she'll take a deep breath and move on to the next house. I admire that side of her, she really puts herself aside when we are out finding.
  My first impression of being her companion was "Why does it feel like I'M the one training here." Because of how much she loves to talk and her childish excitement about everything. It took me awhile to actually realize why I was with her: All of her strengths are my weaknesses. I am horrible at starting conversations, to her, it's an instinct! I am shy and I let fear overtake me when it comes to doorknocking, she is bold without knowing. I have always been realistic and slightly pessimistic, she is the most optimistic and positive person I've ever seen. It's sad to say that I just now have started to learn from her bright personality , instead of always viewing her as "childish". I guess this is what you call 'embracing' your companion, instead of 'tolerating' your companion.
Anyways, I was very happy to speak yo most of you at Tyrells homecoming! I love you!

Arohanui,
Sister Wihongi

This week has been one of my favorites of all time. We worked a lot and taught a lot. We went to Turangi to teach RangiMarie a lesson. She is a girl our age and really wants to learn about our church. Her mum is a member but has fallen back to Ratana/Maori beliefs and doesn't come to our church anymore. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and even gave her a baptismal invitation. She said she will get baptized when she receives an answer. We told her she will definitely receive an answer from Heavenly Father if she continues reading the Book of Mormon and praying and asking!
In Taupo, we are also teaching Sue Wikohika, she was baptized when she was very young but didn't understand anything, i mean Anything, about the church because she was deaf. She couldn't here anything about the gospel and didn't understand a lot of it and has been inactive a bit because of it. But she was able to SEE how it blesses others, especially through her nephews. She now has hearing aids and is loving to learn more about the gospel. She soaks everything in.

We are now staying with the Senior Couple in Turangi 3 days a week, and then we come back to Taupo the rest of the week! President has saw how much we've been helping Turangi region (it's a 45 min drive from taupo) each week, that he has decided that we can just stay with them.
I love you all!

Arohanui,
Sister Wihongi

This week has been fun! We are teaching a Tongan lady named Sela, she is the first person I've found that wants to have lessons. She is so funny and speaks broken English and a strong Tongan accent. She really wants to learn about our church and she even talks about "When I get baptized, i ..." so she already has a thought of getting baptized! We went out to lunch with a family that my Companion knew from home, the father's name was Oscar Lawrence and he said he went to Church College with Uncle Jody. Haha it was funny, he said, "Who's your father? Shaun, jody, Jared, or Scott?" And I said, "Neither,  it's Jason." And he looked at me confused and said "....who's Jason?" Haha! Geez Dad, that's how quiet you were in high school, they don't even know who you are! I made curry twice this week for dinner, thanks for always making yummy curry mum now I can make it when I crave it.hope all is well! Love yous!

Arohanui,
Sister Wihongi

Kia Ora Whanau!

Sister Toi and I have been going to teach some people in Turangi because the senior couple needs help down there. We are teaching a lot of YSA and it's been sweet as! The youth have such strong faith in God already (even though they are surrounded by drugs, rape, alcohol, and other evil etc.) We teach them a lot about how our Heavenly Father can communicate with us because he loves us so much, hard out! He communicates with us through his spirit, the scriptures, words of the prophet, and personal revelation. He is always there! Speaking about communication, did y'all hear about the missionary communicating to families change? Wow, that'll be weird aye? It's amazing how these changes were made and approved by our Heavenly Father himself, these changes are made to for a divine reason!

Arohanui,
Sister Wihongi

Huka Falls

This week was filled with ups and downs.
But right now, I want you to watch a Mormon Message youth video called Reach Out With Love. It's so important to love first, to truly care and to see others as Christ would. Even before meeting them! The video also shows how you can be a missionary without the badge. I know that Ihu Karaiti lives and he needs our help to share his love and gospel!

Arohanui,
Sister Wihongi

P.s. New Zealand is amazing, and I'm gaining so much weight...too much fish and chips and no veggies. My companion and i just eat salad when we are in our flat Haha. and yes, I'm meeting relatives and whanau almost everyday!

This week Sister Toi and I went to drop off some bread to a lady. She wasn't home but her husband answered the door instead. We started talking to him casually about religion, nothing too deep. And then he started asking questions like "Why are there so many churches?" And "How do you know which one is true?" Etc.. Do those questions remind you of anyone? And what surprised us even more was that he also said, "If there was another book just like the bible, I'd read it. Just to know more about Christ." You probably know what went down next. We told him, "We have the answers to all those questions... and guess what? we have a book too!" Haha I wish you could have seen his face as we told him why there were so many churches, and how there was a boy who had the exact same questions he had, his name was Joseph Smith. It was beautiful! We left with our testimonies and the Book of Mormon. Haha our first intention was to give them bread but we left the Book of Mormon instead. He didn't want the bread. I know that this is the only true church and it was restored through JosephSmith. The Book Of Mormon is here to fulfill the gospel. I want you to ponder: why is the Book of Mormon is so important? Find out.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Arohanui,
Sister Wihongi

Grace is getting baptized this Friday 2/8/19! She was the elders investigator but they handed her to us to teach.

Had comp study at the lake front.

For Pday, we went to the Redwoods in Rotorua.

Mina ran into an old friend of the family, Tomasina Garisau who used to live in Temple View and now lives in Tokoroa. She messaged Jody (Mina's Uncle) on Facebook.

"Hey Jody. I met this beautiful Sister missionary today at our stake raft race at Kinloch (near Taupo). We are in the same Stake. I had a good chat with her. I went to give her a bag of snacks but they had left our activity early. She’s doing great!"