A few fun tidbits...

Hello Everyone. I love life, as always! Yes, it's hard but it's great! My companion is great and we have a lot of work to do to activate a lot of members but also bring nonmembers into the church! Her name is Sister Simkins and she is from New Mexico! She is very beautiful! She just turned 19 before she came out and she has only been out for 3 months. She is very ovewhelmed with being a trainer and in a new area where she has never been and driving and all but it's working out. We are learning very quickly. I am becoming quite the navigator! She is the driver and it's her first time so things have been interesting! Ha we've gone on the opposite side of the road a few times;) ha don't worry God is watching over us! and she has also done something called the "American solute". it's where you turn the windshield wipers on instead of the blinker becase that is where is would be in the cars in America! So funny! Good times.
  The ward is great but only half attend church and the other half are less active, so we have a lot of work to do there. Our ward has some islanders in it but not many. I haven't quite felt a culture shock yet. They say you would more up in Auckland. I love it here, the people are so kind and it's fun to talk to everyone and hear their stories.

We found a new investigator at church yesterday. Her friend Kharslee has been bringing her for 3 weeks now and Mal(new inve.) likes it so far. She wants a change in her life, so we went to Sunday school and the elders were teaching gospel principles and we were in there and then Kharslee and mal...then later a member came in. So the lesson was actually on baptism but we were basically able to teach her like it was a lesson and it was great. The members kept going off in some questionable directions but it turned out okay and she felt the spirit really strong. She committed to pray and I am so excited to see this gospel changed her life. She wants something new and different bc she had a bad life and she feels like moving to Hamilton was inspired and things are going a lot better now. We are meeting with her tonight for a lesson and we will teach her more about Jesus Christ and hopefully invite her to be baptized depending on how the lesson goes. It is so wonderful ! I am so happy!

Idk my address yet, but we have a nice flat! it's really nice except we share it with 3 other sisters who are in a 3-some. so 5 girls and 1 bathroom. that's fun! ha but we work it out.

My investigator from online... I emailed her the other day and am anxious to see how that went. I felt really good about all the things I said in it.. hopefully she took it well. I'm not hooked up to call from here yet, so hopefully I'll get that soon! 

 

All the new missionaries came from the NZ MTC and I can't remember where most of them are from, but they are great! We slept in a hotel the first night and that was fun because they were like cottage hotel rooms, super cute. 

 

So..... the toilets here don't even spin the water it just gets flushed and sucked down. It's weird. Ha also all of them you just push a button at the top of the toilet and the light switches are backwards. You flick it down to turn on, that was an interesting adjustment!

 

Well love you! Have a great week.

Sister Bird:)

 

Her flat

check out the price of mascara!

 

Great Companionship

Sister Bird and Sister Simpkin

 
The directors of the visitors center just sent some pictures along with this little story...

....we are the directors here in New Zealand and want you to know that we love your daughter and she is so awesome. There was a young lady that came in that was eight who did not want to get baptized but her grandmother wanted her too. After spending some time with her the young lady decided that she wanted to be baptized. That record will not count on any reports the missionaries fill out but it will be recorded in heaven and that is where it really counts. 

She has such a great companion that has only been here for ten weeks and they make an awesome companionship. We will see great things from them. 

 

Kia ora!

Kia ora!  Greetings from the New Zealand Hamilton Mission.  Sister Bird arrived safely at the mission office and is already labouring in her new area.  Her companion is Sister Simkins. They will be serving in the Visitor's Centre as well as in the Rotokauri Stake in the Hamilton area.
 

Sister Bird and Sister Simkins

President & Sister Rudd with Sister Bird

Heading to New Zealand

(Mom Bird talking here) So we got a call from a very happy missionary last night. She was on her way to New Zealand and had a lay over in San Francisco for a couple of hours. She was happy happy happy and talking non stop about all she has learned in the MTC and how much she loved it. It was great to catch up and hear her sweet and excited voice. She is so excited and full of the spirit of the MTC and of being a representative of Christ. I am proud of her and know she will be a fantastic missionary! Will update more when we hear from her next week.

MTC final week-I've learned sooo much!

My companion and district left yesterday. It was the saddest and hardest part of my whole mission. I cried like a baby! It was rather embarrassing actually. I left the bus stop and walked away holding it in the best i could. then an elder came over and tried to ask me a question for a pole he was doing. I just broke into tears and was uncontrollable. It was so hard to stop myself, I couldn't even tell him what was wrong. He felt so bad and was like" sister I wish I could hug you right now." Just then a couple of sisters came over and were trying to help me. she asked if i needed anything and i just said "hug me". The lord blesses you with people to help you out in every situation. I am so grateful for those random sisters I didn't even know, they walked me to the residence where the other sisters in my zone were, they are now my companions until tomorrow.

First Companion Sister Allen

MyDistrict

I have a new companion and she is great! I have learned so much from her and the way she teaches. She is truly incredible. I love being a  visitor center (vc) sister! We have so many more resources to teach the gospel than normal missionaries do and we have all aspects of missionary work. I get the field, computer and people coming into the vc! It's great because our purpose is still the same! We had a super cool experience the other day teaching a man online. He got on chat and asked about the Book of Mormon and we were able to tell him about it and he was so interested and wanted to buy his own but we told him we could send him one for free! ha but he didn't want us to have his address so he found how to do it online and get it in dutch his native language. It was so cool! The Lord knows what he's doing! Also we were able to help him see the purpose of life thru the plan of salvation! He was so interested he wanted to learn more! It is so great! I am so happy!

I have run into Jaime Fifield and Chloe Haderlie several times. It is wonderful to see them. They will both be amazing missionaries.

New and final comp in the MTC
on our way to do laundry

Me and Jaime (love that sister like a sister!) So happy to see her!