Can You Believe It's December Already?

Kia Ora!

wow, can you believe that it is December already? wait .....for you its not!!!! hahaha until tomorrow!

Man this week has been great and full of miracles! I want to share one in particular...

On Saturday we were contacting some of our potential investigators and when we had finished we were getting ready to head to our appointment. Sister Finau said we should go through the park at the end of the road, which we had never been before. We didn't even know if it would be a shortcut but she was truly inspired...This is where we met John (smith) ha jokes. Stewart. John stewart. He is really searching. he had so many questions as we taught him about the restoration. He really seemed to understand. When we finished we invited him to church and he told us that it was no coincidence that he came to the park that day. He doesn't even live in our area and he wasn't even planning on coming to the park with his family and to top it off we never go that way. The Lord is aware of his children and if we are listening we can be there to help them. He came to church yesterday and he so enjoyed it. He loved the classes and that anyone can share rather just listen and accept what is being said. It was so cool to hear him say again that it was no coincidence that we met him. He is really searching. He said he'll see us there next week. So cool! Huge blessing!

Also Maree came to church. We are trying to work really hard with her to receive her answer about God existing, because she is not too sure if she will continue the lessons after I leave. I am pleased that she came to church though. She's coming along:) She is such a lovely lady and I know that we will stay in touch through out our lives. Please pray for her that she will be able to recognize her answer!

so Yesterday was a special sacrament meeting all focussed on the Saviour. My companion and I sung the prelude music. We were so nervous, but apparently it was the best we had ever sung it together. I feel it really brought the spirit. You could tell everyone was listening intently because even the children were quiet and taking a break on making themselves heard. haha

Lyrics to the song we sang

Jesus Climbed the hill to the garden still

his steps were heavy and slow.

Love and prayer took him there

to the place only he could go.

 {Gethsemane, Jesus loves me, so he went willingly

to Gethsemane}

He felt all that was sad, wicked or bad

all the pain we would ever know.

While his friends were asleep he fought to keep

his promise made long ago.

{Gethsemane, Jesus loves me, so he went willingly

to Gethsemane}

The hardest thing that ever was done

the greatest pain that ever was known

the biggest battle that ever was known

this was done by Jesus. the fight was won by Jesus

{Gethsemane, Jesus loves me, so he gave his gift to me in Gethsemane}

It was so beautiful! 

I love being a missionary. It has been the greatest thing that I could ever have done. I am not ready to come home but really I am! ha its confusing. I am really gonna miss teaching with power and authority, serving others always, teaching the gospel, riding bikes in a skirt, having an awesome companion, feeling the spirit so strong, studying for 2 hours a day! man the mission is the BEST! It certainly has given me the best foundation for the rest of my life!

love you

sister BIrd

I KNOW God Loves Me

 

Hello hello... kia ora!

I really got to get into the habit of saying kia ora... I still haven't and I want to bring it home.

So sister holmes is gone... :( its so sad! I really miss her and I can tell that sister Finau does too. But it was a good week. We were able to find 2 new investigators. Dane. and magnolia.

Dane is 30 years old and is a solo dad. It's really fun teaching him though because he enjoys learning and is open to the concept of God but he's never really known for himself. He has had many opportunities to explore it but we are lucky because now he's chosen to. Just by a single invitation to learn more. This week we taught him more about prayer and how to pray. Its something that is really foreign to him, but we also focussed on the desire he needs to have in order to receive an answer and get something out of meeting with us. So please pray for him this week that he will hold onto the desire that he does have and be able to receive and answer as his desire grows. he also needs help recognizing the answers that he receives. he is great!!

The next one is magnolia. she is 15 and is a daughter of a recent convert of about a year. Magnolia is very humble and obedient. She has come to believe in God through coming to church. So this week we invited her to pray daily for herself so that she can come to know God for herself. she seems excited about it:) She also wants to be baptized... she decided her birthday the 23 January. I am kind of hoping that it will move up, I would love to be here for her baptism.:) She is lovely. Pray for her that she will remember to keep her commitments and recognize her answers please:)

Molly is doing alright. She is lovely. I just love molly. I wish I could be here for her baptism too but I think it might take longer.

I really am trying hard to give my last month and a half my best. its so incredibly hard to stay focusses but I am trying the best I can.

We had a really neat experience this week that confirmed to me the reality of God and his love for us. ok so you all know how hard I am on myself in trying to improve myself.. so sister holmes wanted a blessing and so we called the elders over. They gave her a blessing and they said exactly what she needed with answers to personal things that she had been worrying about. it was amazing. Then sister Finau decided to get one. The same thing happened for her but with different circumstances. I then decided that I would have a blessing although I felt fine at the time and didn't feel I needed one. I sat down and elder Gutke pronounced the most beautiful blessing of council that I have ever received. He had no idea what I was facing inside but at that moment I knew that God was hearing my prayers, I knew without a doubt that he was real. 

Wow, 3 different people with three completely different yet so personal blessings. Heavenly father told me through that blessing that he was proud of my progress but changing was going to take longer than what I had hoped. He told me not to worry about anything here or back home because he had prepared everything for me and it was ready for me. it was the coolest blessing. I am so thoroughly convinced even more of the power of God and his reality and love not only for me but for all of his children.

I know He lives. I KNOW he loves me! He really does hear me. I am so grateful that I have this knowledge and that I know my heavenly father personally and that he knows me and loves me even with my imperfections.

I am so filled with love and gratitude:)

have a GREAT week!

love you

sister Bird

p.s. 

oh ya and our car got hit this week. We were parked walking around and we come back and it had been hit in the back wheel. The other car was thrashed. They veered off the road when checking their phone. (don't text or call and drive).

so this is the elders that came to help

crazy day!

 

I Love Being a Missionary

Kia Ora!

Molly paki is doing great. She really enjoyed church this Sunday! and after our class she said that she felt hopeful about being able to quite smoking and get baptized! so that is great! she has her ups and down days as we all do!

This week we set expectations with a lot of people. Our investigators weren't progressing so we sat down with them and told them our purpose and if they want to continue learning then this is where we saw it going etc.

We did this with an investigator, we told him why we were there and if he wanted us to keep coming then this is what we needed him to do.  The spirit was really strong and it was great to feel him soften and accept it. such a neat experience.

I love being a missionary and working hard. It brings so much joy and satisfaction. Man what a great opportunity and blessing I've been given to participate in such work.

love you all!

Have a great week:)

love sister BIrd

Halloween in NZ

Kia Ora whanau! (Whanau is pronounced fonoe and means family in maori)

Well well well, What a week I have to tell you about. It really has been great!

first off I will tell you of the funny things that have happened. So sacrament meeting this week was crazy. Fast and testimony meeting. We had an area fast where everyone fasted for 3 purposes. 1. to increase our personal faith in Jesus Christ 2.  to be guided to identify a new opportunity to hasten the work. 3. for someone that we could invite to a special sacrament meeting at the end of the month. It really was a great spiritual experience to be united in fasting for a great cause. However, fast and testimony meeting was interesting. It started off with a man who always shares his testimony of fast Sunday. He is very bold, loud and passionate about the gospel and especially the importance of keeping the commandments. Then he was followed by an older lady who is roughly the same as him. However, she spouts off memorized scripture with it! then she is followed by a recent convert from last year. 

Molly is doing great, she really enjoyed church and is progressing well. I received a prompting from the spirit that if we involve her with members as much as we can and have them give her support that she will be baptized sooner. that was cool! so we are trying really hard. she has a smoking problem. please pray for her. She is wonderful!

Another fun experience that we had this week was on Halloween. NZ is just embracing Halloween, so they don't really celebrate it and most don't like it. But the ward had a trunk and treat activity. My companions and I wanted to go so we were trying to think of something that we could do all well. One of the members invited us over for a picnic lunch and she gave us a bunch of random stuff in which helped us out heaps. About and hour and a half before it started we ran to sister prestons to find an appropriate costume. We came out with cowboy hats! This sparked all the ideas. We ended up making signs that said " I mustache you a question" and "WANTED for your eternal salvation" and then we made mustaches and put them on what we had, paint brushes to hold in front of our mouths. Whenever people would come over they had to answer a question about the gospel in which if they didn't know the answer would have to find it in a pamphlet. We turned this into a fun finding activity. handing out pamphlets!! Hopefully the parents read it!! ha It was great! What a fun night!

also last Monday we hiked the Mount. Its like a 'mountain' about 15 minute drive from where we live. So beautiful!

So this morning I studied about the millennium. Man I am so glad that I did because now I  understand it so much better. It is definitely a time to look forward too. Satan wont be on the earth and we will still have an opportunity to have children. It will be way easier to raise them in righteousness. what a beautiful experience that would be.

heavenly father certainly loves his children. I am so grateful to be apart of His gospel and to know him. He is amazing! I am so grateful that I have this short time to be a missionary, I have never done anything so amazing and rewarding in my life.

I love you all!

love sister BIrd

What a great week I had!

hello:)

Well what a great week I had.

Some good things happened this week and some interesting things. My companion and I got a call on Wednesday to leave what we were doing and drive immediately to Whakatane and pick up the sisters over there. They were getting ET (emergency transferred), so we had to drive and hour to get them, wait an hour or so for them to finish packing and then drive them back to Tauranga. It was a long day of travel and we were exhausted.

Tata is doing great. He came to church on Sunday all dressed in a suit. It's so nice to see him dressed up . We visited him last night after church and he seemed fine but then he opened up to us and he told us how he is struggling.  Honestly I think the only thing that is getting him through and keeping him strong is that he reads the book of Mormon for 30 minutes everyday and prays  hard out. He feels better when he does that but he is still struggling. He asks the question "why me" why am I different than my other family members who are good people and who finished their schooling. He just feels lost and I think satan is working hard on him. He is so cool, you all would love him. We really enjoy our time with him, he is hilarious and has become one of our best friends.

 Please pray for him.

So good news is that our investigator Maree came to church this sunday. She is great. She really just came to support us because we might be leaving soon. ( tranfers are next week) But it was great that she came. she is a spiritual lady and believes in angels and stuff. But since we have been meeting with her and being her friend and teaching her she has really grown. She is starting to believe. We taught her the restoration this week and she said that she would like to know if that is true. So that is cool. Now we just got to help her recognize her answer. Please pray for her!

So yesterday we went finding on the beach for a bit. It was actually really fun and seemed pretty natural to talk to people at the beach:) plus we never get to go to the beach because we are busy with missionary work. but this is a good way to see it and do the work:)

last night we straightened my companions hair and I wore it. look how good it looks on me:) ha so funny, I look so young!

We also had dinner at the prestons:) I love being there. they are so great! I am really gonna miss them.

Last night I was pondering about tata and all of these people that I have grown to love. I thought about how I will be home in 3 months and how I won't be able to stop in whenever I want. In fact I won't be able to at all. this made me really sad.... I love it here. I love these people, I love doing what I do. Being on the Lords errand is the best thing ever. It brings so much joy. I am certainly going to miss it.

love you all:)

sister Bird

What lesson did you learn this week?

Hello Family!

So tata is still pretty excited for him baptism. He did not come to church yesterday but he did come to the fireside that we  had later on that evening where we learned all about the ancestry of the Moari people from the book of Mormon and where they landed in america and etc. it was really cool. something that brother Jones said that really stuck out to me was " silence is a sin, will we not raise a warning voice to God's children?" It's so true, we have great knowledge, and we know the plan and the consequences, will we not raise a warning voice. i loved it! 

So my challenge to you this week is to not be silent. We are surrounded by people everyday that we can share the gospel with. Something i've learned from the prestons is that you can share the gospel anywhere and anytime. They give out book of mormon's at work. They even had an expo yesterday to find new patients and ended up not getting any but sharing the gospel and giving away 2 copies of the book of mormon. They are truly amazing. The lord needs all of us to be like that. I know its scary, because i still get scared but he will help us know what to say and we will feel the spirit more abundantly in our lives if we share the gospel.

So i've learned my lesson this week. What lesson did you learn?

I love you all!

love sister Bird

1. me and sienna

2. natasha's kids

3. serenity and her sister

4. tata

Papamoa is so great!

Hello Familia,
 sister Vea is really teaching me a lot about smiling more and not being so serious. i take missionary work very seriously but maybe i could smile more. So i strived to do so this week! i made it a few days of smiling a lot and it was so natural and i felt SO happy! i couldn't believe it. i was happy before but when i smiled all day i felt so happy all the time! It was so cool! Sister Vea is always smiling and her laugh is SO loud and so high pitched, i'll have to send you a video of it. It's crack up:) The best part of being happier and smiling more is that our investigators even noticed and said something about it.
> I sure love my new area. Papamoa is so great! it took me a while to love it but i definitely love it now!
> Tata (tat) is doing so well and progressing so well. He's come to church two weeks in a row and he even fasted this sunday. He's really struggling with his family that are currently in fiji. They are not pleased with the way that he is living his life and d even that he is learning from missionaries. He wants to make them proud. However, he told them that he would do what he feels is right. He is really liking this path and is really good at recognizing the spirit and loves the feeling. He is amazing and i smile so much when i hear that he is progressing so well. Please pray for him, his family issues and that the members his age will feel inclined to fellowship him more! That is so needed, we want him to feel like he fits in.
> Hayley:) she is so cool! last night i gave her my ear warmer head band! she kept complimenting it every time we came over so i thought she would just like it if i gave it to her. she couldn't stop smiling:) she was so happy. We haven't met her partner yet... he's being an egg. He's not being very nice to her and she said it's a healthy relationship.. competitive. little does she know what is out there and God's plan. i just want her to be so happy and we have the antidote.  We asked her last night if she feels that she is on the right path and she said yes:) she doesn't feel that anything is wrong. so that is so good! yay!!!
> sister Vea and i sing together! it's the best thing ever! it's been a dream of mine to have a companion who could sing and sing well enough that we could sing together and harmonize and perform for people. And this transfer is the only one that i've been able to do that. We walk all over our huge area singing songs and we got one down so good! maybe the prestons will send you the clip when we performed it for them. its starting to sound good after so much practice. Singing has really strengthened our relationship. The best part is that she never really sang before because so much the other missionaries and her family would tell her that she was awful but she's really doing great. She says that me wanting her to sing with me and encouraging has really boosted her confidence and i can see how happy it makes her. It's so amazing:) i am so proud of her!
> Sister Preston is amazing. For my birthday i didn't want to tell anyone that it was my birthday becausei wanted it to be a good day not a day all about me. However, sister Vea texted and reminded everyone so that they didn't forget and it ended up being a really great day and a special one. Sister Preston had us over for lunch and she bought all this nice food and it was soo good. she bought sushi and cresants and a cupcake for me! I love her. She really made that day so special. There were so many people that wished me a happy birthday. I am very grateful. i really feel like they are my family away from home. i love them as you can see they are great! She is like my mom away from home. She really misses utah and her family there but they moved there to do the Lord's work. She comes to lessons with us all the time and we appreaciate it so much . our investigators always start to progress when members come and teach with us and share personal experiences etc. It's amazing and she is so good at it. She understand the world because she has been through more than we 20 year olds have. I encourage you to make time for going with them .serve our brothers and sisters:)
> i love you all! thanks for everything. i got your card on my birthday and it was so special thanks! i miss you and love you.
> time is short and i will be home but dont think about it ok:) ha
> love sister BIrd