March 17, 2014

We didn't get to see Shelly this past week because she was dealing with some gallstones. We're hoping to be able to go around and see her this week though. Last we spoke with her and she's absolutely interested in us coming by, but it'll just have to be once she's all healthy again.

 If you remember me talking about Noel, he's still doing awesome. He's set to be baptized on the 29th, and everything is going great. Even with his bad knees that are always giving out and giving him trouble, he still shows up to Church every Sunday (this past one included). That was really awesome because we had a category 3 Cyclone coming through.

So, on to that story. Cyclone Luci just finished coming through, and we're still getting a little bit of rain from it, though now the eye is down on the South Island. It was actually pretty disappointing. We kept hearing heaps about how crazy it was going to be and got all ready for it, just to have a little bit of wind and some pockets of mildly heavy rain. Apparently the winds were rapping in from the east, so by the time they got to us on the west, they had slowed substantially. Nothing happened here, but the east coast got hammered. That's what I hear anyway.

There hasn't been a ton of work to do around here (as in, we usually only have a few appointments every day), but we've been working hard, and things have slowly been improving. We're hoping to be able to get a few more people to commit to baptism, but we just have to get them to Church first. Funny how so many people are committing to living every aspect of the gospel except for the part where they have to go to Church on Sunday. No worries though, it'll all work out eventually.

The last bit of awesome news is actually about next Monday. Elder Hamula, who's currently serving as the Area President of the Pacific Area, is coming down to work with the Taranaki district on Sunday. He's planning to go on some reach-out visits with some of the branch presidents, as well as attending our sacrament meeting. The really awesome part is that on Monday morning, he wants to have a special meeting with our zone. How cool is that? We'll get to have a little one-on-one time with a member of the first quorum of the seventy. I'm pretty stoked.

 That ought to do for this week.
 Love ya!