Week 37 - Pres. Nelson came to New Zealand

Kia Ora! This past week, actually 9 days, has been pretty crazy. I'll just start off from last Monday. As you all know we went fishing and sadly no one caught a single thing haha. It wasnt high tide so apparently that had something to do with it haha. After everything we had to take off for our area and do some shopping but elder Tuala was asked by another set of missionaries to help them teach a Samoan guy cause spoke pretty good Samoan and the other guy couldn't speak English very well. So we called president Walker and he allowed it but he wanted us to pick Elder Tuala back up after the lesson. Thing is we live an hour and a half away from where the lesson was and we had a very important family home evening back in our area. So we drove all the way to Wellsford had the lesson and drove all the way back passed whangarei to pick up our companion. We ended up staying the night at another flat cause it was too late to drive home. So we did sooooo much driving haha. Tuesday we had District Council and went to the zone leaders flat which is an hour passed whangarei to pick up some stuff and then back to our area. We did so much driving that day as well. Wednesday we were able to meet with a few less actives and one of them named Campbell made huge steps into coming back to church and wanting to move forward so that was so awesome. He was also able to get a ticket to go to the devotional with President Nelson! So that was awesome for him we are super excited and happy for him. Friday was pretty good. We had a really good lesson with a guy we are teaching on the Plan of Salvation and he was able to learn more about the spirit world and what could happen to his family. He was pretty happy about knowing how we arealways aloud to have a multiple second chances. He has taken a big step forward but we still have heaps to do with him. Saturday we had absolutely everything fall through sat that kinda sucked. Nothing too amazing that day. Sunday was stake conference and that was awesome. We had some great talks and I really enjoyed it. After that we went back to our area and taught a less active family we played this game with them and after about 20 times of us winning we were able to commit them to coming to church haha. It was a lesson on reading the scriptures and they have truly been trying to do so. It was an amazing lesson. We than drove all the way to Auckland to stay the night at a another flat for a zone conference the next day. Monday we had a zone conference with another zone and it was seriously so good! The APs gave an amazing training and than President Walker gave a training on working with members and helping them do the work as well. It was one of my favorite conferences. Tuesday was absolutely amazing. I cannot explain how strong the spirit was that day. We were up at 5 and at a Chapel by 6:30 preparing for the missionary devotional with President Nelson, Elder Gong and their wives! We were all standing on steps to get a big picture with him and as he walked in there was a huge smile on his face and he waved to all of us. We than took the photos and we were able to walk through and shake everyone's hand! Having been able to do that was such a huge blessing! Having looked into the eyes of the Prophet is absolutely beautiful. I'll never forget it. I cannot explain the spirit and love that we all felt. They than spent about an hour and a half talking to us and giving us advice on missionary work and what we can do to become better and enjoy it more. President Nelson gave such an amazing talk. Such an amazing experience I can't explain it! Later that day we drove all the way back to whangarei to watch the broadcast of his talk to the rest of New Zealand. Has gave such an amazing talk on some advice on what to teach our kids and how to raise them. It was great. He's such a funny guy and has such a great love for each and everyone of us. He left some powerful blessings upon us and the whole of the country. I love our Prophet! He was definitely called of God. We are so blessed to have him as our prophet and for the changes and advice he has given us. He also announced where the temple will be!! Redoubt road in South Auckland! Right by the MTC. What an amazing announcement. I'm so happy for the people here and love them so much! This week has been long but it has been absolutely worth every second. I'm so happy to be a missionary here in the Great NZAM. How blessed are we to live in a time where the gospel is so strong and worldwide. I love you all and hope you have a great week!