The week has been pretty good. The new zone is going good so far. Everyone seems to be working and having fun that is pretty much the goal for us. Yep, no more transfer meetings it is pretty weird, that's what made it more rough - you are right. It should be more efficient next time. I think that's the whole reason it was outlawed, just to use time better. I might buy a new suit, if I feel like it IDK. I kind of want one but at the same time I don't have a huge desire to go suit shopping, I have a suit that is still working so I might just stick with that for a bit. My bike is in our garage, we never use it, I have let other Elders and Sisters use it most of my mission, it is definitely well used but I have been in a car so I have mostly just stayed in the car. In our area now there is no way we could bike, it would be dramatically ineffective, I guess I am just blessed. It is a pretty nice bike but I can't remember the last day I rode it the whole day. It is still weird to me that my siblings are married. I am pretty sick of marriage, that's like all I hear about all the time, my comp is finishing so we talk about it. We are in a YSA ward so obviously they talk about it. It is pretty funny and I am saying I am sick of it but marriage sounds like it is going to be awesome. It makes me feel so old though. I don't really want to be a grown up. I have started getting wedding invites from people I know and that just feels so weird. Sam hasn't sent me his weekly emails but we have been emailing back and forth for the past little while. I didn't hear about the fire, it just hasn't come up I guess (haha). That wasn't me in the Haka but it was pretty awesome.
This week:
It has been a pretty good week. Elder Perrit, who was our Assistant, finished his mission at this last transfer and he has been in Auckland the past couple of weeks spending a lot of time with the YSA and with us. He spent 16 months serving in Harbour Zone so he knows most of the members here and for part of that, he was in the YSA ward for a while so he knows the ward. It has been so much fun spending time with him.
It was an awesome weekend. We got permission from president to attend a mini YSA conference, it was both the ward in Auckland that first put on a dance activity, then the next day had a game day, then finished with a fireside on Sunday. It was awesome. It was pretty cool before the dance members from both ward did a traditional performance of singing and of course a couple of Hakas for a group of BYU students, it was their last weekend in Auckland. It was mean as. The first one was a cool haka. Then the Kaea (leader) just impromptu called for a second Haka which not everyone new the words or actions, it was a lot of fun anywyas. Cool hakas, cool dance, it felt weird to be a missionary at the activity. The YSA in our ward have come up with a saying that they keep telling us. "One eye single Elders, one eye mingle." It is pretty funny because we have been told both by our old WML and our Bishop that we need to be really good friends with the people in the ward he told us to mingle and everyone loves it. We did it completely with a missionary purpose which is what makes it so weird. I am in the ward but I am definitley not YSA. It makes me excited for a YSA ward back home but I know it won't be the same. I love the people here, our ward is so awesome.
We had a surprise on Sunday. We have a Russian investigator named Olga who came to our ward in Dec. She is living with members in GI ward - the Couch family. Bro and Sis Couch asked us not to teach her yet and they would be bringing her back to our ward in Feb, so this week they did just as they said and brought her. The surprise was that they had the bishopric announce that Olga was going to be baptized and had been recieving the missionary discussions in Panmure. After her baptism she will be moving her records directly into our ward and everyone is invited to her baptism. A couple of Elders did us dirty. They have been teaching her when it really should have been us. It is a good thing we are all on the same team but it is still a bummer that missionaries do that to us. We will see if we end up teaching her over the next couple of weeks. It should have been us but if Olga likes the other misisonaries we might just let them continue teaching her because that is really what matters. Olga is really cool and her English is way better than when we met her a couple of weeks ago. She has a good understanding from what we can tell. So that was surprising and exciting but also a little disappointing at the same time.
Love,
Elder Summers