The mission life is going good. It is really interesting to drive around so much. Mission life seems to be flying by - some days at least. Elder Kapeteni and I are pretty good. We are trying our best to be time effective and anxiously engaged but it is difficult in this area. We are pretty close - nothing like long car rides to bring about real talks. I feel like I know him a little bit better than my other companions and it has only been a few weeks. Yeah my mission is definitely a lot different than my siblings and a lot of my friends too. I feel so lucky to be in this mission. With the splitter we actually went and bought the family a new one that same day don't worry. Maori treatment is a lot different than islander treatment. With the Maoris, and especially with the kiwis (white people), I am expected to use silverware. With the islanders, the silverware is optional so it is definitely hard to adjust here rather than in East Auckland - still a work in progress. Did Keeg bring back any souvenirs? Xochitl was just trying to be the favorite again :) I am glad that he recognized the barbarian leap - I was testing him. He hasn't changed too much. 8+ Hours of moral support sound like no fun but I think there are some times that I have done that on the mish so far. Probably not as much but sometimes that's what it feels like. I hope you didn't miss that baseball game - you might as well skip Sacrament. I can call whenever it will be my P-day so I will email you for sure - just let me know when it would be most convenient. It should be a pretty crazy day it sounds like.
This week:
So recently we have been taking a lot of time to find all of the less actives in Morewa. The list of households from the ward hasn't been updated in years so we are working with some pretty old information. We are focusing on less-actives to find new investigators. It has worked. So far we found someone named Xabian. His step mum is a LA-RM. His dad is semi-anti toward the church but he has been coming to youth and he is going to be our main focus. He seems really quiet and won't say a lot but he is slowly warming up to us. He has expressed the desire to be baptized and he has come to church twice since I have been here. His step mum wants it for him as well but she can't give permission. We will see what happens, hopefully his dad likes us.
So before I share an experience with you I need to introduce the third member of our companionship. He is known to some as the beast, to others he is known as the bookshelf. To my companion he is known as his new best friend. I think I have moved to second place in our unique missionary squad. Taska carries everything a missionary could ever need. It has a pass along cards, a preach my gospel, a Book of Mormon and pamphlets pockets specially designed to fit just perfectly. To top it all off there is even a camel pack which the straw coming up the shoulder strap, designed specifically for missionary work. In reality it is pretty bulky and inconvenient even when we have the car to lug it around. Not to mention it looks quite ridiculous on my companion.
We were going to contact a LA family and we had had a few people to tell us to visit the family but we were reluctant because everyone had warned us about the guard dogs that were around the home. We had an appointment fall through so we decided to try the house anyway, the gate was open and we heard no barking or anything so we figured the dogs must be around back or tied up or something. We still did our usual shake the gate and whistle from the inside of the car. No dogs. We went into the garage and yelled out, "kia ora". No answer, still no dogs. We could hear music on inside so we decided to walk up the deck to the front door. At this point we had let our guard down completely because we figured that if there were dogs they would have been barking or something by now. We couldn't really see the door all the way because of the fence on the deck but we approached confidently. My companion was a step ahead of me and just as we turned the corner around the fence to the door he froze, I couldn't see it but I knew what it was. He slowly tried to step back but the dog woke up and charged him. The dog went for my companions face but he didn't make it thanks to Taska. My companion managed to keep Taska between him and the dog as she lunged a few more times until the owner came out. Apparently the dog only responds to Maori commands. It was terrifying and I was just hiding behind my companion the whole time. There wasn't much that I could do (haha). Taska didn't even have any marks in it - a pretty impressive feat surviving a few bites from a Mastiff-Rottweiler cross. The family wasn't to interested but the girl that saved us is a good potential investigator.
There are heaps of big dogs here and I think it might be motivation for me to learn a few more Maori words. Another week on the mission full of memorable experiences, I am going to try to get a picture of the dog sorry I didn't have a chance the first time. I was a little preoccupied and it might be a little while for us to muster up the courage necessary to return :)
Love,
Elder Summers