This email was sent by Sister Welker on October 17th.  We received it on October 16th.

Week 9: Transfers, McDonalds, Luau, and General Conference

Sorry for not sending a weekly update last week.  I had some technical issues and I got locked out of my email account for 24 hours.  So this week, there will be two weekly updates.

Monday, one of the sisters in my area completed/finished her mission, so we woke up extra early to get her to the bus stop on time.  After saying good-bye we all went to McDonald's for breakfast and it reminded me of my JATC days when we had McDonald's in LA for breakfast.  Anyways, with Sister Aloka gone, Sister Fina'i didn't have a companion so she stayed with Sister Johnson and I for a couple of days 'till the new missionaries came.  That night we had a bonfire on the beach.  It was SO MUCH fun and it was a great way for our investigators to socialize with the ward.  Bishop Author's family has this yummy campfire snack where they roast banana, chocolate, and marshmallows.  It was super yummy!!! :)

Later that week, we had a ward Luau.  I thought it was funny how many people didn't know what a Luau was.  Guess any American would think that is obvious.  It was so much fun!! My companion wore her pulu tasi and I wore a lava lava that a member gave me.  More people showed up than we expected.  Some of them had to save their dinner plates for pudding (New Zealand word for dessert)!!  There was heaps of yummy food and a lot of cool musical and dance numbers that the members performed.  Now I really want to go to Hawaii, haha.

And we finally were able to watch General Conference!! Here in New Zealand instead of watching it live, the stake broadcasts conference the following week at the stake center.  If we were to watch General Conference live, it would be at 4 or 5 in the morning (some members do watch it live, but I can wait, haha).  I loved Conference!!  For missionaries, Conference is like Christmas.  I especially loved Elder J. Devn Cornish's talk "Am I good enough? Will I make it' and I also loved Pres Nelson's talk on "Joy and Spiritual Survival."  I thought it was also cool how missionaries from the Provo MTC got to sing for one of the sessions. 

Sorry, if I don't get to responding to all your emails.  I'll try my best to respond to them all, but I don't have a lot of time. 

Hope you all had a good week and I'll talk to you again next week.