This email was sent by Sister Welker on November 21st.  We received it on November 20th.

Week 14: December 3rd, Making a Difference, and Feeding the Homeless

It's amazing what a difference a week can make.  So much happened, that it was hard for me to pick my favorite highlights.

To start, we have a family of 5 preparing to be baptized on December 3rd!!!  They are amazing, and we were lucky to even find them in the first place.  We received a list of referrals from Bishop Crawford, about a month ago on people he wanted us to visit.  On that list was a less-active member in the Mount Ward.  When we visited her, we also meet her nephew who was visiting her that day.  We got a return appointment with the nephew and his family, and now his whole family is set for baptism!! They love the lessons and have been coming to church for the last two weeks.  They even asked for more chapters to read in the Book of Mormon.  It's so fun to see how excited they are to learn the gospel.

Those of you who don't know me well, might not know I'm not a great cook.  The kitchen is actually one of my greatest fears, but you'd be proud to know that I made fried rice on Thursday.  Technically, it wasn't fried but it still tasted good.  We boiled some rice, and cooked frozen vegetables, eggs and sausages that we warmed up in the microwave.  To top if off, we put in some soy sauce and mixed it all together.   Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good and nobody got sick or died, so sounds like I'm making progress hahah.

For the past two weeks, we've been having FHE (family home evening) with a less-active family.  The mother is actually the relief society president in the Mount Ward, but her family hasn't been to church in a couple of years.  Every lesson we've had with them so far has been amazing.  The girls have taught me so much, and I'm surprised how powerful their testimonies are about the gospel.  The father actually volunteered to speak in church.  Bishop was quite surprised, but was happy to have him speak.  It was such a good talk!!  He even mentioned how the sisters have been coming over and reminding them about the teachings of the gospel. 

For the longest time, I haven't felt as though I've been making a difference.  I've felt as though I was just tagging along for the ride.  Recently, we visited one of our less-active members whose been coming back to church ever since I've been here in Tauranga.  He was a member of the church as a child, but stopped coming when he was about 10 years old.  Now he's in his late 50's.  At the end of one of our lessons, we asked him if he would say the prayer.  After the prayer, I was almost in tears.  His prayer made me realize that I really am making a difference, that he's truly grateful for the lessons we've taught him and encouraging him to come back to church.

I'm sorry if I've mentioned feeding the homeless in previous emails, but it's something I really want to talk about this week.   Every Saturday at 5:00 p.m. we help feed the homeless with the Te Puke Sisters.  A member in the Welcome Bay ward has been volunteering to feed the homeless every Saturday for the past year!!  These last couple weeks we've been able to provide meals for over 20 homeless individuals, and give them enough for a meal the next day.  It may not be much, but it's just a way to help those in need and I'm so grateful I get to be a part of it.

Sorry this email is a week late, but I hope you can all forgive me.  Just remember that it may not be easy to see if your making a difference or not, but I promise you that you are making a difference.  You're in this place and situation for a reason.  Remember have courage and be kind, and try to be better today than you were yesterday, and better tomorrow than you are today.  Have a good week.

Sister Welker

Mosiah 4:19