Sister Mandy Welker

This email was sent by Sister Welker on May 29th. We received it on May 28th. Sister Welker ran out of time last week. This is from May 22nd.

Week 41: Banana's and Mints, Mother of 2, Random Sleepover, and Church again?

So once upon a time, my companion and I were planning to go grocery shopping, but sadly due to the timing of the holidays, we found out that our mission cards didn't have money for this week yet. So rather than go empty handed we bought Bananas and Mints. We thought it was pretty funny and we even took a "poor missionary photo" for memories haha.

We had Zone Conference and I was reunited with Sister Jabeque. She had been in Tauragna this whole time with a different companion every transfer!!! In mission life, when you train your called a mom and whomever you are training is your daughter. So I'm now a mother of two, and we were able to take a family photo. Can you see the resemblance? haha. ;)

So Mom was right when she told us putting grease down the drain is not a good idea. We were having trouble with a shower filling up as we were showering. We thought at first, that it was because of some hair in the drain, but we had already cleaned out all the hair on PDAY. Then we thought that maybe would just need to buy some drano stuff and we'd be all good. Just in case, we called our housing missionaries and explained our concern. They had a plumber come and check the problem out. Lucky we did, because the problem was bigger than we thought. Over the course of who knows how long, there has been food and grease, and heaps of others things building up inside the pipes. Guess the shower and the sink use the same pipes haha. The plumber tried plunging the clog farther into the pipes in hopes it would unclog once it found bigger pipes, but instead the stuff started coming back up the sink. So long story short, we got permission to have a sleep over with the Mountford Sisters. This was just after President Cummings told us no more sleep overs haha. We didn't complain though, and we spent most of the night taking photos and enjoying each others company. Oh and don't worry, they have everything all good to go now.

Just when you thought everything was back to normal, we went to church twice on Sunday. It felt like my Tauranga days when I went to both Welcome Bay and Mount Ward. After church we stayed to talk with the missionaries in the other Zone that use the same chapel as us. The Zone Leaders told us how they had referrals for us. We were excited and were told to come back to the chapel in an hour. So we went to the flat for lunch, then came back to meet Justin and a Jade (names changed). The Zone Leaders didn't find out till after they invited them to church that Justin and Jade were actually in our area not theirs. So we introduced ourselves, and walked them to their next class which ended up being a private lesson. Justin and Jade are excommunicated but had made the decision they were going to try and come back to church. So Jade drove her family to church without informing them where they were going. Justin wasn't super happy once he saw the chapel, but wanted to support Jade and decided to stay for church. By the end of the private lesson, Jade was in tears and explained how she truly feels that when she talks to missionaries that she's talking with God, and that missionaries are the closest people to God. That had to be one of the best compliments I had ever received. To know that someone felt that they were talking with God when they were talking with people like me. We're hoping to visit them again soon, so I'll be sure to keep you informed.

Hope you all have another good week.

Sister Mandy Welker