Sunday, October 22, 2017

This email was sent by Sister Welker on October 16th.  We received it on October 15th.

Week 62?  Cold Water, and Bike Beside the Sea

Sorry if my last weekly email didn't send.  I do remember writing one, and I thought I sent it, but I can't find it anywhere in my email.  Must have disappeared in space :(

Regardless life is great!! We had another baptism this week!! I'll call her Macy for now.  Macy was close friends with the YSA here in the New Plymouth Branch.  She had attended a number of YSA activities.  At one point she went to the temple with the rest of the YSA and felt the spirit there.  The spirit was so strong that she turned to her friends and asked how she could join the church.  Sixish weeks later, we've taught her all the lessons and she was baptized earlier this week!!  The only sad part is that the heater to our font is broken, so my companion and I attempted to heat up the font by hooking a hose up to a sink and turning the hot water on and then boiling water and dumping it into the font.  We didn't test the water before she went into the font but she came up shivering.  So she got baptized in cold water. :(  At least we tried to warm it up for her.

My companion can now start driving!!?!?  Scary!!  I'm the one that needs to coach her how to drive on the other side of the road.  Luckily, she's a natural and there's not much I have to worry about.  I've teased her that the only way I'll let her pass, is if she can drive to the chapel by herself, and if she remembers to lock the car haha.  She'll be taking her test this week.

For PDAY today we decided to bike to emailing.  There's a walkway here in town that's called the coastal walkway, and it's basically this long sidewalk that is right along the beach side so you get to bike or walk and watch the waves at the same time.  It's amazing!!  I'll probably be super sore tomorrow though.  I hardly ever bike as a missionary.  I'm lazy and just use the car, haha. 

We'll that's about if for this week.  And sorry again that my last email disappeared somewhere. :(

Thanks again for all your love and support!! You all mean the world to me.

Sister Mandy Welker

"One small act from the heart really is better than a thousand grand intentions." ~ Anonymous, "Family First," 1992, 21. 
Biking along the Coastal Walkway.


We finally saw Mount Taranaki!! Haven't seen it in like over a week

White Bridge!! Don't judge our hair--it was super windy!!

Another Baptism!! :D

Our heater for the baptismal font is broken so we boiled pitchers of water and dumped them in all morning!!
This email was supposedly sent by Sister Welker on October 9th.  We never received it!

Week 61:  Lost in Space

For an explanation on this email, see next week's!

Found a recipe for Pani Popo (Samoan Coconut Rolls).  Sister Welker's Week 60 post talks about her having these and how much she loves Samoan food.  Enjoy!


Pani Popo (Samoan Coconut Rolls)
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
40 mins
Pani Popo is a Samoan sweet roll baked in a delicious coconut sauce. One of my favorite Pacific-Island dishes from my bakery days in Hawaii.

Ingredients (with Amazon Links)
  • 12-20 frozen dinner rolls depending on size (see note above for homemade rolls)
  • 1 10 oz. can coconut milk
  • 1 c. sugar

Instructions
  1. Coat a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray and arrange rolls evenly to thaw (if doing homemade rolls, roll dough into golf-ball size balls and arrange the same way).
  2. Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray (to keep dough from sticking to the plastic wrap).
  3. Allow to rise until doubled in size.
  4. Pre-heat oven to 350-degrees.
  5. In a bowl, combine coconut milk and sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolved.
  6. Pour about 2/3 of the coconut mixture over the rolls and bake for 20-30 minutes (or according to package/dough recipe instructions) or until golden brown and dough is baked through.
  7. Remove from oven and pour remaining coconut mixture evenly over the top of the rolls.
  8. The rolls should be sticky and gooey on the bottom (read notes above). Can be served upside down or right-side up.


This email was sent by Sister Welker on October 2nd.  We received it on October 1st.

Week 60: Locked Out, Zone Conference, and Woman Conference

So much to write and not enough time!!

This last Monday we hung out with the Harawa and the Waitera sisters.  We drove to Harawa and had bonnie-po-po (I think that's what it's called but I don't think I spelled it right).  I just looked it up.  It is called Pani Popo.  It's basically home made rolls bathed in coconut cream!! It's AMAZING!! Got to love Samoan food!!

Then later that day we get a phone call from the Harawa sisters saying how they couldn't find their house keys.  When they called us it was 9:30PM, and they live an hour away!!  So by the time they got to our flat and we went to bed it was close to 11:45PM!!  It's probably the one and only time a missionary would ever go to bed that late.

The following morning after we had a big breakfast, the Harawa sisters returned back to their flat.  They walked straight into their house and found the keys on the kitchen table.  So they had left the flat unlocked all night.  Luckily, nothing was damaged or stolen but we couldn't help but laugh and think that would totally be something Sister Welker would end up doing, haha.

We also had Zone Conference this week.  So we got to drive up to Hamilton.  For once the weather was actually sunny and we had an amazing view the whole way up!!

The trainings at Zone Conference were amazing!!  President Cummings trained on Agency, the AP's trained on the Book of Mormon, and Sister Cummings prepared a white handbook training on obedience with an intense game to go with it.  It was so much fun and very uplifting!!

The day after we came home from Hamilton, we drove to Stratford to watch the General Women's session of conference.  It was amazing!!  All four speakers were really inspired.  And I, like my mom, loved the speaker who talked about the 80 human chain that helped to save some people lost in a current off the shore.  I'm sad to hear of the lose of Elder Hales.  I know that he was a man of God and that his influence will be missed, but I'm excited to see who will take his place.

Thanks again for all your love and support!! Hope you have a great week!!

Sister Mandy Welker
This email was sent by Sister Welker on September 25th.  We received it on September 24th.

Week 59: Burning Love, Exchanges, and District Conference

We didn't receive a weekly email on September 17th from Sister Welker.  So I thought I would attach a couple of pictures to fill in the gap.

Week 58:
The area Sister Welker is in on the North Island

Mount Taranaki
(looks like some of the pictures Sister Welker has taken!)