This email was sent by Sister Welker on February 27th.  We received it on February 26th.  It is her account of what happened the previous week.  She couldn't get the general email to send out to everyone last week.

Week 28: S.A.D. (single awareness day), Tracking in the Rain, and Zumba

So long story short, I have like no time left to write.  But I'll do my best to summarize.

South Auckland is great!!  It's definitely not the same as Tauranga but I still love it.  Tauranga was beautiful and touristy, with the beach near by and almost everyone was white.  In South Auckland, it's a little rough around the edges, the beach isn't in our area, and almost everyone is an Islander.  But I love them both!!  The people here are great and they are all super friendly.  I'm working on my Tongan, Samoan, Maori, and Cook Island culture differences, and also attempting (but epically failing) to learn how to speak all the languages.  

So below is a pic of what Valentines Day looks like on a mission.  Your STL heart attacks your door with quotes from the prophet.  It's probably the best Valentines Day of my life!!  My companion and I might have also gone on our own night out and got ice cream to make the day of love complete haha!! <3

We also went tracking in the rain.  Some of you might wonder--wait, I though they had a car.  We do, but we still went tracking in the rain without raincoats or an umbrella!!  It was heaps of fun!! :D The life of a missionary is pretty great!! :)

We also got to go to the Zumba class offered by the ward Wednesday night and boy was it fun!!  The ward must have thought I was this really strange white missionary from Utah, that gets really excited about Zumba haha.  It reminded me a bit of my Mom going to her exercise class with her friends in South Jordan.

But the coolest part of the week had to be when we bumped into a member (Paige (names have been changed)) that wanted us to come visit her and her sister (Rachel) after church.  Long story short, they grew up together thinking they were cousins.  It wasn't till their adulthood that they found out that they were actually sisters.  The sister that is a member (Paige) has been doing missionary work of her own and talking to her sister (Rachel) about the gospel.  After a couple minutes of getting to know the both of them better, we started teaching Rachel the Restoration.  We didn't get farther than the 1st page in the pamphlet when she was filled with tears and said "That looks like my family.  I want my family to be like that.  I want to know how I can see my family again and be with them forever."  So we stopped and switched to teaching her the Plan of Salvation and explained to her how we can one day see our families again.  If we live worthily, and follow the commandments that God has given us, including baptism, we can one day live with our families forever!!  It was such an amazing experience and such an amazing spirit filled the room.  By the end of the visit, we had a return appointment, and later that night we saw both sisters at the temple fireside.  That definitely had to be the highlight of my week.

Thanks again for all your love and support.  You all mean the world to me and I can't wait to see how much more the Lord will bless each and every single one of you.  I know that the Lord has already blessed me by placing all of you in my life.

Jesus is the Christ.  The Atonement and repentance is real!  We really can be together with our families forever!!  The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.  In the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Sister Mandy Welker

Oh and how cool there's a Riverton street in South Auckland too!!

This email was sent by Sister Welker on February 13th.  We received it on February 12th.

Week 27: Good-bye Tauranga, Missionary Taxi, and White Island Girl

Usually we find out transfer news late on Tuesday night, but poor Elder McGregor was sick this last week and hadn't finished arranging all the transportation by Tuesday night.  So Wednesday morning I get a call from our zone leaders telling me I'm getting transferred?!!?!  Transfer news could have gone either way.  I've been in Tauranga now for 6 months and was secretly hoping to stay for one more transfer, but then again 6 months is usually the max for how long missionaries stay in one area (unless your Sister Johnson then you can stay for 8 months. :) 

So the remainder of the day I had to pack, and say good-bye to as many people as I could.  Sadly, not very many people are just hanging out at home waiting for a missionary to stop by and give their last good-byes on a Wednesday afternoon. So I didn't get to say good-bye to everyone, but I hope that they all know that I'll love and miss them all SO MUCH!!

Now I'm serving in the Alferston Ward in South Auckland.  I couldn't help but laugh when we pulled up to the bus stop since South Auckland is right by the New Zealand MTC, so I felt as though I was being transferred to the MTC haha.  After grabbing my luggage off the bus, I was handed a key and told "here you go."  Turns out I'm the only sister in my ENTIRE ZONE that has a car, so I've also been called to be the missionary taxi driver, haha.  I'm glad that I"m able to help the other sisters get to the places they need to go.

South Auckland is known for being an Islander area, which pretty much means I'm basically one of the only white girls in the area haha.  So like my family likes to call me, I'm a White Island Girl. :)

I love my new companion!  Her name is Sister Garbutt.  She's from Tahiti (so her native language is French) and she is a super big sweetheart.  She served 5 months in Tahiti waiting for her visa and has now been serving in New Zealand for the past 3 months.  My two years of high school French helps me to be able to say the basics like "Hi, how are you?", "It is 8 o'clock", and "I am a pineapple!"  My french is pretty on point if you ask me. ;)

Well that is about it for now.  I can't wait to see all the new adventures and miracles the Lord has in store for me.  Thanks again for all your love and prayers and I'll email you again next week.

Sister Mandy Welker

This email was sent by Sister Welker on February 6th.  We received it on February 5th.

Week 26: Best Week Ever!!! :D

I have so much to tell you!!

K, so Monday night we had the BIGGEST miracle.  I know I say that a lot, but I'm serious this time.  We had a less-active member come out and do missionary work with us!!!  I'll use the name Megan for now.  So Megan is a recent convert.  She was baptized in July of 2016.  For the first three months, she was soaring and loving every minute of the gospel.  Unfortunately, her life isn't easy and she's had mountains of trials since then.  Her family has bad drinking habits and often asks her to watch/babysit their youngest children in addition to watching her own son.  This makes it hard for Megan to resist her past drinking habits.  She's a single mom, and is currently working a construction job, which does not have good hours, especially for a mom of one.  She's had heaps of family pass away and has just been overwhelmed by her trials, so she's stopped coming to church.  When we visited her on Monday, Megan was completely stressed.  She told us that "she's done, she's getting baptized into a different church, the church is too much and that she doesn't want to see us again."  By this point, I was in tears and my poor companion was doing her best to hold the lesson together.  I was thinking "That's it!  We've tried so hard to help Megan and now she's done and doesn't want to come back to church.  I've failed!"  Since it sounded as though this would be the last time we would ever see Megan, we decided to share with her the message of the Atonement. We explained to her how Jesus Christ suffered in the garden of Gethsemane and died on the cross for her, and knows exactly how she feels.  Then I had the thought come to my head "invite her to come out and do missionary work with you."  Doubtful me I thought "No way! Megan is crying in my arms, she hasn't been to church in months, she's struggling with her own testimony, she won't have enough petrel.  There's no way."  Luckily, my faithful companion had the same prompting and asked Megan what she had planned for the rest of the night.  Megan started to give us excuses, but we both pleaded and told her that I had felt that same prompting.  After a couple minutes she agreed to come with us.  My mouth dropped open wide.  I was in complete shock.  Megan hurried and made her son a hot dog and we got in our car as she followed us to our investigators.  The whole way there I was praying that she wouldn't all of a sudden flip around and head back home (doubtful Sister Welker).  Megan followed us all the way there, and to our surprise our investigator, Tim (name changed), had prepared us a dinner.  So Megan was immediately blessed for agreeing to do missionary work.  By the end of the lesson, Megan was testifying that she knew this church was true.

It was the COOLEST miracle!! I'm so glad I had a chance to be a part of it, and it was a blessing to know that Megan still had a testimony of the gospel. 

We also had a Worldwide Missionary Training on Wednesday given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder Neil A. Anderson, and Elder David A. Bednar.  It was amazing and was all focused on going back to the basics and how the gospel of Jesus Christ is all related to each other.  It was awesome. 

We've also had a member show up to Mount Rescues!!  This is exciting, since we don't get hardly any volunteers willing to come to rescue visits in the Mount Ward.

We also had another member come out and do missionary work with us.  Lilly (name changed) was really nervous at first to come out with us, but honestly she was a natural.  She was exactly what those less-active members needed.  It's been really exciting to see Lilly get excited about the gospel.  We've been visiting her and helping her to better understand the scriptures and now the gospel is starting to come to life for her.  It's such a blessing to have her as an honorary member in our Mount Gospel Principles class.

Last thing I promise.  We had three less active members come to church yesterday.  One of the members, Tracy (name changed), has recently had her leg amputated.  We had dinner with both her and her husband (Jim) this week.  Jim (name changed) used to be a temple worker but for some reason has stopped coming to church.  They both came to church and I was so excited to see them there.  Their daughter-in-law, Bailey (name changed), also came to church.  So it was a really good day at church yesterday!!

Sorry for the super long email.  It was just a really good week and I wanted to tell you guys all about it.  I know that there is a God and I know that miracles happen every day!! This gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and it changes lives.  It's exciting as missionaries to be able to be on the front row to witness God's miracles in others lives.

Thank you so much for all your love and support.  Hope you all have a good week.

Sister Mandy Welker 

This email was sent by Sister Welker on January 30th.  We received it on January 29th.

Week 25: Return of the Trio, Back to the Basics, and Donaldson Papers

It's amazing how much can happen in a week!!

Monday was my sister's birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONI-Q!! She's now 18 years old, now an official adult!! It's pretty exciting.  For those of you who don't know my sister, she has the BIGGEST HEART!!  She cares so much about everyone and wants what's best for them.  She's one of the most determined and hard working people I know.  She has a beautiful voice and is a fun, energetic, spunky girl.  But most of all she is MY sister.  We've definitely had our ups and downs, but she's always been there for me.  I miss her so much and hope that she had the best birthday!! I love you Monique <3

Tuesday was District Meeting.  It absolutely blew my mind!! The meeting was all focused on a talk which I believe is called the Donaldson Papers.  It's a training that was given to the missionaries in the Las Vegas West Mission, and it focuses on the basics.  Us, missionaries, tend to complicate things especially when it comes to the gospel, but the gospel is actually quiet simple.  A good majority of the talk described ways on how to become a Preach My Gospel missionary.  Things that I learned before in the MTC, but have forgotten over the last six months.  By the time my companion and I finished reading the talk on our own time, I was in tears.  I knew that there were changes I had to make and from that time on, I've become a different missionary.  I highly recommend the talk for anyone who is currently serving a mission.

Wednesday, one of the Te Puke sisters wasn't feeling great.  So my companion Sister Jabeque stayed with Sister Ofa, while Sister Reynolds and I covered both Te Puke and Welcome Bay/Mount for the day.  It was like we were back to the trio days!! :) Somehow their appointments fit in PERFECTLY with our appointments.  It was as if it was meant to happen.  I enjoyed being able to spend the day with Sister Reynolds.  She's truly an inspiration to me and makes me want to be a better missionary.  Good thing she lives in Idaho, so I can easily find her after my mission. 

Thursday, we went on exchanges with the Greerton Sisters.  So I felt as though I didn't see my companion for two days!! It was a good exchange though.  Sister Ah You is so cute and really cares about those she teaches.  She has a genuine interest in helping the people of New Zealand return to Christ.  While we were on exchanges, we taught a lesson to one of our less-active members in the Mount Ward.  Sister Evans (name changed) hasn't been to church in ages!!  They're a great family, but they just don't come to church.  We decided we would teach Sister Evans about prayer.  It was a very simple lesson, yet it was one of the most powerful lessons I had given in a while.  We reviewed the three steps to pray and then asked her if Christ was sitting right here, what would she ask him.  I wondered what I would ask Christ if He was really sitting beside me.  It reminds me of a primary song called "If the Savior Stood Beside Me."  With prayer, we can ask our Heavenly Father anything we want.  Anything from 'Why is the sky blue?' to 'Is the Book of Mormon true?'

I can promise you that God really does answer our prayers and that he knows exactly what you're going through.  He wants to bless us--he's just waiting for us to ask.  "I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you though the endurance of faith on his name to the end" Moroni 8:3.

Thanks for all the love and support.  I miss you guys all so much!! Thanks for always being there for me when I needed you.  Have a great week.

Sister Mandy Welker

This email was sent by Sister Welker on January 23rd.  We received it on January 22nd.

Week 24: Memb 70, More Miracles

Elder Craig A. Cardon was our guest speaker at zone conference on Wednesday.  I was fortunate enough to hear from him while I was in the MTC, so now I've had the chance to hear from him twice!! Elder Cardon loves referencing scriptures to back up his talks.  He'll often give us a scripture to locate, then he'll make a comment or two and find another scripture to reference, which I quite like because you're never bored and it's interactive and provides opportunities for you to participate.  Today he talked a lot about the Abrahamic Covenant which is something I know very little about.  It's basically a promise that the descendants of Abraham (whether blood related or adopted) will inherit eternal life, which not only includes being able to live with our Heavenly Father, but gives us an opportunity to become more like him.  The purpose behind discussing the Abrahamic Covenant was to answer the question of "Who are you, and What does God expect of you?".  Unfortunately, the best I can do is summarize, but basically as missionaries, we are not only God's children but we have been found worthy as one to represent Him despite our weaknesses. According to the Abrahamic Covenant, we've been promised eternal life and are considered to be an extension of God's arm.  SO that's pretty cool if you ask me.

Elder Cardon also talked about the Spirt and being able to recognize it's influence.  One story that he mentioned imparticular, I found to be quiet spectacular.  He was describing a time when he got to shadow/observe one of the general authorities while assigning missionaries to their called missions.  He said there was a room with two monitors; one screen had a missionary application, while the other had a list of all the missions.  The general authority would greet the missionary as their picture pulled up.  One of the employees would then read out loud the application until the general authority would interrupt with the assigned mission ex: "Hamilton, New Zealand".  Then that employee would record the assigned mission and move on to the next missionary.  While reading one of the mission applications, the employee managed to read the entire application without being interrupted by the general authority.  There was a moment of silence and the general authority said "move on to the next application."  The employee then started reading off the next application when they were inturrputed with "Hamilton, New Zealand".  Confused the employee asked "for this missionary we just read?"  "No," stated the general authority "for that last missionary."  As the employee was juggling with assigning the missionary, the general authority turned to Elder Cardon and said "Sometimes it's just as important to know when the Lord doesn't speak, as it is to know when he is speaking."  He continued with "I will not make an assignment until the Lord speaks to me."

The Elders had a baptism on Friday and we got to help with leading the music.  During the baptism, one of the Birch girls (7ish years old) was sitting next to me and wanted a pen and paper to entertain herself.  I was trying to help her draw a CTR shield.  Then she drew everything from a sun to a flower to a fish.  After the closing prayer, she put her artwork in my planner and she told me that there was a surprise.  I opened up to the page with her drawing and looked for the "surprise" but I didn't see anything.  I then asked her what the surprise was and she pointed to the edge of the drawing where she had written the words "I love you".  I wanted to cry and I gave her a big hug!!  Sometimes miracles are right in front of us, but we need the Lord's help to be able to give us the eyes to see the miracles.

The best part of the night was when we went to one of our less-actives, Tom (named changed).  As we were leaving the baptism, we talked with Brother John Doe (name changed).  I felt impressed to ask him what he had planned for the rest of the night?  He told us that he was going fishing.  I then told him we were going to visit Tom and he surprisingly volunteered to come with us.  Bro John Doe followed us there.  As a last minute decision we decided to watch a talk by Elder Juan A. Uceda of the 70, "The Lord Teaches Us To Pray" given in this last conference Nov 2016.  After a couple mins of catching up with Tom I could see both my companion and Bro John Doe wishing they were elsewhere.  We then opened with a prayer and watched the talk we had chosen just before the lesson.  as I watched the video I thought to myself "Tom already knows all this, he's not gonna like this talk at all, why did I decide to watch this one?" These thoughts were cycling through my head throughout the entire video.  Once the video ended I looked up to see Tom with tears in his eyes.  Then I looked at Brother John Doe and my companion and they all had tears in their eyes.  It was such an amazing experience and you could definitely feel the spirit.  We found out later that Bro John Doe and Tom went to the same ward growing up and he has a picture to prove it.  Turns out  Brother John Doe had prayed "Lord I love serving thee, surprise me" and he ended up at that lesson with us.

I know the Lord really is look after us.  I know that miracles happen everyday we just have to have the eyes to see them.  You all mean so much to me and I'm grateful I get to spend 18 months serving the Lord.  He has done so much for me and this is the least I can do to return the favor.  I know my Savior lives and he loves each one of us.  I know Heavenly Father has a plan for us and that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. 

Thanks for all the love, support and prayers.  Hope you all have a good week and I'll talk to you again soon.

Sister Mandy Welker

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

Week 23: Blonde Moment, Budgeting, and Member Missionaries

For those of you who don't know me well, I can be quite oblivious sometimes.  My family and I like to call these moments "blonde moments".  Granted I also happen to have blonde colored hair, so it makes for a great excuse sometimes.  So anyway, Tuesday morning I woke up and said my prayers and then turned to my companion and realized she wasn't feeling well  She requested some painkillers.  So I ran down to the car and grabbed the painkillers from the glove box and came back up to the flat.  The rest of the morning went just like normal, getting ready, breakfast, and then studying.  After finishing our companion study, we packed up and got ready to go to District Meeting (meeting with other missionaries in our area).  We were about to head down our staircase when I realized I didn't have the keys!!  I looked in my bag, looked on the counter, looked in our bed room, looked on the table and they were no where to be found.  We informed the District Leader that we would be late and continued searching for the keys.  We looked EVERYWHERE in the flat.  It's not a very big flat, so it would be hard to lose the keys there.  Then we thought of the possibility of me leaving the keys in the car, but unfortunately, the car was locked.  All we could do was peek through the window and see if we could spot them, but we couldn't see them there either.  By this point it had been a good 20 minutes or so, and I was starting to stress.  Sister Fuggle and Sister Ah You left District Meeting to come and help us find the keys, but they couldn't find them either.  We called Elder McGregor, who's the missionary responsible for the mission cars, and explained to him what had happened.  We then arranged to have someone come and unlock the car for us.  Once they unlocked the car, the four of us missionaries searched the car and had no luck finding the keys.  I was super stressed by this point and was wondering if I had dropped the keys. Someone might have picked them up and walked off with them.  At noon (2 hours after I realized the keys were missing) Sister Reynolds and Sister Ofa meet us at the flat to come help look for the keys as well.  The six of us, then divided into groups of three to ask the businesses within the apartment complex to see if anyone had turned in any car keys.  Still no luck.  Just when I was about to give up, Sister Reynolds found the car keys!!  They were tangled up within the pages of my missionary planner in my bag/purse.  I was SOOO EMBARASSED!!  There I was with six missionaries spending hours looking for our car keys that were in my bag the whole time.  Though it was stressful in the moment, it's funny to laugh at, and now I have a great story to tell haha.

About two months ago, we were given a training on how to budget money.  So this last week, I decided I should try it out.  It was a complete and utter FAIL!!!  Now I have a lot of respect for Mom, and I understand why she's always trying to stretch the dollar and pinch the pennies.  Ironically, the week I tried to budget is the week I ran out of money on the mission card.  So we had to improvise with our meals including everything from scrambled eggs, to fried eggs, to eggs again.  My poor companion is probably sick of eggs by now haha.  However, the Lord is always aware of our situation, and on Friday every appointment or visit we went to, someone offered us either L&P or chocolate or some fried rice and noodles.  They had no idea that we had been living off of eggs for the past couple of days, but the Lord knew, and he was watching over us.

This week we've been really focusing on gaining trust with the members, and trying to get them excited about missionary work.  Thursday we were visiting with two members.  I'll use the names Sister Adams and Sister Woods.  The two of them are roommates and live in the same house.  When we arrived to have lunch with them, you could tell they were annoyed with each other.  We had a nice lunch with them (which happened to be New Zealand Samon and was super yummy!!) and tried to change the tense atmosphere into a nice conversation.  At the end of our visit, we asked if it was ok if we shared a message with them.  Of course they agreed, and listened as we explained how my companion and I were working on giving better spiritual thoughts.  So rather than opening our scriptures to a random page and reading a scripture, we took some time to think about the message we wanted to share with them and read from Moroni 7 (Book of Mormon), which is the chapter that talks about charity.  We had such a good discussion and Sister Woods even shared an experience she had this week with an elderly gentlemen that she works for.  This elderly gentlemen has dementia and so he'll, at times, forget important details.  This time he had forgotten his pin number to his card and had a stack of groceries in front of him that he needed to pay for.  They asked the cashier if they could leave the groceries, go talk to the bank, and come back to pay for the groceries, but a lady behind them interrupted and offered to pay for his groceries, which ended up being a total of $85.  A complete stranger was willing to help an elderly gentlemen pay for his food, so he wouldn't have to stress with coming back to pay for them later.  It was such a cool story!!  We committed them to pray to have charity, and after putting our shoes on and leaving, you could hear Sister Adams and Sister Woods complimenting each other and helping each other out with the dishes.  I turned to my companion and said "Sister Jabeque, I think we left them better than we found them."  During relief society, Sister Wood told us of a time later that week when she bore her testimony to the Jehovah witnesses.  Afterwards, she told Sister Adams how excited she was that she participated in some of her own missionary work.

That's all the time I have for now, but I just wanted to bare my testimony that I know that God is aware of us and knows what we're going through.  He is watching over us because he loves and cares about us.  I know that missionaries can't do this work alone, that we need the help of every member just like Elder Dallin H. Oaks said in the last talk he gave in general conference.  Thomas S. Monson says "Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to work together to labor in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls unto him."  I'm so excited for the progress that we've made this week, but I know that without the Lord none of that would have been possible.  He lives and loves each and every one of us.  In the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Hope you all have a good week.  Keep smiling and keep being the amazing people you are. 

Sister Mandy Welker

This email was sent by Sister Welker on January 9th.  We received it on January 8th.

Week 22: Exchanges, Lemonade, My Purpose

This week was really really rough, but nobody can say that we didn't try our best.  Plus we did it all with a smile on our faces :D

Tuesday night, I went on exchanges with Sister Fuggle who is the new STL (Sister Training Leader).  We had a great start to our morning and then after lunch everything seemed to fall apart.  The people we went to visit weren't home and our appointments were canceled.  I was so excited to show Sister Fuggle how amazing our area was just to have everything not go according to plan.  I was pretty embarrassed, especially since I was with the STL, but luckily Sister Fuggle helped me to see the positive side.  She also mentioned something that I've been thinking a lot about.  She told me that there's 4 reasons why you'd be sent to a specific area 1-for your companion/other missionaries, 2- for someone/investigator in your area, 3- for your ward, 4- for yourself.  Lately I've felt impressed that my purpose in this area at this time is for my ward.  My area, at the moment, is on "holiday mode" and doesn't want much to do with the gospel right now, and it seems as though the number one reason why someone would go less active is because they feel judged or offended.  So my companion and I came up with a plan to help strengthen the ward by focusing on the members, and to get them excited about missionary work.  We are gonna try it out this week and hope it works, so wish us luck. :)

The other experience I wanted to share happened this last Saturday.  It had been a long day of nobody being home and doors slammed in our face.  We were driving to our next appointment when we saw two little girls selling lemonade on the side of the street.  We turned around and went to go buy some lemonade, oops, sorry, HOMEMADE lemonade. :)  It tasted really good, especially on a hot summer day, and I found out later that my companion said "God must really love me because I was thirsty and then we passed by the lemonade stand." 

That experience just helped to strengthen my testimony that God really knows what we are all going through, and he really does care about us. 

I'm so grateful to be on a mission and to have the gospel as a part of my life.  I know that I'm meant to be here at this time, that this is where God wants me to be. 

I love you all so much!!! Thanks again for all the prayers, love, and support.  Have a good week and talk to you again next week.

Sister Mandy Welker