Dear Whanau,

 Hello and what a week! :) Good news I am staying here in Dunedin!!!! :) I am so happy and grateful for this! What a blessing from Heavenly Father! And my companion is still Sister Fetu'u! Which is so good! I am grateful that I still have her as my companion.

   The exciting bit of my week was that I went to Wellington in Thursday for a missionary Leadership Council meeting. But because of sea fog or sea mist I was unable to land in Wellington, so we flew to Palmerston North, and drove down to WEllington. I missed the meeting, but I was able to talk to someone at the airport in Spanish. Him and His wife were from mexico. I then was able to see my MTC companion who is serving in Wellington. While I waited for my flight I went with her and her companion. It was good to see her. She is doing well! We both have the same bags now, it was fun to take a picture, we look like twins :)

   I am grateful I was still able to fly to wellington because Sister Fetu'u was able to spend the day with the Young Single Adults in our ward and see people. They have been thinkning about going on a mission, so that was such a blessing that they were able to spend the day doing missionary work.

   In church our branch President told us of his meeting he had with the area seventy. They told him to council the members to read the Book of Mormon twice a year, rededicate to the law of the fast and increase our personal faith in Jesus Christ. By doing these things we will be able to help hasten the Lord's work in preparing all for the coming of His son Jesus Christ.

  one of our investigators read this talk about the Atonement that talked about writing His will upon our hearts and our wills. It really made me think about this myself. She had so much faith to ask the Lord to have his Will written upon her heart. What will I do to have his Will written upon mine?

 I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Sudweeks

Fwd: Pictures that you wanted

Anahera, Awatea, Rochelle, Torrine(baby) and Isaiah

What will I put in my handcart?

Dear Whanau,

  I know I always spell that wrong! I need Maori spell check on here! ;)

What a week! This is the last week before transfers. I hope I get to stay again, but never the less, the Lord knows best and I will go where He wants me to go.

   I read this wonderful talk about the Atonement. In it it talked about having the gospel principles written in our hearts and engraved on our souls. It then mentioned the pioneers and how they only had a small amount of room in their handcart and had to decide what was the most improtant things to take with them. This really made me think, what do I put in my figurative handcart? Is it the newest latest high definition DVD? the newest craze everyone is talking about? Is it the things that matter most like family, the gospel? DO I make time for these things that our most important in my life? I truly beleive the Lord is preparing me for when I enter the "world" again you could say and I will have to make choices such as these daily. and so I will forever be thinking "What will I put in my handcart?" What will I sacrifce for the Lord?

    Miracle! Rochelle Wilson wants to be baptized! We were talking to her and she told us she feels the Book of Mormon is true, and she wants to be baptized more and more as she reads the Book of Mormon. SHe will be getting baptized on the 26th of April, so her children can be there to see her. I am so excited and think I will be having the best day a missionary ever could have on the 26th of April.

     We had exchanges this week with the Gore Sisters. Sister Matwaychuck(Canada) and Sister Sterzeneggar(Switzerland). It was good. The Gore Sisters had an intersting experience, I have never felt so popular as a missionary. The tour boats had come in again and we had an appointment on Baldwin street again. So we drove up and on the way met some members. They said hello and were so excited to see us. The Gore Sisters and Sister Fetu'u had them stop them several times asking to take picutres of them. My companion told me I just hope they don't put it in the Ensign!

   I love you all! And I hope you have a great week! Keep serving the Lord with all your heart, might, mind, and strenght. Never forget those things that mattter most and those things that matter least.

Love,
Sister Sudweeks

Hablo Espanol, Loi Lahi

Dear Family,

   Hello! And Happy Valentines day! :) By the time you read this it will be a while before Valentines day, but hopefully I can be the first to wish you having a great day! :)

   This week has been a good week! We went to Oamaru and started teaching the sisters there. We will be teaching all single sisters in DUnedin and Oamaru until the new sisters are sent to Oamaru in April.

   Hmm... this week we had Sister Kezerian come out with us after our Disctrict Meeting. It was wonderful! Sister Fetu'u and I really enjoyed seeing her teach and thinking of how we can apply what she is doing to help our teaching/ approaches.

    My companion is teaching me Tongan! I can now say Me llamo es Hermana Sudweeks Soy de Idaho de America, Ko hoku hingua ko Sister Sudweeks me Idaho e Amilica. :)

  It was so neat! We were in Oamaru and we went to go see this Tongan family. We knocked on the Door we thought was their dorr but turned out to be the wrong door. It was great though because we met Sandra Castro. She is from Brazil. I told her I love the Hispanic culture and the language and she started speaking to me in Spanish. It was wonderful! I loved being able to speak to her breifely and she said we could come back. Hopefully she will still want to learn more about the Gospel when we are able to travel to Oamaru next. :)

    Something cool: Anahera and Isaiah the children of Rochelle Wilson had their Grandma over when the Elders came to intorduce themselves. It turns out the Grandma was almost baptized 30 years ago. I have a testimony that the Lord always prepares a way for his children to be found that they might have more opportunites to accept and hear the Gospel.

  I was reading in 1 Nephi 17: 41, it talks about how Moses held up a stick which the children of Israeal only had to do was to look at it and they would be healed. And because of the easiness of the way that was prepared, many did perish and were lost. Let us not be like the people here in this story, because it is so easy to have lasting joy and peace and happniess in our lives. All we must do is to look to our Savior and do the teachings which he has asked of us. I promies when we rely iupon our Savior we will have holes nad pains healed that could not be healed an other way. I know this is true, as I have felt and can sing of the joy and power that comes from our Savior's reedming love.

I love you all!

Choose the Right!

Ofa Atu!

Aroha,

Sister Sudweeks

Eternal consequences

Dear Whanau,

   Hello! and happy February!  :) And Happy Birthday Deven! I hope you had a great day! I had to explain about groundhogs day to the people here. They haven't heard of it before.

   This week was a good week. SO crazy though! We went to Invercargill for exchanges and I went up to Wellington to a missionary council meeting. It was so good and I met this really nice man on the airplane ride home. His name is Alan. I talked to him a bit and was able to give him a card. He told me I would make a great salesperson. Luckily for everyone the message we are sharing with people isn't something we are trying to sell, but give freely to all those who will take it.

    In district meeting this week, Elder Kerr one of our Zone Leaders made this comment about D&C 29:34 "Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created." Elder Kerr made the comment that all laws are this way even when they seem extremely temporal like having a budget, exercise, and keeping our houses clean. They may seem temporal but they really do have spiritual consequences for eternity.

   Today, my companion and I were walking to the bus determined to talk with at least 10 people each toady. So we stopped and talked to 2 people and then realized the bus was coming so we ran to catch the bus, but we missed it. We were both pretty sad and I saw this man sitting next to the bus stop. We walked past him and sat down and talked about the bus leaving us for a minute, then I said lets go talk to that man. We did so and he opened up to us and shared how his wife had passed away two years ago and his mother in that time. I have a testimony that Heavenly Father will prompt us to be at a place where we are needed most even if we do not recognize those promptings. There really are people who are ready and wanting to hear the gospel. Never be afraid to give a portion of that hope that is within you to other people.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Sudweeks

p.s. Don't forget to smile to people; it is a way of doing service :)