Dear Family!!


Wow how the heck are all doing?? It was so great to read your e mail pretty soon after I got back to New Zealand. Yup that's right I made it safe back to New Zealand. I arrived on Saturday night here (I think Friday there). I am doing great and just kinda in a shock right now. There has been so much that has happened and I don't know if I have a lot of time to e mail....I will try to tell you most of the things.


Well my farewell in Niue was really hard. The last week I just did a lot of preparations for me to leave the island and also teaching. I went around the island and took some nice photos off the buildings, houses, and people. Oh yeah guess what on Tuesday night I got sick....eh I don't know what happened. It wasn't fun....and I was just sick in bed trying to get better. The next morning I rested but around the afternoon we had to finish some things for me to leave. Luckily I was starting to get better. I started to say goodbye to all the people. It was hard and it made me sad. They were all so nice and said really good things about me. They also gave me a lot of gifts to take home so I can remember Niue. Thursday was my last full day on Niue. I packed, cleaned the flat, and finished doing most of the preparations. Then we visited a lot more members to say goodbye. Friday morning we just went around some of the island, took pictures, said final goodbyes, and went to the airport. I took a lot of pictures with all the people and they wrote in my journal. Man it was really sad to say good bye to some of them. I've been so close with them for 6 months. Then at the airport right before I crossed the thing to go and I was just crying. They were all singing to me and giving me things. They gave me so many islander necklace's. I was covered in lei things, not the flower ones because I guess you cant take those to NZ. It was a moment I will never forget. I am really going to miss that island. It was amazing and I will never forget it. I hope I can go back someday. Long story short I hoped on the plane and flew to NZ.


I landed in NZ at 6 on there Saturday. The district leader of the area picked me up. Oh man it was really cold compared to Niue. But its not that bad but yes really cold. I had so much stuff from all my Niuean gifts everyone gave me. It was crazy but they took me over to there ward mission leaders house for a feed. It was a Tongan family. They had this huge feast. Oh man I ate so much because they kept saying eat eat! I had some weird things too. Man mom and the girls are going to hate me. But guess what they made me eat!! HORSE! yup that's right I ate horse. hahaha. It wasn't that bad actually. But they made me eat a lot of it. After that crazy experience I got picked up by the zone leaders. Guess what they lived at the same house I stayed for a couple of days before I came to Niue. SO I was with them until this morning. It was pretty cold sleeping that night. Sunday was great. Church was wonderful and I'm glad I finally could understand everything that was being said. It was a ward in south Auckland so it was pretty much islanders, Niueans, Tongans, Samoans, and just all islanders. It was an English speaking ward though. After church and all the meetings the zone leaders had to go to we did our missionary work. We went on trade offs. WOW it was quite a shock going from a tiny island to a big city doing missionary work. We just talked to everyone on the street, knocked on a lot of doors, and walked a lot in the freezing cold rain. We had a miracle to that night. One of the zone leaders got prompted to knock on this one house. This guy about our age opened the door. He was from Samoa and let us right in. He and his older brother agreed to listen to our message. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was incredible and the spirit lead my every word. We knelt in prayer with them, it was a really amazing experience.


Well this morning we woke up really early and drove to the mission home. We picked up my stuff really fast and had to leave before we could even see President or Sister Porter. They were really busy and we were in a extreme hurry so they just put my bags outside the door. The Zone leaders then dropped me off at the bus station in down town Auckland. Wow it is a really big city and it was a shock to go from Niue to a huge city. Then I hopped on a bus with all my stuff and by myself drove down to Rotorua. It was about a four hour buss ride. Its about two hours away from Hamilton. It was a beautiful ride down the Rotorua. I got to see the incredible country side of New Zealand. Wow it is SO green it literally hurts your eyes....well not really. They are beautiful rolling hills and just amazing landscape tells you your in a foreign land. I went past the city that they filmed part of the Lord of the Rings. It was the village that had the little hobbit homes in the green hills. I didn't get to see the movie site but I was in the village. Well just barley I got here in Rotorua and some missionaries picked me up. We dropped my stuff off at my new flat and then we just came here to e mail. I have only been here for a little while. It looks like a beautiful city though. I'm excited to serve here and they said the missionary work is doing really good. My companion is named Elder Faka'i and he is from Sydney Austria, but he is Tongan but born and raised in Austria. I guess there is only 6 missionaries in Rotorua. It isn't a very big city. Its just a really touristy kinda small city. I am going to be senior companion but I guess he has been out longer than me.


I still am in a huge shock from coming from a little island for 6 months but I'm sure I will get used to it soon.

Well that is awesome to hear Ryan did so well in golf. Tell him congrats for me. Also it sounds fun all the family is at our Kitchen motel. That's funny they have a foreign exchange student with them. You guys should try to bring her to church and ask her if she would like missionaries to teach her. Mom I don't have time today to write my testimony or anything to give to the ward...I'm sorry maybe just use something from one of my last e mails. I haven't gotten any letters from cam or a package from the girls yet but I did receive some letters from Courtney Cook and from Kylie.


Well thank you so much mom for your testimony. It was amazing to read. It always helps mine when I read other peoples especially my own families. All the stuff you said were really nice and it made me really happy. It was great to hear from all of you. I hope all goes well at Issac's home coming. Tell him hello for me. I bet your almost ready to get back into school! Crazy! Well I love you all so much. No worries about me I'm still and always in the Lords hands. I hope you all have a great week. Keep praying for me especially that I will be able to be lead by the spirit to Gods prepared children who will receive the restored gospel. I know this work is true. I know it is so important. Until next week I love you.


Elder Kitchen