Kia Ora!

Kia Ora from the Land of the long white cloud! Beautiful New Zealand! Its so good to hear from you again today. It was great to read your e mails and to hear about what you guys have been up to. Sounds like everyone is getting really busy again and been doing school, sports, work, and just heaps of things. I'm sure your week was great and mine was just really incredible. I'm loving serving back in New Zealand and I love Rotorua. It's so nice, green, and beautiful over here. Thanks for giving my e mail to some of the family. I received e mails from some of them. Just keep giving it out to them. The e mails I send you guys might be a little shorter. But don't worry that much, I just would like to spend some time e mailing them because I e mail you guys every week.

Thanks for sending some pictures. I will try again but the only ones that worked were one of Jami and Kaylee and Disneyland and one of our house. Wow the yard looks AMAZING mom, its so green! It reminds me of New Zealand haha. And Jami and Kaylee look a little different from the last time I saw them, and its weird to see Kaylee with braces. When I get home they will be off by then. Sounds like your crazy busy again mom. Good luck with your school this year. I'm excited because by the time I get back you'll probably have a job and you'll be a teacher. Oh yeah maybe since you'll be making some more money we can all come to New Zealand for a vacation! YAY! just kidding but really that would be incredible if we could. Dad sounds like your staying busy at work and that your still very successful. I bet your just having a great time golfing since you guys have some nice September weather. That makes me happy to know Ryan is doing the building construction class this year. Ryan you'll have to tell me about it and everything. Where is the house you said its near ours? I loved that class so much. Well Jami and Kaylee hows your school going? Do you like your teachers and classes? Hows sports going and everything. Sounds like the family is just staying busy and having a great time.

Sometimes I feel time goes by really fast. That last week just flew. It was probably because I've been so much more busy over here in NZ. Well I guess like more teaching and tracking and stuff....not any service really over here. Well the weather is still really cold. Luckily I have a lot of warm coats and things because Dad made me bring them...which I'm really grateful for. Your right mom our house is freezing cuz there's no central heat. We don't even have a very good space heater in our house. So we just wear our coats and warm clothes inside. Its alright but hopefully it will get a little warmer soon. Oh about the earth quake...to be honest I didn't even hear much about it. You know as missionaries we don't watch the news or TV. But I did hear some people talking about it, and yesterday at church too. I didn't feel the shock at all and nothing happened over here. I just hear Christ-Church (the biggest city in the south island) had a earth quake but no body died or anything. If there was a natural disaster here in Rotorua it would be a volcano eruption because there is a lot of volcano's around here. All of them are extinct or sleeping or whatever. Well this last week was just crazy busy with missionary work. We have gotten a lot of new investigators, and we taught a lot of lessons. We have one of our investigators set for baptism on September 25. His name is Dunken, hes about 40 years old. I'm excited for that. We also have a investigator named Scotty that is doing awesome. And others are Pete and Athena. David, Lydia and Gerald, Patricia, George, and Anetta. We have other people we're teaching also. I've just felt the spirit so much. The Lord is helping me become a better missionary. My teaching skills are improving, my preach by the way skill are improving (like talking to people on the street or knocking on doors) and just everything. We've seen a lot of miracles and have felt the investigators progressing very well. I had a really amazing experience this week. We just had got done teaching a lesson and there was about 30 minutes until we had to be back home (it was 8:30 pm) and we didn't know what to do. So we took off our helmets and said a prayer. After we waited for Heavenly Father to tell us through the Holy Ghost. The name Peter just kept coming to my head. But I didn't know why because we had already seen our investigator named Peter that day, plus it was way too late because he has little kids. So we just started riding our bikes and I just kind of pushed the prompting aside (which I shouldn't have done) but Heavenly Father gave it to me again. I suddenly felt like I should look up so I did and guess what?! There was a street sign right above my head and the street was name PETER ST. I knew we were supposed to go down that street. Then the spirit lead us to a house which we knocked on and a lady came to the door. She said she would love to hear our message and to come back when it was a little bit earlier. It was a miracle and I know the Lord leads us to his children he has prepared.

The rest of the week was just great. So many miracles, and amazing teaching experiences. I love my mission so much. Zone conference was also just incredible. It was good to see President and Sister Porter. I learned so much from them. The spirit was so strong during the whole conference. The food was great too. It was also fun to be around so many other missionaries. I saw some of the ones I knew before I went to Niue. Oh yeah and the temple was just absolutely amazing. I loved it and I had a very sacred spiritual experience in the celestial room. I'm not going share it but I just know with all my heart and soul God lives and loves me and all of his children so much. I love the temple so much. Oh you asked what temple dad but there is only one temple in all of New Zealand, its in Hamilton. It's the same one I went to before I went to Niue.

Dad that was hilarious reading about you shaving your goatee. I want to see a picture, you should send one. That's cool the bridge and high way are done over by Saratoga Springs. I'm excited to see all the updates around in Utah when I get back. I cant believe you mowed the lawn Mom! Mom the yard really does look amazing. You've done a great job.

Well I'm going to write some other family now. Well before you guys know it you'll be skiing again! Crazy how time flies. Thanks for everything. I love you all so much. I'm doing great and just loving my mission. Have a great week and may Heavenly Father bless all of you.

Love Elder Kitchen