A Fond Farewell

His first email today said...."Do I really have to email you today Mom, I am  going to see you in 2 days."

I had asked him to think about a lot of questions while he was on the LONG plane ride (16-17 hours), like What do you want for your first meal?  Where do you want to go, What do you want to do?"

His response:

I am planning on spending every spare moment finishing my study of the Doctrine and Covenants.  I have been trying to finish reading and studying it. I only have 3 more sections until the end.  And now--you are giving me more things to think about.  I have no idea what I want to do, or what I want to eat,  I am missing New Zealand already.  I know that American food is going to seem weird to me. (I thought that New Zealand food was weird when I first got here)

Truthfully-- leaving my mission is going to be hard,  everything is going to be so foreign to me again,  but it is OK.  I just need to trust in The Lord.  I really don't know where the past 24 months have gone.  

I am looking forward to seeing Maggie and the truck. I am having a rough time remembering Maggie,  I hope she remembers me.  It all just sees unreal to me.  I don't know if I am spending the night in the mission home or with some Elders.  It is going to be fun though.  I was worried about leaving my area with Elder Inglis, but he is leaving the area too now, and Elder Christensen is going to take over my area, so all is good!  

I love you so much!  I will see you in 2 days!  

Elder Tuckett

I had to say goodbye to all the ward today.  It was hard.

This was from our baptism last week,  she got confirmed this week.  I am personally taking the baptismal record to the mission office myself!  She is in good hands,  I don't have to worry about her being less active with a family like that.

This is the part member family we have been teaching.  I wish that I could be here longer for his baptism.  

BTW... I lost that brand new shirt that you sent me to come home in.  I am sorry,  I have heaps of souvenirs to bring home though!  That is what I want to do first!  Unpack!  I do not like living out of a suitcase! 

An example to the very end!

This week was just amazing.  Our baptism went through and it all worked out great!  I took pictures, but I have some sort of virus on my flash drive so I am having some difficulty getting my pictures off!  UGH!  She got baptized by her boyfriend, and I know they will get married in the temple someday.  

Yesterday was our Zone Conference.  We were combined with Palmerston North.  There were heaps of missionaries, and I got to see heaps of old friends.  It was just great.  We were visited by Elder Pearson and it was a great motivation for me to finish the last week the hardest that I can!  It was so wonderful yesterday, I may have even started crying!  So, I am really looking forward to this last week and making this area a lot better than when I found it.

My companion is still a bit of a challenge.  He has a strong testimony and can be a great teacher when he wants to be.  He follows me around and waits for me to tell him what to do.  8 days though!!!  Enduring to the end, and being an example to the very end!  

I will be able to email you one last time -- next Monday.  My bus leaves Hastings Tuesday afternoon.  I can't believe the end is coming.  

Love you!

Elder Tuckett

This is the letter I got with my travel plans!

This is my companion, and a member... Double rainbow!

P.S.  -- I can't find my temple clothes -- we need to go shopping!

I love Hastings!!!

It was a great week!  Our baptism is probably going to be Sunday, after church.  We still need to figure out the little details but it should be an awesome baptism.  The one for the week after may have to be pushed back a bit.  He missed church yesterday, sadly because a member didn't pick him up.  We need to work with the members a bit. We have another investigator that came to church yesterday as well named Jessica. She is a single mother that has lots of questions because she met with the Jehovah Witnesses!  Great for us!  We are hopefully going to have a baptismal date with her as well soon.  I love Hastings so much, I wish that I could stay longer.  I have just loved my mission. 

I only have 2 more times to email.  How weird is that?  Next week I will be emailing on Tuesday because we have our Zone Conference on Monday for some reason.  

I am looking forward to seeing you guys, and mostly.... Maggie and my truck.  I saw an avalanche this week and it got me so excited!   I love you so much!

Love, Elder Tuckett

Exciting times!!!!

This Christmas season is going to be awesome in the mission for everyone!!!  First off, in the mission we are having combined Zone Conference with Palmerston North on the 8th.  It is going to be awesome.  Secondly, for the whole church, the church is making this cool christmas.mormon.org website that will be opening I think on the 27th.  Please go check it out and put your email in.  The church is putting a lot of money into this "He is the Gift" message.  It is going to be awesome.  I don't know how much I am allowed to tell.  I kind of like it being a secret though.  

This is me and Elder Cunningham on exchanges this week.  He was my Zone Leader in Featherston!  He is the best!  He is leaving the same day as me, so hopefully we will be on the same bus down to Wellington.  Exciting!  

This is the calendar for our investigator with the baptismal date on the 6th.  She is so ready.  She is getting interviewed this week.  She is so ready.  Filling this calendar out made me realize how close the end of my mission is.  It is scary.  I still need 2 more baptisms for my goal of three in this area.  We have another that I think will be happening on the 13th.  I am pretty sure I will reach this goal.  The members are so helpful in this area.  

I am thinking I am going to be leaving a lot of stuff here.  I left that one suitcase at the MTC and came here with 2 and I am thinking of only coming home with one.  I have been getting some gifts for people... Don't get too excited though.  

I love you so much, and please pray for my baptisms!

Elder Tuckett

P.S.  I was able to see Rodney, a new convert when I first came on my mission.  We had a great catch up session!  

Exchanges, and a miracle!

I had two exchanges this week. As district leader, I go on exchanges with everyone in the district at least once during the transfer to see how they are doing.  Sometimes more if they are having a rough time.  Then I go on exchanges with the zone leaders so they can make sure that I am doing a good job.  This week was full of teaching and service and miracles.  While on one of the exchanges, I got to work with Elder Yarrington .  We were able to go to a farm to give service.   We were fixing a fence, mowing lawns and catching sheep.  Farm jobs are so fun.  I was out there a couple of days and got to meet some awesome people and see some awesome scenery. I am going to miss New Zealand so much. There are so many green rolling hills here.  There is no where in the United States that is as beautiful as New Zealand. 

This is a picture of the lambs tail that I got to watch them cut off.  Some people eat them but he told us that this one wasn't much of a feed.   This was out in Waipukurau if you want to google it.

I was also on exchanges with Elder Cuthbrathsen this week.  He was my zone leader in Palmy so it was good to catch up with him.  He just finished being the Assistant to the President so he knows all about what is going on in the mission.  It was with him that we had a miracle story.  It is too long to write out, but I will try to tell you a short version.  He had found a guy that was out of his way and he talked to him.   He had a heavy African accent and he got a street and a time to come back.  However, the street was wrong!  We found a street that sounded like it and went to the house on the street.  We knock on the door, and tell the man that we are looking for an African man, and he told us that there was a group that moved in across the street!!!  We went,  and it was him!  We walked inside and there were all these Africans laying around watching TV.  We find the guy, and start doing the missionary thing and talking to him, then everyone started listening to us.  There were 10 in all and they all believed in Christ and were happy to listen to our message.  We were able to leave 2 book of Mormons there and asked them to read them.  I know they were just there waiting for us. It was a challenge to find them, but we were diligent in our efforts and finally got the prize!  I just love it!!!

Here are some of the rolling hills.  I was thinking that they were just beautiful, and the guy we were with just didn't think a thing about it. We have a solid baptismal date for December 6.  We taught the law of chastity this week and she passed so there will be nothing holding her back.  We are also going to a part member family this week where we will hopefully be setting 2 more baptismal dates with them.  

It is raining today so we will probably just go to the chapel and play some sports.  I love you! 

Elder Tuckett

p.s.  Thanks for getting me signed up for classes.  I am worried about learning math again let alone Calculus.  I was having a hard time remembering what 6x3 was the other day.  Yikes!!!

A week of memories!

Kia Ora!

My week was amazing. I can't believe another week is gone.  I am starting to realize how much I am going to miss this place.  I have noticed how I say really wierd words like rubbish, heaps and Ofa Atu!  I am going to miss this mission so much!  This week is going to go by fast too.... I have exchanges at the beginning and the end of the week.

I am glad you loved your conference. It sounds like you learned some amazing things about the light.  It reminded me of something, did you know that if you look up temple in the bible dictionary it says that the temple is the most sacred place, and the home is the 2nd.  Pretty cool, that our homes can be just like the temples.  Even more why we should be careful what Internet we allow and what TV we watch and allow into our homes.  It can instantly take away the spirit and the peaceful feeling we find in our homes.  

This is me and Elder Richardson helping out the Salvation Army!  We got to smash some things, lift some couches, and organize the beds they were selling.  It was great! 

I had exchanges this week with my son, Elder Richardson. We had a blast together.  We had fun remembering the old times that we had down in Queenstown.  We even made some of the crazy foods that we used to make when we were together and talked a lot about the people we taught.  It was great to hear how some came around from totally hating us to letting the missionaries in.  It was so good to hear.  While we were in Napier, we had splits with the members and got to see a lot of the members from Napier.  Then the member I saw at a baptism in Featherston was here and we got to go on splits with him here!  It is great to know that I have really good friends from my first area that still remember me after heaps of missionaries have been through their ward  since I was here.    I also got a new Elder in my District that was from my old District at Titahi bay!  I don't know why he got moved here, but it was sure great to see him. Then, I got to see an older couple from Featherston!  They were up here going to a funeral, then they came to our ward on Sunday.  And.....  one more, today as we were riding to the Internet shop, I saw a member from the Omahu Ward, my first ward.  I got to stop and talk to him.  So you can see, I have just had a flood of memories come over me this week.  

Also this week we got to have district meeting with President and Sister Hudsen.  The whole meeting was on the Holy Ghost.  It was another big eye opening meeting for me.  I loved it.  We listened to a talk from Elder Holland about the Holy Ghost, and just like every one of his talks, it just changes who you are.  The Holy Ghost is a member of the godhead and we as members of the church can have the Holy Ghost with us as all times (if we are worthy) to help us through this life.  There are just so many things that he does for us.  I just can't imagine how busy he is.  He protects us, teaches us, brings us to remembrance, he guides us and comforts us.  There is just so much, we could talk for ages about all he does for us.  Who wouldn't want him to be with us all the time.  I just love it.  So this week I grew a great love for the Holy Ghost and all that he has taught me and I know that he will always be with me. Jesus Christ and God the Father and the Holy Ghost are all one.  One in perfection, and purpose and direction but all different personages.  I love this work! 

Love, Elder Tuckett

P.S.  Would you ask Bishop Garn what he would like me to talk about?  And I am going to be inviting my friends!  I still have heaps of missionary work to do in Arizona when I get home!

The Lord will ease our burdens

I read this scripture in Mosiah this week, and fell in love with it all over again. I am so grateful for The Lord making our burdens light if we turn to Him.

We found this awesome Chinese park this week. It is just so cool.  I want to show it to Ryan!!!!

So this week the Ward Mission Leader gave us a list of homes of people to see if people still live there or not.  Most of the houses in New Zealand have a large fence around them, and one of the houses we were checking had a fence about as big as me.  We walked in and my companion shuts the gate locking it behind us.  As I am walking up to the house, and a massive bulldog comes around the car with a toy in his mouth!  It got much closer to us and rather just stopped and stared and started growling.  We just freeze and don't move.  We know that bulldogs have killed people in New Zealand.  I kind of crouch down, thinking that it might let me pet it.  But instead, it just started twitching its lip and growling louder.  Then it just started coming at me so fast.  It jumped straight at my leg to bite it, and I jumped and it barely missed me and then it trotted off as if it was so proud.  I have never seen anything like that before in my life, and i was shaking so hard when I left that I had to stop and say a prayer to my Heavenly Father thanking Him for not letting that dog kill me.  There must have been an angel telling that dog to turn around and leave us alone.   We are going to go back this week and get a picture of that ugly dog to always remember that moment.  I still can't believe that there was no "Beware of Dog" sign to warn us!!!

I can't believe the news about Ryan!!! [His friend who he baptized the very first part of his mission, is coming to spend Christmas with us] I am so excited to see him,  I am probably going to start crying when I see him.  This is going to be the best Christmas ever.  We also had a trunk or treat this week. It wasn't as big as in the states, but it was fun to see people doing something for Halloween.

If you can't tell from the pictures I've been sending, it is spring and it is getting hot!  I am going to be hot, then come back to AZ and it just going to be a little cold, the back up to Idaho to freeze.

This week flew by and we had a fantastic week.  I officially know the area better than my companion already!  I love doing missionary work here because everyone has been really prepared for us and ready to jump into the water!  

I totally forgot to take pictures of our flat again this week. We did some more deep cleaning this week, the water was totally yellow when I was done from scrubbing the shower,  but you can see the metal again.  Some people think that because you get clean in the shower means the shower doesn't get dirty!  

Sorry I didn't get much time with you today.  I had to spend my computer time making a flyer to use on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week!  We are going to hang with the zone leaders today, which means Elder Richardson!   It should be a fun week!

I love you so much!!!

Elder Tuckett