Transfer Week Adventures!

I took lots of pictures this week but I forgot my camera so you will have to wait until next week.  Sorry!  

My week was full of travels which was exhausting!  And.... I forgot a few things at my last flat!  I only had 2  hours to pack, plus say goodbye to a couple families.  We left Tuesday to go to Upper Hutt and spend the night with the Zone Leaders.  When with the Zone Leaders we were making visits and one smashed my hand in the the car door.  Luckily, it was my right hand that has my CTR ring on it so I only got one bruise!  That ring saved me!!!!   We woke up at 4:30 and left the flat and started picking up people in the 8 man van that the Zone Leaders have to take 8 missionaries to the airport.  Every missionary had their 2 bags, plus their bike, so we had a massive trailer to haul them in.   During all this moving, I pulled a muscle in my back and couldn't bend all week.  It was horrible.  So.... Thus it was a terrible transfer for me.

I finally made it to my flat on Wednesday night at 5 pm because I was with the Zone Leaders all day at the airport and train station.  But it has been fun.  I finally got to see Wellington and how big and awesome it is.  My flat is on a hill again like in Queenstown.  But not quite as high!  My area is very hilly.  We only have our bikes and our two feet for transport.  Our area is really small though so it's good.    We just don't like the wet and windy weather, which we have had the past three days.  The wind was so strong last night that it shook the house.  I seriously thought that there was an earthquake last night, but it was just wind.  I seriously thought that there was a hurricane or something.  I have never seen so much wind in all my life.

My flat is new and the missionaries just moved in a couple of months ago.  There is absolutely NOTHING  in this flat.  I will be budgeting my money and filling the flat with towels, spices, and soaps, butter and laundry soap.... All the basics... There is nothing here,  hopefully we will survive.  We are just living on the edge right now!  I love it!

My companions name is Elder Otahouma (it's like Oklahoma only with a t).   He is going home in 4 weeks.  This next transfer is only 4 weeks long, sad, right?  This is President Kezerians last transfer.  We had Zone conference on Thursday, and we all had hugs and goodbyes.  Hopefully the next transfer will be 8 weeks so I can still come home on the 17th.  We will see!  

Our ward is big!  The members are really friendly to me.  We get fed heaps and taken care of very well.  We don't have many investigators but we are hoping to change this.  Our ward mission leader got released yesterday, so I hope we can move things forward.

I don't know what we are doing today.   Before we left Carterton, I had to get the brakes fixed on my bike and they guy said that there was a lot of stuff that needed to be done and he went ahead and did it, and I had to pay him $60.  I am not spending anymore money on this bike.  I was in a hurry, so I didn't want to fight him about it.    I still haven't heard anything about my speeding ticket...l I guess it's in the Lords's hands now.  

Everyone tells me that I am going to die in this area. [be here the rest of his mission]  I don't know though!  I can't believe that I will be coming home in 6 months.  It really hasn't clicked yet.  

I love you so much!

Elder Tuckett  

Farewell Carterton, I will miss you!

I am leaving and I am moving to Pirirua.  Going back to the coast, at the bottom of the North Island,  I will be district leader again.   I will probably be driving down there because elder Usalai'a will be going in that area to pick up his new companion.  The airport has closed in Masterton, so everyone here has to fly out of Wellington, so we will just drive, or I will take the train or bus.  

I am going to miss Carterton, so much!  The heart of Wairarapa.

The beginning of the week I was over in Masterton again.  We were able to heaps of service.  The weather was just perfect.  It was so much fun!  I am getting really good at mowing lawns.  It is so fun!  

Thursday, we had great splits with the members here.  Members can get into people's homes and do better with the less actives that we can.  They can become their friends, and everyone needs a friend at church.  I hope that I can help the missionaries when I come home.  

On Saturday, we went to Upper Hutt for a meeting.  People from the Stake Presidency spoke to us about hastening the work of salvation and working with the missionaries and using family history and such.   Then we spent the night at the zone leaders 2 story flat.  It was fun and we had a good sleep over.  The next day, we woke up and went for the broadcast where we heard from President Monson, Elder Oaks, the general primary president and someone from the presiding bishopric.  The stake presidency took about 30 minutes before it started to talk to us and share their testimonies.  They said almost the same things that the leaders said in the broadcast.  The prophet sorta of  double testified of what the stake presidency had just said without know it.  It just really helped me to see that our leaders are inspired from The Lord!  When our leaders talk, we need to listen as if President Monson is speaking.  They are the speaker for The Lord.  It was exactly what The Lord wanted us to hear.  It was a great conference for New Zealand!  

It was another great week!

Love you,

Elder Tuckett

Here is a picture of a cool mushroom I found!  

A miracle for Carterton

It was so great to get to skype with you and catch up in one hours time!  Tell Mary thank you for ditching her work for a few minutes so that she could talk to me.  I never knew she missed me so much.  I am guessing she wouldn't like to be an only child.  

We were able to witness a miracle here in Carterton this week.   We had a great week.  We had a personal visit from our president and he was able to attend out district meeting with us.   I wish that I would have gotten a picture with him, but we were so busy getting the Lords work done, and eating lunch, that we forgot.  I love president Kezerian so much.  He will be a general authority someday, I just know it.  If he can handle our mission, he can do anything!  

We have a very promising investigator that we have been trying to catch up with, but we have been having trouble connecting with her.  We are hoping to catch up this week.  We had a return appt this week, but got caught in traffic, and when we got there she wasn't there.  We will keep trying.  We were bummed, but what happened that evening made up for it.

Now for the miracle....

That evening, we had splits with ward members.  As you know, we have been praying for this little branch, and praying for a family to help us.   So, the sisters told us of a new member moving into the area and gave us the address.  Awesome!  The branch president and I headed to the address to meet this new member.  I tell you that his family was an answer to my prayers.  We met him, he is a returned missionary and has a wonderful family.  His name is Gary, and in his ward in Australia, he was the ward mission leader.  He has family that lives in Masterton that needed help and after praying, he felt impressed to move his family to New Zealand.  He began to look in Masterton for a house because that is where is family was, but they could not find anything whatsoever.   So, they looked in this quiet town called Carterton here where our branch is.  He is going to be the new councilor in our branch presidency.  His wife has served in relief society, primary and young women presidencies.  They are going to be such a help to this little branch.  I definitely know that as we (or in this case, our little branch) are faithful, and pray for righteous desires, that The Lord will answer our prayers.  The Lord hears our prayers!  Even the prayers of a small branch in the middle of no where in New Zealand.  I know he has sent this family to help the church grow and prosper in this area.  I am so glad that I could witness this miracle and see the hand of The Lord direct the work.  I love this work!  There is no place I would rather be!!!

Love, 

Elder Tuckett 

We were just goofing off on our way home, this is the library

I got my name badge engraved with the kiwi leaf and the temple, I wanted the Hamilton temple, but the guy messed up, so I guess Salt Lake is just as good.  

Happy Mother's Day

We were able to skype with Elder Tuckett for one hour last night.  Believe it or not, it will most likely be our last skype session with him as he will be home before Christmas.  

He is doing so well.  He loves the work of The Lord, and loves serving the people of New Zealand.  He has developed quite the Aussie/Kiwi accent.  We all had a chuckle from listening to him talk.  

7 months to go.... But who's counting!  He certainly is not.  He is lost in the work and loves being a missionary.  

He wanted to share a song with us about half-way through the skype session, so his companion came in and they sang a song that they had prepared for their families.  It was the sweetest thing ever.  

I love this boy, and I love being his mom.  There is nothing greater a mom could ask for than to have a son or daughter serving a mission.  It makes for a wonderful Mother's day.  

Love this boy, and the work he is doing!

I love The Book of Mormon

I love all your stories from Honduras. You have got to see so many temples, I am jealous!!  It sounds like you had a blast. However, it sounds like you had a rougher week than I did on that boat that you were on.  I thought that my week was bad until I heard about you passing bags of throw up around on the boat!

I just wanted to give up door knocking this week.  Every door that we knocked on just verbally abused us.  It was horrible.  So, we went to the other side of the street where we hoped they wouldn't be so rude.  Most of them just said that they go to other churches.  However, I really don't think that they actually learn anything at their church.  

I would like to share something that I learned in scripture studying this week.  I actually realize the importance of reading The Book of Mormon.  Sadly, there are some people who never take the opportunity to read The Book of Mormon.  No matter how many times that you read it,  you can always gain something new.  It you find it boring, find a book to study along with it.  There is so much to learn.  Just keep reading and learning.   The less actives we see have gone inactive because they have forgotten about The Book Of Mormon.  If anyone has doubts about the book, they need to read it daily, and they will feel the spirit.  It is an amazing book.  I know it is a record of our ancestors.  It foretold about the finding of America and how the gospel would be restored to its fullest.  I love  this book so much and I have learned so much from it.  As we read, we can find answers if we search diligently.  I know this to be true and I am grateful for my Father in heaven who takes care of me.  

This week we get a personal visit from President Kezerian.  I am excited for that.

Well, I have got to go catch a bus because we are going to Masterton. 

No pics this week, sorry!  We are going to skype with you on our Sunday, (your Saturday) around 2:00 pm our time.  I think that is around 7:00 pm your time.  Can't wait!!!!

Love, 

Elder Tuckett

Looking for lost sheep...

This week we had heaps of free time and some extra kilometers so we decided to go looking for the lost sheep at the bottom of the island.  There are about 3 members that live there near Lake Ferry, so we drove down there and visited them.  I have met almost everyone one of the people on the ward list.  

This weekend we had Branch Conference.  It was great!  We had 59 people at church.  (20 were from the stake). It was for sure a new record for the Branch!  I have also learned this week that a lot of people take the truth to be hard and complain, but I am grateful for Elder Holland's talk from conference.  He said: "Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods, who don't rock the boat but don't even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds".    We need to be strong, live the gospel faithfully even if others around us don't and defend our beliefs.

Anyway, nothing else really new in Carterton, it is holidays now so everyone is on vacation or they don't want us over,  and, it is getting dark around 6:00 so it is harder to plan the late hours.  But, we are going to get through it with lots of planning!!!!

I am glad you are having a great time on your trip to Honduras!  You guys look like Senior Missionaries with your name badges.  

I love you,

Elder Tuckett

P.S.  We took a lot of pictures one day, and wouldn't you know, it is the one day I forgot my name badge!!!! Oh well, here they are anyway!