Life in the Big City

I can't believe that there are no pictures on my memory card!  I wonder if it could have gotten deleted in the mail?  I am so sad about losing all of my pictures from the last 9 months. [he mailed a memory card home this week and it was blank]. I had thought about backing it up, but I didn't have time, I thought, what could go wrong?  Oh well.

Here is a picture of my new city.  I am loving it here!  It is so fantastic.  Queenstown is beautiful, but the missionary work stinks, lots of finding.  But here the ward is huge. And we got 7 new investigators this week.  So, man the work here is great, and I am loving the people here!  I can't tell you how excited I am to be working here.  I love it!  District leader is really fun as well.  I feel like I get to know more of what is going on.  My district has really cool people who are all hard workers!  I love them and I love this place!  

Here is a picture of my family.... I trained Elder Richardson (my son), and now he is going to be training his new companion (my grandson).  I left Wednesday afternoon, a few hours after Elder Richardson's companion arrived.  This is taken outside our flat!  I flew to Christchurch and I went on the same plane to Palmerston North, so I didn't get to set my foot in Christchurch this time.  The flight was really windy into and out of Christchurch, so we had to take off and land sideways.  It was a bit scary.  All and all, it has been a fun week!

We do have a car here in my area but we share it with the sisters each week.  We don't get as many kilometers as we did in Queenstown, because we have a smaller area.  It is all good, we mostly just use it to drive to district meetings.  Elder Foremater is the bomb!  He has been out for only 6 weeks and has just finished his training, so I will be completing his training as well. We like the same types of things.... CARS!  And he is going into mechanical engineering too.  He is just great and is a hard worker so we are going to have some baptisms sometime soon!  We have 4 baptismal dates already set with people.  I am so excited to be here.  This week or next week we will be settings dates with those 7 new people that we found.  We are going to be really busy here!  I love it!  

Thank you guys for all your love and support!  I love you all so much!  

Elder Tuckett

Heading up North!

On our way to the Internet shop.... It's beautiful, a little cold, but I have shorts on today!  

It feels great!

Sadly, I am leaving Queenstown.   I am going to miss this place!  I took videos all the way to the Internet shop today.  No more living on the side of a mountain with a beautiful view, it's back to boring city life for me.  I am going back up to the north island to Palmerston North, and I'll be in Fielding.  Elder Richardson got a call from the AP's that he is staying in Queenstown and will be training.  I am not worried about him with the spiritual stuff.... It's just the physical stuff that worries me.  He did buy a GPS, so he can get around, but I don't know how that will be working out on the bike, and I hope he remembers to clean the shower, and do all the things that he needs to do.  I know that The Lord will strengthen him and all things will be great!  

I have been called to be a District Leader.  So, hopefully The Lord will strengthen me spiritually and I will be able to look over the district and know the things that we need to do.  We are called to these positions to make our weaknesses our strengths, right Mom?  So, next week, I will be writing you about being a district leader.  I will interview people to see if they are worthy to enter the waters of baptism.  Or if a missionary stays out too late, then I will be busted too.  Fun times!

I leave on Thursday.  I mailed a package home this week.  It has a lot of goodies in it, so don't throw anything away.   I am sending things that I can't be carrying around.  

Love you,

Elder Tuckett

This is a miniature horse!  It is even smaller than a pony!  We do service for a blind lady every week and this is her horse.  We walk it once a week.  The lady is great and I am going to try to get a picture with her this week.  

I am going to miss the sunrises and sunsets here.  The views are so pretty.  

Everything is so green now, we went to Dunedin again this week. 

 Lots of beautiful scenery.  

Peace out Queenstown, I will miss you... I'm headed back up North!

I LOVED General Conference

 

The flowers are every where here!!!!  Monday we went to the Queenstown Gardens.  It was just unbelievable!  I could not of asked for a better place to serve my mission.  The people are fantastic and there are so many cultures here, and the land is just unbelievable!  I am definitely planning a trip back to Queenstown!  This week I ran into an Elder who served in Queenstown, and he is now back there visiting with his wife!!!  He just went home in March too!  It is just so beautiful here!

It is really starting to warm up down here!  However, we are still in between seasons as one day it will be warm and everyone will be out on the lake, and then the next day, it is freezing and there is snow on the mountain.  

Elder Richardson got his drivers license this week so he has been driving me around a bit.  We have almost died a couple of times.  I am sorry to Mary for telling her she was a bad driver... She is not...  I now know what bad is.  We were driving to Gore on Tuesday, and he was still getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road, so he got too close to the edge a couple times and went in the dirt.  It was so scary!  All is well though, no car flipping or anything like that.  He has gotten heaps better just this week, so we are okay now. 

This week was amazing.  I loved General Conference!  I am pretty sure it was the best General Conference of my life.    I loved Elder Dube's talk so much.  It was great to hear him speak with such enthusiasm.  Saturday conference was my all time favorite.  We got two of our investigators to come to both sessions.  They are so into the bible and love reading it and they read it with the spirit which is the most important!  They have found so much through the bible, it is just crazy!  Since following the spirit and reading the bible, they have learned about the godhead, and they totally understand the plan of salvation and use bible verses to back it up.  They already live the word of wisdom, and they told us that if they had talked to us a year ago, they would of said that we were crazy,  but since they have found out truths for themselves, through the spirit, they believe the things we teach them are true.  It is really cool to see how The Lord prepares people to come unto his fold.  This couple have definitely been prepared to meet us on the path about a month ago.  After all of this, we asked them if they would be baptized, and they said "Let us learn more about your church and we will decide".  They came to the first session of conference and learned about tithing, and heard from our prophet welcoming them to the meeting, then learned about the Holy Ghost, and then the last talk from Elder Uchtdorf put the cherry on top!  He said, come and join the Church of Jesus Christ and help with the work.  It was so amazing!  They were so impressed by what they saw that they were now asking when they could be baptized!  They said "this is the best organization that I have ever seen!, and the last talk made us feel so welcome and wasn't pushy at all!  We really enjoyed it".   

I am so grateful for General Conference and it  opened my eyes of how powerful and beautiful the church is.  I am so grateful for the apostles and prophet and that we get to hear from them every 6 months!  This was seriously one of the best weekends of my entire mission!  I can hardly explain it!  I am so grateful to be part of this church and know that Jesus Christ has restored it to the earth today so we can all be a part of it in the latter days.  We are here to help one another and to endure to the end until the Savior, himself comes again!  

I love you guys so much!

Elder Tuckett

Hanging out by the lake -- the weather has been so nice!

My companion and I. [they take these photos and then they print them up as thanks you notes]

Spring Has Sprung!

Everything is turning green, and flowers are popping up everywhere!  The pictures just can't take in the beauty. Today, we are going to go walking through the city gardens.  It is staying light longer too,  which is nice.  It doesn't get dark until around 8 pm.  I love Queenstown so much.  I don't know how much longer I will stay here though, I have been here four months.  Transfers are on the 24th.  

After 4 months of being here, I finally got to meet the branch president!  He came back from vacation!  Today we are having a welcome home party for him down at the water front.  It will also be a good bye party for our winter visitors.  Yesterday we spent all day inviting less actives and investigators.  Hopefully people show up.  

Not much happened really this week.  However, it did fly by like no other.  We did our district meeting differently.  Instead of driving for three hours each way, we did a conference call.  It saved a lot of time, but I didn't get as much out of the meeting, but it was good, just the same.  It was a fantastic meeting!

A lot of our investigators are struggling right now.  Hopefully they can just jump over these hurdles in the road.  Salvation is and never will be easy.  So, everyone that is a member, just keep enduring to the end, it will be just a small blip in the eternal life!  Thank goodness!  

Thanks so much mom for putting my letters on the blog.  I love you so much, you are the best mom ever!

Love, 

Elder Tuckett

There are flowers popping up everywhere!

Here we are at the water front. 

Just keep knocking...

It is spring now, everything is green and there are flowers everywhere!  I found your favorites Mom, tulips!
 

We found some new investigators this week!  We knocked into 16 year old boy that is friends with  one of the less active members.  We have started teaching him and will hopefully set a baptism date this week.  He is so excited to get baptized.  Hopefully, this will help his less active friend to come to church.  He says he doesn't come because all there are is old people.  I feel so bad for the youth here. 

 

We also have another investigator that really knows the bible.  We invited him to be baptized and he said "I have already been baptized" so we got to explain the priesthood to him. He still hasn't been able to find out where his priest got his priesthood.  He is being difficult now, but he is still letting us come over and he says he will keep reading the Book of Mormon.  

 

We also have this German couple that we keep running into on the Queenstown trail.  They love and follow the bible like no other, it is great.  They learned not to drink alcohol and how the male is the head of the household spiritually, as well as many other things.  They believe the Sabbath is on Sunday still.   We are meeting with them for the first time this week. We also told them we have a living prophet and invited them to watch General Conference.  

 

We met a guy while knocking a while ago and he said that he was going on a vacation so we couldn't go back for like a month, and we went back this week and we met his wife and we were welcomed in and they gave us hot chocolate and trail mix, and we had a great conversation with them,  we gave them a Book of Mormon and they said that they will read it! It is hard to explain, but the conversation went so well and they were so nice that my companion thinks they have the most potential to be baptized.  I love our investigators!  
 

This is an area we were knocking doors.  That little boat is the Earnslaw and it is as old as the titanic.  This neighborhood was so fun to knock in.  Their houses are so cool.  A lot had 4 wheel drive cars too so I loved it even more.  This is where I am going to live when I move here.  

 

I am so excited for General Conference!  President told us to get things set up at the branch to watch conference, he told us to do it because the branch here doesn't like to watch.  Last time, they watched one hour, then decided to have Sunday School and Priesthood.  I was like WHAT?  What about hearing from our prophet?  

I love you so much and miss you!  Keep up the good work that you are doing.  Everyone tells me that you are good at keeping up the blog, Facebook, and Instagram and that you are awesome!  I got mail this week from the Meyers and the Burdens!  

Love, Elder Tuckett

This is the view from the top of our flat!  

Climbing the hill behind our hous

This street is so steep, they have to cut out steps.  

 

Trip to Dunedin

Here I am in Dunedin 

This was a wonderful week!  Mostly the beginning of the week.  We got to drive to Dunedin in that nice new car that we got!  We got to see the Hamulas and I got a hug from Elder Hamula.  I haven't had a hug in a really long time!  It was wonderful!  That made my day right there!  Also, hearing their wonderful talks to us.  Sister Hamula still is wonderful with teenagers and making things great.  Everyone loved her and said she was great.  When she was speaking, she kept saying things to me all the time.  For example, she was making an analogy about a boats with oars and she asked if we knew how water works, and she said "I know Elder Tuckett does!"  She was so funny.  She was amazing and reminded me so much of you.  Then, Elder Hamula.... He knows so much it is crazy, I want to be as knowledgeable as him.  He carries a spirit with him just like the prophet does, it is so cool.  He entered the room and you could just feel it.  He gave some great advice on missionary work.  I was in awe of everything he said and it was all things that I needed to hear for sure.  I just loved it.  When Elder Hamula bore his testimony you know without a doubt his love for the gospel and you could feel the power of it too!  I loved his testimony.  I wish that I could have recorded it so that I could listen to it over and over again.  Again, it was so powerful, one of the most powerful things that I have ever heard.  I loved it!  And then after the meeting, I was the only person to be interviewed by the Hamulas!  Woot, party for Elder Tuckett!  We just sat down and basically talked about life.  It was so wonderful.  I miss them already.  I am so grateful that I got to see them,  it was the first time I met someone from home on the mission, and most likely the last!  They brought me the most awesome package!  Sister Hamula said that she carried it all over the entire mission until she got it to me.  It had heaps of food, a New Zealand flag, sticky notes, and some foot powder so my feet won't stink!  I loved it for sure!  

It is turning so green here.  It is spring now, and it is warm!!!!  I love it because we have four appts to  cut people's lawns this week!  I am wearing short sleeves today, and it feels great!  Another button popped off my shirt, and I haven't even got the one sewed on from last week!  

Things are going great.  I love you so much!  Keep up those great letters you are sending me!

Love, 

Elder Tuckett 

I hope he can drive when he gets back after being on the wrong side of the car and road!  

Mid-week Surprise!!

Having a best friend in New Zealand has it's benefits!  Elder and Sister Hamula did a mission tour this week to Ryan's mission.  Joyce and I were texting all week and we were giddy with excitement about her trip.  She was busy shopping all week getting the perfect package together, then hauled it with her all over his mission until she reached the bottom of the South Island where he was.

If I can't go see him, then having your best friend go is the next best thing.  I love these little treasures
that she sent me after meeting with him yesterday!

Saying good bye with his package