A Rough Start

Hello Friends and Family! We had a wonderful Christmas and were able to talk to Lyndsi on Christmas Day. Here to tell you that an hour is just not long enough! 

Just as an FYI we found out that the mail takes between three and four weeks to get delivered to Lyndsi so if she is slow to respond to your letters that is why. If you would like to email her the email is lyndsi.miggin@myldsmail.net. She isn't allowed to respond directly to you but I will make sure that everyone gets her reply. And I know she would love to hear how everyone is doing because she has been a little home sick the last few days.

Below is the email we received from her this past Monday. 
 
So we left the MTC Wednesday morning and headed down to Hamilton. We did orientation stuff all day and then they put us up in a nasty old motel. We killed about sixteen spiders before we finally gave up and went to bed anyway lol It felt a lot more like a hostel than a motel lol

 Any way the next day we spent with the Mission President and His wife at their house and at 11 in the morning we went to the transfer meeting. I got put in a companion ship of three.


I was sent to Pukekohe which is the scariest part of South Auckland apparently. Its pretty hood but the people have all been pretty nice to us. There are dogs wandering the streets everywhere but they have never given us any problems and EVERYONE is outside all the time. No one has air conditioning so they all sit in their garages and listen to music and stuff we have taught most our lessons outside or in garages.lol All the little kids play outside all day long and none of them where shoes. Elder Herschie saw a sign once that said 1 in 4 kids in New Zealand dont have shoes and he said "Ya thats because 3 out of 4 wont wear them lol" No one wears Shoes!! And all men where their little bootie rugby shorts everywhere.

My two companions are Sister Holmes and Sister Pearce. The first few days with them were HORRIBLE!!!! Poor Sister Holmes is such a peacemaker and Sister Pearce and I were at a rough start. I came in excited and ready to work and she has only been here four weeks and was pissed that we were now in a tri-panionship. She didn't want me here and we have since talked and she said she felt insecure because I am older than both of them and she is barely nineteen she just graduated in June. When I first met here she was  basically my worst nightmare for a companion so I am glad I got it out of my way right of the bat. After three days of spending hours on my knees and crying and thinking what the crap have I done. We talked it all out and there is no other way I can think of that things got better except that God softened my heart and hers because I love both these girls to death now. Yesterday on Sunday things were wonderful we got along like old friends and we saw so many miracles that being the first!!

Our next miracle was when we had an appointment at three right during church so we went on splits and Sister Holmes stayed with a sweet sister in the ward while Sister Pearce and I went to teach a sweet young single mother named Tenaou. We walked all the way to her house and knocked on the door for about ten minutes. No answer. So we picked up her gate that had fallen down and leaned it on the fence and headed back to church about fifteen minutes later when we were almost back to the church mid conversation Sister Pearce says " I think we need to go back." I looked at her funny and kinda said "Seriously?"lol and she said "YUP" And so I said ok lets go it cant hurt. We walked all the way back and Tenaou came walking out the door before we even made it up the driveway. We talked to her for a while and she said that she has been wanting to make some changes in her life to stop drinking and smoking. She stopped talking with the Jehovah witnesses because she felt like something was missing. She pretty much asked me if I really think the gospel could help her overcome her challenges when I said yes she was shocked. She asked us to please come back because she really wanted to learn more!

Next miracle of the sabbath is when we went to visit one of Bishop Tangi's referrals they were busy so we decided to tract a little in the area because we had never been there... OUR AREA IS HUGE!!! And after about thirteen doors this man answered the door named Collin he was probably in his late fifties early sixties he ran and put some pants on and his partner Lillian stayed in their bedroom but he invited us right on in to talk. (p.s. Partner here doesn't mean the same thing as in America NO ONE is married here they all just live together forever) Him and Lillian have been together 23 years. Any way we got talking with him and when I asked him what he knew about the Mormons he knew just a little to much. So I told him that I thought he knew more than he was saying. He laughed and said ya I do its because I used to be Mormon. Eventually the conversation turned into his life story which is he got baptized in the seventies when the missionaries found him he said his first prayer felt the spirit and that was it. He married a return missionary in the temple and they had four kids together. Their marriage lasted ten years and when he talked about how it ended he was so sad. He said he continued going to church for a little while after the divorce where he met Lillian who was an investigator but she has never been baptized. He said that after that he got into the anti-Mormon stuff on the internet and that is how he fell away from the church. He quizzed us on that for a bit but when we asked him if he once really believed the church is true he said yes. He said he has been praying about finding a church and when he has seen us walking around he has just been to scared to stop. He promised to read and pray about the book of Mormon again. And when we left the appointment he said the most heart felt prayer I have literally ever heard. He was pleading with God for the truth right in front of us. Also thanks for the sparkly eyes mom he kept talking about how sparkly my eyes are. Anyway miracles happen I love you all so much I miss you!!
  
As always please keep Lyndsi and her companions in your prayers and I will keep you posted on her progress. 

Love, Nicole