New Companion same area

Elder Mandaza is Rob's new companion.

He is so exited to be in Napier and continuing the work that he is familiar with and the people that he loves. He is grateful to work with Elder Mandaza whos is from Africa.

A Samoan Feed

New Zealand is so awsome! I was able to watch President Hinckley's funeral. I haven't cried like that for a long time. The spirit is so overwhleming at times. I will miss President Hinckley so much. He was the prophet of my time. It is awsome to hear about all the snow! The biggest thing that suprised all of us here was that they cancelled church! That must be HEAPS of snow! I wish I could go skiing. Oh well lets just pray that there will be heaps in two years. I am so excited for the work here! We have 7 progressing investigators! We are not sure yet, but I think we are leading the mission!!! We also have many other investigators that are close to progressing status. I am so excited.

Zone-ing it!

Putting our heads together at Zone Conference

New Zealand Summer in Full Bloom

You'll get a kick out of this one. . .

We were finding , when my companion was kicking some dandylions. [He] can actually kick the heads off. I wanted to try so I go for a nice long one. I was just wearing the wrong shoes that day.

My shoe came right off my foot, flew high into the air and landed on some random roof. I was flabbergasted! Scare the kids!

I then proceeded to befriend a dog so I could get to the door. This dog, like most, was a very nice dog. I then proceeded to knock on the door. No one was home. There was no way up! We looked around for another 10 minutes and finally the guy came out of his house, and he was not happy. I told him why we were so persistant about knocking on his door, and he was almost joyful. He helped us get it down, by using a rope and a piece of wood. He was actually a very nice guy. He was not interested in hearing our message, but I know some day that guy will come lookin' for us. Anywho, random. I was very glad to have my shoe back.

This Bites

Elder McMurdie and I went out to do some more [finding]. There was one house with a ten foot gate! It had a sign on it saying: "beware of dog".

We see hundreds of these a day so I wasn't worried. My companion is terrified of dogs in general. So we both went to the gate and whistled. We tried to get this "dog" to come out. When there wasn't an answer I decided to go in.

I got halfway to the door when I heard heaps of barking coming from around the back of the house. The dog was loose. It came running around the corner barking mad. This has happened before, usually you can just hold still and the dog will stop in front of you. This dog must have been different. The Black Lab came right at me. As soon as I realized the dog wasn't going to stop, I turned to the side quickly. It missed my leg but ripped a small hole in my pants. I was then in a predicament. The dog was now between the gate and me.

I had two options: 1. Fight the dog 2. Try, beyond all hope, to get past the dog and out the gate (that is assuming my "terrified" companion had not already shut the gate on me, it happens all the time).

I chose option two. The dog, after biting me was weeling around to get me again. I do not know how, but I miraculously got past the dog. I ran full on for the gate. My companion was screaming: "hurry up, come on!". I barely squeezed through the gate right as my companion decided to close it. The dog happened to be right on my heels. He got the gate rightfully in the face. My companion calls it a "near death experience". I call it another day of being a missionary