Hello Everyone!!

It's crazy to think that another week has come and gone. Its true about what they say about time flying when on a mission. I seriously emailed you like yesterday. But not really.

So this past week has been amazing. First of all one of the sisters was honorably released mid-transfer so her companion joined my companion and I so we are now in a trio! Woohoo its like a party all day long. not really. But I love it. So my "new other" companion is Sister Whiting. Funny because we were in the MTC together so we are really good friends. She is the one in the pictures with the beautiful red hair. Anyways she is great. When Sister Whiting joined us we also picked up two more wards. I now have more than three streets! I can't tell you how happy I am. Another awesome thing is that Sister Whiting also brought with her two investigators that are set to be baptized next week. One is a fourteen year old girl that lives with her grandma who is a member. The other is a woman who is married to a less-active member. So the girl is for sure going to be baptized next Saturday but we are probably going to have to push back the date for the woman. Its a standard that a person has to come to church three times in a row in order to be baptized and the woman came last week but she just had a baby so she isn't going to be able to come to church for a few weeks. But she still wants to be baptized so that is great. I am so flippen excited!  We also have a few families that may turn into new investigators so please keep us and them in your prayers so that they can take the leap and let us teach them.

I have loved being in a trio with Sister Whiting because we are so similar and we have the same goals and mindset. We also have similar teaching styles so we have been really effective so far. I hope that we will be in this trio for a while but we really don't know how long it will last. Because of the mission split we have no idea when the next transfers are so we have no idea how long we will be together. I hope that it is a long time. I can't imagine how hard it is going to be to go back to having just one ward and three non-members. But I know that everything will work out the way that it is supposed to.

I met President Rudd on Thursday and he is great! He has an awesome sense of humor and his wife is so sweet. Its going to be great to get to know them better. I also love the fact that he will be my mission president for my entire mission. When I met him though I just knew that this is the man that God called to lead this mission so that was a neat experience. Plus he lives in our neighborhood and right across the street from the VC so we see him all the time. I guess this is a big deal too because the other sisters said that they never saw President Lekias because he was always in Auckland. Another funny thing is that Sister Rudd just comes to hang out at the VC while President is in a meeting or busy doing something. She really is great and I am excited to get to know her better.

I rode by bike for the first time the other day. Because my original area was so small it wasn't even worth it to ride our bikes we just put them in the shed and forgot about them. Well now we have a huge area. I guess I got what I wanted when I asked for a bigger area because now one of the wards that Sister Whiting brought with her is enormous. Honestly it takes a 30 minute car ride to reach the end of our boundaries. This is because it is made up of huge farms and so the houses are all spread out. So obviously it is impossible for us to visit a majority of the homes on a bike in the three hours that we are allotted. I guess for the most part this ward is kinda neglected by the missionaries because Sister Whiting's previous companion had a hard time riding her bike for a long time. We decided however to try it again with the three of us. There is a family that we specifically wanted to visit because the mom is pretty much a member but she hasn't been baptized and the kids are all begging to be baptized but the husband in less-active and so he is the one that is really holding everything up. So they live far out on one of these farms and so we were going to ride out and see them and see what we could do to help. I was worried though because I haven't really ridden a bike since before my surgery. I know you are laughing right now... I still know how to ride a bike! I just didn't know if I would be able to ride that far and for that long. My knee has already been giving me some trouble so I was worried. Anyways we decided to just ride our bikes around our neighborhood and to a service project and a few other places. So riding my $600 was better than I thought it was going to be. Let me just say that it is a really nice bike. But anyways it did make my knee sore but that was the only problem I had. I was all ready to ride out to that family but we called them and the mom said that they are out of town so we will try again sometime this week and I will let you know how it goes.

Alright now I have a funny story from last night. So we went over to eat at this members home but they were having like this huge family get together so there were a ton of people. It was great because it felt so familiar. The thing though that made it feel like home was their sense of humor. The things that the men in the family were joking and the way that they went about it sounded just like our family. They were hilarious. At one point one of the men at the table turns to me and Sister Whiting (who is from Utah) and says "Are you democrats?" and I was a little stunned because I was not expecting that. So I guess I hesitated to answer and I was also worried because the white handbook says that we are to abstain from any political conversations so I just didn't know what to say. I guess I took to long to answer because he looks me right in the eye and says "Now would be a good time to lie if you are." The whole family just burst out laughing and I assured them that I was NOT a democrat. They then asked if I owned a gun and I told them that I personally didn't but that my dad and other family members did. Anyways they then started making jokes about Obama and liberals and if it weren't for their accents I would have thought that I was back at home surrounded by my family. It was great. It makes me think though that even New Zealanders can see the problems that most americans can't. That's as political as I am allowed to get but I thought that you would enjoy that story. (especially you Dad).

Okay so I have another meal story for you. Most nights we just eat here at the VC because we are on shift. But there are a few nights that we are able to eat at members homes. So it is a lot easier than I thought because so far I have just had really good food. And they automatically eat ketchup (or tomato sauce as they call it) on everything. I tell you I fit right in at meal time. However we were eating at a members house the other night and she has just served us and she ran back to the kitchen to grab something and she yells "I hope that you aren't allergic to anything" and I thought to myself "I am allergic to cashews but I this meal looks safe so I won't say anything" I then took a bite of the salad but then I tasted something crunchy. So I look down and I saw that there were almonds and cashews in the salad. Uh-oh was my first thought and then I hoped that I had eaten an almond and not a cashew. Sister Whiting then looks at me and points to the salad because she knows that I am allergic to cashews. I mouthed that I wasn't sure whether or not I had already eaten one. Then the lady walked back in and so we couldn't talk anymore. I felt bad and I didn't want to embarrass the lady that was feeding us because I really like her so I just kept eating and I prayed that I had just eaten and almond. But then I started to feel it and I knew that I had in fact eaten a cashew. So yup I had a reaction and this one was bad. I got hives on my chest and my face and my throat was swollen for a couple of hours. I wonder if my reactions are getting worse. Anyways I made it out of the house without the lady knowing but we had to go home so that I could take some allergy medicine. I just have benadryl (I have no idea how to spell that ) here and it didn't really help, it just made me really sleepy. Anyways you should tell me what to get just in case this happens again and the reaction is as bad. But its still kinda funny story. Because I ate the cashew literally right after she asked it we were allergic to anything. Oh the joys of serving a mission.

I have found one thing that I hate about New Zealand and I am worried that I won't be able to last another 16 months. The thing that I hate is that they DON'T HAVE PICKLES HERE! Isn't this devastating? I would give anything for a pickle right now. It has been like a month and a half since I have had one and I want one so bad. All they have here is the stupid sweet kind. It is devastating. I guess that I will have to survive somehow.

Well I am sorry that this is a relatively short letter haha. I can't think really of anything else to tell you. I have settled into life here and I can say that I love it more and more with each passing day. The members here are incredible and I love serving in the Visitors' Center. I love being a missionary!

I love and miss all of you!

Love, Maquel

P.S. Nicole Hampton if you are reading this on my blog you need to email me! I can't find the letter you sent me and so I don't know your email address. I want to hear how life is going! Also I am currently wearing the scarf you gave me for Christmas. Every time I look down I am reminded of you. :)

Oh and I found this mormon ad that I think you all need to learn from.

hint hint...

NEW ZEALAND HAMILTON MISSION!

Hello Dear Family!

    Well it's official I am now one of the first missionaries in the NEW ZEALAND HAMILTON MISSION! I cannot explain to you how exited I am. It is so cool to be able to say that and I feel so privileged to be one of the first missionaries in this mission. Our new mission President flew in Saturday morning but I haven't met him yet. I guess he came into the VC last night but I wasn't on shift. So far four sisters have met him and I guess that him and his wife are just really nice. The one thing that I was worried about was that he wouldn't have a sense of humor but I have been assured by a number of people that he is a pretty funny guy. One of our senior missionaries knew him before his mission and he said "He's a hoot" so I am feeling pretty good about things. They are from Utah too so all of the Americans keep making jokes about that and the fact that the two assistants are from America as well. But anyways if I am scheduled to meet him Thursday but hopefully I will meet him before that. Because I came here knowing that I was going to be in this mission and have a new mission president, I didn't really get to know President Lekias because from day one it didn't really feel like he was my mission President. Him and his wife were really nice though so a lot of the missionaries that have been here for a long time are struggling. But I am just so excited because I feel like my "real" mission president is here now and my mission is officially starting.

    Things here in Temple View went well last week. My companion and I are doing better I guess. We are just SO different that it has been really challenging.  Its nice when we are at the VC because we don't have to be right next to our companion. We can be in different rooms and be doing separate things and so it gives us a break from each other. The thing is though she is really nice and she is a great teacher and missionary but our personalities just do not mix. I am sure that she still doesn't know what to think of me and my loud sense of humor. You know last week how I told you that I knocked on the other sisters' window and scared one of them half to death? Well it scared her too and she still doesn't understand why I did it. I have tried to explain to her that it was a joke and she thinks that I am just a mean person. She also heard me telling another sister about the crazy things that Jade, Nicole, and I used to do to the Isaacsons and others and I think that confused her even more. I just think that I got a double dose of ounry from both of my parents and some people just don't know how to handle my personality. (Well she is the only one that doesn't think that I am funny. Everyone else seems to like me... I think...) Anyways I am doing my best to identify with her and that is all I really can do. Unfortunately I can't change my personality.

   Okay so remember when I was little and I always wanted to be in a cloud? Like literally? Well I may not have actually told you that but I used to think it would be the coolest thing ever. I can now say been there done that and it is not as great as it sounds. In fact I hate it because it destroys my hair. But we literally walk in a cloud every day because it is so foggy. I have never seen anything like it. It gets so bad sometimes that we have to watch the ground when we walk because we can't even see two feet in front of us. Don't worry I have only ran into a pole once. But seriously it is nuts! The Maori people named New Zealand Aoteroa which means "land of the long white cloud" and I now know what they meant by that. One night we left our flat and my hair was in really tight curls like it normally was at home and then hours later when we were walking home Sister Hiyas asked "When did you straighten your hair?" I am not joking. It literally takes all the curl our of my hair and then it makes all of these random pieces stick up everywhere. It looks absolutely awful. No matter what I do or how hard I try I still end up looking like a frumpy sister missionary. Its so sad. I am going to have to take some before and after pictures one of these days so that you will believe me. Walking in the clouds is not all its cracked up to be I can tell you that much.

   I went on my first tade-offs this week. Because of the influx of sister missionaries, the church created a new leadership position for sister missionaries and they are called the sisters' training leaders. They function somewhat like the district and zone leaders but only for the sisters. but they are in charge of initiating trade-offs which is where one companion goes with one of the STL's to their area for 24 hours and the other companion stays in her area with the other STL. So I got to leave Temple View and spend 24 hours as a full proselyting missionary with one of the STL's. I really liked it because I got first of all see another area in New Zealand and I also got to experience a day as a full proselyting missionary. I even got to teach my first official lesson! It was so great and the young man that we taught was just so prepared. I can't wait until I get a real investigator of my own because it is just the best. But we did have some not-so-nice experiences but I guess that happens to everyone. There was this man that we were talking to on the street and it sounded like he has had a hard life and so I really wanted to help him but every time I would say something he would just interrupt me with some dumb contradictory comment. It was so frustrating so finally I told him to listen to me and I then began bearing to him one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever born. When I was speaking the words I could just feel the spirit so strong re-affirming to me that the words that I was speaking were true. I even began to get emotional because I could feel it so strongly. The power and the fire that I felt inside was indescribable. The thing that was different about this time bearing my testimony was that it was fueled by the knowledge that the things that I knew could help this man completely turn his life around and help him find the happiness that he had been searching for. Even though I had just met this man and he wasn't being very nice I felt a real love for him and I know that that was just Heavenly Father's love for this man that I was able to feel. So I bore this testimony and I felt electrified after I was done. He then looked up and made another dumb comment about something so irrelevant that I have now forgotten what he even said. The thing is though that I know he felt the spirit. I know my words cut deep into his soul because I could see it in his eyes. He just wouldn't let himself accept it and that is his choice. If anything though this experience taught me that the power and strength of my testimony is not measured by whether or not people accept it. The fact that people choose not to listen or choose not to believe me doesn't change the fact that these things are true. I know that Heavenly Father lives and that he loves each and everyone of us. I know that Jesus Christ came to earth and atoned for our sins. I also know that His gospel was restored to the prophet Joseph Smith and that he translated the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know all of these things and more are true and the fact that other people don't listen to me or don't believe me, it doesn't change the fact that these things are true. So even though that man chose not to accept my message, I still cherish that experience because I learned so much about myself and my testimony that night. I also think that that was just the first of many similar situations.

   I have mentioned in the past that we do chat as part of our Visitor Center assignments. Some interesting things have happened lately though where that is concerned. So the way my day normally works is I spend half of it out in my area and then I spend the other half in the VC. Then half of my time in the VC is spend down of chat. For the first couple of weeks here however, we would go to get on chat at our assigned time of 6 pm NZ time and the chats center would be closed. So Elder McLauchlin called Salt Lake and told them to keep chat open until 9 pm NZ time and so that's 3 am Utah/New Mexico time. The chat director in Salt Lake was worried though that it would be a waste of resources because he thought it would be too late and people would all be asleep so no one would get on chat. But he decided to give it a try. Well the number of chats coming through at that time have been so high that they have had to bring more people into the call center in Provo to help keep up with the traffic. They have said that since they have extended the hours, they have been getting more chats during those hours than any other time of day. So Its great to be a part of that. But really, here in New Zealand we have the optimum time to be on Chats because it is late at night in the US and its in the middle of the night that people are laying awake with questions that the Gospel can help answer. Now that's the great thing about chat but there is a hard part that comes along too and that is that when we sign onto chat, we are opening ourselves up to the world and anyone can get on and say/ask anything. We get a ton of people who just want to bible bash with us or they get on to convince us that our church isn't true. We get people who make inappropriate jokes and say rude things to us. It can be really hard sometimes but it is all worth it when we get that one person who is so prepared. When that happens I get their information and I then teach them online until they are able to meet with their local missionaries. Right now I am currently teaching four people via email and they are all in the United States. So its great because we can use this technology to spread the gospel all around the world even through I am sitting in a small room in New Zealand. But can you guess what the most common question on chat is? Is it about the Book of Mormon? no. Is it about Joseph Smith? No. Is it about polygamy? No. The most common question that is asked during almost every single chat is "Do mormons believe that God lives on a planet named Kolob?" I am serious. This is the most common question and it drives me nuts!

   So all in all a pretty uneventful week here in the beautiful land of New Zealand. I love and miss all of you! Do your best to be missionaries yourselves everyday. When members do their part, it makes our job so much easier. Also if it is ever pouring rain and you see the missionaries walking, don't just honk and wave, pull over and give them a ride! Its always the worst when we are walking in the rain and people honk at us just to wave as they drive by. They aren't doing it to mock us. The people here always honk and wave whenever they see us anywhere but the thing is they also do it when its raining so I am telling you if you see the missionaries walking in the rain, do me a favor and give them a ride. Anyways I love all of you!

Tune in next week for an exciting update from the New Zealand Hamilton Mission!

Love, Sister Simkins
 

Dear Family,

Well another week has gone by and let me tell you the time has started moving really fast. It honestly feels like I emailed you yesterday. So things here are so exciting as we prepare to open a new mission! I feel so blessed to be a part of this amazing experience. Big changes are headed here to Hamilton and it will be interesting to see what happens. We had our final meeting with President Lekias and his wife. It was a little weird because it was the second time that I have ever met him and it was also the last. The other missionaries were all emotional and the five of us that got here at the beginning of the month just felt really bad that we weren't sad. It was pretty awkward. But seriously I came here knowing that I was going to be in the Hamilton Mission and that I would have a different Mission President. It is just so crazy to think that I am one of the first missionaries in the New Zealand Hamilton Mission!

Well not much happened this week. During the hours that we aren't in the VC, my companion and I just walk around our three streets hoping that one of the members will let us in to share a message. Sometimes I feel really useless but I guess that Heavely Father just wants me to learn a lesson. Two of the non-member homes won't even open their door for us. I can totally see them watching us from inside and they still don't open their doors. Its so sad. Anyways its their choice. Right now we are really working with this one family. The wife is an active member but the Husband is a returning member who has been disfellowshiped but he is working really hard to come back. They hope that everything will be resolved by September and they are aiming to be sealed as a family by the end of the year. We are just trying to strengthen them. The wife says that our lessons help him stay strong against the temptations so that makes me feel a little better. We are just really trying to find our place in this ward and find where the work is. Oh! So last night we went to visit this lady who hasn't been to church in like 8 years and she let us in and her husband was there who isn't a member and he listened to our message and they both said that we could come back again and teach them so please pray that he will soften his heart that we may have a real investigator. I just want to teach so bad. I have been here for two-and-a-half weeks and I haven't even taught the first lesson yet. I just hope that maybe we can teach this man and help his wife come back to church.

So I have been making a list of things to tell you about and so I am just going to go for it. Now I have never "loved" chocolate because it isn't New Zealand chocolate. This stuff is made in heaven. I LOVE NEW ZEALAND CHOCOLATE! There is nothing else like it. I will have to send some home because it is sooooo good. I cannot even explain it. The members give it to us all the time so we are always eating it and it never gets old. I am telling you Mom, you would die.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that short shorts are alive and well here with the men of NZ. That's right, the men here (even members) wear short shorts! It is the grossest thing. The women don't wear shorts but the men sure do and it drives me crazy. It is winter here and it is freezing and they still all run around in their jean cutoffs. I cannot imagine what it is going to be like this summer.

This brings me to another topic: the cold. Yes it is freezing here and it rains like crazy. I love the rain but not when I am walking around in it. Luckily I have some amazing boots that keep my feet dry and warm (I will never be able to think you enough Cassie). The cold is so different than New Mexico cold though because of the moisture in the air. It is awful. But its crazy because its freezing but everything else is still green. Watch the Lord of the Rings again when they are in the Shire and that's what it really looks like. Everything is so green and beautiful.

Now back to the Lord of the Rings, "the shire" or where they filmed the movies is in my zone so technically I could go but it is like $70 NZ dollars which means $50 American dollars. Do you thing that its worth it? Should I go? We are all debating whether or not we should go on a P-Day. Let me know what you think.
Because we don't have anyone to teach we do a lot of service. So earlier this week we hiked up to this huge house in the other sister's ward to pain this fence for them. The lady who owns the house uses it a bed and breakfast. I will send a picture of it. Anyways we were going to help them paint this huge fence but because it had been raining we couldn't so we just did stuff for her around the house. But this place was so cool because she had all of these animals. There were little ponies, alpacas, goats, and all kinds of other animals. So I will send some pictures of those. There was this one huge goat sitting by the road and I touched it but then it made this weird sounds and it got up and started to run after me. Luckily it was tied to the fence. It scared the crap out of me though and we all had a good laugh.

I am also that being a missionary hasn't changed my personality t0o much. Last night we were walking over the flat where two other sisters live and one of them was washing dishes by the window and I couldn't resist. I went up and banged on the glass as loud as I could. Sister Holmes jumped and dropped whatever she was holding. Now the window is made of frosted glass and it was dark outside so she couldn't see me but she still yelled "Sister Simkins!!" Hahahaha I laughed so hard. I really do love the other sisters that I serve with. We have so much fun together. It makes be a missionary that much greater.

My companion and I are doing better. She is talking more and I think she getting used to my personality. She make really good food all the time so that is a plus.

Now have you heard about the church college here? Well the church built this college here in the 1950's and they closed it in 2009 for some reason and now they are getting ready to tare it down and they are going to build this massive stake center and the mission office and other church buildings so it is really exciting. However, the members here are infuriated that the church is doing this. Some people are even apostatizing because they are so angry. The college apparently meant so much to them and now the fact that they are going to demolish it has left some people seriously questioning the prophet and the church. It is really sad to watch because I know that the church is doing what they think is best and I know that this is going to be so good for the people of Temple View but they just can't see that. Like I said big changes are happening here in NZ. Word on the street is that they are also going to close the temple and do to it what they are doing to the Ogden Temple. I don't think that they will do that within my time here.

Another thing is that because the temple now closes on Monday the missionaries only get to go twice a years so that is really sad. The next time isn't until September but we all have our fingers crossed that we will get to do a session when President Rudd comes.

But ya m new mission president is President Rudd and he is from Utah. Go America! Anyways he arrives this Saturday and the new mission officially begins next Monday. It is so exciting!

Today during our shopping and Honky Cat by Elton John was playing and I just stopped and enjoyed. It reminded me of home. I miss that kind of music more than I thought I would and so it was nice to hear it. I will probably need to repent later because I enjoyed it and the white handbook says that music should not "merely entertain".

So guess what the main fast food place here is. It's KFC. Who would have thought? But the people here love it! They are everywhere. When you get KFC from a member it means that they really like you. I haven't got any yet so I guess that I need to step it up. But people call the Auckland mission the 20 kilo mission because that is how much weight you gain while serving here. I am scared and we are being careful. We also exercise for 30 minutes every morning so that is helpful.

So I have only met two people here in NZ that know where New Mexico is. One of them served his mission in Albuquerque and the other said he lived in the Navajo reservation for awhile. The one who lived on the rez asked me where I was from and I said New Mexico and he then said "Farmington?" It was crazy and he then said that they used to come every three months or so to Farmington to get their groceries. But everyone asks me where I am from and the conversation goes something like this:

"Where are you from Sister?"

"New Mexico in the United States"

"Cool. So do you speak Spanish?"

"No New Mexico is in America. We speak English."

"Okay then why is it called New Mexico?"

It goes like that EVERY time. I don't know what to say to avoid this conversation because it is so awkward. But I love the people here. They are the best. They have a different sense of humor though and I feel like sometimes they don't get my sarcasm or jokes so that can be uncomfortable. I am working on that though.

So I only get mail here twice a month so it doesn't even seem worth it for you to mail me letters. If we just talk though email then its instant. I know that's lame but I think its the best way to communicate. Postage here is also super expensive so I am sorry but I will not be mailing very much out. If you still need it though my new mailing address is:

letters-

Sister Maquel Marie Simkins

PO Box 9543

Waikato Mail Centre

New Zealand

package:

Sister Maquel Marie Simkins

131 Ward Street

Hamilton Central

Hamilton 3204

New Zealand

Well I guess that's all for this week. I love and miss all of you. Let me know how things are going. Have a good week!

Love, Sister Simkins

This is me and Sister Holmes. I love this girl and I think that we are going to be friends even after our missions. But we tool this picture because we were wearing both wearing navy blue.

This one is of the New Zealand landscape. This is what everything looks like. I have seen places prettier than this but I didn't get a picture. It is incredible here! I took this one night at the VC. I think its pretty cool.

Ok so to put you all at ease I am doing SO much better. I don't know what happened the first few days but I am fine now. I honestly think that I was severely homesick and I couldn't pull myself out of it. However, I think that the Lord wanted me to learn something and so now I am fine. Thank you for all of your prayers because I promise you I felt them.

Some basic info that I forgot last week. So I am officially going to be in the New Zealand Hamilton Mission. Woohoo! The mission splits on July 1st so big things are happening here. I am currently serving in the VC with seven other sisters, three of which I was in the MTC with so that has been really fun. My companion and I also live in a house with another companionship and one of them I was in the MTC with so we are really good friends. We often have to force ourselves to quit talking and laughing and go to sleep. So my companion's name is Sister Hiyas and she is from the Philippines. We are very different and so that has presented some challenges but we are trying to work through them. The funny thing about her through is that she is literally 4 foot six. I kid you not she is so tiny!

So we live in a place in Hamilton called Temple View and the hard part about temple view is that there are no investigators. My area is just three streets. So we have to spend all of our time outside of the VC on just those two streets. It is really frustrating sometimes. We have three non-member houses. One is this elderly couple who won't even open the door all of the way to talk to us, another is this 60 year old man who lives alone and he says we are only aloud to talk to him if we don't talk about religion (pretty pointless as a missionary), and the last house is a Samoan Family who knows the church is true but they don't want to break their family tradition of attending the Samoan Congregational Church.  Depressing right? It is also really hard because the Auckland mission has the goal of 200 baptisms this month before the mission splits and so far we are at 205 total between the ones that are scheduled and accomplished and its sad to me that my efforts aren't a part of that. Hopefully soon I can do some real teaching. I haven't even taught a real lesson yet.

Mom, you should be happy though because I am in the safest area in the mission. Because there are so many Mormons people don't even lock their doors around here. I also heard that some sisters in another area were chased one night by four drunk men. At least I don't have to worry about that here. So the guy that is a non-member that won't let us talk about religion says that he read somewhere that Mormons, as a whole, live longer and so that is why he chose to live in Temple View. He is hoping that the Mormon's "Good Health" will rub off on him. Haha anyways it is a nice area because of all of the great members but there isn't anything to do. So what we have to do now is we visit the members each night and practice teach them the first lesson. It's our hope that when we come to teach them that they will bring in their non-member friends for us to teach but so far that hasn't happened yet. But ya I don't feel like a real missionary yet. I don't know if I ever will.

Another interesting story from this week has to do with my first experience street contacting or "tracting". So we have this mission goal that everyday we "talk with everyone" and we are supposed to get at least 20 a day and they have to be people that you meet on the street or by knocking on doors that aren't members. On a normal day in our area we are lucky to get one. So the sisters training leaders texted us the other day and said that they had gotten permission from president to take us to their area so that we could get more TWE's. So their area is very low-income and it didn't look like the best place in NZ. Anyways it was around 7 at night which means it was dark and we began talking to people as they walked down the street and most people were pretty rude and mean but whatever. That's their choice. We were also told that we could knock on doors if we wanted to. Now this is an area with very few members and there is a lot of work to do. So we were walking down the street and I had a prompting to go to this one house. I ignored it and kept walking but it came again two more times so I told my companion and we walked back and knocked on the door. Now I know what you are thinking, you are expecting me to tell you that we met someone who was so prepared to hear the gospel. Well no. They were member but we went in and talked to them anyways. When we left I was bummed because I had really thought that I was prompted. Later on we were still walking and my companion was prompted to visit this other house. So we knocked on the door and then this lady opens it and says "Oh hello Sisters!" That's right they were members too. What are the odds of finding two member houses in this area? I told you before that there aren't very many. But we still went in and talked to them for a while. After we left I was really upset because I didn't know how we could be so off. I began to question if I even understand what a prompting is. I just couldn't understand why we were both prompted to go see members. So I kept questioning what happened and then all of the sudden these powerful words came into my mind (keep in mind it is dark out) "Don't question me. This time it was for your protection." I just know now never to doubt a prompting because they go so much further than just leading us to find people to teach. I also can't imagine what might have happened had we ignored those promptings. Think about it though. Heavenly Father needed is to be protected from something/someone so he led us to two of the members houses in an area with hardly any. It is just incredible to me now that I think about it.

Another neat story from this week has to do with the VC. So it was around 8 at night a few nights ago and I was sitting at the welcome desk while the VC director and his wife we down having dinner when this rough looking couple walked in. Let me just say that they didn't look like our typical visitors. The first thing that the man says is "Hey is that a Mormon temple?" pointing out the window. I told him that it was and then he asked to take a picture of it to send to his mom and I told him to go ahead. He then explained that he was raised in the church but that he hasn't been active for many years. So they then went into the main room to take a picture. Now it was just my companion and I on the floor and other people came in and I was distracted and they left without me getting a chance to talk more with them. I was pretty bummed. Then the director and his wife came back and we were just standing there talking when the guy came rushing back in and he looked really upset about something. He then said "Now I know that I can't go into the temple but is there someone here that can give my fiance a blessing? She is pregnant and about to get on a plane and we won't see each other until we get married next year. She is really upset and I just know that the only thing that can help right now is a blessing. Can you please help." Now because the director was standing right there he told the man to bring her in and that he would give her a blessings. So he brought her in and they went into the director's office and the three of them talked for a while and then the director gave her a blessing. Afterwords he went to the part of the center that shows pictures of the inside of the temple and he explained about eternal families. The couple then left. I asked the director what happened and he said that the man had explained that they were driving to Auckland and they just decided to travel a different way this time but they didn't know why. So they were driving and then the man saw the temple in the distance all lit up and for some reason he just knew that he had to stop. Then as there were getting ready to leave the woman just had a complete meltdown and the man didn't know how to help here and then he said that something just told him to have her get a blessing. I don't know what happened to the couple and I probably never will but this was no coincidence. I have such a strong testimony of the VC. I really love serving here. I gave a tour on Saturday to a girl who at the end said that she wants to get baptized and I set her up with the elders in her area and she is going to have the lessons so that she can get baptized. Its just the coolest thing. I wish that I could spend all of my time here because when I am here I actually feel productive whereas in my area I just feel useless.

Anyways things here are good and I hope that things at home are as well. I have really settle in here and I am learning to love it. It is just very wet. It rains all the time and the humidity is a killer. My hair always looks awful. Anyways I love and miss all of you. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY again Dad. Give my Molly a kiss for me!

Love, Maquel

here's my address for now!!

(for letters)
Sister Maquel Marie Simkins

New Zealand Auckland Mission

PO Box 88-840

Takapuna

North Shore City 0622

New Zealand

(packages)

Sister Maquel Marie Simkins

New Zealand Auckland Mission

7A Auburn Street

Takapuna

North Shore City 0622

New Zealand

 

Hello!

 

Wow another P-day is here! So let me explain yesterday's email. So as VC's we get to do the call center and chat and that was the conversation that my companion and I had with a real investigator. It was the coolest thing! I just had the feeling that Heavenly Father has been preparing JD for our message. We also emailed him and he emailed us back saying that when he gets home he really wants to meet with the missionaries! Man I love this! A lot of the other sisters had similar experiences over chat and over the phone. Its so cool!

 

So VC training is the best! This this has been my favorite part so far. I feel like my teachers understand me more then the others and I love that. So Wednesday we wnet to Temple Square and did a tour and then had a meeting with a member of the VC board of directors who told us about our Visitor's Centers. She said that the New Zealand one is very busy and that it is seeing a ton of success. She also said that we will be switched to the Hamilton Mission when the change is made. I am excited because she said that for the majority of my mission I will spend half the day at the VC and the other half doing normal mission stuff. I am super super excited! We have also been practicing how to give tours and how to have our visitors have a converting experience within a shot amount of time. I love this because we don't have to stress about teaching so that they understand the details. All of our teaching is centered around Christ and then everything else builds on that.

 

My teacher also told us how we were called to the VC. She said that when she was on her mission in DC, L. Tom Perry visited her VC and explained it like this: when whichever Apostle is making calls, he looked at our picture he looks at the eyes and if he can see a testimony of the atonement, the spirit prompts him that this is a Visitor Center Missionary. Then the paper gets sent to a separate pile and after all of the other calls have been made, they sit down and say a special prayer as to where each person is supposed to go and to which Visitor's Center. I hope I explained that well enough. But isn't that so cool??

 

So anyways, this week has been going really well. The beginning of the week was kinda sad because the Elders in our district left and we had gotten really close with them. They are in Oklahoma now cleaning up the mess there. (See why I am afraid of Tornadoes?) Anyways it was just the sister's in our district here for a while. There are six of us total and five are going to NZ and the other one is going to London. I am sad that I won't get to see her again because she is so darn cool! Her name is Sister Sua and she is from Sydney Australia and I love to just hear her talk. She also says funny stuff like "I reckon we should clean the room" or "I'm really keen on going to dinner". She is just the best. The other girls are awesome too. We all get along so well. Some times we miss lights out because we are having so much fun talking and laughing. Now we are in a big class with all of the VC sisters here in the MTC. There are about 20 of us and some are going to NZ, Mesa :), Hawaii, London, and Idaho Falls. I love talking to the Mesa sisters. Two of them are from Idaho and they are so scared for the heat. I just laugh. But Mesa is in good hands because they are awesome!

 

I can't believe that this week marks the one year anniversary of my knee surgery. I was sitting here thinking about this last year and everything that has happened and now I am in the MTC. The Lord truly knows that he is doing and he has a plan for me I know it! Its just crazy because I never would have guessed that I would be here today. Its so amazing.

 

My companion and I are still getting along great. We seriously laugh all the time. In class there is this Russian girl who always turns around and gives us dirty looks haha. She doesn't understand our humor I guess. But really I am so blessed to have Sister Swindler. Funny story though, so last night we were headed to our class on the fourth floor and I am sick right now so I have a really bad cough and it gets worse when I have to climb the stairs so we decided to take the elevator. Anyways we get in and hit the "close door" button and the door is almost shut and it gets stuck! There was a small gap between the frame and the door but there was no way that we could fit through it. So Sister Swindler hits the "open door" button and it moves back a few inches and then starts to close again and it gets stuck. Meanwhile the elevator is making this awful beeping noise and we were starting to freak out but we were laughing so hard all at the same time. So we keep pressing the open button and it opens just enough for my companion to slide through so she gets out and it closes and gets stuck. So I planned to reach over and hit the button and then jump out but after I hit the button the door closed and I was stuck in the elevator by myself. So I sat there for a minute trying to push buttons and get out but then all of the sudden its starts moving up and it took me to the fourth floor and let me out. However my companion didn't know that so she is still at the bottom freaking out because she thinks that I am stuck so she panics and starts running up the stairs as I am frantically trying to run down the stairs to tell her that I am ok. She then gets stopped by a teacher yelling "Sister where is your companion?!" and so she is out of breath trying to get the teacher to believe that I am stuck in the Elevator. I finally found her though and then the teacher believed her and we all had a good laugh but man it was stressful. I thought people only get stuck in elevators on movies. I told Sister Swindler that we were being punished because she snuck an apple out of the cafeteria even though we aren't allowed to take food out. Haha it was pretty funny afterwards.

 

Okay mom I will be calling you on Monday night but I am not sure what time. I don't know if I will call from the SL airport or the San Fran airport so please HAVE YOUR PHONE ON AT ALL TIMES!! I really want to talk to all of you so please try your best to have your phone. The next time I will get to talk to you is Christmas so we have to make this count. This is also that last email you will get from the MTC. The next one will be from New Zealand.

 

Tell Kim I got her packages and I am soooo grateful! She is the best!

 

So I guess this is it as far as the big stuff goes. I love and miss all of you soooo much!

 

Love, Maquel

 

 

 

Hi Family!!

 

Where do I even start??

 

Well this week has been crazy, uplifting, spiritual, discouraging, and exciting. I promise it was just like that.

 

So I guess I will start with last Sunday. So I have to admit I was a little homesick. As I was sitting in relief society I looked at my watch and realized that you were all at church and that thought made me really homesick. Then you know how the adversary works and I started to ask myself why I am even here and what I was doing. It was really hard. Then we stood up to sing As Sisters in Zion but they have new lyrics for it that are all about the amount of sisters serving a mission (google it. I promise they are amazing). It is so amazing to me that in that moment of weakness the Lord sent me a tender mercy and then the Spirit bore witness to me again of my calling to spread the gospel. Anyways it was great!

 

Then the week progressed full of classes and studying. The teachers here are amazing and I am learning so much. I feel however that I am always one step ahead of the others because of mission prep. I came in here with stuff like the first vision and my purpose memorized and now everyone is still struggling to memorize it. I also had a decent grasp on the Preach My Gospel lessons as well as how to teach them so that was really nice because we began teaching the second day we got here.

 

Now this week has been full of challenges though and I feel like I should tell you so that you get an accurate view of what I am experiencing. So here in the MTC we have what we call progressing investigators. They are our teachers who portray one of the investigators that they taught on their mission and we are supposed to teach them as they are a real person. Now I said before that I had a grasp on the lessons and teaching. However that doesn't mean that its easy. In fact the first lesson we taught was so HARD! I mean man I was discouraged. The next lesson however was so amazing. We even got him to pray with us. Now I technically what we are doing is role playing however Elder Holland said that this is how the Lord wants his missionaries trained and when we do the role playing it feels real. I see John (my investigator) as a real person and not as my teacher. And because this is how Heavenly Father wants it, the Spirit is just amazing. Sometimes I don't know what to say but I open my mouth and the words just come out and they are not my words. However this doesn't happen all the time and so that it the hardest part. There have been times, for one reason or another, that I have been left on my own and believe me I got no where. I know that Heavenly Father wanted me to learn something from these times, however I just got really discouraged. I began to doubt again whether or not I can really do this.

 

Then if that isn't hard enough, we had to do TRC this week. TRC stands for Training Resource Center. It is a bunch of little rooms in our classroom building that are made to look small sitting rooms and we go in and teach an actor playing the role of the investigator. You get a little slip the night before you are scheduled to go that tells you about the person and then you are supposed to go the the door at the appointed time, knock, and go in and teach them as if we were really in the field. The challenging part is that its like a guessing game. You have to try and figure out something that will open the investigator up and allow them to talk to you. Its hard to explain but its like a puzzle you have to put together just by talking with them. Well needless to say, my companion and I couldn't figure out the puzzle so we sat and talked in circles with this lady for close to an hour. She doesn't believe in God and we tried to teach her everything we knew about him but then she would just respond with stupid off topic questions. The worst part though is that we then had to return and teach her again two days later. My companion and I tried so hard to study and be in tune with the spirit and we prayed to be able to know Sarah's needs but then when we got in there it was a disaster! We would try to teach and she would spout off some stupid rumor about the Mormon Church like that we are serving a mission so that we can get more people to give the Church 10% of their money and just ridiculous stuff. I promise the hour we spent with her was the biggest waste of my life! It was so frustrating. The bummer part too was that everyone had terrible experiences. Now these actors that we are supposed to teach are lds people hired by the MTC and they do the same thing every day and it makes me wonder who wants to get paid for making missionaries hate themselves. Anyways after that I was really struggling. and so was everyone else. Thursday night was so bad and everyone was feeling so down that the teacher could just tell that he was getting no where so he just sat down and we all shared our testimonies and why we are here to serve a misson and that put everything back into perspective.

 

So another hard thing about this week came in the form of lifting each others burdens. So my companion and I are really close now but every time we taught a lesson she would share bits and pieces of the hard life she has had and how the gospel has helped her through it but she would never tell me all of it and I didn't ask. Anyways we had a devotional Tuesday night with Elder Nash of the Seventy and afterwards we had a district discussion about it and I could tell that she was really upset by somethings. So after everyone left the classroom I asked her if she wanted to talk. She then proceeded to tell me her story and it is one of the saddest things that I have ever heard and it even made me ugly cry. So when she was 8 her mom died of cancer and then three months later her dad remarried and this lady turned into this evil psycho and kicked her and her little brother out and she had to live with her older sister. Then her dad has pretty much treated her like crap and done all of this terrible stuff. He refused to go through the temple with her and he even walked out of her farewell because she was talking about her mothers. Then she found out later that night that her Dads cancer had relapsed and will probably kill him before she gets home. So now she is frantically trying to find it within herself to forgive him so that she can tell him before he dies but he wont even talk to her. Anyways she told me this and we just sat and cried together. But I feel like for that brief moment I was able to experience some of her grief and that means that it was grief that she didn't have to feel.

 

We are so close though and I don't know how I am going to say goodbye. She is so cute and funny and all we so is laugh together. Mom you know how you told me to mind my own busyness and let the elders mess around if they want to well funny story is me and my companion and then a pair of elders are really good friends and so we laugh and joke all the time and then we get some serious looks from this other elder. I am really surprising myself here! I have never been more myself and I really love that. Although it is hard sometimes, we do a TON of laughing and are really having a great time.

 

Ok funny story real quick I am running out of time. So I was standing in the lunch line and I hear a deep voice say Sister Simkins. So I look up and there is this elder staring at me but I have never seen him before. Then he says You re name is Sister Simkins, my name is Elder Simkins. It was spelled just like ours! It was so cool because I have never met anyone with it spelled like that and apparently neither had he! It was pretty Sweet! He says that he is from Idaho but his great-grandparents are from Arizona so maybe we are related.

 

So travel plans! AH! Anyways we leave the Salt Lake Airport on the 3rd at 5 pm and fly to San Fran. Then from there we fly to NZ! Its crazy because our flight leaves at 10 pm on the 3rd and we will get into NZ at 6 am on the 5th. Its like we are literally skipping a whole day. I will get to call you from the airport so I will let you know more about that later.

 

Alright well I have to run. I love you all so much! Just so you know my P-Day next week is next Friday. Sorry about spelling/grammar!

 

Send me mail! I am the only one in my distric that hasn't gotten any letters! Thanks to Kim and Wendy I have gotten two packages! Woohoo! Oh google dear elder and then send me stuff through that its way easy and I get your letters the day you send them. Tell my siblings to write me bacause I miss them! I love you all!!

 

Love Sister Simkins

 

.

Hello Family!

 

Wow I made it to my first P-Day! Can you believe it? These past few days have been so crazy, but they have also been some of the most amazing days of my life.

 

So first off you should be getting a letter in the mail today and that one has all of the details from my first day. I sent that one Thursday morning. I also sent one yesterday morning with the details of my second day but I am sure you will read this first.

 

Anyways today is my first official Preparation Day. I feel like a real missionary now. Actually not really. I don't know if I will ever feel like a real missionary. But I am learning how to be one today.

 

So I am sorry if I retell some of the information that is in my first letter but just in case here is some stuff for you to know:

 

My P-day is Saturday and I am going to go to the temple at 11:55 (Tell Britt) and next week its the same thing.

 

Now remember the two weeks that I thought I was staying here for? Well it turns out that VC's stay here an extra week. So far I am scheduled to fly out on June 3rd. I don't know times yet. But as far as the extra week I am so excited because that's when we do our visitor center training. I am also so excited because we also get to go to temple square as part of our training!! We will be there Wednesday June  29th from 8-12 training and then we will be there to conduct tours on our own on that following Saturday from 3 pm to 8pm. I am so EXCITED!!! We also for that last week will be working at the call center. So cool!

 

My companion is Sister Swindler and she is a doll! I absolutely love her and we get along so well. She loves pickles, ice cream, and popcorn just like me. However, she loves to exercise but I guess that's good for me. I have exercised for 30 min. everyday since being here. That's right, be proud. Anyways she is 20 and from Riverton Utah. I also believe that she know 1 in 5 people here at the MTC. We can't walk or go anywhere without her finding someone that she knows from somewhere. The Branch President assigned me as the Senior companion for now but we will switch half way through our training.

 

Its true what they say though, all we do here is study and eat. But I still love it. Last night we were learning about teaching our investigator that revelation comes through prayer and then we practised it. Now I was pared with Sister Whiting who is another Sister in my district headed for NZ. Anyways she was the investigator and I was the missionary and I was trying to help her pray and after our conversation and when we finally kneeled down to pray it was like I could feel this warm power consume my body as if I was experiencing what an investigator would feel. It was incredible and all we could both do was cry. The thing is though that this stuff happens all day long here. I have a ton of other experiences like that but this was just the most recent.

 

Wow did I mention that I love it here? I am excited however to get to NZ.

 

So in my district  we have 6 elders and 6 sisters. The elders are all headed to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Haha. Every time they walk into the room, we sisters all sing OOOOOOOOOOOOklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down plains. (from that musical) anyways it always makes me laugh. So the elders are headed there and 5 of the 6 sister are headed to NZ and the other sister is from Australia but she is headed to London. (She is here late because her visa came late)

 

So I am having a wonderful time here so don't worry about me! I hope all is well at home and that you are all adjusting. Send me letters! I miss you all and I want to hear from each of you. Tell Danny and Steve to EMAIL ME!

 

I love you all! Until next Saturday!

 

Love,

   Maquel

 

 

I tried to send pictures but my computer isn't working so maybe next week. Love you!