Hello family! :) 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, our Christmas was very...different. First off, it was super super cold in NZ this whole time I was here, but this last week it was SUPER hot. We were dying and we were just trying to bike around town as fast as we could so that we could get some air blowing on us. So anyway we had a very hot Christmas which was super different. But on Christmas Eve we had a district meeting in Wanganui which is about an hour away from us, and there are two other sister missionaries in our district which is really rare in NZ, so me and Sister Shaw were very happy about that! Afterwards us and the sisters went out to lunch and it was just so much fun to not be around Elders. When we got to Feilding we were walking around and a less active member saw us and he bought us ice cream, which was super nice, everyone here is really really nice to missionaries! Then we went back to our flats and we baked a bunch of peanut butter bars and gave them out with Joy to the World DVDs to our neighbors and investigators. Which was really fun, we were door bell ditching everyone (not really, because no one here has doorbells) and running around so it was so fun. :)

On Christmas we had lunch at the Bishops and then we were invited to a Christmas BBQ held by a bunch of Samoan members, and holy cow it was crazy. They were blasting music and everyone was dancing and they kept asking us to dance, which we aren't aloud to do, so we just sat there. They kept giving us tons of food too, and you can't say no to Samoans... then they gave us this really gross cooked veggies with cream in ice cream thing, anyway it was really gross...then afterwards we had dinner at a less active members house and it was really nice. :)

The next day, unfortunately, i was really sick, ( i think it was the Samoan food...) I couldn't keep anything down and I felt horrible, and we were suppose to skype our families that day so I was so bummed. We ended up calling the Elders and we met them at the chapel so that they could give me a blessing. One of our Elders is the district leader and he's so nice, and the blessing he gave me was so amazing, i felt so much better afterwards, not only from my sickness but just emotionally as well. I was so happy and I've felt so much happier since that day! :) We then got to skype our families and it was so much fun! I also got to skype Jesse for 15 minutes and it was so nice to see him! :) I feel so much better and I"m so relieved that Christmas is over haha. :)

So yesterday we had a lesson and a 18 year old girl in our ward named Safari tagged along, shes a REALLY cute maori girl, and she wants to serve a mission so bad. She's planning on serving a mini mission with us really soon and I'm SO excited! Anyway later that day me and Sister Shaw went door knocking and we met another really cute Maori girl named Takana and she's from Auckland but is in Feilding until February. She was really interested in everything we told her and she even gave her a Book of Mormon, and it turns out shes Safari second cousin! (everyone is related in NZ) We're planning on meeting with her on Friday and hoping to get her baptised before she leaves to Auckland. 

We have a baptism at the end of this month with a girl named Cherish but she's out of town all this month so we might have to push back her date...but she still texts us every now and then and says she's reading the Book of Mormon, so hopefully we get to see her soon! :)

Anyway that's it for this week, it was really crazy and I'm super glad that Christmas is over and done with :) I love you all so much, thank you for everything!:) Arohanui Whanau! (love you family)

Sister Collins and her very expensive flash bike!