It's been an interesting week (again). It seems like we hit this rut sometimes – when no one seems to be home, when we get annoyed, and when we just don't know what to do. But it's true that the Lord is always there to help us out and help us up. :)
Thus: brings you my PONDERIZE SCRIPTURE for the week. Helaman 5:30
"And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul..." —Helaman 5:30
Goal: Understand the Spirit in the ways that it "pierces even to the very soul." I know I've felt it in that sort of strong way many times. But – I think it's also something we can all keep in mind in our lives just in thinking about little ways we can help in serving others through the promptings of the spirit. Food for thought.
Anyhoo. So – interesting week. Ha. We haven't been able to catch our investigators, and we haven't been able to find anyone new super interested. However, the work moves forth – and we visit our less-active members :) And they pick us up. Because they HAVE testimonies, sometimes they just need help remembering and gaining things from little scriptures here and there ;) It's grand, and a blessing.
TUESDAY Sister Pointer and I also went on a little unexpected adventure.... which made me flashback to that time when Audrey, Janelle and I went to Park City and.... accidentally took the scenic route of sorts home :) – I'm sure you all remember that one. Or at least Audrey. I KNOW she does! Anyhoo. We decided to turn down this street we'd never been down in Opua. We expected it to end. Nope. It never did. And we ended up out of our area! Ha! But Sister Pointer came up with a clever way of texting our District Leader to tell him we were on a pathway back to our own promised land. #GoodTimes So: New views were seen, and many km's were driven. We did, however, get to drop by the home of dear Honey –visiting them, playing a game with the kids (well, with two of them). Breeze decided instead to fall asleep on my arm. Haha. (I've missed that life with a little girl falling asleep next to me!)
We also had adventures killing LARGE BUGS that ended up in our flat that night... spiders, a weird long/fat/flying bug, large mosquitoes(?) Good times! But good news: I still haven't witnessed a "wetta" yet (look them up, they're gross). So that's a plus!
WEDNESDAY perked up the week (as always) with singing at BayCare. Grand things. We also had a little miracle of visiting a man named, Lan—who we met a week or so ago, as he was making holes for flagpoles. We stopped by his house, and he straightaway asked if we had pamphlets. And then tried to give us a donation. Haha. We kindly said no – and just introduced other little things to him. So- we'll see what comes of that :)
And then my first New Zealand Thanksgiving. We celebrated with our district and ate a dinner together. ('Cause, see – while I'm sure many of our members would have fed us for our Thanksgiving, they were all away on their Temple week!) MUCH better, of course, than feeding us ;) The sisters so lovingly cooked for us (with their cute little toaster oven) a meal of champions! Ha. The rolls were slightly undercooked, as well as the green-bean casserole, and the potatoes were a struggle in mashing due to a faulty masher and amount of potatoes in the tiny little pot. The Elders complained. Ha. But I thought it was a lovely meal. And we had a good time, laughing and all the excitement :) Sister Pointer and I also found little mini pies that we brought for pudding – along with ice-cream, of course. In addition, I'm a sap and made Cornucopia's for Thanksgiving for us, the sisters, and a less active couple we visited that night. ... Btw: It's a LOT easeir making them with waffle comes, unlike when we make them with sugar cones at home! Exciting things and all the love.
Sister Pointer and I (in our cheesy state of mind) also decided to make hand turkeys for companion study that morning, with a little scripture of giving thanks – to give to a few people around that we knew would appreciate a message from the super American sisters. Haha. And it was grand :)
FRIDAY was a hard day for me. It involved tracting, which Sister Pointer I know isn't a fan of. Which makes it hard at times. But: All is well. There's miracles in everything. And there was indeed a man named, John, that we met who told us we had lovely smiles and could come back whenever we wanted. – This was AFTER we talked about what we do as Mormon missionaries and what our Church is about a bit! #Blessings
SATURDAY things picked up. We did a lot of walking and TWE-ing around Paihia (a fun pass-time for us) and met up with a few people we hadn't seen in a while. Ian Barnes (we've met a lot of "Ian's" recently) is lovely. We found him at home and had a lovely discussion – and while he says he's not really interested, he still seems like he would be okay if we see him again. Little by little. Baby steps.
And then YESTERDAY (well, Sunday – my yesterday), the miracle of "Sister Ottley's visual memory finally kicked back in." There's this less-active that I met and visited wiht Sister O'Reilly... aka: AGES ago. Her name is Llanace. Problem there: We have no address for her. So I've continuously been trying to find her house by memory. And yesterday: it happened! We got to see her, I became quick friends with her little daughter, Lilly (happiness), and she told us that we should come around more often. — Not in those exact words, but she did seem like she had missed us. #Win We then dropped by our dear Himiona's last night. We've sorely neglected visiting them – so we're now repenting. We had a talk with them, they fed us, and I got to play with the kids! President and Laura laughed, saying we had a good routine –Sister Pointer talking with the adults, and me keeping the children occupied. And we also laughed, 'cause that's pretty much how it always is. Haha.
So... little miracles happen all around us. Sometimes we just have to push past the struggles and see only the good in order to make more good things come about.
Things can only look up though. And with the spirit of Christmas SPEEDILY coming our way, there's bound to be more miracles upon miracles. :)
This week I've actually realized I'm a lot more patient than I've ever realized. And that is something I've realized is a great blessing. I may not always be perfectly patient with myself –but I'm glad that I'm blessed with patience in helping other people through things. It's good. And needed. And I'm truly blessed :)
Please tell all of the Relief Society sisters "HELLO!" for me! I miss them all dearly! And thank you for Jann Paul's little quote she shared in your Relief Society (paraphrased here). "If you tend to be a perfectionist substitute the word 'EXCELLENCE' for perfection. Strive for excellence—the best you can do, rather than being perfect, because no one is perfect and striving for perfection always sets us up for failure." I shall print that out and keep it in mind daily.... because perfectionism really is a struggle. Even though I don't realize it most of the time.
ALSO. The song you sent on the flashdrive — the 'Somewhere Out There' Medley?? OH MY GOODNESS. I DIED FROM HAPPINESS!! I want to that song with the whole world! LOVE!
Also. I finally got to read the HAPPINESS talk you sent me within my birthday envelope, and then again (the audio version), on my flash drive — the creativity one by President Uchtdorf, that I think you said was his first talk to the women of the Church. OH THE BRILLIANCE! It was everything I needed, and funny too because it's a talk I was actually going to be looking for today because I'd heard a quote from it last Sunday! So —inspired things! Haha.
Life is grand. New Zealand is beautiful! And life here is definitely good. And I know it will continue to be. There are still moments of homesickness lately, but I'm lucky with the beautiful New Zealand families I have gained in my life :) I'm spoiled with the young families I get to serve with and get to know – and the happiness and joy it brings when I've become long-lasting friends with all of them. We spent probably a greater amount of time than we should have at the Himiona's last night – but it was needed for all of us. Laura keeps telling us how much it helps her family for the Sisters to drop by. And we laughed with them last night more than we have in a while... so that was really nice :) Little miracles in everything. I just have to keep reminding myself of that. And the fact that if I don't see anything changing that I want to – clearly there's something I need to do to switch things up!
OH. AND. I almost forgot: We were driving through CLOUDS last night! It was possibly one of the cooler things I've done in my life. Nearly fulfilling that constant "want" I had as a kid (...and still now) to sit on top of clouds :) ...It was also slightly difficult to see in the driving life. But: Much more exciting than terrifying ;) Haha.
I miss you all!!
AROHANUI —
Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley 😁
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