ALL THE LOVE for this week! There's nothing like a baptism to make you want to bring ALL THE PEOPLE to the waters of baptism!! — This is what I learned this week :)
So... It's been a good one. Also filled with a bit of heat stroke between Sister Hobbs and myself... but all is well. Nothing can ever fully stop us!
PONDERIZE:
—John 20:30-31; 21:25
30 ¶And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. —John 20:30-31
25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I supposethat even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. —John 21:25
LOVE this. Also... It's insanely fitting with a man we met this week.
TUESDAY was really where our week began – with an exciting District meeting on "The Importance of Planning" Aka: We got to do an "object lesson activity," making things out of marshmallows and toothpicks. We were split into groups, and the first round we weren't allowed to communicate with our group at all – no sounds, no pointing, no words, no drawing... we just had to build something together. (Honestly, ours still turned out pretty dang good! Haha.) And then we got to do it again – by first planning out what we wanted to build on paper, and then talking with each other before the actual building process. Good times :) I hoenstly don't know why I found this so entertaining... haha. But I definitely did. Marshmallows and toothpicks. That's all it apparently takes to amuse me! (Also: Side note: Marshmallows are different here! It's a little weird!)
The afternoon continued, and we hurried our little selves over to Ester and Jaden's (a Brasillian couple in our ward) for Lunch. It was definitely an interesting afternoon. Jaden speaks English – luckily, even better than Sister Hobbs and I were thinking he did. But... it was also still hard to understand him at times. Haha. So – we left really excited to get to know them, as well as a little tired. As we left and were on our way out to another street—rather far away, we passed by the mall and realized how much we needed a drink and toilet facilities suddenly. ...Luckily having a mall can help with both of those thigns! Ha. So we stopped in quickly, and on the way out – someone honked a few times and then suddenly we heard, "SISTERS!" It was the Butler family :) (From the Elder's area.) They were on their way to get their car fixed, saw us, and asked if we wanted a ride somewhere! Obviously – we couldnt' say no. And it's just good to talk to them for a bit :)
Tuesday night we met a girl named Jacquie. And, goodness. We're still a little bummed out that she didn't end up coming to church yesterday.... but we're hoping that we'll at least be able to see her again. She was packing her car up when we found her, and so we stopped to chat for a bit and ended up helping her out with putting stuff in the car. She and her fiance (who's in the Military) are moving out at the end of this month, so she's getting a jump start on a few things. But we got to talking religion, and she started asking about what we beleive. Her father used to be a Mormon — but never really continued it while she was growing up apparently. So she was interested to learn at least! We talked about a few different concepts between the Restoration AND the Plan of Salvation and gave her pamphlets. So.... hopefully we get to teach her a bit more before she actually moves away! ...She's not moving too far, but far enough that it's out of our area!
WEDNESDAY. :) WE GOT TO GARDEN. We've been telling the Frost's that we would help them out with weeding their garden in the morning. And.... we finallly got to :) I LOVE THE GARDENING LIFE. Yes, even with the creepy, crawly bugs. It was just lovely.
WEDNESDAY was a little slow after that... but also included a lot of calling people and getting prepared for .... IVAN'S BAPTISM!!! Haha. And that night we also met Ivan at our chapel (which we found is about half an hour bike ride from our flat) and President Reid (Pres. Balli's counselor) for Ivan's Baptism interview! WOOT! And it went super well. Ivan had been stressing HARD CORE from Sunday until that moment. and.... so it was truly the best thing for President Reid to conduct the interview instead of our District leader.... Because, while I love Elder Seelos – President Reid, as Ivan said, made the interview into more of a conversation rather than just asking questiosn. And ....that's just truly what Ivan needed! He needed to feel that ease and calm about himself to realize that he was really truly ready to make this next step,. And, yes. :) He PASSED. Haha. But: Fun fact – during their little interview, Sister Hobbs and I were scrambling! Haha. There was this funny thing called "We forgot to bring a baptism record with us" ... Oops. So... since it would have taken us an HOUR (or more) to get back to our flat and back to the chapel again (and we honestly didn't even know if we HAD any forms at our flat) — we scrambled, calling ALL THE PEOPLE. Not only in our District – but our Zone. Ha. First: Zone leaders. But they didnt' answer. District leader: "We're in a lesson, can you call the Zone leaders?" ..And then just started calling everyone. Ha. We then got ahold of the Swanson Elders (Elder Hunter and Blandford). Who are most wonderful and came to our rescue :) – Impressively quickly as well! So... we're eternally grateful for them :)
THURSDAY! (Lots of words this week! HaHa.) We did a bit more gardening in the morning to finish up the weeds, and it ....was just lovely. Also: The blessing of these two specific days was that the sun wasn't super hot out and it was a bit breezy. #LoveIt However... It also turned into a bit of heat-ish stroke for the two of us. Mostly Sister Hobbs in the day - mine didn't hit until that night. Ha. And it was because the back of my EAR got burnt I think.... Or something bit me. Still not sure. But my ear was definitely super red, a little swollen, and ...CRAZY hot starting that evening. And, well... just painful. Nothing else got burnt though – that's why I was confused. Just that one little area of my ear. No worries though – it's gone now :) Mostly. Ha. Faith and prayer make all things better though – so it's all goods :) Also: Swanson Elders came to the rescue, YET AGAIN. They were originally going to come pick up our bikes from us that morning to bring them somewhere to be pumped up... cause – man. The tires were FLAT AS. And making it REALLY DIFFICULT to get up the hills... and just all the things. But what did they do instead? They went and PURCHASED A BIKE PUMP. Ha. Elder Hunter said, "Ah– I figure I'll need it one day anyway. So might as well get it now!" TOO SWEET. They're wonderful. And now it's significantly easier to ride our bikes :)
FRIDAY - Rain, biking, and meeting ALLEN. It rained A LOT. Ha. And it made it hard, But it was all right. We had our last little mini lesson with Ivan around noon - and man. It rained. So... we walked to his house instead of biking, since it would help us to be a little less wet........ but we were definitely still drenched by the time we got there (...I'll also be getting an actual RAIN jacket today..... 'cause, while my coat is wonderful for the rain, it's also crazy hot for this weather...) Ha. Exciting things in the rain :) But yes – our last mini lesson with Ivan before the BIG DAY. We (or, more so, the Elders, since they come to lessons with us) brought Ivan's favourite pizza along from Pizza Hut (Meat lovers with stuffed crust and a BBQ swirl — it's actually really nice.) and we just talked about the last few things. The Elders so kindly gave us a ride home after that..... 'cause, while it's technically "against mission protocol" – it's also given from President that if it's for safety reasons, the Sisters can go with the Elders..... and it had started rainging even HARDER. Ha. It was INSANE! So as we all walked out, Elder Christiansen said, "No, Sisters, we're just giving you a ride." We were GRATEFUL. That afternoon it finally calmed down a bit, and we made our way out to find a few potentials as well as a less-active! She says she wants us to come by now and teach her son.... so we'll see how that goes!
The Tuta'i's picked us up for dinner that night and brought us to a Chinese/noodles place. Really nice, actually!And they're just adorable. We found out he's half Maori and half Cook Islander – when we'd both thought he would have been Tongan! Nope. Ha. They're super sweet though. SUPER newlywed – and Virginia is super quiet. You all think I'm quiet? Nope. Haha.
Ah! Another fun adventure about Wednesday — we had gotten a weird phonecall Tuesday from someone down in the Hamilton mission, giving a referral! But – alas, it was in the Elder's area. So we forwarded the info to them. Then –Wednesday, the mother of the person who was referred the day before CALLED US. She said she needed someone to visit her daughter because she was struggling with food and needed the Church to step in and help - and that someone needed to notify the bishop. We TRIED to tell her that it was the Elder's area - but she just said, "But wouldn't she need Sisters because she's a girl?" So..... we decided to just call the Elders and go over WITH them. ('Cause - it wasn't too far out of our area, so we could still make it there on our bikes.) ...So we set that up for Saturday night, with the Elders and just went over ourselves in the meantime to at least meet her. When we got there – there was no one home. We called the mum back, and she said, "Oh, she'll be there in 15 minutes. She's just dropping the 'cat' off somewhere." Okey-dokey? ...Nope. Never showed. But... the partner did! His response? "Ah – sorry guys, but this is the second lot of Mormon's I've had at my door today, and I'm just not interested." Hahaha. Because – the Elders had indeed also stopped in earlier, tryin' to figure out what house it was. So... we explained what was going on and that we were looking for Ora. He said, "Ah – okay. She's at work and won't be home until really late." All goods. We went back Saturday. Still wasn't there! Partner just kind of laughed at all of us showing up together. Ha. We'll figure it out sometime!
With our little time we had left after Ora not being home, we decided to drop by this man we have on our potential's list – "Allen and family." And... wow. It turned into a very loooooooong conversation. Ha. He's a member of the "Church of the Brethren." ...And if someone could more fully explain to me what exactly that means, it'd be cool. Hehe. But the main thing we got was that "Men are saved by faith alone. Works have nothing to do with it." ....So.... yes. It turned into a very long conversation. But - at the same time, one that I walked away from REALLY EXCITED to go back to. Because... man, I left with so many different questions to figure out — things I'm starting to study now. It also helped me realize a little part of a blessing that Elder Clements gave me before I left the North. In it he said something along the lines of how I'm not afraid to share my weaknesses with people, and that through that they'll become strengths. And.... yup, that was evident in this conversation with Allen. 'Cause – he knows Bible scriptures. He was pulling them out of everywhere. I, however, really don't know the Bible that well. Or at all really. (Sad, yea, but... i'm gettin there.) But – I left knowing I'd learn because of the things I have to study now! Also: Because it's going to take some MAJOR faith to go back and have another conversation with him! But.... here's the thing of why I'm not necessarily scared of going back to him — he kind of started stumbling over his words, almost mentioning "works" instead of "just faith" ...Ha. ;) I had to try really hard to not just laugh..... it was good though :) The Spirit definitely works in mysterious ways, and .... I just love it!
So.... SATURDAY :)
Ivan's BAPTISM.
It was just... beautiful. It was fun to watch him before he made this step. 'Cause he was truly and really ready. He arrived with two of his very best mates (who he originally said he wasn't going to invite! Haha) and introduced us to them. Theyr'e just lovely – and SO COOL that they wanted to come to support Ivan. Once Ivan got changed into his White clothes, he just sat in front of the font, watching the water heating and circulating. It was so exciting to just watch him ponder and think about what was about to happen. Brother Taumafai got there and went through with Ivan what was going to happen – how he was going to baptise him and whatnot. The Baptism program was just beautiful. Short and simple, just as Ivan wanted! We had Sister Gaitau speak, Elder Christiansen, and then the baptism took place. It was the coolest feeling - watching him walk into those waters, be placed under, and – when he came out, he continued splashing himself with water! Haha. After he said, "It just felt so good!" Haha. So Sister Hobbs and I then spoke about the Restoration a bit to the audience while Ivan and Brother Taumafai got ready again. Nice, sweet, simple. And ....so exciting. Oh! And President and Sister Balli also came to the baptism!!! SO FUN. Perks of being closer to the actual city I guess! Haha.
So.... It's been a wonderful week :) OH. AND SUNDAY. We have a new investigator! :) Blessings! 'Cause... Ivan was our only really strong investigator. But – we know this new one will be solid as well. His name is Liberty. I may have talked about him a couple of weeks ago? We found him on Boxing day at a house that we thought someone else lived at. But, he had just moved in. He lives there with his 2 boys (Joshua and Joel) and his partner. We still haven't met the partner.... nor do I know her name, but we're exciting to be teaching him! Also: He's from ZIMBABWE. Who knew how many different races of people I'd meet coming here! Haha. And, yes. He has a rather thick accent and a rather soft voice.... so it'll take some getting used to and very careful listening. Haha.
Sunday Ivan also got confirmed :) Which... was just lovely. He's so bright and strong, and we're excited 'cause he's going to hopefully be receiving the priesthood soon as well!
Life is just exciting, isnt' it? We got to see the Butlers again last night as well, and talked with them about Patriarchal Blessings, as .... I definitely have a testimony of the guidance that comes from that :) The kids are all old enough now/baptized – and ready to get them. So, it was fun to be able to talk about that. LOVE THEM.
I love this :) It's just... so exciting here in Henderson. I still miss my Northland like CRAZY sometimes ...but it definitely is true that the Lord knows where you need to be at what time in your life. It's interesting being a missionary and being told 'where you'll be going' —rather than saying "ah, maybe I'll try this next" Haha. Different kinds of ways to learn I guess :)
Life is beautiful, and we're excited to keep finding people, and excited for another week. Can you believe that I'm already HALF WAY through this transfer? Life man. It comes at ya fast! Also: next Monday is 7-months! Weird sauce. I'm now starting to think sometimes... "No! Wait! Slow down!" Haha.
I love you all and miss you alls at home :) THANK YOU for all the prayers and all the things this week. — I know they helped HEAPS in calming Ivan and bringing about so many different miracles! :) Life is grand! :)
Arohanui,
Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley
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