LETTER HIGHLIGHTS: *DOUBLED SHIFTED AGAIN!!—Two NEW Missionaries Transferred In, The Previous Missionaries Transferred Out! *NEW COMPANION *NEW HUGE AREA *In an Area Where EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME! *Read Sister Ottley's latest letter below for NEW overwhelming adventures...
TRANSFERS!
Yes.... I've been transferred. Good job to those who have guessed right! Guess I wasn't cut out to spend 6 months in each area... haha. It ALWAYS happens right as I start thinking, "Yes! I can try out this lesson on this family, and this lesson on this family, and this thing on this person....." And then I get moved. (Sad face.) Haha. But - one day. My dear family. There will be FHE's of me trying things out on YOU so that I can do them ONE DAY. Haha.
"Why don't you just try them on the families in your new area?" You ask? Well.... I don't know any of them yet. Because, DOUBLE-SHIFTED! AGAIN!! And with an area book that's lacking! Yay! Ha. I've only been transferred to new areas twice – and both have been double-shifts...... I was originally told, "Oh, it's not very common." Hahahaaaaaa. President Balli apparently has NO FEAR when it comes to double shifting. Especially me! Haha. But it's all goods.
The Sisters before us apparently had one miracle baptism right before the senior sister went home, but there's no teaching record for her. So...we had to get info from bishop as to where she lived and all that jazz. So fun things.
ANYHOO. No need to complain :) My new companion is SISTER GILA and she's wonderful and I'm actually really excited to be with her. She came from Papatoetoe down south, and yes - we're just under Whangarei zone, which is right under Kaikohe :) So I've come back north again! Sister Gila is a sister that I've actually been "following" in my mission thus far—she also started up north in Matauri and Paihia, and served in Henderson valley—so we know all the same people! But she's also been down south....I've skipped that part thus far ;) Ha. We're in the Harbour Stake, covering 2 WARDS—Hibiscus and Torbay. My area is MASSIVE! From the bottom of the Torbay area to the top of Hibiscus would easily take two hours to drive. Ha. We've....gotten lost a lot. Haha. Allllll the adventures!!
We live in a little flat in Hibiscus in Stanmore Bay, (North Shore area) and it's BEAUTIFUL here :) But....before I get too far into that ... the beginning of last week...
Our FINAL MONDAY of the transfer was Zone P-day. We had an INSANE NERF WAR – and it was wonderful :) Exciting things with nerf on p-days! And it was good to spend a day with my Zone again. I got really close to that zone. Gonna miss 'em all :( But Monday night we were also able to spend some of our time at Victor Patterson's setting apart for his mission :) He left Tuesday and he's going to be GREAT. And also a plus 'cause he and his twin brother are both in missions speaking Spanish, so they'll come back speaking together! So fun :) And then.... THAT NIGHT the NEWS was broken to us. We met up as a zone to all get our news together, right before we were going home for the night. I cried. A good portion of our zone stayed the same, but! ...Elder Hunter moved! Finally! Haha. He gets to try a new place! So excited for him :) My companion, Sister Anitema, is still in Henderson, and has a new companion - Sister Manau. She'll be good :) I'll just miss her very much. There were.....many tears shed in parting from her lovely face. And many tears in leaving that zone in general. But it's okay. Like I said, I've been transferred to the North Shore/Harbour area and now covering 2 wards. So Sister Gila and I are starting to realize that this new adventure is like a combination of Henderson and Kaikohe together! Haha. It's BEAUTIFUL like the north, but then we also live in a city—I drive on the MOTORWAY now (aka: Freeway)! It's weird. And BIG. Haha. But then most of Hibiscus area is also just "bush" so... it's pretty. More pictures to come, but there should be a few getting uploaded to dropbox today. I cried a lot with the anticipation of this transfer, but I'm fine. I'm happy. And I know Sister Anitema will be wonderful. There's not anyone I would have rather left the area to :) I do miss my dear Henderson Valley already though. It's hard transferring.
TUESDAY I was able to drop in to say good-bye to people, and we were able to have one last BRILLIANT lesson with Grace. And I said bye to Ivan :( I miss Ivan. Best convert ever! His little Grace wasn't at home though, sadly. So I'll have to write her a letter to send down to Henderson. (Sorry, confusing things with 2 Graces. Haha.) But my last lesson with big Grace (Gaitau granddaughter/niece/cousin) was brilliant. SHE and I taught the Plan of Salvation to the rest of the group, and then she would also ask questions and all that jazz. It was so fun and.....I'm so going to miss her (sad face). Wish I could have been with her just one more transfer.
Then...WEDNESDAY. Tears, but excitement as well. My new companion, Sister Gila :) is adorable. She's from Vanuatu (an island in the South Pacific Ocean) and I love her already. And.... I'll most likely be "killing" (meaning she goes home) her. Because she goes home in 2 transfers (July). She just got her information and plane ticket :( *sniff sniff* and she'll leave mid-transfer if we stay together for this transfer and the next. (Sorry, my thoughts are a bit scattered today. ha.) Anyhoo, we were picked up by my former companion, dear Sister Hobbs, and driven around until we all went to the mission home where Sister Hobbs picked up her new trainee :) Yay! She's TRAINING! OH. AND DO YOU KNOW WHO ELSE IS TRAINING??? My first area trainee, SISTER BOITEUX. SO I'M A GRANDMA. Hahahaha. Best ever :) And Sister O'Reilly—my trainer—is a GREAT Grandma ;) Love it. All the love. (By the way Mum, Sister Boiteux should be sending you a picture for me. I gave her your email since we're not allowed to email one another on the mission.) I'm So proud of my baby!! So...that was most of Wednesday. And then going back to the Sunset sister's flat to get our car - and waiting for it to be jumped to actually work..... And then the adventure of getting from their flat to ours (about half an hour drive with....a map.) I'm learning to read maps, rather well now. Though....i defintely still get lost. Haha.
When we arrived at our flat, we instantly decided that things needed to change.....'cause –not that it was dirty, but...it also wasn't clean. And didn't feel like a home with how everything was placed in the flat. Hahaha. It was the first thing that we both agreed on that we wouldn't be able to do the work until we cleaned and made it actually liveable. Sister Gila is BRILLIANT. SHE CLEANS. So.....that brought us to —
THURSDAY. When we CLEANED and RE-ORGANIZED the flat to actually be live-able. And then we went to meet the Bishop and WML of Torbay Ward on Thursday night :) Brilliant. And we love them already.
FRIDAY was back to weekly planning (aka: taping maps together and searching through area books for things and people and whatnot). Fun times :) (Fun fact: Our Henderson Valley map was 4 pages long. My new area is 24 PAGES LONG OF MAP and it only shows about a FOURTH of the Hibiscus area. It's insanity.) We met a few more people that night—mostly within the ward, and around the town, 'cause... the sisters before us also left us with.....very little milage left on our car for the month. Yay! (Not. Definitely not yay. Doesn't really go well with getting lost. Haha. But it's okay.) Oh! I also forgot to mention - Elder Summers from my first area is my Zone leader! Hahahaha. Get to be back with my "dad" again ;) We're also in the same zone as the Assistants to president—Elders Maxfield and Faamoe—so that should be fun :)
SATURDAY started off with a Service project :) We went to meet our WML for Hibiscus Ward, and helped him and his wife out with some yard work in the morning—getting to know them a bit and how the ward has been going. Fun fact: Hibiscus Ward has been neglected from the sounds of it :( Sad face. So we're now going to CHANGE THAT. More equality between the wards! Yay!
And SUNDAY was lovely. Starting with Ward Council for Hibiscus at 8am. Sacrament Meeting with Hibiscus at 10am, and then leaving after to go catch part of church at Torbay Ward so we could start getting to know some of the members there. From here on out we'll be swithcing weeks on and off of where we're at (which is really what SHOULD happen.... poor Hibiscus Ward). Both wards just keep telling us how they hate "sharing" missionaries.
Anyhoo. Lots of adventures coming up. Lots of organising to do, and praying for more milage in our area.....'cause did I mention, HUGE things. Haha. Fairly certain it may be bigger than Paihia and Matauri areas! So that's fun :) We're getting organized, and it'll be happy :) TRUST is definitely good though. I'm definitely learning a lot about trust and faith and....just patience in working with so many different people. And learning to BUILD places after the've been neglected in some way with previous missionaries.... Ha. Fun! But we've already gained back the trust of our WML in Hibiscus, so that's good :)
I do miss my Sister Anitema, but I'm excited to be with my Sister Gila :) She's soooo humble, and kind and quiet and just....lovely :)
And no worries :) Sister Wati made it back from her conference trip to Utah and heard on Tuesday night that there would be transfers on Wednesday. So she got a hold of me and brought your package to the Masiasomua's while I was saying goodbye to them! Haha. So I got it :) And I love it :) And even though I haven't read ALL the things in it yet - I'm excited to :)
Fun fact: I'm definitely now IN THE AREA of "where everybody knows your NAME" — BETTER than myself. Haha. I can tell them the relationship to Sidney and Jerold Ottley, but that's about it! All the other names I just say, "I know we've gotta be related somewhere down the line!" Haha. One of our members in the Hibiscus Ward—the wife of our WML (Brother and Sister Maire (pronounced "My-ree")—said SHE'S related to Jerold Ottley down the line! So we're related somehow! Hahaha. Crazy things! Small world! LOVE it and I love my New Zealand whanau!
Both of our wards are SO keen and loving and kind to the missionaries. So....we're excited. AND, we also met one of our lovely members at a dinner last night—the Prendergast's. Shayne and Annemarie. We talked a lot about trusting in the Lord and going where He wants us to go – and then the question came up of what we were doing before the mission and what's planned afterwards. I said I was going with the flow, 'cause my job in the theatre before has been taken! And then Brother Prendergast said that he might have a connection for me when I get home in a theatre in Salt Lake that one of his mates started up! Blessings! Haha. So we'll see where life takes me ;) But I'm excited to make allllll the friends with everyone in these wards. They're just wonderful. Though, I'm also already feeling like at some point while I'm serving here, the wards will no longer be double covered, and I'll be taken away from one of them :( Sad things. But.... it'll be okay :) I'll be able to help out the other missionaries that come in! Haha.
I hope all is well at home. I miss you heaps :) Tell everyone I'm sending a VIRTUAL HUG!!!! <<<<>>>> I miss you all :) But I also love my New Zealand family. And I know I'll also cry when I have to leave them one day.
[To all of you wonderful Kiwi family and friends, who hang in there each week with Kenzie's incredibly long, detailed letters, we LOVE you. Thank you for sharing her life and for the meaningful influences you have been. This one is SHORT! Plus TRANSFERS are coming this week! Reply with your GUESSES!!]
OYSTER PEARLS!
This may be a quicker email than usual, as we have Zone P-day today - so.... less email time :P Ha.
But ....TRANSFER WEEK! What? Another one? How!? Also: Today's my 10-month mark. WHA>???? Time is speeeeeeeding past my dear whanau. I can't even believe it. And I know I say this every time I hit a new month mark, or possibly every week, but... it's true. It's just crazy in my mind.
Elder Le and I were talking last night about how fast time goes - and sometimes we have to look back through old pictures to realize, "Oh yeah! That really was a thing!" It's allllll like a DREAM sometimes!
Anyhoo. It's been a grand week :) ... Significantly better than last week. And also great insight in learning about how to set goals, and put them in a VISUAL form that acutally... makes me remember them :) Haha. 'Cause that's one thing I've realized on the mission... and in my life in general. I'll make goals - but then....>I forget about them. Ha. But I've made artsy things to make me less forgetful now, and I'm just excited!
MONDAY was pretty normal. It was SUPPOSED to be Zone P-day, but... due to mixups with people getting flu shots, and then not, and whatever... it was postponed. But it's okay! It just means we get a grand day today! Also, we experienced a miracle Monday night when visiting with Kokea, Paua and family. We were on our way to their appointment after our p-day dinner, and realized.... we didn't have enough copies of the Book of Mormon on us for the whole family. We debated between being late and getting the Book of Mormons or just going without them. And man - are we glad we went back! Ha. We messaged Kokea to tell him we'd be a bit late, which he was all goods with — his family is super chill. It's nice. Them we ran back to the flat, grabbed alllll the BOMs and went to Kokea's. We had a little catch-up moment, and then Kokea asked how long we were going to be there that night. We said we had another appointment (which was actually cancelled) - but we also just didn't want to take up their whole night. But he surprised us when he said, "Oh - it's fine. My cousin is just on his way back from work, and HE wanted to be here for the lesson too!" And that's when we realized the miracle connection. (Originally we were worried that he didn't really want us there! Ha.) Nope! It was just 'cause someone else wanted to hear the gospel too! :) Brilliant!
Anyhoo. So - this is where the blessing came from our appointment with the Papali'i's being cancelled came in - 'cause instead we were able to wait for Kokea's cousin to get back, and shared the message of the Restoration with ALL of them! And MAN is he KEEN. I LOVE people who are searching. They're just golden, and intent and REAL in their learning. Anyhoo. We had a brilliant, spirit-filled lesson and testimonies of Christ and the ways we are helped in our lives through prayer and study. And we committed them all to begin reading the Book of Mormon. Oh - also: plot twist. We found out Paua (the wife) is actually a member! She said she was baptised back when she was in intermediate school. So... fun things! Their family is just so lovely though. We're excited to see them again :)
TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY were spent visiting, getting help from Alisha to choose a song for our Sister's Conference (because Sister Anitema was asked to do a musical number), MCM, ward council, and all the fun :) Ah - and companion study with Elders Hunter and Raymer. Haha. Always a joy with those two!
And THURSDAY. Sister's Conference. Aka: Like another "Time out for Women" thing - but with just the sister's of our mission :) LOVE. Apparently they've started doing this once a year. So that's fun :) And uplifitng and happy. The theme for our conference was "We Need Women Who..." - based on a talk Elder Nelson gave last October conference ("A Plea to My Sisters"). And Sister Balli put a visual symbolism to it of how we can all become pearls. Pearls are made layer by layer over the course of 10-15 years in an Oyster - thus, likened to how we all become pearls little by little by doing things that please our Heavenly Father. I LOVE visuals and all the exciting things :) A brilliant day. :) Also: I got to see all my Sisters. Aka: O'Reilly, Pointer, Hobbs, Boiteux, Lott, Christiansen... All the peeps :) OH. And to go along with the theme of our pearls - a poem called, "The Oyster," which, fun fact: Sister Donnaldson actually showed to Sister Hobbs and I two transfers ago! Haha. We laughed with each other when they started reading the poem. Love it!) I love Sister Conference things - 'cause, while there are pieces of council that are like, "You can be better at doing this!" There's also just a lot of "You're great. Keep up the good work." And it just gives... a better sense of peace and less anxiety in life during moments of feeling like a failure.
Anyhoo. Life is good :)
SATURDAY I overcame a fear—ish. Ha. More like - the Lord blessed me in an unexpected way. Last week when I told the story about the Singh's and how I was stressed and felt like a failure and then we were late and Sister Singh chewed us out so I stopped talking.... yeah? Yeah. So... just thinking about her, let along being in her presence, stresses me out now. Like... really anxious. But Saturday was a blessing. We had an appointment with them and Rachit. So there was lots of preparation so I would have a line of focus to go to, even though we've taught the Restoration SO many times. But - when we got to their house, Sister Singh (Joy) was nowhere to be seen.... just her sister and their parents and the boys. We taught the lesson and during the last... 5 minutes?ish - Joy came out. She had been asleep 'cause she wasn't feeling very well that day. Sad that she wasn't feeling well - but also a blessing for me because.... my anxiety of teaching there went away! So... the Lord definitely blesses us in different little ways. He KNOWS each and every one of us, and blesses us in the way that is needed. At all times :)
That's....the main events of my week :) Little miracles, and lots more to come. Just... praying that I get to stay in Henderson a bit longer..... the anticipation of transfers kind of kills me. I dont' wanna leave... Struggles :P Haha. But all's well :) I'll let you know what happens next week! Reply to mum with your guesses! ;)
Anyhoo. I must be off :) Tell everyone I"m printing and reading their letters over the week and I'll attempt to reply to ALL the things next week :) I miss you and LOVE you all, and I hope you have a most MARVELOUS week full of miracles and happiness! :)
Ofa Lahi Atu, Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley
The Oyster Author Unknown
There once was an oyster Whose story I'll tell, Who found that some sand Had worked under his shell.
Just one little grain, But it gave him a pain. For oysters have feelings That are very plain.
Now, did he berate The harsh working of fate That left him in such A deplorable state?
Did he curse the government, Call for an election, And claim that the sea should Have given him protection?
No! He said to himself As he lay on a shell, Since I cannot remove it, I think I'll improve it!
Well, the years passed by, As years always do, Till he came to his destiny, Oyster stew!
And the small grain of sand That had bothered him so, Was a beautiful pearl All richly aglow.
Now this tale has a moral; For isn’t it grand, What an oyster can do With a small grain of sand?
And what couldn't we do If we’d only begin With some of the things That get under our skin.
THANK YOU, Elder Holland. Your words are brilliant, and I'll never forget the classic "dinosaur chasing children" picture. EVER.
Also, from President Uchtdorf: "If you cannot muster FAITH right now, begin with HOPE."
And Mum, reading your words make me happy. It's like a HUG. And that's all I've wanted this week!
PONDERIZE :)
"Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me."
"I am Jesus Christ; I came by the will of the Father, and I do his will." —D&C 19:23-24
Something I've realized about myself this week: I think because I don't have the usual emotional outlets of, say, crying my eyes out during a sad movie, or reading a sad part of a book—things like that—my emotions get all bottled up. And then I get stressed. And then...my life is just a struggle. But the problem is I don't really notice the emotions being bottled up until I'm just overly stressed and don't know how to deal with it, or why everything bothers me.
But, as I look back, I've LEARNED a lot this week. And it was honestly full of miracles and NEW INVESTIGATORS. It's just hard to see those blessings sometimes when you're stressed, and tired, and you don't know how to make yourself feel better.
And this is why GENERAL CONFERENCE is a BLESSING. And WHY I'm grateful that I did have Conference a "week late" because....it meant SO much more to and for me THIS weekend than it would have the weekend before. THE LORD'S TIMING is brilliant and priceless.
MONDAY started off the week with a BANG - and 5 new investigators :) A family! Mum, dad, and mum's brothers/cousin. And then also mum and dad's little kids—ages 6, 7, and 2...I think. So we're going to be teaching them on Monday's now, and it's just grand and exciting! We had a quick little message last week—just telling them our purpose as missionaries and asking about what they believe in—in their lives and church. They talked about family, so we added our 2 cents about ETERNAL families — and they seemed to like that ;) So....they said we could come Monday nights, and all the excitement. We've also been doing Family Home Evening with our bishop's family. Love them sooooo much. All the excitement at their house - and bonus: Sister Papali'i (being the brilliant mum she is) has taught all the boys to bake. So there's always something exciting there! Haha.
TUESDAY Sister Anitema and I "showed up" the Samoan Elders with our Star Wars lego-building skills! Fun fact: Sister Anitema had NEVER PLAYED WITH LEGOS before..... #What? But it was exciting. We were having a training meeting in our district about "MAKING AND USING LESSON PLANS." — So, we did a competition. There were 2 lego sets. So it was Sister Anitema and I against the Samoan elders. The first round we weren't allowed to use the instruction booklet—just look at the picture on the box. (Sister Anitema and I actually got pretty far without the booklet... haha.) But then in the second round we were given the instructions, and clearly it was MUCH easier—though we still SMOKED the Elders. It took us maybe....7 minutes? to put the spaceship together. Whereas.... they still weren't done after the 10 minutes of time were up. Haha. #SetDesigner #I'veMissedIt ...Why have I never used legos before when trying to think of ideas for sets in plays? #Revelation #ForFutureReference
The day continued with a lunch break, and, once again, permetherin-ing the flat to make fleas leave... Luckily, I think it worked, for the most part, this time.
We then visited some families, dropped in to see Ivan (since he's been sick for a while) and had MCM (Missionary Committee Meeting). Love our ward mission leader. We "heart attacked" the Donnaldson's house, and....just all the love :) We got a message later in the night from Brother Donnaldson saying to "watch out because of the colourful heart taggers in the area!" Haha. Love them :)
WEDNESDAY...I was tired. And all the inadequacies of my mind started taking over and I just....basically started losing patience. -------> This is one thing I've defniitely learned/realized this week: Our family is INSANELY PATIENT. Like - I honestly don't feel like I've ever had to deal with impatient people in my life compared to now! So...THANK YOU (and also not), 'cause I clearly had no idea what it was like to live with an impatient person until now! Hahaha. #Blessings of a calm family... But I was also just tired so I started feeling a little like I wasn't actually being "useful" to Sister Anitema because of some of the little things she would say to me at times. But we still saw miracles! We had Alisha come out with us in the morning for a bit, and then made Ivan "Get Well" cards, and the Gaitau's even pitched in some fruit to give to him to make him better. We also got to visit with Sia and Sam, and....we're excited 'cause they told us we're "welcome anytime.... at night" haha. Because that's when they're home :) I LOVE their spirits, and they opened up to us....really quickly. So, wonderful blessings. And hopefully actually teaching soon. They did say they would like to have us over for dinner too! (Ah - and here's a cute little cultural thing for ya. Samoan's like to feed the missionaries. So when we just stopped by this night, they both were saying, "Ah! If we had known you were coming we would have made food!!!" And Sam just kept saying—in Samoan—that he wished he had food for us. The Islander "love language" is definitely FOOD. Haha.)
THURSDAY.... The stress kicked in. I hurt, I felt like a failure, and like I wasn't good enough to be Sister Anitema's companion, feeling like I could do nothing right. — Beginning with waking up, saying my prayer, and then being lectured that I "didn't wake her up," when, normally I DO—'cause she can't hear the alarm. First time I haven't. So great start to a morning! Continuing that day I felt like I was constantly being corrected on driving, how to talk to people, and that I wasn't talking enough in messages so it was stressing HER out. Well, guess what. That's why i'm not talking!
So.... I miss patient people. Also because it hurts a little to be constantly told that I'M the one that's helping HER learn patience. Which... I guess is good, it just doesn't always come out in a positive sounding way. Definitely comes out a bit more negatively. -------->> Ah. And that's another thing I've learned/realized this week. Our family is INSANELY POSITIVE. I feel like I've never really had to deal with super negative people until being on the mission! What? Haha. #SpoiledWithGoodness.
Anyhoo. We were able to bring Alisha with us to teach Vale this morning, and ...it was good. :) She opened up a little bit more, and our lesson just....flowed. In the way of conversation, rather than an actual "formal" lesson where we're saying "we're teaching you this." So....THE SPIRIT TEACHES in many different ways, and it's....pretty "sweet as" :)
FRIDAY was a lot about COMMUNICATION. I also realized the things that I USED to super enjoy, I now rather ...don't, always. Example: Weekly Planning, and ...on occasion, P-day. Just because it results in a lot of me, feeling like a failure, and stressed and like...I once again do nothing right :) Yay! It's fine though. Because THIS Friday's weekly planning was...actually good. We talked a lot more about the struggles we'd both felt this week, and then I cried. Emotional release!! ----------> Another thing I've learned this week: I've always had someone in my life who KNOWS HOW TO COMFORT. Fun fact: Sister Anitema doesn't really. Haaaaa. She even said that to me, saying, "I'm sorry! I don't know what to do when you cry!" Haha. Not a comforter. So... once again, #SpoiledInOurFam
But then: The Lord KNOWS when you need someone to hug you, and someone that knows how to comfort. So He sent our STL's (aka: my trainer "MUM"), who were originally just dropping by to take pictures for a "Sister's Conference" we're having this week - but...ended up helping us in the comforting life. HE KNEW I needed a hug from Sister O'Reilly, and that's why He sent them on that day and at that moment in time. I LOVE it.
Then we went out to get some food and just happened to run into one of our less-actives that Sister Anitema hadn't met yet (she's less active not by choice....but rather, because her "adopted" parents don't let her come). But it was good, and she's adorable, and I've missed her. And we got some food, since we really hadn't eaten much yet that day (and....I honestly hadn't eaten much in the last ...24 hours). #StressedSelf
SATURDAY was conference, comfort, lunch, and then more conference comfort. HAPPINESS. And then I shut down again, feeling worthless from comments from the companion, yet again :P Just....love it. But things improved when we had dinner at the Gaitaus, and a lesson at the Singh's with their cousin who we're now teaching, ending with stopping at a member's home to share a little message and to see if we could get a new ward list :) Because... ours lacks information we would like. Like.... birthdays and such.
SUNDAY was the TRUE COMFORT, and a MAJOR BLESSING FROM HEAVEN! Elder Holland. I just... wouldn't be able to thank him enough. "May a loving Father in Heaven bless us to remember how we felt today." And the EVER SO HELPFUL dinosaur visual that will FOREVER be ingrained in me and "the last thing I thought would come up on the screen at general conference from Elder Holland!" And OH HOW HELPFUL it was after leaving Saturday'sconference and immediately feeling stressed again, and then.... also leaving Sunday's conference nearly feeling the same. Why this time, you ask? Well.... we had a lovely visit with the Butlers - which... made us a bit late for our dinner appointment at the Singh's. This then resulted in Sister Joy Singh (a MTC teacher) ...sharing her "disappointment" in us, along with a lecture—alllllll the joys to tear my happiness down to once again, feeling like I'm a failure of a missionary. Let me tell you just....how much I didn't want to handle this right then. But it was good - because I do know we needed to hear it from someone else, rather than just ourselves, saying that we needed to be more timely. But....it was also kind of a shot to the heart. So, Sister Anitema basically shared the whole of the message we shared, because.... she knew what was going through my head, and she knew that I wouldn't be able to speak. And then, as we left - Joy pulled us aside again, at the door - to ask if WE, as companions, were okay. Yes, we DEFINITELY were - because of all the talking we had done on Friday that really did help. I just.... needed to get out of my own head still. And it really wasn't helping being told by someone that how we decided to follow the spirit that night—to know where and for how long we needed to be—was "disappointing" and "not acceptable." She said she just asked because I didn't do much talking in the message. Yes, I know that. It was because I was trying to figure out how to not feel worthless, once again. Thank you, Sister Singh. But, now we do know to never be even the slightest bit late to their house, ever—even if we do call ahead to tell them—'cause she didn't even seem to be happy with that. #Obedience.
This is also why the messages from conference of forgiveness, and just TRYING have helped me heaps this weekend! Because I AM trying. Things may get stressful, and things may get tough, but... I'm trying. And that's what truly matters. I know that the Lord will bless me as long as I have that DESIRE TO IMPROVE. And I do.
Oh. And that night ended with seeing Birgette and her family, and the Masiasomuas. So... there was all the HAPPY, because... the Masiasomua's ARE like my FAMILY.
Struggles may come, but I also know struggles go. As long as we keep trying and have the desire to improve, we will be blessed. No one is perfect. Even when people think you should be. And that's why I listened to President Uchtdorf's "Forget Me Not" talk again today and yesterday as well.
He said: "I want to tell you something that I hope you will take in the right way: God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect. Let me add: God is also fully aware that the people you think are perfect are not. And yet we spend so much time and energy comparing ourselves to others—usually comparing our weaknesses to their strengths. This drives us to create expectations for ourselves that are impossible to meet. As a result, we never celebrate our good efforts because they seem to be less than what someone else does. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. It’s wonderful that you have strengths. And it is part of your mortal experience that you do have weaknesses. ... God wants to help us to eventually turn all of our weaknesses into strengths. ... It’s okay that you’re not quite there yet. Keep working on it, but stop punishing yourself." —President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Forget Me Not," October 2011 General Conference #Brilliant
So.... Life's good. There has to be hard things and hard weeks in life so we can fully enjoy the good and "easy" ones ;) Truth. And I'm grateful for that.
Here's to the miracles of the upcoming week, and the teaching to our SEVEN new investigators! :)
I LOVE you all, and I hope you had a most lovely General Conference last week, and that you continue to remember the feelings you felt while listening and watching to our wonderful Prophet and Apostles :) They're definitely inspired and bring much comfort to all the things we're going through in life :)
Ofa Atu (Tongan! "Love ya"), Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley
It's been....a week. Ha. But there's always things that overcome sadness and help you to move on. And there's always this point of looking back when I realize that sometimes things are better than they seem in the moment of frustration and trial. Also: I'm convinced I'm just allergic to fleas. Or whatever is in my body that's tasty to fleas and makes them want to eat me... Yeah, bugs!
Last MONDAY night was a simple one - stopping in to the Papali'i's for a visit. We had texted them earlier to see if they were still planning on us for FHE, but never got a reply (or so we thought). Ha. So we decided to stop in anyway. Sister Papali'i was the only one home in the family - Bishop and the boys were all out at a movie. But we had a lovely chat with Sister Papali'i and heard about the trip they had for Easter weekend :) As we left their house that night, we dropped our phone — and in the process discovered about eight texts had come in that were responses/other messages we had received...but not actually received in the last two days. Hahaha. #PhoneStruggles And a couple of these messages were from Bishop and Sister Papali'i telling us that they had just gotten back and were all pretty tired/Sister Papali'i was a little sick.... So we then felt bad, but also blessed for having such a loving family that still lets us in, even when we don't know they've told us not to come in the first place :) Haha. And we had a few nice laughs with them as well - so, good ways to start a week!
We finally got over to visit Ivan on TUESDAY and brought our beautiful Alisha Gaitau with us :) And.... I love fun activities :) We went over the Plan of Salvation with him again, but this time we DREW pictures! Originally we came up with this idea to entertain Grace (Ivan's daughter Grace.... it's confusing having two Graces in my mind to talk about now). Haha. But litttle did we know that it would entertain Ivan even more than Grace! Haha. Apparently he really quite likes drawing. So...good things to know. A lovely afternoon, and a lovely time leading into dinner at the Pauna's :) —Which we also brought Alisha to. Love our RM :) We also had a mini lesson with Grace - overviewing the Restoration via doing the "Cupstoration" song. (Sorry, still haven't recorded it.) And it was exciting :)
WEDNESDAY.... my companion was sick again :( Sad face. And so I marked scriptures, and crocheted, and wrote letters, and tried to not start talking to myself. Ha. But all goods. :) She's....starting to feel better a little by little each day, so that's good. Oh. And this was also the morning that I woke up with bug bites, not having slept well 'cause I could feel them biting me....all night long. So when I woke up I tore off the sheets, put them in the washer, and Permetherined my mattress and box spring and covers and all the things. Fun fact: It didn't actually help. Still getting bitten. I just have clean sheets while getting bitten. Which is sad, 'cause they don't stay clean long 'cause of the lame little bugs that get blood spots everwhere. #Gross #OneDayTheyllGoAway
THURSDAY my ill/in pain companion had to force herself up so we could go to Zone Training! Wooooo! ...Also a training of quite a bit of "YOU CAN DO BETTER!" True. True. We can ALWAYS have more faith, and we can ALWAYS talk with more people. It was good though. I think...also just hard in my mind since Sister Anitema and I have spent so much time in lately, trying to figure out her illness and overcome the pain life. So, when we got back to our flat to have some lunch, Sister Anitema was spent again. And by the time lunch was over, it was just...still a struggle. So I decided we were still going to meet people somehow, even if it's from our couch! (We discovered our couch was a fold-out bed...which was helpful for Sister Anitema to lay out on!) How did we do this? We CALLED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE! Old phone numbers in our phone, people in the "former investigator" section of our area book... etc. And it was great fun. We also learned at the very beginning that we both have serious phone anxiety. Haaaa. It's one thing if you KNOW the person on the other end of the phoneline. It's another if you don't.... So, we made a script :) A script with many options like if they said "yes" or "no" to certain questions and whatnot. It was great. And we talked to a bunch of different people and weeded out numbers on our phone that no longer worked, and even got a RETURN APPOINTMENT, and a few people that said we could come around! #WINNING! Blessings. Miracles, and ....it made me feel productive again. Love.
We still got out to visit a member for dinner that night, and again later on to visit our dear Sister Frost and Avery - Brother Frost was out working. It was fun to have a little Plan of Salvation lesson with the two of them though, beginning with a brilliant Mormon message called, "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father." (It's beautiful!)
It's just a grand reminder of how even though day-to-day life can sometimes get repetitive, we have a Heavenly Father who's always watching over us. He's always there and always helping us along in everything we do.
FRIDAY — Happy April Fools! Yeah... Gullible Ottley day! Yay! Ha. So it started off with companion study with the Zone Leaders (Elder Saulo and Nielsen), which was grand! Until the end when they came out with the bad news... "Sisters, we were going to tell you this yesterday at the training meeting, but we felt it wasn't something we thought everyone needed to know... There's a Sister in the mission who has hurt her back and needs a car in her area. And so.... yours needs to be sent to her. The assistants are coming down before dinner tonight to pick it up from you." ...And then of course stress set in. Why? Because we had three appointments that night - in VERY SEPARATE PARTS of our area, with the NEED of a car to get there! (Sad faces.) But we said fine. And they seemed oddly "not sad" for us as they left. And then... we received their text: "APRIL FOOLS." The Elders. They're so lame. So, yes, we still have our car. And her name is Tina, and we love her.
That night we helped Sister Papali'i set up a single adult activity during our dinner break, before going out to visit and get to know a new less-active family as well as one of our potentials that we had called the day before! Win! Sadly we weren't really able to stay, as he had family show up that day, so he told us we could come back Monday. So we'll be seeing him later on tonight :) Party. Excitement! Anyway, after our appointments we dropped by the chapel again to see if they needed help cleaning up. They had finished up their movie, and instead, asked us if we wanted to draw some pictures for their last Pictionary game! Haha. Love our ward :) They're all lovely.
SATURDAY was spent mostly running around visiting people for short times and inviting many to the Women's Broadcast :) HAPPY! And at the last home we visited, Sister AhHong gave us ribs—literally wrapped them up in glad-wrap for us and said, "Here! For your dinner!" Haaaa... and here's where Sister Ottley has changed. Yup. I like ribs. Not that I didn't before. I just laughed at myself as Sister Anitema and I gladly chowed down on ribs in the car before going to Women's Conference. #CompRibs That's what our day was called. Comp Ribs. Love it. And then the broadcast. Happiness and joy and gladness. And peace and calm and just....loving forgetting everything for a bit to focus on words from such wonderful people. Sister Neill F Marriott will never cease to make me smile with her adorable southern accent! :D
And then yesterday. SUNDAY. We contacted some referrals - one which was actually a very young child. We were both expecting a grown man! Haha. So hopefully more comes of that and we can actually meet the whole family/parents' 'Cause, the two kids we talked to said that there's TEN in the household! Exciting :)
We had a lovely church time, a lovely time in gospel doctrine ('cause no one was there for the principles class yesterday), and then we got to go help teach in YOUNG WOMEN'S! Win :) Alisha Gaitau was given an assignment to teach for YW, so she invited us to come help. We taught the Restoration and then Sister Anitema and I did the Cupstoration again. LOVE it. Also terrifying in front of more than 4 or 5 people. ...#ShyOttley Yup. That kicked back in. But it was good. Love them all :) It was also great because we got some of the YW saying they want us to come to their house to show their families! Haha. Good times :) Love my musically talented comp!
Sister Anitema then got to meet the Hakaraia family :) One of my favorite families to visit in the ward, purely because it's always entertaining. Their less-active son always complains how we ruin his night when we show up and he has to turn off his game - or whatever he's watching. HaHa. Always in joking though. Basically, anything he says you don't take seriously. But they're just wonderful and make us happy. And they invited us to start teaching the lessons to the family as well. Yay for building up member trust and happiness in Missionary work!! And then....to finish off the night with a bang of HAPPINESS, we had a lesson with Birgette's family. Her daughter, Ivy, and partner, Jason, aren't members, nor is her Korean home-stay boy, Harem. Harem didn't stay for the lesson last night, but it was a fun night with the rest of them! Ivy is just a ball of excitement and actually knows the teachings of the gospel quite well, so we're excited to keep teaching their family.
So.... like I said. The week was a struggle, but also somehow not. It must just come from being in the flat that turns my mind into a struggle and makes me start feeling like a failure. But.... Heavenly Father hears prayers, and he helps our faith grow by putting people in our lives just at the right moment—helping us overcome sadness. I love getting hugs from my Heavenly Father, and little whisperings of Him telling me that I've done better than I give myself credit for. And this is why I love night prayer. 'Cause... Friday I just felt kind of like I'd failed all day. Sister Anitema and I had a good weekly planning - but part way though I found out she felt it wasn't going the way it needed to and she was getting impatient and ... bored. Sometimes it's like she has a switch of "happy" and "bored" that takes me by surprise and once the happy and excited is gone - well, it's just.... struggle. And my mind doesn't know how to handle the change between the two sometimes.
ANYHOO... Rambling. That night as I started my prayer before bed, starting to tell Heavenly Father how sorry I was for the things we didn't get done that day or this week really.... when I was almost "cut off" in a way with this whisper that said, "You HAVE done what I wanted you to do today. Now just keep going tomorrow." I love HUGS from Heavenly Father. And from His angels ALLLL around me. It's one thing in my life that I know I've always had, but probably never fully realized until I came here. And that's another reason why I needed to come on the mission — after the fact of all the brilliant people I know I needed to come meet, and I constantly feel like I've already known long before we met.
Our Gospel is true. The teachings of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, are REAL and BRILLIANT, and if we let them, they can change our lives. Because that's really all our Saviour and Heavenly Father want for us, is to be safe and happy. So that's what I'm striving to be. Safe and happy, and to share that happiness with others around me :) And I know that as we STRIVE to increase our faith, MORE miracles happen, little by little each day. All the knowledge and strength and FAITH we gain as we move forward comes together in our little jigsaw puzzles called life :)
(Btw: I may become obsessed with doing puzzles when I get home. It just sounds like something that would be a lot of fun to do right now... Haha.)
I LOVE you all, and I hope you have a most WONDERFUL week. May you see beautiful blessings and miracles in your life as you apply the things you've learned in General Conference this weekend! ...And I'll join you next weekend in the happiness when I've seen it as well ;)
ALLLL the LOVE from the other side of the world, Arohanui, Your Favorite Kiwi Missionary — Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley ;)
