*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.
Ofa lahi atu
Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley
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