Whanau! I miss you all dearly. Time will never cease to amaze me though with how quickly it goes by. Anyhoo. You hear enough of that from me every week though. Haha.
THIS WEEK. Sick moments (#LactoseProbs), miracle moments, and lots of NEWS moments!!
MONDAY. Bowling again! This might become a thing. We like it. Haha. Not every week, but it's fun with the district. We were also finally able to meet another of our referrals—James. From Zimbabwe, and he's SUPER cool. We're going back soon to meet the fam — they have their own religion currently, but he seemed intrigued by a few different things we shared with him, including the fact that we have older couple missionaries who go out and serve in different countries! Service in any way really does soften hearts of people.
And. Reasons I print out emails. 'Cause, Mum - I was looking back on a couple and found, again, a quote you sent a few weeks back that said, "Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there." —Elder Holland. And..... I needed that Monday night :)
TUESDAY! My sickly companion. Sad face. In our RUSH around that afternoon after District meeting, she accidentally ate dairy....for lunch.....and we forgot to give her a tablet. So...her poor body became ill rather quickly. So we stayed in the flat. But, we got some other things done, and we were at least able to talk to quite a few people on the streets before that point - so it was good.
WEDNESDAY. In the afternoon, we were able to go visit with Linda, helping her pack away and get rid of a few things in the house to get ready for her move.
So that was good. (And by "get rid of" I mean - she donated quite a few things to us/other missionaries/the church. Haha. She's great.) And then: KAUKAPAKAPA. The WEST side of our area in Hibiscus. First time we've been out there—and it was all nostalgic for me. It was like BEING BACK UP NORTH. Long dirt roads, gorgeous rolling green hills, lots of cattle, sheep and farms..... allllllll the happiness :) Miss it. So it was lovely. We had dinner with one of our members who live out there - the McCallum's. They're Scottish. And MAN. I love the Scottish accent. SO MUCH. Alllllll the happiness!(once again). And they got us laughing up a storm, telling us all about their adventures as newlyweds, and then in joining the church and the missionaries they'll never forget :) Boosts your spirits a bit ;)
Another thing I found out: GILLS FARM IS IN MY AREA. Aka: It's a large area of ginormous art sculptures, and GIRAFFES and things to feeeeeed. Just gotta figure out when it's OPEN and when we can go. Hopefully open on a Monday? Otherwise... sadness. :(
THURSDAY. Patience day. It still amazes me that regardless of how much you can learn patience, you can stilllllllll learn more. But it's fine. It's just hard when there's clearly things your companion is thinking about, but she suddenly won't share anything with you and just sits there being in a bad mood. And THEN: Sister Jackson calls saying, "Hi Sister Ottley! We have a consulate appointment for Sister Lemalu in the morning in the city, so we'll have to pick you up around 7:45. Is that okay?" And then Sister Lemalu broke down in tears a little bit. Ha. 'Cause...see... "consulate" = "getting her Visa for Hawaii." The funny/sad part of it was the fact that she told me after that, "Last night I actually prayed that I WOULDN'T get my Visa." #WhenYouGetComfortable. But... it helped me in understanding more things that were going through her head, and it finally got her a bit more to her less-cranky-self. Not fully...'cause, now she doesn't want to leave. Ha. But...inevitable things. So- It was a good day
I was greatly happy when Sister Prendergast called, asking if we could help in packing her house, now that it's been sold - we all know how I like the cleaning and packing life (well - when it's for other people). My stuff during transfers? Not a huge fan of all the packing. We had our usual dinner at the Rapata's, and MCM at the Wharemate's :) Love them all.
FRIDAY. CONSULATE. IN THE CITY. "Fun times!" - aka: It was a struggle of a day at the consulate. Sister Lemalu's appointment was supposed to be at 9:30, but we got there at 9! So..we thought, oh - maybe that'll help it go faster. ---- and then we ended up not leaving until maybe.... 12:30? 1-ish? Why? Because, usually there's two officers on duty to do the interviews for visa things. But... there was only one that day. So....all the people were taking ages to get through. But, all is welll. Reasons I'm grateful that I'm a patient person. I got to hang out with Elder and Sister Jackson (office missionary couple). Sister Jackson and I chatted about our families, read scriptures, and had a nice little window shopping time together in some of the shoppes down the street. (There was even a LONDON LOLLY SHOPPE [imported British sweets and chocolate]. I was in Heaven.)
After all was said and done, and Sister Lemalu was finally released, she came back with good news that she was APPROVED! She's also sad. But - she also knows (well - most likely) that she'll be staying till the end of the transfer, as to not mess up me not having a companion and all that jazz. And then my posterity will, once again, be continued on in another mission :) *Proud Mum Tears*
There's also many perks to being with Sister Jackson for a morning. Why? - you ask?
She deals with missionary flight things.
My News?
*Suspense*
*Anticipation*
You can officially start singing the song......
"I'll be home for Christmas" on my behalf! :)
Our outtake will be coming home the WEEK OF DECEMBER 19TH :D Still not sure what day yet - but ya know. You won't have to just look at my face on a screen on Christmas, 'cause you'll just be able to see it in person ;) ;) #YesI'mExcited!
Anyhoo. The rest of Friday consisted of Dinner with Sister Lemalu's aunt (who's in Hibiscus Ward) and then a funeral in Aeroview Ward. And this funeral was a blessing in many ways. Why? 1) Samoan referral. So my companion was in heaven, speaking all her Samoan, and translating for me the things that were spoken during the service in Samoan :) Love. 2) I began to realize how much I've learned about eternal perspective and the difference between the feeling of different spirits in different religions. There were lots of people from different faiths at this funeral, and so they kind of put their own "spin" on their talks - a few of them. Mostly 7th Day Adventist. Just a lot of back and forth between speaker and audience of "God Is Good!" "All The Time" "All The Time" "God Is Good!" Ha. Interesting :) But.... it's quite brilliant how we have this eternal perspective in our gospel. We KNOW where they're at – and we KNOW the things that are going on in the Spirit World to help our Father's children even MORE. It's just.. sweet as. All the missionary work. Eternities. I love it all.
Also: Samoan funerals are full on. And apparently this one we went to wasn't even a fully "proper" one - it would have apparently been much longer if it was! Haha. Alll Islanders are really quite family and time oriented. I love it.
SATURDAY we helped out the Sunset Sisters with service at the home of a lady named Caroline. She's the SWEETEST lady, who's been through a LOT in life and is just struggling with moving. So...we were able to go help her with packing and cleaning and giving her some love :) It was grand.
Then...the sickness of Sister Lemalu settled in again, and I journaled and things for the rest of the day. :)
SUNDAY was our little day of miracles. The main being a man named ROGAN.
We were in Torbay for church yesterday. Sister Lemalu and I were at the door, greeting people as they walked in - when a Korean man I didn't recognize walked up. "Do you have to be a member? Or can anyone join the service?" ...What
ANYONE. Anyone can come! He walked on in and our dear WML lovingly jumped up and headed over to meet, friendship, and talk with him. Rogan apparently just moved into the area, got this miracle job opportunity, and decided that he needed to thank God - so... he googled the closest church, and came up with ours! By the end of the meeting (because Brother Wharemate sat with him the whole time) Rogan said, "I loved the spirit of this meeting. How do I join this church?" .....When do things like this happen? Hahaha. So.... GOLDEN miracles. Brother Wharemate got his info — he doesn't live in our area boundaries for us to teach, but we're grateful nonetheless. It's just SO COOL to see how people CAN feel that spirit immediately and want that same love from God. Brilliant. Grateful. Love watching the miracles of people :)
So.... a good week. Time just flies, because... I'll now actually be home at this time in 5 months. What? How does this even happen? It seems like YESTERDAY that I was still back in Kaikohe, emailing you from my dear Kerikeri library. Ha. And then running across the street for Subway for lunch. Every Monday with Sister Pointer. Memories :)
I love you all, and I hope you're having a beautiful sabbath - and I hope you have a most brilliant week ahead as well! Soak up some sun for me — and try and save a little for when I come home 'cause I'll be freezing my little butt off in YOUR winter. #NotExcitedForThatPart #Acclimated #Wussy
ALOFA TELE ATU,
Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley
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