LIFE!

Wow! This mission thing. It just... keeps you on your toes—making sure you're learning new things allllll the time! It's good. It is. Sometimes it's just a bit of a SHOCK!

So — Sister Ottley has a NEW ASSIGNMENT! First:  Remember how when I was with Sister Lemalu, we came to Otara for her dental appointments, and I was like, "Bro. South side scares me!"

HA.

Welp — I'm South.  And I'm IN OTARA.  Not Otara Zone. But the Otara area. I've been transferred to the Tamaki Zone—Tangaroa Ward—and I'm TRAINING a new sister :) Her name is Sister Tauiliili (daughter #3), and she's from Wellington, NZ, but grew up in Samoa for most of her life. She's still LEARNING ENGLISH, so there are many new adventures coming our way as we learn the area together, and learn LANGUAGES together ('cause, yes - I WILL be forced now to learn bits of Samoan. Ha... Well, not forced, obviously, but it'll be good for me in connecting with all the people.) #DoubleShiftLife

Things that I should also just realize and expect by now though are: 1) When I have the thought of "No, this won't happen"—it always will. 2) Aka: When thinking, "I hope my new daughter isn't exactly like me and super quiet"—she is!
SUPER QUIET. Obviously it's not a bad thing. I love her dearly, and I'm excited to be serving with her. I just wish I knew Samoan! Ha

This last intake was HUGE—25 new missionaries!! Biggest intake to the mission in quite a while! There's 12 Elders and 4 Sisters. And Me and Elder Ruth are the ONLY palangi's (white missionaries) in our Zone—Including the sister that's from America. Ha. (She's half Tongan, half Samoan.) And I'm fairly certain I'm literally the ONLY palangi in our ward. Although we haven't really seen all of our ward yet, as yesterday was General Conference for us. But it's literally the BIGGEST ZONE I've been in....pretty sure. Area wise, I think it's the SMALLEST. #SouthLife #It'sRealNow

So...

MONDAY. Our last Zone P-day kind of fell through...but we ended up going to Denny's with some of the zone, and it was fun times. (Yes, as in the same Denny's that's in the states. But it's also much different here.
And expensive. No surprise there.) We also had a lovely FHE with the Kumar's, and we got to watch our FIRST General Conference talk—because they love us, and started it over for us when we got there. But.... Sister Tcheou and I honestly were rather distracted during said conference talk, as.... we had just talked with President Balli about our new assignments. Ha.  Focus is hard when you BOTH know you're going to be training in a matter of days, and that your life is going to be swapped around significantly. Good times! But then... Sister Anitema stayed with us Monday and Tuesday night before she went home on Wednesday. So BONUS!

Another bonus, we got a "5 GENERATION" PICTURE of all of us this last intake.  Sisters O'Reilly, Me, Boiteux, Thompson, and Thompson's new daughter. Sister Boiteux has now become a Sister Training Leader and the rest of us from my old zone are ALL TRAINING (well, except the youngest, who just came in).

TUESDAY. Last Harbour District meeting. ...Where we found out that MOST of Harbour zone is TRAINING now or in leadership positions. (Or, for some of them, both in a leadership position AND training.) Fun times! Seriously, everyone except the new Tongan sisters in the zone are training. So, we're approaching a very young mission now!

We went out to Kaukapakapa and Sister Tcheou drove, as she had to start getting used to it somehow! Haha. We got pictures with the Heta's, and I'm going to miss them....very dearly. However, I know I will see them again. :0 We also had lunch with Emma, and I was able to give her the painting I did for her. And then a bit of saying goodbye.
Good times. Oh. And I literally burst into tears saying goodbye to Brother Maire. That was a sad moment in time.

And then a lot of PACKING that night.

WEDNESDAY. A day of chaos. Transfers to swap stuff to my new area. Back to  Harbour to help people there. Trying to get Sister Tcheou's driver's license. And.... feeling rather ill. #Struggles. But it was all okay. We all gathered together at the mission home ("we all," meaning those of us training)
and I found out that Elder SAULO is one of my new zone leaders. (He was in Henderson with me) ....thus: the bit of comfort Heavenly Father knew I needed. Just to know one person. Ha. Blessings! We met our children, had a little training, and then we all skedaddled into our new areas. We were brought to ours by Sister Balli, along with other sisters going to Otara and Mangare. So Sister Tauiliili and I didn't get to our flat until....like 8:30 pm. We settled in, gathered ourselves together, and planned for the next day.

THURSDAY. Fun fact: I think we could literally walk around the boundary of our area in ....2 hours. Tops. Walking. So, yes. The SMALLEST area I've been in.  Ha. But the people here are good. Also all the stereotypes I've heard about the south are all true — 1) Everyone knows who the missionaries are (or most everyone). 2) There's LOUD music played from all the cars. 3) You are constantly running into members when trying to find people to talk with on the street. 4) The, "Hey sista's!" south kid accent. Ha. So priceless :) Oh. Also —this area we've come into? We already apparently have SIX SET BAPTISMS!! 4 solid—met 2 of them in passing. The others we haven't been able to catch yet. Goals for this week.  I will also come forth with all their names next week as....I can't say them yet. #Samoan. #Struggles ADVENTURES!

FRIDAY. Planning. Tracting. Meeting new people. Finding out it takes an hour to walk from our flat to the east side of the area. Ha. We were also able to meet and help out one of our other investigators, Skye. She's SUPER sweet and I can already tell we're going to be great friends. She's Maori so I know how to connect with her.  Ha. The Maori's I understand.

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. General Conference is just....BRILLIANT. Isn't it? We're spoiled to have such wonderful general authorities that give us such grand council. I just love it. We also found out we have a few RM's in the ward, one of which is our Ward Mission Leader. So that's good. One of them brought us around to show us some shortcuts ('cause we're on foot—no car) to get around easier. I'm loving the walking around, but my poor companion's feet aren't used to it yet.
Ha. Her feet have been crazy sore the last 2 days. :(

Anyhoo, not much more for now... Just a lot of getting to know members and working to find the best ways to get them involved in the work!

South life. Chru Bro.  It's a thing. #SlangWords (Ha) Adventures to come.
Love you all HEAPS! Hope you have a beautiful week!

Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley