Love my Otara

Sounds like it's been an exciting week there! What with all the SNOW! I'm scared and excited for the cold all at the same time. Haha. Cutest nieces and nephews ever with their snowmen... hopefully they'll want to make one with me too when I get back! I
DEFINITELY want to play in that!

And my Earthquake! I know! We didn't feel it 'cause we were sleeping... but we found out later in the day that some of our members and investigators DID feel it! But Sister Tauiliili's family [on the South Island] is all good, and it sounds like there's lots of people all helping to get everything cleaned up. So that's good :)

How's it been with Trump in for a week? This is truly the main topic I get now... everyone wanting to know what's up in my country. Haha.

MONDAY we had our Zone all meet together to receive transfer news... Sister Tauiliili and I have STAYED! I'll be finishing off here in Tangaroa Ward, and I'm excited and grateful :) LOVE my Otara! Haha. Other than that, we had a grand Family Home Evening with the Talavave's, or rather a last lesson with them. So...it'll probably be weird to not go to their house tonight.

TUESDAY was District Meeting! Which was supposed to be Elder Brown's last one as a district leader before being transferred to a different area...but then he and the Tongan Elders all got food poisoning. #SadDay. So Elder Ruth, our brilliant zone leader, did an impromptu training.  Grand things :) We're lucky to have him on our side! That afternoon we met some brilliant miracle people, that hopefully we'll get to see again soon!

WEDNESDAY. A lot of people weren't home/appointments cancelled... Ha. All part of the work sometimes. But it's okay, we still tried our best, and then were blessed with Elder and Sister Terry who finished going over the ward list to help us put faces to certain names, and telling us people to go visit.  Good times. Grateful for the Terry's and all they do – in spite of their busy lives at the MTC as well!

THURSDAY was honestly kind of a hard day. Happy Birthday to my sweet, departed Lindsey. But there were also blessings that day, including an appointment that night with a sister who's just moved into our ward. Love her. Love her family.
Will continue seeing her :)

FRIDAY was a pretty normal day. Haha.
Weekly planning, a bit of tracting, and a lesson with Skye. She gave me a Snickers Brownie for my birthday, which...was delicious ;) Also: Thank you, dear whanau, for the lego advent calendar :)
Excitement? YES!!Also: I may have decided that I'm going to use it as a "countdown to when I leave" instead.
'Cause... 1) I don't want to wait until December. 2) Then I don't have to fit the box in my suitcase. and 3) Why not? Ha!

November has gone SO FAST. I wrote in my journal one night a couple weeks ago, that I am convinced that Heavenly Father is getting homesick for all of us to come back to Him – so He's slowly speeding up time!Haha.

SATURDAY we had a lesson with Gurman and Suk. :) And they're brilliant. So open and willing to learn. We taught the restoration, and it was a fun time. I love teaching. It's just exciting. We also had a lovely night with the Lakisa's, Jasmine, and Siu. We just have brilliant people in our area.

SUNDAY was COME AND SEE FIRESIDE. Jasmine came, and I lead the music (a sign to me of "Sister Ottley, start getting used to standing in front of more than 150 people at the most in a ward. Haaaa). I'm excited to see all of our ward members at home though :) I miss them heaps :) It's gonna be weird being with all palangi's and no islanders though. Ha.

Our ward here is just brilliant. Fay and Fa (2 of the 4 girls that were baptised in our ward 3 weeks ago) shared their testimonies at the fireside. They're just BRILLIANT. Love them heaps, and I'm so very grateful and fortunate to have them as part of my life :) Also: Elder Clark. He's serving in the YSA ward here in south now, so... he covers our area (and like a huge amount of south and into the Hamilton mission. Crazy.) So... all the excitement of "I got to see him again." (We started together! MTC. Airport. Alllll that jazz. And I miss him.)

It was honestly kind of a slow-ish week. A lot of people not home. A lot of attempted tracting.  But... the Lord still blesses those who try! And this was shown to me again this week in the fact there's always someone in my life each transfer that lets me know "Heavenly Father is definitely watching over you." —This transfer? Our STL's are Sister Graham and Sister BOITEUX.  Yup. My first trainee baby. And they make me happy. It's also helpful, because they've BOTH served in Tangaroa before, so they're able to give us little details on people and whatnot. So that's exciting.

ALSO. I GOT A LETTER FROM MARIANNE THIS WEEK AND... I GET MY BYU JOB BACK!! For reals. She told me herself. #EXCITEMENT

Life is grand. And it keeps getting grander. KEEP GOING, DO YOUR BEST, and ENDURE TO THE END. That's what it's about friends! ;)

Haa.

OFA ATU!
Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley