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

Fourth Floor, Last Door...

President Uchtdorf is just BRILLIANT. And I love his stories. Especially since the talk he gave in Women's Conference (I'm a week behind you all back home) is the OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY to another talk he gave previously. I'm pretty sure it's his "Your Happily Ever After" talk that he tells the story of when Harriet first walked into the chapel when he was a deacon. And now this story being the "prequel" to that was just brilliant for me. Anyhoo. I LOVE missionary work. It's the LIGHT of my life, and I love sharing with others why this gospel is so brilliant. Whether the people we talk to are member or non member, we can all be missionaries. :)

MONDAY we had TWO FHE appointments. With the Hall family and the Kumars. Love them all. They bring light into my life. :)

TUESDAY. Teaching in UNITY! Honestly, it's been a struggle this transfer for my companion and I to get the hang of teaching with one another. We just both have very different styles of teaching—she'll tell you the same. But, this day was just the beginning of brilliance. We just felt grand. And it was great. And teaching was happy.  We got to visit with Harper and her family, and taught the first part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—Faith, Repentance, and Baptism. We then were able to have another brilliant lesson, teaching The Plan of Salvation to Brandon, and his niece, Piper.

Sisters Holt, Anitema and Ratukalou came to stay—Sister Ratukalou because she was leaving—Sisters Anitema and Holt because they were going to be going to MLC in the morning. It's always a blessing to have a little of Anitema in my life :) And I love Sister Holt. She's just like this ball of sunshine everywhere she goes. I hope there's partying with her when we're both back home as well!

WEDNESDAY. Sick day. Sister Ratukalou was ill (right before she was to go home...sad). So we just helped to doctor her, get her packed, and let her rest, until we dropped her at the mission office for her interview with President before leaving. Helpful day, getting myself more organized—as I really don't know what's going to happen with this transfer this week—so, basically, I started packing. Or rather "de-junking" my life. #TooMuchStuff #Gatherer #ItsAProblem

We had Dinner with Elder and Sister Collins :) (My heart. Love them.) Which was quite perfect, as they live in Takapuna—which is where the mission office is—where we dropped Sister Ratukalous :)

THURSDAY. Zone Training. "Grandma! Listen Harder!" I loved this story from President Uchtdorf. And it was BRILLIANTLY exciting at Zone Training, 'cause we WATCHED his talk for part of training. And I loved his point of how sometimes we don't need to listen harder, but instead "differently." TRUTH. I've learned that a lot on the mission. And this transfer. Not only with people and physical things, but with Heavenly Father. Paying attention in different ways so He can show us things in different lights of life.

Anyhoo. Training was brilliant. And "becoming a fourth floor, last door missionary" is just a grand thought to me. LOVE it.

Another lesson with Harper. :) - The Heta family is just....amazing. And light and happy and grand in our lives. We met a referral named Belinda. She's brilliaintly adorable, and we have an appointment with her this week :)
And we received some texts from another investigator contact. Haaaaa.... #Flirt. He's actually kind of a miracle. Last week we met him while looking for someone else's house. He ran to the door when he heard that we said "missionaries" and said, "Wait! Did you say you're missionaries? Do you have a card or something? I would talk to you now, but we're in a meeting.  So I'll call you later." So...we gave him our card! Then, Thursday we got a text from him asking, "Is this the correct number for a lady I met the other day by the name of Ohley?" ...Struggles with the "tt" in the name looking like an "h". ...He then proceeded to ask me out to coffee to "talk about all things theological and mission based" Haaaaaaa!! I was CRACKING UP in the car when Sister Tcheou was reading it to me as we drove around Kaukapakapa.  Anyhoo. Long story short, he's definitely a flirt. Hahahaha.... Sister Tcheou's response when he kept asking me out for coffee: "He DOES realize that we're a package deal right? I'M not the third wheel in this — HE is the third wheel!!!"
Hahahaha.... I literally about died laughing! But I hope we actually get to meet him this week, because from my point of view, he legitimately does want to know about missionary work, ... and he apparently lives right next to the chapel.  So.... ya know. There's that. You never know!!

And then there was the....struggle side of the day. We went to bring something to a sister in the ward who...we've been trying to figure out how to make friends with. Not sure what happened, or if we offended her somehow, or if it's something in the past.. don't know.  But she was still rather sharp with us and sent us away with...not so nice words. Sister Tcheou was FUMING. Didn't really speak much the rest of the day.
But I knew why and understood. (Sister Tcheou was told by this lady that she was RUDE the last time we came over.) BUT.... lessons came of this, for me. It made me think back to this talk by Elder Holland—"Missionary Work and the Atonement"—where he says, "Salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy!" He talks about how someitmes we have to walk a bit of the path that the Saviour walked for us in order to make everything more real. And it TRULY works. It makes you more frustrated and hurt than ever, but it's comforting because it makes the ATONEMENT more real—even though the things we experience are nothing compared to what our Savoiur had to go through for us. And... Sometimes you just want to slap the people that make your companions sad and hurt. But, unfortunately that woudn't make things better. So there's that.

FRIDAY. Bugs. Lots of attacking the flat with flea bombs and vacuums and all that jazz. Sister Tcheou has been getting eaten (and somehow not me for the first time, ever.)

SATURDAY. Robyn. Love her.  She's KEEN to learn—EVEN THOUGH she has friends that found out she's been meeting with "Mormon missionaries" and they told her "not to get sucked in" Hahahahaha.... But Robyn is brilliant.  And we love her.  She's a light in our lives :) And her ankle is slowly, but surely healing – so that's good.

WOMEN'S BROADCAST.  BRILLIANT. I've already said things about it, I know. But I also loved the emphasis that was put on POSITIVE THINKING.  BROTHER, am I EVER an advocate for that! Truth. And will ALWAYS BE TRUTH.

SUNDAY. BRANDON IS SET FOR BAPTISM. ...That was the most exciting thing of the day! Ha. We had a lesson with him. A visit with Emma. A dinner with the Woods family. And a visit with LINDA.  Brillliant day, loved it all. Especially since Linda's been sick for a while now, so glad to see her up and going again :) Hate it when people get sick :( So yes. BRANDON is set for baptism :) 15 of October. Joys! Only sad thing is that we're now to the end of the transfer. Ha. And, well, I've been here for ages. So we'll see. But it's okay. :) The important thing is for them to make that step – not that I have to be here for it :)

Anyhoo. Life is grand. Another week has passed, and I can't even believe it!  It's OCTOBER, PEOPLE. How did that happen? Where did the last YEAR go!?

I'll be off now. But I hope you have a most brilliant week!

Alofa tele atu,
Sister Mckenzie Ann Ottley

The Lords Blesses Though Who "Want" To Improve

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

"LOOK UP! GOD DIDN'T DESIGN US TO BE SAD!"

WOMEN'S CONFERENCE. It was brilliant!  I finally got to watch it yesterday (Sunday. Ha.) And it was wonderful. And I'm pretty much just jealous of everyone at home who has now watched General Conference, and I haven't.... But! NEXT WEEK! I'm waiting ... patiently. But only patiently because I have no other choice but to be patient!

It's been a good, weird, painful week.  Haha. "Painful" in the sense of my back acting up - and my foot struggling in life. "Good" in the way of people we've been able to meet with and the members that we're becoming better friends with - and "Weird" in the way of just the combination of the two making it weird. Haha.

Things this week: I got my first New Zealand sunburn! Yay...?! Ha. It really wasn't that bad though - but Sister Pointer, who is indeed also very fair skinned, didn't get as burned as me... so - #mylife. But it was all for a good cause because we got to do a ZONE SERVICE PROJECT! We helped out in a potential investigator's garden for the other sister's in our district. Her name is Sharon, and she has a GORGEOUS and HUGE garden/path area in her backyard that's been all grown-over and needed some help. So we got to garden. And I found some spiders that I could have done without seeing in my life. But all is well! (I still haven't witnessed a Weta—NZ insect, so we're all good there. *knocks on wood* Look them up. They're gross.) And btw: Forget-me-nots are EVERYWHERE here - and I love them. :)

Tuesday continued in Matauri Bay, driving around with our dear Sister Laura Himiona. The funny quote from her in the day was, "Hey Sisters, - Is your car open? I'll have Nevaeh put the car seat in for Hope." Me: "Oh! I'll get the keys!" Laura: "Of course it's not unlocked - you're American." (The differences between New Zealanders and Americans) ;)

Wednesday we FINALLY caught up with a guy that I've been trying to catch for WEEKS. He's been a potential investigator for...who knows how long, among the sisters. And he's one that's truly strengthened my testimony in the way that "planting seeds and even just VISITING people truly DOES WORK." His name is James Puru, and he told us stories of how when the sisters first started visiting he'd basically run away - or tell them he was busy, and such like that. The last sisters that talked with him got a few lessons in, but he was put off when they asked about baptism - too fast for him. But now he's told us he's ready - but also said straight out it's going to take him a while until he can commit to baptism, because he wants to do it right! He's golden. :) And I'm so excited to keep teaching him. It's also quite brilliant, because Sister Pointer KNOWS HIS DAUGHTERS. One of them, Aroha, is a member in the Owahau Branch, and the other is investigating... They're all wonderful. And there's some great connections that's helping this along. :)

I ALSO decorated my new planner. :) A "Stay By The Tree" theme from April's conference. With the scripture reference of Moroni 10:32. It's a good one!

"Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him. ... Love God with all your might, mind and strength. ... That by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ." —Moroni 10:32

Thursday. LOQUAT. It's a fruit. I'm honestly not sure if that's how you spell it. But... that's what I got for ya since I can't look it up. Ha But they're really quite delicious. I'm a fan. Kinda citrus-y, but also more like... kiwi-y? No.  I don't know. It's hard to explain. Little, yellow, ovals and they have pits inside. Sometimes an impressive amount of pits for how small they are! And I've DEFINITELY eaten lamb. Haha. A lot. I've probably had it more than chicken at this point in time!

Friday was Zone Training, and SO great. All about Accountability, Planning and Goal setting. But - Friday was also a struggle for me. As.... my back has been struggling lately. And Friday it was just in pain. And it was making me exhausted. And I lost it a little. And then Elder Shannon (my new district leader) gave me a blessing at the end of Training. And it was everything I needed to hear - from being able to gain strength to continue on, to gaining knowledge and the answers that will come to me as I keep going. It was brilliant. It calmed me. But - I also was still in pain.  So, we called Sister Beckstead (who finishes her mission this month, by the way.... it's going to be sad without her. But the new sister nurse I'm sure will also be just lovely.:) ) And she said to "Take some ibuprofen, get a hot waterbottle and lay on it for an hour to get the inflamation down and settle it." ...So we did. We dropped by The Warehouse to get a hot waterbottle on our way back from Zone Training, went back to the flat and I did just that. We ended up stayin' in for the rest of the day - just giving my back a rest because... struggles.  And it ended up helping a lot I feel.  I've been up and out since then and it's gaining more strength with different stretches that I'm now getting MUCH better at doing..... #slacker.

But like I said - the work moves on. Saturday we were able to connect with one of our potentials who I haven't seen in AGES. Because... he's never home. Ken is his name, and we found him while we were out talking with people on the streets. He was at a picnic table preparing his flax to be weaved into a bag. :) He's great. And so creative, and we're hoping to run into him again soon - when he actually has a phone that's not broken/lost... Ha.  The funny part about this, and a quote that will never be forgotten is "Cuddles are good" ...Yup. I forgot that Ken is one who we haven't figured out how to tell that as Sisters we're technically not allowed to hug men.... and he just goes in for the hug before you realize what's happening.  And this is what he said to us as we went to give him a handshake. So, friends - "cuddles are good"  Hahaha.... Obstacles we'll be working through in the future. :P

Saturday night also brought me back to my old days of getting lost and calling Dad, saying "I'm here - tell me how to get _______." Remember those times Dad? Haha... Yup. Except my "Dad" here in Paihia is now Elder Clements. We were trying to find a member's home - the Dicksons. And..... we were helplessly lost. I called Elder Clements (who we'd already called once earlier, looking for another home -- that one we found) and after trying to explain it for a second - he just stopped and said, "Okay. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go back to your car, drive to the top of Opua, and Sister Clements and I will come meet you there and lead you to the Dickson's home."  ..>Hahahaha... #mylife. #directionallychallenged. But they got us there, and it was a lovely night. :)

Sunday: WOMEN'S CONFERENCE. I've already mentioned my love for this day.  But it truly was just so wonderful. I wish this happened more than every six months. Really. It lifted and helped me and was just so wonderful. A favourite quote is definitely, "God didn't design us to be sad!" --- TRUTH.  He designed us to be happy. He designed us to learn, grow, and gain experience. And that's what we're here to share as missionaries. That God wants us all to be happy.  :) ALL the love. Hope and faith = confidence. TRUTH.

Anyhoo. My thoughts are just going to become bullet points now. As I'm running out of time... (Holidays are a struggle at the library with all the billions of children using the computers...) But I love you all. The work is real, I'm so grateful for it - regardless of the hard things we go through, and the for honestly truthful homesickness I've felt a bit of this week (because of our normal General Conference traditions). - I will say, that I'm a bit shocked by the fact that it hasn't really hit me until now. But I know that as I learn to lose myself MORE in the work, it'll all get better. :) Life is grand. The work is real, and I'm so grateful for it. :)

MUCH LOVE! HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WEEK!

Arohanui,
Sister Ottley :)