The Banana Chipmunks Have Been Crazy This Week.

Loved ones!

This week was just great. Mighty miracles worked here in the great Kingdom of Kaikohe. We had dinner at our Branch Presidents house and he told us a story of while he was on his mission and about how we just need to go the extra 15 min the extra mile and do all we can to hasten the work in our area. We also had interviews with President. The assistants and himself talked a lot about us having more faith in our area and how miracles do come with faith. Thats what we set out to do this week and we were blessed with new investigators and hopefully a few sets in the upcoming weeks. Blessings truly do come by faith. 

I was talking with Sister Balli about our Book of Mormon feast as a mission and what I have been learning from it. I set out to see what I needed to do to be a better missionary. Mostly everything we are told to do in the scriptures is just the doctrine of Christ. It is so simple and yet we still over complicate everything. I have truly learned that the more converted we are to the gospel the easier it is to share it. The more comfortable we are with our religion because we truly understand it. We had some amazing talks in sacrament yesterday and Brother Cooper talked about being worthy here is some great advice from him, "if youre not worthy, get worthy. If youre not active, get active." SO SIMPLE!!  Just do it. Most times when i meet people here who are less active or dont want to learn about the gospel is because they dont understand. They lack understanding. I truly believe that as each and everyone of us comes to know the Savior. Comes to know the doctrine of this gospel we wont fall away. Understanding gives us direction. The direction that we need to return to our Heavenly Father. My challenge to you all is Understand the Doctrine of Christ and LIVE IT! There definitely is a difference between conversion and a testimony. Be converted. Change lives. Come unto Christ. I love you all and am grateful for each and everyone of you. Being a missionary is the greatest blessing ever. This is the Lords work and I am just a tool in his hands. Keep on keeping on. 

Ofa Atu,

Sister Boiteux

Funny of the week: Definitely stuffed my face at a members house and they said "ah its cause your palagi, you cant handle it. Sister Tapuala can cause shes brown."

Also words of wisdom from Brother Alexander, "Men are like puppies, Give it a little time and their cuteness fades. Choose wisely." Dang strait haha. 

Pictures:

1- with Brother Alexander's dogs

2-4 At Zone P-day

20KG Mission

Wow i have so much to say about this week. One week is good then the next is bad. Its an emotional roller coaster and I love it! Imma just start from the beginning of the week.

 Monday is always a good day because we have FHE. We went over to a members home and they asked us to share a spiritual thought, so we just reflected on our week and shared how we saw Gods hand in our life and how we can all improve. That was really special because we learned that we are not the ones doing the work, the Lord is. 

Tuesday. DISTRICT MEETING! We decided to go to lunch after and a member worked at the restaurant. He was so kind and generous. He gave us free appetizers, dessert, and hot chocolate. He also paid for half of our meal. So that was great especially because we didnt have much money. 

Wednesday. Trade offs with the sister training leaders! Oh man those two are trouble. I love when they come up to the north. Except Sister Paasi loves our shower and they also eat all our food. Poly probs. But i always learn so much from them. I was able to be with Sister Allen. Oh man she is going to be the next AP. Haha I learned heaps from her. It was just fun to see the desire she had to do missionary work and how easy it was for her to talk with everyone. We also were able to talk about the missionary I want to be and it made me reflect more on what I can change and improve on and how i can become the missionary that the Lord wants me to be. Really wanted to cry when they headed back to Auckland because they are so much fun! 

Thursday. Service day. Go into every thing with a service attitude is what I always say. When i get grumpy the best thing to do is service. Turn outwards instead of inwards. It always helps :) 

Saturday... Haha such a funny day. We drove to the prettiest place ever. Part of our area that I have never been to. So pretty. Summer in New Zealand oh man I dont think i will come home ;) But we were in Opito Bay and realized that our petrol was gone. We were going to get it earlier in the day but then the Elders stopped by to pick up our bikes.. So we forgot to fill up the car. We were like 30 Ks from home and completely empty haha. Also almost got hit a few times. I promise im a good driver :) We just decided to tract. haha so we almost got killed by a pit bull and didnt meet anyone that was interested but the Lord led us to that place for a reason. We will go back when we arent out of petrol :) 

What I really wanted to share for this week is what happened on Sunday. The best day of the entire week. We had Branch Council and President Armstrong did some pretty amazing training for all of the leaders. It didnt really apply to Sister and I yet but it hit me. He showed a talk by Elder Holland about parents and their children. Some questions for parents and for everyone to ask yourselves:

"Do your children know that you love the scriptures?" can they see you studying them and reading them whenever you have the chance. Do they know that you love learning more about the gospel?

"Do your children see you praying?" Do they understand the importance of prayer? Do you understand the importance of prayer? Prayer literally is a two way communication between us and God. It is wonderful and we should pray every morning every night and whenever we can.

"Do your children know fasting is more than a hardship?" Fasting is more than a first sunday hardship. D&C 59:14 Its not fasting and prayer its REJOICING and prayer. Look at fasting in a different way and let the blessings roll in. 

"Do your children know you love the temple?" Are you going to the temple as often as you can. All you people in Utah better know how lucky you are to have heaps of temples around you. You dont have to travel 5 hours to get there. Go there. WEEKLY. Make it a goal and achieve it. 

"Do your children know you sustain the local leaders?" No matter how imperfect they can be. They are called of God. They are chosen to help their ward or branch. Love them and help them as they do to you. 

Lastly, "Do your children know that you love God with all your heart?" 

Loved ones. No matter how imperfect we are all can be made right through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. "If we almost keep the commandments we will almost receive blessings." Nothing is too hard with the Lord on our side. Keep going you can do hard things. I know that as we all strive to be better disciples of Christ and pray with all our heart and give our will to the Lord, the blessing and miracles will come. We can become righteous saints in a troubled world and receive the everlasting life that we all desire. I love you all so much. Thank you for your emails every week and inspiration and love that you share with me. I pray for you always. God is good. 

Ofa Atu,

Sister Boiteux

Funny: Went to a members house and she wanted to feed us i said, "Sister McCarthey I have already gained 10 lbs!!" "where?! just cut off your fingernails and you will lose it." LOL not even

Brother Cooper pranked us and chained our bikes together. What a punk.

The Branch President saw us one night and shook my hand and said "whats up fire cracker?!" hahahahha then said that Sister Tapuala is my fuse. He's got that right!

Awkward as Picture with an elder...

Ran into the Cunniffes in town :)

Sassy little Victoria

My birthday buddy..

The picture we take after we were about to be killed by a pit bull.. "nice doggie, nice doggie."

She says it's okay to be jealous...rightly so!

With some pigs they named after the Elders in their district

Desire to Inspire

I really have no idea what to say about this week. It was pretty much terrible, but good. Here it is 

Monday and Tuesday we were quarantined... So mostly in Opua doing laundry. That was actually quite fun to be in my last area and roam around while we waited for our laundry.Definitely coming back to this part because it is just beautiful.

Wednesday we crushed it. We passed all our goals with flying colors and it was amazing. Talked to heaps of people.

Thursday was normal... well except I got proposed to.. 3 times by the same guy. That was awkward as. 

Friday.... Terrible. We kept asking can anything worse happen? and it did. Started with the power going out. And in new zealand when the power goes out everything is out so we couldnt use the bathroom or get water because its all ran on electricity. Then we went to go and eat, well everywhere only accepted cash cause power duh. We only had our cards. So the power came back on and both of my cards got declined at where I wanted to eat. So we went and got pizza hut, then got groceries and sister tapualas card was declined. Choice. Got back to the flat and I opened the door and the kitchen was flooded. hahahhahaa sister left the sink on because no power so we didnt know. Then went to an investigators and she fed us moldy cake... so lets just say we were driving home and i stopped in the middle of the street and threw up. Accident prone? yes. 

So extremely grateful for conference this past weekend. Every talk was inspired and definitely something that I needed to hear. I am so grateful for the prophet and the apostles. I know what they teach us comes directly from God and we need to follow what they say. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet that when we follow him we cant go wrong. I know that if we really do ponderize and strengthen our knowledge we can be choice saints that we need to be. I love being a missionary. Even on the hard weeks. It is all worth it and a huge learning experience. I know trials mold us into who we need to be and God gives us what we can handle. I love you all and hope you have an amazing spiritually filled week.

Ofa Atu,

Sister Boiteux

 Another lesson with this crazy bunch

 Me not wanting to leave Opua.

They're Baaacckkk

Well I seriously have no idea what to say about this week haha. So much tracting. Tracting. tracting. tracting. In our planner. Ever. Single. Day. AND ITS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok not gonna lie the beginning of this week i was like "i am sick of tracting. This is not effective. No one is home. Kill me." Blah blah blah. So we went to Brother Coopers and I said "BROTHER COOPER WERE SICK OF TRACTING!!" Bad idea on my part haha i got chastised hard. He said "Sister dont you ever say that. Saying youre sick of tracting is like saying youre sick of doing the Lords work." Boom. Mind Blown. So true. So after that I looked at tracting a lot differently and I know love it. Yes its tiring and hard at times but its incredible. We were able to find 3 new investigators because of tracting this week. We had an amazing Zone Training on planning. Let me tell ya that was exactly what sister and I needed to hear and we were able to find new ways to be better planners and really hasten the work in our area. The people here are so prepared we just need to find them and teach them. I love when we go and visit people and they say, "we had a feeling you two would stop by today." INSPIRED PLANNING my friends. Its wonderful.

As a mission we are doing a 90 day Book of Mormon feast. It is incredible the things that I am learning. In 1 Nephi 15:8 is asks "have ye inquired of the Lord?" It hit me and I was like woah have I been inquiring of the Lord? I want to be a better representative of the Savior, but I cant do that without the Lords help. So many times we are all like Laman and Lemuel and we murmur and complain about everything that goes on in our life. Well are we inquiring of the Lord? I dont think so., unless we wouldnt be complaining so much. As missionaries we have to account to the Lord it can be a hard or it can be an incredible thing. As members we need to really have a testimony and find out if the church is true. We cant do that without inquiring of the Lord and then accounting to him about what we do to find out the truth. I love you all heaps and heaps!

Two funnies and an awkward for the week:

1. We were tweing (talking with everyone) in town and a man named Robbie said he worked for the church for 3 years installing those dunking pools (baptismal fonts).. Lol then got fired before he found out too much about the church.. That last part we told him isn't true and we're here to teach him more about the church :)

2. SISTER TAPUALA HAS SCABBIES HAHAHHAHA.  So I called Sister Beckstead and she said "oh Sister Boiteux don't say it! What are we going to do with you? We're going to have to wrap you in silicone hahaha. You know the drill." Quarantined again. So funny!

The awkward.. I have been hit on ONE TOO MANY TIMES THIS WEEK! Oh my goodness it is the most awkward and disgusting thing. We called the zone leaders and told them and they were there for it when it happened the other times. They just liked to inform me that i'm just full of myself and no one is hitting on me. Also that I should probably stop being such a skuxx. Haha the love in this zone is real. Living the high life in New Zealand that's for sure.

Love,

Sister Boiteux

Helped a less active with her sons birthday party we have mad balloon tying skills.

Peaks, Pits, Praises, Prayers

Hello family. I swear every week there is something wrong in the life of Sister Boiteux. Once again I was sick and it was terrible. I have no idea what happened we think I caught a stomach bug. Thankfully I never threw up I just felt like it. So this week was rough and I had about zero energy to do anything. But thankfully I had a few miracles. I will just paste my email to my mission president :)

"President Balli,

This week was an interesting one. We have about two investigators so we spend most of our time tracting and talking with everyone in the streets. Sometimes it does get old doing the same thing over and over again. But we have a few miracles by doing that. One day we went to go and tract and the last house we went to before we went to go and TWE a mom answered. She said she has met missionaries before but shes not really interested in learning more but her children are. She also told us how she is studying gardening in school and that she is trying to work in her own garden. We offered to help her but she has trust issues especially since the last set of missionaries she met said they would help but then they never came back. So we left her with our number for her to call if she needed our help. The next week during personal study we just had a strong impression to go back and visit her. So we rearranged our plans and drove to her house and we noticed she was working in her garden. So we went over and helped her and got it pretty much done. The family was shocked that we were gardening in our skirts, but by listening to the spirit and helping her we were able to gain her trust. We went back to finish a few days later and she told us how she found out her brother in law is Mormon and how her mother in law still couldnt believe we helped her garden in our skirts. Were praying that as we continue to serve her she will let us teach her with her children.

Our next miracle this week was Sheryl. When we offered to help her she told us no its too hard and we dont know what were getting ourselves into, but we were persistent and came back to help and told her that a lot more missionaries are coming to help her. Since we have our zone service day tomorrow just helping her! We could tell in her eyes that she was really grateful. She told us how overwhelmed she was and she almost started to cry so she went inside. She lives alone and has no children or any other family. My testimony on service grew a lot this week because although they might not let us teach them right now as we continue to gain their trust and love they eventually will.

Our last miracle was the greatest to me. I felt really sick this whole week. I didnt want a blessing because I didnt feel sick enough for one. But on Friday we were walking up a hill that we have walked up heaps of times and I almost passed out. So Sister Tapuala called Sister Beckstead and she told us to go home for a bit and rest. Then she also called the elders and they came over to give me a blessing which I felt really bad about because I didnt want one. When Elder Shannon was giving me the blessing I just got a sense of calm come over me and I could really feel Heavenly Father talking to me. So although I didnt want one I was grateful that my companion realized that I needed one and that the elders could drive over to our area to give me one. The next day I felt a little better so we were out and no one was home. We went to eat dinner at a members house and we got a text from a former investigator saying she now wants to meet with us. So we went over and she said someone hit her car today and just left. She was angry at first and then felt calm, and when she got home she saw our number and texted us because she thought the two were connected. That was incredible. I was not all there and that was probably the worst lesson I ever taught. So after I felt pretty sad and then I realized that although I didnt teach as well as I could have, but my companion still supported me so thank goodness that we dont teach lessons alone and the spirit was there. I realized that I shouldnt be sad because I still have a lot of learning to do and that should just strengthen my testimony. So this week was a huge testimony builder and im really grateful for that."

Sorry this email is so long but it was needed. Im grateful for the gospel and especially for the power of the priesthood. I am grateful for the Lord and his timing in this work. Sometimes I really just dont understand and just when I want to throw in the towel he puts a miracle in my path and I just love it! God is good! Something I also learned in church yesterday that just hit me was, Knowledge applied is knowledge acquired. While you are studying the Book of Mormon are you pondering it? Acquire, write, and reflect I promise you your knowledge of the scriptures will grow! :)

I love you all heaps,

Sister Boiteux

Funnies of the week: It was transfers and our new district leader is Elder Shannon who happens to live by me back in Utah. Haha so my zone leader i went to high school with and my district leader lives by me. Lets just say im their favorite sister ;)

After church yesterday we went to visit people. So we stopped by our good atheist friend William. Dont mess with him. But I started talking and he said "Wait let me guess where youre from by your accent. America. Salt Lake City. Utah?" Lol then a member said "You look like youre from here... Until you open your mouth." God bless America :)

Elder Gerdes went home to the telestial kingdom of Idaho!

P-day at the glow worm caves and a battle field that i dont know how to spell haha

district meeting in the beautiful place I call Paihia that I miss so much!

New Zealand sunsets never get old.

This is Braxten. He tends to always steal my badge. He is the craziest little child ever. His family rocks :)

Prank war with Brother Cooper. We put peanut butter on his car handles.. Then he put a muscle in my shoe and shampoo in Sister Tapualas boot. hahaha its on.