Just Keep Swimming

Our week was interesting. We were pretty busy running around doing things, had MLC, companion had a few head aches here and there. But we are alive!!! 

On Saturday we were able to attend a baptism in Tangaroa ward. Sister Graham and I have both served there so we were really excited to go back. It was the nicest thing to walk into the chapel and talk to everyone after and they were all so excited to see us. Bishop even gave us a shout out in his talk haha it was pretty great. I know I have shared something like this before, but it was the nicest thing to go back to a previous area and see all the people I have come to love so much. To see that they remembered us and cared about us as well. It was cool to see people that Sister Lott and I found or taught and how much they have progressed this past year. 

In Bishops talk he said his only piece of advice to everyone is "Just keep swimming." The usual in that ward haha but it was a good piece of advice if you do apply. With not much happening in our area at the moment it is easy to get down and upset because nothing is happening. We were talking yesterday about the episode of the district when one of the elders talks about how he is almost finished and he is working harder than he ever has and yet nothing seems to be happening. We feel like him at the moment. We set new goals and are excited to carry them out. We know that even though we may not see the fruits of our labours if we keep working diligently and faithfully then the Lord will provide. That we just need to keep swimming and keep doing what we know to be right. I am grateful for the opportunities we have had to serve this week and to really feel of the Saviours love for everyone as we do so. 

I hope you all have a great week and keep swimming!!

Love,

Sister Boiteux

pictures!

MLC our intake takes up most of it. It was on our 16 month mark so had to document the moment. It was officially Sister Lott's last one. Love this sister to the moon and back.

#sisterassistants ;) 

Zone service. We cleaned windows and the elders were in their natural habitat and planted taro.  

Truth came out. My companion is a Maori warrior! 

Jasmines baptism. Saw a few of the favs!

Light the World

Yesterday in Sunday school we had a really good discussion on prayer. One of my favourite things to learn about. We were reading out of the Book of Mormon in the Book of Ether. Chapter 1 and 2 discuss when the brother of Jared cries unto the Lord to help them not have their language confounded and also what they need to do to travel to the promised land. Because the brother of Jared continually cried to Heavenly Father and poured his heart out to Him. The Lord had compassion on them.

We discussed the difference between prayer and crying unto The Lord. Sister Graham and I had a got chat about how when we pray its like when it is 10:30 at night and we are dead asleep and our prayers are mediocre. Whereas crying unto The Lord is when we tell him literally everything. We pour our heart out to him and let  him know how we are doing, what we feel we can accomplish, and what we need help with. It is a completely different experience than when we just say our prayers for the sake of saying them. In chapter 2 of Ether it talks about God telling the brother of Jared that they need to make barges to cross the waters to the promised land. The problem is the brother of Jared has no idea how to do that. He directs him on how he needs to build the barges and how it will help them cross the waters. After the barges are built the brother of Jared realizes that there is no light, so he inquires of The Lord again. This is what The Lord said to him.

 "25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?"

He asks him what he wants Him to do. He doesn't immediately give the brother of Jared the answer as to how they will receive light in the barges. 

Sometimes it's like us. We expect Heavenly Father to answer our prayers immediately or in the way we want him too. We don't put in the effort to figuring things out for ourselves. Of course in every decision we should communicate with our Heavenly Father and ask for His help, but He has also given us agency to learn and grow for ourselves. I am grateful for the challenges He has placed in my path and that I have had to figure a lot of things out so that I can learn and grow. Each challenge is a way to become more like Him.

On another note I wanted to share the new initiative the church came out with. #LighttheWorld. I hope you all have taken the time to look on lds.org and looked at it. They are doing a service every day leading up to Christmas starting with December 1. They have a countdown online with ideas of things you can do. Highly encourage each of you to take some time to look at it and see what you can do for others around you. What can you give Christ this Christmas?

I hope you all have a good week. Love you heaps!!

Sister Boiteux

pictures!

Some of our favs. Picked some flowers for us when we showed up for FHE.

Sister Graham sprained her ankle. So I got to be her nurse again :) So many life skills being learned with this sister haha

 The smiles came a little bit after the phone call.. But we got our trunky call this week!

Trade offs with the Tangaroa sisters! Got to be with Sister Ottley (my trainer). She goes home in a few weeks!

trade offs with a tongan sister.. Lol there were like 5 more pieces of bread after these ones. "Eat Sister Boiteux. You wont eat like this when you go back to Penrose."

#NewZealand

Oh Sisters...

We had a few interesting encounters this week. Life was good. We had transfers and Sister Graham and I get to stay together! Woohoo. Praying we kill each other off but we will see in 5 weeks. So this week we had to take outgoing sisters to the mission home and airport. Worst thing ever because we saw them saying good bye to members and each other and it was just depressing. Can't get over how fast the mission goes. It was weird being at the airport and thinking "oh that's us in a few months." Then it was crazy because the next day we were at the mission home again picking up new sisters starting their 18 months. So great to feel of their faith and spirit and seeing that they have so much ahead of them. The mission is fresh as, weird being the old one now.  

Rather than driving people around and what not we had a bit of time to work in our area. We spent the day contacting Niueans. My goodness the craziest experience happened. Can't really tell you about it but just know we had no idea what was happening. People didn't inform us to go to a home so we went in and it was just interesting as. After telling people about going there they were like "Oh sisters.. I forgot to tell you!" haha terrible. After the crazy experience we were talking and thinking about the spirit. That when we go into places sometimes the spirit doesn't go with us and it's scary. Moral of this story is always be willing to listen to the spirit and always be worthy of its guidance. We had stake conference right after and got to receive some words of wisdom from there. One of our members talked about self reliance. My companion and I clearly needed that since neither of us know what we are doing after the mission. I am really grateful for the church's self reliance program. That we are given the help we need to get our feet under us and become better. I am just grateful that they are stressing the importance of taking responsibility for ourselves and helping us gain skills that we need. 

President spoke in conference as well. Different than self reliance he of course spoke on missionary work!! He was talking about how when members pray for missionaries to find people to teach that it's good but its not enough. That we as members should be praying for our own opportunities to find people for the missionaries to teach. Just praying for us isn't really doing missionary work. I was grateful he said that, because even us missionaries need to do better on our prayers for finding. I know that as we live the gospel and as we lead by example it will soften hearts and it will help others come unto Christ. I know that there are always people ready to received the message we have to share. 

Sorry this email was a little every where. I am grateful for our Heavenly Father and the lessons He teaches me every day and that we are lucky enough to have the fullness of the gospel on the Earth today.

Love,

Sister Boiteux

Took Sister Cluff to the airport. Longest STL just died on me!!

Took some sisters to the mission home to pick up their new trainees and saw these cuties. Love our Henderson sisters!

Elder Summers also went home this past week so we joined them for kebabs. Always a joy with those creatures. 

Tingling Sensation

I hope you all had a good week this week. Ours was pretty eventful with a few trade offs with our crazy but wonderful Samoan sisters and had some pretty cool experiences in our wards. The message that was shared a few times this week was on the spirit. In 3 Nephi 11 it says 

 "3 And it came to pass that while they were thus conversing one with another, they heard a voice as if it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes round about,for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice;nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that there was no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn."

We talked about how the spirit can be hard to hear, so if we are too focused on the things of the world then we wont be able to hear what Heavenly Father is trying to tell us. We had a lesson with one of our favourite family's the other night. We also talked about listening to the spirit and trusting in the Lord, because exercising faith sometimes requires sacrifice. His wife just left for Australia and he is working 16 or 17 hour shifts to save enough money to fly him and his kids over to be with her. His mum also testified of the sacrifices she had to make as a single parent to raise her children and still be faithful in the church. The spirit was so strong and I was grateful for their testimonies on faith and understand that Gods plan and purpose for us is so much greater than our own. That they trusted in him and listened to the spirit to guide them to know what to do and because of it they are blessed. They may have to or had to give up their time and some other things, but God gave them back much more. I am grateful for our Father in Heaven and the blessing we have of the gift of the Holy Ghost and if we are worthy of it then it can guide us and help us make those decisions and help us get to where we need to be.

I hope you all had a good week. Love you heaps. Also don't worry about us and the earthquakes we didn't feel it where we are and haven't heard of and tsunami warnings!!

Kia Kaha,

Sister Boiteux

pictures!

Comp study with our lovely Chinese sisters. Love them too much!

Sister Graham may or may not have seen one of my senior pictures and made fun of me.. So we put Jesus and temple pictures all over one of our less actives door who showed her the picture and did her favourite pose :)

Trade offs with our Samoan sisters in Waterview. Great to be back with these crazies!

Given some homemade donuts so had to take the opportunity to take an Einstein bagel picture :)

The Accidental Gardner

We finally got to work this week!!!!! We left the flat and I didn't have to stare at the same walls all day! Our first day of work one of our members set up an appointment for us to teach one of their friends. I love member missionary work so darn much. Before we went in the lesson we talked with our member and he was sharing a few of his missionary experiences with us.We were sitting in their backyard and he showed us their silver beet and an avocado tree both of which he just threw the seeds on the ground and then they eventually grew. He didn't even intend for them to grow. Then he related it to missionary work. We are here to plant seeds and sometimes we don't expect them to grow but then out of no where someone pops up and is ready for the message. Then eventually we end up with a few avocado trees and silver beet plants. He shared a lot of good insight from him reading "The Power of an Everyday Missionary" it was a testimony builder to me to see that he desired so much to share the gospel with everyone that he could not matter what the out come is. I know he truly understands his purpose as a son of God and he loves the Saviour enough to do as He wants to be done.  

A scripture shared with us yesterday was 4 Nephi 1:15. 4 Nephi talks about how the Nephites and the Lamanites were all converted to the Lord so there was no contention in the land. The question the sister asked us was "what can we do so the love of God can dwell in our hearts?" So that is the question I leave with all of you today. What do you need to change or do so the love of God can dwell in your hearts? I know that sometimes or a lot of the time it requires sacrifice, but the blessings for doing such things is worth it. I know that the work we do as members is so important. I hope all of you are striving to see what you can do every day to serve the Lord and that you are also looking for missionary moments. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Kia Kaha,

Sister Boiteux

pictures!

MLC results in bad pictures and funny times. Possibly Sister Lotts last one. Can't believe she is heading home so soon!

When your companion finds her place to sit on your lap when she has her own chair... Unity?

Trade offs with Sister Torres. Our members loved us and brought us burger fuel for lunch. Love learning from our sweet sisters!

Visited Herbert and he so kindly kept reminding me of how terrible I looked that day. So I went home and did this.... The 20kg mission is a real problem. The ice cream was delicious though :)

Can I Have a Smoothie?

This week was full of sleeping, cleaning, studying, eating and then repeating. We have been stuck in the flat since Wednesday. Sister Graham finally got her wisdom teeth out! Taking care of her makes me feel like a mother.. As soon as I sit down she wants something else... If this is what its really like to be a mum I might go a little crazy... She has been pretty hilarious though. We are just going a little stir crazy in the flat. 

Earlier this week I was reading in 3 Nephi. The story about Christ coming to the Americas and showing himself to the people. In verses 2-3 it says

 "2 I perceive that ye are weak, that ye cannot understand all my words which I am commanded of the Father to speak unto you at this time.

 3 Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and prepare your minds for the morrow, and I come unto you again."

It was really cool to see the pattern the Saviour gave to the people. That although they werent ready to receive all that He had to teach them He still told them to go back and ponder and pray so that they can be ready to receive more knowledge. I love the fact that even today we are encouraged to take what we learn ponder, pray, and prepare so that we also can be ready to receive what the spirit wants to teach us. In verse 5 it says

 "5 And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them."

 When I read that verse it made me think of my own personal relationship with the Saviour. Do I love Him enough to want Him to tarry longer with me? Do I actually desire to want to learn about Him and do I want to become like Him? Later in that chapter it talks about the Saviour praying for the people and exercising compassion towards them.

" 16 And after this manner do they bear record: The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;

 17 And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father."

I know that the Saviour loves us more than we can even comprehend. That no matter what we do or how far we travel off the path He will always be there with open arms welcoming us back. That He truly does love us just as He loved the people He saw when He ministered to them. I know that we are children of our Heavenly Father, that His Son Jesus Christ came to earth for us. That the prophets in the bible and Book of Mormon were inspired to write the things that they did. That Joseph Smith truly did see God the Father and the Son. That he was given the power to translate the Book of Mormon, and that it is another testament of our Saviour. 

I hope you all have a great week. That you are enjoying your own personal feasts from the scriptures and that you are pondering, praying, and preparing to receive more.  

love,

Sister Boiteux

pictures!

Double rainbows <3

Before she got her teeth out

After she got her teeth out!

We had a few visitors through out the week keeping us a little sane. Didnt document all the pictures (Sister Graham would kill me for sending them home) But am grateful for all the missionaries we serve with 

Extra Strength

Kia Ora mi familia!

This week was pretty good. Sister Graham and I were given that extra strength we needed and were able to work all week without dying in our flat (thats this upcoming one for her wisdom teeth) It was good though. We had some funny experiences this week. We had trade off with two sets of our sisters. I got to go to Henderson to be with Sister Bates. It was really cool because we went to go and contact a potential investigator. We knocked on her door and she let us in. We werent planning on her letting us in and were just going to get a return appointment but this was even better. As we talked with her she asked about what we do as missionaries and if we go to another country once we finish here. So we explained the missionary process and how are call comes from the apostles and prophet. She was stoked as to hear that we believe that we have a living prophet. Seriously I have only seen a select few people find that news as great as she did. Her eyes just lit up. So as we taught her the message of the restoration the spirit was able to testify to me that what we were teaching was true. My testimony of the prophet was really strengthened. I am so grateful to know that God has reached out to us again by calling a prophet. That the priesthood that Christ had here on earth is the same priesthood Thomas S. Monson holds today. That he truly is the only man who can receive that revelation that we need. I know that as we follow him we wont go astray. I am grateful for the spirit and that we are able to teach people about the church and that we get to invite them to follow the prophet and by following him they can follow the Saviour. 

I was also able to go on trade offs in Avondale Ward!!!!! I was with a sweet new sister who I just love so much. She is full of faith and excitement to be here. She taught me heaps. I am grateful to be able to have this calling and to work with so many sisters so we can see how they teach and how they are growing. It is a really humbling experience to work along side them. A lot of Avondale was shocked to see me and it was funny. Weird to be back since I didnt leave it long ago. But also great to see people that I love so much! 

I hope you all have a great week and continue to have spiritual reminders of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. I love you all heaps!

Sister Boiteux

Pictures!

How I felt when I got my blood drawn last week. I was happy after cause Sister Graham took me to Carls Jr for lunch :)

Sister Bates first try of Buttered chicken pizza. She is now officially part of the mission 

Trade offs with our Henderson sisters! (Sister Graffe is from Tahiti.. Speaks french. She may or may not have cracked up when she read my last name. I avoid french people at all costs) ;)

 Trade offs in Avondale!! Got to see some of my favs.. No big deal :)

When you get a 2 min notice of having to teach 16 primary children. 

LOL when you see it