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.