Living Below Your Privileges

This week was fast, cold, and wonderful.

We had interviews!!!! Where I completely got smashed by the spirit by President Balli. He is just great and I love him so darn much. A question he asked is "what am I going to accomplish the last 6 months of my mission?" Lol cause I have no idea. I have been thinking heaps and heaps about that and I want to cry every time thinking about how much longer I have left but also how short it is. He talked a lot about me seeing my privileges and not comparing myself because I am me and no one else is. 

My companion reminded me of the wonderful Mormon Message "your potential your privileges" Its about the man who goes on a cruise and only eats beans and crackers because he didnt know he could eat the food on the ship. He misses out on everything and just stays in his room and enjoys the view from the porthole. The Lord greatly rebuked me this week and taught me so much about myself and I am grateful for it. President committed me to setting personal goals on what I want to accomplish and I encourage all of you to do the same. Let Heavenly Father help you know what you can do. I was studying in 2 Nephi when I came across this scripture..

" 4:29 Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions."

Sometimes it is really easy to be down on ourselves. Especially when things dont go our way. We just dont understand Gods will for us. As missionaries we have things we struggle with baptisms not happening, no progress with investigators, the ward may be struggling, companion is struggling, we personally arent where we wish to be. Or at home with figuring out where to go to school, what to study, problems at work, problems at home, who will you end up with, where is life going to take you. There are so many things that we fill on our plate that we let weigh us down. When they should actually do the opposite. God is preparing us for something so great and so wonderful. I have had a bit of time this week to just reflect. Reflect on what I have accomplished in this year and what I get to accomplish in the years to come. Its exciting and scary, but so wonderful. When we let disappointment or frustration over take us we are literally giving in or giving up. When we should be reaching up for that divine help to help us reach our full potential. I was studying a talk by Elder Hales. One of my favourite from the October General Conference. It's called "meeting the challenges of todays world." I would encourage you all to read it and ponder on it too if you need some help with todays trials. My testimony of Gods love for me personally grew so much. I know I am a daughter of God with so much potential. With Gods help I can accomplish heaps. I learned from Elder Hales that taking time to come to ourselves is okay and its needed. That if we let Him, God will counsel us and guide us home.

I love you all and pray for you always. Have a great week and continue to find out your true potential. 

Love,

Sister Boiteux

Pictures:

So the fleas decided to attack us this week. We went to our Bishops and were scratching hard out and they asked what was going on. When they saw all our bites they freaked. It was so funny. So Sister Houma got me some lovely ointment that my body hates, but it helps the itching :) Go New Zealand!!

Dont scream. It's just a baby rat 

 I promise Sister Hobbs did enjoy holding these creatures. (Dont tell her I sent this home)

Brother Hall provided my new tracting shoes. These are comfortable and attractive right?

More from the Hankins. They had the cutest little furry animals!!! 

Live By and For the Mission!

Some funny events happened this week. (to me maybe not to you) But I will go through some of the days... 

Monday: We decided to head out to the end of our area. The elders wanted to go on a hike. Which resulted in us driving around heaps of turns and we got real car sick. The view was pretty but our stomachs were not happy. So on the way home I felt even more sick and I was debating on asking to stay in but we couldnt miss another FHE with a certain family. So we went and it ended up in me throwing up at their house because I was so sick. Lol @ Sister Boiteuxs life sometimes. So we had to go home early. Which meant we stayed in on Tuesday because I was not doing well. Also my contact infected my eye on sunday so i was banished to wearing my glasses all week. If I had a dollar for every time someone commented on them or told me I was blind I would be rich as :)

Wednesday: We had a mission tour. Elder and Sister Haleck. Elder Haleck is now the new Pacific Area President. Training was really good. Everything President and Sister Balli, and Elder and Sister Haleck gave training on is what we needed to hear. After the tour one of the assistants came up to me and said Elder Haleck wanted to meet with me. Lol you can say I was a bit nervous. It was a really neat experience though. He chose a few of us that he personally wanted to interview and I was lucky enough to be one. It was nice to get some counsel and spiritual upliftment from him. He testified that God loves me and cares about me. Which I can testify about all of you too. When you are struggling and going through hard things. Its not because God hates you or wants to punish you but he knows you can grow so much from it.

Saturday: We had trade off!! I was able to go with Sister O'Reilly down to Otara. Back to South Auckalnd. I love it down there so much. We met some pretty funny people. They just white washed the area so we were figuring it out together. We had dinner with a member family and they commented on how skinny I was. So they brought me out two pieces of steak and Sister O'Reilly only had one. So I finished my two pieces and they offered another. Which I declined... Yeah they still brought me one. Sister didnt even have to finish her first piece and I had to eat all of mine. Gotta love the south. It was crack up I was so stuffed. We then went on another trade off that night with the Tongan sisters. Avoided every opportunity for someone to feed us or I would have popped.

We got home and had to call President cause my license expired and I can no longer legally drive here since I have yet to recieve my NZ license. He was like "WHAT?!?!" It was quite funny. So Sister Hobbs is beyond excited that she got to drive yesterday and today until I get my temporary license. 

Sunday: We got to sit by children. One came and sat by Sister Hobbs then another came a few minutes later to sit by me. It was so cute! We went to a members home for dinner and we watched some Book of Mormon stories. The living scriptures videos. Pretty sure sister and I were more into it than the children, but it was the greatest thing to watch. I Learned so much from the video and loved at how simply they made the gospel. Because it is the gospel is simple. Sometimes when we dont understand it we just need to break it down and teach it or study it like we were going to share it with children. It makes so much more sense. I am grateful for the gospel. I love my mission and every experience that we have every day. I know that this is the Lords work and he has so much in store for each of us. I pray for you all every day and hope you are doing well!!

Also shout out to my Glenmoor 10th wardies.. Thank you so much for the letters you sent me. Cried my eyes out when I saw all of them. You are all amazing and strengthened me so much this week. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Ofa Atu,

Sister Boiteux

Pictures!!

Last Pday we had an adventure out in Huia.

Saw Sister Miko at the Mission tour. 

Elders came to celebrate my one year with a box of pizza. Jokes on us because they had a spicy as piece and Sister Hobbs got it.

Trade off with Sister O'Reilly. She spoiled me on my year mark. Funny to have Sister Christiansen as my STL. Love them both so much!

Dont let my smile deceive you. No bueno to not driving. 

Vina moved back to Aussie so we went to go and say bye to her. Something about my recent converts that sends them overseas. Haha love her heaps though!

 

How Full Is Your Cup?

Kia Ora,

This week was great! Lots of things were going on. First we received a wonderful referral from our Samoan sisters. Her name is Lisa. She has been looking for a church to go to and wants to change her life. You can say she has had a pretty hard life and the gospel can help her in so many ways. She came to church with us on Sunday and also to our ward fireside. One of our members asked her if meeting the missionaries was an answer to her prayers. She said "Yes. I was praying to God to help me change my life and then two sisters walked past me and I said 'Hi I am Lisa' and then they introduced me to these lovely sisters." It was really sweet to see that God loves her enough to send us. Missionaries, or members to help his children. 

In our ward fireside Bishop spoke and something I have heard him say a few times always sticks with me.. which is "How full is your cup?" Sometimes the messages we hear in church could be recorded because the words they used were great, but the words aren't what teach us. It is the spirit. What the spirit taught me yesterday was sacrifice. Honestly living the gospel is a sacrifice. Maybe not in a bad way it can be in a great way. But we always give up something. It's not because God wants to punish us so he makes us give up things we love, but because it is showing our commitment to him its showing our love towards him. Bishop talked about changing things in our lives so that our cup can be completely full. Not just filling it once and one super spiritual night, but continually filling it so that when trials do come or obstacles are put in our path we wont fear, but have full faith in the Saviour. 

I hope you are all filling your cup every single day. Studying the beautiful Book of Mormon and learning from the spirit. I hope you are following the counsel of the leaders because they truly are called of God. I hope you all have a great week! I love you heaps!

Sister Boiteux

Pictures!

 Love these children!!

this is my soa!

Our young women. Dont know what we would do without them.

The ward activity... (If Brother Eteru posted something on Facebook we promise we weren't dancing. Just there to supervise) :)

The Six Month Stretch!

Hello loved ones!!

Transfer news. I stayed in Waterview woohoo. Six months in an area. My new companion is Sister Hobbs. She goes home in 3 months and she is from England!!! She is also a ginger haha she reminds me a lot of Olivia and Kylie and Mikayla. How is that possible? I dont know. But it is great. We are ready to change things up and work some miracles in this area. 

This week has been a little every where. Tuesday Sister Fonua left for Mississippi so I was in the North shore with Sister Ottley and her other daughter Sister Lemalu. Then on Wednesday I was with Sister Soderberg and Sister Cluff in Panmure then picked up Sister Hobbs who just left Whangarei. Then Wednesday night we had to move flats because Waterview finally has other sisters than just us. Gotta love living with samoan sisters. It has been crazy and hectic and wonderful.  God knew we had to move flats again to keep me sane in this area ;) 

My companion taught me a pretty cool principle the other day. We were having companionship study and she shared a story in the Book of Mormon. Found in Alma 47. It talks about how Amalickiah brought his armies to the mountain where Lehonti had his army. He kept sending notes up to Lehonti telling him to come down from the top of the mountain and he wouldn't do it. So finally Amalickiah decided to go up the mountain not all the way but pretty close and told him to come down. So he did they came off the mount and yes surrounded Amalickiahs army, but then eventually Lehonti was poisoned and killed and Amalickiah became the king just as he wanted. 

She related this to us. That today satan doesn't expect us to go from a temple patron, attending church every sunday, praying, reading scriptures to going to the pub down the road smoking and drinking all in one night. Because he knows we won't do it. He does it by gradually having us come down the mountain. He starts by saying "oh you stayed up to late last night you should just sleep in you don't have to go to church in the morning." He makes tv and other literature more entertaining than sitting down to have a good scripture study. Makes a temple session sound a little bit too long one day or makes us irritated because of how long the wait may be at the temple. He does it by slow and simple means until we are at the bottom of that mountain surrounded by him. He knows our potential and he will do everything and anything he can to stop us from getting there.

I hope you all remember that the Saviour is on our side. He wouldn't do anything to us or tempt us with anything bad. All good things come from God and all bad things come from satan. That because we are on his team we don't need to and shouldn't come down from the top our mountain and fall into satans trap. Obviously none of us are perfect but because of the Atonement we can strive to become better. I hope you all have a great week. Know I love you and pray for you always.

Ofa Atu,

Sister Boiteux

Pictures!

 Zone Pday!! Cheesy smiles with this sister :)

A day with my mum and sister!

Sister Dohnt and Sister Taylor were heading home and stopped by to say good bye. Love those sisters. 

The view in Harbour!

Sister Hobbs!!!

Is this a dishwasher? yes yes it is. We also have a dryer too. This flat isnt as bad as we thought it would be :) Kicked the elders out and moved the best sisters in ;)

Come What May and LOVE IT!!!

This week is over. Kinda weird. It was long on some days and now it feels like we literally emailed home yesterday. Sister is packed and ready to head off tomorrow to America!! She is beyond excited. She wont admit it but we can all tell :) So grateful for her and the work she did in this area. It was a pretty eventful week. 

We were able to go and visit one of our investigators. We seriously just love her to death. We haven't been able to see her the past few weeks. Anyway we went over to go and say goodbye and we walked into her home and something was so different. It seemed lighter. So sister was like "did you get a new table?.. no its the curtains." Haha as we sat down to talk she said she wants us to figure out what is different because something is. So we guessed that she was reading from the Book of Mormon and she totally is!!! So it was the light that was different and not the physical light but her spiritual light. It was a cool experience and a huge testimony builder for me personally to see how much the word of God impacts us in our lives. We wouldn't think that reading from a book could change our countenance but it does. It brings so much peace and happiness into our lives.

I had a mean as personal study the other day and it was on prayer. Something that we do countless times each day. I started pondering on my prayers and realizing I was getting into the routine of things. That I would wake up and pray, pray to open and close studies, bless the food, pray as we leave the flat, before appointments, planning, and then to end the day. Which they were all good they were all meaningful, but they could have been so much better. In the bible dictionary it talked about how prayer accompanied sacrifice. I thought of how today prayer still accompanies sacrifice. I have been praying for my new companion and new experiences on the mission that can push me to be a better me. Obviously from past transfers God gave me exactly that. If you think about it every time we pray and ask for something we have to give something up. It could be physical or mental, either way its something we give over to the Lord. It can be hard and it can be really challenging. Then I read this paragraph.. 

 

"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."

When we pray and when we are willing to give up things even if we really dont want to we are aligning our will with Gods will. We are strengthening our relationship with him and understanding that his plan is so much better than our own plan for ourselves. So what ever happens and what ever he does give me I know it is exactly what I need to help me become the daughter of God I am meant to be. 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!! Continue to strengthen your relationship with our Heavenly Father and find ways of making your prayers more meaningful and seeing how your life starts to change. 

Sister Boiteux

Pictures!

The district!!

We call this.. Keeping up with the Halavakas. So much better than the Kardashians. 

walked out of a driveway and scared these two hooligans. Gotta love our language elders!! 

Last visit with Brother Hall. This old man cracks us up. Never too sure what he is going to say when we go and visit him. 

The difference between an islander lunch and a palagi lunch

Luch with Hannah. She felt like she was a sister missionary again. Our ysa is the best :)

We got attacked by children for a solid 30 min.

 We only had a baptism yesterday :) Sonny finally got baptised. Heaps of hard work finally paid off. We was like a kid in a candy store. It was pretty cool to witness!

Saying good bye to Bishops family. Avondale ward is the best :)

All Lit Up Like the Fourth of July!!!

Our week literally blew up like a firework and not in a good way lol. We learned and now we are ready to conquer the last week of the transfer. This is Sister Fonua's last week in NZ then she is off to Mississippi for her last 15 months of the mission. She is going to smash it. This week was a tough one which of course is expected in the mission, but not something we always enjoy enduring through. 

This week we had people growling us left and right, investigators not wanting to see us, cold air that made us want to cuddle up in a blanket, and of course the adversary knocking at our door trying to bring us down. It was wonderful! Yesterday in sacrament meeting we were sitting in the back listening to all of our wonderful members share their testimonies. Quite a few went up and told how hard their week was and some of the trials they went through. It made us feel pretty small thinking that we go through trials when it is nothing compared to what others go through. Then we had the reassuring feeling from the spirit that God is mindful of all of us, we are his children and he loves us! Just because our trial doesn't seem as big as someone else's doesn't mean it still isn't hard and it doesn't mean Heavenly Father won't be there to help you. No matter what happened to us that week we can still go to church and be spiritually uplifted and be supported from other members around us. 

We were contacting some potential investigators. We met a lady, who is straight up Maori it is awesome. Anyway, we were standing at her door and she was just yelling at her children. We knocked a few times and she didn't come. The only thing we could think of was how much she could benefit from our message. Before we left we knocked one more time and she opened the door. We were able to go in and share the message of the restoration. My companion asked a question along the lines of "are you searching for the truth?" After she asked it the lady looked at us and said "actually I think I am, and this might be it." Maybe it sounds silly. It wasn't some powerful incredible lesson, but we were able to testify of the restored gospel. To help a single mum who has gone through so much in her life and we can tell she needed this message. She was talking about how she loves people who can make her laugh. After we reflected on our teaching and realized we need to be more happy when going around preaching the gospel. Why? Because our message is one of happiness and sharing it should make other people feel that same happiness.

I know God loves us. I know that we are given hard days or weeks for us to learn and grow because that is what this life is all about. I am grateful for the members who let us in their homes at the cold hours of night then tell us of their spiritual experiences and how grateful they are for the work we do. I am grateful for Avondale and what this area has taught me over the past few months and probably a couple more to come. I know we all make mistakes and we all struggle, but with the atonement we can continually improve and become more like our Saviour Jesus Christ.

I hope you all have a good week. I will try to send pictures later.

Love you heaps!

Sister Boiteux

 Our investigator found out Sister Fonua was leaving so she fed us. Of course had to take some selfies on the new camera!

Our Sunday morning. No bueno

Some of our wonderful ward :)

 When my companion says "look it says Ambrico Kil'n" South side mate.

New Zealand 

MY PACKAGE!!!!!! :) Thank you family!!!!

Lol when you find the newest addition to my desk