Sister Pearce in New Zealand: More Broken Bones!!

This week was pretty good. It started out with some shopping on Monday. And then we went to the Supermarket to shop for food...I hope your face hasn't hit the keyboard from boredom yet(; We were having District Preparation Day at Lake Rotoroa and so we parked the car and I emptied my pockets and Sister Uele got out of the right side car and shut the door. Looking back on this, I realised that she just kind of stood there, but at the time it didn't mean anything to me. Well, Sister Whiting got out of the driver's side, on the same side as Sister Uele and she goes, "Oh, Sister Uele! What did you do?!" And then Sister Uele just lets out this heartwrenching, "OWWWW..." No tears were shed, no screams here uttered, just "OWW." Well, I knew something was wrong at this point so I jumped out of the car and ran around the other side to check on my companion. When I got to the other side of the car, Sister Uele was just standing there looking at the pool of blood accumulating on her thumb. Luckily, I had my drink bottle, so I poured some water on it and we tried to clean it off a little bit. It immediately started bruising and swelling. It was pretty awesome! For me, not so much for Sister Uele. (: Sister Whiting and Sister Swindler had some tissues, so we wrapped those around her thumb and went to play Ultimate Frisbee. Sister Uele was lucky and didn't have to play...(; We didn't really think that she needed to go to the doctor, but when she woke up the next morning it was still oozing blood and so I made the executive desicion and we asked the Zone Leaders to take us after District Meeting. So, we went to the Doctor. They took X-rays and then we waited for 4 hours to get in to see the doctor...4 hours. It was the longest wait of my life. But fun fact, Elder Thompson, for the Quorum of the Seventy came in..so..that was fun! Haha. Well, the verdict is...the tip of her finger is crushed. That is how hard she slammed the door. So, they referred us to a hand therapist and we got to go out of zone!! (: Haha, she got this awesome thumb splint that is bright green. Totally inconspicuous. (; It's so awesome to get to give back what Sister Amituanai did for me when I broke my arm. It's also awesome to see how many things you can't do without your thumb. (;

I don't really have any other news from this week, but just a couple of cool miracles...last week at church this lady walked in and no one had ever seen her before. So we went up to talk to her and she said that she wanted to come to church because she had driven past the temple and they invited her in to the Visitor's Center. So, we're going to start teaching her. Also, Christine and Lawrence, who got baptized last week are already doing missionary work. (: Christine's sister already wants to be baptized, so we're going to work with her too. (: Jahvarn is getting baptized next Monday and we are so excited for that. (:

This week I have learned that even though times get hard and even though the light never seems to come, that it does come. Even though we struggle through some days and others go too fast, love every minute. Every minute matters. Even the small successes matter to the Lord. In Relief Society yesterday, Sister Kaile Hill gave a lesson on President Uchtdorf's talk from October 2011, and I took some notes that I will share with you now. 1. Forget Not to be Patient With Yourselves. >Celebrate your good efforts. >Keep working, and stop punishing yourself. >Be grateful for small successes because God notices the small things. >Find wonder and enjoyment, even through the trials. 2. Forget Not The Difference Between a Good Sacrifice and A Foolish Sacrifice. >Every person is different. >Are you committing your time and energies to the things that matter most? 3. Forget Not to Be Happy NOW. 4. Forget Not The Why Of The Gospel. >When we focus on the why of the gospel, confusion fade. >"The “why” of obedience sanctifies our actions, transforming the mundane into the majestic. It magnifies our small acts of obedience into holy acts of consecration." 5. Forget Not That The Lord Loves You.

I love you all. I love New Zealand and I love the Lord. Every day I grow closer to him and everyday my life gets a little bit brighter. (:

Love,
Sister Pearce

5338-> The thumb before the doctor. (: