August 4, 2014

Oh what a mixture of ups and downs over the past week.

We had a good start on Monday, but then a huge gap during the week. Tuesday ended up being extremely busy. We traveled to Tokoroa in the morning and attended the District meeting there, then had to come back and go straight to a tire place for the car. Had about an hour for lunch, picked up the car, and spent the next hour at a podiatrist for my companion (an appointment in which they didn't find what was wrong and referred him to a GP). Oi. Then that night we attended a Book of Mormon class with some of our investigators and that was it. We somehow managed to finish a day without teaching a single lesson. Then since my companion was invited to the Polynesian conference, I spent Wednesday in two separate areas and ended up getting nothing done in our area. Thursday I spent the day in our area with another missionary. Our car was due for a Warrant of Fitness, so we brought it in and walked to a few homes that were relatively close by, thinking that it would only take about thirty minutes. An hour and zero teaching opportunities later, the place called to say that the car wasn't due for a service.. Apparently they had checked it in as a service on the car and not as a Warrant of Fitness inspection. So, we cleared that up and they got it in line for the inspection. We continued working and ended up back on the edge of town, when we decided that we'd just go have lunch at McD's, since it was close to the dealership, the car would get finished and we'd already be in that part of town. Turns out that McD's is thirty minutes past the dealership; but all good, since we'll be picking up the car afterwards and it'll all work out. Halfway through lunch they call to say that it needs one new tire, and they don't have it, so we can't get the car until tomorrow. The really stinky part is that we had already brought the car into the tire shop on Tuesday and they'd replaced two of the tires and said the rest were fine. Not cool. So, still car-less, we made the hour walk back to where we needed to be. We had just made it to the flat when the dealership called to say that the car was ready for pick-up. Really? You've got to be kidding me. We got lucky though, and a member gave us a ride over to get it back. All said and done though, we had spent most of the day walking and getting nothing done. That night ended up pretty useless too, since we had to drive to Taupo, which is an hour away, and exchange back companions. So two hours in the evening were spent doing that. So, by the time Friday came around we had been able to do almost nothing. Which meant that we spent the next few days scrambling to make up for lost time. All in all though, we were able to finish the week on a good note. We're still working with some awesome people, and this week is shaping up to be much better than the last.

Someone told me that it's spring here now too. Not sure how true it is, but it has been quite a bit warmer the last few days. I hope they're right, because I'm ready for some warm weather again.
 Arohanui!
 Kaumatua O'Neal