Christmas Day I was invited to lunch at the home of Beth McBride who is a member of my Takapuna Ward. She is a single sister so she invited me and Sister Lucas to join her. I was at her home last year as well, so it has become a New Zealand tradition for me to spend Christmas Day with Beth.
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| Beth McBride |
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| Bumblebee in Beth’s garden |
Some of my family members called me on my Christmas Day and then I got to celebrate again the next day with my almost all of my family on Christmas Day in the USA. We had a Zoom call where we shared the events of the day with each other and played some games: Bingo and Scattergories. Fun times!
Monday morning, Sister Lucas couldn’t go walking so I decided to walk to Lake Pupuke. From Wikipedia:
“Lake Pupuke is a heart-shaped freshwater lake occupying a volcanic crater (or maar) between the suburbs of Takapuna and Milford on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The heart shape is a result of its formation by the linking of two circular craters - a larger one forming most of the lake and a smaller one forming the arm in the northeast. Separated from the sea by less than 200 m at one point, it has a circumference of about 4.5 km and reaches 57 m in depth. It is popular for recreational activities and the lakefront property around it.”
As I walked to the lake I saw this gorgeous Monarch butterfly on a balloon plant (which is of the milkweed family) or Gomphocarpus physocarpus which is a food of the caterpillars of Danaus butterflies, including the monarch butterfly.
I had a meeting at the office Monday morning so I walked through the reserve. I hadn’t walked there for a while. It is greener than the last time I walked through.
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| Zoom in to see the bananas |
Monday evening, the Pacific Area Office missionaries joined with some of the New Zealand Auckland senior missionaries to celebrate the season with dinner and games. Then we sang carols. The residents of the building where we live had been invited to join us along with some of the missionaries serving in the Takapuna area. A few joined us in the common area but more joined the singing from their balconies. After the carols, the elders entertained us with a haka. Fun evening.
My vertigo is much better. I am able to drive so on Wednesday I helped a sister without a car to pick up her glasses and then to enjoy lunch.
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| Sisters Beia and Sanchez |
Thursday I spoiled myself and invited sisters to go for sushi with me.
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| Christmas morning |
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| Large castle with moat and bridges |
As I look forward to the New Year, I think about the times I have set goals for myself and never really followed through. There has always the goal of weight loss, better nutrition, exercise, study and read the scriptures more regularly, etc. This year is no exception except I really want to be better at following through. I read an article in the October New Era about goal setting titled Big Goals, Little Goals that has given me some food for thought.
The authors, Nichole Eck, with LeAnn Hunt, say:
“Good, useful goals come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re often smaller than we expect. It might be easy to pick a big goal like “I want to eat healthier.” If we look closer, we’ll be able to see less obvious goals that make achieving the bigger goal easier… If we only focus on the big goals, we miss out on a lot of the smaller goals that help us achieve the bigger goals.”The authors go on to discuss: “seven types of goals you might not have considered before and some examples of how to use them as spiritual, physical, intellectual, and social goals.”
They list and discuss these goals:
- Exploration Goals: Sometimes we want to explore new things to learn what we want or like.
- Goals for Experimenting: Sometimes we want to test something out to see if it works for us.
- Information-Gathering Goals: Sometimes we need to find out more information about a goal before we start.
- Goals for Starting (or Stopping) a Habit: Sometimes we want to start a good habit or stop a bad one. (These don’t have to be daily habits.)
- Practice Goals: Sometimes we want to practice something to improve it.
- Problem Solving Goals: Sometimes we choose goals to solve a problem in our lives.
- In-Progress Goals: Sometimes we set goals to improve the goals we are already doing.
I liked some of the ideas and examples presented in the article and will try implementing them. If you would like to read the article, you may do so here:
Happy New Year
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| May you find beauty, joy and peace in this coming New Year |
I’m grateful for this week dedicated to the birth and life of our Savior. I have enjoyed the carols, the visits with family and friends, the greetings and thoughts sent to me through various technology and the gift giving and receiving but most of all I have grown to love my Savior even more for his willingness to come to this earth to teach and minister and to set an example for me. I love Him for his Atonement and sacrifice. I am blessed because of His death and resurrection. I want to be more like Him in every way.
I love my Savior. I love you my family and friends.
