What will you do?

Finishing up another day at AIB and Vance noticed outside that a tiny little girl had gotten out of the stroller her grandmother was pushing her in so she could get up close to the Christus statue.  She kept saying in her little Chinese “Ye Su, Ye Su!”  He went out to meet her, and her grandmother said in her broken English, “She knows Jesus and loves Him and she wants him.” Pretty tender little lesson.  What do you KNOW and what are you doing with what you know?
Near the beach this tree faced a pretty stiff hurdle...how to get through a stone fence towards the sunlight.  So it did something hard, and it got through, and is thriving.
A young father from Brazil came into the AIB this week.  He acknowledged that it was THOTL that led him to the AIB to find fellow church members and friends. He left his wife and two little children in Brazil while he came to NZ to study English for a year with the hope that he could learn enough English, find a job with his financial degree here in NZ, and bring his little family out of Brazil to the safety of NZ.  It was so hard for him, he came all alone with great faith that the Lord would help him.  He showed us several times a picture of he and his family at the temple in Brazil.  You can see the loneliness in his eyes, BUT he is determined to DO something about his concerns for his family, even if it is VERY HARD.  What would you do?  What are you willing to do?

Fascinated by this incredibly talented "tree cutter" on our beach walk..he was zipping along so fast cutting down this dead tree that it would make your head spin.  Do you have a gift that you could be using to take out dead wood or just make the world better?  What are you doing with your talents?  Get cutting! 
Our wonderful Tuesday night crew downing sloppy joes, digesting final classes, 
and practicing being friends.

We had Dr. Nathan Joseph speak at our last LUNCHSIDE devotional this past week.  He recounted his journey of “What will I do?” as he determined as a YSA to overcome a multi-generational culture of little education and poverty to study medicine and become a doctor.  He has used his talents to bless many lives.   His advice...With the Lords help decide what you can and must do, and then do it.

This week has been a “finisher” week at AIB, it’s the end of semester at both universities here and at our institute as well. As a teacher you wonder as your students finish the course “What will they do” because of the discussion and info and lessons?   It's all for naught if nobody gains something and then does something because of it. 
This weeks Women in Scriptures lecturers (not the one in yellow), who this week did the research and taught profound lessons.  They took the challenge and did something hard.
We had a special “HONORS DEVOTIONAL” for those who completed their institute classes.  
And what is an honors devotional without KFC (the most beloved food for YSA’s in NZ
…thanks Colonel Sanders!). 
These kids are amazing, but now… "What will they do"?   We hope and pray (literally) they will take it all to heart and use what they have learned.  
L
We love lights and are grateful there are lights when the morning walks are still very very dark.  Glad the moon is still in it's orbit and keeps doing its job with a bit of light and the tides, etc.  
We are glad that when ask "What will you do?" nature agreed to be constant.  We are trying
 harder to do the same.

AWAKE AND ARISE...YSA Conference at Port Waikato
Waikto River meets the Tazman Sea
We attended a YSA Camp with the YSA 1st ward in Port Waikato.  The camp theme was “Awake and Arise”.  Our group's motto was "Rise Up"...they taught two old people a rap for our "chant".  We (and we think they did too) discovered we're not Poly and we don't have the same cool moves...so they let us hold the banner when they did the rap...Sometimes "what will you do" get chosen for you...

What do will you do...when it's humid and cold and in the 40's and 50's in NZ?  If you're a horse and somebody loves you you get to wear a "coat".   We find LOTS of them are "loved".
Our coats aren't red and flashy like our horsey friend, but they (and a layer of long johns) work for us.

Tasman sea
Port Waikato beach.  Rough water and surfers braving the cold to catch a few waves.  Love the faithful dog...he followed her like a shadow and was so obedient.  No question  "What he will do"...follow his master.
Two old missionaries checking out the beach.


Never tire of just listening to the constant and dependable waves.  You know what they will do.

Camp Port Waikato nestled in the mountains in a beautiful setting, on the west coast.   
Loved the saying on this little cabin...lots of native plants and trees with claims of great healing qualities here in NZ.  Then...""what will you do?... , we're told you have to do the hard stuff and gather and prepare and put them to use if you want the healing.  
G6...group six, our cool mentors.
  Camp was a good time to do a lot of pondering, figuring out your questions and getting answers.  It included a hike to the top of a mountain (we were cheerleaders) to learn what you are capable of doing even with the burdens you carry.  Also a chance to think about what’s in your backpack that you NEED and what should you LET GO OF.  And then…what will you do?   

  We love the YSA’s and love to be with them. We are not as fond of the cold (you can see all the coats and hats it’s in the 40’s and 50’s and no one around here has central heat…brrrrrrrrr, camps are cold) but love their energy.  

We taught dance again at their “White Night” dance…even found a teddy (panda) bear and an angel in the crowd.  And what did these YSA do...they danced ALL NIGHT..yee haw!

A very wet rainy day, so what do you do?  Well, the seagulls are seeing it as an opportunity...it's not just a cold rainy day, its a great "go get worms" day.  Perspective.  What will you do?

Back to our little girl and her desire to be near Jesus because of what she knew.  What would you do if you "saw Him...would you stop what you are doing, get out of "your stroller" and go to Him? 
What do you KNOW and what are you doing about it?

web photo, Dan Freed
He lives, and has extended a loving invitation to Come unto Him.  
He let's us choose...What will you do?
We love you,
Vance and Louenda
Elder and Sister Downs



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cans

Image
It’s a new semester at the Universities, and for us at the Institute (AIB) as well. We set out on our mission thinking we could do and be everything, teach 10 classes each, climb every mountain and ford every stream the YSA's do, stay out late every night with them, go to every activity in all 13 stakes, write every night in our journals, eat 3 square meals a day and cook for the YSA too, change hearts, remember everybody's names and not miss our grandkids and all of you.   Well, we found out quickly we CAN'T.  We CAN barely teach 3 classes, we have bags under our eyes and we can't even pronounce most of their names, let alone remember them. So we are learning to just concentrate on the CANS  The few things at least that we CAN do.    We can teach a bit (Vance is teaching classes on the Book of Mormon, Teachings of the Living Prophets, and The Eternal Family.  Louenda has Old Testament, the Restored Gospel and Christian History, and Teachings and Doctrines of the Bo
Read more

A Little

Image
 A little snapshot while we have a little WiFi...Niue is a beautiful little Island. Most of the coast is just cliffs and caves that drop into the deep ocean.     This is our LMS (London Missionary Society) friend Aggie.  She is a widow from Fiji with great faith and an amazing story.  Her home is one of the nicer homes.  Most of the 1500-1600 residents have very little in the way of things we would call conveniences: *Washers but no dryers *Solar driven Power...most of the time *WiFi...hmmmm...spotty for us and most 2G some 4G *Phones-4 digit numbers but many don't have a mobile phone *Addresses...there are NONE, you just live by someone or something or "just a little down the road" *Stores-one grocery store and several little convenience type stores on the whole island.  If you need something you have to have it shipped in on the monthly boat.  Businesses including government are open very sporadic, convenient to the employees.  Most folks have cars...
Read more

Habitats and Sanctuaries

Image
Tiritiri Matangi Island On an open Saturday we were able to take a ferry and go to Tiritiri Matangi Island,  a bird habitat and sanctuary.  It's a peaceful and beautiful little island just north east of where we live,  and it happened to be a nice warm spring day, so we hopped on the ferry...   ... with new-found-friends and fellow-travelers Tom and Bev from Taranaki,  and lots of volunteers.    The wharf where we embarked was a yacht club at Shakespeare Park's Gulf Harbour.     The ferry was less than a 30 minutes sail among heaps of other boats who thought it was a great spring day too.   Our boat was "the Explorer "   Not hard to fall in love right away with the beautiful island bird sanctuary, continuously inhabited only by heaps of happy, mostly carefree birds. Sanctuaries are “places of protection and refuge, safe havens, asylums, even  sacred places. “ We took a 3 hour hike through the bush with new friends including
Read more