Monday, March 1, 2021. Written by Faye.

This morning, I walked with a group of ladies to the beach for our morning walk. We wanted to collect shells for a project we are doing. We saw a big flock of birds out on the beach surrounding something. We thought it was a fish, but it was a little hammerhead shark! It was still alive so a man tried to save it by throwing it back into the ocean. On our way back we found the shark washed back up on the beach. It didn’t look good at all. Poor little thing! I was wondering where it’s momma was. A local woman decided that it needed to be thrown away so the birds and dogs don’t start playing with it. We told her we would do it but we took some pictures before we did. Finding that shark was pretty exciting, even for the locals. On the way home from the beach walk we got caught in a downpour and were soaking when we got back home but it was fun!

We are on lockdown again in the Auckland area for a week as of Sunday because there’s one new case in the community that can’t be traced to a source. They think it’s one of the new strains. We are back to level 3. The grocery stores are open and we can get take out but everything else is closed…. and no church meetings. We were supposed to fly out to the South Island Sunday morning but the trip got canceled. We have another trip planned to Dunedin in March. I hope we get to go on that one.

About 3 days ago, I was getting in the elevator on the bottom floor to go up to our 4th floor apartment. A lady from India got on with me and pushed the 1st floor button. I wondered why she was using the elevator if she was only going to the first floor. She was quiet but I saw her looking at my missionary badge. I smiled at her and just before she got off she said, “Can you pray for me? My foot is not healing. My name is Suraya.” And then she spelled her name slowly…. S.U.R.A.Y.A. (Pronounced like Mariah) I told her  of course I would pray for her and thanked her for asking me. She stepped off the elevator with a little limp and I rode up to my floor. When I walked in my apartment I told Carter what happened and I got teary thinking of the trust she had in me to ask me to pray for her. She must have been desperate for help. It’s another testament that who I represent is so important. I wonder if she would have asked me to pray for her if I didn’t have that badge on. Carter suggested we kneel and pray right then. We did. I put her name on the prayer roll of the Gila Valley Temple and we have been praying for  Suraya. I have been asking Heavenly Father if I could meet up with her again to see how she’s doing. I know she lives on the first floor in building A but I don’t know which apartment.

Love to all ….Faye