S.H.A.P.E. Assessment Results

Thank you for taking the SHAPE Assessment. We encourage you to meet with a Church Leader that you respect, to go over your results, so that they can help you discover a place to serve in the church and/or community, and also to help you fine-tune your 5 Main Focuses/Priorities listed at the bottom of this email under the ‘Wrapping it up’ section. May God Bless You!

[S]piritual Gifts

Here is how your spiritual gifts scored (in alphabetical order):

15%

53%

59%

53%

40%

37%

46%

56%

65%

To see descriptions on the Spiritual Gifts and how you can use them to further Christ’s Kingdom on earth, visit this link.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I have some previous experience teaching. My patriarchal blessing talks a lot about me being a teacher. I’ve always been good at learning (in an academic sense) and while not church related, I used to help explain things to my friends at school when they didn’t understand the homework etc.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I don’t know about the exhortation part – that sounds a bit ickky. I also don’t know if I’m good at it, but I would like to be encouraging to others. I care and want to help them.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I don’t know. I feel like this is a weird one because I don’t really understand what is meant by it. Isn’t helping others and contributing to the ‘body’ serving? And isn’t that what all the gifts are supposed to do, just in different ways? So I feel like this category isn’t very helpful to me – it doesn’t tell me how I might serve or my place in the body. I mean I want to serve, its just I wouldn’t call serving itself a gift per se.

[H]eart

1. spending time in nature. That can be gardening, photography, hiking, camping etc.

2.

3.

probably adults – I’m open to learning how to work with kids too, but kids do feel a bit alien to me.

the conflict between church and LGBT – as someone who is both I want to help bridge the gap between those two worlds in someway.
Perhaps also something to do with deconstruction/growth – having been part of the deconstruction group the past six months I’ve been realising just how much the church has hurt people. It might be nice to do something to alleviate that pain for people, even in just little ways. cos there is so much beauty in the mess too – at least I have experienced the beauty in the mess.

Other – LGBT, looking after creation, spiritual growth

[A]bilities

retail sales (which I would suck at except that I’m lucky enough to be in the garden/plant department so I am selling products I love and am able to share my knowledge with customers when they are interested/need advice.

horticultural/agricultural jobs eg fruit picking, grape pruning, managing sheep

eye for detail,

seed dispersal ecology of tantalus monkeys in Nigeria (the subject of my MSc thesis)
I’ve taught classes on a variety of church subjects when I was a Relief Society teacher

[P]ersonality

Reserved

Low Risk

Peace Maker

Project Driven

Follower

Solo

Your Primary was ‘The Beaver’, with your Secondary coming in as ‘The Retriever’, and here are the descriptions of your Personalities, and how they can be used for God

Beaver- Organized. Beavers think that there is a right way to do everything and they want to do it exactly that way. Beaver personalities are very creative. They desire to solve everything. Desire to take their time and do it right. Beavers do not like sudden changes. They need reassurance.

Strength: High standards, order, respect
Weakness: Unrealistic expectations of self & others, too perfect.
Limitation: Seeing the optimistic side of things, expressing flexibility

Golden Retriever- Good at making friends. Very loyal. Retriever personalities do not like big changes. They look for security. Can be very sensitive. Very caring. Has deep relationships, but usually only a couple of close friends. Wants to be loved by everyone. Looks for appreciation. Works best in a limited situation with a steady work pattern.

Strength: Accommodating, calm, affirming
Weakness: Indecisive, indifferent, unable to express emotional, too soft on other people
Limitation: Seeing the need to be more assertive, holding others accountable

[E]xperience

I don’t know that I am a Christian. I’m a person of faith, but I’m still figuring out if I am/can be a Christian.
I became a person of faith ultimately I guess because I was introduced to church when my joined the Mormon church when I was about 8 or 9, and he would take my sister and I to church with him on the weekends we went to stay with him. but my own faith journey began in 2010, when I was 21 and had an experience with the Book of Mormon that left my testimony in tatters. It wasn’t what was ‘supposed’ to happen according to what I’d been taught. I later came to realise that Heavenly Father actually was strengthening my testimony by destroying it through that experience. There is a little story about God renovating our houses, but I feel like he just decided to bulldoze mine and start again. Over the last 14 years he has been working on the rebuild (and I believe this will continue for the rest of my life). He has used some unlikely tools and experiences along the way, that aren’t the way things are ‘supposed’ to be. I still feel like my testimony is relatively small, but it is strong. There is still a lot I don’t know, but I wouldn’t trade this new house for anything – there has been a lot of hurt and pain along the way, but it has been worth it.

LDS Church, Riccarton Ward, Christchurch, NZ: Primary Secretary, May 2010- late 2011. – I hated this calling (but that may be more of a reflection of where I was at in my life at the time). I was released when they rearranged the wards after the earthquakes and I found myself in a new ward. But I was about to have a break down anyway, I didn’t want to be there and couldn’t do it anymore.

LDS Church, Merivale Ward, Christchurch, NZ: 12-13yr old Sunday School Teacher, early 2012-Mar 2013. – ended because I moved cities.

LDS Church, Nelson Branch, Nelson, NZ: Relief Society Teacher, mid 2013-Dec 2015. – was released because I moved to Tasmania. Though I was also at a point where I felt I couldn’t teach anymore without compromising my own personal integrity – I could still regurgitate what they wanted to hear, but I didn’t feel I could be real/authentic in my teaching anymore.
Not an official calling, but I also spent three months accompanying the missionaries on teaching visits from May-July 2013, which was a very special time and an opportunity I feel privileged that I got to experience. It taught me a lot.

Doing the Wangapeka when I was 8.

Doing my MSc thesis in Nigeria

Moving to Tasmania/ Makere’s friendship

hurtful experiences at church

finishing my thesis/ burning out/ being unemployed for a long time

Wrapping It Up

The Challenge: Based upon your S.H.A.P.E. Assessment above (the way God wired you), If you knew you couldn’t fail … and ‘lack of money, or time’ was not an obstacle… list your Top 3 Things you would ‘Focus’ your Life on, next to #1 Loving God & #2 Loving Your Neighbor (these would be your ‘3 God-Sized Dreams’ for your life)?

1. My Relationship with GOD

2. My Relationship with Others

• Putting Your Spouse First
• Your Kids Second
• Everyone Else After those

3. live in harmony with nature

4.

5.