On Our Way!

Well we're mostly packed (you travel lightly as missionaries - at least compared to a household move) and will head out to the new mission in Hamilton in the morning.  We will stop in Auckland and visit with our present mission president for a bit and turn in our vehicle and transfer our belonging to a diesel Ford station wagon.  We have always said we would never have a diesel because of the smell of the fumes, but they do get better mileage and hopefully a small car will not stink up the air too much.  (Sorry, you diesel owners.)  That will be just the first of many changes, but we will adjust.

We actually went back to Hamilton again after Melanie's wedding for an orientation meeting on our assignment there (15 men and me - but I held my own).  We stayed in our new, but sparsely furnished, apartment for a couple of nights.  We were able to go to the temple and see the new film, which we loved. Hopefully, we'll be able to attend the temple weekly, since we'll only be 2-3 blocks away. We will be living in Temple View, which is south of Hamilton a few miles.  Hamilton is a good size city, about 150,000 compared to Kerikeri at about 30,000.  There is a beautiful lake on the south side with a boardwalk around it, which took us about an hour to walk.  Hopefully we can walk that a few times a week and get in better shape.  One positive about this move is we will spend less time sitting and driving.  On our way home we stopped in Auckland for a zone mission conference at which the new area Seventy and his wife spoke, along with our mission president and wife.

Evening walk around the lake in Hamilton

night time is upon us

Since we were packed up, Denise (our English lady) had us for dinner (tea) today (Sunday).  She has been so good to us and is such a joy to the branch because she is so full of the spirit and reminds others through her happiness of how blessed we are to have the gospel in our lives.  Last Sunday the Waihou Branch had a feed (lunch) for us after church and then on Monday evening we had a Family Home Evening BBQ on our nice patio, which is the first time we've really used it for a group because it has been a little too chilly.  We had the group that usually assembles at the Snows for FHE each week who live in the area.  Everyone brought something and after we ate, we each shared our most embarrassing moment and just had a fun evening getting to know each other a little more outside of church. I made that pumpkin dessert that is kind of like a cake/pie and it was a hit.  They don't have canned pumpkin here, but our friends bought us a small can at the American store in Auckland for $5.  They just use  pumpkin here as a vegetable and to make soup; using it for a dessert is very uncommon.  (They don't realize what they're missing.)  Amelia and her group had us for a Chinese theme dinner on Thursday - Elder Olsen and I have a very limited wardrobe, but I do have a jacket with a Mandarin collar and Amelia gave Don an oriental woven hat to wear.  It was a yummy, fun evening.  I told Amelia that we would be eternal friends and she replied, "And we don't even need to be sealed!"  We will look forward to both Denise and Amelia coming to Hamilton to the temple while we are probably still there in less than 11 months.

barbecue at our flat for FHE

Chinese dinner at Amelia's

Chinese party with Conrad and Amelia

It has been a busy couple of weeks trying to visit once more those who need a bit of encouragement and get a few more follow-up lessons in with the young boys who were baptized and Michael Crouch, who still needs a couple of more lessons and Desire, who is ready but waiting to be baptized in the ocean when it gets a little warmer.  We've loved teaching these adolescent aged individuals; they are so cute and have such simple faith.  The coolest thing is that while we have been teaching the boys, their families have sat in on the lessons as well, and it has helped to re-activate them.  Tina Crouch's husband is a non-member, but is showing some interest.  He runs a dairy farm with about 300 cows and they live about 25 miles down a mostly dirt road, but she has been coming to church with her five children, Michael being the oldest at 8.  We have to admire those members, throughout the world, who attend church even though it is a hardship in various ways.  I think about how close we live to the church at home, how easy it is to do our home teaching and visiting teaching and we have a temple within 10 minutes of our homes.

curly haired Mauri girl

We had 4 of the Elders in our district for lunch one day this week, as well.  The Snow's had given us some home-grown beef steaks (more than Don and I could eat) and boy, did those missionaries ever enjoy them!
We have grown quite close to them and sort of feel like their parents (rather grandparents).  I wanted to give  them each a big hug, but only Elder Olsen could.  We have loved going to District meeting with them each week and really admire their dedication and faith and the spirit they carry and have learned a lot from them.

Elders Taylor, Johnson, Viliamu, Dauniika, Olsen and Sister Olsen

Among those we said goodbye to was Simi, our friend from Tonga.  He and many other men come to NZ for 6-8 months to work in the orchards because there is little work for them at home.  Simi saw us at the grocery store soon after we got here and has gone to church with us nearly every week and to family home evening.  He has been the only one of the members who has been diligent while working away from home. He is in his bishopric at home and has 9 children and mostly live off the land, the ocean, and the money he earns here.

Simi our Tongan friend

We are sad to be leaving this beautiful Northland and especially the beautiful people here.  We have had some wonderful experiences that we will always cherish.  However, we are sure we will meet some great people and have lots of opportunities to serve in our new area.  So - we're on our way!

P.S. Happy 4th birthday Lily.

SOMEWHERE OVER THE...

The springtime here is the rainy season and there is hardly a day go by that we don' get at least a light rain. One of the blessings of frequent showers is the rainbows.  We see them almost daily.

a frequent sight

A week ago we traveled to Hamilton to attend the wedding for Melanie Green, daughter of Marte and Diana Green from our home ward in Centerville, Utah.  She married a man from the Cook Islands, between New Zealand and Australia.  The temple was beautiful and the day was sunny.  Melanie's grandma, Barbara Jensen was also there.  What a wonderful ceremony in the temple.  Several of the grooms extended family were there and provided an enveloping welcome of Melanie into their family.

Ronnie and Melanie at the New Zealand Temple

During the afternoon we gathered at the Lone Star Restaurant in downtown Hamilton where they had a more traditional celebration.  There were Polynesian (hula) dances culminating in a performance by the bride in her wedding gown showing her husband that she could move as well as the others.  The bride is presented quilts by the extended family of the groom.  These were beautiful (some hand made) quilts and so colorful.  The belief is that the couple will be blessed with one child for every quilt;  Melanie only received nine. Wow!

quilts and traditional dancing

Diana and Marte Green, brides parents and Barbara Jensen, a grandmother

They will be living in Dunedin on the south island for the next couple years.  We wish them well.

While in Hamilton we were able to see the newly remodeled apartment where we will be living and the Hammond Wood where we will be helping to develop a camp for the youth of the church in New Zealand. The apartment would have seemed much nicer if we hadn't just visited the White's lovely high rise apartment in the heart of Hamilton. However our apartment is just a few hundred meters from the temple and we have such a beautiful view of it.

The crowning glory of this past week was to see two young boys whom we have been teaching, be baptized. Both of them are from less active families who have now begun to come out regularly and participate in full fellowship.  Charlie Tua is from the Matauri Bay Branch and Caleb Sadler is from the Wiahau Branch. Desire Platt is another investigator from Matauri Bay who is ready for baptism; howeve'r her mother wants her to be baptized in the bay by her uncle so we'll probably miss seeing that happen before we leave.

Charlie and grandparents

Caleb, his mom and two sisters

We will be leaving the north to go work in Hamilton at the end of the month.  We spent our last Sunday at Matauri Bay today when the Primary had their program and we loved it.  We have been visiting some of the members who rarely make it out to say goodbye to them.  One elderly brother, Abraham Leef, gave Sister Olsen her pick of a woven purse from several his late wife had collected over the years.

hand woven purse

a common sight in the spring

cock-of-the-walk

New Zealand Spring is Here

August 31, 2013

Wow, we have been out for 4 months; sometimes it seems like it has gone fast and other times it seems so long since we've seen you all, especially since we've gotten a hug from the grandkids.  We are teaching quite a few kids (8 - 14 years old) who have younger brothers and sisters so we get lots of substitute hugs, which is fun.

Sister White, Sister Erina Williams, RS president in Matauri Bay Branch, and Sister Olsen

Several people have asked about the earthquakes, but they are much further south and we haven't felt them at all.  The initial earthquake did a little damage, but the aftershocks mostly just make the people a little nervous.  We plan on going to Hamilton next Friday afternoon and staying overnight and attending the temple wedding for Melanie Green and her fiancee.  It will be so fun to see someone from home.  We will stay over-night with Don and Rosemary White, whom Dian has known since junior high and Don knew them at Utah State.  Don is a land developer who works for the church.  They came up her for a couple of days last weekend and we showed them around the area on Saturday and then they went to Church with us on Sunday and we then had dinner with the Relief Society president, Erina Williams, who knew the Whites from when they used to live in Hamilton.  It was a different experience for them to attend such a small branch.

Dian, Rosemary and Don

the Olsens and the Whites

Our new converts are doing well.  We see Denise, the English lady, more often as she lives here in Kerikeri.  She has us over to dinner about once a week and Tuesday morning we took her with us to Kaikohe, where the stake chapel is so that she could learn about family history (or whakkapapa)  at the center there while we attended District meeting.  She was so excited after, as she had been able to go back several generations on each side.  She will be able to get more into it when she gets her membership number.  She loves to work on the computer, so we're sure she will keep busy with family history and indexing. She has no family close by, so she has quite a bit of time on her hands and is excited to get a calling and start being a visiting teacher, etc.

Denise Peacock our recent English convert

Amelia is much busier as she has quite a lot of family close by (including 2 teens of her own), plus several older sons and their families, so she helps with grandkids quite often and goes to the Marae (Maori meeting house) and helps with food for tangi's (funerals) and is taking a class so that she and another member she is friends with can help out those who are homebound.  Amelia is a very caring person and great at cheering people up with her fun sense of humor. She and her friend, Rehu, had us to dinner also last week and treated us so good, including sending us off with a snack bag of food for our long drives. We are taking them to lunch and on a little tour of the Matauri Bay area this afternoon (it's starting to rain as I type this).

Amelia Rogers a recent convert

Last Sunday we were at Matauri Bay, but wished we could also have been at the Waihou branch.  A young woman from Brazil spoke, who is a member of the branch and a returned missionary (she served at Temple Square in SLC and in Las Vegas for  a while).  She works her in New Zealand with the student exchange program between Brazil and New Zealand.  She has a group of non-member friends in the area from Brazil, a couple  whom she works with; and she invited them all to church since she was going to be the speaker. Ten people came (6 adults and 4 children) and we heard she gave a tremendous talk about agency. She really wanted us to be there to meet them afterwards, but it was our turn at the other branch and we had things that were needful there.  We talked to her afterwards and gave her 6 Books of Mormon.  She is going to put a copy of the photo they took of them all together at the church in the front of the book, along with her testimony and have us deliver them.  She thinks at least some of them will want to have the discussions. They are all quite intrigued with her because she is so happy and yet never drinks, nor does some of the other things they think make life fun.  She has shown them they don't need to do that to have real joy in life. She is a riot to listen to, she is so excited and talks so fast with lots of gestures.  She laughed when we told her that and said we should she her whole group of Brazilian friends when they get together.  That's the kind of member referrals you dream of.

It's spring time here so it is so fun to see the baby lambs and calves as we drive through the country side. We tried getting a photo of  a ewe and her 3 tiny ones, but they ran off as soon as we got out of the car.
We may come home sounding a little different; we're starting to say things like, "we'll pop in for a minute, we'll ring you laters, ahh - yup, and yous's (as in "are youses going to the fireside?)

no shortage of grass for the lambs

A funny story that happened some time ago.  We went by to visit a non-active member, a woman with a couple of younger kids.  She wasn't real friendly and said she was just fixing some lunch for her children. We asked if we could stop by another time and she indicated that would be OK.  Two or three weeks later we stopped by again and she saw us through the window.  She proceeded to come out into her carport to gather up some clothes that were drying as we got out of the car.  We said "hi" to her, but she did not respond as she went into the house.  So we went to the front door and rang the door bell and could see her through the window folding her clothes.  We we just about to leave, when she came and flung the front door open but then proceeded to fold clothes again.  We tried to strike up a conversation for several minutes, but she just ignored us.  We finally said "Well, apparently we caught you at a bad time and will just leave this pamphlet with you ," and we left.  Apparently she wasn't very sincere when she said we were welcome to come back.

giving the Elders a ride on P-day

Elder Olsen got to celebrate a second Father's Day today (1st Sunday in Sept. in NZ). We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Snow's (an older couple in their early 80's  whom everyone loves and looks up to in the Waihou Branch).  They served a mission here in their own stake after the Jolley's.  They have an open Family Home Evening on Monday evenings and everyone is invited in the area and brings a dish to share.
It's now Monday evening and we just returned from FHE, where Elder Olsen and I took a turn at leading a discussion.  On the way out of their long driveway we, including our Tongan friend) saw a Kiwi bird, which is a rare thing, as they are an endangered species and only come out at night.  They are a strange looking bird, but much loved here and are the national bird.  We were so excited but didn't manage to get a photo to share.  Ahhh!

Thanks to Brother Murray, whom we wrote about in the ward newsletter, we have 3 new investigators to teach. He passed away a couple of weeks ago of cancer, but not before getting ordained an Elder, baptizing his youngest son and going to the temple and being sealed as a family.  (He died within a few days of accomplishing his goals).  One more thing he did the last few weeks of his life was to share his testimony and encouragement with several inactive family members and friends.  He touched many lives with his faith and courage this past year as he overcame obstacles and put things in order spiritually.  His wife Arri,who has wanted to go to the temple for several years,  feels more at peace now as she faces finishing raising their 7 children still at home.

Take care!  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive family and such great friends.  We love you lots!

we continue to marvel at such spectacular scenery

near an exclusive golf course Kauri Cliffs