Seasonal Conflicts

Summer items on one isle at the store and Christmas decorations on the next!  It is going to be weird having Christmas in the middle of summer.  Our temperatures have been very similar to Utah the last couple of weeks, but I have to remind myself that it is spring here and fall there.

It is Sunday evening and my turn to do the Blog.  Tomorrow afternoon, Sister Denise, our English Lady, is coming down on the bus from Kerikeri for a few days to visit. She is really looking forward to going to the temple in about 9 months, but wanted to come and at least see the temple, go to the Visitor's Center, etc. We'll use our p-day and take her to the Hamilton Gardens, and she can spend some time at the Church History Library while we are working.

walk along the Waikato River through Hamiltion

a framed view along the river walk

There is a Sister Parker here (her husband is from England) who started to collect the histories of the early Mormon missionaries to NZ and also the stories of those who were involved in the building of the Church College (highschool) here about 50 years ago.  It's become even more important to preserve these experiences as they closed the college in 2009 and are going to demolish much of it , restore some of it and build a new stake center.  In about a year, the temple will close for 1-2 years while they do a structural remodel on it.  There is also the addition of the Tuhikaramea Temple View Campground outside of town that we are involved with.  Anyway, back to Sister Parker, she has been collecting stories, photos, interviews, and journals, of these early missionaries and people involved with the college for almost 30 years.  She and her husband were called officially as church history missionaries a year or so ago. The old school library is going to be remodeled and will house a collection of memorabilia, and the photos and histories, and will be the only Church History Library outside of SLC.  Sister Parker is a very spiritual woman and has had some wonderful experiences where she has been directed to go somewhere at a certain time and has been led to new opportunities to collect information.  She has also collected some awesome stories from early missionary journals.  One I remember is of a couple of missionaries from Utah who were here in the1870's and were traveling on horseback during the damp rainy winter.  They were cold, wet and starving, having not eaten for 2-3 days.  They felt like they could not go on any further, so they stopped, got off their horses, sought privacy in the bush and knelt down and pleaded with the Lord to help them.  They got back on their horses and proceeded along the dirt road for a short distance when they saw a white object sitting in the middle of the road.  When they got off to see what it was, they found a loaf of warm bread wrapped in a towel.  They quickly looked around, but saw no one.  They thanked the Lord, then devoured the bread. One of the men wrote his wife about the experience.  Unlike today she did not get his letter for 2-3 months, but wrote back and told her husband that she remembered baking bread that same day and finding that one loaf, as well as her dishtowel went missing.  This is just one of many wonderful stories she shares.  Sister Parker has traveled to the United States and Canada about a dozen times at her own expense over the last 20 years to pick up journals and photos and interview past missionaries or their decendents.

Sister Olsen along the river path

gardens along the river walk

It is nice to see the Goodman's, whom we met at the MTC, and get together occasionally.  They are the Mission Office senior missionaries from Arizona.  They came over last evening to go to the temple with us and we were thinking 6:30 p.m. was the last session, but when we got there we found out 4:00 p.m. is the last session on Saturday and they were just closing.  It was a poor substitute (although yummy), so we went and had ice cream and visited instead.  Our friends, Don & Rosemary White, whom we have mentioned before, have been home to Utah for a visit.  (He is an employee of the church so they get to do that). Rosemary took some Christmas gifts for our grandkids  and some NZ lollies (candy) and made a visit with our daughter, Shannon, giving her an indirect hug from us.  Wow, I have most of my limited Christmas shopping done.

The mom in me is coming out and I have resolved to take my needle and thread to our next District Meeting and move the button over on Elder Wright's (district leader) suitcoat.  I haven't wanted to offend him, but I thought someone needs to take action.  He has gained apparently quite a bit of weight (he must have been pretty skinny when he came) or he tried washing & ironing his suit (which it kind of looks might be what happened as it is wrinkled and shiny as well).  Getting a suit cleaned here is $30 so Elder Olsen even goes "Ouch" when he takes his to the cleaners.  Maybe we should take Elder Wright shopping at a couple of second hand stores.

We are teaching a cute little 8 year old girl name Alexis over in Raglan.  Her mom was active as a child and her partner is a non-member.  She also has a little boy and they sit in on the lessons.  They came to church today, which was the Sacrament Meeting Primary Program (the 3rd we've seen and none of the participants were our grandchildren) Alexis had gone to a practice on Friday and enjoyed the program and Primary afterwards.  We hope her mom, Monique, will still want to come next week, however, as her 2-year old was not use to being constrained and she left with him after Sacrament meeting and we gave Alexis a ride home. We tried to encourage her and told her that Xavier would adjust.  (Most parents here do not take books, toys or snacks to church for their children - believing they need to learn from the beginning to behave without those things.  I can see both sides, but today I really wished I had something interesting or edible in my bag.)

one of the many dogs we've met this week (a Bull Mastiff)

Dutch Belted Breed?

Being missionaries and trying to get.the members involved and excited about the work has made us realize how much more we could have done in our home ward.  President Hinckley said:  We can let the missionaries try to do it alone, or we can help them.  If they do it alone, they will knock on doors day after day and the harvest will be meager.  Or as members we can assist them in finding and teaching investigators . . . . .I invite you to become a vast army with enthusiasm for this work and a great desire to assist the missionaries in the tremendous responsibility they have to carry the gospel to every nation kindred, tongue and people.  

Pres Holland added:  ....there are multitudes in your world who feel a famine in their lives, not a famine for bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.  (Amos 8:11)

We are so blessed in the gospel and there are many who yearn for what we have.

We love you lots!

Our church in Raglan

along the road to Raglan

cool idea for the dead stump in the front yard

What a View

We are now in Hamilton in a suburb called Temple View, for obvious reasons.  Our two bedroom apartment is in the old church college housing area for single adult women teachers.  Over the years it has acquired the nickname "the Nunnery" so when anyone asks we just tell them we live in the nunnery and they know just where it is.  It's not got the lovely scenery around it like our flat  in Kerikeri, as a matter of fact our yard is a construction site right now as they are putting in retaining walls, new sidewalks.  We do have a great view of the temple, however, when we step out the door.  The temple lit up here at night is absolutely beautiful.

looking out our apartment door

view out of our apartment door

During the week we visited the "Hamon Bush," the area that is to be expanded 4 times it's size and be developed into a youth camp.  The Pacific Area Office leadership are the ones that requested that Sister Olsen and I be transferred here to develop operational plans for the campground and the use of volunteer teams to accomplish the work not covered by the major construction contracts.  This will include path building, constructing simple wooden cabins for enclosed shelter, and the planting of over 20,000 trees.  The area will eventually exceed 40 acres and provide camp facilities for girls camps, youth conferences, young single adult activities for the stakes and wards up and down this country for decades to come.

looking into the Hamon Bush

telephoto view from the Bush to the Temple--2km

We plan to work 3 days a week promoting the development and 3 days a week doing proselyting and member support.   President Rudd of the Hamilton Mission assigned us to work with a small branch about 40km from here on the west coast, called Raglan, a nice little resort town that has a small branch.  We attended church there last Sunday (there were 24 in attendance but a lengthy roster of members) and met two young sister missionaries who have been working there for six weeks. We are really happy that we'll be able to continue to teach less active families and investigators.  Beautiful pastoral lands make up the drive between Hamilton and Raglan.  The curvy roads, scenery and distance reminded us of our beloved Northland.

Saturday evening we attended a ward party in Hamilton.  This was their annual hongi and their attedance was awesome,  we could hardly believe it was not a whole stake.  They had six Polynesian cultures prepare their native dishes and decorate accordingly.  In the center was a pig on a spit that had been cooking all day outside.  We enjoyed the feast while each group preformed on stage - dancing and singing in their native traditions.  Several missionaries were there with their investigators.

one of the island cultures offers their food

yet another island culture--food already gone

then came the stage shows

Sister Olsen's addition:
A big plus to being transferred here is that we are close to the temple and plan to go often.  We did not bring our temple clothing, as being in the northern (Auckland) mission we thought we would only be able to go once or twice.  After figuring the cost of renting each week, a few days ago we went to the distribution center in the basement of the Visitor's Center and bought a second set of temple clothes.

One interesting fact concerning this temple is that because many members have to travel so far, they come together as a group and stay for a week.  While they are serving in the temple, they also provide the temple workers/officiators for the sessions during their visit.  This past week Melanie (Green) and Ronnie Taurarri
flew up from Dunedin (the southern part of the south island) with their branch for a week.  They called and we invited them to come for soup one evening and had a wonderful visit. It was so fun to see them again just a few weeks after their wedding.  Too bad were were not set up in our apartment so they could have stayed with us, but hopefully our friends from the north will visit and stay with us when they are down this way.

We have been here one week and are pretty settled in (the area office, mission office, a neighbor and the second hand stores all contributed to making our "new home away from home" comfortable.  Everyone has been very kind and helpful.  We are loving our mission and look forward to getting more involved in tour new assignments here, which is all the Lord's work. We are also looking forward to viewing conference this next weekend.  We have caught a small portion on the internet. Thank you for your prayers and messages.  They help to keep us encouraged!  Love ya so much!