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!