Visitors

We have been really blessed on our mission by the visits of family and friends. To be able to share just a little bit of our mission life with them has been amazing. Lesley came during the week of the Couple Conference. Lesley is one of the missionary sisters who taught us the gospel 39 years ago. Yes we took her to Hobbiton and our favourite place Whakatane. I hope she enjoyed her visit with us because we certainly enjoyed her company. On Lesley’s last evening with us we shared the Maori stick game with her. All the mishaps really made us laugh.

Our most recent visitor was Marc our son. That was somewhat of a surprise. Marc’s wife Fe had given him an early Christmas present of his ticket over here and back. Again we took him to Hobbiton but this time I just waited outside for them. Again we took him to Whakatane where we stayed with Elder and Sister Clark. They are such lovely hosts and looked after us well. We also needed to go down to Gisborne to move the Zone Leaders to another flat. It was nice to share the long, long, journey through the gorge, one which Elder Saunders and I actually like travelling through. We also went to a Maori culture show. This was so good and enjoyable. Now we have to try and get Marc to practice the stick game. We did manage to get him to do that on his last night. We also managed to take some very interesting videos for future birthdays.

 

 

Bridal Veil Falls

 

You really think that by threatening to chop off my head will stop me from wearing my hat?

 

 He's looking at us!!!!

I love this photo.

Senior Couples Mission Conference

In October we had a senior couple’s conference that was just so amazing. We started the Tuesday morning off with a presentation on the Book Of Mormon. President Rudd shared with us his testimony and love for the book of Mormon then we discussed a book written by Gordon L. Weight called Miracle On Palmyra’s Main Street. Most of us read a passage from the book and then shared their personal feelings about what they had just read. My account was of Scriptural Miracles. It was good for me to share the Prophecies written in the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon for-telling of the Prophet Joseph Smith and also the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

We are so grateful for the restoration of the gospel, our lives would be completely different without the knowledge of God’s love for us and of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We hope and pray that we can be good example to those we meet and share our lives with and that they will come to that same knowledge and love of our Saviour’s gospel.

Now back to our couple’s conference. At lunch time we had a delicious meal provided by Sister Papple. Sister Papple is a legend in our mission for providing amazing and tasty meals at our meetings. We then had a fun visit to Hamilton Gardens. We have visited there before but had no idea that it had lots of different gardens from around the world. The evening was finished off with a movie night, President’s choice. “It’s a Mad Mad Mad world” most of the missionaries enjoyed it!!!!!

Our next morning started with a visit to Bridal Veil Falls. Again somewhere we have been before but I have never ventured down to the bottom but this time I did. Providing you take it slowly the walk down and up is so pretty.

Our next stop was to Raglan where we ate fish and chips on the Wharf. Before leaving Raglan we stopped at a local ice cream parlour and had either fresh fruit ice cream or yoghurt in a cone. This time paid for by Sister Parker, who is another legend in our mission. She compiles the history of the church in New Zealand and has been to many places around the world to get all her information.

We went to the Hamilton Temple Tuesday afternoon. It was so good to be with our special friends in the Temple.

 

Our dinner that evening was again provided by Sister Papple. Yummy!

After Diner we met in the Chapel and were given a presentation from Tones of Aotearoa. In my ignorance I thought that it was going to be a talk by someone about New Zealand (Aotearoa). But it was a brilliant musical group who sang just for us. We, in return, sang our mission song for them. Not really much comparison between us but we did our best.

To finish our 2 days off we had an inspirational and motivating talk by Elder Pearson, Pacific Area President. Who shared some of the words that were spoken at the training given by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve just before the last General Conference. Such powerful messages were shared which we hope to share with you when we get home.

Sacrament Talks

We both had the opportunity to give a talk in sacrament a few weeks ago. My talk was on the Law of Sacrifice which I thought was very appropriate as we are far away from our family and friends. I shared one of the definitions of Sacrifice that is to give up something good for something better. I related this to us giving up being with my family for 18 months so that we can be worthy to live with them for the eternities. I shared two primary stories that talked about primary aged children’s sacrifices. Elder Saunders talk was a little more spiritual and was about the blessings of Tithing. Another subject we both have good experiences of.

CLS Conclusion. Good or Bad?

Well I left off where he had his first UR, unrateable. So the following Tuesday we travelled again to Redoubt Chapel but this time we actually took the test in the Chapel building because the internet was working. This time I had bought a headset and my lap top was set up properly by the shop. Again the audio said it was working during the pre-test but as we were taking the test it did seem to fluctuate. I think because we knew it was going to be another fail we joked around between the question and answering recordings.
Oh my, should I share with you some of his answers? Well as I haven’t named him here goes. One of the hobbies he ticked was ‘singing alone’. He was asked “where do you like singing alone?” He said his bedroom and a few other places, he then added the shower. Why I thought that was funny I don’t know. But I started to giggle a little at this stage. He was next asked when he first started singing alone and other questions like “have you ever sung to other people, have you had any embarrassing or memorable experiences”,  this is when it got really serious - not!
 He first explained that his dad was visiting the States (the family live in Tonga). He asked his dad to bring him back an Elvis costume because he was crazy about Elvis. He shared an experience he had when he wore the Elvis costume to school and sang for them, the other pupils laughed at him.
One of the reasons he gave was because Elvis was white and he was not. I just could not control myself I was now laughing uncontrollable. Thankfully it didn’t put him off the test, not even when he mentioned he also had a Michael Jackson outfit he wore as well.
Anyway like I said we had a feeling that it would fail again today and on my way back to Hamilton I received a message saying it had. We didn’t give up and we went back to Redoubt on the Friday but this time we went to the MTC, did another audio test, all working well, but again failed during the actual test.!!!!!!!
The Elder is now due to fly home on the next Tuesday. But I did not give up and neither did our IT person from the Area Office. We finally got the port open which enabled us to set up the test at the Mission Office. I spent a long time making sure the headset and mic worked. So we are all set to go for another test the Monday before he leaves his mission the next day.
He very confidently spoke a load of dribble to some of the questions asked. We were both delighted that he was asked about Tennis. Something he had spoken about in great detail before. So at the end of the test we were very hopefully.
Only time will tell if he has passed or it is another audio fail. 
After about 30 mins I expected the fail result to appear, after 45 mins nothing, 60 mins, nothing. Then it came through, the result can be seen on …….. web site.
Ok, as I’ve never reached that stage before, I excitedly try and find the correct site. Finding his name was easy as he is the only one I have registered, there was a result! But what does it mean?

·         A means advanced

·         IH  intermediate high

·          IL intermediate low

·          N for novice.

He got an ‘A’. Wow, top group, Wow! Excitement and relief all in one.

Now I can focus on all the other missionaries and help them successfully get a certificate that will help with their CV for employment or college.

All going to the Zoo tomorrow?

We did actually plan on going to the Zoo again the following week but postponed it because Elder Saunders needed to check out that flat in Murupara. Now he needs to go away again this Monday and I don’t want to let the sisters down a third time. So we are all going to the Zoo tomorrow apart from Elder Saunders who has to work.
As you can imagine we had a lot of fun at the Zoo.



Do we have long giraffe necks?

 

I asked the Zoo keeper if Giraffe's eat birds. He replied no.
Well this photo was taken just before he accidently
ate a bird and had a mouth full of feathers

Mr Innocent !

This Red Panda was so cute

We watched this monkey for almost 15 minutes as he rolled
the blankets around him, made a pillow and then placed
 another blanket over that and tucked it all in.
 

 

BEWARE! .
These creatures have escaped the Zoo.
Do not approach or feed them as they are dangerous!

On the road again!

It's been a long while since I have travelled south of Hamilton but we are off to Murupara The missionaries need to change flats and we have an appointment to see another one. This was the first time I have been to that area and it was a very pretty drive. Of course we stopped off at Rotorua to give the Zone Leaders the mail for their Zone. Murupara is such a small town and there are not very many places for rent. This is not the first time that Elder Saunders has been here looking for flats. Sadly they are mostly rundown flats available. Even the flat they are living in now is so badly in need of repair.
The flat we did look at was up for sale so I doubt that we will be able to rent that. So we are searching around again.

All going to the Zoo? No

We planned on going to the Zoo with the Missionary Sisters in our Zone on Monday …………………
But we had to cancel it last minute because the Zoo was closed. Very sadly one of the Zoo workers was killed by a Tiger. I had made a couple of dishes of Lasagne to save the sisters having to cook before they went back to their missionary duties. So we had that for lunch instead. Then they stayed for a few hours which was a lot of fun. We watched a movie about the life of Emma Smith and then  Elder and Sister Witts, Elder Saunders and I showed them the Maori stick games. That was hysterical especially as the sisters were learning how to do it. I had also made the delicious treat of Poppy Road. It’s made from popcorn, nuts, coconut, mini marshmallows and chocolate, yummy! We will try again next week to go to the Zoo.