Flat Inspections in Gisborne

The weekend after Taranaki we went to Gisborne. One of the Elders flats had been burgled!!!!! So we took down a new washing machine and dryer, they also needed more fans. While we were there Elder Saunders did a few flat inspections. Although he’s not the flat inspector he is in charge of the flat inspectors also it gives him an idea of how clean and tidy the missionaries are really keeping their flats. Plus it’s nice to see the missionaries out in the field and we can personally offer them our help. I do get to talk to loads of missionaries on the phone and it is nice to meet them in person. One idea that we have had is to give out little rewards for keeping their flats clean and tidy. All we had was biscuits handy so we handed out a few of them. But this weekend we also gave them things they needed in their flats. For example one of the sisters needed a fan and we had a spare one in the car so we gave her that. Another two sisters wanted curtains so we bought and fitted them. That was such a coincidence because the coloured curtains we bought matched the colour outfits they were wearing that day.


Sister Salomia and Sister Mann with their matching curtains.

The Three Sisters

The weekend that we went to Taranaki we planned on going to visit the Three Sisters with the Zone leaders as this was out of their area we got special permission from President to go. Yippee! And what a fun time we had. Because you can only reach The Three Sister when the tide is out we had to leave a little earlier than originally planned. These pictures tell part of the story. I wish I could post the video of Elder Saunders running along the beach then Elder Christensen catching him up in about 3 seconds, so funny. The Three Sisters are the three rocks you can see behind us.

There were many little caves with very pretty surroundings along the beach. Part of the sand was very muddy and we had to be careful not to slip although I was hoping someone would, what a lovely photo that would have taken. I even instructed the Elders that if I slip not to worry about me but save my camera and take a photo. Elder Christensen loves crabbing and managed to catch this tiny one. He was lucky to not get nipped as this one was pretty feisty. He tried prodding this purple one out from under the rock but would not come out to play with us.

 Then to finish the afternoon off the Elders got covered in mud. I made them pose for these photos so that I could post them on FB and embarrass them to their families. I just had to do that because they locked me in the toilets!!!! So that was only fair, right. They did actually wash their feet off in the sink. 

Taranaki Travels

Well we are off on our travels again. Elder Saunders wanted to inspect the flats in Taranaki and get better acquainted with the missionaries there. We believe that we can serve them better if they know that we really do care about their physical and spiritual welfare and by personally visiting their homes, finding their faults (of which there were a few, ha ha ha) we hopefully can help them grow. By that we hope that their homes will be a lot cleaner in the future and that maybe we will have heathier missionaries. We can only hope. Of course most of the homes we saw this weekend were very good but they had not reported some of the faults or items that needed replacing or fixing. So we were also able to sort some of those things out.

We went to church today at the New Plymouth Branch and two of our missionaries spoke at our sacrament meeting, Elders Christensen and Mitchell our Zone Leaders. What lovely uplifting talks. Elder Christensen spoke about the importance of obeying our leaders or parents and shared a personal story of when he was backpacking as a youth and found out from experience the importance of obeying his father’s council.  Elder Mitchell spoke about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and challenge us all to rededicate our lives to reading and studying this book.

We visited these Elders at their home yesterday and I must tell you about how excited they were about sharing with us what they had learnt about England. Every Thursday night there is a club that practises Morris Dancing. We explained to them that everyone in England is a Morris dancer and if they ever visit England they must learn how to Morris dance before they arrive. Well I’m hoping to be able to post their first lesson here. So, so funny, Elder Mitchell has a natural talent I think. Sorry video is too long so just take my word for it that its so funny.

 

Suckers !!!!

I made another big boob today. I was working on the call sheet, that is the list of all the missionaries with their companions in all of their areas and organised into area groups, well I accidently saved the wrong file and deleted a lot of the information. I had to manually type in all the correct information again. I was so annoyed with myself and feeling pretty low when two lovely Sisters came into the office to give us office workers a gift. Just in case anyone is saying “I thought the mission office was out of bounds to the missionaries unless they get permission to go there”, well Sister Moore did phone first and say she had something important to drop off at the office.  I was in tears as these two lovely sisters were thinking of us and I particularly at that time need a big hug, but what I got was a big lolly as well.

 

 

Transfers Number 2

We survived our 2^nd transfer on the 1^st January, yep we had to work New Years Day. It was more relaxed for us this time because we knew what to expect and also didn’t have any surprise invites to speak to all the missionaries. I felt the sadness of some of the missionaries that were leaving there current companions to go live with another companion. But I know that they will very soon become close friends with their new companion. If anyone who is reading this is confused please make a comment and I will reply. Now don’t go spreading this around, this is between you the reader and me okay, but after all the missionaries left the chapel to travel home we went for an office meeting!!! That’s President and Sister Rudd, Elder and Sister Marsden, the Aps (that’s Assistant to the President) Hammar, Moore, Saville and Jenson and us. How dedicated we are. Oh by the way did I mention that we had it at Carls Jr over a real ice cream milk shake?

 

 

Happy New Year

Christmas is now over and as most of you know Elder Saunders loves Christmas and we normally celebrate it for a whole week. I know that sounds a bit excessive but it’s true. From Christmas Eve until the New Year we just chill out and relax. So what’s different this year, well obviously we are on a mission. So why should things we so different? This sounds like it is going to be a sermon on why we are away from our family and friends well I guess you have heard that story many times so I will just add. It’s different because it is!!!!! Did we enjoy it less? Just a little. Did we enjoy it more? Yes just a little. How contradictory can you get!!!!! Are you going to enjoy it more next year? We sure are and the next and the next. Now I’ve confused you all and myself I will get back to the journal blog.

Happy New Year! It’s the 11^th January today so that’s a bit late sorry. Hope you are all having a great start to the year. We did, we did. Spent it with our family, spend it with our family. Twice!! At midnight in New Zealand we skyped our family in England at 11am 31^st December 2014 so they shared our 2015 entry. Then at 1.00 pm in New Zealand we skyped our family in England to welcome their New Year in. Crazy but big thanks to our family members who were able to be with us for one or both of our new year celebrations and sorry we didn’t spend a long time with you and also sorry to those who couldn’t join us for whatever reason.

Thanks Newbury Ward

                                                       We were so excited to received this package from home.
                                           Thanks for the kind messages and we will be answering you all shortly.