MLC

Today was my first presentation at Mission Leadership Council.  The Mission President, Zone Leaders and Sister Trainer Leaders attend these meeting the Tuesday after transfers. I had prepared myself to talk about how to correctly fill in the Baptismal records. I had prepared handouts of what I was going to talk about so that they could refer to it in the future or if they also gave that information to the missionaries in each of their Zones, which is what I asked them to do. Later in the day a missionary commented on how well I did and that I must have felt a little intimidated talking to the leadership of the mission. I thank him for the compliment and added that I didn’t feel at all intimidate I just looked at the missionaries as my friends and had no problem. I wish I could post all the fun pictures that I took after the meeting. The missionaries are such posers and love me posting these photos on the FB page that one of the parents has set up. I did post on our blog that address but if anyone wants to join that page just message me and I will give you the link again. I should add that the missionaries do not go on FB themselves and see the photos but their family and friends do and they make comments and sometimes tell their missionaries about the photos.

  

House Hunting

Sunday was Fathers Day at home so after talking to a few of our children on Skype we set off to Whakatane for a day of house hunting on Monday. We again stayed at the Branch Presidents house and were able to discuss with him which areas were good and which ones were bad. Before we could start the house hunting we had to clear out the old flat which had been vandalised as we were no longer going to rent it. There weren’t very many places to look at but we were very tired as we made our way back to Hamilton. Now Elder Saunders has to choose one.

BK Anyone?

How can anyone drive into a BK drive in accidently? Well I did and that’s the truth. Elder Saunders and I drive along this road quite often and I always look at the shops and think I would like to stop there sometime and have a look around. Well on Saturday when Elder Saunders was in Auckland closing down two flats (that involves moving all the furniture out) I was on my own. So first I went shopping to a Saturday market in Tamahere. I didn’t find what I was looking for but bought two nice plants. One was a present for the lovely family who put us up and looked after us in Whakatane a few weeks ago. The other a present for my bathroom!!!!


 Anyway on my trip home I passed these shops and thought, I am going to stop here. As I drove into the car park I saw a ramp leading to a few car spaces, so I went up the ramp and thought it a bit strange to have a height restriction sign as I was not going underneath anything!!!!! It was only a few seconds later that I realised that this was the ramp to the Burger King drive-in!!!!!!!! So what do you do at 11.15am when you’re in the queue for a drive-in fast food restaurant? Order a wrap combo of course. Now I was too embarrassed to stop at the shops. As if anyone would have known what I had just done. I continued on my lone travels to my next stop which was the Temple to deliver mail. As I was leaving the Temple Sister Judd was saying how hungry she was also that see had forgotten to bring any lunch for herself. So guess what I did? Gave her my wrap of course. So now it makes perfect sense as to why I was inspired to drive into BK drive-in. (And it stopped the temptation of me spending any money in the shops.)

 

Back to Full Concentration. NO!

Wednesday was the day the new missionaries arrived into our mission so you would think I had enough to concentrate on. That didn’t stop me tracking Shauna’s flight home. She’s left Australia on her way to Dubai, she’s left Dubai and on her final leg home! Then at home. She’s landed!
So now I’m waiting to hear how the flight was.
Thursday was transfers day another big one. So I saw lots of my lovely missionaries and took loads of photos. My next challenge is to put them on the Newzealandhamiltonfriendsandfamily face book page. I usually don’t add all their names hoping that other friends and family will tag them. That allows me to post things quick quickly.
Now I cannot resist showing you all this photo. Elder Saunders is explaining and showing what a Possum looks like when it is surprised by the oncoming lights of a car. Pretty good impression I think and the missionaries think it is hilarious. Although my family doesn’t really see anything unusual about a photo like that!

Sad Tuesday

Well the day has finally come to say bye to Shauna. I went into the office so that I could very quickly check the mail but I was home by 8.30 and Shauna was just coming out of her bedroom. Although I think she was waiting for me to come home before getting up. As soon as Elder Saunders came home we went down to the Lakes to feed the ducks. Lilly just loved that. There were so many of them even a Black Swan jumped out of the lake and came right up to us. Actually that was a bit scary as swans are known for being a bit vicious. The sun was shinning although it was a bit chilly but the lake looked very beautiful. After feeding the ducks it was time to feed ourselves. So we went into Hamilton town to get Subway. We are blessed to have a Bishop of our church who owns the Subway in town so missionaries get half price. I think I have only been there about 3 times. Must make more use of it while I can. Now it’s time for the journey to the airport. But first we have to collect three missionaries from the Temple and take them to Redoubt chapel in Auckland. They fly home tomorrow. While we were at the Temple we went inside the Visitors Centre and Lilly just loved pushing the buttons that show different videos. I don’t think she was interested in the videos but loved the instant changed every time a button was pushed. I was also able to show off my lovely daughter and cute youngest grandchild. As well as showing Shauna our special friends we have made. The same thing happened at our next stop Although I think Shauna would say that everywhere we went we met missionaries and proudly showed off our family. Sister Ryan sat beside Lilly on the journey to Redoubt Chapel and after a while Lilly was tired and a bit wingy. Grandmas phone pictures to the rescue. She loves flipping through my photos especially the photos of people she knows. So Sister Ryan and her spent a long while chatting and looking at photos. When it was time to say goodbye Lilly didn’t want her to go so they chased each other around in the car park, so cute. The next park of our journey to the airport was just us. Although we were followed by the APs taking three other missionaries to the airport. We arrived at the check-in in plenty of time but Shauna could not get a different seat nearer to the toilets. (Must ask her how that went).Saying goodbye was emotional but not as bad as I thought. We went to a nearby place to eat so we stayed in Auckland for another couple of hours. It was while Elder Saunders was helping the Aps move their van and trailer that I was alone and saw a plane take off that I started to sob. LL Going back to our empty home with an empty cot was hard :( :( Coming home from work to empty flat was hard :( :(
 But on the happier side we have had three amazing weeks with our family and was able to share a bit of our of our mission with them.   :) :) :) :) :)

 Bye Bye GrandpaBye Bye Grandma

GONE

 

 

 

 

 

Sad Sunday!

The last post was on Monday and this whole week has gone by so fast, too fast. I returned back to the office on Tuesday. On Wednesday Elder Saunders took Shauna and her family down to Taranaki with him. He had to sort out a washing machine or dryer. He had hoped to show them the snow on Mount Taranaki but it was too cloudy so the mountain was barely visible. They did the whole trip in one day so it was very tiring. I stayed behind and worked in the office. I want to take more time off on Friday so that I can go to the airport and see off Mark and Sophia. I was not looking forward to that day. And it was so sad. Sophia left us crying as Mark pulled her along on the trunky, earlier in the airport I was pulling her along and she had big smiles. I’m glad to say though that they both are home safe and sound. But it is a sad Sunday as Shauna has only two more days left with us. L I did shed a tear when Sophia left and I so miss her terribly. We had so much fun with each other. Don’t know what I am going to be like on Tuesday when Shauna goes.  

 

 

Rainbow Springs

The next morning we did more shopping! Then off to Rainbow Spring excited to see our first real live Kiwi bird. I have to explain that we have met the Kiwi who is a person from New Zealand, ate a Kiwi fruit, and now our final Kiwi is the flightless bird. Sadly there was only one Kiwi searching for food that we saw and we weren’t allowed to take photos. But I did get very excited later on as there was a Tui in a large cage. But that excitement didn’t last for long as I hate seeing wild animals in cages that look too small for them and when he did make a noise he seemed very unhappy!!! L I always get excited when I hear Tui’s in the bush and love hearing their song but this noise didn’t sound quite the same. There were lots of others bird in aviaries that you could walk in and that was okay seeing them fly around your head.