D for Devotional?

I was looking forward to going to Time Out For Women in Auckland on Saturday 15 April. There were many different motivating speakers attending most of which I have heard of before. But I guess the main attraction for me was David Archuleta. For those of you who do not know then I will explain. He was a finalist on American Idol in 2008. And we just happened to be in the States when the final was on. Our dear friend Leane placed one vote for me for David Archuleta but she posted several more for David Cook who won. Anyway I just love the sound of his voice and I have taken a great interest in what he has been doing over the years. What was really exciting was he decided to go on a mission for our Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Now for the D is for Devotional? Well it could be changed to D is for David because can you imagine my delight when we were told that we would be having a devotional for half our mission on the Thursday before with a few of the TOFW presenters. Guess who we got lumbered with????? David Archuleta and Brad Wilcox. Calm down girl. I think I was excited as all the other missionaries. It was a very special meeting. Brad Wilcox is an amazing inspirational speaker and brought the scriptures alive for us. David spoke and sang many hymns including a on the spur of the moment duet with our lovely mission president. Luckily President Rudd has a good singing voice. (Also luckily he probably will never read our blog) They sang the first verse of I am a child of God. It was so gently sung, magic! At the end of the meeting instead of us staying in our seats while our guest left we were told that both David and Brad would like to go around to all of us missionaries and talk and shake as many hand as he could. So I waited patiently as he went up and down the other isle. Then was eagerly waiting for him to down my isle, instead I just saw the back of his head as he chatted with the young missionaries. Now what was I going to do. Well his manager suggested I stand at the end of the isle beside her then he would have to pass between us to leave the chapel. So did that go as planned, NO! As he finished shaking the young missionaries hand he went in the opposite direction from me across the back of the seats. I don't know what came over me as I just quietly said "DAVID" he turned around and shook my hand as he said "Sister Saunders". Now where was the photographer when you want him. No one was around. But I had plenty of witness.
Can you imagine my surprise when I arrived in the office the next day and turned on my computer? Elder Christy, Elder Kirk and Elder Rasband had hijacked my screen saver. Plus they took a photo of themselves. I hope they don't mind me posting that photo on here. To be completely honest I prefer the photo of the three Elders with their cheeky grins than the David one although I was please that they took it don't get me wrong but I just love those three Elders. I guess I should add that Elder Saunders was also their with me. We also took the Witts with us and what finished the day off nicely was that we all went out for a meal in Auckland.

8 Months But Whose Counting?

Has it really been quite a few weeks since I've written this blog? The weeks are going by so fast. Less than 8 months to go before we come back to England. But I don't think anyone is counting the weeks!!!!!!

Hamilton Here We Come

On Sunday we went to church before starting our travels home from Gisborne. We pass by Djahni and her family’s home by about half a mile so I asked very nicely if we could just do a quick toilet stop. I had no idea if he would stop or not until we went down their street. I hope they were as pleased to see us as we were to see them. Big Hugs! Plus we did not stay for longer than 10 minutes so that pleased Elder Saunders. When he heads towards home he never wants to stop so I feel as though I have been treated this weekend.   

Eastwood Hill

 

Next we visited the Eastwood Hill Arboretum. We were told this has such pretty gardens but actually it was full of trees. Elder Saunders was not impressed and did not want to go inside but just for me he did. We (I) actually had lots of fun before we went inside. A bird welcomed us and came so close to us I even feed it some apple. I don’t know what kind of bird it is yet but when I get Wi-Fi next I will google it. I think its a male Chaffinch. That was a good start to our adventure. There were different coloured routes and we decided to take the yellow route which may have taken about 45 mins. When we were about half way around there was a bench so Elder Saunders sat for a while, while I went under some trees to find the Tuis. Boy was I in for a treat. I think it may be the mating season as they was a lots of different calls from them and most of them kept flying around in pairs. I took loads of photos and even videos. Again hopefully they are not too long for me to post on the blog and that you can watch them. After that we went for the second half of our walk, or at least that was what we thought. At one point we could not find any yellow markers and double backed on ourselves only to find that we had to go back in that direction again. We seriously did not know what to do and were quite annoyed. So we followed another trail not knowing if we were going away from the exit or not. It turned out as I thought, we were going away from the exit. Rather than turn back we had to go on another 45 minute trail. We were not happy bunnies when we finally found a yellow/purple/red exit trail. After another 15 mins walk we had finished our original 45 minute walk for a 2 hour hike!!!! I seriously did not want to go into the car absolutely hating this place so I suggested we sat down on the benches for a few minutes to calm down. Timely our welcoming committee returned and I was able to take a photo of our bird on the table. Just in case some of you experts want to comment on this we do know it was not the same bird. But it made for a good ending to our story.

What am I trying to take a photo of the Tui of course.

I'm so proud of my Tui photos.

 

      


The beginning of our walk

             the end of our hike!!!!!

Rere Falls/Rockslide

We managed to deliver all the machines yesterday which actually gave us a P-Day. So we decided to go sight-seeing. First we visited the Rere Falls. It may not be as pretty as some of the other falls we have seen but there were no steps to go down or climb up so this was a plus for us. We then visited Rere Rockslide. You must check this out on utube it looks such fun. Obviously Elder Saunders and I will go back when the weather and water is warmer to have our turn on the slide!!!!!!

Thumbs up for our next visit in the summer when we go for a slide!

 

Kapa Haka Treat

This will be one of the highlights of our mission I am sure. I have been looking forward to watching Djahni’s High School Kapa Haka performance all year. I say ‘I’ instead of ‘we’ here because Elder Saunders just forgot all about it, whereas I never could. Those of you who are my facebook friends will know this story already. This is the blog version. Djahni is the daughter of the Branch President of Whakatane and as most of you know we just love this family. We were also hoping that her performance would be on a Saturday so that we could attend but it was scheduled for 9.30 Friday morning. So we said we would do our best to attend. We were blessed that 2 washing machines broke down this last week in Gisborne (poor missionaries). Plus the sisters who we moved a few weeks ago in Gisborne didn’t have a washing machine and that was due to a misunderstanding between the missionaries and Elder Saunders. So we HAD to go to Gisborne this weekend. And to get to Gisborne you have to go through Whakatane. We left after transfers on Thursday and stayed with the new couple in Whakatane, Elder and Sister Clark. We spent a lovely evening with them and in the morning we all went to the performance together.
This was the regional final and to go through to the nationals next year you have to be placed in the top three. Each performance lasts for about 20-30 mins and there are lots of different segments to each performance. The first group were brilliant and not knowing much about what the judges were looking for made me a complete novice. As I have just found out that that group were not in the top 3. Anyway after only a few minutes of Djahni’s group singing I looked at her mum and said that they were lovely and I got quite emotional. The rest of it was so so good. Hark at the expert here! We left after that and never saw the remaining 6 but the prizing giving was at 4pm. We went on our way to Gisborne and delivered the washing machines and had a lovely catch-up with the missionaries. We then had another super FHE outside by the camp fire with the Bellistons and their friends. All the while I kept checking my phone for the results. After we had part of the FHE outside and ate some food we came inside to watch a good video. About half way through the video the results came in. Naturally I looked at the message but didn’t want to detract from the spiritual message so just keep the disappointment or joy to myself. For Half an hour. I was in tears thinking about Djahani, her family and the other performers and families. Was it tears of sadness or joy.  After the closing prayer was said I calmly said do you want to hear the results and just to humour me they said yes, as if they had a choice. They Won. Can you believe it? Well of course you can they were the best but I was overjoyed. Hope you enjoy some of the photos and hopefully can see the video. Now back to missionary work!!!!!

Transfers Week Part 2

Tuesday
Elder Saunders had no part in taking the missionaries to the airport so he caught up on paperwork and looked for more flats online. I was able to complete what I couldn’t do yesterday.
Wednesday
 Our newbies from the MTC arrived in good time in the morning and we whisked through the orientation in a few hours. In the evening we went to Presidents house for dinner followed by testimonies.
Thursday
Not such a big transfer this week. Elder Saunders helped me load my car. The Elders came and helped take some of the bedding for the new missionaries. I gave out my post and bedding. The Newbies met their trainers for the first time there were lots of hugs and smiling faces. We then had a meeting in the chapel where the released and new callings for Sister Trainer Leaders, District Leaders and Zone Leaders were announced. The newbies and their trainers were introduced to everyone. The President and Sister Rudd gave short talks. The Bellistons were there so they were asked to share their testimony. Then after we had our Subway lunch we all went on our separate journeys home.
Now you would think that after being through many transfer weeks that this is all routine, which it is, most of the time the same order happens BUT it is far from the same thing each time. Each transfers is different although missionaries come and go they are all unique. The more transfers we participate in the harder it is saying farewell from the mission field. Welcoming is easy and an absolute joy to meet and greet each missionary. To hear their testimonies on Wednesday night is such a pleasure and treasure. We have made such special friends and I know that our relationships with many of the missionaries will last throughout the eternities. We look forward to hearing from them in the future as they participate on life’s journey. This sounds like we are on our way home or something, not yet, another 9 months before we step on English soil.