Especially for Sue!

On Monday morning I got up is it raining, or sunny again?
I’m going to the airport to pick Sue up today, it play time, its playtime again.
Antonio, Antonia I’m singing, I’m singing again!

What a week we have ahead of us but first into the office to work for a few hours. There is no mail today as its Waitangi day and a public holiday. They are celebrating the signing of the treaty of Waitangi. Look it up if you are interested. Sue and Malcolm were due to arrive 1.45pm but their flight was delay an hour so that gave us more time to do deliveries on our route to the airport. First we delivered a washing machine to the Zone leaders in Papakura. They were ready and waiting for us with their old machine. So we were quickly on our way to deliver the microwave to the sisters. Another four satisfied customers (missionaries).

After we picked up Sue and Malcolm it was getting a bit later to do any sightseeing so we bought curry from our local Indian in Dinsdale. Very nice too and enough for two meals.

 

Surfing Saturday!

We had a bit of a sleep-in on Saturday. When we did eventually arise the Bellistons were waiting for us to go out for a drive. About 45 minutes away from their home is Rere. If you can remember last year we went to the Waterfall and the Rock slide promising to come back in the summer when the water was warmer. Well today is that day!
But will we go down the slide? To be honest I did not feel at all confident in having a go which was a shame because it looked like fun. We watched as many youngsters faced the slide and eventually Elder Saunders and Elder Belliston took their turn. It was amazing and in fact they went down twice.

I’ll try and load a video of it.

 

Yippee that worked I hope you can see it.

 

I came, I saw, I conquered. I have the scars to prove it!

 



Gisborne 2016

This is our first trip to Gisborne this year and possible our last. We arrived about 8pm and went straight to Elder and Sister Belliston’s home. We had a nice little chat but I enjoyed watching an Australian cooking show. This is a good way to de-stress after a stressful day. Not that I found this day stressful, I’m just saying.

Friday morning we were up nice and early and at the Elder flat by 9. The elders have now moved into a more suitable area. They were meant to be there at 9 with their key but they didn’t turn up until about 9.30 and they had forgotten the key! Never mind but I did make them work hard after that. I must admit that most of the contents of the house had been taken out and it was not too bad. Just a little bad, for missionaries that is. They did a very good job of following instructions and cleaning up. Just to clarify not all of these Elders lived in this flat they were just good enough to come along and help out.

We went to the Warehouse shop to buy a dustbin for the Elders and then dropped it off at their flat. They wanted to show us how smart the new duvet looked on their bed. We were also offered some of their delicious American biscuits, obviously I said yes otherwise how would I know that they were delicious. Because they worked so hard we treated them to lunch not that they were expecting it. In fact one of the missionaries wanted to treat us so he bought us a real ice cream milkshake from Carl’s Jr. Need I say more.

After this big meal we decided that we would fast until tomorrow lunch time. That was from Friday to Saturday instead of Saturday until Sunday. One of the reasons was that we would be travelling home on Sunday and you can get a little heady travelling such a long way with nothing to eat. Ours was another special fast. I will just to explain why we fast for some of you who do not know. The first Sunday in every month we call Fast Sunday. We either do not eat for 2 meals or fast for 24 hours. There may be reasons sometimes why you cannot fast, medical or something but generally the whole church fast on this day. The money that you save from not eating we put into a fast offering fund. This money is used to feed the poor and needy throughout the world as well as members in our church. We are encouraged to donate a generous fast offering. Meanwhile while we are fasting we can pray for a specific purpose. In fact it is said that “fasting without prayer is just going without food.”

Our special fast this month was for a little girl and her family, she is going for a serious operation tomorrow. Also a friend is battling cancer and we are joining our church members in England who fasted last week for him. We always hope for a miraculous result even if we don’t get the answers we are hoping for we are given the strength to cope with whatever.

 

Thirsty Thursday

First I should mention there is no reason why I put thirsty Thursday only that it rhymed!
We went into the office first thing to check out the mail, emails and sort any post for the missionaries on the final day of Conferences 

Today we wanted to listen to all of the 3 presentations but it didn’t quite work out like that. After listening to President Rudd’s opening remarks Elder and Sister McGregor introduced themselves before Elder McGregor talked about car safety. We then went outside and took all the old blankets out of the cars from Taranaki Zone and replaced them with the new ones. I had instructed Taranaki Zone leaders to ask all their missionaries to place a label inside their car stating their Zone and their names and I must admit they all were brilliant at doing this.

By the time we had finish loading all the cars the second presentation was almost over. So I offered my help to Sister Papple again. This time my role was to place cheese on top of all the Mexican mince. Another yummy meal from Sister P. After lunch we choose to go into Elder Tibbetts presentation which was excellent.

We all met back in the chapel for the conclusion which was after we did our Daft Duvet Demonstration. Again very funny! We didn’t stay for President Higgins final remarks, which would have been excellent I’m sure. We had a long trip down to Gisborne (6 hrs) ahead of us, ready for our flat clean-up the next day.  But that is a story for the next blog entry which I can’t write about now because it hasn’t happed yet. Just arriving into Gisborne now.

Weary Wednesday!

We woke up really early and had plenty of time to get ready and walk all the way to the airport from the hotel, about 3 minutes. The plane had arrived two minutes early at 5.48am and we were waiting from 6.20 until 7.30 for them to get through customs. We then drove back to our office in Hamilton where Elder Saunders talked to them about flats, fleas and finances. He then took them to the shops to sort out Phones, Falmers (for a hair dryer) and food.
He instructed the couple to read a Driving in New Zealand manual before he took the Elder out on the road. Then he let the Elder loose on the New Zealand roads! They first followed Elder Saunders to the garage then to the Church History Centre, only nobody was there, so he then took them to the motel they were staying at.
I stayed in the office the whole time catching up on loads of paper work. We left the office gone 6pm and headed for the lock-up where we first stuck sticky labels on all of the quilt cases. That was a bit of an improvement on using the tape and useless gun. Thanks Elder Saunders for this brilliant suggestion. We then loaded the trailer with the quilts, covers and blanket for tomorrows trip to Te Kuiti.

 

Travel Tuesday!

Even though we were spiritually feed last week by an Apostle of the Lord, President Rudd still continued with our planned Zone conferences this week.

After going into the office to check all the mail and emails and picking up any post, we travelled down to Whakatane. But first Elder Saunders had to collect 50 quilts and 50 quilt covers. All the missionaries are getting new quilts and quilt covers. This is because they can no longer take their blankets with them when they transfer from area to area. The quilts and covers will stay in the flat and hopefully be washed before the next missionary moves in. The blankets will be cleaned and returned to the flats to be used if needed. At least they will all be clean.

We listened to a little of Sister Rudd’s presentation before I went and helped Sister Papple in the kitchen. The oven in the kitchen was not working properly so I helped heat the food in the microwave, but that was only for a short while.

I took some good photos of the missionaries eating their yummy lunch.

After lunch we went outside and unpacked the 50 quilts and sorted the covers out so that each flat has two different style quilts. I then stuck the basic instructions on each of the quilts. I can hear you say what instruction? Believe me some of the missionaries need to know that you put the quilt inner inside the quilt cover. This was meant to be a serious presentation but I had Elder Saunders demonstrating each stage. So it turned into a comedy act!!!!!!! Hopefully the message was received. Going back to me sticking the instructions on each of the quilt cases, that was a hard job. The tape gun was hopeless at cutting the tape and it literally was a blood, sweat and tears job. I cut my finger several times, it was so so hot and yes I was in tears.

After conference we travelled back to Hamilton (about 3 Hrs) and dropped the trailer off at the lock-up. Then we popped in home to pick up some tablets and drove up to Auckland airport. That took us over 2 hrs because of road works. We were staying at a hotel near the airport because early Wednesday morning we were meeting a new missionary couple arriving from the States.

A Surprise Visit.

It is sad that one man’s loss is another man’s gain. The Apostle Elder D Todd Christofferson was due to speak at a conference in Vanuatu this weekend but the run way at the airport had some problems so he could not go there. So he decided to go to New Zealand instead. What a delightful and uplifting two days we have just had.
That was after we had a few days of preparing for the Hamilton and Auckland Mission Conference on Saturday morning. Elder Saunders took charge of the car park and with the help of the other senior missionaries everything went smoothly. I organised inside and because of the help of the other sisters, that too, went smoothly.
What a blessing it was that Elder Christofferson wanted to shake all of our hands.
The talks were brilliant. First was Sister Pearson who encouraged us to have faith in ourselves and in our callings. “Who the Lord calls he qualifies.” Lovely talk.

President Pearson is the Pacific Area President. Wow he is such an animated and motivational speaker. We just loved the counsel he gave.

Sister Christofferson looks quite a small, frail lady but boy does she have a massive power when she speaks. There is nothing small or frail about this humble lady.

Elder Christofferson’s talk was so special.

He invited the missionaries to ask him questions and then he gave marvellous answers to each of the questions. What impressed me was that at the end of his talk he blessed us all with the ability to receive the answers to the questions that were asked him earlier.
This included that we would know how to get closer to the Lord, we would know that he is pleased with us. There were a lot of other special things that were said during this meeting but I would have to refer to my notes to get them right.

When I explain that we went to a special Stake conference that evening in Hamilton and also to Hamilton’s Stake conference on the Sunday you will understand why all my talks are jumbled up in my head. That is why I write little notes of who said what.

Elder and Sister Christofferson, President and Sister Pearson spoke at all three meetings, I think!

Sister Gowing the Hamilton Temple Matron spoke on Saturday night.
It was just such an uplifting weekend. I may write another blog about this but I will have my note to guide me.