Our first missionary work!

One thing I love here is that whenever you are walking down the street people always smile and some even say “Hello, Sister Ashby!” I just assume they are members of the church but to my surprise, many are not! They are just friendly and welcoming and that is a wonderful thing for a new person just starting to live in a new country.

Speaking of living in a new country…..The driving here is backwards and very interesting to get used to! The steering wheel is on the wrong side and not only that, they drive on the wrong side of the road! Every time John turns on his blinker to make a turn, the windshield wipers go on! Mind you, we have the cleanest windshield in our neighborhood! One good person gave us some advice to live by when driving: Keep to the left and you will be right! Hmmmm, yes, I had to think about that for a while too! So far, no wrecks but I have held my breath a few times when I thought a car was coming at us from the wrong direction!

Sunday, October 22nd we attended the Massey Park Ward in Papatoetoe. The LDS church buildings here are not quite like ours back in the States. They are all pretty much the same and are white, rather square looking buildings, that are surrounded by white wrought iron fences.Most have some kind of a spire and that helps to identify them.  Of course we have not seen them all yet but those in this area all seem to be the same.

We were very excited to go to our first meetings in New Zealand and left plenty early so we would not be late. As we walked in the door the young missionary companionship assigned to this ward saw us and welcomed us. One of them was a “greenie” just like us and had landed here last Wednesday on the same flight we came on. Elder Wilkinson was a bit nervous because he had been asked to speak today and being brand new, he was a little stressed. I asked him later how he was doing and he said that everything was so new and different and he was feeling very homesick right now. I told him I understood his feeling as I was that way on our first mission to Romania. It is something you can’t help even when you tell yourself you are being silly. I reassured him that everything would be all right in time but if he wanted to he could call us anytime and we could talk about it! He seemed a little relieved a that and I was glad. His talk went fine, albeit, it was short! He is really a nice young man and is excited to get on with the work of being a missionary.

While talking to the missionaries, someone came and told us the Bishop wanted to see us right a way in his office. Cool! We would get to meet the Bishop and this was not a  disappointment. He is a  big Tongan man with an even bigger smile. I can’t even pronounce his name let alone remember it, but give me time and I will! He asked us to tell him all about ourselves; who we were, where we came from and about our family. He then told us about his family and immediately afterwards (much to my dismay!) informed us that he had canceled the main speaker in Sacrament meeting and we would be the speakers. Whoa! That took me back! John did not seem troubled by this at all but my mind started whirling like crazy wondering what I was going to say! He told us not to worry as we only had 25 minutes to speak and since John assured me that he was not about to take 24 of those minutes I had to do some fast thinking and praying for a little heavenly help!! He made us sit on the stand and while smiling at people and shaking hands my mind was doing some heavy thinking!

I actually loved looking down at the congregation. I think all of them were Polynesian and all of them were smiling at us! I have never seen so many smiles in one place! It must be a national tradition for this country!

There were big bouquets of flowers all over the podium and stand. I later asked a lady if they had had a funeral in the ward this week because of all the flowers. She gave me a funny look and said, “No, each week we assign all the visiting teaching companionships  to do the flowers. They love it and it gives them something to do where they can visit and be together with each other besides doing their visiting teaching.”                                            “Oh, of course,” I said, like it was done this way everywhere in the church! They really were beautiful and so nice to look at!

The other fun thing was that this is the first time I have ever had a deacon pass me the Sacrament in a skirt! I know it is part of their culture and I respect that but it was a bit of a surprise.

Our talks went well. I have to say that the Lord really does bless you to be able to fulfill your callings when you try your best to do so! He takes up the slack and blesses you with thoughts and impressions to be able to do the things required of you. This little experience was another testimony to me of that blessing.

We attended all the meetings and emjoyed being a part of their Sunday classes. Both of us met a lot of people and tried really hard to remember their names. Two single sisters were very friendly to me and I told them they were my first new friends in New Zealand! They loved that but like many others, I had a hard time pronouncing their names! They told me to just call them “P” and “G” and insisted that others do that too!

After church we turned on our GPS and drove to the city for an appointment with President and Sister Walker. He wanted to meet and interview us so he could decide where to put us. The mission home here is very lovely and sits on a lake even though it is pretty much in the city suburbs. Of course water is every where around here and I really love that.

We visited with the President and his wife for almost two hours. John and he had a lot in common when talking about running a mission. They were very interested in our back ground, family and former mission experiences. President and Sister Walker are from Hawaii where he has worked for the church in administration at the Polynesian cultural center for most of his career. Sister Walker is from Japan and they met at BYU Hawaii. They had a lot in common since he went on his mission to Japan. In fact, when they got their call to serve as mission president here they thought for sure it would be in Japan because of their connections there and the fact that they are both fluent in Japanese. However, it was not to be! I really do believe the Lord knows where he wants each of us to serve and sends us where we are needed even though we may not be able to see the reason for it in the beginning. The Walkers are no exception to this.

John and I thought we would get our assignment today but it didn’t quite work out that way. The President is still not sure where he wants us which means we could be moving again! What he did ask us to do was to go on an “exploritory” trip to the north of the island. There are two Stakes up north with branches and wards in them. Some of the congregations are very small. There are about 24 missionaries serving up there and no senior couples. He wants us to visit the Stake presidents and bishops and get an idea of what is going on in these areas with missionary work. We are also to visit the young missionaries and get their input. We are going to take a week to do this and hopefully go to church in two different wards. When we get back we will report back to President Walker.

You have to know that the Cook islands and  one other small island are a part of our mission. When the President goes to the Cook Islands for mission business it is a four hour plane ride! He said he is half way to Hawaii by the time he gets there! He has a lot of missionaries and territory to cover and this trip he has assigned us to do will help him get the information he needs to make some decisions for the northern parts of this island. We look forward to the trip as we know it is basically country driving and everyone says it is very beautiful up there.

For now we ae still in the Papatoetoe area and enjoying it very much. Around this area is where the biggest concentration of members live. The young missionaries love serving here.

On Tuesday we went to our District meeting and met the missionaries we are serving with. There are three elder companionships and one sister companionship. Our District leader is Tongan and he conducted the meeting. His name is Elder Molimoli. Typical of their culture, he had a huge smile and was very welcoming but we could barely understand a word he said! I told him I would be glad when I learned the English language here! They thought that was funny but in our group we had a sister from Australia, one from the Ukraine, an elder from Malaysia, two from Utah and another Tongan. The group is pretty diverse and all of them had  o get the accent down here!

The meeting went really well but in the middle of the lesson John got a call from the mission office asking us to go to the Auckland City hospital to give a young woman a blessing who was going into surgery in a few hours. Thank goodness we took two elders with us! We got to the hospital all right but it is combined with the University here and different patients are in different buildings! It was a task just getting parked but we managed to do it.

When we got in the building we were in a hurry and I saw a guy with a badge on and asked him if he worked here. He hesitated and looked at me rather funny and then said yes and asked me how he could help. I asked him to show us where a certain ward was and how to find the rooms in there. He smiled and walked with us and showed us the way to go. As he said good-bye I realized he had a stethoscope around his neck and very likely was a doctor! That’s probably why I got the funny look! At least he was humble enough to help!

The girl we gave a blessing to is an American named Carman Kimber and is from Cedar, Utah. She has been working in Auckland for the last year and Australia before that. She just wanted to get away and have an adventure and she has! Somehow she got this huge cyst on her leg and it became so painful she couldn’t walk. The doctors said they had to operate and she wanted a blessing before they did.

John pronounced the blessing and she seemed very comforted by it. We checked up on her the next day and she said the surgery went well but they were still waiting for the lab results and would keep her on antibiotics and in the hospital for a couple of days.

After giving Carman a blessing and visiting with her for about 45 minutes we left to go back to Papatoetoe and since all of us were starving, the elders talked us into stopping for lunch at an Indian restaurant and getting some Butter Chicken. This is a favorite around here and they wanted us to try it. Let me just say, it was very good but way too spicy for me! The guys all loved it and I am sure John will want it again!

The LDS visitor’s Center below the temple

One other thing we did this week was to go to the New Zealand temple in Hamilton. It is actually out of our mission area but we had a day with nothing scheduled so we decided we had to find it and attend a session. It ended up being about two hours south of where we live and the drive was through rolling, green hills with lots of trees and a big river running along the side of the road. I asked someone where the movie, “The Lord of The Rings” was filmed and they laughed and said it was done in about 14 different places. However, they said that Hobbiton, with the Hobbit houses, is in Hamilton and we decided we would have to visit it some day.

The temple experience was awesome. It is different than any other temple we have been to but very beautiful. It felt really good to be able to go. We know we may not get the opportunity very often so this trip was special and one we were grateful for.

If any of my family is getting bored reading this just remember that this blog is a journal for us! We love sharing it with you but please don’t mind the detail I put into it!