We have been busy and doing a lot of traveling these last couple of weeks. President Walker gave us our assignment and told us to find an apartment up north. That was all good except for the fact that it is very hard to find a rental unit here! Rentals are in big demand and are few and far between! 
We have been assigned to serve in both the Dargaville and the Wellsford Branches. They are in the Whangarei (Fong-gah-ray) Stake; one is closer to the East coast and about 20 minutes inland, and other is on the West coast. Both are fairly small Branches with about 35 members attending. In Dargaville they have a beautiful chapel as they used to have 75+ members attending and the church built that chapel for them at that time. One of the biggest problems in this country is that people join the church and after a time become inactive. I know that happens everywhere and we are not unique in that respect, but it makes me sad to see these people leaving and missing out on so many blessings! Our assignment is to visit these inactive members and try to help them come back into activity. We will support and help the Branch president in any way we can and then do a lot of visiting during the week We are also assigned to do checks of the young missionary apartments and teach them how to clean and maintain their homes. It takes us about an hour and twenty minutes to drive between the two branches and about the same amount of time to go into Whangarei to take care of mission business. Add another hour and a half to go further north while checking apartments and you can see we will continue to be on the road a lot! However, since we are living up north and are the only couple missionary in the northland, it will really help the mission office for us to do these inspections.
The first Branch we attended was the one in Wellsford. This little town only has about 1600 people but the main highway north goes right through the center of the town. The Branch building is small but adequate. President Phillips and his wife welcomed us with open arms. It was Fast Sunday that day and of course they asked us to be the first ones to bear our testimonies. We did so and then enjoyed the rest of the meeting, which consisted of one lady telling about her trip to Australia and the scary spiders and snakes there. They don’t have poisonous critters here but let me tell you, the fleas make up for all of them. Yes, I have had the bites already and of course John has not! It happened after a visit to a Samoan members home. We loved our visit with them but came home with more than just good feelings!
We attended all the meetings that day and the lessons were really good even though the classes were small. There were only 5 of us in Relief Society. After church President Phillips invited us to dinner and said he would take us on a little tour of the Branch boundaries. Well, that was not what I expected! After an hour and a half of winding roads, me looking for a barf bag, and the President driving like a wild man, he finally took us to his house and said he would have to finish the other half of the tour the next time we come! I weakly smiled and thanked him! He really is a wonderful man and I think they are just used to these windy roads here and don’t know what it means to get car sick!
When we got to his house his wife had fixed us a lovely dinner and we enjoyed an hour visiting with them about the Branch and the members here. The Branch covers about a 50 mile radius and goes from one ocean to the other. It will be interesting trying to find them all, but we will do our best! The President and his wife are very strong leaders in their small Branch and run it exactly the way the church expects them to. We are impressed with their love, service and dedication to these members. She holds several callings and they go Home Teaching together.
This first photo is the Branch building in Wellsford. The beach photos were taken with President Phillips at the east end of the Branch boundaries. The fresh sea air was revitalizing after the roller coaster car ride!
President and Sister Phillips are a cute couple in their late 70’s. They have been married for 11 years and are still very romantic with each other! When the President walked us out to our car, Sister Phillips ran out on her deck and called, “Romeo, Romeo where art thou! Come back to me, my Romeo!” John an I could not help but laugh as he turned and walked quickly up the driveway!
The following three photos are satellite pictures of the towns we will be serving in. The one with the brown looking road, which is actually a huge river, is Dargaville. The other one in the middle of the green woods, is Wellsford.
When we left Wellsford that day, we drove another hour and a half West to get to Dargasville. it was late in the day but we decided to go there and spend the night. Our goal was to find the Branch president and meet him in the morning. Long story short, the only place we could find to stay overnight was a little cabin in a camping place. It really wasn’t too bad but you almost couldn’t turn around twice in the bathroom!
The next morning we tracked down President Lisiate at his work and went to meet him. He is a construction home builder and was doing a remodel job on a little house by the river. He was so happy to think that he would have a missionary couple work in his Branch. He told us he would find us a place to live and said to come back soon! He asked us to speak in church the next Sunday and we told him we would be there.
During the week we spent time looking for apartments and visiting members in Papatoetoe. We attended Zone Conference and met more of the young missionaries. It was fun to see the difference between Zone Conference here and the way we held it in Romania. It was held in the chapel here but of course they have a lot more young missionaries than we did! Each of our conferences were a lot smaller and frankly, a little more intimate. However, the conference here was really wonderful. The President taught about Christ and the Atonement and the spirit was really strong. For lunch the mission bought them Subway sandwiches and pizza. Our elders would have been jealous of that but each of us go to the mission we are supposed to be at! Not only is there a big mission here but there is also the MTC for the Pacific Islands, and the Area Office is in Auckland! The church has a lot going on here and it is exciting to be a part of it.
The next Sunday we were in Dargaville again. We loved it when we saw the church building. It is really quite beautiful and has manicured lawns and trees around it. When we went in the building President Lisiate invited us to a prayer meeting with the bishopric and a counselor from the Stake. He told us we would have the whole meeting but to leave the counselor five minutes at the end. No problem!
President Lisiate is a Tongan with a large family. They have been faithful members of the church for years and he runs this Branch in an organized and loving way. He really wanted us to live here but in the end it did not work out that way.
Our other meetings were also very good although the same lady who taught the gospel doctrine class also taught Relief Society. She was very good and has had good training since she has taught Seminary for the last twenty years! In Relief Society we had about 8 ladies there counting me and the teacher. It went really well until one lady said something about abuse and another lady got mad and stood up an talked about how her father abused her as a child. It was not comfortable to say the least! But all in all church was very good.
After the meetings the High Priest Group leader invited us to his home for dinner. His wife passed away from cancer about five years ago and he has a daughter with her husband and two young kids living on his property in a little cottage. We thanked him and graciously accepted his invitation. He told us to follow him to his home. No problem but were we surprised! He lives about 15 kilometers from town and it turns out he is a farmer or rancher, who has 650 acres of land and raises about 400 head of cattle. He said he has cut down on the amount of animals he has since getting older. Okay, so we drove through the hills, forests and (small) mountains! There were little lakes and everything was green and pristine. The cattle and sheep look like they are grazing in a big oil painting! The scenery was gorgeous and was everything you would dream New Zealand to look like.
After driving on a dirt road for a quite a while we finally got to a little turn off with this sign on it: 
We wondered if there was a resort or something here but it was the name and beginning of Brother Midgley’s property. The road then continued on for a kilometer and we finally reached his home where it was sitting on top of a hill, looking down at the ocean in the distance. All the land between his home and the ocean belongs to him. (The first picture at the top of this post is from his back yard.) He and his wife bought the land when they were first married many years ago.
After showing us around and enjoying the views, we went into the kitchen for a nice chicken dinner. Brother Midgley invited us to spend the night or even a few weeks while we looked for a place to live. Believe me, we were tempted but we don’t want to move twice and are hoping we can get a place in the next week or so.
While we ate he told us all about his wife and how she passed away. He asked us if we knew Avraham Gilead from BYU. We were surprised and told him we did. He said that Avraham grew up in Dargaville and they knew each other. He said his name was Bart something or other until he spent years in Israel and got his Jewish name. It was fun to have this connection since my Wednesday morning class has been studying on of Avraham’s books this last year. It’s definitely a small world in the church.
The last thing Brother Midgley told us is that he was just diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and is starting chemo in two weeks. He said they gave him 6 months without the treatments and possibly 6 years with it. He opted for the 6 years. We were so sorry to hear this and want to make sure we can be a support to him as he goes through this. You know the old saying, everything that glitters is not gold? I couldn’t help but think of this as I looked at our surroundings. However, Brother Midgley is a very faithful member of the church and has honored his priesthood and served faithfully. Whenever it is his turn to go he will be blessed eternally and that is what matters most.
After we ate we had to leave to go into town and meet President Lisiate. He had a home he wanted us to look at as a possibility for us to rent. We met him at the home and after going through it decided it would work out great It is small and quite old but had the bathroom and part of the kitchen updated. We told the landlord we would take it but then he informed us he had someone who wants to buy it and is at the bank trying to get the money right now. Of course w were disappointed and wondered why he even showed it to us but I guess we were not supposed to live there! President Lisiate was blind sighted by this and very disappointed.
We spent the night in Dargaville and left the next day to go to Wellsford. Before heading back to Auckland, we looked at a house there, an apartment in Te Hana, and another one over a garage in Kaiwaka. We really liked the house and the apartment over the garage. Long story short, we ended up getting the apartment over the garage. It is not big, (but none of them are here), and has windows surrounding the whole apartment. We like that because we will be able to open them when it gets hot this summer and they also take advantage of a beautiful view. This place is in the country. The owner is a widower who is a holistic, natural foods cook who does cooking demonstrations at different places and also holds weekend retreats every now and then in his home. He teaches people about wellness and healthy living. He is a nice man and was very inviting to us. He said that it is very quiet around there and even if he has guests it is not something that will bother us. He invited us to use his decks and make ourselves at home. His name is Rudy Parlak in Kaiwaka-Mangawhai. IF you want to see where we live look up his website on the internet! It is his business site but it shows pictures of where we will live. We will be moving there ometime in the next 5 or 6 days.
Dinner with the Graham’s (the Area mental health doctor) and the Hales (the Area medical doctor)
Anyway, since that weekend we have been busy with visiting members, going to zone conference and even having Thanksgiving with the twenty couples who are serving with us here in Auckland. Most of them serve in the office, record preservations and the MTC. They badly need MLS couples here and I wish we could get more. Working with the people is the best mission ever!
Photos: The Ferguson chapel were we held Zone Conference. Huge! A picture of Auckland.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was held on November 18th. We were surprised and pleased to see we got turkey for dinner! I say that because we had two, 14 pound turkeys that cost $77.00 each! I think one of the couples bought them as a gift. They told us it was the cheapest way to go as the 25 pound turkey they found was $175.00! I will never take turkey for granted again!
To end I will post a few photos of our dinner!
We are grateful for the opportunity to serve another mission and to be sent to this wonderful country.
Mission to New Zealand 