Are We Having fun?

Absolutely! We are pretty much on a schedule now with our work. We travel every other week to each of the Dargaville and Wellsford Branches. No matter which Branch I am at during a particular week, it is always my favorite! I love the people in both areas and every time we go to one or the other, I wish that I could be there all the time with them! Is that weird? Yes, but I can’t help it!

John always gets called on to teach either Gospel Doctrine or Priesthood in the Dargaville Branch while I teach Primary. We also speak in Sacrament meeting at least once every two months. In Wellsford, I teach Relief Society and both of us substitute when and where we are needed. Since the church stopped home teaching and visiting teaching, we have been assigned five families to minister to in the Wellsford Branch and try to make sure we visit each of them at least once a month or more if needed. The Wellsford Branch is where we are still doing our weekly Family Home Evenings with the Buxton family and the Richard’s family. Both are inactive families and we have really grown to love them. We are hoping that one day they will come back to church. Their kids are doing so well and love it when we come. This week two of the Buxton kids recited from memory the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. It is a big deal because these two are only nine and eleven years old, and when we started our lessons with them, they had no idea who Noah and his Ark was, let alone anything else in the scriptures! I always thought everyone knew about Noah and the animals, but these kids had not had any training in the scriptures and had no clue who this mighty prophet was!  It has been so fun to watch their progress.

Family Home Evening can be very entertaining! Just as it was when we taught the kids about King Lamoni, Ammon and the Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s!

In Dargaville I m working with an inactive member and teaching her how to do her genealogy. She s very excited about it and asked John to do the temple work for her late husband. She applied for permission and when she got it, we took his name to the temple. We still have the endowment to do and will get it done in July. The Hamilton temple is closing for three years at the end of July so we are trying to get everything finished up before then. His name is Sam Galo and I told his wife, Kathleen that she needs to get active again so she can be sealed to him. She is enthusied about that and says she will. We are still working together and she is a very special lady! She taught Sister Woodard and me how to make flowers from the flax plant and that was awesome! Maori’s have made baskets and all kinds of household items from flax and the weaving can be quite intricate.

One day while I working with Kathleen, John and President Lisiate went to visit another inactive member out in the farmland. Her name is Rosalie Covacich. Her husband’s name is Justyn. They have cattle on their land, a giant pet pig and honey bees! They are member of the church who have been sealed in the temple but have not been active for quite some time. When Rosalie saw John’s name tag she let out a little squeal and said that her grandfather was Colonel John Ashby from England. He was over here and married a Maori princess. Rosalie said it was fate and knows that she and John are connected in some powerful way! John and the Branch President had a great visit with them and they invited John to come back. The next Sunday, at church, Justyn showed up with a big jar of honey for John. He would not stay for meetings  but he insisted John have the honey.

Not long after, John took me to their farm to visit them. Justyn was not there but Rosalie welcomed us with open arms. She invited us to sit down and then started to recite her Fakapapa. (Maori word for genealogy) The knowledge is handed down from generation to generation, although they do write it down now. It was very beautiful! She used her hands and arms as she described where her people came from anciently, and followed their journey to the islands and then to the mountain and river where her family/tribe settled. Every family has a mountain and a river and if you travel anywhere in the world and meet another Maori, they know where you come from when you tell them your mountain and river. By the way, she started her story with Hagoth in the Book of Mormon, who took a group of Nephites with him north where they built and got into ships and sailed away, never to be heard of again.