Author: ashbysnzmission

Since last April General Conference, when President Nelson changed Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching to ministering, we have had many talks and direction given to us about what this means. We have noticed a real change in the way members are approaching this, and have seen the positive results from these changes. I would like to share one small example of the sweetness of this.

  On Halloween night, John and I were surprised to find trick-or-treaters knocking on our door. Since we have moved twice in the last five years, and have lived in area’s where it is hard for kids to go trick-or-treating at, we have not had any of them visit us. I guess we had just gotten out of the habit of preparing for them, and on this Halloween we were very surprised at that first door knock and the smiling “ghouls” that confronted us with their outstretched bags.

Of course we were delighted, and while John asked them what their “trick” was, I scrambled to find candy to give them! We had not planned for this, but luckily, I had a small stash that we would take to the homes of the children we have been doing Family Home Evenings with these past few months. However, we ended up getting so many kids that night, that I had to dig out two bags of plastic, candy filled Easter eggs we had not used last April, and then threw those into the Halloween candy bowl! The kids didn’t mind. I think they thought it was a very intriguing thing to get on Halloween, and all of them that saw the eggs, picked one out!

My ministering story: We got a knock on the door and there was one, sweet little girl,  trick-or-treating all by herself. She was dressed in red, and carried a devil’s staff with her. She very timidly said, “Trick or treat”.

“Okay, what is your trick”, John asked. The girl got a stricken look on her face and said, “I don’t have one.” We could instantly tell that she thought we would not give her any candy, and she was very embarrassed. Before we could say anything else , a young boy at the top of our driveway yelled out, “It’s okay, I will do a trick for her!”

I laughed and said, “Of course!”  He then proceeded to do some kind of wiggle-dancing thing and then waved at all of us. John and I  both realized that this young boy, of about eleven years old, did not want the girl at our door to not get her treat, and was doing his best to fill in for her. We  looked at the little girl and asked, “Do you know that boy?” She smiled and shyly said “no”. We gave her several treats, and she again smiled happily and went on her way.

This is a simple story, but it reminded me of the simple things we can do to minister to others. Little things we can do that are not hard, and yet can make another person happy and even feel loved. Love and service are the two things the Savior has stressed that we do as we strive to live his gospel and keep his commandments.

I love the joy these kids have in pretending and dressing up! To end with, here are a few of my Halloween pictures!

We are often asked what we do in a day, so I thought I would post one of our days. This is pretty typical, although we visit different people with different problems, needs and desires. Some are members of the church we are asked to minister to, others are people we have become friends with and some are new people interested in learning about the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Our assignment is to nourish and help the Dargaville and Wellsford Branches, to teach lessons, give talks, training where needed, and visit members and in-active members. All of it is very rewarding and we love the work we are doing.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Today was pretty busy for us. John went to the gym this morning but I didn’t go because I had a lot to do and needed to be ready for this afternoon.

Our first appointment was with Gloria Pratt at 2:00. She was happy to see us when we came and proudly showed us how clean her floors were. John had given her that vacuum last week and she said it works great, and she is very thankful for it. We are so glad we could help her with that.

Our lesson with her went really well. She told us she has gone to many churches in this area throughout the 40 years she has lived here. She has never felt like any one Church was better than the other. However, the Pastor of one church gave her his car when he bought a new one, and that was a huge blessing in her live. She hadn’t had a car for eleven years and now she could drive to the stores and other places she needed to be. She doesn’t go to that church on a regular basis, but is good friends with the Pastor’s wife, since they were in a knitting club together.

Gloria is an interesting lady. She believes in God and believes he has helped her many times in her life. Her husband committed suicide some forty years ago and she raised seven kids on her own. I guess he was a drinker and kind of wild, and she told him she did not want her kids raised in that kind of influence. It was not long after that he took his own life. She doesn’t blame herself, but she feels bad it happened that way.

She lives on very little money the government gives her every fortnight. With this money she sponsors four children in Kenya. She has done this for twelve years now, and pays $55 a month for each child. She writes back and forth to them, and the oldest is now graduating from a technical trade school where she will be able to have a good job as an adult. Doing this has been very rewarding to Gloria, and years ago she even traveled to Kenya to check out these kids and the program. It is a world wide program and we too know about it, as we have gotten brochures about it too. The amazing thing is that she does this when she has so little income herself.

When we do missionary work with people, we always try to find out as much as we can about them. It not only gives us opportunities to serve them, but helps us understand their feelings about life, religion and where their heart is. People always seem to open up to us, no matter what their financial, family, personal or religious feelings are. Of course the people in this country are very open anyway, and I have to say that I like that. There is a genuineness about them. What you see is what you get, and it’s up to you to accept them! I do!

We gave Gloria a Book of Mormon today, and she promised to read it. We went over the restoration and gave her the pamphlet on it so she could review what we taught her. We then set up another appointment to come back on Friday. We believe she is genuinely interested and we will do our best to help her gain a testimony of the gospel. We pray she does her part and will listen to the promptings of the spirit! She is a good lady and we want her to have the blessings that come from joining the Lord’s true church.

When we left, she introduced us to her cute little dog and her “ fat” cat. That cat should be named Garfield as he looks EXACTLY like the cartoon cat, Garfield!

Her little dog is also as cute as can be. They are best friends and it is fun to watch them interact. However, the dog gets jealous when people pay too much attend to the cat and not him. It is really funny how he tries to interfere with that!

As we left, Gloria gave us some more of her lemonade lemons, and told us how to make good drink out of them. We will give it a try!

At 7:30 tonight we had an appointment with Rena and Jordan Richards. However, they called us and told us the whole family was having FHE together and asked us if we would mind coming and giving them the FHE lesson! We hadn’t planned on that, but of course we said yes! That meant we had to prepare and get a lesson ready for about ten adults and a couple of children! It’s not easy to do that in just a couple of hours but we worked on it and with prayer, put something together.

John talked about how it is the last days and how we need to be spiritually prepared and keep the commandments. He told them that a sifting out among the members of the church is and will continue to occur, as things in the world get worse. He stressed how we want to be on the Lord’s side and not one of those people who end up leaving the church to follow the beliefs of the world

I built on his theme and talked about “Living Water’. Christ is the Living Water and we need to build our lives on Him. How do we do that? By keeping the commandments. All of them! By taking the Sacrament every Sunday and renewing our covenants with him. In-activity is a big problem with people around here, and I wanted to talk about the blessing that taking the Sacrament every week is in our lives.

Here is the outline of what I talked about. I want to share because I feel it is important!

Living water notes:

Just as water was and is today essential to the physical life of people everywhere, just so is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ essential to the spiritual life of God’s children. That analogy is suggested by the words of the Savior to the woman at the well in Samaria, when He said: “. . .whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” John 4:14

This difficulty of understanding about water recalls the story of a sailing ship that had become disabled in a storm. It drifted aimlessly for many days. The crew and passengers became famished and parched from lack of food and water. Finally another ship came into view. They signaled frantically for water. The other ship replied, “Let down your buckets where you are.” This communication made no sense at all, for they supposed they were far out to sea in typical ocean water. Again the famished ones requested water. Again the signal came, “Let down your buckets where you are.” They could not know that they had drifted into the mouth of a great river and that the water beneath them was fresh and could save their lives. The water of life lay just beneath them, yet they were dying for lack of this knowledge.

Like those passengers, multitudes of people are thirsting for “living water,” and they know not where to find it. Like the people on the other ship, we are signaling that we have found the “living water.”

What is living water?

The Savior taught that “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give … shall never thirst;

It is Christ—His gospel, but is it more than that?

STORY OF WATER CRYSTALS

Written by the Scientist, Masaru Emoto.

It was 1994 when the idea to freeze water and observe it with microscope came upon me. With this method, I was convinced that I should be able to see something like snow crystals.

After two months of trial and error, this idea bore fruit. The beautifully shining hexagonal crystals were created from the invisible world. My staff at the laboratory and I were absorbed in it and began to do many researches.

At first, we strenuously observed crystals of tap water, river water, and lake water. From the tap water we could not get any beautiful crystals. We could not get any beautiful ones from rivers and lakes near big cities, either. However, from the water from rivers and lakes where water is kept pristine from development, we could observe beautiful crystals with each one having its own uniqueness.

The observation was done in various ways:

1 Observe the crystal of frozen water after showing

letters to water

2 Showing pictures to water

3 Playing music to water

4 Praying to water

In all of these experiments, distilled water for hospital usage produced by the same company was used. Since it is distilled twice, it can be said that it is pure water.

The result was that we always observed beautiful crystals after giving good words, playing good music, and showing, playing, or offering pure prayer to water. On the other hand, we observed disfigured crystals in the opposite situation. Moreover, we never observed identical crystals.

In the last days when the Savior appears on the Mount of Olives and saves the people of Jerusalem, water will flow from beneath the temple and soon become a great river that will flow down and heal the Dead Sea.

Sacrament story (from Isabelle)

“I was in Sacrament meeting today and had this thought come to me. The priest blesses the water by saying sacred words over it, and it made me think about the Japanese scientist who did those experiments on water and the beautiful crystals that formed when positive words were written on labels on the containers.

Then we take the water into our bodies and I was wondering what kind of an effect that has on us literally. We take the water which represents Christ’s blood into our bodies. Christ takes upon him all the sins and sorrows of each of us and now we, during the sacrament, take into our bodies sacred water that perhaps can truly, physically change us.”

We need to take the Sacrament every week! We need to think about the living water that we are literally drinking! The Savior reaches out to us, but do we take hold of his hand and let him heal us?

Or do we rationalize and think we can do it later?

Photos of the crystals taken after being exposed to music. The first one is messy, and is a result of hard, metallic rock music. The second one is from the hymn “Amazing Grace”; and the third one is from a symphony of Bach.

These beautiful, frozen crystals physically show the power and affect that words, music and prayer have on them. It is beautiful and gives us something to contemplate on how words, music and prayer affect us physically.

After our lesson, John and I played a game with the family called “If and Then”. Everyone had to write two sentences down with a name in one from someone in the room, and when the papers were mixed up, and the sentences randomly read, we got a lot of laughs from everyone. The game is a good group game and is a lot of fun.

The Richards then provided dessert crepes for everyone! Needless to say, they were yummy! John went outside and looked at the new race car Jordan Richards has bought and put together for track racing, and I stayed in the kitchen visiting with Sister Richards. We had a wonderful evening and loved our time with this big, beautiful family!

Tonight I am thankful for a good missionary day, and for the spirit we felt as we taught and shared our testimonies.

Well, there you have it! One day of our visits and preparation in this mission!

One of the great things about being a senior missionary is the associations we have with the young missionaries. We have served with a lot of dedicated and hard working young people! Every now and then they just have to let loose and bring out their true, playful natures! I must also say that the associations with other senior missionaries is also very special! For us to remember, here are a few of those we serve with…..

Who says we can’t have fun! The elders play “chair soccer” in our little apartment!

Elder Tonga! One of our “little” missionaries!

Elder Mickelson, Elder Wilkinson and  Elder Ashby!

Elder Paama and Elder Wilkinson with the Ashby’s

King Lamoni and the Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s!  (The Buxton family)

Senior missionaries! The Woodard’s, the Bartlett’s, the Ashby’s, and the Stosich’s!

‘The District goes hiking on Preparation Day.

The Samoan mssionaries singing good-by to one of their elders. This was Elder Paama’s group!

Yes, we do celebrate Thanksgiving! (even though the turkey cost us $75.00!)

Our District wearing the District motto tee-shirts. Logo: Keep On Keeping On!

Flu shots!

Sister Woodard and Sister Ashby learn to make flax flowers!

Eating is right up there in the top three things missionaries like to do!

Elder Wuo and Elder Numanumanu

Oh! Wait a minute! Those are turkeys!

Here’s our missionaries! Sure do love them all!

On Saturday, July 21st, our temple closed for three years. John and I were lucky to attend the week before the closing, and even better yet, we managed to get three of our family names completed. We also finished up Kathleen Bennet-Galo’s husband’s work. She was very anxious for us to do this for her since the temple was closing. Kathleen is a member of the Dargaville Branch, although not very active since she has to care for her 93 year old mum who is in a wheelchair.

The temple will be going through some major renovations that include not only being gutted and remodeled inside, but will be strengthened and made earthquake safe on the outside. Actually, the baptistry font is just about the only thing that will not be changed. It will be very beautiful and strong when it is completed, but I feel bad for those people who will not be able to attend the temple for three years. The temple is such a blessing for all of us!

That last week people were coming and waiting in line for an hour to get on a session, and when they did get on, the sessions would have over 200 people. I know because we were on one of them! It was a great week and we feel very blessed to have been able to attend this temple during the last nine months!

To continue on with some of the things we have experienced here, I will tell you a little bit about the Bay of Islands. This is located in the Northland of New Zealand and is a beautiful bay full of many small islands.

Saturday, May 26th

Today was really a wonderful day! In the sense that we got to have a day of fun and sight seeing by exploring the Bay of Islands. We ate breakfast in the hotel and then packed up and loaded our belongings in the van so we could make it out on the pier by 8:45 A.M. Our boat was leaving at 9:00 to take us on a three hour tour of the islands.

Sunrise, looking out from our hotel room this morning!

We loaded onto a beautiful big boat owned by a company called “Great Sights”, for a three hour tour visiting Hole in The Rock (no, not the one at Lake Powell!), and a dolphin tour.

These pictures don’t really do the boat justice for how big it is. It holds over 200 passengers and had three decks on it. It is a beautiful boat.

Today we were in some pretty choppy water with winds around 30 MPH. However, this did not bother the boat we were on. I don’t know for sure how big it was, but it was new, with big engines and the bumpy water did not phase it. If you went outside on the decks the wind hit you so hard you could hardly stand up, but inside it was smooth sailing. I would have rather been outside but the weather was too cold to stay out there very long. However, the sky was clear and it did not dampen the views of this beautiful area. I have to say though, we did not see any dolphins and that was a bit disappointing. But the company guarantees that you see dolphins and when we didn’t, they gave us vouchers to come again for free. That was a good deal for us since our trip cost us each $107.00!

If we had seen dolphins the company will let you don wetsuits and jump in the water and swim with the dolphins! That sounded very intriguing to me but I think I would rather try that in the summer and on a day when the water is not so cold and choppy!

We learned a lot of things about the islands. There are 88 to 104 islands in this bay and they all seem to have a unique history as to who owned them and what happened here. A lot of the Maori wars were fought around here. The English signed their treaty with the Maori’s close to here, and Captain Cook first landed on one of these small islands here. He was the one who actually named this place the Bay of Islands. His boat had 96 crew members and was named The Endeavor. It was a smaller boat than the one we were on and I can’t imagine that many men living on a boat that size for 3 years!

Captain Cook was actually a man raised on a farm and since he was not of high birth, was not eligible for a high rank in the military. However, he was the best navigator in the navy and they gave him his own ship because of how talented and smart he was. In those days they would put double the amount of crew on a boat because generally, half of the crew would die of scurvy before the several years-long trips ended.

On Captain Cook’s 3 year trip to these islands, he did not lose one sailor. He insisted they eat oatmeal and bought celery from any port he landed in, and made the cooks mix the celery in the oatmeal for his men. No one died or got scurvy, and that was a big miracle at that time.

We got off the boat at Russell island and ate lunch at a tavern there. This island was once the wild and crazy place for all sailors to have some R&R. There was something like 80 tavern’s and brothels on the island and believe me, they did a booming business.. We were told that when the missionaries came to the New Zealand islands they stayed far away from Russell island. They figured that place was beyond all hope!

One of the other little islands is “pig island”. A tribe of Maori’s lived on it and owned the only pigs in the country. They would raise them and let other tribes come and buy the meat from them, but they would never sell them a live pig. They wanted to monopolize the pig industry and did a good job of it until one day, a neighboring chief came to the island and told them a war broke out close by, and they needed their men to help them fight it. The pig island chief and his warriors all went to fight this war and while they were gone, another chief brought his warriors over to the pig island and killed all the women, children and old people that their chief had left there, and then stole all the pigs! It was definitely a scheme put together by two chiefs inland who wanted those pigs, and it worked! From then on, pigs were raised all over the place and among all the tribes.

Because it was not raining, our Captain took us out to the open ocean where all the islands ended. There was a big light house on the tip of the last island.

You can go on a 7 hour hike to get to that light house and then spend the night in the little cottage there, and then hike back the next morning All lighthouses are electronic now and there are no light house keepers living at them anymore. Kind of sad but not surprising!

Right close to that island was another huge outcropping of rock with a giant arch in it. This is called “Hole In The Rock” and is a very imposing sight. When the water is not choppy the boat will go right through the hole but we did not do it today. We got close though and it was quite inspiring!

I have to admit that I like sight-seeing with other couples because then I can go shopping with the ladies without John bugging me about what I am buying or looking at! He hung out with the guys and I shopped with the ladies! So fun! I managed to buy John two birthday presents. One was a tie and the other was a little stuffed Kiwi. I have always bought him a little stuffed animal indigenous to the land we are visiting. A Kiwi is definitely representative of New Zealand! I also bought a couple decks of cards for my country card collection at home, a tee shirt and some gold dangly earrings.

One of my favorite things was finding a wall garden of Hens and Chicks! These are my favorites and I think it is a lot because my mother loved them too!

We ate lunch at a Tavern and I had a hamburger that was so big I had to take the top off if it, and the onion rings out of it, to even eat it! It was good though!

After lunch John and Sam hiked up the hill to the famous little church that eventually got established here. But the only picture he took for me was of a flower! What a guanaco! But I do love flowers!

At 3:00 we got on a small boat and rode the ferry back to the town of Paihia (or The Bay of Islands) where we started our excursion. We took a couple of pictures and then went over to an ice cream shop where we all got cones and got ready to go home. The dairy and ice cream in his country is the best of anywhere I have been! Very hard to resist!

John drove us back in the van to Whangarei where we and the Woodard’s picked up our cars, and all parted for our homes. It was such a fun day and we enjoy our association with these two great couples. We are so glad we have made friends with people here that we can do a little sight-seeing of this beautiful land together. By the way, “winter” is a good time to do this as there are not a lot of tourists and nothing is crowded!

Today I am just thankful for good friends here, for the opportunity to explore another beautiful part of this earth Heavenly Father put us on, and that it did not rain on us all day!

Today I thought I would share some of the beautiful places we have had the opportunity of visiting and experiencing while in this country. In our travels, and during our preparation days, we have had the chance to “stop and smell the roses” a few times and, as Dr. Sues said, “Oh my, the things you will see!”

One of our latest little adventures was to visit a Glow Worm cave. I didn’t even know there really were such things before coming to New Zealand! There are so many unique things in this world and it is so fun to discover ones you have never come across before.

Our Zone Conference held on Friday, May 25th, was at was at 10:00 A.M. at the Kamo chapel in Whangarei. All missionaries in the Northland Zone attended the zone conference at the Whangarei Stake center. A fabulous lunch was prepared by Sister Semenoff and her team in the Whangarei Stake.

As usual, the teaching was very good and came from Preach My Gospel. I must say again that President Walker is a very good teacher and the missionaries respond extremely well to him. I always learn from him even though he thinks John and I already know all the answers. I learned this one day when I raised my hand to answer a question he presented to the missionaries! When no one came up with an answer I shook my hand at him. He wagged his finger at me and said, “Sister Ashby, I know you know all the answers! I want one of the young missionaries to answer me!” Well, that shut me up, and I do not raise my hand anymore! Little does he know that I do NOT know all the answers! Do we ever know all the answers? That is what learning for your whole life is all about!

One thing that impressed me the most in our teaching today was how important it is to learn the right order and sequence of teaching the gospel to new investigators. We teach by the spirit, but need to know ahead of time what things to talk about first, and the order to teach the rest of our doctrine in.

It was another wonderful Zone Conference and after the senior office couples did their presentations after lunch, we took off with two of the couples to do some sight seeing, and spend the night in The Bay of Islands. Friday night and Saturday days are a good time to take our Preparation day, and we do it if we don’t have any Saturday appointments, and can spend some time with the other senior missionaries. Seniors are allowed to do this and I guess you could say it is one of the perks of going on a mission when you are older!

On our way to our Hotel in Paihia, we stopped to visit some Glow Worm caves! The caves are located in the country in an area called Kawiti.

This writing was on the cave information site:

“The Kawiti Caves are owned and operated by the Kawiti family.

Your 30 minute guided tour will follow a wooden boardwalk through a 200 metre limestone cave system. Once inside, you will see thousands of glow worms spread across the ceiling surrounded by breath taking stalactites and stalagmites.

As you enjoy the galaxies of glow worms above, your friendly guide will explain the life cycle of the New Zealand Glow worm (Arachnocampa Luminosa) and the intricate webs used to catch their prey. You’ll even get close enough to see the actual body of the glow worm and its stunning blue/green tail light, before you make the return bushwalk through a natural corridor of karst rock formations and pristine rainforest.”

I found our later that the Kawiti family tribe has owned this cave for 400 years! It was part of their Maori tribe land. A long time ago the wife of a neighboring chief ran away from her tribe and came on to the Kawiti lands to hide. She found the cave and moved in! She found a large ledge inside and carved steps out of the stone to reach the alcove where she then hid and lived for a couple of years. At night she would go out and steal food from the fields of the Kawiti tribe to live on. Eventually the Kawiti caught her and felt sorry for her. They let her stay there and would give her food. However, one day the woman’s husband learned where his lost wife was and told the Kawiti Chief that if they did not give her back they would go to war with them and kill the Kawiti people. The chief was a woman at that time and she would not risk that. She gave the wife back and they never heard about her again. Ever since those days the Kawiti family have owned and protected this cave.

(Personally, I think that Chief must have been very mean and abusive for his wife to run away and be willing to live in a cave with poisonous glow worms and Weta bugs!)

I never really knew what Glow Worms were before, but now I do! They are about as long as a match stick and turn on a little light at the end of their body. It glows brighter when attracting prey, like spiders, mosquitoes, flys, etc. They spin a strand of silk that drops a few inches below them. This strand looks like little crystal beads, and a fly is stuck in it if it barely touches it. The worm then hauls the strand up and devours it’s prey. It can last for three weeks, on a mosquito, without eating again. They spin several of these strands along the length of their body and it takes about four hours to make a new strand after they have pulled one up to enjoy their dinner. They stay mostly on the roof of the cave and look like thousands of tiny stars. They live on the roof because during the night, little creatures called Weta bugs, come charging into the caves by the hundreds to feed on the glow worms. They look like cockroaches the size of a man’s hand, and if they bite a human it is bad! However, they have trouble climbing the slick stalagmite/stalactite walls without sliding down before they get to the Glow Worms.

A Glow worm lives about 11 months. They start out as eggs and then go into the larvae stage. As a worm they are sticky and attach to the walls or ceiling. During the last three weeks of their lives they come out of the worm stage and turn into fly’s. They then live for three weeks and during this time they mate and the female lays her eggs in the same spot she hatched in. The worms are territorial and keep a small distance away from each other. If one of the Glow Worm flys touch a crystal strand of another worm, then yep, they get eaten! So I guess you could say they are cannibals! Frankly, I think they are pretty smart!

One other thing….those little chain-like strands the Glow worms drop down to catch their prey with, are terribly poisonous to humans. If you touch a strand and put your hand to your mouth, with only a tiny speck touching your lips or tongue, your throat will swell within seconds and you will stop breathing long before anyone can help you! Yep, dead! I was paranoid about accidentally touching one of them before we got out of the cave!

By the way, the boardwalk we walked on had sink holes under it as deep as four kilometers! The cave was beautiful but a place to be very careful when in it!

70% of the world’s Glow Worms are in New Zealand. 30% are in Australia!

Oh yes, I have no pictures of the Glow worms because a flash from a camera makes the worms all turn their lights off! However, these pictures are just outside the cave.

Ashby’s, Sister Bartlett, Sister Woodard, Elder Woodard and Elder Bartlett. This gives you a glimpse of the beautiful trees and greenery in this country.

The entrance to the cave. We each carried little red lanterns to light our way. The light shines downward and does not make the glow worms go dark.

Our Watiti guide and his wife.

Beautiful scenery around here!

After this very interesting and fun side-trip, we drove to the Bay of Islands where we spent the night at the Kingsgate Hotel. It is a very nice place right across the street from the bay. We were all hungry and had dinner in the hotel. We loved visiting with each other. We don’t get much opportunity to visit with adults and friends who are also serving here from America. We all have a lot in common and end up with a lot to share. There are many outdoor tables and eating places but tonight we were just glad to be out of the weather and eating inside! It was rainy an cold and we were tired, but so thankful for a wonderful day of instructions and then site-seeing.

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.

This quote is in the Pacific Islands Church History Museum in Hamilton, NZ, next to the temple. It is the only other Church History museum in the world, besides the one in Salt Lake City. When I read it, I could not help but think how true it is! We do have an “unconscious memory” of who we are and where we came from. The truth sits quietly within our souls, ready to burst forth as we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. As missionaries, we help people find this truth and as the light grows brighter and brighter within their very beings, they accept the gospel and then their own baptism. Lives then change and it is such a joy to see these changes in a person.

I haven’t written for a long time and will now try to share some of the bits and pieces from the last few months. We moved up North to a little village called Kaiwaka. If you blink twice you have gone through it. However, the town stretches out into the farm land and covers a fairly large part of the countryside. Our home is an apartment over a garage out in the country. The landlord’s name is Rudy. He used to own three restaurants in Auckland but sold them and moved to the country to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city.  His home looks over vast rolling hills of green pastures, trees, bushes and flowers. The land has little herds of cattle scattered throughout the hills. They don’t call them ranchers here; only farmers. There are also lot of sheep in this country but we don’t have any close to us. In fact, to give you an idea of how many cows there are, there are four and a half million people in New Zealand and eleven million cows! It’s a good thing cows can’t rise up in rebellion, although they have it pretty darn easy around here! The grass is green all year round and they just go from one green pasture to another, munching away and getting fat! Little do they know, but most of them are just plumping up to one day become barbeque on the beach!

We were surprised to discover that the dairy industry here is one of the biggest in the world. 26 % of the milk is sent around the world. They make more baby formula than almost any other country and ship most of it to China. Unfortunately for us, the dairy foods  are very good and it is hard to resist the ice cream, milk and other products they make! The beef and lamb is also very good. There is definitely a difference eating meat from all grass fed animals. Even better, they have Venison farms here and you have never tasted Venison like theirs. Of course that makes John very happy!

Our home is that little house you see under the big blue sky! This is how the countryside looks….everything from open fields of grass to jungle-like trees and bushes. I have to admit that we love living here and are also very happy to be out of the city! The country outside our door is all rolling hills, with winding, twisty roads. Auckland is the biggest  city in the north and it is like any big city except the ocean is all around it and it is beautiful too.

For our mission we have been assigned to support and nourish two different Branches, in two different villages. Neither are very big, and the membership is small. It takes us about twenty minutes to get to the Wellsford Branch and an hour to get to the Dargaville Branch. We alternate every week going to church at each of them.

During the week we go visit members that have become inactive and try to teach them and help them get going to church again. It seems like whenever people are going through trials and problems, they want the church and God. But the minute things are going well for them, they forget about God and the church, and make excuses not Attend church. They smile and say it is not for them right now, but one day they will probably start going again. I am amazed at this! I wonder if they really understand the committments they made when they became baptized, or if their parents didn’t really teach them when they were growing up!

The sad thing is that if we expect God to help us through our trials, we need to love and keep His commandments all the time; even when things are going smoothly for us. This life is a big test and we will only pass that test by showing Him our faith and dedication, by doing what He has asked us, during both the good and the bad times. I wonder sometimes how people expect God to answer their prayers when they only go to Him when they are struggling. This  is what we have been assigned to do; to help people realize they need to go to church every Sunday, so they can take the sacrament, increase their knowledge of the gospel, renew their covenants, and be worthy to go to the temple. To understand God’s Plan of Happiness!

Anyway, we try to help those who are inactive to realize that they need the church. The church doesn’t need them, but they REALLY NEED IT in order to progress in this life and have God right next to them. Going to church for 3 hours a week is pretty simple if you just make up your mind to do it, and hopefully we can help people see that. We have also been encouraging them to read out of the Book of Mormon every single day. Even if it is just a page!

Besides visiting inactives, Lenore teaches Relief Society, John teaches Priesthood, we both speak in Sacrament meetings and usually end up saying at least two of the prayers each Sunday! John has been going Hometeaching with President Phillips in the Wellsford Branch and the two of us do the visiting teaching and home teaching to three families in Dargaville. As of General Conference there will be no more Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching but what we will be doing will not change. They call it ministering now but it will be the same for us! One of our favorite things is doing Family Home Evening every week for two inactive families. One is the Buxton family and the other is the Richards family. The kids love to have us come and we love being with and teaching them.

The Cheyenne and Campbell Richards family.

The Buxton kid’s doing their FHE assignment.

To fill you in on the people we served and work with, here are some photos from the Branches we are serving in.

First, in Wellsford: We love the people n this Branch and the members who come every week are very faithful and gospel oriented. Most members here come from 3 or 4 generations back of family who have been in the church. We are finding that the members of the church all seem to be related to people in all the other Branches and wards. However, many of the family members have become inactive. As I said, we spend our evenings trying to catch people and visit the in-actives.

Photos: from top going right: Irene & Fets with their baby boy, Kyra and Sam with their baby and little 7 year old boy

Bottom: John with Manasseh and Paul Paki (very active members), and Claire and Willy Wolfgramm.

The Dargaville Branch is on the west side of the island close to the Taisman Sea. This ocean is very rough and most people would rather swim on the east side of the island where the waters are calmer and even warmer. The Branch here is also dear to our hearts. At one time it was a ward with around a 125 people but in past years the membership has dwindled and there are only about 35-40 people attending. They have a beautiful church built to accommodate the numbers coming when there were over a 100 people. Here are a few photos of people we visit in this area:

Photos: Top, left to right – Dargaville church building, Vera and Tama,

Haki Wihangi (1st counselor to President Lisiate), President and Sister (Fane) Lisiate

Lenore and Rosalie Covacich, Two investigators with Siuaki Lisiate (in shirt and tie)

Lenore receiving a Maori “Hello” from Kelly, and John teaching Kelly

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.

Okay, to start with you first get your New Zealand trivia! While living in Romania I thought that country surely was the sheep capital of the world but I think New Zealand has them beat! In he 1980’s sheep out-numbered humans, twenty to one! Even more interesting is that they now use Drones to herd the sheep! Those can’t be very loving shepherds! Poor sheep!

You remember that child’s song “Kookaburra sat in the old gum tree; eating all the gum drops he can see. Stop, Kookaburra, stop! Leave some there for me!” (or something like that!) Anyway, according to the information we were given, there is only one Kookaburra bird left in New Zealand! He is about twenty years old and those birds live to be over a 100! Sad, lonely life for that little bird! There are Kookaburra birds in Australia but I guess it is too hard for him to “jump the ditch” (as they say) and go over there to find some friends! However, there are gum trees here and it is something they do export.

Since arriving we have been busy, but also a little bit in limbo as we did not get our final assignment until this past Friday! It has been fun getting to know members and elders in the Papatoetoe community and it has also taken us these two weeks to learn our way around our apartment area and figure out how and where to buy food, get a hair cut and find other services we may need. In he middle of all this it has rained, rained and rained! They say winter is pretty much over but someone needs to tell the sky that!

We will always remember Elder and Sister Plehn as they are the ones who have really taught us to adjust in this wonderful country. They live in the same complex we do and are serving as record extraction missionaries.

I still find myself looking the wrong way for oncoming cars when crossing the street but John is doing pretty well with his driving now. Only once has he made a right hand turn  the way we would do it in the U.S, Unfortunately a car was coming right then and John had to do a fast wheel-turn to the other side of the street to get out of his way before colliding with him. The people looked sternly at us and probably thought we had been drinking a little too much! Maybe Mountain Dew? He did drink one of those here and he rarely drinks any soda pop!

Anyway, another thing we have been doing is going on walks through our community. The first day we did fine and enjoyed seeing the differences in the homes, and checking out all the flowers that are coming into bloom now that summer is almost here. I love the flowers and John is patient when I have to stop and smell them all!

The second day we went for a walk we got very lost! We went the same way we went the first day but somehow, when we thought we were heading back to our apartment complex we saw nothing that was familiar! We asked an Indian lady for directions and in her broken English she cheerfully pointed out the way. Not! We finally found a street worker who did guide us back and we made it home. All I can say is that there is  lot to be said about the way Brigham Young laid out the streets in Salt Lake City! The third day we walked we took our GPS and let it do the guiding for us. No problem—-we made it home just fine! I mention these things to tell you that in-between doing missionary work we are able to lead a pretty normal life and are enjoying getting to know this new country we will be living in for the next year and a half.

Last weekend President Walker sent us on an exploratory assignment to check out the Branches and Wards up north. There are two Stakes in the northern part of the island. However, half of the units are branches and are very small. Even some of the wards are quite small. There has not been a couple serving in that part of the country for quite a while now and he wanted us to report back so he could decide if a couple was needed up there.

We loved the trip! Once you get out of the city of Auckland the scenery is beautiful. Everything is rolling green hills with beautiful trees and bushes. It is like looking at a groomed park that never ends! The ocean is on your right side as you travel north and is also very beautiful with bays and islands all over the place! We first went to The Bay of Islands and met the full time missionaries at the Branch President’s home. He lives in a very lush area. He invited us in to meet his family and his oldest son formally welcomed us to New Zealand.

We had a really good visit with both Bishop Smith and the Elders. They told us of the needs in that area and also gave recommendations of the needs for other Branches in the Stake. Of course they would like us to stay there as couples are so wanted and needed in all the Branches in the mission field. The church would love to have several thousand more couples serve for this reason.

After our visit we were invited to dinner. In fact we weren’t even invited! They just started serving it and expected us to eat with them. The dinner was rice bowls with chicken and vegetables in it. You got to choose the sauce you wanted and it was very good. The bishop couldn’t help telling us about when he was on his mission to the Philippines and the members there served he and several other missionaries dog for their dinner. Needless to say they weren’t told until the dinner was over and the person who cooked the dinner proudly showed them the head of the dog they ate. I won’t go into how the missionaries reacted to that but the bishop assured us he would never feed us dog! Well, thank goodness for that!

The elders in this photo were doing a service project today.

Notice we all have our shoes off except John! I think I fit right in here!

That evening we stayed in a nice resort hotel in The Bay of Islands. It was so fun to be close to the ocean and have dinner next to the sea. By the way, their fish and chips here are probably the best we have ever had!

The next day we attended church in the Bay of Islands ward. There were about 70 people there and the speakers spoke about prayer. I love how friendly and welcoming everyone is no matter where we go! This ward was no exception!

After Sacrament meeting we had to hurry and leave and head further north to the West side of the island where we met President Beatson of the Kaikahe Stake. On our way there we found ourselves driving through the Mangamuka gorge . This road turned out to be windier than any I have ever been on! It was like following the track of a Side-Winder snake! It went on for many kilometers and not once was the road straight. Besides going sideways, it went up, up, up and then curved down again before finally going up and coming to a summit. John and I had to get out of the car at that point and walk around for a little bit to get our heads back on straight before continuing on. It was crazy but it was probably one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on. That gorge is stuffed full of all kinds of trees, bushes, flowers and lush grass. It was like driving through a “garden of Eden” park!

We had a great visit with President Beatson. This stake covers almost 1/3 of the Northland and it takes several hours to drive around it. He probably has a half dozen wards in the stake and maybe five branches. He said that he has had a feeling that he was supposed to get missionaries up in his area He doesn’t know if it is us or not but hoped it would be. We did too!  He talked about two specific branches he needs help with and one way or another, we hope he get the help he needs. We are learning that even though many people in New Zealand have joined the church, many, many of them have become inactive. Everywhere we go people say hello and are very friendly. They tell us they were once members too and maybe they will come back one day. We have our work cut out for us and know why we are here!

After our interview with the President, he insisted we come home with him for dinner and to meet his family. Just like the bishop, he would not take no for an answer. They are a great family and we enjoyed very much our time with them. One daughter had just come home from a mission two weeks ago and still has that missionary spirit!

After dinner, consisting of salad, sausages and chicken, the president and his wife took John and I out behind their house to the beach. We had no idea we were that close! He drove his car right out onto the sand and said that this is the “Ninety Mile Beach”. He told us that it is a legal road going all the way up to the top of the island! The sand is hard and people have to obey traffic laws and drive the same way they would on the street or they could get a ticket. At certain times of the year you could not drive it, but most of the time it is drive-able and is a beautiful ride right next to the incoming waves. He also told us that this strip of land is sacred to the Maori people. They believe that when a Maori dies his spirit runs all the way up the beach to the tip of the island where there is a an ancient tree that hangs over a cliff. When they reach the tree they climb it and leap into the ocean where their spirit is set free from this life.

When we left the Stake president’s home we drove back to The Bay of Islands to spend the night again before heading back to Auckland. We had a lot to talk about on our way. We took a different route back and frankly, I can’t decide which part of this land I like best! President Beatson would like us to work with the Waihou branch and the Matauri Bay branch. Matauri Bay is a branch at the farthest, northern tip of this island.

This trip I have talked about here was over a week ago and was pretty wonderful. Again, this past weekend, we left for the weekend and visited another area and Stake in Northland; more on that later. We have decided that it does not matter where we serve. The needs are great everywhere and the people are great everywhere we go!