We are "Chuffed"!

JM:  Just a note about the meaning of Takapuna. At church a few weeks ago an elderly gentleman introduced himself to me and asked where we lived. I told him we served in the area office in Takapuna and lived just a few blocks away. He asked if I knew what Takapuna meant and I told him I didn't. He said Taka means to stomp on and puna means spring. He said that years ago people would go to the area that is now Takapuna and stomp on the springs in an effort to get people to leave and relinquish their land. Alas, man is the same all over the world.

JM: March 17, 2017 - We went to the anniversary celebration for the University of Auckland Institute. We thought we had left plenty early but we were unable to find the parking area we had been told to use. The GPS led us to a different parking lot. Running out of time,we finally decided to park in the more expensive lot. Parking in Auckland is ridiculously expensive. I cost us $36 NZD for three hours.

Once we parked, we went to where the GPS said the Institute was located. It's address is on Governor Fitzroy. We found a sign with that street name and followed the directional arrow on the sign but couldn't find the Institute. After calling the office for help, we finally figured out that the street sign was pointing the wrong direction and found the Institute.

They were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Institute with several former directors speaking followed by a luncheon. It was very nice and we got a story out of it.

Jim trying to get a photo!

Phillip Skeen, Institute Director

March 18, 2017 - We went to Hamilton for a New Zealand Public Affairs conference. We left at 6:30 a.m., bought some fruit along the way and arrived in Temple View at 8:45. We met in a church inside Temple View, the small town surrounding the temple. We were instructed by Elder Thomson and our boss, Rich Hunter. We enjoyed lunch in the kitchen and cultural hall and then went to the Temple View project office for a tour of the church history museum that is currently under construction.  It will be amazing when it is finished.

We also toured the park being built just below the visitor's center and saw the exterior of the stake center that will also serve as a convention center. We were told that the project will be dedicated on June 17 with a cultural celebration the night before. Apparently we will be quite involved in the preparation for both.  We are having trouble finding lodging in Hamilton for that weekend because of a big "field day" event that weekend that people from all over come to.  All hotels are booked.  We've found something 30 miles away and of questionable suitability that we've reserved in case we can't find something closer.

SM:  We are "chuffed"! That's a word they use in New Zealand that means "quietly excited".  More will follow in later posts regarding the dedications in Hamilton during July.  Chuffed because of  possible visitors from Church Headquarters for the event.

On Sunday night we helped host Labour Party Leader and member of Parliament, Andrew Little, for a YSA Devotional. We had two other parliament members and His Excellency from Tonga there, as well as other government leaders. There was a pre-function held in the Relief Society Room before the devotional. Andrew Little encouraged the youth to have the courage to do what it right.

Elder Thomsen and MP Andrew Little in the center

MP Andrew Little

We attended "Pasifika" Saturday morning in Auckland.  Once a year this big festival is held in a downtown park and features countries throughout the Pacific. Think Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, but with food booths, craft booths, and entertainment from the different countries.  It was quite the event with tons of people there.  Jim bought a treat that consisted of half a watermelon with insides removed, chopped, and put back in the rind.  On top of that was ice cream, syrup, and wafers. A tiny umbrella topped it off.  Quite tasty.

The two photos directly above are of a dance in the Tahiti area of Pasifika. It was interesting for the first 10 minutes but then too many of the same moves and drum beat. Under the pile of sand you see in the bottom photo is a teenage girl. The dance was supposed to depict a birth. At the end of the dance one of the male dancers removes her hair from under the sand and then starts pulling the sand away from her body. At one point she sits up but has no clothing on. All of us American missionaries were quite surprised. We don't know if the rest of the crowd was, but we were. We decided it might be time to move on and visit another country.

Saturday night we, along with the Champlins (our favorite missionary couple that we get to share responsibilities with) and David Snell (our Public Affairs intern from BYU whom we love - and is the creator of the blog - The Sunday Pews) were invited to dinner at the home of our Area Public Affairs director, Rich Hunter, and his family. It was a farewell dinner for Champlins and David and a welcome for us. They are a beautiful family and we loved being in their home. We loved playing a little ping-pong, pictionary, and the "ring on a string" game. We couldn't have asked for a kinder individual to serve with than Rich.  He is so appreciative of anything we do.  His stewardship is vast and we try to help him any way that we can. We are grateful for our friendship with him and now his sweet wife, Laura, and kids.

Kiwi Crossings

SM:
Walking to and from the office is always interesting.  We are so close to the traffic that we can easily high-five those driving by.  And they drive by fast.  When we cross the street we have to remember to look to the right first and then left.  I'm always forgetting. And that's not good because they come whizzing right by.  No room for error on our part. Yikes.

Once in a while, if we aren't in a hurry, we take the back trail that comes out near the Takapuna Croquet Club.  It's a pleasant walk if you don't have leather soles on your shoes. If you do then you keep slipping.  We do have access to the office shuttle and have chosen to take it on days that it's raining.

One lesson we seem to never learn is to always, and I mean always, take an umbrella with us. Last week while walking back to the office after lunch, it started to rain.  Jim headed back to grab an umbrella and I kept walking in hopes of quickly reaching a bus stop shelter.  It was farther than I thought and I was drenched before Jim got back.  I finally reached a huge tree that I stood under but it was really too late. Hair went up into a ponytail, as I've been doing a lot lately, and I eventually dried off.

While walking, we have to go past a house that is ready for demo.  The smell coming from it is outrageous. We try to hold our breath as we walk by but I can't make it the whole way past. The other day we walked over to Lake Pupuke.  Black swans float along near the shore. There is one tree that is beautiful.  Just the roots themselves are huge. We are always discovering things like this.  These little moments make up our wonderful adventure here in Takapuna. 

Walking trail to the office

Pupuke Park

Last Sunday we went to our assigned Glen Innes Ward that I mentioned in an earlier post. We met a wonderful lady, Leslie, that the young missionaries brought.  Hope to have more interaction with her. When Jim walked into priesthood meeting a young priest-age boy walked up to him and told him that the suit he is wearing makes him look like an Italian mobster. He didn't know if that was good or bad.  An older brother told him that that is a good thing coming from that young man.  We got a good laugh out of that.  Jim -- a mobster!?

This past weekend we were assigned to drive north to Whangerei (pronounced Fong-er-aye) and support the local public affairs specialists there and to cover the stake conference because that stake was getting a new stake presidency.  We drove up Friday in the rain in hopes of it clearing up and us being able to see a few sights. We drove to the Whangarei Heads with me  actually driving part of the way and then met up with Junior and Muriel Samuela, the public affairs directors for the Auckland area and up north, for dinner.  It continued to pour so we returned to our motel and had a relaxing night at the Lodge Bordeaux.

After our public affairs meeting Saturday morning we went to the Town Basin for lunch and then went to see the Whangarei Falls.  Saturday evening was a wonderful stake conference meeting with Elder Gifford Nielsen and Elder Walker speaking.

Sunday morning we were busy at Stake Conference.  Jim was greeting and taking photos of visiting interfaith guests, the mayor of Whangarei and three members of parliament that had been invited.  We had a photo session and refreshments for the visiting opinion leaders. An article will be posted on the Mormon Newsroom Pacific tomorrow about the changes in the Stake Presidency, the visiting General Authorities and government leaders. Great weekend.

Whangarei Head (notice profile)

Whangarei Falls

JM:
We left Whangarei about 3:30 in the afternoon and drove to Paihia, about one hour to the north. Paihia is a small town on the east coast and is the gateway to the Bay of Islands, a group of 144 small islands.

When we arrived we checked into our hotel, Kingsgate. When we got to our room we were both very disappointed. Not only was it old and poorly furnished, but the carpet was stained, the mattress was soft and the table top was dirty. We swallowed hard and went for a walk to the dock where the following morning we would catch our boat to the Bay of Islands.  We checked in at the office of Explore, the company that was taking us on the tour. While there SM asked for hotel recommendations.

As we walked back to the hotel we decided we couldn't stand to stay at Kingsgate. When we got back to the hotel JM called the three recommended hotels. Only Pioneer Waterfront had vacancy. Because it was about 6:00 p.m. and the only available room didn't have an ocean view the manager quickly reduced the price from $300 to $200 NZD. When JM hesitated the manager came down to $185 and SM said "take it".

We went to the front desk at Kingsgate and told them we weren't satisfied with our room and requested a refund. After looking at and rejecting two other rooms, Kingsgate agreed to refund our money and we went to Pioneer and confirmed that we would take the room.

While checking in at Pioneer we asked about a hike we had read about to the top of a hill overlooking Paihia Bay. The manager told us that instead we should drive to Waitangi Golf Club and there we would find an equally beautiful view. We took a five minute drive and found a very nice golf course and a spectacular view.

In his happy place

 

There are so many amazing trees in New Zealand

 

SM: 
We arose early Monday morning and went to dock #5 for a 9:00 a.m. departure.  As soon as our boat left the dock we were told that we would go immediately to the "Hole in the Rock" because the wind was expected to kick up.  The ride was rough but we made it though we didn't go through. The waves were just too big. There are 144 islands in the Bay of Islands. We stopped at the largest island, Urupukepuke, for a provided barbecue lunch as part of the excursion.  It's a three hour drive back to Auckland so we headed for home.  The roads are mostly two lanes and it takes a long time to get anywhere but the drive is beautiful.  I've never seen so many shades of green.

 
SM:
We love our mission and I think we are finally settled in and know a little of what we're doing.  We have experienced miracles and seen the Lord's hand in the details of our lives.  When we first arrived here and went through customs, our year's worth of expensive prescription medications was confiscated.  Apparently we are only allowed to bring in a three month's supply - which is different than we were told.  After about a two hour wait they did finally give us back a three month's supply.  They said we would have to get a doctor here to prescribe the remaining meds to us.  We saw a doctor and the meds were sent to her but after weeks of communicating back and forth she said that her insurance company wouldn't allow her to dispense them.  They would be sent back to Med-Safe, the company that was holding them, and then sent back to the U.S.  We were pretty worried that we wouldn't get them.


Three or four weeks ago we were in Hamilton.  We went went into the mall food-court and were just sitting there eating and a nice-looking man came up to us, pulled up a chair and sat down and said that he wanted us to teach him about our church.  We soon learned that he was joking with us and is LDS. He had served as a mission doctor in Mongolia recently with his wife.  He is an OB/GYN now practicing medicine in Hamilton for six months at a time. I told him of our struggles to obtain our medications and he said, "I think I can help you." We exchanged information and when we returned home we contacted our dr. and asked her to please send the meds back to Med Safe.  We told her we would ask Med Safe to send the meds to Dr. Lewis who said that he would dispense them.  She did so and we will pick them up tomorrow in Hamilton at the Visitor Center next to the temple. This has been a matter of prayer for both of us.  We are feeling very blessed.


A trip to Tonga is in the works for us.  We plan to leave on March 31 for 6 days.  Looking forward to meeting with the National Public Affairs director and committee while we are there and discussing with them their plans and upcoming events. There is never a dull moment here in the pacific area.


I had no idea of the Church's vast involvement in this area of the world. We have a Self-Reliance dept, Education dept., Legal dept., CES dept., Humanitarian, Welfare, Publishing Services, Materials Management, Human Resources, Family History, Records Preservation, Architect and Engineering, Medical,  Mental Health, etc.  And of course, there's PUBLIC AFFAIRS!!


Next week we will be attending a few sessions of a week-long Humanitarian Conference here at the Area Office.  We want to learn more of the Church's program to help eliminate type II diabetes here in the islands.  It is so prevalent and on many of the islands it is necessary to continually replace local leadership because of death or serious debilitation from that disease that is often reversible with some lifestyle changes.  Great things are going on here and its amazing to wake up each morning and discover what we will next be a part of.  If our family and friends were here all would be right with the world!

From Spiritual Highs to Scenic Sighs

Pacific Area Office Devotional in Takapuna, NZ - Feb. 21, 2017 - Bishop Causse, Elder Hallstrom, Elder Renlund, Brent Buckner, Elder Nielsen

The Area Office has been astir preparing for the visiting General Authorities.  They came to Auckland Monday after visiting in Tonga for two days.  I like this quote from a talk Bishop Causse gave in Tonga on 2.17.17.  "Time is a resource given to us by a loving Heavenly Father - a resource meant to be applied towards doing good.  Life is short and we need to use it in a meaningful way." That's my desire, to use my time doing good while serving this mission.  

These brethren were busy all day and into the night attending meetings.  They have truly consecrated their lives to the Lord. 

 While they were here visiting the area offices, three of the times I went to get on the elevator it opened up with all of the General Authorities just getting off.  The first time was great and I shook hands with each of them. Same for the second time.  The third time it was a little awkward and I just smiled and tried to not be in the way.  

During the Devotional Elder Hallstrom spoke to the senior missionaries and shared "When our children kneel and pray for us, their faith and focus on Jesus Christ elevates." Elder Renlund encouraged us  by saying, "you have consecrated yourselves for a little season [on this mission], act as if you've consecrated yourself for years".  In other words, don't hesitate to set goals that can't be accomplished in 18 months. Others will be able to carry them out after you have left. In closing, he blessed us that we "will see miracles in the lives of our children".

An open house was held for Sisters Renlund, Hallstrom and Causse.  While sitting in a Public Affairs meeting the week before,  I was interrupted and handed an invitation to attend the event.  I later learned that invitations to that event were few and far between.  Grateful that Valerie (Causse), invited me to come so I could visit with her for a bit. She's a wonderful friend.

On Thursday we headed to Hamilton. The visiting authorities toured the TempleView project during the morning.  And of course, Public Affairs missionaries needed to go to cover the happenings there.

Elder and Sister Champlin and us.

 

The trees and flowers on the temple and adjoining grounds were lovely.  Sister Champlin and I walked around the temple grounds and toured the visitor center while our husbands were out taking photos and documenting the tour group. The TempleView project is well underway.  The Convention Center is near completion and the park area is progressing as planned.

Isn't the Hamilton Temple beautiful!

 

The afternoon was well spent touring the city's Hamilton Gardens. We had several hours before theyouth devotional.  We showed up at 6:15 for the 7:00 devotional and the place was packed. Only the youth and parents were invited.  Parents were asked to sit in the back so the youth could enjoy a better seat. Youth had submitted  questions in advance and the evening was spent answering them.  Elder Renlund, Sister Renlund, Elder Cardon, and Sister Cardon each answered several of the questions.  Sister Renlund shared that "personal revelation always prompts me to do good".  Elder Renlund told the youth that "God does not care who you were, he cares who you are."

The Ward assignment we have received is to attend the Glen Innes Ward in Panmure.  The chapel is quite small but it doesn't seem to hinder the worship of the beautiful people that attend there. Sacrament meeting began with the chorister standing and asking who would like to start the hymn off (for pitch purposes).  I was shocked and motioned to the Bishop that I could play the piano.  So I went up and played.  They were going to sing without accompaniment. Unfortunately they don't have an organ in this church-house.  I'm beginning to think I brought my organ music and shoes for nothing. I met several of the sisters and enjoyed the lessons.  Jim has been asked to teach  the Priesthood Mtg. every 2nd Sunday.  I think he will enjoy doing that.  

Right after Sacrament Meeting Brother Whitaker came up to me and thanked me for playing and asked if I'd received a "HONGI".  I must have had a puzzled look on my face so he told me that it is a special Maori greeting - then I received my first "hongi".  Here's what it means:

 A hongi is a traditional Maori greeting in New Zealand.  It is done by pressing one's nose and forehead (at the same time) to another person.  In the hongi, the ha (or breath of life), is exchanged and intermingled.  The breath of life can also be interpreted as the sharing of both parties' souls.

The first Sunday that we attended the Glen Innes ward there were few in attendance and many of them seemed to be of Maori descent.  Today there were more members in attendance and many of them were Tongan.  We learned that many of the Tongans assigned to the Glen Innes ward had been attending a predominantly Tongan ward where Tongan is spoken in all the meetings.  Apparently the Stake President asked those Tongans who speak and understand English to return to the Glen Innes ward.   As a result, the congregation was about twice the size it was last week.

We spent part of last Saturday on a visit to the gannet bird colony in Muriwai.  About 1,200 pairs of gannets nest here from August to March each year. Each pair lays one egg and the parents take turns on the nest.  When the newly hatched grow strong enough they all return across the Tasman Sea to Australia.  The black sand beaches there are beautiful.  Hope I can return with cabana in tow and sit on the beach for a day.  On the way back, we indulged and stopped for some "Phil's" ice cream.