A Bounty on a Butterfly

Dr Nick Smith, chairman of the department of Conservation has announced that there is a $10 bounty on great white butterflies!

Do not be taken in by the beauty of this beast!  They eat and eat and eat their way through the short life that they have and cause so much damage to the crops. They have one back spot on the bottom of each wing which helps to identify them from other white butterflies.

They have only been found in one location in New Zealand which eliminates us from being bounty hunters.  We are A on the map and the butterflies are in Nelson on the south island on the Tasman Sea at B. 

The life-cycle of the butterfly coincides perfectly with spring break at school. So this is the deal. For every dead butterfly that is brought into the office in Nelson they will pay $10. There is no limit since one female can lay 750 eggs in her lifetime. They can bring them in between 30 September and 11 October.  

There is some concern that these great whites look a lot like the small white butterfly that are around all the time. If they bring those in dead they will not be paid the $10 but they will have their names in a draw to win spot prizes.  

Not only has New Zealand figured out an economical way to rid the land of invaders but to help everyone to be gainfully employed for at least two weeks in the year!  Can we learn from them?

Angry Birds

We heard on the news the other day that New Zealand has been invaded by angry birds!  Certainly that caught our attention. It appears that the island has been invaded by a bird called a red-vented bulbul. It is considered an aggressive, invasive bird that will damage the native vegetation, birdlife and private gardens.  It has a red patch under its tail and a white breast with a cap on its head like a blue jay.

The minister of whatever group it is that takes care of the environment said that if we see them we are supposed to call this certain number and someone will immediately come. They will try to catch it but if they do not then they will shoot it!  

There is a website you can go to that will let you hear it call so you will be on the lookout.  They think they came in as stow-aways on commercial ships or private boats.  New Zealand has been invaded twice but this little critter but have managed to do away with all of them.  We will keep you posted on the progress of defending against the invasion.  

Eden Park and the All-Blacks

Just wanted to share a few photos from our evening at the rugby game.  Most of them were taken by Sister Jacobsen.

Here are seven of the nine couples that went to the game.  From left to right:  Elder and Sister Huntzinger. She is the one who took me to the hospital in Pittsburgh when Steve was born. They work in the mission office.  Elder and Sister Long work with YSA.  Elder and Sister Anderson. He is the area medical advisor.  Us.  Elder and Sister Passehl. They are Australian and work in the mission office. Elder and Sister Jacobsen work in ITEP which are all the schools on the islands that the church owns. Elder and Sister Reynolds. They are in welfare and he is part time area executive secretary.

The park is in the back. There is not a single parking place for any car at the park.

As you can see we were pretty early for the game. This is taken from where our seats are. This was one of the times when there is no liquid sunshine falling.  

Here is my fearless companion reading his program. If you have ever gone to a sports event with him you already know that he ALWAYS buys a program and ALWAYS reads it too. 

You can see that we are all set for the storm clouds that were rolling through. These are the Reynolds. She is eating a lamb burger. She said she will not repeat that experience. Before too long everyone in the stands had on hats and ponchos just like ours. The true blue fans had one black ones!

A Few Catch Phrases

I have been hearing all sorts of different phrases in the past few weeks and decided to share them. Maybe you want to add some to your personal ever-expanding vocabulary.

Gutted:  I was just gutted at the results of my test. We would use devastated.

Dune and Dusted:  Soon the regatta will be done and dusted.  The races is over and there is nothing else to say about it.

Too big for our boots:  The office is just too big for its boots.  We need to find more office space to accommodate all the people that work here.

Honesty call:  She came in with an honesty call.  She told the truth about it situation.

Hell yes or Damn sure:  Are you going home?  Hell yes or Damn sure.  Damn and hell are not considered swear words here but you would NEVER hear anyone use the word crap!

Sorted: We will sort it out shortly.  We will figure it out.

Guess that is all for today. I keep a running list so I can share.

Sticker Shock!

I saw two things today that I thought I would share with you just so you can get an idea of this great land that we are currently calling home.

It really does not matter if you get the truss tomatoes or the loose ones since they are the same price. Makes you think once or twice before you decide to have a BLT for lunch!

This notice was in our mailbox the other day. We only check it once or twice a week since all of our mail goes directly to the area office. When I saw this I could not believe my eyes!  Now admittedly I have not been in the market for a babysitter for a good long time other than when someone is visiting and we get Mallory from across the street to come by. Maybe I have been cheating her out of what I owe her. I will have to remember this come next summer!

Spring Equinox/Winter Solstoic

I was talking with Debbie the other day in the office. She is the new secretary for Elder Haleck. She moved up from working in seminary and institute to our floor. She is a nice lady and will take over a good part of the work in the area presidency's office. She was telling me that it is finally spring in New Zealand. Then she said: "...but I just heard that it really isn't spring yet."  I commented that she was right. Not for another three weeks until it was spring equinox.

Well the short of the long here is that they think spring starts 1 September. I then asked when fall started. She told me that it was on 1 March. It seems Kiwis do not know about when the seasons really happen. To me it was just a bit strange but at least it explains to me why everyone has always talked about the changing of seasons on the first of the month.

Just a random thought to share with you.

A Cool Story

This past week I received a recommendation from a young man who is from Papua New Guinea.  I always shudder just a bit when I get them from there as they are never filled out completely and I have to wait forever to have photos other information sent so I was not surprised when I found that the membership number was not correct. I went down and visited with my friend Stacey to have her help me. We had to look pretty hard to find him. Sometimes they are found with just their name but oftentimes we need to go into the ward memberships itself and go through all the names until we find one that matches. This was one of those but we finally were secure in the knowledge that we had the right record for the right man.

When I went to enter the recommendation with the membership number it came up with the prompt that he already had a recommendation in the system. So I then went into the part of the program where I can see all of the recommendations that have been started. Some are three years old but they have to be cancelled by a bishop before they disappear from the system and since bishops always hope, they remain. He was not in that file. The next are recommendations that have actually progressed to be in the bishops offices so to speak. Then there are those that are with the bishop but not complete, those with the stake president and those with the stake president that are no complete. I looked through all of those.

Then I sent a message to the service center and the mission office in Papua New Guinea to see if he had ever started one online and of course the answer was: NO. But I really knew that. There just is not access to computers there. So I gave up looking and called the missionary department.  This is when it got really weird!

The woman I talked to seemed a bit mystified when I asked about him and then she said:  "Not only has he done another recommendation but he is a full-time missionary right now serving in Papua New Guinea."  You can well imagine my response. She gave me the details that he had had a date for the MTC in December 2011 but did not show up and she had no other information on what had happened.

That was when I wrote to the current mission president, President Kaufusi and asked. Not only is he the mission president that this young man was supposedly serving with he was also the priesthood leader who had signed his new papers as he lived in a district. In my message to the president I asked about this elder, did he show up in the online system that he was serving, who did he not go etc etc etc.  He wrote back that night.

This young man had a call to serve in Papua New Guinea starting in the summer of 2011 but because he was on another island seeing family he missed the first MTC intake. They gave him another one for November 2011 and he missed that one too. The final one he was given was for December 2011 but his priesthood leader, President Fata said he could not serve. He never asked that the recommendation be cancelled and SL was never notified.  President Kaufusi then inquired as to why he did not serve. What it a worthiness issue?  The answer was: he could not read and the mission president/priesthood leader would not set him apart and let him serve. But nothing was done in the way of cancelling the papers or the call.  President Kaufusi asked him if he could read now and he said: YES. I know how to read. I used the Book of Mormon. I have read it five times already! I can read!  President told him then he could serve.

Elder Bertasso is in the process of getting all the information gathered up and it will be presented as a reinstatement and no new call will be made. He could be out way before anyone else putting in papers now. I am so excited for this elder and about this elder. I wonder if he will be assigned to a different mission too?

What Is In A Name?

One of the most interesting things are the names here. It always takes me longer to enter in names of people and places because they are names that are not familiar to me. None of the rules of grammar or spelling seem to hold true. In the last two weeks I have found some really interesting names. Just let me share two of them with you.

Logoitinomatagilelei.  This is a first name. Each vowel needs to be pronounced for it to have been said correctly.

Tongkalanapuangalagivave Lene. This young man is from New Zealand and he is a very fortunate and blessed missionary because he has been called to the Brazil Sao Paulo North Mission. I have sent just such a message to his stake president to have him let this Elder know that he is going to the very best mission in the world!

So, if your kids (or you) happen to dislike the moniker you hung on them just remind them: it could have been worse!