A new piece of art!

When I made the post of Bradley and his nap pillow I realized that I have not told you about our newest piece of artwork that will be gracing our walls in Provo when we return.  I was in the welfare office having a meeting with my friend Naomi when Elder and Sister Reynolds came out of the storage room that they were cleaning out. They had a painting with them that they had been told to dispose. I saw it was immediately asked if they were really going to throw it away was it possible that I could have it. They suggested that before I took it I should probably see if Elder Bertasso would be happy to have it a part of our decor. So after the meeting I went up to our office and brought him right back down to see it. And yes, it is going to hang in our home.

It is by an artist in Papua New Guinea and represents some of the tribes that are there. It is a bit hard to tell but there is great depth perception to this painting. It really in interesting to look at. We have it at the to office right now and it has received very mixed reviews. Most like it but Tessa mentioned that it would give her nightmares if she had this in her home. I am quite excited to see what your reaction is to this work of art! 

Anyone for a nap?

We have this crazy British friend here named Bradley James.  I have mentioned him before. He is in charge of buying property for the area. He also bought the new mission homes and offices etc. He is always so happy and so fun to have visit our office. He stopped by the other day to show us his latest purchase. It is called a nap pillow!  You take it with you and can use it on a plane, in the car, at your desk or wherever. It is made out of those very soft pillow animals that are silky and all. When he put it on we laughed so hard we had to close the door.  Check out his photo!

Elder and Sister Brown

We have some friends serving here in Auckland with us. It is Elder and Sister Brown.  They live two doors down from us. They park two spaces down from us and they work six doors down from us as well. Elder Brown is the assistant legal counsel here and works with Arthur Edgeson. Sister Brown works sometimes at this and at that but she really does not have a specific assignment and has always seemed to struggle with what she was to do. She asked to visit with me one day about something she thought should be happening here in Auckland in regards to the Chinese members and investigators. She wanted to know if I thought she should ask to visit the Elder Hamula (Area President) and share her ideas. She asked what I suggested she do. I said that if I were in her place I would ask for an appointment with President Lekias, the mission president and tell him that she was willing to serve wherever he suggested and then tell him that you would love an opportunity to work with the Chinese. She looked at me and said: I would never do it that way but I can see you doing just that!  I took that as a compliment but I am not sure that was how she meant it though.

She is a wild lady on the roads. I went with her the first time she drove. When we got in the car she suggested that we have a prayer first. I thought it was because she was driving for the first time. I have since found that she does that every time she goes anywhere.  I am certain it is a very good practice!  She loves traffic circles because "you never have to do anything but drive!"

Two weeks ago she called the office in the middle of the day to tell her husband that she was fine but had been in a car accident. My first thought was it has been in a traffic circle? But it was not. She was coming out of a car park and could not see to the right so she pulled out a bit more and a big truck took off her front bumper!  I could not resist taking a photo of their poor little car.

Nothing else was damaged other than the bumper and it broke all the little clips that hold it on, But we could not help but laugh, and we laughed very hard at this, when we saw what she was transporting in her back seat.

You guessed it...her bumper! 

They have repaired the car and she is back on the roads again. Maybe we all need to pray before we get out on the streets here in Takapuna!

Oh It's Chilly This Evening!

It has been an interesting contrast for me to experience winters in Brazil as well as in New Zealand. Both countries experience about the same temperatures in those months. The lows are usually about 7-10 degrees C and sometimes a bit colder and usually get to around 15 in the day but that is about all the similarities.  In Brazil I was usually always cold in the winter. At church we found that the chapels were constructed of cinder blocks and cement. There was no heat whatsoever in the building. You would see moms bringing their kids to meeting wearing 3-4 outfits one on top of the other. The homes were cold as well having similar construction. In most places the only heat was provided by space heaters, usually the type that are filled with oil and look like radiators in old homes in the US. I was always cold!

In New Zealand the construction seems to be better and insulation is used in most buildings. Our office is well heated, and is at times too warm.  The church is heated although individual classrooms usually have their own wall unit heater.  They also use the oil-filled heaters although it is not uncommon for nice homes to have heaters like the air conditioners we had in the house in Singapore. Set the temp and turn it on and off as will.  

We have a very nice Dyson heater in our flat. We also have the oil-filled one but have not brought it up from storage since this one works so well. And I can always run a load of something through the drier since they tend to put off good heat (hence the fire alarms). You can imagine my surprise when I saw the following items for sale at the grocery store the other day!  I can well imagine people having a fireplace in their houses... 

BUT.....really a coal burning stove in the house?

So Much To Share!

It has been over two weeks since I posted last and believe you me there is so much to share.  We have had a shooting here in our own backyard which resulted in the motorway (freeway) being closed for 18 hours. We have had very cold (3 degree C) mornings and lovely new days of 11 degrees C. We have had wind and rain but no hail this week. We have had earthquakes and the sinking of ships. We have had news from the All-Blacks, the Tall-Blacks and other blacks. Just because I miss a few days or so it does not mean that things are not happening here.  I hope you always return.

The second July is Maori Language week. They really try hard to keep this part of the New Zealand culture alive and in the forefront. Part of that is determined by law as set out in the Waitangi Treaty. We were helping to clean out the area office this last week and I actually found an interactive CD all about the Maori people and their culture. I will have to share parts of it later.

The way I found out about it being Maori language month was by going to the grocery store. I was greeted this sign first since the bakery is the first place I go after the produce. I have to remind myself that if I go to the store too early (before 9 am) or too later (after 6pn) there will usually be not bakery bread. Sometimes there is still a chiabata which is great because if there is one it will have been marked down to half price.

Many of the words will have a repeat of the first past like this one. Names of people and cities also reflect this pattern.

Usually a word like pepa will be pronounced with an "R" at the end although it is never written there. 

Nothing to say about this one although they give you an idea of how it is to sound. 

Doesn't sound any more appetizing to me in Maori than it does in English!

Another example of an "R" added to the end of the word although there is not one there.  The Kiwi's do this with English as well.  

And that is all I have to say about that!

A Great Friend

I have a friend named Naomi who is in charge of the Perpetual Education Funds here in the Auckland office. She takes care of all the islands. She is native and is Maori I think. She is probably 40 and never been married. She has a very special gift to be able to connect with the youth and young adults. She shared a story with me that touched my heart. She has given me permission to share it with you.

Naomi travels to the islands often to check out new educational opportunities and to see if she can help move the programs along. She was on Vanuatu two weeks ago working with a senior couple there that administer the programs. The Larsons were working with two young women who had just returned from their missions. They wanted to attend a hospitality school which prepares people to work in the resorts. There are huge resorts on each of these small islands so it is a good place for employment but they are all required to take this course. These two sisters had not completed high school though so they were required to return to their own island and participate in a bridging program which fills in the educational gaps. They were not looking forward to that at all. The one girl, Mary, would not be able to go to the school as her father had already arranged for her to marry a less-active member of the church upon her return. The Larsons said that they had tried everything and there was no way around the requirements.

For the rest of the day and that evening at her hotel Naomi was so concerned and pondered upon the situation and tried to find a way to solve it. She said that she plead with the Lord in prayer that he would offer a solution for her. She was reminded of the scripture that the Lord would send angels and that great things would come to pass. She slept well and awoke with a plan.

Naomi and the Larsons were to meet with some people at the hospitality school at 11 but she wanted to be early so they got there about 10. Upon arriving she walked into the office of the president and asked to speak to him. Fortunately she was able to. She mentioned the two women and he said that he was well aware of their situation but that his hands were tied. Naomi then asked if she could tell him about these two women. He agreed.

She then spent just about five minutes and told him about their missions, how they studied, what they did including street contacting, teaching, caring for themselves and managing their own finances etc. As he listened Naomi could see the spirit begin to soften not only his heart but also his very appearance. He said: I have a 3 week short program that we offer as a means to see if the students are ready for the main course work. I will put them in the course and if they do well I will admit them straight away in September.

After they completed their other work at the school they went back to the service center and found that one of the young women was waiting for them. She was thrilled and immediately tried to find Mary to tell her the news but they could not find her. There were things that needed to be taken care of the next morning but they just could not find her although they tried all day long. Returning to her hotel Naomi prayed to know how to find Mary. Not having any ideas she decided to take a walk around the area and maybe find a place to do some shopping. The immediate area around the hotel was all closed for the evening and she was just about ready to turn back when she thought oh way not walk some more. Still she passed only shops that were shut for the evening. In the distance she could see a Chinese shop that seemed to be open. She went in and was walking around when a young woman came out of the back room. It was Mary!  As she told her the news Mary just wept because she knew she would not have to marry the man her father had chosen for her but she also knew that the prayer she had had in her heart all week had been answered.

Certainly the Lord sent an angel to help in Vanuatu and that angel was Naomi!

A walk on Long Bay

On Tuesday we left the flat about 2 pm to get to the beach at low tide. And it was so low!

This is facing north but we decided that we needed to walk south to see if we could connect with Torbay. That was as far north as we had gotten.  We walked for well over an hour going south but we are not certain that we succeeded in making it far enough south. We will have to wait for another opportunity to drive to Torbay and park there and walk north to see if we can connect.  I think we were on the north end of that beach where we had only walked as far as the south end of it. There is a plaque which we will have to find to verify.

There were lava rocks that were covered with barnacles and some sort of sea weed. It was soft to walk on. But this is all there was and then bare rock. We saw very little sand.

We had spectacular views of the harbour and of the islands and boats as well. There was a lovely sail boat that was at full sail which was fun to see. 

This is one of my favorite photos that I took that day.. It was just so fun. I think there is a restaurant on the top of that cliff. There were other houses that we saw as we walked further. Every so often there would be a cracking sound and rocks would fall from the cliff.  A bit scary the first time it happened. We were not sure how much of that cliff was coming down up top of us!

This is another one of my favorites for the day. It was just such a great day for a walk. We were so glad that we took the time to do this. We only saw one set of footprints after we left where we started in the first photo until we had walked the hour. There was one very small stretch of sand with a set of prints.  And this was all the sand that we saw!

It was like we were the only people around at all.  We did see two fishermen at the point that we stopped going south. And in the same spot we found evidence of others who had been casting their lines as we found tide pools where they had cleaned their fish and rocks covered with fish scales. Not a very nice thing to leave behind but as the tide came in it would certainly take care of the leavings of someone who was not very polite. 

This was taken after we had turned around and were headed back north. Certainly a camera cannot capture the beauties of the sky and the meadows in the background. I loved the chance to be outside and to be walking on the beach again. I have missed it. There were no shells to share as this is a marine reserve and it is against the law to take anything other than photos and there were not shells on the lava stone. I did find a neat shell right when we started but it had a creature in and so I returned it to the water.  

Hope you like the snaps!