We're A Traveling Pair

On Monday we took a day for preparation and went to Greymouth to meet with the Elders so they could take us to some of the beautiful places near Greymouth. We took them to the library so they could do their emails for the week and we went looking for camcorders. We were done before they were and so did some visiting with people on the street. When they were done we hopped in the car and traveled down to Hokitika.We had lunch together then journeyed out to the Hokitika Gorge. What a beautiful place, even if the sandflies have huge teeth, at least it feels like it. Above you can see the Gorge through the trees. Isn't the water pretty--almost like the water off of a glacier.
Above you can see our tour group. There is Elder Beckwith in the back with Tomi Kinikini who lives in Greymouth but had never been to the Gorge, just 75 km. away from his home. Seated you can see Elder Archibald, and in front of him is Elder Kaufusi, who is from Tonga, and myself. We had a couple from Australia take this picture. It's P Day so most do not have the white shirts on but we all have our badges on.
This is the swing bridge we had to cross to get to the pretty areas of the gorge. It swings wildly when you jump or run on it. It was so fun. I was laughing at the Elders trying to get the bridge to swing. After the bridge you had to tramp around through the bush to get to where we took the other pictures. It was about 1/4 of a mile walk.
On Tuesday we drove to Nelson so that we could do Flat Inspections before the transfers. This is Elder Barker, from South Jordan, in the doorway of his flat. 2 sets of Elders live in this flat. Elder Barker and Elder Tamale are the Zone Leaders and they are companions to Elder Mactavish and Elder Haynes, who are greenies for 2 more days. When I first saw Elder Tamale's name I thought he was Mexican but he is Tongan and is from Auckland. They are all great Elders.
After we inspected the flats in Nelson we traveled to Blenheim. Above you can see Elder Tuipulotu, Elder Archibald, and Elder Hudson. Elder Tuipulotu is from Sydney and Elder Hudson is from Scotland. This trio sang Happy Birthday to me on my birthday. It was fun to think about being in the birthplace of my Grandmother on my birthday.

On Monday the sisters of our Branch gathered together to celebrate the Relief Society's birthday. We had a light lunch and then made Kiddie Care Bags. Here are the sisters; Bonnie Stack, Lyn Maugham, Thea Williams, Joy Anderson, and Bev Vandem Bosch. We were able to make 10 bags for the shelter. Below you can see the bags which we made.



Above you can see Elder Kaufusi and Tomi Kinikini as they prepare the Umu. It is a Tongan way of cooking. Elder Kaufusi prepared the packets. They had taro leaves, silver beet, and then meat added to the top. They put onions on the top then soaked it in coconut cream and bundled the tin foil up. It was kind of like the Hobo Dinners we had at camp as youth. Then we went to a baptism and came back and ate. As it was getting late we brought our packets home. We also had some Tongan Bread that was yummy. When we got home we ate the fish packet which was delicious. We tried the lamb packet today and that was not so good but we made a pork chop packet and a beef packet. They were great. We have had a busy week and done lots of visiting with inactives and new friends. We have also experienced a lot of culture.