Rest of the Week

On the left is a picture of the blossoms found on the tree below. Almost every tree blossoms here. It is so beautiful. Different ones keep blooming. It will be sad when fall comes.













At the left you can see one of the many interesting bugs found here in New Zealand. This one did not bite me as many others have. I think that I am fresh blood. I have bites all over my ankles. They don't seem to bother Elder Archibald, and I think it is because of the oil I rub on him each night. The bugs are about the wildest things we have seen here. They do have birds that are unusual. I have only seen deer raised in paddocks.



This next is a picture I took from the car. This tree is so pretty. It has beautiful pick blossoms. We have seen this tree often as we have journeyed between Nelson and Westport.
















Next is the first place 1/2 marathon finisher. On Saturday they held the Buller Marathon. It was the worst weather they had had in 28 years. Some of the racers said when they were dropped off in the gorge it was just like being dumped in a swimming pool. They had over 2 inches of rain in less than an hour. We spent the day at the square watching the runners and walkers come in. They entered through the Memorial Gates. The oldest to complete the marathon was an 88 year old gentleman. He pushed a stroller full of rocks so he could maintain his balance. After most of the marathoners had completed they had a mini-marathon for the youngsters up to 12 years old. They were able to come in the same gates as the marathoners. This activity really brings the community together. It is international--a couple from Australia, a few from USA and Canada, and a few from Europe. They had 300 more entrants this year than last.


Last evening we went to visit a couple that we met on the street. When we passed them in the afternoon the wife kind of smiled and said "Good morning." We are slow and kept walking but as we were talking about it realized that they must of known we were LDS. Do you think the badges gave us away? Anyway, we saw them later at the grocery store and so I got brave and visited with them. Elder with pen in hand got their names and address and phone number. We asked if we could come and visit them and She said yes if you bring a vacuum. Last night we went to visit them. They had known and loved Elder Hudson when he was in Christchurch as their neighbor. They got married last month. They have an adorable 2 1/2 year old and are expecting a new addition in April. The little girl took to me and we had a great visit. I wish we had pictures.

Nelson Zone Conference

This past week we journeyed with our Greymouth Elders to Zone Conference in Nelson. It is such a pretty drive. It was very nice to go Nelson and meet with the young elders and the mission president. In the picture I will try and name the Elders. Front row: Elder Barker(Utah), Elder Tamale(Auckland but originally Tonga) Elder Beckwith (Adelaide, Australia),Elder Hudson(Scotland), Sister Jolliffe(Mission President's wife from England) Me. Back Row: Elder Kaufusi(Tonga), Elder Tuipuloto(Sydney, Australia) Elder Mactavish (Temple View, NZ), Elder Haynes(Sydney, Australia), President Jolliffe. We had a wonderful Zone Conference. Our Zone is the smallest in our New Zealand Wellington Mission. 2 sets of elders are in Nelson, one set is in Blenheim, us in Westport, and a set in Greymouth. We are quite far apart. We travel to Greymouth, an hour and half away for district meetings once a week. It is almost 3 hours to Nelson and the same to Blenheim. President Jolliffe is a great man. He presented wonderful material to keep us enthused. Our mission theme for 2010 is Mission of Miracles. We had inspirational presentations from him and his wife. The Zone Leaders Elder Barker and Elder Tamale had us role playing situations. All went well and we and the president and his wife acted as investigators as the young elders taught us.
Here is a picture of our Greymouth Elders. Elder Beckwith is full of enthusiasm and energy. He is from Australia. He has been out since end of July. Elder Kaufusi is humble and hard working. He has a strong testimony. He is quite quiet but loves the people. We have watched him with little children and he plays in the hot sun with them and little ones no matter how grubby climb on his lap and he enjoys them. He goes home in May and we will miss him when he leaves. Tonga will receive a very nice man when he goes home.
Here is a picture of the Tongan elders in our Zone. Elder Tamale, Elder Kaufusi, and Elder Tuipulotu. Only one goes home to Tonga, the other 2 to Auckland and Sydney. At conference when just the 3 were together they conversed in Tongan. It was fun to listen to them. Elder Tuipulotu is just a greenie--came out in January group.
Here we are doing what Elders do best. Having a meal. A couple of sisters from Nelson Branch prepared us a very lovely meal. We surely enjoyed it. There was roasted chicken, potatoes, salad and Maori bread. That is a great bread. For dessert there was chocolate cake, ice cream, and fruit salad. The picture below shows the elders cleaning up and serenading us with music. All are very willing to help. We found it very encouraging to meet with the young elders because they are so full of testimony and enthusiasm. They are an inspiration for us. We loved the conference.

Kia Ora

It is nice to have internet finally at our flat. I will try and describe what we have been doing in this beautiful country. The above picture is of Nelson. We have been there twice and are becoming a little familiar with the area. It is an absolutely beautiful city. It is built on and around hills. Besides driving on the other side of the road and doing round abouts clockwise, it is an easy city to get around. Elder Archibald has done a fantastic job of driving.
There are interesting bugs in this country. This one did not bite. The worst bugs I have found are the sand flies. Their bites are vicious and as itchy or more so than mosquitoes at home. The mosquitoes here are about 3 times larger than any I have seen at home. This bug was found outside the new flat of the Elders in Nelson.
All the trees are in blossom right now. This one was on the boulevard going to downtown Nelson. I wish the picture was as beautiful as the trees were. They were lining the grass way between the traffic. It was amazingly beautiful.
This picture is outside one of the flats we looked at. In the picture are Elder Barker from south Jordan, Elder Archibald, and Elder Kitekeiaho from Auckland. We wish we had secured this flat as it was gorgeous but they did secure one very nice that we had looked at earlier. It was such a beautiful day.
In the center you can see Kahn doing a back flip onto the beach. He is extremely athletic. He is one of the 2 boys in our primary., He surveyed the area before the flip which surprised me and his mother. He must have been hurt at sometime because he didn't inspect the area. I believe he is made of rubber. This day was family day at the beach. This beach is only about 10 minutes from our flat.
This is the Clough Family from Ikamatua. They work on a dairy. They have a lovely family. Bradley is the father, Sophie the mother. Gabriella is Bradley's sister and going to Christchurch for school. Rueben is the oldest. Owen is with Elder Kaufusi(from Tonga). Little Bear(Cooper) is on his mother's knee. Elder Beckwith from Adelaide is behind Bradley. We have really enjoyed our visits with this young family. The Woods(Rex and Collette) met this family 7 years ago when they were here on their mission. However, they were way south in the Invecargil area. Missing from the picture is Hana the daughter but we have her picture later. These lovely people belong to the Greymouth Branch. That is 1 1/2 hours from here in Westport.
Here is Hana, the beautiful daughter. When she came in from school this day it was like a magnet drew her to Elder Archibald. She had been so sad when she missed us last week. She is 6, almost 7. We had a great visit with her when she came home from school. When we left she and the rest begged us to come back and we assured them we would.
This is Ian Williams, with his Chooks. That is NZ for chickens. Merle(Elder Archibald) had a hard time deciding what chooks were when we first heard them talk about the chooks. Here most chickens are free range. Today we were at Ian's neighbors and they told us they call the young ones chickens but after a certain age they are chooks. We are certainly getting a vocabulary education while we are here. Ian is the son of a very active member of our branch here in Westport. When we went to visit on Friday we had a great visit. It is nice to be in the country. At the end of our visit we invited him to Church on Sunday and much to our delight he was there. His dear mother was just thrilled. When Elder Archibald said "We'll see you in two weeks." He responded okay. He works every other Sunday. We will visit him when he gets off shift work. The people here are so friendly.
I am not sure what the above plant is. I think it is a hydrangia(not sure of the spelling) At home they really have to be babied and are usually house plants. I have seen them a lot around Mother's Day. Here they grow wild and beautiful. They are around the roadsides and up driveways. This is truly an amazing country. We love it here. We are busy and happy. We miss our family but have faith they are well taken care of. We so appreciate their support. We also appreciate the support of our good friends. Take care and know we love you. The title of this week is the greeting you hear everywhere.

We've Been Here a Month!

This is a picture of two really nice girls. They were visiting the Grandmother in Karamea. It was an adventure getting to their grandma's home. Along the coast and then up over and back down a steep bluff. Very winding roads. Then we got to where they had tied red plastic indicating the driveway. It was kind of like a quad trail, but we drove our Toyota up and it was quite an adventure. It was so peaceful there and one could really hide from the world here. The girls names are Madicyn and Tazmyn. They were darling.

We have been in Westport, New Zealand for almost a month. Above you can see some of the seals at the local colony. We went to see them when we first got here because they migrate elsewhere until next October. They will be leaving shortly.

This is a picture of our flat and the Toyota we drive on the other side of the road. The steering wheel is on the right side and more that once I have gone to get in on the wrong side. Elder Archibald is an awesome driver. We still do not have internet at our flat but today we are sitting in front of the library, catching up on email, banking, and reading blogs and updating ours briefly.

This is Hawks Crag. It is one way, cut out of rock. You can see the road from a ways up the road. They say that when it really floods the water comes up to here. The Buller River is below, about 30 to 50 feet. It is hard to imagine the river getting that high, although when we first arrived it rained for days. But right now it is nice and sunny. Today is Anniversary Day for the Buller area and it is a public holiday. School starts for the children tomorrw. They have just had 6 weeks vacation.


Elder Archibald took a walk in the sea to see if his feet would calm. We saw shells, birds and many jellyfish on the beach. It is really lovely here and we love the people. Will post more when we hopefully get internet at our flat.

Christmas Week

On Tuesday Elder Archibald and I drove down to the MTC for a devotional. We have been missing the special spirit that we felt during the week we stayed there. Tonight Elder Neal L. Anderson spoke to us. His wife spoke first and then they had their grandchildren sing a medley of Christmas songs. This is one thing I have been missing--children. One thing that Elder Anderson told us was "Things that have value have to be paid for in advance." He talked about knowing Christ and that it comes by degrees. How appropriate at this time of year.
On Christmas morning Elder Perry and his wife were the guests. Before they spoke 2 sisters performed Mary's Lullaby. It was so beautiful. Sister Perry reminded us to remember the "Hope of the Babe." Elder Perry told us that our Christmas at the MTC and our next Christmas will always be special for us as we teach about families and the gospel. It was special. The Perry family shared Christmas scriptures and then they spent the day with the missionaries for lunch. We came back to Tricia's .
In the evening we went back to the MTC. Greg Olsen was the guest speaker. I have always loved his paintings but now have even a greater appreciation for them. I picked this picture because of the shepherd. Brother Olsen told as a young boy they herded sheep by driving them and hoping they would go where they wanted them to go. He said as an adult he went to the Holy Land and there he saw shepherds who led their sheep. The sheep knew the shepherd voice and followed him. I am reminded of when we had sheep and the sheep knew Merle's voice and would come or follow him. The Savior is our shepherd and I pray that we can all follow him.

More of Our Week

These are the young missionaries that are coming to our Mission. Sister Inman from Bountiful and Elder Sharkey from Glendale. They get to fly out today the 21st and we were wishing that we could fly too.
This is a representation of missionaries going throughout the world to preach the gospel. We do not have all of their energy but we love the gospel.
Between the Wilford Woodruff Building and The Bookstore was a display of Christmas lights. It was so beautiful. We hope to also go to Temple Square while we are waiting. I love the lights at Christmas time.
On Tuesday when we went to the Post Office I heard a loud squealing "Elder Archibald". I wondered who on earth Merle(Oops Elder Archibald) knew now. The young lady came whirling out of the post office and threw her arms around me and it was Heather Burt. What a wonderful thing to see and visit with her.

Our Week At the MTC

Last week we spent an awesome time at the Missionary Training Center.(MTC) We arrived Monday morning shortly after 10:00 a.m. and were directed to our room where we dropped off the luggage and began the process. It had been slushy so we were careful where we walked. This is me on the way to training. We don't even have our badges yet.

The above picture is Merle(Elder Archibald) on the sidewalk as we headed to our first class. We don't even have our badges yet. He still looks fresh off the farm. We were about to begin our adventure. We entered a room and went to Sister Prestwich first. She showed us how to put on our badges--over the left side because we serve with all our heart, might and mind. We met Elder and Sister Buchanan who are called to serve during the week so each Monday they greet a new batch of Senior Missionaries and spend time with us through the week and try to make us comfortable. We met with a nurse who recorded our shots and then with someone who would answer any questions and then finally with a woman who gave us a packet that we needed to go to the bookstore to get. I think by now it was nearly lunch so we went to the MTC Bookstore and back to the large room and put down our books. Then we had lunch.