Autumn in New Zealand

 We are enjoying our first autumn in New Zealand.  The leaves are so beautiful, and we have had beautiful warm sunny days.  We are loving every day of it.

The last Saturday

Elder and Sister Stauffers have been coming to Ashburton most Saturdays to teach the kids here piano lessons.  This was their last week, as they are going home to Utah on May 1st.  The kids planned a "little" party for them to say goodbye!

It was so touching to hear the kids say how much they loved and appreciated the Stauffers.  Made us realize how hard it will be to say goodbye when we leave. 

Elder and Sister Stauffer were ask to come and speak in our branch in Ashburton, their last Sunday in New Zealand, which they did, and they gave beautiful talks.  Because they had to go right back after sacrament meeting, the mom's of the piano kids, prepared a lovely luncheon, for them to take in the car!  Sweet people.  We are going to miss the Stauffers most!  They have become our dear friends.

Salatielu got baptized

This is our wonderful  family that we went to the temple with last year.  Today Salatielu got baptized by his father!  Salatielu is the one with the light shining from his face!!  Elder Neider can never pronounce his name so he nick named him Louie Louie!  Today after the baptism, he said we should call him Salatielu now!  Such a wonderful family - we love them every one!!

Jack and Margaret celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary this week.  We went to Oahmaru and took them to tea to celebrate!  They are an inspiration to us!  They are so delightful and fun. 

Jennifer

Kenny gave me this little Russian marble figurine doll, about 40 years ago.  When our baby Jennifer was born 36 years ago, this reminded us of her - because her spirit is a grown girl, and we don't really know what her face looks like. Anyway it has always sort of represented Jennifer to us.
Fast forward to 2012 in New Zealand.  All three of our children, (and their companions) have been able to come to New Zealand and visit us on our mission, and it has been wonderful.  On our trip with Camille we stopped in a little town, and there was only about 3 stores, and one was little antique store.  So I walked in, and there was this little doll among 1000 other nic nacs!  I have never seen another one like it - and here it was in New Zealand!  It was like Jennifer wanted us to know that she got to come and see us on our mission too! A tender mercy!!  She has always been such an important part of our family and we love her dearly. 

Our friend Leanne invited the Sister missionaries and us, to tea at her lovely home. She has just recently redone the wallpaper through her home, and it is beautiful. Leanne loves to do things beautifully, and the dinner was so lovely, and delicious. She uses her beautiful china and crystal and and silver serving dishes, and the food is prepared with great care and it was amazing! Such a lovely evening!

My friend June

This is my visiting teaching partner June, and she and her family prepared a lovely tea for our sisters and some other sisters in the branch - delicious Chineese food! June is a wonderful sister and along with working at an assisted living center, lovingly cares for her family, and sends a birthday card to all the sisters in the branch. She is 100% good!

Our beautiful yard "award"

Yesterday in our mail box, was this little card. It said: To the Lucky Winners!! The Ashburton Garden Center had awarded us "First Prize" for the best kept cottage garden on the west side of Ashburton! In appreciation of your efforts you have won dinner for two at the Somerset Grocer. And the presentation would be on Friday at 12:00 pm. Well done! The standard was very high this year.

We were quite tickled over this! Kenny works very hard at keeping our wee yard looking beautiful! Inside were also two movie tickets.

I called our landlords, because incidentally, we were going to lunch with them on Friday at 12 at the Somerset Grocer. She laughed and immediately fessed up to having given us the card, because they had come by and commented on how nice the yard looked, and thought we should have "an award"! Upon looking closer the two movie tickets were out of her coupon book, and said the two tickets were at a discount price of only $26! They are very clever, and fun!!

Shawn and Jeanine's week in New Zealand

Shawn and Jeanine got to talk to the youth in our branch, and brought some lovely things for them regarding the theme "Arise and Shine Forth" We were so proud of them! We love them and the wonderful youth here!

Shawn went deep sea diving in the ocean and got us a crayfish which was delicious!! And we went to the pig farm, so Jeanine could kiss a pig! We got a lot done in a week!

We had such a fun time with Shawn and Jeanine! First thing, we took them on a suprise missionary apartment inspection in Christchurch, so they could see how missionaries live here! They got to meet with some wonderful families from Fiji, and hear about missionaries there and eat heaps of Fijian food! And they got to watch them play rugby!

We went on an airplane ride and flew around Mount Cook and saw a lot of the beautiful island.