Trip to the Temple!

We had the great privilege  of going to the Hamilton Temple  with these dear friends.  Mata went for her first time before she leaves for her mission to Brisbane, Austrailia. Her Grandmother came from Samoa to go with her. Mata felt so pretty in her temple dress!  What a sweetheart!  This beautiful family, was sealed together.  It reminded us of when we went to the temple and were sealed.  It was such a wonderful experience, and they were all so sweet! It was dark and raining hard when we came out of the temple but we had warm hearts!  We love this wonderful family!! And we love Mata!! 

Happy 70th Birthday Elder Neider!

Our wonderful ward had a suprise birthday party for Elder Neider! To start with, Rommel came and picked us up in this beautiful vintage car, and took us to the antique car museum, which they opened just for us!  Kenny had so much fun, looking at the beautiful old cars and talking with the 3 men who showed him around! Then they drove us "to the school, to pick up Rommel's son" and there they had everyone hiding.  When we walked in, everyone had a Elder Neider mask on and said SUPRISE!  It was quite a shock!   They had gone to so much work - red,white, and blue balloons, and birthday banners and a beautiful cake with our family picture on it, and heaps of wonderful food. They had set a special place for us with crystal glasses and real plates!!  They had different people say nice things, and had brought a big screen tv that they played video's of our kids wishing him happy birthday and a slide show of our pictures, and a jib/jab video.  Three Parata sisters did a Maori dance and singing.  Ramon, MC'd and played music from the '60s!  A good time was had by all - even an old 70 yr old! He felt very loved and special! Thank you Ashburton Ward!

Our new friends!

These are our new Senior Missionaries from Pleasant Grove, UT, Elder annd Sister Jarvis,  and they will be in Timeru, which is an hour south.  We will get to see them each week for District meetings, and that will be nice.  They are really lovely people!! Our new friends!! Also in this pic are our Zone leaders, Elder Viamolo  and Elder Greer.

Institute at University in Christchurch

These are just a few of the kids at the Institiute in Christchurch.  We were wearing yellow, in honor of a friend who died, who loved yellow!  We have been asked to teach Doctrine and Covenants,and we have about 35 in our class, on Thursday evenings. About 70 come altogether for classes, (or just for good fun with the other kids).  I've been bringing a treat for 70 each week!  They remind us of BYU Idaho, with lots of energy, enthusiasm and testimonies!  I'm sure that this calling is for my benefit, because I have not understood the D&C or studied it before. 
Elder and Sister Murfitt, are the couple who have come to fill in until Elder and Sister Stauffer's replacements come.  They are a lovely couple, 80+ yrs young,  who have been with the CES for many years. They know their "stuff" and are very brave to be doing what they are doing.  We hope we are as able at 80+ as they are!!

Shrina's birthday!

One year ago, we were invited to a party with the Branch Presidency for President Pongia's wife, Shrina's, birthday. That was where we met these good men and their wives.  This year, we had them all to dinner at our house for her birthday,(she is in the red)  and to celebrate the new Bishopric! We love each one of these wonderful friends! 

Elder Neider, busy helping get the table and dinner ready!

Baptisms

We had a lovely baptism for Destiny and her uncle Corey on June 16th.  Corey is Destiny's mom's brother.  It was very special We also are planning to go to the temple with this family next week, for them to be sealed.  Max, Destiny's dad baptized them both. We love this wonderful family!

One year!

We have been on our mission one year today!  And we woke up to 3 inches of beautiful white snow!  Not what we are use to on June 6th, but a beautiful day!  We are thankful for this opportunity to serve a mission, and for the great experiences we have had  in New Zealand so far! We love the wonderful friends we have here!!

Senior Missionary Seminar/Retreat

May 29 - June 1, 2012 we met with other senior missionaries from the South Island, and our wonderful  mission president,  President Kezerian, in Christchurch for training and counsel.  It was really fun to get to know the Turners, from Westport, and the Resimay's from Gore, and the Brazzeals from Wellington, and Sister Nation and Sister Chelius from Christchurch, and to share ideas and  thoughts and  testimonies. After training we went to nice dinners, and also to the Antartic Center, where we saw little blue penguins up close. 

We stayed with the sweetest little lady in Christchurch.  Her name is Helen Thomson.  she is 84 yrs old, and absolutely delightful and lovely.  Her late  husband was the first branch president in Ashburton, and served twice as branch president there!  Wish we had known, so we could have invited her to come when we were made a ward last Sunday.



One of 3 lovely meals!



Antartic Center in cold room!



 

  Friday, we went to Akaroa and went on a cruise, on a lovely boat,  to see the dolphins, and seals. It was beautiful weather, and so much fun!   





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Elder Neider and Elder Turner



Mata is going on a mission!

Mata had her papers to send in to go on a mission, and needed a picture to put with them, so we went to the Domain, and took "heaps" of pictures of her! We had so much fun! The flowers were beautiful, and so is Mata!! What a sweetheart! She will be a wonderful missionary.
Mata got her call and she is going to Australia in July!

Front page of the newspaper!

While we were setting up at the church for the baby shower, the people from the newspaper office next door, saw us through the door, and came in and looked at the nappie cakes, and ask us if they could have  a picture to put in the newspaper! When the ladies got there, 3 were missing, so we had a few "stand ins" by other ladies, so we would have 10!  They were having fun! (The front left with dark hair lady, has a balloon under her jacket!!)   It was on the front page!

Sister Johnson  sent a sweet e-mail and said,
What a great idea putting nappy cake photo in local weekly newspaper.

People in this region will know who we are now.  Just the beginning to the build up of having a chapel built in Ashburton too.

Thank you for all that you do.  God bless.

Regards, Virginia