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!!