The CELEBRATION!

We had the "Celebration" to celebrate our Branch becoming a Ward, On September 29th, 2012. 

The head table of honored guests inluded from left: Pres and Sister Evernden, Counselor in our Mission Presidency, Sister and Pres Bourne, Counselor in Stake Presidency, Elder and Sister Thomson, Area Seventy, Bro and Sister Wilkie, past Branch President, Sister Thomson, wife of first Branch President in Ashburton, Sister Johnston, wife of past Branch President. Not shown were Pres and Sister Ormsby and kids, our Stake President. Standing is Sister and Bishop Pongia, current Bishop! And Sister Afu, center, our Primary President.  Sister Pongia and Sister Afu prepared the head table with heaps of food, and Sister Westabaan made two beautiful cakes .  We also had anothe little cake celebrating a little girl who turned 1 that day. (green table cloth went crooked - makes me crazy!)

Roasting 7 pigs!  In Brother Afu's yard.  Moon, Bishop, Villiam, Salina and Elder Neider

 

Before the festivities began!
 

Sister Neider fixing the centerpieces.  Elder Neider cored the 24 pineapple, which we put around the plate, along with grapes and orange sections. 

 

 

Elder and Sister Thomson, Area Seventy with Bishop and Sister Pongia

 

Heaps of food! (In addition to the 7 pigs!)  I always worry if there will be enough, but there always is!!

Everyone danced!  All the little kids ran around and danced like crazy all night!  And all the adults and teenagers danced to the very LOUD music, played by a great DJ,  all night! Bishop Pongia had invited all of the bishops in the stake, and they brought alot of their ward members.  Many of our ward members brought friends and family too.  Guessing that there were between 300-400 people. Most wore beautiful Polynesian dress! 




Beautiful cultural performances were done by ward members. Tongans, Samoans, Cook Island and Maori, along with 3 musical numbers by Sisters in the ward, performed.  In between the numbers, everyone danced!

 

Sister Fetu'u, center, a former Sister Missionary in Ashburton, came from Auckland
for the party! The youth and everyone else in the ward love her so much!
She said she wished she'd known how beautiful it would be, she'd have found a man and brought him for her "wedding reception" that night!

Joy singing

Joy, Helen, and Virginia singing

Cook Island Dancers with little dancer.

Elder and Sister Neider and the Sister Missionaries

Samoan dancers

As part of the festivities, Sister Vine Touli was welcomed home from her mission, in Independence, Missoui, and was honored with a special dance with her father.
I found out the next day, there was a big smudge on the lens of my camera, so alot of the pictures aren't as clear as I wished! 

Leanne singing "Amazing Grace"

Maori Dance

Garage sale/broken computer

My computer hasn't been working so I couldn't post on my blog for quite a while - so I'm catching up now!

Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t like having a garage sale!  But the youth were having a garage sale, to earn money for the temple trip, and needed a place to have it, because their usual place was not available. So we had it in our front yard.  Thank goodness it didn’t rain!  Quite the experience.  One of those days that you just pray you get through it, and it gets over with!  Lots of people supported them and it made them a good amount of money!  Some of the little boys went down on the corner with a sign!  Too funny!  I told my kids, that I got them all a nice outfit and a stuffed animal – or two!

A Hobbit in the Domaine!

Springtime .in Ashburton is so beautiful, with flowering trees and daffodils growing in the grass everywhere and heaps of baby lambs and calves!  It’s a beautiful time of year! It has rained a lot, but when the sunshines, it just makes you feel happy!  While in the Domaine one day,  Elder Neider found Sam the Hobbit! He was hiding behind a tree.  He coaxed him out from behind a tree and made friends with him. We love this Hobbit! (He said that when he started dating his wife, 12 years ago, that her brother said he looked like a Hobbit, so it’s not just us that think so!) 

This Hobbit friend and his wife, Andrina,  and their 3 children, have been so kind and loving to us.  They invited us to a wonderful Father’s Day dinner, and had made a cute gift for Elder Neider, with  a magnet and little fiish with paper clips, that had nice things written on them, each  hooked to a chocolate!!  This is the second year in a row for Father’s Day with them.     

A special family

This sweet family, is one of Elder Neider’s, and his companion Mark’s, home teaching families, and I was the mom's visiting teacher for a long time! They are from the Phillipines,, and the mother and father are both return missionaries, and they are working on a dairy farm here.  Andrew got baptized! All three of these kids, are so smart! (So are their mom and dad!) We love this family so very much!

Princess Shakyla

Kindergarten graduation for  Princess Shakyla! She made her own crown!   Since her grandparents all live in Australia, we got to be “honorary grandparents”! Very fun. We also took their good friend, Andrea, and we got to meet Anne’s sister.   The next day, they were leaving to go to Australia for 2 months, to be with her dad who is over there shearing sheep for a few months.  I have been called to be the “acting Relief Society President while Anne (who is the real RS President) is gone.  Her counselo, Tasi, r also moved to Wellington the same week, to live. The other counselor, hasn’t been able to come to church for a couple of months, so the secretary, Vickie and I, are holding down the fort!  

Good Friends

This is one of the families, that Elder Neider and Mark, (standing with Vickie), home teach.  We had them for dinner.  Viliam (William)  has been our home teacher, since we got here! His wife Amelia, is the bishop’s wife’s sister, and is our primary president.  We love this beautiful Tongan family – they have been so good and loving to us.               

The new Mark and Vicki!

This is the new Markie and Vicki, sporting their new Sunday duds! When they first came to church Mark wore a t-shirt, shorts and crocks, and Vicki wore pants.  Since they got baptized, they have bought a new suit, new shoes, and white shirt and tie for Mark, and Vicki has a beautiful skirt with pretty tops.  They have always been beautiful, but are even more beautiful now - and are full of sunshine! We love these two!