Muriwai Beach and a haircut

Saturday and great weather sent us to the west coast. The sea on that side of New Zealand is called the Tasman Sea. All the sand is black. Very soft and very cool. We went with the Duvalls, who are senior missionaries in the Aukland Mission. When you go to the web album you will see alot of birds. They are called Gannets. This is a Gannet colony. They are all nesting on this big rock and cliff. They lay one egg. If you look closely you will see some baby birds underneath their mummy. The birds learn to fly then take off to Australia. Eventually they return to the same nest they were hatched in to lay their own egg.

The ocean is very cool here. Lots of people fishing and having a great time. There was a group of guys waiting for huge waves to come in and they would jump into them. Check out the movie clip. It looked like a blast. There were a lot of surfers catching the waves. The drive out to the coast was very nice. Lots of vineyards and sheep. So we learned about birds, saw some very cool coastline, and had a nice time.

Well it was time for my first New Zealand haircut. You all know how I procrastinate getting the haircut. Most places are about $20. Well, Miriam and I saw a place down a little alley with a sign that said. "Tattoos, body piercing, and haircuts" and the haircut was only $10!. So we decided to give it a try. After work on Monday I went to the little shop in my suit and white shirt. I said, can I get a hair cut? They said sure and a nice Maori girl showed me to a chair. They asked me where I was from and I told them Utah. Then the owner came over and asked...Are you an Elder? I said no but I work for the Church. Do you know the missionaries? Yes! she said, we cut their hair! I told them my wife told me to come and get a haircut and make sure I don't come home with a tattoo or any body piercing. They thought that was funny. The Maoris have very coarse hair and while she was cutting my hair she started to pet it and say your hair is sooooo soft!

They were very nice people and they did a great job. On the way out I ran into another expat and he asked me where I had been. I told him the tattoo shop getting a hair cut. He was shocked but now he is going next week!

Long Bay, New Zealand

It has been an eventful week. It was full time missionary transfer week and now that Miriam works in the mission office she was very busy. New Elders coming in and missionaries moving around. Miriam attended the transfer meeting and helped out in general. At the same time the Church was running a "Joy to the World" campaign on TV, so the office got almost 200 requests for a DVD just in the first day alone. That was exciting but it made for a busy but fun week for Miriam.
Miriam and I went and visited the little old lady that she met in the grocery store. Her name is Dorace. We went at night because her home is on the bay and she wanted us to see the beautiful view from her windows. I took a night picture with my cool camera that our kids gave us, so you can all enjoy it also. Dorace also has two borders at her home. Two young ladies, one from Taiwan and one from Korea. Well they weren't so young, one was 26 and the other was 39. It was fun to meet them and visit with them.
Saturday we drove up the coast a bit to a place called Long Bay. Its a huge park with lots of beach. It was a sunny day so a lot of people were out doing their beach thing. We saw some dolphins out in the ocean (we could see them jump). We took a trail that took us up to the top of some cliffs overlooking the ocean. There were two men up there para-sailing. They landed up where we were. We had a nice visit with them and they explained their sport to us a bit. So when you see a para-sailor in the pictures it is NOT me. But it sure looked peaceful and relaxing, and exciting.
We had a nice day walking the beach and enjoying being together. Sunday was a very nice day. We were invited to some other ex-pats home for a nice dinner. They work for the CES department. With a lot of schools in the islands they do a lot of work on the islands with teachers, seminary, institute etc. Enjoy the pics, we enjoyed being there.

Another Weekend Excursion..another museum

Ok one last attempt. We went to another museum. I know that's not like me but new stuff is good. We went with the Mackeys who are missionaries in the mission office. Enjoy the pics... Oh someone called Miriam a smiley face today! (surprise, surprise)

A Common Question, "What does Miriam do while Bob is at work?"

Okay, I will confess that I have loved the last 2 & 1/2 weeks where I didn't have any obligations except the ones that I put on myself. ie: P. S. E. J. St. R. S. C--Close family know what they are. I have loved keeping up with family & friends on the computer, my 2 hour walks, reading at the library, wondering on the beach and even wandering the store streets. I do get up with Bob at 6 am and accomplish those things. But I have felt like I have a bit more to offer than that so I will tell you what took my time this last week. Monday I walked into the Auckland Mission Office and asked if I could help out . These people could not have been anymore excited. They all indicated that the woman who was their receptionist and help, left 2 weeks ago. They just knew that if they were patient and had faith the Lord would provide. Pres. Cook said he prayed me there. I will be called as a Church Service Missionary. I am a bit nervous about it but I will try to relax. I didn't sleep very well that night but when I went in the next morning it was Grand. (As Joey would say..oh, by the way, you need to look at his blog this week, he had a great letter.) That afternoon I was able to go on a split with the full time senior sister missionaries. Wow, that was awesome. I wish I could do that everyday. But I am pretty sure they will try to use me once a week. I worked with a Sister Jackson from Syracuse Utah. Her youngest son is on a mission in Mexico and her husband has passed away. She is so awesome and we had a terrific appointment with an investigator.

On Wednesday a few ladies from the ward drove me down to the Hamilton Temple. It was Stake temple week. People take days off of work and even find places to stay down there to do it. We drove 2 & 1/2 hours to get there. Served all day and then drove home. Elder Nelson and his wife were in the last session with us. We shook his hand a few times that day and had a little chat. It was so sweet. It was such a beautiful drive and I enjoyed getting to know these good ladies and NZ from real NewZealanders. Although the one is from South Africa and the other from the UK. It is fun, the aussies, kiwis, english, south africans, etc. They all can tell where the other ones are from because of their speech. There is a cute, fun bantering back and forth between them. ("Kiwis are this..", "Aussies are that..") It is all in good fun. (Our Sunday School teacher counted 17 different nationalities in our class)

Thursday I walked to visit a 80 year old woman that I met in the grocery store 3 weeks ago. I ended up staying the day with her learning and enjoying her life with her. What a truly wonderful woman she is. She has never married and lives in the same house she was born in just 50 min south of me. (by foot, I haven't needed to drive yet, I still need the exercise.) I was sent home with fresh things from her garden. I hope to visit Dorace often. It was such a lovely day. I will get some pictures of her on the blog in the future. Friday I worked 5 plus hours at the mission office. I answered phones. Spend 1.5 doing the mail and several hours filing. Visited with quite a few Elders and had a really nice day there. So there you have it. It was a wonderful week and one I would love to do time and time again. I will go into the mission office three to 5 days a week, just depending on their needs. A bit more than my last calling as a Church Service Missionary for the YW in SLC.