Ok this is a combined blog from Miriam and I. Today is the Winter Solstice. For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere it is the longest day of the year. For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere it is the shortest day of the year. So I better hurry and write because the sun is just flying across the sky! Today Miriam and I thought it would be a good idea to go and see the sun rise on the shortest day of the year. So we gathered our breakfast and went to the beach so we could see the sun rise. It was cloudy and a little rainy but as the sun came up some of the clouds turned pink and it turned into a pretty morning. We got some pretty good shots of the sky and beach. Hope you enjoy them. Even though it is the winter now we are going to a Luau to celebrate winter. Past performers of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii will be performing.
The consolidation of the New Zealand and Australia Areas are well under way. It's a challenge to try and encourage employees from one country to take their family and permanently move to another country. It looks like a few families from Australia may come. We hope they will be happy working in New Zealand for The Church. Our economy here is not near as good as Australias. I (Miriam now) am still involved with the mission. All this week were Zone Conferences. We have four multi zone conferences every 6 weeks in different areas of the mission. I went to Hamilton this week with the Duvalls for the day to attend one of them. President & Sister Cook leave in ten days to be released and then the new President will be set apart. I have been to many zone conferences and I am always so so impressed and hopefully changed for being there. This one was particularly touching and meaningful. The Cooks prepared the missionaries for the transition like I did not think was even possible. There will not even be a hickup when the mantle is handed over to the new President. The missionaries will be ready to accept Pres. Porter's ways and love him from the moment he arrives. The Cooks have leadership and teaching skills like I have never seen before.
We had a man is our ward whose name is Kelvin. His wife got stomach cancer and within 2 months after her disease was diagnosed she passed away. That was two months ago. Kelvin was supposed to teach our Sunday School class last Sunday. He didn't show up so someone else taught the class. Some one was a little concerned and tried to get in touch with him. They found that he had had a stroke shortly before church. By 11:45pm he had passed away. Kelvin leaves behind a family of 6 children. Some are married but at least 2 or 3 are still at home. Kelvin worked for The Church in the CES Department. He worked at the Church College of New Zealand for 20 years. At the end of the funeral alot of the young men stood out in the courtyard and did the Huka. It is a sign of respect and love among the Maor people. If you are interested in seeing a Huka the BYU football team does it now at the beginning of their home games. It was made famouns by the All Blacks Rugby team. They do it at the opening of all of their games. Go to the All Blacks web page and you can watch them do it. http://www.allblacks.com/ It has been difficult for the employees here in the area office. Everyone's prayers for their family would be appreciated.
We have the boyfriend of a young lady I hometeach having the missionary discussions in our home once a week. His name is Anthony. He is 28 and he thinks he is in love with Miranda. He has started to attend church and seems to be pretty willing to learn about the Gospel. We hope and pray things will go well there. We are really enjoying having Elder Dinsdale and Elder Ramasima in our home every week. You should all try it. There is nothing like the full time Elder's in your home teaching the gospel.
Ok...a story about Miriam and her passion for fitness. There are no mountains close and she wants to get her heart rate up there. She discovered that walking stairs is a good way to get the ol ticker going fast. The problem is we only live in a 4 story building so Miriam climbs 4 flights, then goes down to the basement then climbs the 4 flights again, and again, and again. Well that got boring so one day when we were out walking we noticed the Spencer Hotel. This is a real nice hotel and its about 20 stories tall. So we went inside (acting like we live there) and took the elevator to the 2nd floor. Now Miriam can walk 20 flights before she takes the elevator back to the 2nd floor. She takes her Ipod and enjoys it. When she is done she takes the elevator down to the lobby and walks out. Now that's a passion for exercise for ya! But wait it doesn't stop there. We are walking around town and there is a new building that is like 30 stories tall. It is a condominium project. So Miriam walks in like she lives there and takes the elevator up a couple of flights. She gets off the elevator and finds the stairs and takes them up and up and up. Ok now it's time to leave and she goes to a door to get out of the stair well and guess what?? No door knob! So she figures she will just go to another floor. No door knobs. So she keeps hunting for a way out. She finally finds door knobs but the doors are locked. Panic is setting in about now..... finally she finds a emergency exit and she takes her chances that an alarm won't go off. She escapes. I think she wants to go back. She liked the challenge of the BIG building. A picture of the building is in the album. The one with the funny shaped top.
The consolidation of the New Zealand and Australia Areas are well under way. It's a challenge to try and encourage employees from one country to take their family and permanently move to another country. It looks like a few families from Australia may come. We hope they will be happy working in New Zealand for The Church. Our economy here is not near as good as Australias. I (Miriam now) am still involved with the mission. All this week were Zone Conferences. We have four multi zone conferences every 6 weeks in different areas of the mission. I went to Hamilton this week with the Duvalls for the day to attend one of them. President & Sister Cook leave in ten days to be released and then the new President will be set apart. I have been to many zone conferences and I am always so so impressed and hopefully changed for being there. This one was particularly touching and meaningful. The Cooks prepared the missionaries for the transition like I did not think was even possible. There will not even be a hickup when the mantle is handed over to the new President. The missionaries will be ready to accept Pres. Porter's ways and love him from the moment he arrives. The Cooks have leadership and teaching skills like I have never seen before.
We had a man is our ward whose name is Kelvin. His wife got stomach cancer and within 2 months after her disease was diagnosed she passed away. That was two months ago. Kelvin was supposed to teach our Sunday School class last Sunday. He didn't show up so someone else taught the class. Some one was a little concerned and tried to get in touch with him. They found that he had had a stroke shortly before church. By 11:45pm he had passed away. Kelvin leaves behind a family of 6 children. Some are married but at least 2 or 3 are still at home. Kelvin worked for The Church in the CES Department. He worked at the Church College of New Zealand for 20 years. At the end of the funeral alot of the young men stood out in the courtyard and did the Huka. It is a sign of respect and love among the Maor people. If you are interested in seeing a Huka the BYU football team does it now at the beginning of their home games. It was made famouns by the All Blacks Rugby team. They do it at the opening of all of their games. Go to the All Blacks web page and you can watch them do it. http://www.allblacks.com/ It has been difficult for the employees here in the area office. Everyone's prayers for their family would be appreciated.
We have the boyfriend of a young lady I hometeach having the missionary discussions in our home once a week. His name is Anthony. He is 28 and he thinks he is in love with Miranda. He has started to attend church and seems to be pretty willing to learn about the Gospel. We hope and pray things will go well there. We are really enjoying having Elder Dinsdale and Elder Ramasima in our home every week. You should all try it. There is nothing like the full time Elder's in your home teaching the gospel.
Ok...a story about Miriam and her passion for fitness. There are no mountains close and she wants to get her heart rate up there. She discovered that walking stairs is a good way to get the ol ticker going fast. The problem is we only live in a 4 story building so Miriam climbs 4 flights, then goes down to the basement then climbs the 4 flights again, and again, and again. Well that got boring so one day when we were out walking we noticed the Spencer Hotel. This is a real nice hotel and its about 20 stories tall. So we went inside (acting like we live there) and took the elevator to the 2nd floor. Now Miriam can walk 20 flights before she takes the elevator back to the 2nd floor. She takes her Ipod and enjoys it. When she is done she takes the elevator down to the lobby and walks out. Now that's a passion for exercise for ya! But wait it doesn't stop there. We are walking around town and there is a new building that is like 30 stories tall. It is a condominium project. So Miriam walks in like she lives there and takes the elevator up a couple of flights. She gets off the elevator and finds the stairs and takes them up and up and up. Ok now it's time to leave and she goes to a door to get out of the stair well and guess what?? No door knob! So she figures she will just go to another floor. No door knobs. So she keeps hunting for a way out. She finally finds door knobs but the doors are locked. Panic is setting in about now..... finally she finds a emergency exit and she takes her chances that an alarm won't go off. She escapes. I think she wants to go back. She liked the challenge of the BIG building. A picture of the building is in the album. The one with the funny shaped top.
