Easton Davis Langford makes a grand entrance!

Easton Davis Langford became our 9th grandchild on September 25th. Even though the little bugger joined the human race some 60 days before he was supposed to, he is doing very well. He has graduated from the oxygen and the lights and his nurses are trying to fatten him up. He is gaining about 10 grams a day and we hope and pray he continues to gain and grow and develop. We are so sad that we cannot be in Utah to hug him and love him. Our congratulations go out to Scott and Teisha for being wonderful parents. Little Easton gets to stay in the NICU hotel for about 6 weeks. We hope Teisha enjoys the rest and maybe she can ask the nurses to try and have him trained to sleep through the night by time he gets home! Go to Scott and
Teisha's blog on the right to see many more pics.

August and September 2008

It has been three weeks since Bob has been home. (NZ) In August he was gone 19 out of 26 days. In the past I have had a tendency to get down. Being here alone and my family all in America for the last 11 months, I was at greater risk. The Lord has really taken care of me. I was very busy and actually did very well. I kept busy with lots of things happening in the mission. New missionaries coming in and old going home, zone conferences, projects, new Australia Sr. Missionaries and new area presidency devotionals. One Sat. a bunch of them called me and we went into Auckland to see the sites together. I was the lone duck but they made me feel welcome. I always had at least one day off in the week. I walked to see Dorace in Bayswater and found some fun take away places I hadn't used before. Being with Agnes and her family was the greatest treat. One really nice day I had Sushi with my new Japanese friend looking over Rangitoto on Takapuna beach. I did that to commemorate the day Bob was actually in Japan on business. Sundays would have been the hardest but not after Gurneys and Rodings invited me over for dinner and to go to a fireside of the Brown's Kirtland Restoration project. I had nice walks with Pauline, Allyson, Dianne and Pamela. We taught a couple of lessons to Antoni in our home (with missionaries). How could anyone possibly be lonely after all this and the Holy Ghost buoying me up (after prayer) when I might start to slide. It was noticeable. I am so grateful.

Since Bob has been home we have been really busy. We celebrated our 31st anniversary with the Pres. and Sister Porter. It was their 30th. We went to Stake temple day with the Nalley's. There were 225 in our temple session. The balcony was full. Afterward we went to visit the MTC Pres., we went into Hamilton for dinner. Elder Nally left his glasses in the MTC. As we were driving back the Pres told us he was holding them hostage so we would all speak to his missionaries at a devotional. It actually was really fun. It was great to be in the MTC. The Christensen's were here checking out NZ because they will be moving here. We had them to dinner and to see the gannets on the west coast. He is the new area lawyer. We wish we would be here at the same time but will be leaving before they come. We had 8 senior missionaries over for games at our flat. Ours is the largest. It was funny for Bob and I when we realized we were not just listening to conversations about food (the usual) but also about hearing aids and colonoscopies. We laughed that maybe we needed younger friends. But we are kidding. We love our good Sr. Miss. friends. We hope to be as faithful and diligent as they are when we are on our mission in 10 years or so. Last Sunday we noticed Susan Shea was back in town from Taiwan. She actually had Joey give her friend 2 lessons while in Taipei. She was born there and has been gone for 6 months. She came to dinner at our house and we had fun hearing about how wonderful our son is. She is pretty wonderful herself.

Two Saturdays ago Bob and I took a bus into Auckland and roamed around for 5.5 hours. We had a great time. Found some fun finger puppets to share with our kids when we get home. They are all forest creatures (mostly birds) from New Zealand. We found them in a street market. Then we found hundreds of people walking the beaches. This was our first real good Saturday in about 4 months of almost solid rain. It was wonderful. Opposition helps you to appreciate. Here is another example of that. Yesterday we took a tramp on the Okura Bush Walkway. We renamed it the Okura Mudslide. It was so so muddy. We were on it for 3 hours. Well we ran into 2 men from South Africa. They were ecstatic with joy of the trail and this country. It is so different than South Africa. So so beautiful they said. The one man said that he has traveled all his life and never been to such a beautiful country. The other was most impressed with the way of life. He told me he saw women walking the streets by themselves. He also told me he was at the beach watching the sunset last night. He is 35 years old and these are firsts for him. It is too unsafe for those things in South Africa. They were so grateful. So as we were sloshing around and thinking we wished it would have been drier, they were just in heaven.

Look at the two new picture albums "Okura bush walk" and "Temple, MTC, friends etc..)

Quick trip home

I had the opportunity to return to Utah for some training. While there I was able to visit all the kids, friends in the neighborhood, Miriams family, and a surprise visit with mom. She wasn't aware of my visit and we surprised her at a restaurant. She was VERY surprised and we all shared some hugs and tears, even the waitress cried!

The picture album shows some pics of the family and grandchildren, Temple Square, co-workers, etc. My apologies that their are no pics of the Crookston FHE. My camera was not working. ENJOY!

Korea Trip

I had the opportunity to go to Korea for a week to work on a compensation project. LaMont (my boss from SLC) flew in from the states and we met up in Seoul. It was very hot, humid and crowded. When I landed I took a bus to the hotel for 14,000 won. (trivia..how much did I spend for my ticket?). On Saturday I walked around (not far from the hotel) just to see what I could see. LaMont landed early Sunday morning and we were able to make it to the Korean sacrament meeting. When we got there we were given little translation headsets. A translator sat in the back of the room and translated the meeting for us. Sunday afternoon we strolled through a park not far from the hotel. Monday morning we went to work in the Korean office. We had meetings with consultants and worked on the Korean pay line. On Tuesday LaMont and I were asked to speak in the devotional. Either they all understood English or they didn't want to hear what we had to say. Each day the HR Manager took us out for a great Korean lunch. I actually got pretty good with my chopsticks. However I was never able to "catch a fly". On Tuesday evening we were invited to play volleyball. After a nice basketball warm up they put up the net. But something was a little strange...the net was up as high as a tennis net. We were playing a Korean game called foot volleyball. You can only use your head or your feet. The ball can bounce once between each hit. These guys are so good at this that they can actually set up a spiker and these guys can spike the ball over the net! We looked pretty silly trying to do it but eventually were able to hit the ball and we had a pretty good time. I was a little nervous about by past foot injury but everything went ok. It has healed nicely and it only hurt a little when I landed on another guy. We ended the evening with real volleyball and take out noodles. After finishing our project we got a little tour of the city from our good friend and visited the Korean palace and museum. They are celebrating their 60th anniversary of independence from Japan. We flew to Japan for a day of work then home to New Zealand by way of Brisbane Australia.

Visit the Cook Islands Yourself

This is Roratonga. Get close to see the magnificient peaks. (put mouse over it and roll it). Aitutaki is north 40 min. by plane. Go there and see the terrific lagoon. Hey, you really can! Just scroll 22 lengths of the screen north. You will go through non imagery till you get to the best place. Let me know if you found it. We snorkeled on the south western most little island area. We ate at one foot island on the east that looks like a foot. We stopped at several other islands, including the survivor islands. (Thanks to Dan for helping me put this on)


View Larger Map

Roratonga & Aitutaki

Well Bob "had" to meet with a couple of employees in the Cook Islands. We don't have schools or a service center there so there are only 3 employees that sometimes get neglected. Miriam came so we took a couple of extra days to do it up right. It was a four hour flight there from Auckland. It was almost 2 of their movies. (Need to see "Lars and the Real Girl"). First highlight was flying over the gorgeous island and seeing the impressive mountain peaks and ridges. Very green and very sharp peaks. That is not common on the islands that we have seen so far, Tahiti was second to it. We wanted to do the cross island trek but chose not to because of the weather. It was a good choice because someone we talked with took 7 hours and it should have been 3 hours. They felt like you needed ropes. It would have been very slippery with the rain.

Oh, maybe we need to talk about Bob's work here first. That is why we came. Bob met with the government agency regarding their retirement plan. Then met with the employees and went over contracts and enrollment forms. Everything went well. Now they are all legal and properly enrolled in their benefit plans. We had a very lovely dinner with them that night where we got to know them and their spouses better. While Bob was in meetings, Miriam had a great time wandering the town, looking at museums, shops, following the beat of the drummers (literally) and have a wonderful morning. (check out the photos for more info)

David Akinoa was kind of our host on this trip. He drove us to and from the airport numerous times. He loaned us his scooter to get around the island. He took us to his home and introduced us to star fruit.(love it) We learned about coconuts, bananas, palm trees and his star fruit. The amazing thing is that all these plants can be planted, grow to maturity and bear fruit in 6 months to a year. We saw lots of pictures of his wonderful family and heard their conversion stories and temple trips. His son is the champion fire dancer several times of the polynesian island games.

The third day we flew to Aitutaki. As you fly in you see numerous small islands surrounded by the most beautiful Lagoon you have seen in your life. Here is where most of "The Other Side of Heaven", "Johnny Lingo" and Survivor were filmed. We were told to get of the plane and ask for Tom. "Everyone knows Tom". We did and found out he was not there but his daughter was. She took us to our cottage on the beach and to our day tour of the Lagoon and other islands. The first island was Honeymoon Island. There we had morning tea consisting of fresh lemonade, homemade doughnuts (scones) and various island fruits. Most of the time when you "have tea" you really don't have tea. We went snorkeling in a wonderful spot. More fish and clams than youhave ever seen. White sandy bottom ocean floor surrounded by the corral. (see pics) We spent a lot of time on the island that survivor was filmed on. Puna (tour guide) wanted to explain what a wonderful financial blessing it was for the whole island. Although now they are in a slump again. We then went to One Foot Island, where we could send postcard and we had a superb meal. Puna's wife and son really had it all for us. (Notice the outhouse with a view in the pics)

Tareta and her four children took us on a tour of the island. Puffy picked us up to take us to her parent's restarant for a traditional meal and island dance show. Boy, do those girls know how to swing their hips. We enjoyed our meal with Repeta (the church employee) and her husband who is a 24 year old branch president. Great fun! After being awoken at 4:30 AM (again) by all the roosters we were greeted by fresh donuts from Repeta. She also gave us 8 pareu. (like sarangs). Here is a great story about Repeta's father and uncle. The island constitution requires that the sabbath be observed. Due to the poor economy the government started allowing Sunday flights to come into the island. The island people were so upset by this that they protested at the airport. Repeta's father and uncle ran out on the runway as the first plane came in. They also placed logs and wood on the runway to prevent planes from landing. They are now banned from flying the only airline that comes onto the island. (Do you think the Ensign would like this story?) Many of the locals feel that their economy is so bad now because of the planes flying on the Sabbath all the time now. Boy did we feel guilty flyiing home to Auckland on their Sunday. By doing so we were able to attend church. NZ is over the time line and our Sunday was the day before (their Saturday) so we got home on our Monday. (can you follow that?)

Back to Roratonga. Cruising around the island on David's scooter was a blast. It rained most days a bit. You would just keep going and in a bit you had dried off. (My hair was a sight though) We saw a wedding taking place on a little island across a lagoon. The bride and her maids were ferried across in a fun decorated boat. We called the Sr. Missionary couple and asked if we could come and visit them in the evening. Because of night blindness they don't drive after 6 pm. They live in the Black Rock Mission Home. We had such a wonderful visit. They are like our heros. They work so very hard. This is their fourth sr. couple mission. They have always been proselyting and loved it. They said that their island was kind of dead because they couldn't get anyting going with the members and the work. But his wife told us that in the last 7 months he has baptized 10 people. He will talk to eveyone and tract all the time. It works for them. Even though they are Senior Missionaries they keep the rules in the white handbook. This has given them success.

We enjoyed the Roratonga market on Sat. morning where we shopped and ate lunch. On Sunday David picked up our bags and had us ride the scooter to church. It started raining on us but we were dry when we got there. (Hair was great again) We followed a scooter to church that had his young child strapped to his back with a sash. When he pulled up to the church we could see that the child was asleep. They aren't really into safety here. No helmets anywhere either. Church was lovely. Going to the airport he invited us to get into the back of his truck and sit on his garden chairs. It was a wonderful trip. Next stop is Korea and Japan for Bob in 3 days. (look at pictures)

Underground Sewage, Stingrays, and Rain

July 26th was my birthday! So what does a 53 year old do in the rainy season in New Zealand? We found a place called Kelly Tarlton's that offered free admission if it was your birthday. I couldn't pass that up! We invited some people to go with us but for some reason they didn't think it was a good idea to go out when the storm of the decade was bearing down on us. But hey! We are talking about free admission to Kelly Tarlton so Mir and I braved the storm (they called it a cyclone) and off we went. Kelly Tarlton was a man that loved the ocean and everything in it. He had a vision to provide an aquarium experience for people. He found these abandoned huge underground sewage tanks . He went in cleaned the place up, and figured out a way to allow people to be inside the aquarium without getting wet. He came up with this glass tunnel that goes through his aquarium. The aquarium has turtles, sharks, stingrays, fish, etc. They have a large stingray pond and the employee got in with them and fed them. The stingrays were huge and they were all over her looking for food. It reminded us of the fun cruise we took with Dan and Joey where we fed the Stingrays. After all this work to do this project, Kelly Tarlton died in his sleep 2 months after his aquarium opened. It is a very popular place for kids. Oh yea! I nearly forgot...It also has King Penguins and they make over 2 ton of snow each day for the critters. Pretty cool place. When we came out the storm was even stronger but even with a huge storm there were adrenalin junkies trying to wind surf out in the harbor. They weren't doing very well because the swells were so big they kept falling over.

Miriam and I came back to Takapuna and drove down to Takapuna Beach to watch the storm. A lot of people had the same idea and beach had quite a few people just walking around (being blown around) and watching the ocean. We put on our rain gear and walked to the beach. We got our picture taken by another person watching the storm...check it out at the album. As I am blogging this the news is on and reporting that another big storm is on its way tonight. More flooding and power outages expected. (We lost 5 people last weekend, hopefully people will not be so risky) The lawns and parks are so soaked that the weekly soccer and rugby games that go on can't be playes because the fields are just mushy from all of the rain. They haven't been able to play for 6-8 weeks. So that's winter in the North Island of New Zealand. Rain, rain, and more rain.

That evening we visited with some Senior Missionaries that are being transfered here from Australia. Their furniture hasn't arrived so we sat on camp chairs and played games using their suitcase as a table. That was our day MY BIRTHDAY in New Zealand. I received nice cards, e-mails and phonecalls from my kids so I'm a happy guy!

Today was a special day in our Area Office. It was a farwell devotional for Elder Spencer Condie. He has lived outside of the United States for a grand total of 16 years for the Church. He and his sweet wife are excited about returning to the USA to be with children and grandchildren. He is a wonderful man with an incredible sense of humor. Whenever he speaks he always delivers a wonderful message usually mixed with extreme humor. We love Elder Condie.

CHEERS! OH..I can't forget my mother. Happy Birthday Mom! We all love you and miss you. (This is the only year in my 53 years that it is not on the same day) GO TO THE PICTURE ALBUMS!

Zone Conference and Winter Solstice

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.

Science Lessons from down under the down under

If you are reading this and you live in the northern hemisphere ie: Utah, then answer the following questions. #1 When you flush your toilet does is spin clockwise or counterclockwise? #2 If it is a cold winter afternoon do you lay in the sun near the windows on the north side of your house or on the south side of your house? Whatever your answers are then they are just the opposite if you live in the southern hemisphere ie: New Zealand.

Now that we have been here over seven months now, we feel a wee bit "away with the fairies" that it took us this long to realize these things. At the first, we could tell you that our sky was obviously different at night. I so miss the big and little dipper and the northern star. We do have the southern cross but I can't find it as quickly. Just little things that make you think "wow, you aren't in Kansas anymore Dorothy". We were able to see orian's belt in the far northern sky at the same time you could see it in your southern sky. I don't know where it is now. I can't see it.

Last week a local missionary told us he had tomatoes coming up and he had some to give anyone who missed their gardens. (At home we wouldn't plant a tomatoe in the fall) I told him that we wouldn't be able to grow any because we are on the 3rd floor and the only windows we have are directly looking north. (He looked at me kind of funny) As I was walking home I thought to myself that it was strange that the sun was so far north and actually blinding me. In my flat, I noticed lots of sun right in the windows and all through that side of the house. So I looked at my map and checked the direction of our flat. Yes we were facing north, how could that be. In the winter time at home I always went to my south windows. It just takes some of us a bit longer than it should. Then at church today I was making fun of myself and telling a local kiwi. He told me to go home and let water out of a drain and notice which direction it goes. I called a freind when I got home from church. (10:40 pm Utah time--aren't you glad I didn't call you). I asked her to put water in her sink and tell me direction it rotates out. (Now that was an emergency wasn't it?) Another fun scientific difference that I would love to see is the aurora australis or the southern polar lights. (I saw the northern lights in my backyard in Layton years ago and they were "brilliant".) They are common over the south island but still visible from Auckland when everything is right. One report is of the sky so red that the whole city was alive with people ringing bells and honking horns they were so excited. Well, we took a tomato plant after all and it's doing rather well. It's grown from a 1" plant to a 3" plant in less than a week. It's a monster!

Hey we took our favorite walk to and from Devenport by way of the ocean at low tide. We found a fun glass artist that is so fantastic. Look at his web site http://www.peter-raos.com/ or http://www.raos.co.nz/ Notice the small album titled Relief Society Retreat and walk to Devenport. (what is up with this? only under 100 pictures)

Miriams cousins vist New Zealand

Miriam's three cousins --Mark Crookston, wife Camille, Marnita Hill, Myra Dalton, and friend Carolyn came to New Zealand to enjoy the festivities around the 50th anniversary of the Church College of New Zealand. They started in the South Island and worked their way up to the North where they stayed with us for a few days. They had a great time doing the tourist thing. Myra stayed in Hamilton a couple extra days where she served. We picked her up and had a fun drive coming home stoping at some fun places we wanted to show off to her. When Mark served his mission his last area was our current ward boundaries. At church he was able to meet people that actually remembered him. We all enjoyed Pihi beach together with the wild waves crazy surfers. They saw forests, beaches, bush and sea shells. We hope it was a vacation they will long remember. Marnita took the opportunity to stay a couple of days longer than the rest of the group. She and Miriam took the bus into the city where they visited an Art Gallery. Marnita stuck around for church enjoyed a visit from the missionaries, had FHE with the Senior Missionaries, visited One Tree Hill, and ate biscuits and ice cream. We want to thank our cousins for visiting us and our wonderful New Zealand. You know you are all welcome. It is getting a bit colder here as winter is approaching. Our homes don't have any heat so if it gets too cold we have little heaters we roll around to heat the rooms. Back to work, the mission office, zone conferences, cool ward firesides and preparing a high priests lesson for Sunday. Hope you all enjoy the pics of their visit. Cheers!