ZONE CONFERENCE - NEW MISSIONARIES - ELDER FARNES' BIRTHDAY

Friday, 9 March 2012, was a banner day: Zone Conference in Flaxmere and Elder Farnes' Birthday. It was a great learning day, followed by dinner in Napier with President & Sister Kezerian and Elder & Sister Burton at our favorite restaurant, the GMK.

Here's the whole Hawkes Bay Zone: 14 elders, 4 sisters, 2 seniors...plus in the center back are President & Sister Kezerian and Elder & Sister Burton.

Elder & Sister Burton are the South Pacific Medical Directors over 13 missions in this area. They are from Heber, UT, and are based in Auckland but have been traveling around instructing all of us on health care. Sister Burton's brother is Dr. Eric Carter, the cardiologist in American Fork, who is also Elder Farnes' cardiologist, so they wanted a picture of us to sent to Dr. Carter. Elder Farnes got to go fly fishing with President Kezerian and Elder Burton the following day, 10 March 2012.

This is "half" of all the companionships showing off their new phones we all received...I guess we all got presents on Elder Farnes' birthday!

Above are our wonderful, happy-natured Tongan elders (L-R): Elder Hingano, Elder Fukofuka (district leader), Elder Tamale (new to us), Elder Vaioleti, and Elder Pae'a.  Elder Hingano and Elder Tamale are actually real cousins and were excited to meet each other again.
Then our 4 sisters:  Sister Itaia (Kiribati), Sister Hemi (NZ), Sister Tito (NZ), and Sister Temakau (Kiribati).  Sisters Itaia & Hemi serve in Flaxmere; Sisters Tito & Temakau in Napier.

Elder Cook (Providence, UT) and Elder Tamale (Tonga)...new companionship in Napier.

Elder Barnes (practically related!) from Farmington, UT, replaces Elder Kelly, who was transferred, and Elder Salaivao (Samoa).  Elder Barnes is the new district leader in Flaxmere.

Wanted to stick in one more picture...because I don't think I've posted a picture of Elder Kelly previously, and he was the district leader in Flaxmere prior to being transferred (and companion of Elder Salaivao).  We had a luncheon for the elders one day prior to transfers, so you can see Elder Tebau peeking out from behind the curtain.  He LOVES to be in pictures!  Regarding Elder Salaivao's crutches, he fell on P-Day while playing volleyball in the ward gym and tore a ligament...he's mending nicely, but it's been pretty painful for him.  All the elders like to take turns using his crutches!

CULTURAL OUTING - NAPIER, NZ

For 25 years, Napier has been celebrating their Art Deco Days, and we spent an evening there with President & Sister Kezerian dining out and looking at all the sites, which included many vintage cars, lots of costumed men, women, and children in 1920-30's fashion, and even an air show. It was a great evening with perfect weather. Here are some photos:

Darling brother & sister...everyone gathers mostly on Marine Parade, the street that runs right next to the Pacific Ocean...quite picturesque. The whole atmosphere was very family oriented; everyone was cheerful, having fun, and very agreeable to having their pictures taken.

Elder Farnes liked the old truck...from his farming days in Cache Valley!

We ate at the GMK restaurant, which is actually in an old Masonic Lodge, and the GMK stands for Grand Masonic Kitchen...we have renamed it General Michael Kezerian...I think Pres. Kezerian liked that.

This was Sister Kezerian's favorite car, according to her husband; can you see that the license plate reads "lipstk"?

Elder & Sister Farnes and one of their favorites

Beautiful fountain and sky as we watched the vintage air show.

Lots of people watched the air show: on land like us, from balconies where parties were enjoying the evening, and even in the harbor, where a cruise ship stopped to watch.

SOME NEW FRIENDS

One of the nicest rewards of a mission is the wonderful new friends you make...here are just a few:

This is Mary Reid, an 83 yr old widow we met the first Sunday we went to the Korongata Ward in Bridge Pa. Her home is >100 yrs old and is on the site of the Maori Agricultural College (MAC) the Church ran until the college was mostly destroyed by the 1932 earthquakes here in New Zealand. Matthew Cowley often visited this home, and we are honored to spend time in it now. Sister Reid loves the missionaries and spoils us whenever she can.

Our landlords, Rose and George Edwards, two of the most incredible saints here in Hastings. He was in the stake presidency and then released when it was reorganized in November. Now he serves as a high councilman and head of the Young Single Adults for two stakes. Sister Edwards is the stake RS president and also heads the YSA with her husband. They are such fun people we hope will come visit us in American Fork some day.

Cutest 93-yr old lady, also in Bridge Pa, whom everyone calls "Mother".  Her real name is Wairukuruku Maere (she was born by a river, and first name means "rippling waters").  It's a lot easier to call her Mother!  She's been to more places in the United States than Elder Farnes and I and loves to talk about her adventures.

Just recently I was "enlisted" to sing with the Bridge Pa Relief Society choir for Stake Conference (Saturday evening session), where we sang "I Have A Testimony". And now they want me to sing with them at Easter, too!

Every Thursday we volunteer for 3 hours down at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, which has been a great experience for us. This is a picture of Elder Farnes with Judith (our boss) and Robert (a co-worker), but I also need to get a picture of a few other friends we work with there. They keep us busy dusting, washing dishes (donations), sorting clothes, whatever is needed. They seem to really like us, and we really like them, too. We went to an open house for one of the homes they built, and they were so shocked to find out we were LDS missionaries. It's cute because, while we're volunteering, they're comfortable calling us Clyde and Kathy, but when we pop in for a visit or to find an item we need, they get all flustered like they're supposed to act differently. We laugh a lot together, and we are finding out that at least two of them are very, very interested in genealogy work and want Clyde to help them. Great missionary experiences everywhere!

MARCH 2012

Hello, Everyone! We've been here a little over 3 months now, and I'm not sure even where to start catching up on our blog, so I think I'll just start with NOW and go backwards until my memory gives out! This week was transfers again, and fortunately, neither Elder Farnes or I were transferred; but Sister Palmer went home (or at least to see her grandmother in Auckland before returning to her family, who are currently in Washington State, since her Dad is mission president there...but he gets released in July and then is coming to New Zealand to live!). Sister Palmer will be going to BYU, so she really doesn't have a place to call "home" yet. Anyway, back to our zone, Elders Kelly and Hopoate were both transferred, so we have three new missionaries to get to know. We've met Sister Hemi (raised in New Zealand, but her family now lives in Papua New Guinea), who is Sister Itaia's new companion. We've also met Elder Barnes (from Farmington, UT), who is the new district leader replacing Elder Kelly in Flaxmere. Our other new elder is Elder TAMALE (and we don't have a clue where he's from, but Mexico would be fun!)

Summer is almost over here in New Zealand, supposedly starts in December and ends the end of March, but even the New Zealanders have said we haven't had a summer. We've only had maybe 3 days when we wished we had air-conditioning, and most of the people here haven't gotten to spend much time at the beach. It seems to us that it rains a fair amount, but the newspapers are claiming February as one of the driest yet. Interesting...seems we're having strange weather phenomena all over the world.

In our district, we only "lost" Sister Palmer, since her mission is over, but the sisters were moved to Flaxmere this week, an adjacent town to Hastings, because most of the Kiribati members live in Flaxmere...it will be easier for the sisters to be closer to them. So, in addition to transfers, we've been busy playing "musical flats" moving people around. In the back next to us are President & Sister Kezerian, who were here for our district meeting 2 weeks ago.