"A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE 'THINGS'"

Every six weeks we have transfers, and though Elder Farnes and I remain here (for which we're thankful), we sure see a lot of Elders and Sisters come and go.  We love them all and want to share some more pictures from those in our zone and district here in Hawkes Bay.

Elder Strasser (from Oregon) and Elder Heinricks (from Canada) have been our zone leaders for the last couple transfers, and they have been so fun...we all love their enthusiasm. Elder Heinricks (on the right) was just made an assistant to the president this week, so he left for Wellington yesterday.  Our new ZL with Elder Strasser is Elder Petaia, who is Tongan, but is from Auckland.

And here are Elder Strasser and Elder Petaia, our current Zone Leaders (Oct 2012)

See no evil,  hear no evil, speak no evil !

Here are illustrious leaders again.  This time our district leader, Elder Howard (from Australia) is also in the picture.  He is a SUPERB leader, and it won't be long before we lose him, too, when he's promoted to a zone leader.

The short elder is Elder Ebel from the Marshall Islands and Elder Levy (can't remember where he's from right now, but I'll correct this eventually).  They are in the Flaxmere District with us.  Actually, Elder Ebel isn't that short, but Elder Levy is really tall.

These are the Flaxmere sisters, (L-R):
Sister Lavea from Samoa
Sister Teaeki from Kiribati
Sister Temakau from Kiribati

Sister Temakau has been here the longest, and she was just transferred yesterday (27 Sept 2012) to the South Island.  Sister Teaeki is a brand new missionary, fresh from the Auckland MTC.  Sister Lavea is one of the sharpest sisters we've ever met.  Even the zone leaders admit that, if she were male, she'd be a zone leader.  She is an amazing teacher.

These are our two Napier sisters, Sister Hemi from Hamilton, NZ, and Sister Cameron from Australia.  Sister Hemi was transferred to Nelson on the North Island yesterday, and we haven't met her replacement yet, Sister Paongo.  Each transfer we learn to pronounce a bunch more names!

Stationed down in Waipukurau, which is in the Hastings District, are Elder Makalio (originally from Tonga, but his family now lives in Auckland) and Elder Siale (Tonga).  We rarely see them anymore, since we're not in the Hastings District now.

A couple nights before transfers, we took these four elders to MacDonald's for a MacFlurry.  We had a luncheon for our Flaxmere District, but two of these elders were also being transferred, so we wanted to do a little something for them, too.
L-R:  Elder Weihipeihana from Hamilton, NZ, was being transferred to the South Island
          Elder Kaumavae, staying here
          Elder Aumua (from Samoa) was being promoted to a district leader in Porirua
          Elder Hobby (Australia) is the Hastings DL; he's staying here, too