MEMORIES OF CLYDE'S NEW ZEALAND AUCKLAND MISSION

This past Wednesday, 7 November 2012, we again left Hastings to attend the New Zealand Temple with the Hastings and Flaxmere Stakes.  This time we had permission to travel to Taumarunui, which was practically on the way.  It is the first town Clyde served in as a young missionary in 1963; and his hope was that we would find his landlady, a Mrs. Topani, who wasn't a member of the LDS Church but housed missionaries for at least five years and was loved by everyone.  Back in those days, most of the missionaries lived with families like this, who cooked and did laundry for them, and they were paid by the missionaries.  Anyway, good news:  we found her!  She's 83 years old now and was pretty leery when she first answered the door; but by the time we left about an hour later, we were all in tears and declaring it a great day.  Mrs. Topani still lives in the same house, but her husband died about 25 years ago.  She was so pleased that one of her missionaries returned to thank her.

While we were in Taumarunui, we also found the LDS Chapel, which was built long after Clyde served there.  In "his days" the members met in the Maori marae, where each Sunday they climbed through the windows to get in and set up for the meeting.  There is only a branch of the Church that meets here now, so it's a small building.  There are about 100 members, but only about 25 attend each week.  Here's a couple pictures of the Taumarunui chapel: