A LOT Of Catching Up!

We had a Christmas Zone conference in Hamilton during the month of December.

We took a few pictures on the way.  

This picture was taken on the East Coast by the town of Opotiki.

These are two Pou's.  They are a Maori version of a totem pole.

I can't believe how similar Maori's are to Indians....(Lamanites)

(just another testimony that the Book of Mormon is true! Hagoth sailed off and was never heard of again....he sailed to New Zealand!) No doubt... they came from the same tribe in the beginning.

This coast line is so beautiful...I wish I could take a picture of the whole thing!

When we made this trip to Hamilton, we had no idea it would be the last time we would travel

on this road to our zone conferences! 

These are Pohutukawa Trees in full bloom.

They are all over in New Zealand, and they bloom at Christmas time.

The east coast has a whole strip of them and they cover the road.

This picture doesn't show how pretty they are:(

When we drive to Hamilton, we always find ourselves saying,

"This is the prettiest part of New Zealand so far..."

And then we will go a little farther and say,

"No, this is the prettiest part of New Zealand..."

And so on....

Every where we go is soooooooo pretty!!

We love this tree tunnel.  It reminds me of the first day we were in New Zealand,

and we didn't have a clue where we were going, but the road was so beautiful, we didn't care!

That seems like it was yesterday....but it's been almost a year ago!

The Temple lights in Hamilton were really beautiful.

It was weird to have them on in the summer! It didn't get dark till after 9:30!

It was raining the night we went, so it made if feel a little more like Christmas!

Christmas Zone Conference

They didn't put enough chairs on the front row for all the senior couples, 

so we got to stand in the back with the kids...

funny, cuz we don't feel like a SENIOR couple anyway!! lol

We had a nice Christmas dinner decorated so cute for all the missionaries.

There are some ladies in Hamilton who are "called" to be in charge of these 

zone conference luncheons. They do such a great job!

Yes, my eyes are closed in this picture, but it was the only one I had of President Watson and his wife.  He is the counselor to the new area authority over the Pacific Islands and Australia.
He has seerved as the secretary to several of our Presidents of the Church...
from Spencer W. Kimball to President Monson.  We had a nice visit with them at our table.  

It was sooo good to see our favorite Elder, Elder Fiu again!  He came running across the gym 

to give us a hug!  He and Elder Webb served together in Gisborne.   Elder Webb (from Hurricane) trained him...Elder Fiu is from Samoa.  We LOVED those boys!  We haven't seen them for

a few months!  We still haven't seen Elder Webb since he was transferred.  He isn't in our zone

anymore.  We hope to see him again before we are released!

This is cute Sister Frost....

She is the daughter of a guy from Kanab that my friend, Deana knows.

Deana went to a dance with him in college??

Anyway, Sister Frost is the "cream of the crop" as far as missionaries go!

I'm sure she is the cream of the crop as far as ANYTHING goes!

She works at the Temple Visitor's Center..

We are always so happy to see her cute smiling face when we arrive in Hamilton!

The Hardy's, Sister Frost and her companion, The Funks, The Gublers, 

and Sister Lekias (the mission president's wife)

When we got home from the conference, we had a Christmas package waiting for us at the front desk.

Inside the box was a paper tree folded up...with a star to go on top, a trunk to put at the bottom, and lots of ornaments with letters from our families and friends!! We sat and cried as we read each letter...

I hate to call favorites, but I'd have to admit that this was our favorite present of all this year!

Thank you Gretchen, for all your hard work! And thanks to all of you who sent letters to her to

print onto the ornaments!  They were all so special!  

This is Sadie's letter...

Gretchen attached little notes to tell us what each picture was, and she wrote it

exactly like Sadie said it...PRICELESS!!

One was "Pota Dots" (Polka Dots)

One was "a baby without a face)

One was "an ottopuss"

Oh, I love that little Sadie so much!!!

Then there was Cam's letter...

He's getting so big!  

I'm sure it was hard for Gretch to get him to sit down long enough to even write!

Abbie wrote two letters...

They were so cute I had to post both of them!

I just can't believe my little grand kids are big enough to write their own letters now!

Oh my gosh, I love these little ornaments so much!!

And a cute picture of my kids with Santa Clause at the Dickens Festival!

It's a little blurry, but it was the top ornament on our tree:)

We made lots of visits during the week of Christmas...

This is Francis and John Taumata and their family.

Their son in law and daughter came from Australia for the holiday.

Their son in law, Derek and his two daughers had been having the missionary lessons

in Australia before they came, and chose to have their baptism in Gisborne.

John is one of the funniest guys I have ever met!

He and Francis are both less active, but they are slowly coming back!! :)

We have so much fun with these guys!

The children did a little performance for us while we were there...

it was awesome! They know how to Hula dance...

The littlest girl in the front was hysterical...shakin' her little booty!!

Getting Transferred

During the week, our Mission President called and told us he was going to transfer us to Lake Taupo

right after Christmas.  You should have seen Lonne's face when he found out...

He was so excited, I thought he might jump out of his skin!

Not that he wanted to leave Gisborne, but because he has literally DREAMED of going

to Taupo!  We never thought we would get the chance in a million years! 

Lake Taupo is absolutely beautiful...and it is the trout fishing capitol of the world!

So we headed out on a road trip to find an apartment.

When we got to Taupo, all the realtors laughed at us and said there was no way we 

would find a place to live this time of year.  Taupo is one of the biggest tourist towns in New Zealand.

People rent their houses out for the holiday season January-March, and they can get huge money when they lease them out by the week.  We were pretty discouraged and thought we were either going to have to pay BIG BUCKS for a place or not find one at all.

Well, the transfer must have been meant to be, because a REALLY nice apartment fell right into

out laps! It was for sale, and we just asked the guy who owned it if he would consider renting it to us till June.  He was happy to!  We agreed on a price and told him we would be moving in right after Christmas!  It couldn't have been a smoother sale!! 

I always say that if something is meant to be, things will fall into place...and they did!

The mission office was so pleased with us for getting such a good place for such a good price!

We will only have to pay the same as we were paying in Gisborne, but our apartment is

WAY bigger and nicer...with a view of the lake!! We love it! It has three bedrooms, so our friends

from Gisborne can come stay with us!  And some of our friends from home are coming, too!!! 

Yay!  

I don't do well with change, but going to a beautiful place, with a nice place to lay my head at night

makes it a lot easier for me!!! Lonne is so excited for P-days!!! He can hardly stand it!

Joe-dee and Tori holding up the presents we bought for them...

we also gave them our little tree since they didn't have a Christmas tree.

This was on Christmas Eve...we had just found out we we were getting transferred to Taupo

right after Christmas.  It was a SAD day at this house!  Tania just burst into tears when we told her.

We all cried and cried.  We are going to miss this little family so much!!

Me, Tori, Joe-dee and Tania on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning...

We got ready for church and then opened our presents we had received in the mail!

Oh my goodness....chocolate cinnamon bears from two people!!!

I ate both bags in one week!!! Ha! And a pound of See's Peanut Brittle!!! Yum!!

We got lots of fun things....thank you to our family!  We loved everything you sent!

Such thoughtful gifts!  

Christmas sunday at sacrament meeting....

Wow, talk about emotional!!!

First of all, Tania asked bishop if she could bear her testimony since we were going to be leaving..

she wanted to bear it for us.  It was the sweetest testimony I have ever heard.  She just cried and cried..

we cried and cried...we have a real attachment to her.  I feel like we were kept in Gisborne long enough to get her baptized! She is so special! We pray that she will stay strong and that the ward members will

embrace her and help her along in her new journey.  

Then bishop asked Lonne and I to come up and bear our testimonies since it was our last week...

more tears....

Then...

Reuben Hayward was the final speaker!

We KNOW we were sent to New Zealand at this time for the Hayward family.

Last March, we met them for the first time....they were totally in-active.

Now their boys are baptized, they haven't missed a week of church.

Reuben is in the Young Men's Presidency.

Nara is the Pianist for Relief Society.

And they are headed to the temple on the 28th!

Reuben's talk and testimony was amazing. I know Heavenly Father sent them to us and us to them.

We love them so much and are so lucky to have had a part in their re-activation.

I know they are going to be leaders in the church for many years to come.

This was a VERY SPECIAL Christmas for us to be able to hear Tania and Reuben both speak

on out last week in Gisborne.  

And the tears just kept flowing! :)

After sacrament, lots of the kids and people wanted pictures with us and said their good-byes.

It was WAY harder than we thought it was going to be!  

Now I can see the wisdom in transferring the Elders after a couple of months...

it's just really hard to leave after you become so attached to the people!

We have made life-long friends in Gisborne...

We loved the people here, and feel like we accomplished more than we ever anticipated here.

We have truly been blessed to serve in this area for the last 11 months.

Kaana, Angel, and Georgia Winoa

These three were all baptized while we were here...

Little Georgia was Lonne's first baptism!

These girls LOVE Lonne!

They play basketball with Lonne and the Elders on P-days.

It was so hard to say good-bye to them!

This is Angel's cousin...we were hoping to get her baptized before we left, but I guess

the Elders will have to take care of that for us!

Crystal Maats...she is a recent convert, too.

She is Angel's cousin.  Love this girl!

Dave Henderson, Lonne, Me, and Louise

Dave isn't a member of the church, but Louise is a strong member.

We have had lots of fun with this couple!

Lots of laughs and good times! They were the first ones to invite us to dinner clear

back in February! We are going to miss them!  We are hoping they will come visit us in Taupo!

Sharon, Teatatu, and Wipunni Harmer

We taught and baptized Wipunni.

Sharon has recently been re-activated.  We were so happy to see her at church on Christmas

Sunday!  She said that she came just for us:)  So sweet! I hope she will stay strong!

Bishop Wray and his wife, Kiri.

We love these guys!  Bishop stood on his tip-toes
for the picture so he could be taller than Lonne! lol

Kiri is soooo talented!  She is amazing!  She made us the CUTEST stockings for Christmas!!
Both stockings were filled with all kinds of goodies!  Just what we needed...more goodies!

President Aben and his family...

Maui Aben is in the stake presidency and we just love this family!

He is the chief of Police here in Gisborne.

He was the one to interview Tania for her baptism, and has been so good to her!

We know this family will take good care of Tania and the girls for us!

After church, we went to Reuben and Nara's for Christmas dinner!

They also invited the other Elders in Gisborne....so sweet of them to have all of us!!

We had lots of fun! They gave me some beautiful Jade Maori carved earrings, and Lonne a Jade

Tie Tack.  We all exchanged gifts and had a delicious dinner! 

Nara's mom and little brother were there, and Reuben's parents came from Hamilton.

I was so glad they were in sacrament to hear him speak!! It was so awesome!

They were beaming from ear to ear!  It was a happy day for all of us!

Elder Killingbeck, Elder Petty, Elder Lui, and Elder Hibbard

We are going to miss hanging out with the Elders!

We will be the only missionaries in Taupo:(

The men barbecued steaks, chicken, lamb, and venison on Reuben's new barbecue!

It was so fun to have Christmas in the summer!

Christmas Crackers are a New Zealand tradition...

they are a little tube wrapped up and two people pull on each end and it pops!

There is a party hat, a joke, and a toy inside! Me and Elder Lui had fun popping ours!

Reuben's mom, Nara's mom, Reuben's dad, Nara and our Christmas dinner table! 

Reuben just barely installed the new shade tops and the table is brand new, too!

It was so much fun!

Opening our presents

The "Pudding" table

(dessert table)

I made fresh peach and fresh strawberry pies...they didn't turn out good at all!

I was embarrassed!  I usually make a pretty mean peach pie! Ahhh!

The Pavlova, dipped strawberries, and Trifle....yum!

December 26th...

We started packing up our stuff to move to Taupo!

We have accumulated alot of stuff!! 

We couldn't fit it all in our car, so the Hayward's took some stuff for us

to Hamilton and we picked it up when we went to the temple on the 28th.

Saying good-bye to Mark, Silina, and Jacob :(

We love this little family!  We hope they can stay strong!

Going to the temple with them is one of the highlights of our mission!

Saying good-bye was so hard! :(

Jacob thinks of us as his grand-parents...

poor little guy doesn't have grandparents in New Zealand.

He doesn't even know them! 

He just clung to us when it was time to leave!

The night before we left, we took one last walk on Waikanai Beach with Reuben and Nara.

It was actually chilly outside! We have loved going for runs every morning on this beach...and walks

in the evening....wow, I am really going to miss living by the ocean!! Taupo is in the middle of

the Island.  The lake is huge, but it's still not the same as the ocean....I love the ocean!

December 27th

Our 32nd anniversary!  We were so busy getting ready for the baptism and moving that we forgot it was our anniversary!  Frances Burt remembered and whispered it in my ear! Ha!

Derek Leefe and his girls were baptized at 11:00 and Lonne had to speak at the baptism.

I'm so glad we got to stay for the baptism...I think it meant alot to John and Frances.

John had shaved a star and stripes into his hair just for us!! Ha!

He is sooooo funny!! We weren't able to go to their dinner after the baptism, and we felt 

really bad about it!  We found out later that John had been saving some crayfish tails just for us!

We had to get on the road so we would be to Taupo before dark to pick up our key to our new place.

I wish we would have just stayed for an hour or so....hindsight is 20/20...

Lonne and John

Wow, I really hope John will get back to church.  He's such a great guy!

The ward needs him and his humor!!

Peter and Frances Burt

Saying our last good-byes....:(

We love these people!  They will be life long friends for sure!

Peter has been so sweet to take Lonne fly fishing, and out on the sea with him on P-days.

Frances and I have become such good friends! We are going to miss them, but we KNOW

they will come to Taupo to go fishing!  We can't wait!

Saying good-bye to the Elders....

They are such good good boys!!!! We love them!

Pulling out of the Portside Hotel for the last time...

gonna miss this place!  We have gotten so close to the girls at the front desk!

I bake them cookies all the time, and they love it! They were really sad to see us go.

I hope we can make friends in Taupo...it's gonna be hard to come close to the friendships we have made in Gisborne.  Goodbye Gizzy....