Can you tell by this picture that Aroha French is a lot of fun???
We are so thankful that we have found the French Family!
We were pretty discouraged in Taupo...we weren't having much luck,
but we went to Turangi and found this awesome family!!
They invited us to a Chief/Hurricanes Rugby game the other night....
It was pouring rain....and I mean POURING!
We were soaked! But we had a great time!
After the game, we all met at the Thai House Restaurant and had
some nice warm Thai food!
The rainbow above the Rugby field was BEAUTIFUL!!
The people under the rainbow were DRENCHED! lol
Sunday, we attended the branch down in Turangi.
We both had to speak (of course) and I took
the primary so the girl (16 year old who usually teaches the children)
could go to class with the other young men and women.
We will be attending this branch every two weeks from now on.
We have two families we are working with in Turangi.
The French family and the TeRangi family.
The boys got in the trunk of our car and got Lonne's rope out...
They loved it!
Here are just a few of the members of the branch.
Me, Sister Walker (branch president's wife), Aroha, Peter, Nina, Jimmy, Lonne, and Hoani
Aja and Brody (branch president's little girls)
After church, we followed the French's, and they took us to their Marae.
A Marae is a gathering place for the Maori people. Each tribe has a Marae
that they belong to. If a guest comes to the Marae, they perform is a welcoming ceremony.
Below, we are showing how it is done....
The Men sit on the front row, the women behind them (for protection in case the visitors are an enemy)
Across the big lawn is another building where the chief or council sit.
They talk back and forth...they do speaches etc....and then they either welcome you or tell you
to get lost!! It might take 10 minutes or 10 hours....no one ever knows!
This is Peter showing how the Chief would talk to the visitors from across the lawn....
the building to the right is the Marae. This is where all the funerals are held.
A funeral lasts at least 3 days. The family stays at the Marae with the body the entire time...
They eat, and sleep with the body. Then they do the burial in the family
cemetery right next to the Marae.
This is the family church (Anglican) and cemetery.
There is a meeting house (to the right) where the meals are prepared and served.
It has a huge kitchen and a Hangi out in the back where they cook the meat in the ground.
All Maori people spend a great deal of time at their Marae's.
It was fun to get the whole tour!
We would really like to attend a funeral before we leave...
we hear it is really interesting and cultural!
Monday night, we invited the French's over for Family Home Evening and dinner.
They loved all the AMERICAN traditional barbecue food!
We had marinated chicken & steak, potato salad, baked beans, the mandarin/almond/lettuce salad,
candied carrots, and coconut cake and ice cream for dessert.
Aroha and Hoani were soooooo excited to eat!!
Hoani is a Rugby player....we hear he is really good!
We keep telling him we are going to bring him back to Snow Canyon with us!
After dinner, we had a short lesson.
We would really like to get Aroha baptized before we leave in June, but
we aren't going to pressure her. She told us she has a lot of questions for us...
We will start tackling her questions at our next lesson!!
Peter is a fisherman (Lonne just knows how to find the fishermen!)
He was so sweet to bring all of his flies and he shared a bunch of them with Lonne.
Aroha pulled me over and told me that he has NEVER shared his flies with anyone before!
He gave Lonne all sorts of flies he had tied himself, and some he had bought.
Lonne can't wait to get our in the river and try them out!
He felt honored that Peter would be so generous to share with him!
It was a FUN evening!
Can't wait to spend some more time with this awesome family!
P-Day
Lonne and I went to "Craters of the Moon Geo Thermal Park"
It's about a one hour walk through boiling mud and steaming craters.
It just freaks me out to know that the ground under my feet has so
much going on underneath it!! It was a fun walk/hike, and we were
glad we finally took the time to go see this site, since it is 5 minutes from our
apartment! It was really interesting!
Pictures just don't show how cool it really was!
There was a huge steaming, boiling crater behind us in this picture...
There were little tiny holes in the ground everywhere....
they were HOT and steaming.
It made the air really humid! I was dripping wet when we got done!
This is one of the larger craters with bubbling mud in the front of the picture...
I wish you could hear the sound! It was awesome! It just rumbles!!
I told Lonne we have got to start going to these tourist sites every Pday from now on!
We will be going home before we know it, and I want to see as many things as we
possibly can before we leave! The other couples in the mission go on day trips all the time,
but we are far away from everyone, so it just doesn't work for us to go with them....
We will just have to do our own thing and go exploring every Monday!
We kinda like to do our own thing anyway.....
This country is amazing! There's a little of everything here!!!
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