Easter Week-end

A few weeks ago, we asked our mission president if we could take a trip to Gisborne for Easter Weekend. He gave us the approval....he knew we had lots of people we really wanted to check up on.

We thought it would be nice to visit them one last time.

We downloaded General Conference onto the ipod and plugged it into the stereo

in the car.  We listened to two sessions on the way over.

We got delayed for two hours near Napier. It had been raining for four or five days straight.

There were slips (landslides) everywhere!  The road was washed out in several places.

We didn't know if they were going to close the road or not.

We made it through after our long wait, but we heard they closed the road right

after they let us through.  Our trip to Gizzy must have been meant to be!

This is what the hillsides looked like...right next to the road.  It was crazy!

 I took these pictures while driving....so they are kinda blurry.

  After a long drive (7 1/2 hours), we arrived in Gisborne and headed straight over to

Nara and Reuben's house.  It was so fun to see them again! Nara had baked each of us our

favorite dessert....she made her yummy cheesecake for me, and German Chocolate Cake for Lonne.

We were literally SICK after we left their house!  We ate WAY TOO  MUCH!

Nara is such a good cook!  We blame most of our weight gain on her! lol

Jodee and Tori were so excited to see us!  They came running out to the car when we pulled into the driveway and screamed! It was so sweet!  Tania made us a nice dinner...Roasted chicken, yum!

It was so sweet of her!  We have missed this little family so much! We are so proud of the ward for picking up where we left off..they are taking such good care of them!  Tania said there isn't a chance of her falling away from the church because the ward members won't allow it to happen!! Ha! We were so  proud to hear that little Tori sang a solo in sacrament meeting last week! 

The gospel has changed the life of this family sooooo much! 

 Dinner with Tania, Jodee and Tori

Kaana and Georgia wanted to meet up with us at McDonalds for Hot Chocolate!

It was so good to see them and hug them!!! We are so proud of both of them....they are

doing so good and staying strong in the gospel.  We love and miss them so much! Their sister, Angel, has moved to Australia.  We love Angel...wish we could have seen her one last time!!

Easter Sunday with the Gisborne 3rd ward.

We caught a few of our friends in the foyer after church to snap a quick picture...

After church, we went around and visited lots of people.

It was a tearful goodbye with Mark, Silina, and Jacob! We have grown to love them just like family.

Silina just got called to be in the Primary Presidency.  We are so proud of her!

After a long day of visiting...Renee and Mahana Stone invited us to tea (dinner).  

It was so sweet of them..they had been traveling all day and barely made it home in time to fix dinner!

Soooo glad we got to spend some time with this family! Wish we could have activated Renee,

but knowing we got her to church ONCE is an accomplishment! We LOVE these guys!

We have had a lot of fun with them while serving in Gisborne!

We stayed the weekend at the Burt's house.  Frances made us the cutest chocolate eggs.  She also made the Kiwi version of Rice Krispie Treats.  It is called Rice Bubble Crunch.  It has honey in it, and it's crunchy and delicious!! I couldn't quit eating it!  The Burts are sooooo good to us!!

As you can tell, we have lots of love in Gisborne!! That's why we miss it so much! 

It is definitely our second home.  Hope we can bring our family back here some day...

Monday morning...Time to say goodbye:(

Frances invited Nara and Reuben over to have a yummy "American" breakfast with us.

She cooked pancakes, ham and eggs.  It was delicious! 

The worst part is that we knew our fun weekend had come to an end! 

 Nara, Reuben, Peter, Lonne, Me, and Frances

 We had a tearful good bye...especially with the Haywards.

Lonne and I cried all the way out of town!  

We got a text a little while later from Nara...it said something like:

"I cried all the way home.  We decided we are coming to see you in Taupo in two weeks!"

They are so amazing!  We are so proud of them and how far they have come!! We love them soooo much!  They also told us they are planning to see us off at the airport in Auckand on June 1st.

We tried to talk them out of it, knowing that Auckland is a long trip for them...but they won't take no for an answer.  Nara and Reuben are the latest addition to our family.  I can't wait for the day when they can meet their "Other" brother and sisters! Ha!  I hope it happens soon!

Next stop...we stopped in Muriwai to say goodbye to Tom Stone.

He is an amazing man.  We love and respect him sooo much!

He and Lonne became very close.

Tom is the most faithful guy we have ever met.  

Our first week at church in Gisborne....Tom Stone gave the opening prayer.

His prayer was the most amazing thing we had ever heard! It literally made us cry!

We knew he was special right then...we just didn't know HOW special!

He is Mahana and Renee Stone's father.  A GREAT MAN!

Last look at downtown Gisborne.

Back to Lake Taupo...

It's a beautiful place.  I wish we had the same connection here as we do in Gisborne.

We're still trying soooo hard..but time is getting short.

 Tuesday we got up early and headed to Hamilton to work at the Visitor's Center.

We had a week of lot's of driving!

 While working at the Visitor's Center, a Samoan family came in.

They didn't speak much English, but I was able to communicate enough to find out

that the husband had served his mission in Samoa while Mitch was there!

I ran in and got a picture of Mitch to see if he recognized him.

He went crazy when he saw the picture! He yelled, "Yeah, I know him! Elda Kupa!"

I called Mitch on Skype and they talked to eachother for awhile in Samoan, so we couldn't

understand a thing they said.  Sister Savali (a samoan sister who works in the VC with us) told us that Mitch's Samoan language is amazing! She was so impressed! It was fun to see how excited this guy

was to talk to him in his native language.  I can definitely see why Mitch loved his mission so much.

The Samoan people are so much fun, and soooo friendly and loving! 

 Brother and Sister Spackman are in our ward in Taupo.  They bought a new car from one of the other missionary couples in our mission.  We took them to Hamilton with us to pick up their car.  They were just like two kids on Christmas!  They were so excited to have this car!  It was so cute!

Sandi and Bruce Spackman are the ones who hold the ward together in Taupo.  They are amazing!

They are so good to us, and appreciate even the smallest things.  

They are such an example to everyone.

While visiting our less active friends in Turangi, Lonne had some fun trading and comparing

flies for fly fishing with Don.  He is the FUNNIEST guy! He's sarcastic and quick witted...

We have a great time every time we go to their house:)

Lonne came away with a bunch of flies.  The men are so good to him...they love to teach him

their fishing secrets and give him flies.

(But he still can't catch any thing! Ha!)

We took our car to the dealership where we bought it.  

They are going to try to sell it for us.  Since we are down to the last  weeks of our mission,

the mission gave us a car to use while we try to get ours sold.  

We kinda miss the ole Nissan Skyline!

But the Toyota Corolla we got from the mission gets a LOT better gas mileage! :)

That pretty much sums up the week!

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We sure did!