15 February 2020

What a great couple of weeks! Here are a few highlights:

This sweet lady is Louise. Louise turned 91 a few days ago. 

She came to New Zealand on a cruise.

Louise was one of Dwight's mom's best friends.
She docked in Napier, New Zealand

         Napier isn't in our mission, but we got special permission from President Erekson to go meet her. Here is a picture of her cruise ship--the Norwegian Jewel. (I also dropped my phone on the concrete trying to take this picture through the tiny holes in the fence and cracked my phone camera. I have no idea how it is still working.)

 The reunion was quite tender. The first words out of her 91 year old mouth were:

"Nug, I almost raised you!" We had a great time reminising. It was a highlight.

Of course we had to follow the East coast line to get there. It never ceases to amaze me how each beach is soooooo different! Look at the color of the water. It is the most beautiful teal color on the earth! This plant was hanging like an elephant trunk.

                                                          The selfie stick is getting easier.
                                                   

The beach at Napier had black pebbles instead of sand. AND someone had built a shelter!

The shore line was full of drift wood. I wish there was a way to get a big peice home

                                                                                   
This looked like a tree out of the "Lorax" Dr. Suess had to have visited New Zealand before he wrote that book.       
                                                       
The more I see these signs the more I start to question if we should really be on the beach at any given time...

                                                                                                  

Found a lighthouse! Unfortunatelly it was in the middle of town, not the ocean. But it was working. Boy that thing was bright. As you drove by it, it blinded you for several minutes. 

 So this is the YUM!  WOW! effect. Take a picture of a piece of deliciousness with a gorgeous background. 

                                                 

This was Sal's New York Pizza. Quite tasty. Had to come to New Zealand to taste New York Pizza.

                                             

                                                               We did make alot of friends that day.
                                                                                     
                                                     

Only after feeding them 1/2 the pizza did we see the signs that read don't feed the animals. This one became overly friendly. He would look you in the eye and run towards you. I was afraid Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was being played out.

Oh I wish I could get the true color of this plant. It was HOT PINK, gorgeous, and breathtaking.

So this turned out to be the worst day this week. If I have to eat at McDonalds, I order a quarter pounder, cheese and extra pickle only in the United States. That means I get a quarter pound of hamburger with cheese and pickles, no ketchup, mustard, or onion, only cheese and EXTRA pickles. Apparantly, we had a language barrier. My $10.95 quarter pounder came WITHOUT meat as well. Of course we were 15 kilometers out of town before I opened my special order. This made me quite cranky.

 And then we ran into this sign. It should have said "You can't feed the hungry with trees or McDonalds" at the bottom. 

I thought alot about this sign. It is correct. YOU CAN'T FEED THE HUNGRY WITH TREES! But then again, YOU CAN'T BUILD A HOUSE OUT OF NECTARINE PITS!

We stopped at one of the honesty fruit shacks. They are full of bags of fruit and you leave you money in a box and take your fruit. Fresh oranges...Mmmmm.

Well, this is self explanatory...

This came up on Accu-weather...

 Dull and Dreary. What does that even mean? Sounds like it's not worth getting out of bed that day. I'll keep you posted. 

 Finally I found a picture of what the roads are like here! EVERY. LAST. ONE. They are like ric-rac. If you have a week stomach, stay home. 

The day we went to Napier, we needed to stay in a motel in order to meet Louise early the next morning. 

We called a week in advance to book a motel room. 

After being turned down by 5 motels because they were FULL, we realized something was going down. Dang Michael Buble decided to do a concert in Napier the night we needed a room. 1/2 of the population of New Zealand was in Napier + 4000 people from the Norwegian Jewel. (I've never been really fond of Michael Buble, but now I really don't like him..)

We finally found a  motel room 113 Kilometers from Napier in a little town called Wairoa. 

It was quite the little treasure. This ma/pa motel reminded me of the Motels my dad would get when I was young. He  would never make a reservation, but go to every motel in town and come out swearing under his breath because they were all so EXPENSIVE and he was NOT going to spend $20 just to sleep in their bed...And 9 times out of 10 we would end up going back to the first one because it was the cheapest.

 

The outlet, yes, the one and only outlet was attached to the CLOSET. The good news is it had a blow dryer!

 The bad news is the only mirror was near the front door, where the outlet wasn't.

The good news is I found this outlet like thing in the mirrorless bathroom! The bad news is, it is a SHAVER only outlet. It doesn't have enough power to power anything but a very WEAK shaver. 

The good news is you can't get a white girl with stick straight hair down.( Islanders have curly coarse thick hair. No one needs a curing iron or straightner. )

I got the job done. Dang Michael Buble...

 Somebody in the mail room somewhere probably just got fired. We have received several letters lately that visited other countries first.

Finally! A sign in front of the grocery store reminding us to BYOB! (Bring Your Own Bag)

This is a VERY popular outfit over here. Rubber boots, hoodie and shorts.  This guy's shorts were much longer than most men wear.  To get the full effect, they usuallyare the length of short shorts. (It was 87 this day)

Would you call this guy to do your plumbing?

I really need to read my texts before I send them. My New Zealand phone doesn't recognise my Montanan accent. Voice text doesn't work for me. I sent this to the Mission President this morning. I'm just glad he has a sense of humor. And I hope he's not looking for the report in his back yard...

Oh goodness...

The BEST part of the week is right here!  Ruby Dawn Clayton made her debut into the world! Oh how I long to kiss her little neck and chubby cheeks. She will be walking when I get to do that! Isn't she beautiful?  So grateful for facetime. I love her already and we are so grateful she joined our family

Word of the Week:
~PURIRI~
So this is the name of a family in our little Branch that I have been calling the PER-REE-REE's. Thank heavens for our Maori Assisant to the President who makes me repeat words until I say them right. (He's relentless.)The proper pronounciation is:
POO-da-dee
Elder Hippolite says if you can't roll your r's, use a "d" sound. I get so excited when an American calls on the phone and they can understand me and I can understand them.

Miracle of the week:
I want to share Jessie's journey with you. Jess was raised in an Atheist home. At age 17 she found out she was pregnant and found herself living with an abusive partner.  When her baby son was 3 months old she left her partner and moved into her own house and became very close friends with her neighbors. They were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints. Jess said that when she was around them, she felt an overwhelming sense of good, pure happiness and warmth in their presence.  They invited her to attend church and she took some of the missionary discussions. During this time, she began another relationship and after a time, found herself alone again, but this time caring for her 2 year old son, a new born daughter, and her ex partners 15 year old sister. In order to support her "family" she moved to another city where she didn't know anyone. She lost contact with the church and her partner returned and they tried to keep the family together. The relationship continued to deteriorate and 6 years later, she found a job as an Early Childhood Teacher  and moved to another city. She discovered that her manager was a member of the church. They started talking and asked her manager if she could help her reconnect with the missionaries as she felt that something was missing in her life. Her boss agreed to contact the missionaries. That night, a knock came at her door and there stood Sister Cantwell and Sister Barker. Jess was so excited to see them and immediately felt the same feelings she had years before. After an evening of sharing, the Sisters left and Jess texted her manager to thank her for getting in touch with the missionaries and having them come over so soon! Her Boss exclaimed she was sorry, but she had forgotten to ask the missionaries to come around!
Now here's the rest of the story
Rewind back to that morning with Sister Cantwell and Sister Barker:
"We were praying mightily that morning to know who to teach and where to go to find them. They both had the feeling that they should go to a particular house where "Pam" lived.  They had met Pam a week prior and Pam stood on the porch and chatted with them. She wasn't interested in their message, but she was kind to them. She said was very busy packing up, as she was moving. The Sisters both felt they should go to her house that evening and see if they could help "Pam" pack. Boy were they surprised when Jess opened the door, hugged them and said she had been expecting them! Pam had moved out and Jess had moved in 4 days earlier.  Jess said, "It was that night that I brought Christ into the center of my household. I started attending church and finished the lessons." 
Jess was baptised two weeks ago.

Father's divine signature was on this experience. The missionaries met Pam. Pam moved. Jess moved in. Her boss was a member. The sisters prayed to know who to share with. They listened and showed up at the exact moment Jess asked for them. 

Heavenly Father knows each of us by name. He is so aware of all we are going through. 

Much love to you all,

Elder and Sister Clayton