Old Flat, New House

 We spent the first six months (and a half) in our flat in Dargaville. The mission moved two young missionary elders in to serve in Dargaville, and therefore, they needed to be moved into our flat and we needed to find a new place. After a bit of research, and help from local members, a house was found that exceeded our expectations. It is in the community of Bayly's Beach, about 15 minutes west of Dargaville, right on the ocean (Tasman Sea).

Our first place was a house that sits back behind another house on Plunket Street. It was OK and we adjusted well to it, but it had its quirks. The entry door was a sliding glass door (as was an outside door to our bedroom right next to that door). 

small tree, lots of yummy lemons

One fun fact of that place was the lemon tree in the back.

above: our home, below, the view from our home towards the ocean

Anyway, last week we moved into our new home in Bayly's Beach. We are now quite a ways from stores and petrol stations, but we are often in town anyway, so that is not an issue.

One nice thing is that we hear the ocean at night and it is possible to walk to the beach from our place.

I took a couple of hikes in the past few days. Most of the days since we moved in we have been so busy, we have not been able to do much or see a sunset here. Saturday I took my first hike down to the beach before a busy day. This morning, I took another hike, a little different way that was not as steep.

One nice thing about being in Bayly's Beach is that we are nearer some members, most of which are not currently attending meetings with us. Another one is close who is active. With us now in this home, the Elders can now live in town instead of traveling an hour each way from their current place with other elders in Whangarei.

Family Visit and temple

 The past two weeks were full of happenings. We enjoyed having our son and family visit us from Utah. The children's other grandparents are also serving a mission in New Zealand so they came, spent about a week with us and then a week with them. In between, we went with them down to the Hamilton area to attend the temple and to visit places there. It was glorious.

This shows us at the temple in Hamilton

Before going south, we explored together the ancient kauri forest and the Kai'iwi lakes, then a beach on the east coast, then falls there and then took our trip south to the temple.

Overlooking the Hokianga bay to the dunes on the other side.

Our granddaughter on the beach

Some of the grandchildren at the ancient kauri tree

Whangarei Falls

While we were in the Hamilton area, we visited the Māori experience in Rotorua — a very impressive demonstration (sorry, no pictures) and the Hobbiton filming site at Matamata.

The Green Dragon

The Baggins residence

The mill at Hobbiton

On the way back, we got this picture of the new Auckland temple, nearing completion.

Finally, a couple more photos. The first is one of my sweetheart as we were viewing the Wairoa river from the Dargaville Museum hill. The last one is a picture of a tree. These trees are known for their bright red color around Christmas time in the area here. This one is a block away from our home.

We are enjoying the experience of getting to know the people of our branch. There is quite a varied group of people, most with Māori ancestry, some of other Polynesian cultures. It is quite an education. They are all dear people and It is amazing to know them. One remarkable experience we see is at times going to the local stores, having people (unknown to us) talking with us, and we learn that they are not actively attending meetings. They are happy to see us and often invite us to visit them. The hand of the Lord is here with us!

Silver Beets, Burger Fuel and Whaka papa

 In visits and activities over the past week, we had some good connections and learned a lot about the local culture and people.

We had our District Council meeting last Friday in Whangarei (pronounced Fawn-ga-ray). This picture is in an eatery area in the city. We bought food from different places and ate in the same location. There was a sushi shop, pizza place and a place called "Burger Fuel." This picture is of many of us together in the sushi place (I missed getting two other elders who were between me and the wall.)

We had a good experience on Sunday in the local branch. They had their Primary Children Sacrament Meeting program. It was wonderful (sorry, no pictures). Many of the children wore Maori tapa cloth skirts around their waists and shells on necklaces. There were a lot of visitors as well. We met our branch president for the first time as well. Following the meetings, they served a very good meal of local foods.

In our visits, we find the people very generous and received food from several, including "silver beets," lemons, celery (all out of their gardens and yards) and also a generous sampling of some frozen beef.

Lemons (above, with an egg shown as comparative size)

Silver Beets (we know this as Swiss chard).

In one of our discussions, we found that they are interested in Family History research for their families. We are excited to help. The Maori word for genealogy is "Whaka papa" (the Wh is pronounced like an f or a soft v), their word for grandparents (or ancestors) is "Tupuna". We also learned that a lot of the people in the area, though many with British, Scottish, etc. ancestry, are also connected to the Maoris and have Polynesian ancestry. One brother just returned from an experience called a "Tangi," meaning to cry or mourn. He had a close friend pass away and they get together to mourn and be around each other in these circumstances. We find these people very open and caring. It is a wonderful experience.

Welcome to Dargaville

 Well, we are here. After a long flight (LA to Auckland=13hrs.), we arrived in Auckland a little over a week ago. At the mission home there, we visited with the office missionaries (seniors and Elders [ no, that is not being redundant]).

They assigned us a new car and the next day we experienced driving on the left side of the road. Sister Buchanan did a fine job of the driving the first day, though was definitely hassled by the time we arrived after the 2+ hour drive to Dargaville.

Our flat was one formerly used by the younger missionaries for a number of years and showed the experience. We got all set up and going. 

We struggled with jet lag for a while, but participated in Zone Conference/Mission Tour. Elder Meurs and his wife were visiting. We enjoyed a wonderful conference and got acquainted with the many missionaries here in the Northland.

On Sunday, we went to the church, but instead of the normal meetings, we viewed the broadcast of our stake conference. The Stake Center building in Whangarei is under construction, so they met in a different building and broadcast the conference to other church buildings. The picture at the top is our church building in Dargaville. The people are wonderful. It is a small branch. We connected quickly with some of the members and felt the spirit of them. The stake conference included a number of returned missionaries and a short message from each of them. 

We had a visit from a member couple who live close to our flat, the Wilsons. They are great people who have done a lot of service in their lifetime. They invited us to their place for dinner last night.

Yesterday, we made a visit to a woman in a local nursing home. Her brother visited our branch last Sunday and asked us to pay her a visit. She is not a member of our church. We had a wonderful visit with her and see a wonderful spirit in her. It also happened to be her birthday (which we did not know) and she appreciated our visit. We will return.

Today, we had a nice visit with a family who had been visited by missionaries in the past. They have two beautiful young boys and seek answers. We had a nice visit with them and left with a prayer and came away with some fresh Swiss chard from their yard.

Following this, we took a trip to Bayly's Beach and our first view of the Tasman Sea and ocean. Below are pictures from that trip. We only live 15 minutes away and this is our first time there.

This is a view towards Dargaville from the west.

Along the road there are often hills, woods and cows.

This shows Sister Buchanan and our car from the beach, looking inland.

They tell us that this is the longest driveable beach in all of New Zealand, above is the view north, below the view south. From here to the Puoto Point at the bottom of the peninsula (south) is about 50 miles, all beach like this. It also extends north quite a ways, just like this.

... a jelly creature in the sand

Sister Buchanan looking out at the sea, taking a picture.

And to close, a funny little story about our learning how to be "Kiwis."  We struggled to get the stove/oven to work. The hotplates work fine on the top, but no matter how we tried, we could not get the oven to turn on. 

We called the office and they finally said they would contact the landlord to get someone to service the oven. When the Wilsons visited, she said that the timer had to be set to "manual," and it should show a little hand. We tried the timer and turned the clock a lot and could make no progress. Then this morning, I tried again and pulled the little clock time knob a bit while turning and it changed to show times and a bell and finally a little red hand.

The little red area on the left side is now showing a little hand (sorry you cannot see the detail - take my word for it). The oven is now available for us to use. It only took us a week to get that solved.

The Lord is good! We love being in His service here. We pray for our family back home. They have their challenges and know they are in the Lord's hands. Here we know we can be led by Him to bless the lives of the good people here!

Starting again

 

We are enjoying the MTC experience. It is more up-to-date that previous training sessions at the Mission Training Center. We mainly love getting to know the other missionaries serving and learning their stories. It was a big group that started with us last week. These are only the senior missionaries who started this past week.

Next week we head to New Zealand.

A blessing was the opportunity to have our granddaughter come by for a short time. We shared some BYU Creamery ice cream and talked about the blessings of the temple.

The love of the Lord is real!

Finding ways to make it work

 I see twenty-five sets of missionaries on my computer screen. I can flip forward and see at least three other sets of twenty-five in the Zoom display. We are learning from each other in our twice-weekly, remotely distanced,  mission meetings. President Reeves has just explained that we are now in a level of lockdown that missionaries are not to meet with anyone in their homes for any reason, even with masks. The effect is subtle, but apparent: a head drops to the desk, other heads shake, unheard groans are almost audible. The  President continues, then a spiritual thought is given by one of the sister missionaries.

She speaks clearly and talks about the value of feeling vulnerable, of learning from discouragement. The group of sisters in her portion of the Zoom screen suddenly disappear as their little pane goes dark. She resets the dome light and a voice is heard: "ready for Log-in." They continue, unaffected by the interruption. Another of the sisters reads a scripture and the thought concludes and all are smiles and we feel hopeful.

I realize that others are also participating in the Zoom meeting from their cars. I count 17 darker mini-windows. These faithful missionaries join the regular meeting, even though they do not have sufficient wireless nor cell reception in their apartments. Our vehicles serve as a place to meet remotely, wherever they can find the proper reliable connection. With not being able to meet people in person, our cars are even more needed as the place to communicate remotely.

Always facing the unexpected, our good missionaries follow the Spirit in finding ways to adapt through current restrictions. The joy I see in their faces on the screen lets me know that the Lord works miracles when His servants are willing to be led by Him. Through this trust in Him, they conquer the adversary in these troubled times.

Goodnight TIWI (with apologies to Margaret Wise Brown)

 In a white Malibu

was a log book

In a red case

And from the mirror hook,

Masks for the face

And three smiling Elders buckled in place

soccer ball in the back

near a rattling bike rack

old PepBoys slips

and crusty nacho chips

light in the back, someone trying to read

a sweet lady voice saying "Watch your speed"

goodnight Tiwi

goodnight Malibu

goodnight masks, we won’t miss you

goodnight light

good night bike rack

good night Pep Boys, and the ball in the back

good night Elders

good night chips

good night receipts and gas card slips

good night miles log

good night everything

and good night to the voice saying "Aggressive Driving."

Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Good night missionaries everywhere 

- Elder Joseph Buchanan, California Newport Mission vehicle coordinator

(available to an illustrator)

A Musician and Computer Geek vs. a Malibu

So we had transfers yesterday. This happens every six weeks (usually), but sometimes it is a bit crazier that others. Today we have four missionaries going home and 17 new missionaries arriving. In preparation, a lot of craziness happened yesterday. We had many of our dear people here at the same time, switching cars, getting bikes, getting TIWI cards, asking questions, moving luggage around, trying out bikes, finding helmets, inspecting cars, etc.

The challenge of note came when two sisters said that their car would not start. They have a Chevy Malibu. I have a portable power unit that can jump start a car, and as I was in the middle of TIWI training and many other interactions in the office, I sent that device out with them to get their car started.

After a long while, I wondered what had become of the stalled car, breaking away for a moment from office madness to check on the sister missionaries. It looked like they had attached things correctly, but nothing had improved. I tried and the car would not turn over for me either. Checking in my trunk for some traditional jumper cables, and finding none, I asked a couple of other elders near by and none of them had any either. Remembering having seem some in the office, I went back in and encountered many requests from missionaries waiting for me in the office, one set of elders offered to take the cables I handed them to go out and connect the cables to a mission truck to get the car started properly.

After another long while and many dizzying office interactions, I set a couple of sisters watching a training video and ran back out to check on the misbehaving Malibu. The elders were stymied, not having any success, leading us all to wonder whether there be other electrical issues at hand.

Finally, I looked at the clip where the jumper cables were attached. Not being familiar with these newer, more sophisticated, computer-controlled cars, I looked more closely at what we thought was the battery. I started moving clips and covers around to discover that we actually were trying to jump start the fuse box.

I saw what was really the battery, another nondescript black brick under the hood, moved the various clips and covers and finally discovered the battery posts. We connected the jumper cables correctly and after a little effort from the truck battery, the Malibu finally jumped to life!

It took about 8 of us (including the sisters) to get this reluctant Malibu to respond.

As I told Shauna back in the office of our Malibu misadventures, I exclaimed to her, "This is what comes of putting a musician and computer geek in charge of a fleet of mission cars."

A different mission

So, I have had a lot keeping my mind off writing a blog. It is finally slowing down a little.

Here is a FB post I did on July 10. More after that so keep reading:

I have not said much lately. Life has been very busy. It is like having been retired for 7 years and then suddenly being back to full time work in an office, including many overtime hours. Oh wait, that is really what it is... It has been exactly 7 years since I officially retired and now I am working in a very busy office, putting in many more than 40 hours each week. It is really quite interesting. From the photos in this collage, you see palm trees by the temple (the wonderful place that it is); managing a fleet of cars - having been last week expanded from about 55 to 87 - mainly driven by 18-19 year olds (see the damaged Corolla in the picture - miraculously no one was injured); attending many baptisms, including (as a sample shown) three in Chinese, two in Spanish, a number in English, one in a language of an Arabic speaking country (where the church is definitely not looked upon with fondness), a family from Portugal, etc.; running on at least 8 different programs and web sites to manage cars, drivers, driver safety, incidents (accidents), daily/monthly miles driven, keeping track of countless Pep Boys service receipts, gas credit cards for each of 87 cars (also used by 18 and 19 year olds), and a few other tasks that I cannot think of at the moment; visiting people in our ward here (and loving that); AND trying to keep track of our own finances, family issues at home and in New York, and the pace of life in Southern California . . . . . . . . . Wow, what an experience!

Two weeks ago, we had the blessing of returning home to Utah for the wedding ceremony for our grandson. It was a glorious experience.

Back in the mission, we have been busy with a lot of planned functions, but especially with those unplanned concerns. Last week we had our mission zone conferences and associated vehicle inspections. I was a crazy time. On Thursday we were in Escondido. 

Now we are settling in to the routine, which includes the normal vehicle maintenance work, attending baptisms and now Shauna getting into gear for being the head secretary in the office. I am trying to see how we can get by with fewer cars — we are told that we need to scale back our fleet by 9 cars (already having sold 5) — some of those were either office or extra cars due to the mission combination, but now we are getting to where we need to have more missionaries use bicycles instead of cars, or to share cars. We will make it work.

One of our office couples is going home next Tuesday (hence Shauna's move to the main office). 

The last couple of days, I actually was caught up enough to not have pressing issues and had some spare time on my hands, so I did some Danish research (which I really love). We just do not get to the temple enough to do the work for all the people I keep finding!

Well, life is good. We love it here and enjoy the people especially.

Serving in Southern California

Hello everyone,

We are now officially serving in our mission. We are called to the California Carlsbad Mission and began (at the MTC) on the 6th of May and are now in our place in Irvine, California. The Carlsbad and the Irvine missions are being combined on July 1st and they put us in an apartment near the Irvine mission home. As of July 1st, our missions (all of Irvine and a large portion of Carlsbad) will become the Newport Beach mission, named after the temple in our mission.

This is a picture Shauna took of the temple in one of our recent visits there (only about 10 minutes from our apartment).

We arrived in Carlsbad on the 19th.

This is a picture of the office door in Carlsbad (with my reflection in it).

A day or so later, we made it to the beach (in Oceanside).

This is a picture of us on the beach.

So far, we have been visiting both mission offices and learning from the office missionaries there. It appears that our main function, at least for now, is to get acquainted with the process of each office to be able to help our new mission president, President Reeves, and the offices get going as a combined concern as soon as possible in early July.

So far, we have been to lots of office processes, apartment visits (Shauna with Sister Van Aarle) and car inspections (me with Elder Van Aarle), etc. including me helping Elder Okine here in Irvine take in and pick up cars for maintenance issues.

It is interesting that we are in the church directory (CDOL) in the Irvine mission, but in the computer system (IMOS) in the Carlsbad mission, so we are pretty much dependent on accessing our tools through the two couples we are replacing. Even at that, it is not certain how we will end up in our duties. We are flexible and willing to do anything that comes up.

Also a great blessing is to get to know so many of the wonderful missionaries serving here in these two missions. One of the new sister missionaries is from Tahiti, so French is her native language and she misses hearing it. Shauna spoke briefly to her in French and the missionary was so excited to hear it (It also turns our the our president here, President Clark is fluent in French as well). Also, we have a Farsi Group of members (from Iran) and a very vibrant Chinese ward. We attended our first baptism here the night before last and it was all in Chinese, with an interpreter. It was wonderful.

This is a great work and we feel the hand of the Lord in everything.

A Fun (and blessed) Meeting

My wife and I were in downtown Salt Lake City the other day, meeting with a young man, Andrew, from our mission in New York, along with his mother, who attended the Salt Lake Temple with us. That in itself was a wonderful experience and we loved being with them once more. Andrew is now in the MTC in preparation for his mission service (to the Utah Salt Lake City mission!).

As the proceedings began, one of the officiators in the session looked somewhat familiar to me and as I finally could see his name tag, it was confirmed that he was my high school German teacher, Mr. Vreeken. What a blessed "tender mercy"!  I wondered, with the sacred nature of the whole experience, whether I would actually be able to speak with him. As we approached that final step in the process, I was overjoyed to have him be my guide through the last step. Still, it was a sacred experience and the solemn nature precluded my speaking with him, so I just smiled as he finished and I said a quiet, "danke schön" as I moved on.

In the next gathering area, I wondered whether he would be coming through that place as well. After visiting with our New York people for a time, I was excited to see my dear old teacher come through and I made my way to greet him. He was very happy to see me and wished to see my wife as well. We had a wonderful, yet brief, reunion (still in quiet tones befitting the sacred place). What  wonderful "tender mercy" blessing!

I had not seen him since graduating from high school almost exactly fifty years ago. I loved seeing him again, especially in that wonderful place.

The Lord blesses us when we least expect it.

An update about everything, including mission

I really haven't written anything for a long time. I guess it is time to put everything together for you (if any of you are still reading this blog)...

We finished our mission in the New York Rochester mission in the last part of September 2018 and then took a long trip getting home. We stayed for a few days with Mary's family in Medina (Mary, Quinn, Tova and the baby gone to Argentina at the time), then visited Montreal (the temple there), the Adirondacks, then the Boston and Hartford temples, a visit to family in Maryland, then to Virginia rto see Beth and Ray, on to Ohio, Chicago, a weekend in Sioux Falls to see Jonathan and family, then home.

We got settled in at home, then visited family in the Boise, Idaho area. After a few more weeks, we did a temple trip to southern Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. In the process of time, we prepared for and then submitted applications for our next mission.

Over the New Year's holiday weekend, we visited sunny Sioux Falls, South Dakota to see Jonathan and his family for a while. It was sunny, but below zero at times.

Through all this, we have also attended temple sessions fairly often here at home.

(deep breath)

Now we are looking for our next service opportunity.

Yesterday we received our mission call to serve in the California Carlsbad Mission, to work in the office there. We will head out on May 20th (MTC and then drive to Vista, California) for an 18 month mission there.

We miss our dear friends in New York. We hope to go see them before heading to California (just on the way, right?) and also to visit with Mary and Aaron's families there.

We love being involved in family, friends and in serving the Lord. His blessings are beyond comprehension at times.

In Like a Lion

We have had some wonderful experiences so far in this wintry land. March definitely came in like a lion. Despite the weather, it has been very inspiring to see the hand of the Lord in the events of the past week or so.

Ken, who was baptized last November, came with us to the temple last Tuesday — the first day the temple was open after their two-week closure for cleaning. Ken had the name ready for his father and names of his great-grandfather's family. It really was inspiring to be part of this great work. He was amazed at the spirit he felt, especially when he was baptized for his father. After the baptisms, we took a tour of the sacred grove together. It was cold, but the spirit of the Lord warmed our souls.

Also of note is the fun we are having helping a certain man with his family research. As family history consultants for the branch, we get to work with members and non-members. This particular man is one we know from our work at the local churches' ecumenical Sunday meals for the disadvantaged people. Don is always there helping with the cleanup, washing dishes, etc. Shauna usually goes every week as well. I go a little less often, but still enjoy visiting with Don in this way. He found out that we run the family history library of the branch here and expressed an interest in getting help on his family work. He has a lot of involvement with his family groups and looked for help in getting it organized better. He has come to our library a couple of times and we really enjoy listening to his stories and helping him get the information recorded in FamilySearch.

As you can see, we still have winter upon us. A strong "nor-easter" hit last week and dumped about 10 inches of heavy snow here. The biggest problem was the winds, tree damage and loss of power for many of the people in the state of New York. We did not lose any power, but many of the branch members had power out for as much as 24-30 hours.

The last picture is a view from the front of our church parking lot across the valley. There is a corn field which covers most of the view, but they started building new apartments and homes in the area. One of our former members gave a prophecy years ago that someday there would be homes there and that the bishop of the Hornell Ward (when it becomes a ward) would be from those homes. We have high hopes for our Branch! The Lord is blessing us here.

February Update

The mission continues in keeping us busy. We are enjoying our experiences, especially the combination of helping members and friends here, finding new friends, and being with our daughter's family.

One of our highlights (of many) is being in the temple with one of our dear families of the branch- the parents this time. We went with them as their boys were baptized for family members last fall and a few weeks ago we were with their parents as they did other ordinances, this time for his parents and paternal grandparents. It was the first time they had been back for these ordinances since they were sealed in the temple over 16 years ago. It was an amazing experience.

We visit with their family every week, mostly because we teach their two older boys as their seminary teachers. Shauna also has been helping them in their kitchen remodel.

They have a pet dog, named Silly, who is extremely paranoid and skittish. She finally is willing to take some food from my hand (if I do not look at her). She is loved by the father of the family (as you see above).

Ray has been in the military and has had a lot of difficult times in his life. He has an interesting collection of pictures and other items. One picture I wondered about, until it was explained to me that this is a famous painting of a buffalo-hunting Indian as he reloads while in pursuit of his prey.

The area here is still somewhat in winter. We have had all sorts of weather, besides the real cold times I mentioned earlier. On interesting thing I have noticed is that along the roads, where the roadbed has been cut away from the bedrock, there is a lot of seeping of water continually, and in some places in the cold times, ice flows develop where you really do not notice water flowing. It is gradual and forms there flows of ice. This picture was taken when it had gotten up to above 70°F, so it has melted some, but you still can see the ice flow. The flow does not come from the top, but seeps from the rock itself.

The hills in the warmer months are thick with trees and overgrowth. At this time of the year, especially with some snow on the ground, you can see through the bare trees. Here are some pictures of the hills around here. (The local people refer to these as "mountains.")

One of our recent activities was an Elders Quorum bowling night. These show some of our people, including one man who was baptized just a few months ago, and another who is recently coming back to church. The branch members are doing well in helping these people feel welcome. The last one is a wall mural in the bowling alley depicting Hornell as it was in the heydey of the railway boom.

(Elders Lawrenz and Kerwin)