Last night we had a birthday party with our seminary students as the two boys had birthdays in the last couple of weeks and Elder Hoagland was on the 31st. We ordered three large pizzas and there was one piece left. They also had cake and ice cream and after all that they decided to have a pop drinking contest to see who could drink a glass the fastest. They were in pain after that. Fortunately the glasses we have are only 6oz.
Sister Hoagland baked the cake. As you can see there is one container empty and most of the vanilla and chocolate are gone in the Neapolitan container. We had fed them breakfast which we usually do on Friday, and they said they had not eaten all day. The party started at 8:30 pm. The way they consumed the food we could believe they were that hungry.
Here are the birthday boys. The two boys turned 16 and Elder Hoagland turned 6?
Earlier in the week we made a visit to Kumara, which is south and east about 20 K's. We visited Sister Linda Powell, who is called as a 2 nd counselor in the primary. She has not been attending since we arrived. She is very friendly and has two beautiful girls. As you can see they are middle class and her husband has a good job as a specialized lineman for the electric company. She has about 40 dance students and has to travel about 20-30 minutes each day to Hokitika. Her father lives there and takes care of the children while she teaches. He mother passed away about 15 months ago and used to be the branch pianist. We talked about primary and how she is so much needed. She knows all the children and their family's and we tried to encourage her by explaining that Judy was there helping with the music. We were thinking she might have been discouraged by the lack of discipline of some of the children.
This is on of two one way rail/car bridges left in NZ. This one is in the process of being replaced then there will only be one. We crossed that one just before we got to this one. One must wait before they cross until all others coming your way are gone. sister Hoagland was not happy to cross these bridges. I figured if a train can cross how bad could it be for a little car like ours.
We visited with Sister Scott who lives in Hokitika. She has a responsible job with the New Zealand Schools where she conducts training of teachers all over the South Island. She is faithful and teaches Sunday School to the youth. She is a Moari and we were talking about grandfather's missions. She was interested in what years he was here and also about his helping with the Book of Mormon translation. She looked in her Book of Mormon (Maori) and found grandfathers name listed in Moari as an editor along with Mathew Cowley. That was really exciting to see his name in Moari. Erata Ruihi Hokarana (Elder Lewis Hoagland). Her nephew no longer lives with her, but her sister who has special needs lives with her. She is very sweet but has to work a split night and morning shift cleaning a local grocery store (this was information for our friends the Rassmusen's who were on a mission here a few years ago)
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Here is the town clock with Sister Hoaglnd in front. We had some time before our appointment so we had a snack and looked over the town. It is kind of like some of our Oregon coast towns with a lot of tourist shops. It is the first sandy beach I have seen here as well.
The following are some pictures of damage in part of Greymouth. Two sections of town are more susceptable to wind and they really got it this week. Unlike the rest of New Zealand we only got wind during the storms and it was only one day. The north island has been dumped on for over a week now with flooding and land slides. The last few days the east side of this island have had heavy rain as well and the main road south has been blocked. We only had some trees and fences down and roofs damaged in two neighborhoods, Cobdon and blaketown.
The council has been busy picking up all the rubish. Later in the day I went to the dump with a member and they had a mountain of metal from the roofs and fencing. They had brought in a truck with a metal crusher on the back and were taking care of all of it right away. The wood from the trees will be used by the locals for fire next season. They only take the small brush to the dump. They closed the school which shares the yard these trees fell in.
Sister Royal had some damage to her garage roof. I picked up the Elders and they fixed the roof while I helped clean up her yard. She had some serious fence damage on the other side of her yard. She says she is covered by insurance. We couldn't help her with the fence as it made of cement posts and tin. We had no tools anyway.
Sister Hoagland baked the cake. As you can see there is one container empty and most of the vanilla and chocolate are gone in the Neapolitan container. We had fed them breakfast which we usually do on Friday, and they said they had not eaten all day. The party started at 8:30 pm. The way they consumed the food we could believe they were that hungry. 
Here are the birthday boys. The two boys turned 16 and Elder Hoagland turned 6?
Earlier in the week we made a visit to Kumara, which is south and east about 20 K's. We visited Sister Linda Powell, who is called as a 2 nd counselor in the primary. She has not been attending since we arrived. She is very friendly and has two beautiful girls. As you can see they are middle class and her husband has a good job as a specialized lineman for the electric company. She has about 40 dance students and has to travel about 20-30 minutes each day to Hokitika. Her father lives there and takes care of the children while she teaches. He mother passed away about 15 months ago and used to be the branch pianist. We talked about primary and how she is so much needed. She knows all the children and their family's and we tried to encourage her by explaining that Judy was there helping with the music. We were thinking she might have been discouraged by the lack of discipline of some of the children.
This is on of two one way rail/car bridges left in NZ. This one is in the process of being replaced then there will only be one. We crossed that one just before we got to this one. One must wait before they cross until all others coming your way are gone. sister Hoagland was not happy to cross these bridges. I figured if a train can cross how bad could it be for a little car like ours.
We visited with Sister Scott who lives in Hokitika. She has a responsible job with the New Zealand Schools where she conducts training of teachers all over the South Island. She is faithful and teaches Sunday School to the youth. She is a Moari and we were talking about grandfather's missions. She was interested in what years he was here and also about his helping with the Book of Mormon translation. She looked in her Book of Mormon (Maori) and found grandfathers name listed in Moari as an editor along with Mathew Cowley. That was really exciting to see his name in Moari. Erata Ruihi Hokarana (Elder Lewis Hoagland). Her nephew no longer lives with her, but her sister who has special needs lives with her. She is very sweet but has to work a split night and morning shift cleaning a local grocery store (this was information for our friends the Rassmusen's who were on a mission here a few years ago).
Here is the town clock with Sister Hoaglnd in front. We had some time before our appointment so we had a snack and looked over the town. It is kind of like some of our Oregon coast towns with a lot of tourist shops. It is the first sandy beach I have seen here as well. 
The following are some pictures of damage in part of Greymouth. Two sections of town are more susceptable to wind and they really got it this week. Unlike the rest of New Zealand we only got wind during the storms and it was only one day. The north island has been dumped on for over a week now with flooding and land slides. The last few days the east side of this island have had heavy rain as well and the main road south has been blocked. We only had some trees and fences down and roofs damaged in two neighborhoods, Cobdon and blaketown. 
The council has been busy picking up all the rubish. Later in the day I went to the dump with a member and they had a mountain of metal from the roofs and fencing. They had brought in a truck with a metal crusher on the back and were taking care of all of it right away. The wood from the trees will be used by the locals for fire next season. They only take the small brush to the dump. They closed the school which shares the yard these trees fell in. 
Sister Royal had some damage to her garage roof. I picked up the Elders and they fixed the roof while I helped clean up her yard. She had some serious fence damage on the other side of her yard. She says she is covered by insurance. We couldn't help her with the fence as it made of cement posts and tin. We had no tools anyway.
1 comment:
wow, some storm you got! We saw some youtube stuff about it the other day and prayed you two were safe.
Quien loves the pic of the little girl with the Thomas trains.
You look like you had a fun b-day.
We miss you a lot, but we're proud of you-Jeff said so in his testimony yesterday. It was our last Sunday with Buggy-he's off like a herd of turtles to MEPS, then Texas tomorrow. We miss him already. But KMT are keeping us busy, and the three boys have Soccer, so Jeff and I are busy being coaches and such.
well, ttyl
hugs
Jeff and Fawn
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