Last of April

We had a pretty good number at Sacrament meeting Sunday, but Sunday school and priesthood meeting were pretty slim. Some were preparing food and Puta and his wife were moving. The primary president did not come to church or her family so Judy was left with a lot of children to care for on her own. Linda Powell came which did help. She comes very infrequently. Following church we had a meal to honor Sister Carpenter who is leaving the branch to live in Hamilton. We were also told by Manase Toli that he and the children were moving to Australia to be with his wife Kim, who has a good job over there. We will miss them so much. Mele is doing so well with her piano.

Sunday afternoon we went over to President Kinikini's where he told us that Elder Richard G. Scott, was in Tonga to take care of some issues with leadership there. President Kinikini's father hosted Elder Scott for dinner in his home and Atu (Presidents wife) was the translator. It was a special occasion to say the least for them and they felt blessed. Atu took a carrot cake all the way to Tonga for the occasion.

Atu was in Tonga to finish up the paperwork for their adoption. They have been working on the adoption before baby was born and we arrived. President was in Tonga for two weeks over a month ago and Atu was finally able to bring the baby home yesterday.
Here is our new member of the branch ...... She is with her sister Moni and father Taina Kinikini.

Monday evening I had the privileged to give Sister Iraia's granddaughter a name and a blessing. Wirini Sharyl Iraia. The babies parents had us over for a Maori dinner at Christmas time. They are also moving to greener pastures. President Kinikini picked me up and we drove there and back in a driving rain storm. It turns out that we had 7 inches in 4 hours time. At 9:00 pm I went to the Elder's flat to do a flat inspection. There was local flooding on the way and any higher and I would have been stuck.

It turns out that many areas flooded with people being evacuated and we saw street cleaning activity down town the next morning. I understand our bank had water in it. The wind and rain don't seem to effect the area where we live. We assist teachers at the Cobden school every morning from 11-12 and the teachers were having the children write about their experiences during the rain storm. We heard some very interesting things with water moving play structures around yards, etc. We also helped Sister Carpenter with last minute work before she left for Hamilton. We will miss her.

I took My son-in-laws advice right away when he suggested I buy pills with Glucosamine and Chondrotin to help with a stiffness in my right hip. It took a few weeks to really start working, as the clerk indicated, but it has really been effective.

We have to go to a doctor every three months to get our prescriptions refilled. Our doctor is a young energetic internist. Physicians here are not treated as royalty, and the term doctor is rarely used. Our appointment is with "Tim." We had an appointment last summer on one of the few days that was warm and he was dressed in shorts and sandals. He does all the examining so there isn't a nurse who takes blood pressure or weight, etc. We talked about what we both thought was an over reaction concerning the swine flu.

We have a family in the branch that the Elders are working with and I go with them because there is no responsible male in the home. Mother is a member but none of the children. The mother and father are divorced and she blames the church for not helping her with an abusive husband. I'm not sure why they let us come as they are a very profane and coarse bunch. I suppose it is because they like the Elders. The daughters are very pretty girls but have potty mouths. On Tuesday our attempt was to teach repentance. We came back the next day with one of the zone leaders who is a 28 year old German. He and I had a pretty good discussion with the mother and youngest daughter about morals, and the importance of the gospel. Elder Heywood was helping the oldest daughter with her chemistry homework. When sister Hoagland and I first visited there, she would not let us in, so maybe we are making some headway.
This is the Twilight display at the "warehouse store." Just so you know it is big here too. This store is a Walmart want to be. The only store in town for many house hold items and clothing. Everything else is specialty shops. We do have some chain electronics stores, but they are very small here.
Here are some primary children having their meal after church last Sunday. From left to right are Lopeti, Taufa, Etueni, Nuku and Maui. Sister Hoagland had about 15 children of all ages to teach by herself. She was very disappointed that she can't get more help. Because the president and his wife have been out of town so much we have not had leadership meetings as we should so nothing is getting done right now.