Winter is on it way

We talked with Jenni and Rob via skype video phone today. What a great service that is. The big news this time was Chase lost his first tooth and we could see very well the big hole left by it's loss. He also showed us his T-ball uniforms. They have a practice uniform and game uniform. "OH MY!" We had a nice chat with Rob as well.

As Sister Hoagland taught piano Thursday I helped little Mele with her letter recognition and read to her and her brother. They just cuddled up on the sofa. They didn't want me to go as I was warm and their house is so cold. We can be so thankful for our blessings. Only the Kinikini's seem to have a warm house and last year they had an old stove that no mater how big the fire, very little heat came from it. They got a new stove just as the winter was ending last year.

The church does not have a bishop's store house in this part of the world so they have to buy food from the grocery store here. We have a family in the branch with a father that has been unable to work for some time. Since I am available and can sign checks now as branch clerk, we were asked to assist the RS president shop for the family. Sister Hoagland and the RS President had a tough time deciding what to buy as Tongans have different tastes and cooking abilities. We tried to get a list from the family, but they just said they needed everything. We have a wonderful Moari RS president whom I think was able to help the family with cooking ideas.



We have friends who are serving their missions on tropical islands. Their sunset pictures have more picturesque settings than ours but ours are equally brilliant. The above two pictures were taken from our grocery store parking lot.
This picture of the sunrise was taken after seminary this week.
Thursday was transfer day for the Elders. We take them to Hokitika which is a half hour drive to the airport. We said good bye to Elder Heywood who is transferring to The Hutt, just north of Wellington. He will be a zone leader. Our new Elder is Elder Schipper from West Jordon, Utah. He is a fine young man but is not sure he likes the cool weather here in Greymouth. We took a diiferent route to the airport in the afternoon to pick up Elder Schipper. This picture is of the mountains directly east of Hokitika.

While we waited for the plane we did some work on the "lost sheep" program there. We were able to lacate the father of three members on our list, so we will be able to provide some addresses for them. Others we were able to determine were no longer at the address given. We will check the voter registration records to see if we can find them, but that is the only public records available except phone books which are becoming less and less helpful with so many people using cell phones only.
These pictures are on the way to Inchbonnie on Friday. We had an appointment out there but they never came after almost an hour of waiting. It was not a total loss as we found one of our "lost sheep" on the way out in Ruru.
If you enlarge these pictures you can see a waterfall at the bottom of the mountain.