Local activity

Here are Bro. Doug Thoms and Sister Hoagland in front of the Clematis at Bro. Thoms home. We went for a visit to give him some moral support as he and his wife are being evicted from their home of 25 years. It is hard for them but in reality it will be much better for them. They have not been able to keep up the house for many years and it not a healthy place for him and his ailments. It is very damp and cold.

On the way back from the Thoms we again stopped at the Brunner coal mine memorial and took some more pictures. Including the bridge, Grey River, and the coke furnaces where they turn coal into coke by taking out the gases and other contaminants from the coal. It makes for a much hotter burning product.
































The flowers are from Doug's yard. We took home a bouquet.












We took this picture of Mele when she came to visit her father.














No man can pass a hole in the ground without taking a look inside. They are putting new storm drains in our neighborhood. What a mess.

Just pictures

This is the last picture we have of our Grandson Jeremy who had just graduated from boot camp. He is now in Mississippi training in computers.
The little boys are two Tongan brothers.

The valley scene is at the location where we photographed the deer farm. Some more pictures of the dairy, the coast heading for Westport, our zone picture, and the only lighthouse we have photographed so far.































We noticed the gas station sign the first trip to Nelson. I wanted to show the milk truck as milk products are now one of their most important exports. Sheep farmers are switching to dairy as fast as they can. You can see 4 or 5 of these trucks running through Greymouth every hour.

Many Travels

Here is a picture of the valley the farm is located.

Traveling missionaries

Last Sunday we were informed that our branch choir had been invited to participate on Friday in a program at the theater down town. It was sponsored by the Salvation Army. In spite of the fact we had nothing prepared, our choir director was out of town, and many of our best singers were on holiday, we performed. Our rehearsals I would consider a disaster. We were planning a male chorus but it was so awful the president decided to have a quartet instead. The quartet was formed following our first number on stage. We sang "I believe in Christ", followed by the quartet singing "I Need Thee Every Hour", and concluded with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". It was not too bad, and with a couple of exceptions, compared to what preceeded us we were terrific.

The books Jenni had collected arrived on Monday. They are great and we have already begun distributing them to our Tongan Children. The age ranges from beginner to late teen, just what is needed. Our challenge will be to get the teens interested. They also need it the most.

For our English lessons I have made up a vocabulary list with sentences that include the words in the vocabulary. The words are church related so they can begin to understand things going on at church. A local Tongan sister is translating them for us. Our last lesson on Thursday went really well and overcame some of the discouragement I had after the lesson on Tuesday. Our Lesili- would rather play but Sister Hoagland is really good with him. His mother is working very hard. We are so proud of her.

Today we drove 65k's south of here to Ross to find a member. He was very pleasant but we only talked at the door. Last Sunday we made two visits to locate members and one did not live at the address given and the other we were told was deceased. Hard to tell if it was true because the fellow was not very cordial. I tried to get a specific death date for the records but that made the fellow even more belligerent. The closest I could get was January 2008.

We have a lot of pictures this week. Hope you are not bored by the end.

For those of you in Oregon who are following the rescued -deer saga, it would not be an issue here. They farm both elk and deer as well as have wild deer. This is a farm we found on our way to Ross. We took the pictures of Elk being fed on our way back to Greymouth.
The farmer and his father and daughter saw us taking pictures and came over for a chat. While we were talking an elk (fawny) they had raised from birth came over. The farmer offered to take my picture. These elk come from Canada.
Grandpa giving fawny a little loving care. He was pulling the molt off.
I put this picture in because it shows the home of Sister Scott. It is the one in front of the sheds one of which has white and green strips. Just right of center and facing the camera.

Below are some "free range" chickens we found in Ross. That is a little church through the trees.

Here I am standing in front of some old gold mining equipment used to haul ore from shallow mines. They were powered by horse in the 1860's & 70's.

This is an old open pit gold mine that operated up until the 1990's. It is now, as you see, filled with water. The locals say the water level is constantly going up and down and too cold for swimming.
A children's lighthouse display at the visitors center. Just for Julie

Here is Hokitika from a view point north of town. The regional airport is on this same plateau.

On Monday we drove to Moana to check out a new member to see if they were really there. It is only 40k's from here and is a small resort town on Brunner Lake. It turns out the address was a vacation home and all locked up. On the way we stopped at an historical site on the Brunner coal mine which is located up the Grey river. It operated during the 1880's and 90's. It was of interest to us because in our volunteer work at the library we were organizing historic photo's and there were many of the mine while it was operating. The bridge was used to transport the coal across the river to a rail line where it was taken the short distance to Greymouth and put on ships.
This is Lake Brunner at Moana
Another view of Lake Brunner looking a little north of the first picture.
These last two pictures are in front of the address we were looking for.

We saw a herd of goats up close on this hillside but they took off.

First October Post

Here are some pictures that were not used previously. Serious Elder Wilson, hungry Elder Hoagland and beautiful Sister Hoagland resting before we walk out of the "bush." Coal Creek Falls is in front of us.
Elder Palanite having fun climbing into a downed tree stump covered with moss. You can actually see him if you click on the picture.

This is a walk in the bush not far from our flat. This was at a good part of the trail. It was a loop trail that became more and more impassible as we got closer to the other end.
This picture was taken at the highest point of the trail. They call trails "tracks" here. When we had our bad storm a month or so ago, the news mentioned that there were so many trees fallen on the tracks all over the south island that it would be months before they could clear them all. I was sure that there were not that many railroads here.
Hope you enjoy this outtake of our attempt to wish Jesse and Taylor happy birthday. It took several takes. The first one we thought was good enough turned out to be in black and white. I had to figure out how to get the color back on my camera.