Today I was the voice for the conferring of the Aaronic Priesthood upon Murray Paterson and ordaining him a priest. We have big hopes for Murray and he has demonstrated some real faithfulness. We hope he can go to the temple for baptisms in September when the branch has an excursion planned. It is very expensive to travel to the North Island because of the ferry cost. Our youth are beginning to do fund raising so they can go.

We are pleased that the branch president has called a new primary president. She is a very capable Philippino Sister who will makes us relieved that when we go home the primary will be in good hands. We visited a less active Maori Sister this week, hoping she would be willing to teach in the primary. She works with an agency, teaching Maori culture to school children up and down the west coast here. We explained that we had at least 20 children at primary each week, but she was not willing to help. I think if we have her teach a weaving class or something like that she may be more willing. She has not been to church since we have been here.

Sister Hoagland has been working a while on the primary program scheduled for September. She has also been working for a very long time to help Nuku Langi, a 9 year old (now 10) learn to read English. He is now a pretty good reader and is excited to see Sister Hoagland come to his house.
Nuku is in the back right. His siblings are older and in our institute and seminary classes. They are Mafi 18, Pony 17, and Sione 14.
The youngest sibling is IraPia 3. He is now attending primary and starting to enjoy it. At home he is pretty much left to his own devices, wandering the house and yard with no real supervision. He is still in diapers and when we asked if he could say a part in the program, Mafi and Sione said he can't even speak Tongan let alone English. This week we went for Nuku's reading lesson and we asked little Iraia to say his part as we read it to him. With no problem he repeated his part and was the family surprised. We have never heard him speak either. We were so pleased at how proud his siblings are that he could say his part.
This is a picture we took on the road to Blenheim not far from Greymouth. We were on our way to inspect the missionary flat there. It is an 8 hour round trip and by the time we are through with the mission it will get pretty old.

The above pictures were taken on the west side of the mountain range. It is not unlike the difference between the west side of the cascades and the east side.
These two pictures are of the east side.
We liked this pictures because of how the snow cap is like frosting on a cake.

We are teaching Romans right now in seminary. In Mondays lesson where we were talking about Paul's declaration that he was "not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." I asked our students if they had problems with people at school making fun of their beliefs and standards. Our Moni spoke up and said "no, they are all afraid of us". They are at least a head taller than their peers and considerably wider. That is funny because these kids are most tender-hearted. I have never seen them really angry at any one.

Baptisms and Fun

This has been a fun and exciting week for us. We have found another Sister who was on the lost sheep list, had three baptisms, and a wonderful branch activity in honor of our Mission President and his wife, who came for their first visit to Greymouth Branch.
Murray Paterson is 55 and on medical disability. He has a form of leukemia and has lost a leg from complications. He has been attending for over a month and has been participating well in priesthood class. Because we are so far from the zone leaders, I was privileged to do his baptismal interview. It is wonderful to see people change their life styles and accept the gospel. He should be a strength to the branch.
These two beautiful children were re-baptized because there was not record of them being baptized on the church rolls. Their families were not able to find any record either so it had to be done. Lesili is 11 and Hola is 10.
The baptisms were held on Saturday late afternoon and immediately following we had our branch activity. Above Moni and Tupou, two of our seminary students are dancing with Tama'a, their young womens president. The girls also take piano lessons from Sister Hoagland.
This is the entire young women group from the branch. Polohiva on the left is twelve.
Here is a group of our primary boys learning the "Haka," a Moari war dance. On the left is Sister Morgan, who is teaching them the words and movements of the Haka. This picture is in the multi-purpose area of the building where they are just learning.
In this picture they have come out to show the other program participants what they have learned. We loved them. Taufa Kinikini is in the middle and has just turned 9, and was the lead dancer.
Here they are doing the performance. They were a little intimidated and failed to do as well as during their rehearsal, but never the less a BIG hit. Front row left, Richard 7, Taufa 9, Salesi 8,
David 6, back row, Lesili 11, Lopeti 11, Maui 11, and Nuku 10.
Here is Sister Morgan with her two daughters, Memphis and Milahn singing a Moari song. The girls were baptized last month and are contributing to the primary. They sing and read and are a big help to Sister Hoagland. We were pleased when President Kinikini called a new primary president whom we have great confidence that she will carry on when we are gone.
We spent some time every night this week practicing for the activity. I took up the challenge to learn a Fijian dance with the priesthood brethren. They were already familiar and I never quite got the hang of it to perfection but it was fun. Here we are at practice. We had the older guys on the left and the younger on the right.
Here we are lined up ready for the final performance in our costumes. The skirt like apparel is called a "Tupenu." The one I am wearing we had Sister Kinikini buy for us when she went back to Tonga a few months ago. I was concerned about wearing a floral Skirt, but when I saw what the others were wearing I relaxed considerably. The little boy running around is one of 4 three year olds in the branch.

Here we are practicing one part of the dance. In this part we make fast movements to the music up and down and left and right. Quite a site.
Here I am just before my Tupenu fell to the floor. Fortunately I was in a spot where most people did not see what happened. Sister Kinikini was there quickly to tie it back on and get me back into the dance. One of my mission highlights.
Here are our seminary boys, Poni and Tim with Elder Vaioleti enjoying the dance as the audience gave appreciative screams, laughs, and applause. As you can see I am back in action between Tim and Elder Vaioleti. The boys had just returned from Christchurch a half hour earlier where they had a school rugby match. They had to drive through the mountains to get home and there was lots of snow up there. They said they stopped and had a good time having a snowball fight.

Three or four weeks ago the Elders went to Westport to speak and took this picture. Elder Vaioleti is a convert of a few years and has a beautiful testimony. He is very soft spoken and it is hard for us to understand his English, but his spirit shines through. Elder Schipper is from South Jordon, close to the new Oquirrh Mountain temple. They have been blessed to finish the work of some great missionaries that preceded them.

President and Sister Jolliffe came with their 17 year old son, following a couple of days vacation visiting some attractions on the west coast. They are not social butterflies so we only saw them at our activities and meetings. Each time, leaving before we knew they were gone. We didn't even get any pictures of them. They gave great talks in sacrament meeting today and we were grateful they were able to come.

Happy birthday

Last week and this week are school holidays. We are missing our students. They were all sick the week before so it will be three weeks before we have class again. Sister Hoagland was ill all last week too so we were pretty well shut down. We did have institute class with Mafi and Ofa. They are so faithful.

Today was our monthly visit to the Westport branch. We missed last month as district conference was held on the second Sunday which is our scheduled day. The day was gorgeous with clear sky's and the Tasman Sea was was a brilliant blue and like glass. The congregation consisted of 8 adults, 3 primary age boys, and us. Sister Hoagland had selected the topic of hope and had a wonderful story she found in an old "New Era magazine." I chose a topic based on 2Nephi 2:25 "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." Sister Hoagland had people asking her for copies of the story. I had people falling asleep. That's a good trick when we only have a 40 minute sacrament meeting. Oh well.

The Elders had a baptism scheduled for today in Greymouth. Unfortunately, Murray had a bout with flu this week and was in the hospital. We learned that he is also battling leukemia. We hope to have the baptism next week. Speaking of next week, we are looking forward to the first visit to Greymouth from President and Sister Jolliffe. Hopefully we can combine our branch activity Saturday with his baptism and confirmation on Sunday. The mission is having some great growth with our baptism rate at about 3 times that of previous years.

This Sister and her daughter came from Christchurch for the first birthday of Lou Ann Kinikini, the adopted daughter of President and Sister Kinikini. Lisa is 10 and will soon be taller than her mother and father.
Here is the Kinikini family, Moni, Taina (dad), Tim, Lou Ann, Taufa, Atu (mom) and Maui in front. Maui is the families official "Milo" maker. Milo is a chocolete flavored grain drink. He makes the best cup.
Lou Ann got the first bite of cake. Was she excited

The Sisters and Dad and mom.

This is a cake for the July Kinikini birthdays.


Here are Puta Langi's children braving the cold after church. Left to right Polohiva 12, Lopeti 11, Katalina 9, Osaka 5, and Etuini 3. Last winter we did not get into the homes of the Tongan families during the really cold weather. We are in each home vertually weekly now and it is interesting how they cope with the cold. They move matresses in the room with the stove in it, and they all lay around basking in the warmth watching TV. They have sheets over the door openings, they have no doors, to keep the heat in the room.
Last Sunday was a great day too. Our dry Mormon family blessed their eighth child. She is the only one with a record in the branch. Some of us thought that Mother, Noila, was a member, but the area membership department was not able to find her baptism. They did find her as the mother of her son who was baptized in Australia a year or to ago but that was all. Pray for this family that their father's heart may be softened so they can be baptized. Above is Tupou with her little sister.

Zone Conference

It was a beautiful day today with plenty of sunshine and NO WIND. I helped President Kinikini pick up and deliver a load of coal to a branch family. Sister Hoagland and I went to support our primary boys in their rugby matches this afternoon.

President Kinikini asked me to speak this Sunday on anything I thought the branch might need. Having just been called as the branch clerk and seeing how out of balance our fast offering income and outgo is, I thought that would be a good subject. While we were together I took the opportunity to give him a taste of what I had in mind. He is a very good man and supports what I am going to say.

We were in Nelson this week for zone conference and stayed with the Venables. Rob is in the district presidency and in country about three years from England. He said that he has tried to change the way fast offering funds are used but has had very little success. It seems to be treated as a slush fund for people who run a little short with no accountability on the part of recipients.

We had a good zone conference this week with good counsel and training. Sister Hoagland and I had to role play in front of the group. Sister Jolliffe played the part of a 14 year old. Our role was to commit her to study and pray to gain faith in Jesus Christ. I think we did all right, but it does take you out of your comfort zone. We were told that we would be giving a work shop next conference. The Nelson branch provides lunch for our meetings and it was great.
Here are two of our students arriving for seminary. You can see that it was pretty cold that morning. We had had a week of 32 degree weather. Poni is wearing one of the girls shawls and her flower in his hair. They have no issues with their masculinity. All the students used our scale after class and all were at least 20 pounds heavier than me. These are big people. They have been pretty lax on their attendance lately. We are concerned but considering there is little support at home, we are grateful that they come at all.
This is the road into downtown Nelson. The tide was out but still we had a beautiful view. Sun is very low in the sky here a good deal of the day making driving challenging at times.

Elder Gibbons is from England and President Jolliffe was his stake president. President Jolliffe set him apart for his mission and has been his mission president for almost a year now. He returns home in October. It should be noted that our mission is sending home nearly one missionary per transfer for not following mission rules. They are not fooling around anymore. One was sent home with the option to continue his mission later for not telling the mission president what his companion was up to.
Sister Vea and Sister Lynch are wonderful. We inspected their flat this week while in Nelson. Sister Vea, who is Tongan, keeps asking me to help her get transferred to Greymouth. I think she could do a great work here. Sister Lynch is from Australia and been out 6 months.
Friday night we had a branch activity but we didn't have many there. Sister Araia did a great job organizing games and we all had fun. We had way too many refreshments and for some reason the Tongan families, other than the presidents, did not show up. I think we had more non members there than members.
Activity over and kids playing around.
Our Moni cleaning up.
Mafi went to district conference and we introduced her to President and Sister Jolliffe. She learned that she could be called on a mini mission if there was a need. She was so excited at the prospect that she has borrowed one of our "Preach My Gospel" manuals and is studying very hard. She came to church dressed like a missionary and even borrowed Sister Hoagland's name tag. She is so fun.
Here are our girls after church. We are always happy when Ofa comes to church. The branch is making a concerted effort to get members to the temple this year. Ofa has expressed a desire to go as well, but not being a member she can't do baptism's like the others. We hope that is an incentive to work on her father who will not allow the children to join.

We are loving the work and the Lord has blessed us richly. This week we have been here for 1 year. We have had some great success with the "Lost Sheep" program by finding many who are still here in the branch and obtaining addresses for those who have moved. We have cleared 32 of the 53 names given to us to find.

School Days

Memphisand Milahn Morgan were baptized Sunday. They are daughters of a Less active Maori Sister. They are now an addition to our ever growing primary. Our Elders are working very hard. We have another less active Sister that they are working with. We will be having a work project at her home this week. She has two daughters and two sons that are unbaptized.
At school one of the children threw up on the floor and panicked the staff. There was a substitute teacher, an aide, and an aide for a special needs child in the room besides Judy and me. The teacher moved all the children away, one aid took the child out, the other ran out speaking over her shoulder, "someone watch Jaese" (the special needs child). Of course the children all wanted to watch him and the first two to approach Jaese were promptly rebuffed by him. He has autism. I just went and sat down near him in a stuffed chair that they have in the class room library where Jaese loves to look at books. I said to him, "what are you reading." He immediately came over and sat on my lap, which he does with his aide all the time, and began to show me his book. You would have thought me a miracle worker. A teacher from the class next door, the school secretery, The sub and aides in the room all thought it wonderful that Jaese had taken to me. They even went and got the school camera and took our picture along with Sister Hoagland using our camera. The school secretery told me the next day that it was a wonderful picture and was going in his student file.

A couple of other funny things happened before our hour of service was over. The teacher next door brought in a bottle of a coagulant and said, "this should congeal everything but I can't do it," and immediately left the room. I didn't think she meant she didn't have time.
After things got back to normal, I went to help the children with a writing project. I was working with a boy named Alex who just had to show me his loose tooth. He could move it to a 45 degree angle so, being the guy that I am, I challenged him to pull it out. Sure enough within 30 seconds it was in his hand. I had him get a paper towel to stop the bleeding and he came back with wad the size of a golf ball in his mouth.

The staff express appreciation for the work we do at the school so I guess we are helping, but we see these children with their parents in the grocery store and other places in town and they greet us, "hello Elder and Sister Hoagland." In the future we hope when they see name tags on missionaries they will have positive thoughts and be receptive to them.
We have been assigned to inspect the missionary flats in our zone. On Friday we drove to Blenheim to inspect the Elder's flat there. It is an eight hour round trip through beautiful mountain valley's on the other side of the south island northeast of Greymouth. I discussed last week how that area has developed a very large vineyard and winery business. The first vineyards begin about 45 minutes west from town. There are some really large vineyards covering the valley floor.
The northeast part of the island has been having some pretty heavy rains. This creek was really flowing and some locals were also taking pictures.
We had to drive through some standing water. The white blotches in the photo is the spray from the wheels as we drove through the water.
Here is some more of the local flooding.

Nelson District Conference

We have been putting an effort into the "lost sheep" program and have found 8 people here, in Australia, Christchurch, and Nelson. We have had help from members, the Elder's and our own efforts.

Monday was a National holiday, "Queen's Birthday", which meant we had no school, library and our piano students were not home. We did have a birth. Sister Tau, the mother of our three non member seminary and institute students, had a baby girl. We visited her at the hospital around noon. She had the baby 12 hours earlier. She was home by 5:00 when we visited the family.

Tuesday we had our seminary and school activity as usual. Institute was held after 8:15 pm as Mafi had to work late. Ofa was also there but Mafi came so tired I'm not sure she was even there. As usual the teacher gains the most.

We have become aware that the four of our five Togan families have no heat in their homes. Last winter we did not get into their homes like we have the last 9 or 10 months. Sister Hoagland wore knit gloves to teach her piano lessons at the Aho Langi home this week. We go there twice in a week to teach three different students. While she teaches I have been trying to teach their daughter Mele letter recognition. She is a tiny 6 year old, and it has been slow going.




Here Sister Hoagland has finished playing a word bingo game with the children at Cobden School. I played a dice board word game with two boys. One of the real pleasures is when these sweet little children ask you if they can read to me during reading time. They are so eager to read to us.
During Piano lessons at the Kinikini's I was able to capture their new adopted baby's first steps. If you check earlier pictures you will notice that she has put on some weight in the short time she has been here. It was interesting that she was not sure about us for the first few times we were with her. They tell us that she was not used to white people.
Here is Louann on her way down.

This weekend was district conference in Nelson. We had a good group (23) from the branch attend the conference. Of course 15 were children. We had a good leadership meeting Saturday afternoon and a workshop for all members shortly after. The district booked an activity center for all member's children from 4 thru 17 during the session. They really took care of those of us who were from out of town. They had food for us when we arrived and tea (dinner) for all district members after the meetings. Then again they had lunch for us before we left for home on Sunday.
The Greymouth branch was in charge of clean-up after the evening dinner. Fortunately the locals stayed around and helped.
We stayed with a wonderful English family, the Venables. Above is Sarah, Ashley and President Rob Venables who were our gracious hosts. When we got to their home we had a nice visit with them and the branch president from Blenheim, President and Sister Prasad. Both couples have been in country nearly three years.
President and Sister Presad are a wonderful couple who are Fijian Indians. They have three wonderful children, one daughter 11, and 14 and 15 year old boys. They work for President McDonald, a member of the district presidency who lives in Blenheim. He has really taken them under his wing, providing them with visa help and we were told that he just finished a new house for them to move into. He is a farmer by trade, but Blenheim area farms have all been turned into vineyards. That raised the value of land to the point where he had to turn his farm into a vineyard as well. This caused him some concern but I understand he was counciled that as long has he produced only the grape, it was ok.
Laid out on the couch is Joshua Venables (7) and the two Presad boys, Justin and Jaron. We did not get a picture of the daughter, Jaslyn.
Manui & Aho Langi with their children. Lesili, Selesi, Hola, Meleane and Mele. Mele was named after Mele Toli, as their fathers are best friends. I think I told you the the Toli's moved to Australia last month.
Puta and Tama'a Langi were married last November. The children joined the family a couple of months ago. Instant family for Tama'a.
Puta and Tama'a are still like newly weds.
This is to show our son-in-law that his truck can be found in New Zealand as well. This is the parking lot at the Nelson chapel.