September Zone conference

It was a hectic day at church on Sunday. Elder Hoagland had to speak and teach the priesthood lesson. Sister Hoagland was involved in the primary program date mess. It has been rescheduled twice already and when we got to church we found that most of the children would not be in town for next weeks program. The last change was because the president's son's and one other boy were going to be playing Rugby. One family had already change plans to visit their dying grandma and had rescheduled flights for the new program date. Others also would not be there so now, after many angry moments among the members, we have a new date the end of October. All is well in Zion.
On Saturday we went to one of the many rugby fields in the area and watched the Kinikini boys play. It was a beautiful shirt sleeve weather day. This is the under 11 all-star team in red and white for the west coast playing a team from Christchurch. West Coast lost 48-0.
This is the under 9 teams representing the same areas. Taufa Kinikini is running with the ball just in front of the man in the middle. At Sundays game it was announced that he was selected to the all South Island team. He is the one with the big trophy last week. His older brother, Mau i, played on the under 11 team but was not as successful. His mother reports that he has eaten himself out of shape. He does make a mean cup of "Milo," a favorite, chocolate flavored, hot grain drink. It is also full of sugar.
This is our next door neighbor, Nori. When we arrived she came a day or two later with a little welcoming treat. This picture was taken from our driveway over a short fence, looking into her back yard. She owns her side of a duplex. She is a lovely Catholic lady who loves to work in her yard. She has recently been slowed down with some back pain which she hopes to have surgery on asap. With Socialized medicine it will take some time.
Spring is almost here. These camellias are at the Nelson branch grounds. I think we had the best weather for this zone conference than any other. We had our meeting in the space between the chapel and cultural hall and the two little wall heaters never got us warmed up. There must have been too much cold coming from the chapel. It was by far warmer outside. Our meeting was on how to plan your day most effectively. The Jolliffe's are very good teachers.

We had some time to talk with the Jolliffe's this time while the companionship's were off doing some planning exercises together. He talked of some of his work at home where he worked for the church managing several farms in the U.K. and was also on some boards of church owned companies in Europe. He said his board work was very interesting as some of the company managers where getting into trouble with the governments. His job was to get them into compliance with the countries regulations. He said they hated to see him walk into their offices because they knew he was going to stir things up.
This is an informal picture of the Nelson Zone. Our two Elders from Greymouth are in front left. There are three Tongon's, Three English, Three Australians, and three Americans in our zone.
This picture represents the timber industry here in N.Z. There was very little timber in this country some time back and it is all the result of tree farming. So far they are actually cutting these trees down for timber and planting more. That is the industry our Tongan's are involved in right now. Of coarse there are "tree huggers" here are trying to put a stop to that with carbon offsets, etc. These trees would not even be here if it wasn't for the lumber industry.
We pass many of these hills with sheep on them on the way to Nelson.
Another sign of spring, calves from the dairy industry.
On our way home we stopped at the swing bridge over the Buller River. I paid for the Elders to cross the bridge and while taking some pictures of them I was bitten by a sand fly the became infected. Friday I had to get a prescription for an ati-biotic. As they say, no good deed goes un-punished. This is a picture of a couple riding down a cable. A very fast but short ride.
Here are Elder's Schipper and Vaioleti on their way back from their walk. There is a really beautiful view from the middle of the bridge.

They also have a jet boat on the river here.
The children at the school we go to everyday are studying Egypt. This is their version of how the Egyptians were dressed for burial.
These two children are both in our class and are autistic. We couldn't get this little guy to stop smiling.

Blenheim Trip

Sister Hoagland has been very busy this week preparing children and their mothers for the primary program coming up next week. It was moved up three weeks because of our temple trip. One family is leaving a few days early and leaving 4 of their children with another family with five children. It was decided that she couldn't get 9 children dressed in time for meeting. They all dress up in Tongan dress for the primary program. Last week they had 25 children in primary. She had some big time help this time when Sione Langi, all 6'4" 350 pounds of him, helped keep the children in line. The highlight was the big smile on his face when the children sang.
Rugby youth game have come to an end and the awards have been given out. Taufa Kinikini is holding his mvp trophy for the under 9 class. He just turned 9 in July.
Maui is holding his sportsmanship trophy for his under 11 team. Maui is now 11. He just got his hair cut so he looks a little different than he did before. He looked a lot like Wayne Newton with longer hair. He was a little offended when we showed him a picture of W. Newton. He said "he is white."
Here are the boys with their little sister LouAnn. Notice the wood pile where the tomatoes were last year.
Our new primary president's family moved into a little house down the street from us a few weeks ago. They are right up against the hill and this time of year they do not get sun. We have offered our clothes line, so they come by on occasion to put up their wash. Little Corianna will be four in December. She is a delight when she comes and peeks through our window to see if we are there.
Every six weeks we drive to Blenheim to inspect the Elder's flat. This is the sunniest city in New Zealand according to the chamber of commerce. They are a few weeks ahead of us in spring
This little park is just outside the downtown center. Next time we come through these flowers should fill the bed.
Blenheim is very big wine country. These vineyards go for miles.

The vineyards have replaced these sheep paddocks, and the farther you get from town you get to see the sheep paddocks interspersed between the vineyards.
The following pictures are on the road to Nelson and Blenheim. We turn off to Blenheim about an hour from Nelson. This is the Buller River just north of Merchison. We are starting to climb in altitude here.
Before Merchison, we have to drive through the Buller Gorge which takes about half an hour. It is a very windy road with a great deal of foliage on both sides. While you are not far from the river, you do not see much of it.
It is an 8 hour round trip to Blenheim so we took these pictures on the fly. It would have been nice to stop and turn around where the lighting would be much better. Tourists don't have the option to wait for the lighting to be just right.

There are several one way bridges on the way and here we stopped for a car coming across and were able to take this picture of the Buller River.
We are so blessed to be teaching seminary and institute. Our institute class is studying the Book of Mormon and our last lesson was on Mosiah 1-3. A most beautiful scripture which teaches so much doctrine. First, that when we serve our fellow man we are serving our God. Second, With all the great work we are capable of doing and many do, we will always remain "unprofitable servants," being indebted to the Savior, for ever and ever. Third, so great will Jesus suffer for our sins, that He bled from every poor. Fourth, Christ's suffering atoned for those who died not knowing "the will of God." Five, Little children who die before they are accountable receive atonement through the blood of Christ. Sixth, "The natural man is an enemy to God," and, "those who put off the natural man becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ." These beautiful doctrines contained within these chapters, are also beautifully explained. Too much for one lesson.

Baptisms

Our hard working missionaries have had two more baptisms this week. They took place rather quickly as the young men were moving to Nelson that very night. Elder Hoagland had the pleasure of interviewing these fine young men and they both had a knowledge and testimony of the gospel. They had been attending our meetings.

Their father had just received a job offer in Nelson and he was ready to go right away. They wanted to be baptized and the father was very supportive. President Kinikini was out of town and he is the only one with the key to the font water supply and heater. The missionaries did not let that stop them and used the fire hose to fill the font. It was a very cold baptism. They were also unable to locate the baptismal clothes so they made "lava lava's " out of torn up sheets.

In some ways it was like watching Laurel and Hardy. They had one towel that was damp for the three that were in the water, and Elder Schipper didn't have a change of shirt. We live close by so Sister Hoagland went home and got towels and one of Elder Hoagland's shirts for Elder Schipper to wear. Earlier in the day, they came to the flat and said they had a dilemma. Elder Vaioleti had taken both of his suits to the cleaners and did not have a suit to wear. Fortunately one of Elder Hoagland's suits was just big enough. We didn't think it would fit him in the shoulders, and he has very muscular (Tongan) arms. If he doesn't do a muscle man pose, the suit should stay together. He looks a little better than if Arnold Schwarzeneger had tried on my coat.

The district asks to have branch histories written every six months. Elder Hoagland has been doing that for the past year, but wants to train someone local. Ana (Mafi) Langi has expressed an interest in learning so we had her over and discussed all the events we wanted to put in the history. We asked her to take the list and write something about each event. It will be interesting to see what she comes up with.

Our new member, Murry Patterson, was ordained a priest a month or so ago but had not as yet had the chance to exercise that priesthood. In our district meeting Elder Hoagland asked the missionaries why he hadn't blessed the sacrament yet and they said he didn't feel ready. We asked them to go help him learn it and he gave a beautiful blessing on the bread today. Everyone was very complimentary to him.

We are pleased with our attendance at church as well. We are consistently having 60 or more in attendance. This is not a reflection on us, but they were only getting 30 to 40 when we first got here. We need to put up more chairs because families who were a little late had to sit apart. We had a new investigator family of four had to sit on two sides of the chapel.

The Elders are flying to Auckland for a funeral tomorrow. A man who helped raise Elder Vaioleti passed away this week and our mission president is flying them there and back for the funeral. They fly to Auckland tomorrow via Wellington and then return to Wellington that night and stay with the AP's, then fly home in Tuesday morning.

birthday and anniversary

The past month Elder Hoagland has been one of the walking wounded, fighting a cold. Sunday he thought it was finally over and after church it hit even harder than before. He still taught seminary and institute, but hardly left the flat. Wednesday he began his second round of anti-biotics. While he is finally seeing some improvement, it looks like Sister Hoagland is succumbing to the same affliction. Round and round we go.
We have not been able to work at the school this week and miss the children. We were told a story by the teacher last week about 6 year old Osiki (Os-Ka) Langi. He and his siblings came to the school in March or April when they joined their father and his new bride. On his first day at school the teachers were trying to find out his surname. After some time he said his name was Osiki Hoagland. He had been to primary and learned Sister Hoagland's name. They had to go to the office to get his name. The teachers thought it very funny as they knew the Hoagland's.
On Friday the 14th we went for a rare dinner out to celebrate our 45th wedding aniversary.
At institute we offered our students ice cream after class. We are still learning some of the Tongan ways. They both asked if we had some white bread to go with their ice cream. We did not, but they took what we did have. The two of them consumed a liter of ice cream, plus bread and bananas.

Friday night we invited our seminary students to another birthday party for those who have birthdays in August. On the left is Sam, who turned 15. The Elders came as well and brought an investigator. Martin is in the middle and is 23. He is making some big changes in his life and hopes to be baptized next week. His family has become interested because they have seen the changes he as made. He has been at church for the past two weeks and like Murray has been participating in priesthood meeting. These men will make a great contribution to the branch.
Here is Tupou, her brother Sam, and Sione having fun.
Moni is using an ice cream container for her share. She added chocolate sauce orange pop and later bananas.
This is Nuku who turned eleven this month. We have been helping him with his reading. While the teenagers were listening to music from the Internet, Nuku had discovered the magnifying glass. He was everywhere with it.
After everyone had their fill, Tupou and Moni helped Sister Hoagland clean up. Moni is a very good island dancer and the hospital called the high school today and said they wanted her to come and dance for a group there. They paid her $100.00. She donated $50.00 to a Maori organization and spent the rest on food for her and her friends. Easy come easy go.

Freshened flat!!

On Tuesday we traveled to Hokitika to work on our lost sheep list. On the way we detoured to Kamara to visit Sister Linda Powell. She just had her third daughter, Melissa. They knew the baby would have have a cleft lip but did not know how far into the mouth it would go. They were happy to find that it was limited to the lip. Because of this condition the family had to travel to Christchurch for the delivery. They were asked to come a week before the due date. They stayed at the Ronald McDonald house next to the hospital.
Clark Powell works for an electricity provider, and has his sick leave built up and he is able to us that to be home for a few weeks to watch the other children.
We have signs of spring coming with some magnolia trees blossoming and Camellia bushes flowering.
We had some excitement at the north end of the bridge over the Grey River. A large rock slide closed the street for some time. They have moved the rocks to make a protective barrier. Who knows when they will permanent fix at the site. The white box on the boulder on the right is a microwave oven someone left to be taken with the rocks.
While we were waiting for the seminary class to come we spotted this sunrise over the hill in front of the flat. Note the way the fog wraps around the hill.
Thursday we had a district meeting at the flat with our zone leaders in attendance. Following the meeting we fixed french toast and bacon for them. Left to right, Elder Teripai, Elder Schipper, Elder Stanford, and Elder Vaioleti.
Thursday afternoon our YM/YW came to the flat to earn money to go on the branch temple excursion. This flat has been used by senior missionaries for at least 10 years, and the walls needed some cleaning. Mafi Langi has her name on the back of her shirt. She is a counselor in the YW and one of our institute students.
Sione Langi is 14 year old seminary student. This morning in class he asked why we claim to be the only true church. It was a perfect question asked at the perfect time as we were studying 1Cor. 15. There are three doctrines taught in that one chapter that are pretty exclusive to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. First; that all people will be resurrected (vs 22) not just the righteous. Second; the doctrine of baptism for the dead (vs 29) who have not had opportunity in this life. Third; We will be resurrected to celestial , or terrestrial bodies. The difference being that most Christians believe in heaven or hell but we believe in kingdoms of glory based on faithfulness.

1 Cor 15 is a wonderful example of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints containing the "Fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ". We explained that we teach all the doctrines taught in the bible, while others taught only the ones they understood. We understand them all because of the restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith and the doctrines remain pure through living prophets and apostles today. That was what Paul was doing in his day. Trying to keep the doctrines pure. Some had forgotten already the blessing of the resurrection made possible by the Lord Jesus Christ. He was teaching them this basic doctrine that had already been lost to some in the church.
Sister Hoagland is standing in front of our pantry while the kids pose for their picture.
Sister Langi married Puta last November and she is here with her step daughter, Polohiva who is twelve. That is quite an undertaking to bring up 5 children who are not yours.
Mafi, Moni and Tama'a Langi. When they were through the flat felt clean.
We provided potato chips and "fizzy drinks" for them before they left. There were eight of them, and they went through 4 backs of chips and 4 liters of pop. What a great experience working with all these kids. We love them!!!

Zone conferece week

Zone conference was held on Wednesday of this last week and we drove up on Tuesday afternoon to inspect the missionary flats. We have found mold in all the flats, including our own. I was surprised to find it in Blenheim and Nelson, because they are the sunniest parts of the country. The worst was in Blenheim where they had cinder block outside walls in the bathroom.

Zone conference was shorter this time. We had three workshops on how to teach more effectively. Both President and Sister Jolliffe are excellent teachers, and gave us wonderful advice in teaching to the needs of those we teach and how to use the scriptures more effectively.
We once again stayed with the Venables. Sister Hoagland took this from the Venables patio Wednesday morning. We were home alone with Sister Venables most of the evening as the father and son had cub scouts and their daughter is in a community play, "Annie." Ashley is very small for her age (11 this month) but reads above their testing chart.

Visiting alone with Sister Venables, we were able to learn more about her family. She was raised in her early years in South Africa. They moved to England where her father was a very successful business man. She had her own horses, etc. She spoke of her mother's death after she was married and a very interesting story about her father's remarriage to her mothers good friend. This women had been in an abusive marriage and they had assisted her in leaving her husband and helping her move to England, where they had provided her with a home to live in. The arrangements had been made prior to Sister Venables mothers passing, and her father had carried out the plan following hear death. Eventually they returned to South Africa, where they are trying to establish a new business.
Friday was my birthday and our seminary students came over for cake and ice cream. Because their parents were busy, Moni brought little LouAnn with them. She is a delight, but for some reason was not interested in ice cream and cake this evening.
We were pleased that the Elders were able to stop by for their share of the cake & ice cream. That is Toupo hiding behind the comforter in the left back. Sione is also camera shy as seen here and in the following picture.
On the left you can see our family pictures and also our heat source. It costs about 90.00 to 100.00 a month to heat our kitchen and living area. We do not heat the bedrooms or bathroom. Energy is very expensive here. The LPG fuel heats us up faster in the morning and is less expensive.
With me here is Tim (Peki) who was being the typical teen listening to his ipod and texting most of the time. That is our entertainment center behind us. A very small tv and the scriptures. We use the cd player for our seminary video lessons.