New Zealand! Part 5 - Church

Sundays have been great. "Welcome, welcome, Sabbath morning!"  We sure need them. We love the Sabbath day. We need Sabbaths on our vacation just as much as we do when we are at home working. The first one was in Whangarei and Hikurangi, two towns fairly near each other. Both were places where Richard served his mission. So we went in the morning to the Whangarei ward, and in the afternoon to the Hikurangi ward. Loved it! We met Sydina Curtis, granddaughter of Freda Ngawaka, whom he knew well 50 years ago.

The second Sunday was spent in Auckland with John and Gayle Broberg. Gayle is Richard's first cousin, and they are serving a mission in Auckland. They did record digitizing for half of their mission, and now they are supporting the family history work in a large area including the Pacific islands. How we loved spending time with them.

The third Sunday was spent with Glen and Lyniss France, from Arvada. They are also serving a family history mission, digitizing records in Wellington. We had a wonderful visit with them, attended their ward and enjoyed a ward dinner afterward, and even got to spend Monday with them in the city of Wellington.

Our fourth Sunday was in Queenstown. We didn't know if we would make it that far, because we had been traveling slowly the preceding days for Richard's benefit. Although we really like spending Saturday and Sunday nights in the same place, so that Sunday can be truly peaceful, we could only get there by driving on Sunday morning from Wanaka, about an hour's drive. Not bad, and in fact it was a gorgeous ride. When we found church, we were so happy! So glad to be there. So happy to take the Sacrament, to participate in the meetings, to be there with the saints. We needed that. And I will never forget the testimony of Elder Moy from Australia, who told us how he came to join the church a little over a year ago, and then to come on a mission. As he said, there are no coincidences. All the things that come along to point us to Heavenly Father are by design.

Our fifth and last Sunday was spent at Dunedin. We knew the church could be found there because we had spoken with the zone leaders earlier. Again a wonderful meeting and a wonderful Sabbath day. And we ran into someone we knew! Elder Brady James, son of David and Lori James. He didn't remember us because he was pretty young the last time we saw him. But he thought it was pretty cool that we know his parents and all of his grandparents. We were all invited over to the home of Paul and Diane Anderson for dinner that day, which included us, the elders, and their family and exchange students. What a treat.

Occasionally we have come across one of the church buildings in our travels, which happened this morning in Oamaru. It always makes me feel so happy just to see one of our buildings. How blessed we are. A Primary song comes to mind: "I always have a happy feeling when I go to church." I feel happy even to see the church!

And: we got to go to the temple in Hamilton while we were on the north island. Wonderful. As we have spoken with people here, we have learned that it is quite a trip for many of them to go to the temple, even though it is a pretty small country. For many it is a great effort to go twice a year. When they do so, they stay and attend many sessions over a week's time or so.