Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Fear and a suspension bridge
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Fear – It’s an interesting thing and as individual as each human being. Today we saw a suspension bridge. Jack suggested we try it. We had been traveling from Westport to Nelson, which is a beautiful drive but very windy. We were all ready for a break. Remember the bridge over the Virgin River in Zion when we were little? Similar but much higher and longer. This bridge was over the Buller Gorge, about 120 feet to the river. Pepper started over. Part way over he was annoyed that Rachelle was shaking the bridge behind him, wanted to turn back but couldn’t. Actually Rachelle wasn’t shaking the bridge at all, it was just how the bridge moved when someone was walking on it. (Although Rachelle had to admit to thinking about shaking the bridge, but didn’t.) I started over behind Rachelle and stopped to take a picture of either sides of the river and realized how difficult it was to keep still enough to take the pictures. At this point I looked back to see that Jack had only just started down the bridge. I turned back to check on him and he looked at me and said, “I could force myself to go over that bridge but I am old enough to say I don’t have to walk over that bridge. I think I will stay here.” As I got to the other side, Rachelle and Pepper were laughing because Pepper had been so freaked out. Something about, “Now you know how I felt flying thirteen hours over the ocean.” We all got back together on the other side and laughed about the experience. We all have things that frighten us and what scares one person may not scare another. I guess it comes down to accepting each others with our strong points and the weak ones as well. Gosh it’s nice to be with close family.
Fear – It’s an interesting thing and as individual as each human being. Today we saw a suspension bridge. Jack suggested we try it. We had been traveling from Westport to Nelson, which is a beautiful drive but very windy. We were all ready for a break. Remember the bridge over the Virgin River in Zion when we were little? Similar but much higher and longer. This bridge was over the Buller Gorge, about 120 feet to the river. Pepper started over. Part way over he was annoyed that Rachelle was shaking the bridge behind him, wanted to turn back but couldn’t. Actually Rachelle wasn’t shaking the bridge at all, it was just how the bridge moved when someone was walking on it. (Although Rachelle had to admit to thinking about shaking the bridge, but didn’t.) I started over behind Rachelle and stopped to take a picture of either sides of the river and realized how difficult it was to keep still enough to take the pictures. At this point I looked back to see that Jack had only just started down the bridge. I turned back to check on him and he looked at me and said, “I could force myself to go over that bridge but I am old enough to say I don’t have to walk over that bridge. I think I will stay here.” As I got to the other side, Rachelle and Pepper were laughing because Pepper had been so freaked out. Something about, “Now you know how I felt flying thirteen hours over the ocean.” We all got back together on the other side and laughed about the experience. We all have things that frighten us and what scares one person may not scare another. I guess it comes down to accepting each others with our strong points and the weak ones as well. Gosh it’s nice to be with close family.
A Day at the Temple
May 9, 2010
We spent Thursday, May 5th in the New Zealand temple. We were able to do 24 baptisms, 17 endowments, 12 sealing of couples, 8 sealing of children. It was an exhausting wonderful day. We also met some wonderful people. Here are a few of them:
Bro and Sister Kerioma from Timaru left their 8 children at home to spend three days at the temple. Bro Kerioma is with the ANZAC and has been the branch president for 9 years. They worked in the baptisry and were very kind.
Tina was a woman who worked in the lunchroom with Jack. Jack said she was a very kind soul. Each stake in New Zealand has two weeks a year where they come to the temple and bring the workers to staff it. They needed an extra man in the lunchroom, which is opened from 11:30 to 1:00.
I did the baptisms for the women and Jack did them for the men. A kind Maori man baptized me but could not pronounce my name. By the end we were both laughing. Afterward I told him how much I could relate to his pronunciation problems. Jack and I are trying to learn the names of the people in our ward and we go over the ward list on a regular basis as we try to train our mouths and brains around words and sounds we are not used to saying. Whittier doesn’t seem hard to us but I’m sure “Tuialii” isn’t hard for him (pronounced too-ee-ah-lee-ee). This gentleman was the former stake president in Christchurch. I wish I could remember his name. I probably couldn’t pronounce it.
We ended the day in the sealing room. We met Bro. Joyce who was a sealer, an elderly man. He is from Gisborne, about midway up the east coast of the North Island. He told us a special story and got emotional as he told it. When they were building the temple and excavating the east side, a skull was unearthed. They halted work and discovered an ancient Maori burial ground. They contacted the locate tribe and they came out. There were only a few bodies but they were re-buried down by the visitor’s center. The temple president talked to the “Maori gentleman” and said they would put a plaque up to commemorate the graves. But the “Maori gentleman” said, “What you are building on the hill will be sufficient.” Two things touched me: Bro. Joyce was touched because this man was not a member of the LDS faith and I was touched by the way Bro. Joyce referred to this man as a gentleman. That is not always the way the Maori are referenced.
Just a few of the many snap-shots of the day; you get to ask Pepper about the animals getting out of the barn.
We spent Thursday, May 5th in the New Zealand temple. We were able to do 24 baptisms, 17 endowments, 12 sealing of couples, 8 sealing of children. It was an exhausting wonderful day. We also met some wonderful people. Here are a few of them:
Bro and Sister Kerioma from Timaru left their 8 children at home to spend three days at the temple. Bro Kerioma is with the ANZAC and has been the branch president for 9 years. They worked in the baptisry and were very kind.
Tina was a woman who worked in the lunchroom with Jack. Jack said she was a very kind soul. Each stake in New Zealand has two weeks a year where they come to the temple and bring the workers to staff it. They needed an extra man in the lunchroom, which is opened from 11:30 to 1:00.
I did the baptisms for the women and Jack did them for the men. A kind Maori man baptized me but could not pronounce my name. By the end we were both laughing. Afterward I told him how much I could relate to his pronunciation problems. Jack and I are trying to learn the names of the people in our ward and we go over the ward list on a regular basis as we try to train our mouths and brains around words and sounds we are not used to saying. Whittier doesn’t seem hard to us but I’m sure “Tuialii” isn’t hard for him (pronounced too-ee-ah-lee-ee). This gentleman was the former stake president in Christchurch. I wish I could remember his name. I probably couldn’t pronounce it.
We ended the day in the sealing room. We met Bro. Joyce who was a sealer, an elderly man. He is from Gisborne, about midway up the east coast of the North Island. He told us a special story and got emotional as he told it. When they were building the temple and excavating the east side, a skull was unearthed. They halted work and discovered an ancient Maori burial ground. They contacted the locate tribe and they came out. There were only a few bodies but they were re-buried down by the visitor’s center. The temple president talked to the “Maori gentleman” and said they would put a plaque up to commemorate the graves. But the “Maori gentleman” said, “What you are building on the hill will be sufficient.” Two things touched me: Bro. Joyce was touched because this man was not a member of the LDS faith and I was touched by the way Bro. Joyce referred to this man as a gentleman. That is not always the way the Maori are referenced.
Just a few of the many snap-shots of the day; you get to ask Pepper about the animals getting out of the barn.
LDS Church College
May 5, 2010
We are in Hamilton, New Zealand…the location of the New Zealand Temple and Church College. We dropped by the Church College yesterday. It was a school for 12 to 18 year olds. It started in about 1958 when the temple was built. Apparently the New Zealand government didn’t think educating the Maoris was important so a school was built - Maori College. Toward the end of the 1930’s an earthquake destroyed the school, so the LDS church bought the property and built a school which would educate all students. Some also have said the New Zealand public schools weren’t what they were supposed to be either, so a school was built. I think I remember about 4000 students, many of them were boarding students. Several people we know have gone to the school. The facilities have worn down and weren’t passing codes. The country’s schools had improved greatly so the school was closed last year. Now the LDS church is trying to decide what to do with the property. There is a large building in the middle which is called the David O. McKay building. The surrounding communities use it for their stake conferences so that building may be kept. Paul Geno, of Agricultural Reserves Inc. (LDS church’s Farm Management), is wondering how to use the agricultural land around it. He has contacted Jack a few times to ask questions about what is being done at Lincoln University. It was really a fascinating place.
We are in Hamilton, New Zealand…the location of the New Zealand Temple and Church College. We dropped by the Church College yesterday. It was a school for 12 to 18 year olds. It started in about 1958 when the temple was built. Apparently the New Zealand government didn’t think educating the Maoris was important so a school was built - Maori College. Toward the end of the 1930’s an earthquake destroyed the school, so the LDS church bought the property and built a school which would educate all students. Some also have said the New Zealand public schools weren’t what they were supposed to be either, so a school was built. I think I remember about 4000 students, many of them were boarding students. Several people we know have gone to the school. The facilities have worn down and weren’t passing codes. The country’s schools had improved greatly so the school was closed last year. Now the LDS church is trying to decide what to do with the property. There is a large building in the middle which is called the David O. McKay building. The surrounding communities use it for their stake conferences so that building may be kept. Paul Geno, of Agricultural Reserves Inc. (LDS church’s Farm Management), is wondering how to use the agricultural land around it. He has contacted Jack a few times to ask questions about what is being done at Lincoln University. It was really a fascinating place.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Thoughts on this Sunday Evening
Sunday, May 2, 2010
I have been frantically working on genealogy this week. I have been gathering all these family names, making sure I have enough information to enter them into the church’s New Family Search website and then the monumental task of learning how to use the website. If you want to get on, you will see that Charles Watson Rowntree and Hannah Parks still have more than seven daughters. But at the first of the week they had nine. I was able to lose one, a duplicate. Mysterious Amy is still there. We really don’t know where she came from. I have researched here in New Zealand thinking that she may have belonged to another Rowntree/Rountree/Roundtree/Roantree family, but at this point I can not find an Amy.
Jack and I will go to Hamilton, New Zealand this week to go to the temple. I have wanted to take family names so have been trying to go through the process that is so tenuous and time consuming, but as of tonight, we will do 10 men and 10 women baptisms, seal 12 people to parents and seal 22 spouses together. And what is more fun is that Rachelle and Pepper arrived today and will go with us. Isn’t life just amazing?
We are actually working with four families: Elizabeth’s family, Emily’s family, Esther’s family and Ann Parks‘ (Hannah’s sister) family. It is just the first wave. I will spend my last seven weeks trying to put as many pieces of the puzzle in place as I can. But its that one member of the family I could not get any information on only to find out in New Family Search this person has been done…the only one in her family. Now they will all be together. Or that one son who was not on record anywhere but because I read his father’s will, I know he is the executor. I found out all his work had been done, including his two sons who died at infancy but he was not linked to his family. I will take no names to the temple for him, but he is joined to his family because I spent a few days at Archives New Zealand reading probates and wills.
So as I said my prayers last night, it just kept replaying in my mind that we should not be here. Jack should have died and I should be home dealing with that…and yet we are here. The miracles that seem to follow this process are amazing.
So why are we here in New Zealand. Sister Thompson in the Cashmere Ward says we are here so she has a piano player for her choir. She’s such a wonderful person I can see the Lord doing that. Or could it be a break from life that Jack and Robynn needed. Or is it to finally gather the Findlater family…a family of nine children whose temple names were all there waiting for someone to check the box on the computer…a family married into the Rowntree family that I “found later” after gathering information on spouses. I’m not sure why we are here, but I do know one thing for sure… I am not in charge. There is a higher power involved. So I try to take every opportunity to serve, “because I have been given much.” I love you family. I will let you know how the temple goes.
I have been frantically working on genealogy this week. I have been gathering all these family names, making sure I have enough information to enter them into the church’s New Family Search website and then the monumental task of learning how to use the website. If you want to get on, you will see that Charles Watson Rowntree and Hannah Parks still have more than seven daughters. But at the first of the week they had nine. I was able to lose one, a duplicate. Mysterious Amy is still there. We really don’t know where she came from. I have researched here in New Zealand thinking that she may have belonged to another Rowntree/Rountree/Roundtree/Roantree family, but at this point I can not find an Amy.
Jack and I will go to Hamilton, New Zealand this week to go to the temple. I have wanted to take family names so have been trying to go through the process that is so tenuous and time consuming, but as of tonight, we will do 10 men and 10 women baptisms, seal 12 people to parents and seal 22 spouses together. And what is more fun is that Rachelle and Pepper arrived today and will go with us. Isn’t life just amazing?
We are actually working with four families: Elizabeth’s family, Emily’s family, Esther’s family and Ann Parks‘ (Hannah’s sister) family. It is just the first wave. I will spend my last seven weeks trying to put as many pieces of the puzzle in place as I can. But its that one member of the family I could not get any information on only to find out in New Family Search this person has been done…the only one in her family. Now they will all be together. Or that one son who was not on record anywhere but because I read his father’s will, I know he is the executor. I found out all his work had been done, including his two sons who died at infancy but he was not linked to his family. I will take no names to the temple for him, but he is joined to his family because I spent a few days at Archives New Zealand reading probates and wills.
So as I said my prayers last night, it just kept replaying in my mind that we should not be here. Jack should have died and I should be home dealing with that…and yet we are here. The miracles that seem to follow this process are amazing.
So why are we here in New Zealand. Sister Thompson in the Cashmere Ward says we are here so she has a piano player for her choir. She’s such a wonderful person I can see the Lord doing that. Or could it be a break from life that Jack and Robynn needed. Or is it to finally gather the Findlater family…a family of nine children whose temple names were all there waiting for someone to check the box on the computer…a family married into the Rowntree family that I “found later” after gathering information on spouses. I’m not sure why we are here, but I do know one thing for sure… I am not in charge. There is a higher power involved. So I try to take every opportunity to serve, “because I have been given much.” I love you family. I will let you know how the temple goes.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Celebrating ANZAC Day
From Sunday, April 25, 2010
Last Sunday we celebrated ANZAC Day here in New Zealand. ANZAC Day is a day actually celebrated by two countries, New Zealand and Australia, similar to America’s Veterans Day. The initials stand for “Australian New Zealand Army Corps.” Australia and New Zealand joined forces at the beginning of World War I. They entered Gallipoli, Turkey; an ally of Germany’s, to try to end the war before it got bigger. They actually failed, and after 9 months and many casualties, they retreated. That was the beginning of ANZAC Day but has evolved with different wars since. Now, the “returning soldiers” (we call them veterans) are honored on this day and everyone wears a red poppy. (From the poem, “Flanders Field.”)
The red poppies are actually made here in Christchurch by a group of handicapped adults and circulated all over the country. Several years ago New Zealand tried to hand this job off to the Japanese, but the people in Christchurch petitioned for it to stay here, with the handicapped group. I was surprised to see so many people at church wearing the red poppy.
As I was playing prelude at church, the bishop came up to me to tell me he had just gotten word from the Stake President that we were to sing the New Zealand National Anthem in Sacrament Meeting. This day is celebrated with parades but since it fell on Sunday this year, we were in church and missed the parades. I get the idea that the New Zealand anthem is not known by everyone, especially not the Maori verse, so copies were distributed around the audience. I had actually brought my Lincoln University Choir book with the accompaniment of the National Anthem, which was good, since all they had that day was the melody and the words. We were asked to stand, a member of our ward gave a short memorial and we paused for a moment of silence. Then we say the song, “God save our New Zealand.” It really is a beautiful song and I hope I did it justice.
As I stood there, I remembered back on our last November Veterans Day. I spent it in Cedar. I went with Dad to the Master’s Singers patriotic concert that Howd sang in. It was wonderful. Later that week Dad and I went to the final dedication of the Cedar City war memorials on the banks of Coal Creek. As I stood for that moment of silence here in New Zealand on ANZAC Day, I was honored by the people who have come before me…especially those in our families …who have served to protect us from those who would take away our freedom. Happy ANZAC Day!
Last Sunday we celebrated ANZAC Day here in New Zealand. ANZAC Day is a day actually celebrated by two countries, New Zealand and Australia, similar to America’s Veterans Day. The initials stand for “Australian New Zealand Army Corps.” Australia and New Zealand joined forces at the beginning of World War I. They entered Gallipoli, Turkey; an ally of Germany’s, to try to end the war before it got bigger. They actually failed, and after 9 months and many casualties, they retreated. That was the beginning of ANZAC Day but has evolved with different wars since. Now, the “returning soldiers” (we call them veterans) are honored on this day and everyone wears a red poppy. (From the poem, “Flanders Field.”)
The red poppies are actually made here in Christchurch by a group of handicapped adults and circulated all over the country. Several years ago New Zealand tried to hand this job off to the Japanese, but the people in Christchurch petitioned for it to stay here, with the handicapped group. I was surprised to see so many people at church wearing the red poppy.
As I was playing prelude at church, the bishop came up to me to tell me he had just gotten word from the Stake President that we were to sing the New Zealand National Anthem in Sacrament Meeting. This day is celebrated with parades but since it fell on Sunday this year, we were in church and missed the parades. I get the idea that the New Zealand anthem is not known by everyone, especially not the Maori verse, so copies were distributed around the audience. I had actually brought my Lincoln University Choir book with the accompaniment of the National Anthem, which was good, since all they had that day was the melody and the words. We were asked to stand, a member of our ward gave a short memorial and we paused for a moment of silence. Then we say the song, “God save our New Zealand.” It really is a beautiful song and I hope I did it justice.
As I stood there, I remembered back on our last November Veterans Day. I spent it in Cedar. I went with Dad to the Master’s Singers patriotic concert that Howd sang in. It was wonderful. Later that week Dad and I went to the final dedication of the Cedar City war memorials on the banks of Coal Creek. As I stood for that moment of silence here in New Zealand on ANZAC Day, I was honored by the people who have come before me…especially those in our families …who have served to protect us from those who would take away our freedom. Happy ANZAC Day!
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