Monday, October 26, 2015

Back to Auckland

Saturday & Sunday, October 24-25, 2015

E/S Lata drove us and two other women to the airport at noon; we had a nice flight on a roomier coach seat than normal on a NZ flight, and they even had more bathrooms.  It seems the space is getting smaller and the bathrooms fewer, so it was really a more comfortable flight in coach.  Jim got bumped up because he complained about his seat mate, a very large Samoan (nice guy, but took up part of Jim’s seat).  He sat in Traveler Plus next to a writer, who noticing our badges, had many questions all about the church.  It was a 2+ hour question and answer session.  I think he was trying to find out what made us different from other Christian religions and I suspect he was trying to figure out if we revered Joseph Smith more than Jesus—well, we worship Jesus, not Joseph, but treat him (Joseph) with the same belief as we do with any prophets that we read about in the Old Testament.


Our last look at the Apia, Samoan Temple.  Maybe someday we’ll have time to go to one of them in this area.  This was burned down a few years ago and after being rebuilt got dedicated.  We passed it every day on the way to the offices.

It took us forever to get out of the airport this time because so many planes landed at once and the place was jammed.  Elder & Sister Winters braved the wait to pick us up and take us to dinner.  They have been so welcoming even before we ever planned our trip.  We checked into our hotel and they took us to eat the best hamburgers ever—so yummy.  He said they are the best burgers in all of NZ, and I have to say that they were as good as they told us that they were. 

We were in our hotel just after 9 PM and hurriedly began our wash in the blessed washing machine and dryer.  I have to say that we had so little time to do wash so this is a real treat, and we have tons of it.  I stayed up till 12:30 AM getting it all washed, dried and ironed.  Then we will begin our week in Tonga with a whole new set of clothes.  This time we are on the 11th floor (7th last time) in a look-alike room--same as last time. 

Sunday: The Winters’ picked us up at 8:45 and after church took us to their apartment and fed us a yummy lunch after which we went back to the hotel for a snooze.  We feel like celebrities the way that they are taking care of us.  We are glad that they are back here after their UT trip.  They picked us up again to feed us dinner, including a couple we just met who will be doing accounting work on Kiribati.  They are going to the airport at about the same time we are.  Their name is Jenks and they are from Blackfoot, Idaho.  Everyone who comes in and out of here (members) stay at the Spencer Hotel, so we will always run into people serving here. 

At church today we ran into Sister Vincent Haleck, who is the Aunt of Makisi Haleck that Jim helped to coach in the pole vault at T.O. High School.  Her husband is a member of the 70 and they are here on assignment.  We had our picture taken together after church so that she could put it on her Facebook page and surprise her nephew.  He took 2nd in the State (CA) his senior year.  He went on to pole vault for the Air Force Academy and his PR was just barely under 18 feet.


Susan Winters in her kitchen, preparing lunch for us.  It was a nice, modern place with a pretty view of a park across the way.  There must be 20 Church couples that live in this same apartment complex.  There are so many people serving here.

We had to get up at 5 AM, eat breakfast in the hotel at 6:30, and leave for the airport at 7.  Monday is a holiday so there will not be as much traffic getting to the airport.  


I told them to give me their most ‘nervous’ smiles, E/S Jenks from Blackfoot Idaho, going to live on Kiribati for 18 months.  He is a professional agricultural guy, but will be doing accounting and many other things while living there.  E/S Waldron, who had to go home because she got something called chicken ‘something or other’ (can’t remember the official name and never heard of it before) from a mosquito bite, had to go home to get it fixed, but will be returning in a few months to complete their mission, so eventually they won’t be all alone.  


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