Saturday, June 29, 2019

ALMOST SETTLED IN

Started work this week at the Pacifica Area Offices.  Alisa and I used a temporary office for a few days.  Wednesday the legal department took Kent and Barbara Murdock out for a farewell dinner at Portofino Italian restaurant.  Thursday was their last day in the office before returning home to America.  Friday Alisa and I moved into their vacated office and spent most of the day unpacking and getting our computers set up. We still have a lot to learn.  On Saturday a group of us senior missionaries took an excursion to the Otara Farmers Market.  We had fun stocking up on inexpensive fresh fruits and vegetables, including shiitake mushrooms, garlic, New Zealand apples, tofu that looked like pasta, radishes and turnips, kiwi, creamed honey, cucumbers and more.  I even bought myself a $5 NZ (about $3.50 US dollars) straw hat for shade.  Then we drove on to explore Duder Regional park, one of 26 regional parks.  This was a former Maori property, which the Duder family purchased and farmed for about 130 years then donated for use as a park.  It occupies a small peninsula, we enjoyed hiking about 5 miles around it to enjoy its beauties.  Today for church we attended the Takapuna Young Single Adults 2nd ward, which we have been assigned to help out.  Lots of fun, vibrant 20 somethings to get to know.  Also, I got our Magic Jack phone set up.  We can call the US now on Alisa's old cell phone no., 559-936-2942, but have to be careful not to call in the middle of the night, as we are 19 hours ahead of PST!

Murdock farewell dinner


Otara Farmers Market


Duder Regional Park


View of bay from Duder Regional Park


Our new office


Old photo of baptisms in Papua New Guinea, fellows with axes scare of crocodiles


Sunday, June 23, 2019

WE'RE IN NEW ZEALAND

Monday and Tuesday was training at church headquarters with the Office of General Counsel in SLC.  Ed and Lora dropped in to visit and try out some of the restaurants with us.  Wednesday we did our final packing, stopped by Costco one more time for final supplies, said our good-byes, and flew out.  After a layover in San Francisco, we flew 12 hours to Auckland International Airport.  Since we crossed the international dateline, we lost a day and are now approximately a day ahead of the US.  Jet lag wasn't bad.  We are in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere, just passed the winter solstice.  However, even though it's winter here, it's still pretty much shirt sleeve weather, sometimes requiring a light jacket or sweater.

Alisa and I have been introduced to most of the other senior missionaries here, we have a nice 2 bedroom apartment with a study, and our new office will be on the 3rd (top) floor of the church's Area Office building.  Groceries cost about the same as in the US, although many local brands.  Spent the weekend walking and jogging around our neighborhood to become familiar with the area.  This morning we took our car out for a spin at 7 a.m., since traffic was light and I wanted to get used to driving on the left side of the road.  Today was stake conference, we even met there the local grandmother of Kalei, Lora's roommate this summer at BYU.  It's a small world. Everyone is friendly and kind, this area reminds me a lot of Hawaii.  We've been invited over to different homes about every night this coming week.

Tomorrow we get to work!

Lora and Elder Gubler riding scooters in downtown SLC


2 days of training in Church Admin Building, tall building on right side, 2nd and 19th floors


Met grandmother of Lora's BYU roommate Kalei at stake conference


Our office on the 3rd floor of Area Offices in Auckland


View of downtown Auckland from our apartment window


First view of Takapuna beach


Sunday, June 16, 2019

Pointing towards New Zealand


View of MTC campus


Music & The Spoken Word--Father's Day


Sister missionaries from various countries at Conference Center


WE'VE FINALLY HERE!

As you may know, we were initially scheduled to start our 18 month mission on May 13 of this year.  But it proved trickier to get our New Zealand religious work visas than anticipated, and that date came and went with no visas having been issued.  Our mission start date was pushed back to June 10.  Having already sold our home and packed, that left us with time to burn.  So at the last minute I bought plane tickets and joined our children Ed and Lora on their pre-planned trip to Machu Picchu in Peru.  When else could I make this trip with 2 interpreters already lined up?!  We had a great time exploring.  Alisa enjoyed some quiet time while we were gone.

The extra month gave us plenty of time to fine-tune our preparations for NZ and to visit family.  The visas finally came through and "here we are. " Alisa has now been notified that she'll work with public affairs and government relations for the church in NZ while I focus on legal matters.

So where is "here"?  We just finished spending a terrific week at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT.  It brought back a lot of memories as I was in the first group to enter this facility on June 16, 1976, the difference being that I spent 2 months at that time in the MTC and had to learn Japanese!  This time was more laid back, and we actually had our evenings free to attend the temple, go out for ice cream and to visit family.  A big shout out to Rockwell's Ice Creamery in downtown Provo, we went in there to get ice cream cones and they surprised us by telling us they were free to missionaries!  "Free" is my favorite 4 letter word, right next to "work".  Luckily, not everyone will be reading this blog, otherwise all the missionaries in the Provo MTC might go in to Rockwell's for free ice cream!

Anyway, on Friday we drove to SLC, after stopping at Costco one last time for final supplies, and visiting the Kranchers and Maws, friends who have moved to northern Utah.  We are currently camped out at City Creek Marriott in SLC.  Tomorrow and Tuesday we have 2 days of training at the Office of General Counsel in the church office building, then we fly out on Wednesday to New Zealand!  More later.

FINAL REPORT FROM NEW ZEALAND, HEADING HOME

It 's December 6, 2020.   We’re finally on the plane, winging it back to America.   I'm writing this note on the plane.   We are tra...