How Sweet It Is

This week was a little slow, as far as the work goes.  Brother Bell spent Monday through Thursday on the North Island, the Bournes (Amy) were gone to the temple, and that left us to man the institute building.  Because it is summer and the universities are out, and because it is so close to Christmas, there is very little going on here right now.  We answered a few phone calls, visited with a few students, organized our office, put back together a storage room that had been messed up in the earthquake, and took the online training for coordinators to learn about the online seminary courses that are available.  We did have a meeting with the Young Single Adult representatives from the stake and from two of the wards.  With their help we updated rosters, finding out what they knew about the young people we have listed as potential institute students.  We also calendared for visits. 

Next week will not be so slow.  Monday we have a woman coming from the area office to train us in CStar (record keeping program) and other office related items.  And, we are traveling with Brother Bell and Winnie to the southern part of the island.  We will be meeting and visiting with the seminary teachers in Timaru, and all the branches in the Dunedin District.  I’m not sure if we go as far south as Invercargill, or over to Queenstown, but I know that we visit a grandfather who is the early morning seminary teacher for his two granddaughters.  As always, we are excited to meet new people and see new sights.  We are going to be gone Thursday through Sunday.

This week was mostly cold and rainy.  Monday started out beautiful and we strolled through a small part of Hagley Park.  We walked for almost an hour and only covered one corner of this enormous and beautiful city park.  These pictures might give a sense of what is available there:

 

Lawn Bowling

Cricket fields

Botanical gardens

and beautiful paths for walking…

Monday afternoon it started raining and blowing.  We wore winter clothing around the house, ate hot soup, and carried umbrellas until Saturday.  Saturday morning the sun was shining and it was very warm.  We took advantage of the good weather and went to the Saturday morning market at Riccarton Bush Park.  This is a smaller version of the Pioneer Park farmer’s market.

I’ve never seen more beautiful vegetables than they have in New Zealand.

John found some particularly delicious German bakery items

 

These were his favorites—Bee Stings.  The top and bottom crusts were crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle and they were filled, and I mean FILLED, with custard.  Just how John loves things, gooey and sweet.

We noticed that the bread here is very different from ours back home.  They don’t add any sweeteners and they limit the salt--it all comes out rather tasteless.  Margaret Bourne suggested Baker’s Delight, a bakery not far from our flat.  This bread is delicious, much to our “delight”, and their rolls remind me of those that Mom and Dad bought every morning in Germany.  We now buy all of our bread from here.

 

Lots of seeds and a good hard crust….YUM!

After getting helpful hints on baking from Sister Porter, via email from South Africa, I decided to bake cinnamon rolls for institute this week.  I made Setfa dough as I have not made it in years—without the help of a mixer.  Mixing bread dough like this brought back so many memories of my mother and grandmother.  My small and thin Grandma Amacher would take a big glob of dough, beat the life out of it with her fists, and slam it with great power and energy down onto the counter to get the texture she wanted.  One time she got angry with me during this process, chased me carrying the dough, and tossed it at me as I ran down the stairs.  She missed me and found the whole situation so funny that she sat down on the top step and laughed so hard that tears were streaming down her face.   I can’t for the life of me remember being naughty—it must have been that “Swiss temper”.

Twenty years in my old house prepared me for cooking in this kitchen which has practically zero counter space.  I felt right at home.

I was surprised at how well they turned out and the Young Adults devoured every one.

By Friday night we were so tired of being indoors, that we decided to ignore the rain and go to the beach.  We tried a new one, New Brighten Beach.  It was overcast and sprinkling, so we walked along the beach with our umbrellas.  We enjoyed the tranquility of it all—only one or two people as far as the eye could see. 

Saturday, after a Relief Society “tea” at the institute building, we decided to try the beach once again on a perfect day.  So, we drove back to New Brighten Beach (about a 15 minute drive) expecting it to be crowded—after all, it is summer, a weekend, and a sunny, beautiful day.  Well…

Wait a minute, look the other way…

there she is, one of about three people we saw.  Where is everyone? 

The sand is incredibly fine.

The beach isn’t the only place that is beautiful and under-used.  Everywhere we turn in this city there is a beautiful park with very few people in it.  One such place is adjacent to our Stake Center (the one that is not in use because of earthquake damage).  This particular park, Mona Vale, once belonged to the Church, but a few years ago it was deeded to the city.  Once again, a spectacular day and hardly anyone there.

 

How about a family reunion here?  I think all of our family could fit and we wouldn’t be disturbing anyone.

Our stake center—not in use since September 2010 earthquake.

Today, Sunday December 12, we attended the Opawa Ward to hear one of our Young Adults speak.  It was great.  We also attended our own ward in the afternoon.  We are ready for a new week and new adventures.

Life is very sweet for us and we are trying to enjoy these special times together—times to serve, times to testify, times to share, times to love.  We are so grateful for many things, but two that are especially valuable are…

 

We call her “Tui” because she is so very helpful and is always right.  And…

Skype!!!!  How did my mother leave all her grandkids without Skype.  I’m sure it has saved me from terrible homesickness.

 

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