The Best Laid Plans…

This mission is good for me in so many ways.  I know I will go home much more flexible and able to roll with the punches.  This week it seemed nothing went off as we planned, but, as Kiwi’s say, “No worries.  It’s all good.”

We planned a trip to Greymouth to visit with the Branch President there.  We are still trying to put together an online Seminary class for kids who live in isolated areas.  There are a few potential students on the west coast that we would like to recruit.  Although the skies were clear in Christchurch, we heard the weather report for Greymouth and learned that there was flooding there.  When we called President Kinikini, he said that some of the roads had been closed due to the flooding and suggested we cancel our trip.  He was coming to Christchurch on Friday anyway, and we could meet here.  We gave him our phone number, he promised to call on Friday.  We never heard from him.  Perhaps we’ll drive out later this week. 

I have been wanting to drive west over Arthur’s Pass, and Greymouth has been much in the news lately because of the mining disaster.  Just before Christmas a coal mining accident left 29 people dead.  This week they decided to seal off the mine and terminate the recovery process.  The families were petitioning for further efforts to retrieve the bodies. 

We’ll plan another trip.

I planned to make Sarah’s cookies for Institute this Thursday night.  Todd’s daughter Sarah lived with us this past summer, and every Sunday evening she made us the most delicious cookies.  We have been going through withdrawal.  Sarah sent me the recipe, I bought all the ingredients, and I watched the oven like a hawk.  They were good, but they didn’t taste like Sarah’s.  I have written before about the differences in basic ingredients.  I can see the difference in the flour and the sugars, but I can’t figure out how to compensate.  Their butter, like all their dairy products, is better than ours, so that great buttery taste was still there.  The Young Adults loved them.   I’ve had several of the kids tell me that if I want to build up numbers at the institute, I should just keep cooking.

Sarah’s cookies.  The kids took one look at these and said, “They look like American cookies.”  I had lots of questions about how I made them so chewy and soft.  I think New Zealand ‘biscuits’ are usually dry and crunchy.

I plan to try again this week—another Kiwi version of an American treat.

I planned to teach piano to six students in Ashburton.  They were to come two at a time to the church.  I knew it would be difficult to teach two at once, but I only had so much time.  However, when I got there I found this…

Twelve kids came—all at the same time.  They varied in age from 8 to 21, and were all eager to play the piano.  I did the best I could with the situation.  Because it was the first lesson, there were several things we could tackle as a large group.  Each person got to spend a little time at the keyboard, but for next week, I suggested that they come in smaller groups.  I have no idea how many of them will stick with this--most of them do not have keyboards available for practice,  but I know they have innate talent and I wish there was more I could do for them.  I’m going to see if the church supplies keyboards in these situations.  

Look at the piano hands on this beautiful little girl.

Mata Touli helps some of the younger students practice on a make-believe keyboard.

I plan to go back again next Saturday—hopefully they’ll come in smaller groups as I suggested.

Have I learned my lesson?  No!  This week is all planned including a trip north to Blenheim and Nelson.

Just a word or two about the weather.  New Zealand weather is all over the place.  It can be very hot for one or two days, and then it turns cold and rainy.  We go from summer clothes to winter clothes and back to summer clothes all in the course of a week.  The most difficult thing to get used to is the lack of central heating and air conditioning.  There is no controlling your environment.  People keep their windows open to catch the breezes when it is hot, but there are no screens on the windows.  Luckily, there are not many flying insects.  It will be interesting to see how things go in the winter.  We have a heat pump in our living room.  People say they are great, but I’m not sure how that one little unit will effectively warm the whole house.

We all become so accustomed to our way of living and adapting takes time.  I had one Kiwi tell me that she had spent some time in America in the winter and she hated the central heating.  She thought the houses were too warm and she didn’t like leaving a warm building and getting hit in the face with the cold air.  The contrast was too stark for her. 

I’m just so grateful I’m not on a tropical island with high temperatures and high humidity.  So far, I would consider this climate very pleasant.