On The Road Again

I keep anticipating a week with nothing to post; a week filled with only boring activities, boring details, and boring people.  However, each week is filled with new visuals, new adventures, new challenges, and people with new stories.  So, here we go again. 

I started an Institute Choir—well an Institute Double Quartet.

Elder Stauffer, Matt, Steven, David, Tui, Michaela, Laura, and Amy.

I was keen on starting (that’s how kiwis talk) next week when everyone will be back from the holidays (New Zealanders take holidays and vacations very seriously and we missed everyone over the Christmas and New Year’s break).  But, when I mentioned to our holiday-diminished Thursday night institute class that we would be starting next week, they insisted we give it a go right then.  None of the boys had ever sung before, but with John to help them with their parts, they sounded pretty good.  The girls were excellent.  It may take a while to build this choir to a respectable size, but I think we can do it.

I also started teaching piano lessons.  This week I have one student…

Amy thinks that playing the piano would be a useful skill for her mission.  I tend to agree with her.  It would also be a useful skill for her future life in New Zealand.  All of the wards could use people proficient in keyboard skills.  She seems very determined to learn, and practices more than any student I’ve ever had.  Next week I start teaching in Ashburton.  There are 6-8 people who want to take lessons down there.  Ashburton is a one hour drive south of Christchurch.  I’m using the keyboarding course that the church has developed and I think it is great. 

Sunday we started our second trip south to pass out materials for the new seminary year which begins in three weeks.  This time John and I were on our own.  Brother Bell gave us telephone numbers and addresses, and told us to make appointments and plan our trip.  Since we had already been introduced to most of the teachers on our first trip, we had a feel for everyone and their programs, or so we thought.  We found a few unexpected situations and deepened our love and appreciation for these wonderful teachers.

Sunday morning we met with Mata Touli, the seminary teacher in Ashburtton.

Mata is from Samoa and a member of the remarkable Touli family.  There are at least 12 children in the family (I counted during sacrament meeting, but I think there may be some married or on missions.)  a few years ago, Brother and Sister Touli, the parents of several small children, were visited by some friends (or family members, I’m not clear about which) who asked them to raise their children if something happened to them.  Within weeks, both parents were killed in an accident and the Touli family doubled in size.  This family is remarkable; loving, happy, hardworking, and devoted to the gospel.  Two of the boys have served missions, Mata’s sister leaves for a Missouri mission in 2 months, and Mata will put in her papers when she turns 21 this summer.  In the mean time, she teaches seminary.  She talked to us about her fears and hesitancy when the Branch President asked her to teach.  She felt that she was not capable, but finally agreed.  She told us about how much she loves her calling.  She never misses a morning, even when she’s sick, because she doesn’t want to miss any part of the curriculum.  Her students, many of them her siblings, are also very dedicated.  One of her students, Matthew, was a non-member who asked if he could come with some of the Touli boys.  He was baptized because of his experiences at seminary, and now his whole family has joined the church.   The youth in Ashburton seminary are very blessed.

We stayed for sacrament meeting in Ashburton and then left immediately for Timaru, hoping to get there before their church meetings were over.  We had been unable to reach the Lentz-Reid family who have been teaching their daughter, Ineke, at home, and Karen Strong who has been teaching her Nephew, Nephi, at home.  We were planning on leaving the materials for the two families, but when we got there we met Dallin McLaughlin and Samuel Middlemiss, both 14 years old and ready and eager to begin seminary.  We knew right away that we had a problem;  seminary students and no teacher.  We met with three of the students (Nephi, and his aunt, Karen Strong, were not at church but had left a message for us to come to her house.) and their parents.  The Lentz-Reids and McLaughlins would like to have seminary class together and invite Nephi to join them.  Sister Lentz-Reid volunteered to teach the three of them at her home which is conveniently located half way between the other two, until a seminary teacher can be called.  Knowing this could be a long process, we took her up on it and gave her the materials she would need to begin.  It wasn’t till we drove away that we realized we probably didn’t have the authority to appoint a seminary teacher—sometimes I wish Paul didn’t read this blog.  I guess he’ll have to fire us or cut or salary.  Anyway, it was the best we could do with the situation.

Samuel Middlemiss lives in Waimate, a community about 45 minutes away from Timaru.  Sister Middlemiss suggested that we contact Oliver Trainor, also from Waimate and less-active, to see if he would be interested in attending seminary with Samuel.  These two would also need a teacher—we suggested that Sister Middlemiss take that on temporarily (there we go again, Paul).  If Oliver does not want to participate, then Samuel will become a member of the online class that John and I will be teaching. 

We visited with Karen Strong in her lovely home about Nephi, and we stopped at the Trainor home on our way to Oamaru.  We talked with Oliver and asked him to seriously consider participating in seminary.  We will be calling him back for his answer.  Many things to be figured out in Timaru, but lovely families and eager youth will make it happen

Next stop, Oamaru.  Longo Kaufana is the seminary teacher there.

Longo taught 2 brothers last year.  The mother of these young men is not active and their father brings them to church only when he does not have to work on Sunday, but he sees that those boys get to seminary every day.  Their mother told Longo that she overheard her sons reminding their father to pray about something he was concerned about.  The boys are learning well from this dedicated teacher who also loves her calling and sees the Lord helping her family as she dedicates herself to her work. 

We spent the night in Oamaru and headed bright and early the next morning for Omakau to visit with Brother Kahukura who teaches his two granddaughters.  We left his materials with his wife because he had been called to help shear sheep down by Milford Sound.  We missed seeing him.  He’s such a grand old man.

We stopped in Gore to take materials to Elder Risenmay.  Elder Risenmay and his wife are missionaries from Washington.

Missionaries in Gore; Elder Philip, Elder Berryman, Sister Risenmay, Elder Risenmay

Elder Risenmay is serving as the Branch President in Gore—a struggling little branch with no priesthood.  He feels very strongly that his branch members need to read the Book of Mormon and see if that book might not change their lives.  We took him materials for the Book of Mormon Institute classes.  He said that he might need some more student manuals because when he asked Sunday who would be interested in the class, nearly everyone in the ward raised their hands. The missionaries assigned to Gore, who serve as Elder Risenmay’s counselors,  also wondered if  people from Invercargill might want to join them.  Wonderful things will happen there.  I can feel them coming.

Our final and favorite seminary visit was in Invercargill with Sister DeAnn Wilson.

 

I love this picture John took of Sister Wilson.  It says so much about this 65 year old, half Maori woman.

DeAnn invited us to her house for our meeting.  We spent two hours with her, soaking in knowledge, wisdom, and testimony.  She and her husband shifted (New Zealand talk again) to Invercargill from Auckland where she was a linguistics instructor at university.  They bought five acres of land, built an energy efficient home that my father would have loved, and are trying to incorporate the philosophies of permaculture for sustainable land use and are hoping to become totally self-sufficient.  I have never known anyone with such an extensive knowledge of plants and their effects on one another and the soil.  She and her husband named their home, “Koowhai Cottage” (pronounced Kofi—long o and long i—in Maori, wh sounds like ph) after the national Koowhai tree which has dainty leaves and yellow flowers.  Koowhai is also the word for yellow in Maori.  She gave us a tour of her home and gardens and we learned so much—we learned we will never be permaculturists, there is just too much work involved. 

DeAnn fed us banana cake and fizzy (New Zealand for pop—which she only buys for company).  I was very grateful because we were starving.

Murry and DeAnn Wilson’s ‘Koowhai Cottage’

We are impressed with her mind, but we love her spirit.  She told us of 10 years that she spent completely separated from the church.  She even had her name taken from the records.  As she studied anthropology and philosophy, she got caught up in the ideas she learned.  She couldn’t come to grips with the idea of eternal truths—truths that were for all peoples and all cultures.  She was angry at the ‘conditioning’ she had received in her youth and thought that the ultimate carrot that was dangled before Mormons was the idea of the eternal family.  One slip-up and that carrot was taken away.  There were other things she struggled with as well, but her learning had made her bitter about the doctrines. 

And then, she told about the things that brought her back.  With tears in her eyes, she told of her faithful husband who has been a bishop twice and served on the high council.  He never wavered and he never once used his priesthood unrighteously.  She said that she missed kneeling with him in prayer, but when she suggested that she at least go through the motions, he would say, “What’s the point if you don’t believe?” 

She told of a faithful home teacher who brought an article from a church magazine to share.  He knew her and knew that the article would get her thinking. 

She talked about faithful young adults at the university that came from LDS homes.  Although some of them had “renegade and rebellious” parents, and the students weren’t particularly bright or gifted, they were student leaders and exceptional people.  She knew the only thing they all shared was the gospel of Jesus Christ and membership in His Church.  She was impressed by the effect it had on their lives.

And then there were the hymns.  Some hymns effected her very deeply whenever she heard them, so she refused to sing them, and was angry that her conditioning as a child had created this phenomenon.  Finally she had to admit that it was the Spirit, carried to her through music—music is a part of a Maori’s soul.

One night in the middle of the night, she sat up and said to her husband, “I need to be rebaptized.” 

She no longer has problems with the doctrines, is willing to accept many things on faith, and is a wonderful example and teacher who never has a seminary class without a hymn.

I couldn’t help thinking about the intellectual things that interfered with her testimony and drove her from the Church.  The things which brought her back were all things of the Spirit.  The Spirit is the testifier and the true converter.  I love this woman.   Isn’t she beautiful?

This weeks sights of New Zealand; hedges…

These hedges are everywhere you look.  They are used as windbreaks for paddocks, homes, fields, etc.  They are usually well manicured by a machine with huge circular blades that can cut vertically or horizontally.  Some of them are mammoth.  Notice this one next to our car.

I must take back something I said in a previous post, that Martha Stewart has not made it to New Zealand.  She came to Karen Strong’s house in Timaru.  I loved this place; modern kitchen and yard, with, you guessed it, hedges.

This country is sheep heaven.  The animals and their friends and families get to graze all day in beautiful, fluorescent green fields.

Until this time of year when they are subjected to psyche-shattering trauma.

This poor little thing reminds me of my grandchildren’s favorite Pixar short, ‘Boundin’,  about the great American Jackalope who comes upon a very sad and very shaved lamb.  The lamb says:

“I used to be something all covered with fluff,  And I’d dance in the sunlight and show off my stuff.  Then they hauled me away in a manner quite rough, And sheared me and dropped me back here in the buff.”

Other beautiful things…

The coast taken from Shag Point.

The beautiful turquoise Manuherikia River by Alexandra.

Dusk, not far out of Dunedin.

We went to Bluff, the southernmost city on the South Island.

From this point, only Stewart Island stands between us and Antarctica.  I said, “John, we’re this close.  We’ve got to go to Antarctica.”  He said, “No!”  I said, “If Brad was my companion, he’d go with me.”  John said, “Well he’s not, and we’re not.”  He’s such a spoil-sport.

This is Tracker, an oyster fisherman and Bluff resident.  You have to be tough to live in Bluff.  It get’s mighty cold and mighty windy.

John on the top of the hill overlooking Bluff.  That is ocean in the background and the mountains of Steward Island.

On the way back up the coast, we stopped to see the Boulders of Moeraki.  Although these boulders appear to have been washed up by the sea, scientists believe they were formed millions of years ago inland as ‘mud balls’ that hardened through chemical changes.  Over millions of years of erosion they were exposed at the edge of the ocean.

The Church has some kind of deal worked out with Mobile and Shell for cheaper prices on gas.  We buy gas only from those two service stations.  After almost two days of driving, we were running low on gas. (Johnsons, see if this story sounds at all familiar.)  John pulled up to a Shell station in Alexandra, but the line was rather long and I suggested that we get some at a future town.  However, the towns between Alexandra and Gore were very small, with no Mobile or Shell petrol stations.  We were out in the middle of nowhere and…

There are supposed to be bars going all the way up to the F.  We were driving on fumes.  It was “spooky-dumb”, to quote my father.  But, we made it to Gore and it cost about $94.00 to fill up.  That was an empty tank.  From now on, we do what they told us at the MTC, never let your tank get below half full.

Our hearts are overflowing with love and gratitude to our Father in Heaven and His son, Jesus Christ.  We know they go with us, we can feel them helping us, and we are certain they are blessing our loved ones at home. 

Welcome 2011

There is a sign in downtown Christchurch that I would be proud to wear around my neck…

Winnie was my mother, and yesterday was her birthday.  She was born 89 years ago, and I spent the day thinking about her and the great good she did here on earth.  Her parents were disappointed when she was born.  They had wanted another son to serve a mission in gratitude for the blessings of the gospel.  As I thought about this, I thought about the obscurity and narrowness of our vision at any given point in our lives.  Grandma and Grandpa Amacher could only see a daughter, a girl, who was unlikely to become a missionary.  If they could have seen the whole picture, they could have seen Mom’s great posterity who could and would fulfill those wishes—I’m missionary number 34.

Mom not only became a missionary, but she and my father provided a loving, inspiring, pleasurable, and safe environment where we could grow and learn things of this world and of the world to come.  She was and is the matriarch of our family.  I am grateful for all she did for me in this life, and I have no doubt that she is still helping me and mine.  I just finished a book by Robert L. Millet, ‘Talking With God’.  He wrote of a very sacred and personal experience.  He told of a son who had separated himself from the Church and from the family.  “He became heavily involved with addictive drugs and buried himself in a hellish world that held out little hope for a return to normal living.”  As parents do, the Millets grew more and more concerned when they didn’t hear from him, wondering whether their son was lost, imprisoned, or dead.  One night after many months with no word, their pain and worry became almost too heavy to bear.  “… as Shauna and I knelt in prayer, broken and torn emotionally and physically weak from worry, we wept through our prayers and pleaded long and hard, once again, for the Good Shepherd to lead his wandering sheep home.  We went to bed and slept from sorrow.”

In the night, Brother Millet had a dream.  His father, who had passed away several years before, came to him in his dream and said quite forcefully, “Son, I want you to pull yourself together.  I am going to help you with those children of yours.  Be patient.”

He sat up in bed, woke his wife and they both wept with gratitude.  Days later they received a call from their son.  “I just can’t live like this any more.  Can I come home?”

When he arrived home, he shared with his father, “I know this sounds strange, but one night some time back, I was on the verge of doing something that would definitely have cost me my life when I heard Grandpa Millet’s voice say, ‘Don’t do that! You have been taught better.  Now get up and go home.’

I’m grateful for the influence that my mother had on us when she was here with us, but I am convinced that her influence now can even be greater.  I’m grateful for that, being so many miles away from my children and grandchildren.  I’ll work here, she can watch over and bless there.

This holiday season has kept everyone busy with their families, and some of them have shared their family time with us.  The Bells had us over on New Year’s Day for feasting and fun.  Winnie and David have nine very beautiful, very active grandchildren and their place feels the most like home. 

The twins; Ella and Eva.  They are promised to Jonathan and Jeffrey—it’s all been worked out between the grandparents.

Miriam holds a hedgehog that the kids dug up in the back yard.  Joven (Miriam’s husband) is in the background relaxing, Kobe, Eva, Ella, Rylin, Candace, Miriam, and Emi.

The hedgehog, who is nocturnal, tries to flee… the children in close pursuit.

Some of our young adults have gone to the north island for a YSA conference.  Each stake was required to put on some kind of skit.  They practiced at the institute building a couple of nights this week.

Tui, Stephanie, and Tui—all great girls!

With everyone away, we finished up two weeks of online seminary training.  We are waiting for some “tweaking” in the central office before we can continue.  In working through some of the actual lessons that have been prepared for the students, we are amazed and thrilled with their ability to invite the Spirit.  We can see the value of this program and actually met one of our online students for next year.  He agreed to give it another go—last year he didn’t finish—and we promised to make greater efforts to help him complete the year.  I love the Doctrine and Covenants—it will be a great curriculum.

We were told that we are responsible for the Institute building.  John takes that assignment very seriously.  Although there are people hired to clean, he cleans and organizes and follows people around making sure that they treat the building with respect.  We have both been concerned about the outside of the building.  We think someone is hired to mow the lawn, but they must be enjoying a long vacation.  We have no tools, but John decided that we could weed and make things look better anyway.  It was a hot day, there was nothing but cement to kneel on, and my back gave out after an hour of bending and pulling.  I did the only thing I could do.

John….he just kept going.

Things did look better when we finished.

We also took a day to do the rest of the flat inspections.  I was pleasantly surprised at the efforts of these missionaries.  I love the young missionaries and I’m learning to appreciate what my sons’ lives were as missionaries. 

Elder Kolia, a missionary from Samoa, bore his testimony in church on Sunday.  He told of his own conversion.  He studied to become a Methodist minister and in 2007 had passed his final exams.  He was waiting to finish the process and embarked on a quest to gain a basic understanding of other religions.  Elder Kolia had a question for which he was unable to find the answer.  He invited the missionaries to tell him about the LDS church.  These missionaries asked him to read the Book of Mormon which he started to do.  He was uninspired by the book.  When the missionaries came back, they told him that he should pray before and after he read.  He decided to do as they suggested.  Before reading the next time, he said a prayer, and the results were miraculous.  The very first sentence he read upon completion of his prayer, answered the question he had long wondered about.  The Holy Ghost bore witness that this was his answer,  he knew that the book was true, and that he had found the true church.  “And now I’m not a Methodist minister, but a Mormon missionary”, he said.  It is a great and marvelous thing the way the Holy Ghost and the inspired words of ancient prophets work together to provide powerful, testimony building experiences and to help us find answers to life’s most difficult questions.  Joseph Smith expressed it perfectly when he wrote about his experience with James 1:5: 

“Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine.  It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart.” 

I have felt that myself as I have sought answers and I’m grateful.

We went into Cathedral Square again on New Year’s Day.  We knew that it would be less crowded and we wanted to see more of the heart of Christchurch.  Here’s some of what we saw.

Statue of Queen Victoria at the entrance to Victoria Square.

Statue of Captain Cook also in Victoria Square.

This is a BIG deal—the Rugby World Cup.  The school schedules have all been changed to accommodate participation.

Grand buildings, and those that are not so grand…..

Some earthquake damage, poor Elvis….

and some that you would like to blame on the earthquake but can’t.  This is the main Christmas tree for Christchurch.   I think it is very much like the one in Time Square…

We have only posted beautiful pictures of New Zealand, and lest anyone get the wrong idea….

Lots and lots of graffiti and the remnants of a New Year’s Bash.

One funny story about John.  He has a few major fears; moose (for obvious reasons), Mexicans (all the killings going on in Mexico), Machete’s (Just after we got here, a policeman was attacked by two kids with machetes.  Pictures of his mutilated face came on our Yahoo home page every time we turned on the computer.), and Arab jihadists.  As we walked around the city, we passed three young men speaking Arabic—or so we guessed.  John became agitated.  He looked to his left and saw this van…

and read out loud in his dyslexic way, “Explode more.”  He’s getting rather jumpy in his old age. 

Life is a great gift, full of heartwarming moments.  We’re grateful for everyone of them.