The Adventure Series II

ADVENTURES IS FOOD

In case you were wondering if we are eating strange things, not really.  We are eating different things and enjoying most of them.  The only strange thing is how you measure it all.  We went to the grocery store the first day we got here and after the sticker shock we bought what we wanted and needed and headed for home.  I forgot how much it takes to get the basics of cooking and baking breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I have been back to the store multiple times in search for things I forgot.  Hopefully, I am finally getting close I think.

It took a while to figure out some things.  Things like $10.99 for hamburger (mince) really isn't so bad when you realize that a kilo is 2.2 lbs. not 1.  Milk we are not drinking so much at $5.15/3 liters.  Cereal is very pricey if you want any name brand sugary stuff, just like home.  Cake mix is $5/box, obviously we'll be making cakes from scratch.  Sugar is grainier and salt and pepper are either powdery or very coarse.  Milo is the substitute for hot chocolate and you don't make it with just water, believe me, it is terrible.  You make it with milk and sugar.  They now have biscuits and cookies, one and the same.  The produce is awesome and there are little roadside stands everywhere.  We eat carrots and apples constantly and mandarin oranges that don't come from cans.  Ice cream is amazing!!!  Cheap stuff is like Cold Stone.

They have lots of pies here but they are not fruit pies, they are generally "mince" or meat pies.  They are delicious.  They make mince pies in every size from tiny tarts to jumbos.  We did finally find an apple pie and it was yummy.  You buy quiche at the local bakery and it is tasty too.  They have bread that rivals Aretta's multi-grain, my favorite.  They are masters at pastery but could use a little help with the cookies.  They are mostly hard as bullets.    This is the only place you go that you leave the bag open so that the cookies will soften up.  Big Macs are few and far between because the sandwich alone is about $7.  Catsup is tomato sauce and costs .40 per tiny packet.  Beer is cheaper than bottled water and diet coke is $3-4 for a 12 oz.   We have been out to dinner twice at nicer sit down places and both times someone else paid for it.  Meals start at around $17-18 at the nicer places.

It took us forever to find fish and chips that we could afford in this "fishing port".  Then we found a little place that gives you two big pieces of fish and a huge 1/2 portion of chips for $8.  Better than the purple turtle!  They wrap it all up in paper just for fish and chips and send you home with it.  They also do Chinese take away.  There are lots of little butcher shops around with great meat and it isn't much different than home in price.  All in all, we are getting along famously in the food department and when we get tired of our own cooking, the members invite us to "tea" which really means dinner.

Other than the prices and the much smaller variety, things are not a lot different here than they are at home.  We may come waddling home!

The Adventure Series!

ADVENTURES IN HOUSING

When we arrived in Timaru, fortunately for us, another missionary couple, the Neiders, had already secured a place for us to live.  When we walked in, I immediately felt at home.  It was completely furnished and was just my style.  The colors were great and the house had a big open area that is really a bedroom/living room/kitchen in a row separated by big wooden folding doors.  It becomes a nice great-room when it is all opened up.  I didn't realize that there was another reason for this lovely arrangement until dark set in.  No one's house is centrally heated here.  We had a wood burning fireplace insert which was not very efficient as we would soon find out. 

Warming all those areas plus the huge foyer, the bathroom across the house from the master bedroom and the two smaller bedrooms was literally impossible.  I thought I would freeze to death until we figured out the system.  We closed the doors and the wood fire in the fireplace plus a newly acquired space heater kept the  room warm until we moved into the bedroom where another space heater warmed it up before bedtime.  The kitchen had to create it's own warmth and the bathroom is heated at will by another, smaller space heater.  The bed has a bed sized heating pad which you turn on 1/2 hour before bedtime.  It is wonderful to get in that bed after a chilly day!  Forget about the foyer and the other bedrooms.  If we get visitors, we'll figure that one out.
The next issue was the mice.  The house had been empty for a couple of months waiting for us and the mice had taken up residence!  A few traps and a little bait and we feel pretty much in control of that issue but we had to clean the whole place completely, including washing everything we wanted to use.  That in itself took 2 days.  I think most everything is clean but we cleaned again Monday because I was waiting for a dryer to come and it never did but we got a lot done.  We also discovered the leaks in the kitchen ceiling that happen randomly even when the sun is shining.  Haven't figured that one out yet.

Next, issue:  everything here is smaller, washers, dryers, refridgerators, stoves and so on.  The washer stops if it is off balance and so you think the wash is done only to go check and find you have 25 min. left before you can hang it on the rack in the living room or the line in the yard, both of which take about three days to dry clothes, hence the order for a dryer that still hasn't come.  They do have an awesome invention here.  Because everyone drinks Milo (a barley chocolate drink) or coffee, or tea or hot berry juice, yummmm,  they have a little device that heats water to boiling in a couple of minutes.  It is awesome!!!  By the way, most of the rooms have 1, maybe 2 plugs. Do you think they are underwired?  Don't ever plug in two heaters at the same time you plan to use the microwave!  In fact, you are better off not to use more than 2 things at once ever!  The house had 2 phone lines but one had never been hooked up and the other wasn't working.

Now that I have my complaining done let me tell you what is terrific.  We have huge windows all over the west side of the house, floor to ceiling in the living and kitchen and 1/3 of the bedroom wall.
The sun warms the house in the afternoons.  We have the most wonderful views everywhere.  We can see the southern alps out all of the windows.  The sunsets are really something that boggles our mind.  The sun is brighter here than I have ever seen and the colors are glorious.  The ocean is a different color every day and sometimes from hour to hour.  The garden is in little rooms, a miniature version of home with a fish pond right outside the door.  It is stocked with orange and black Koi.  Flowers bloom here even in winter, one here, one there.  Hydrangeas are huge as are rhodedendrons and just about everything else.  The clouds are amazing.  I have peacock tails on my mantle.  I have a roof, a kitchen, a bathroom, a place with a hot pad to sleep and sit and dream, plenty of food, lots of friends and love and the gospel to bring it all together.

What's not to like?  Enough is as good as a feast and I have enough and more.

Something to ponder.

If I have no other experience than the one I had tonight, my mission will have been a success.  It taught me so much about myself and others.  What we can assume and what we can't.  Last Sunday a little family walked into the branch out of the blue.  No one I talked with knew them but we introduced ourselves, made an appointment and went to see them on Monday.  The father had been called away to a shearing job but mum and the kids were there and we made ourselves acquainted and set up an appointment for tonight.   Mum and kids came to church this morning and though she has little gospel knowledge and was overwhelmed by all that she heard this morning, she was very receptive.  I could tell she was feeling things that were important to her.

We met the elders at her home today and went in to teach the first lesson.  We exchanged small talk and kind of "slid" into a gospel discussion.  Somehow in the course of that discussion her life was revealed to almost total strangers who showed her some love.  She was raped repeatedly by four boys when she was a young girl and then they took an ax to her.  She crawled from the back yard to the front yard and "crawled into a green box to die".  She was found there and taken to a hospital but not before she "saw a light and felt at peace with the idea that she was going to die".  She did not understand it but when she told her father she wanted to go to church he just brushed her off.  She wanted to know what the light and peace was.  She still wants to know after all these years.  We showed her "Finding Faith in Christ".  There was total silence, even from the dog who had been quite rowdy.

We were trying to help her understand that a loving Heavenly Father cared about her but because her family lost everything including her father's life which he himself took due to drugs, it was pretty hard to explain.  She later married and had some children and then her husband was killed in an auto accident.  After that she found her "partner", the name they call a permanent relationship with no marriage here, John Heke.  He is the one who wanted to come to church. She has been a good girl and they want to change their lives.  I couldn't help but cry for her and the pain she is still in from those horrible experiences.

We walk down the street each day and see "people" but we don't know their stories.  Maybe if we did, we would be more inclined to be more kind.  That incidentally was what she said her "talent" was when asked in church today.  She is kind.  Should we be less?  Something we could ponder.

YYYYIIIIPPPPEEEE!

I never had an idea how isolated I could feel here without my internet.  Many things here are behind the times, almost like living when I was a kid.  Everything is cold, underwired, underinsulated or not at all, very small or wee as they like to say here and so on but the internet is an essential.  For a wee bit, I thought I wouldn't be able to get it here at our home but a nice young man came out, fixed the wiring and poof!  I am back with the world up north again.  It is wonderful that we can have communications from across the world and I hope I never take it for granted again.

 That said, the work here is fun and interesting.  We keep very busy.  There are always meetings to go to and people to go visit.  We have been greeted with open arms everywhere.  Even the people who are trying to hide from us, once they are found are very nice.  They let us know they are not interested but they are kind about it.  I love the Maori people.  Our branch president is Maori (pronounced very short ah, long o with a rolled r and long e, almost sounds moree).  He is the sweetest man and I have already grown to love his wife.  There is an active core here, about 50, who I already love and they are becoming committed to making the branch grow.  Our goal is to become a ward.

We have met some wonderful members and non-members alike.  Ken already has a good friend at the local furniture store who he talks about World War II with.  Forget furniture here.  A small couch and love seat start at $3000.  People here have very little furniture unless they are well to do. We met a darling, non-member couple at the family history center the other day and have been to their house.  They are "farm folk" as they put it and they really are but they live in what would be a million dollar house at home which they bought after selling their farm.  I have not had that much fun talking to someone in a very long time.  They are wonderful!  Ken calls my office "command central" but their place makes mine look amateur at best.  They have a dozen 3' to 30' satellite dishes they built, two dozen tv's and a real "command central" to run them all.  They get programs from all over the world including KBYU!  Their son came over and fixed our phone in about 10 minutes and "saved" our sanity.  I told her that they represent all the best of New Zealand to me and I really mean it!

We went visiting in a little place called Geraldine today, kind of a small resort town.  We met with a lovely Maori lady there named Virginia and found that she was raised in the area where great grandpa Jarvis served his mission.  We will be comparing notes.  She has been a widow only a little over a year.  Her husband was branch president here until he died.  She sent us to some non-member friends who Ken talked with and who invited us back.  On the way home, we drove to Ala Moana Gorge where we saw Red Stags, gorgeous dark green forests and a beautiful little fishing stream.  We stopped at the home of some Argentine members who are so sweet.  We than went to the beach.  The beaches are at the bottom of cliffs or are polished rock not sand and they really drop off.  Too cold right now for a walk but maybe in the summer.  We remarked how we saw parts of Wyoming, Utah and the northwest in the landscapes here only much more intense.   You can't believe how bright the sun is.  It is hard to describe!

It has been much less difficult for me to adjust than I thought it would be.  I am even getting used to the cold.  When I'm tempted to complain, I think of Amanda Barnes Smith and the pioneers and STOP IT!!!  I do miss the family, especially right after I get an e-mail or Skype.  Maybe homesickness just hasn't set in yet or maybe I am learning to trust the Lord's promises to us.  I hope it is the latter.  I love you all and am so grateful for the support from home.  You may never know how much it means to us that you have all supported this adventure for us.  So far, we are loving it!

FINALLY HERE!

Seems like forever since I have written.  This has been a whirlwind few days.  We left on the 6th of June at 4:55 p.m. and arrived in Wellington on June 8 at 10 a.m. having crossed the international dateline and spent who remembers how many hours on planes.  We were greeted by Pres. and Sis. Kezerian.  She had arrived back only the day before having had surgery in the states and then flying home with her arm at a strange angle from shoulder surgery.  How could we be complaining after seeing that?  We were whisked away to a zone meeting and lunch for a few hours.  We were then on to the Kezerians for a couple of hours which we used to shower and then out to dinner with some of the senior missionaries. The Brazzeals, McVeys and Kezerians were very good to us.  Home to bed at 8 because we were wasted.

Up early for a briefing which was very brief because Pres. Kezerian remembered he was supposed to pick up a new missionary at the airport.  He did that and dropped us off to catch our plane to Christchurch.  The hour flight landed in snow!  Didn't see much of Christchurch because we still had two hours to drive.  The Neiders from Idaho picked us up and took us to their home in Ashburton where Ken was given a brief driving lesson.  I have to say that this is really weird.  Everything is backwards except of course the gas and brake peddles.  We both constantly turn on the windshield wipers when we are trying to turn!

Ken drove on to Timaru with Elder Neider while Sis. Neider drove me.  It is really beautiful.  The southern alps are on the west and the ocean is on the east and their are beautiful farms everywhere.  We arrived at Timaru, went to see our home for the next few months, drove out to see their beautiful little chapel and then were off to the grocery store.  Had a little sticker shock but we are already finding that if we are careful, we can keep the grocery bill in line.  The produce is absolutely awesome!  I love the house though it is cold but it is beautifully decorated and has a little fishpond just outside the back door just like home.  It is amazing that I feel right at home already.

Sunday we were off to church at 10 and were there until 4:30.  Lots of things to do and talk about.  I think this little branch is looking at us like a lifeline.  Ken already is in the branch presidency.  I will be teaching institute. They have a wonderful little chapel which is greatly underused.  There are about 190 members but only 50 active so lots to do!  They are friendly and welcoming and I have had no apprehension about being here.  I am actually amazed at how calm I am.  I think I am more calm than Ken sometimes.

Monday, June 11,  was spent trying to set up internet services, banking services and trying to get a driver's icense which failed but we were able to get it yesterday, June 18 after working on it for two hours.  Had all the papers this time!  Tuesday, June 12, we spent the whole day cleaning!  We washed pretty much everything because the house has been empty and the mice have had a wonderful time.  No more mice for a while I think.  Lots of things to rid us of them. 

Since then, we have done lots of things, visited several members, had several "tea" (what they call dinner) appts., been in several non-member or part member homes and have generally enjoyed ourselves.  We turn promising people over to the young elders.  We are getting to know the area pretty well.  On Saturday, we went down to the sea at the mouth of the Orari river and it was boiling.  The waves were 10's of feet high and the water looked muddy from the stirred up sand.  It was beautiful but I think Ken wants to try fishing on a much calmer day.  You can see the ocean from the end of our block so we will know when it is time.

It has been busy but wonderful.  We feel needed and useful and loved.  There are awesome people here that just need a little help to get on their way.  We want to make it our mission to help them get to a place where they don't need senior missionaries any more because they can be and are capable of doing it all themselves.  It is a lot like the deaf branch was when we first started going there.  It is so fun to go there now and see the deaf doing everything.  We love the people here already and know it is just a matter of time.  After all, we are not so very different are we?