Return Date!

Mom and Dad will be coming home on August 18th in the evening. They are scheduled to speak in their sacrament meeting on September 13th.

October 15th Update

Hello everyone: Seems like a long time since I have written to you all. We keep busy with this and that. We enjoyed conference very much. Saw Sunday's sessions on Monday here in the office and Saturdays the following Sat. in our stake center and then since it was Sunday and the whole stake was watching conference we went back and saw one session again. We so enjoyed the talks. Then, for our Family Home Evening here in the Area Offices we again shared favorite talks. Pres. Baxter and Elder Hilbig returned from conference and gave us their observations of conference for our devotional Tues. morning. It was very interesting to hear the behind the scenes tidbits.

We were very impressed how conference dealt with the financial problems world wide etc. Basically, if we stay obedient and stand firm and do what we should we will be OK. We should learn what we should do, do what we should do and be what we should be. We need to stand close together and lift where we stand. We can't afford to be superficially righteous, our testimonies should run deep. So we need to get busy and figure out what we need to be doing. And DO it. We need to be serious about the gospel.

We are planning a Halloween/triple birthday for 3 of the missionary senior guys. We are having a potluck Halloween theme dinner etc at the area doctor's apartment overlooking the harbour. Hope to stay til it is dark to see the lights. They have such a beautiful view. I sent you some pictures of the cruise we took of the harbour etc. and their apartment building in the background. Picture was taken from Auckland side. If you look closely you can see tall building in the distance. That is where we live. Across the street from the tall one. We went to the temple early in the day and came back as we had tickets for a free cruise. It was fun.

We are planning our next trip which we leave on on Sunday. Have to fly in and out of these islands on weird days to get where we need to be when we need to be there. We are going to New Caledonia which is French speaking. Hopefully, we will have an interpreter, The food is really expensive (like $60.00 US for a meal at the hotel) so we will likely live on bananas, bread and peanut butter while there. Have to eat just at certain places and never drink the water. A bottle of water at the hotel is $12.00 US. Problem is we arrive on Sunday. Should be interesting. We stay there til Wednesday and then fly to Port Vila, Vanuatu (where we were in August) stay the night at our favorite hotel and then catch a plane for Santo island at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. We are staying in Santo over night. We could only find one place to rent a car there--at $124.00 US per day and we only need it for 18 hours or so. I'm sure that they will charge us for two days. The airfare from Port Vila to Santo (171 miles) is about $1500.00 US for the two of us. This is a very expensive little trip. We are trying to establish contact with our director there at the Family History Center. He got married in March and we haven't heard from him or the center since. Heard via the grapevine that he had to go live with his new wife's family (family tradition) etc. Guess, we will find out what is going on.

The email situation is bad in some of these islands. Most of the people get yahoo and then never use it again and yahoo drops them after so many months of non use. So the computers in the centers get old and deteriorate with the humid temperatures etc. With the new system they have to have Internet to print the new 'Family Ordinance Requests" and we have whole branches going on 'temple' trips and needing to know how to get their own family's names printed etc.

New Zealand went 'live' yesterday. Michael (our boss) is down in Hamilton for the roll out. He is going to Tahiti while we are in New Caledonia etc. Our next biggy is a huge genealogical conference here in Auckland in January. The conference organizers have contracted several people (like 4 or 5) to come from the Family History Library in SLC to be key note speakers etc. Don't know what our part will be --probable at least a booth etc to 'man' for Family Search etc.

We are excited that Megan and her friend Stephanie Cook are coming for Xmas. Pres. Baxter's wife stopped in yesterday and told us that they had met Stephanie at a lunch for the general authorities in SLC. Stephanie knows their daughter "Heather" who is coming the same time as she is. So, with our two girls and Heather and then a girl that just got back from her 'American" tour and stayed with Stephanie in Washington D.C. last month they (the four) should have fun together etc. Probable run them up the side of Ringatoetoe (sp) the volcano out in the ocean across from our beach. Should slow them down etc. Anyway we are anxious.

We are planning Thanksgiving also. Seems that we can order a turkey for only $12.00 per kilo or about $6.00 per pound. There will be about 22 of us but we decided to 'do' T. day with all the trimmings. I have just asked the Exec. Sec.(Sr. McLaughlin) wife if she would take it over for me. She is very organized and a good cook and doesn't have that much to do sooooo. Besides she can cook the turkey. We are going to use the kitchen here in the Area office--have games etc and make a day of it on the 29Th--Sat. Not Thursday as the office is open as usual. They don't celebrate our T. day. Funny thing.

Spring is coming!! We are excited. Flowers are blooming, trees are leafing out etc. It is getting prettier and prettier. We put away several of our heaters and only use them occasionally now. Still use the heated pad on the bed for about 5 minutes.

Well, must get back to work. Have a great day and let us know how each of you are doing. We would love to hear from you tooooooooo!

Love, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Andrea and Woody

August 29th, 2008

Well, to continue: I was interrupted last letter and never got back to it. To put it into a nutshell we greatly enjoyed our time in Vanuatu. It is a very beautiful place that is being discovered by the tourists. They have about 64 cruise boats per year and their influx of new cars has really jumped the past two years. The natives are friendly and the place seems a little bit more progressive to us. Some people tend to disagree but we saw better food markets and places to eat there than in the Samoas. Could be just the place we stayed etc. The roads seemed about the same. We only had about 3 hours to see the place as we were working at the center for the rest of the time. We ate lunch at a place on the beach that is owned by an American that graduated from Torrance High School in California. It was an American menu. We couldn't drink any water while in Vanuatu and have to keep taking our malaria meds for 25 days after we got back. However, we didn't see any mosquitos. (sp). Think that we are ok.

We trained the director and several of the consultants from other branches for 4 days. Marie Joe, the director, will have to train the director from Santo Island when they get one so hopefully that will do and no one has to go back soon. (However, we wouldn't mind).

Our boss and Bro. Howard from Wellington went to Tonga this week for the roll out of New Family Search. (That was why we were in Vanuatu as it is part of the Fiji roll out. Our counterparts that 'do' New Zealand and Fiji went to Fiji. He is Fijiian himself. He is the one that reminds us of Bill Cosby--with accompanying sence of humor.)

We are back into the office and getting caught up. Reports are due in by the 7th of September so we are getting back into our own Family History Research. I think that I have conquered the Leavitt twin problem. Someone had combined them into one person with all the wives going to Edwin and all the children etc. I had to uncombine about 50 plus records and assign everyone where they belonged. Now to send in and get one of the entries for Edwin getting him back to a male and his wife back to a female. Oh, the fun of computers. Hopefully when all is done it will be a perfect record acceptable to the Lord and to our ancesters. In the meantime, hopefully they have great patience and good senses of humor while we play with their information.

I have felt like the twins would be glad that someone is working on getting their lives seperated and then the thought occurred to me that my father would be pleased also. I find that Sharon Greene Larson and Shirley Greene Burnham (Ardith's sisters) have been attempting to get it straight too.

Dad wanted to mention that while we were in Samoa that we ran into a missionary couple from Blackfoot--the Harvey Tanners. His parents and Great Grandparents Wootton were very close friends and neighbors.

We had Family Home Evening dinner out on Monday with about 17 of us attending. We are still coordinating that job. Tried to give it to the new Exec. Sec. but he handed it right back--so we are running them for the time being. We have two new couples with us this week. A Elder and Sister Clark from N.SLC. She (Claudia) used to be in Sharon Larson's ward--probable before she married this Elder Platte Clark. They got her purse with all IDs' and passport stolon when they were sight seeing. It has put abit of a crimp in their plans. They were scheduled to go back to Sydney for a week but had to cancel (no visa). They are the new office couple for Public Affairs. We are going from one couple (the Brown's who go home on the 12th) to 3 couples for PA. The other couple that arrived are the Nallys (Lonnie and Kaye) from Highland. He is the infield mission presidents representative. (all mission presidents with problems have to go through him before problems go to SLC. This is over Australia, Phillipines, Papa New Guinea, New Zealand and all the islands. Huge job-- Very nice people.

Rents on apartments are getting ridiculous. The Clarks ended up getting one for $600.00 per week (view overlooking the beach etc.). They are also buying the Brown's furniture. The Nallys and McLaughlins are renting in a new building which is about $400.00 per week but much smaller than what we have. We went apartment hunting Monday for other couples that are coming and got an eyefull. Guess that we are very happy where we are for location and price. It may be old but the price is right. We are paying $335.00 per week and about $54.00 for the car per month.

Our new Area Presidency is offering a 'Gospel Discussion Hour' every 2nd and 4th Thursday for all of us in the building. We had our first one yesterday with Pres. Callister discussing the Apostasy. He has written several books on the subject. You may have noticed their write up in one of the July Church Newes. The next one will be by Pres. Baxter.

We have a member of the New Zealand Cabinet visiting the office today. They have ask for a meeting with the new Area Presidency. Don't expect they will come down to our end of the floor.

We are expecting to have our office moved--probable down to the former Auckland Mission Office area when they vacate to a building around the corner. That should start about the middle of September.

We are planning on taking another couple to an outdoor market tomorrow and then the following Saturday we will likely go down to Hamilton (2 hours) to the stake temple day. Following Sat. we are scheduled to take the Dr. and wife (Merrrills) to see the gannots and the Tasman. Both times we have been there it was Sunday and we couldn't see much in our Sunday clothes. Shannon and Erik were able to see right into the nests etc.

Since being back we have noticed a huge increase in day light hours (both ends of the day) and it seems to be getting warmer so maybe our long winter is over. Dad got new light bulbs for the apartment so we have lots of better light. (brighter lights). I can almost see to do my hair and makeup.

We teach our little class again Sunday. Dad's turn--then just one more lesson and we get a new group. I have been studying the scriptures on line as I can't do it in the mornings anymore. You guys might try that if you can't get to it other times. They have study guides that really help with them. You might also try getting on to New Family Search soon as it comes to the Utah. I think that the rest of you might already be able to get on. It is https://new.familysearch.org. You have to have your membership number and confirmation date to get onto the system. Remember to keep you new signon and passward in a safe place. This is a seperate signon than the regular FamilySearch. I tell people to put it on the back of their recommends and to remember to transfer the info. when they renew them. If you have questions about how to use the new system just email us or go into the lessons or help sections.

Well, this is way long again. Hopefully all is well with all of you. We are anxiously waiting for news of the new baby boy for Suzanne and Brian. He is due on the 23rd. They have met with the birthparents and all looks good. Keep them in your prayers. Julie and David's new baby is doing well after his surgery for double hernias. Steven and Carlyn went to Hawaii for Steve's birthday but we haven't heard how that went. David and Dani both had flooded basements the same storm. Shannon and Erik are back from New Zealand and Shannon is back into teaching. Nicole and Mel are into sports with the boys--getting back into school also. Megan's boss was made President of Overstock so she is a busy girl. Scott changed jobs again and is back with his old, old, old boss. The last two just keep trading him back and forth with better offers. The newest job is 'project' manager with a bonus on his estimates over and above his salary and a new truck to drive etc. So, talk to each other and email us. Love to hear from all of you. Report!!!

Love, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Andrea and Woody

August 23rd, 2008

Dear kids, family and friends: We are still in Vanuatu. It is a very beautiful island in the Pacific. We are on the same time frame as New Zealand except behind 1 hour and on same day--i.e. a day a head of you by 18 hours. It is Saturday and we are waiting for a wedding to take place (the two people we are training are involved in the wedding so we are taking a break. We have worked everyday that we have been here trying to get Marie Joe trained (she is the director in Port Vila) so that she can train the consultants from the many branches of the church. Five other consultants have attended training so we have a partial core of knowledge here. The problem is that with New Family Search, the temples will quit excepting the old forms of submissions and relie only on New Family Search after 30 days or so. So the patrons have to know how to generate information into New Family Search (nFS). Many of the islanders plan extensive (and very expensive for them) trips to the temples i.e. Fiji which just went live this week. They take a week or more and have to travel great distances to get there so need their submissions on the new system. We were unable to go to Santo Island as when we flew in the machine at the airport was down so we couldn't confirm and pay for the tickets. When we could get to the airline the next day they had already sold our seats and were sold out for the remainder of the time we are here so Santo did not get trained. Talked to a counselor in the Fiji Mission Presidency and he was quite concerned and is now aware of the problems with Santo. (Our director got married and we lost complete contact with him and the center there. Seems that there are some family traditions that took him away to live with his wife's family or some such thing. His father is the district president but the phone and email we had are no longer working etc. and they don't respond to mail. That district is planing on taking 60 plus to the temple in Fiji in January. When they get a director they will likely have to have that director fly here (50 minute flight) and get trained by Marie Joe. Hopefully she knows enough. We are staying at a very beautiful hotel overlooking Michiner's (sp) island and the bay. We watch boats coming and going with each meal. The view from our balcony is wondrous. We have a very comfortable room. Guess that we are really spoiled. Next time, if their is one we will opt for a 1st floor room with limited view as it is about $100.00 less per night. The food at the restaurant (where we dare eat) is very expensive also. However, the missionaries are mostly using this hotel now. We met the mission couple here , the Elliotts from Emmet, Idaho. They own about 320 acres of orchards and have the Plaza Fruit Stand on their property there--if any of you are ever in Emmet. The church auditor and his wife from the Fiji mission are here too. We all had dinner last night at the hotel. We went to Elliotts twice to a restaurant --more later.

Mom etc.

August 18th, 2008

Hello everyone: We have just had a very enjoyable time with Shannon and Erik. I think that they got to see and do most everything they wanted to do. They will share their trip with many of you too. We had to be in the office most days as we had visitors from SLC, ie Quentin Cook, Elder Jensen (Presidency of 70) and Bishop McMullin and wives so had extra meetings etc. We also had the head trainer for New Family Search and two of her staff Monday - Wed. that we had some meetings with so if we could leave by noon we did. That way Shannon and Erik could get up after we left, go to the beach/visit Takapuna and arrive at the office about the time we could leave. We did the musuem, beaches, view sites, Auckland, favorite restaurants, take-outs, two Sundays worth of church, the Tasman Sea, Gannit colony, spent the night at Rotorua, say the temple and visitor's center and sent them by ferry and then bus to the Bay of Islands for the day where they viewed the treaty grounds and had a tour through the islands by boat. That was in one day. We picked them up from the ferry dock at 9:15 that day and took them to the Merrill's apartment to see the lights from across the bay to Auckland. It was spectactular. You get a better view from looking at Auckland than going up in the Skytower and looking our way. We are sad to be alone again but are busy enough that it is ok. We are hosting Family Home Evening tonight here in the area offices and leave tomorrow for 6 days in Port Villa, Vanuatu. While there we fly to Santo Island for one day. It takes us 3 1/2 hours flight to Vanuatu. Places are not very close here at all. We are staying at the Sebel Vanuatu Hotel which is reported to be quite nice. We chose it as it has air conditioning and is pretty new and sanitary etc. Temperatures look to be about 69-80 for the week that we are there. However, that doesn't account for the humidity etc. We have to start our Malaria meds today and take them for 35 days. I still haven't sent you pictures from our trip to Samoa and American Samoa. I will try and do that today. Our trips are beginning to run into each other. We have to do all the book work between them--thank yous, reports and budgets to keep them all straight. Michael (our boss and stake president too) was supposed to be gone all of last week but his father in law died so he cancelled his trip to Tahiti for the roll out there. The funeral is today. He heads to Tonga for its roll out before we get back so we won't see him for several weeks. Bob Langford was just in to tell us of his new position. Shannon and Erik were not able to meet him (he was in Korea and Japan). (We stayed with them for the first 3 weeks). He is the new Area Human Relations Manager for the Asia/Pacific Area with his base being in SLC. He will visit his four areas once a year. (Tokeo, New Zealand/Australia, Hong Kong and can't remember the other). They have chosen to remain here til the end of the year. Higleys were able to meet his wife, Miriam. They live in Layton. Our sunday school (Marriage and Family Relations) is going ok. We have long absences between sundays sometimes. We will be away next week again. Higleys were able to attend. Our ward was very friendly with them and they met lots of people that we work with from the office too. Our washer died so we have to figure out what to do with it now that we are leaving for a week. It belongs to the church so don't know if they repair or replace it or if we have to buy a new one. Anyway it is a little inconvenient with trying to leave with clean clothes tomorrow. Browns said we can come use there washer tonight. Well, guess that I had better get on with things here like trying to get Picasa to work ok for me. Let us know what is happening at home. Love to get email. We are only a click away!

Love, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Andrea and Woody

August 7th, 2008

Hello everyone: Well, we survived our first trip to the islands. Pretty hard to take. We really enjoyed the experience and the opportunity to serve the saints there. Our pictures look like we loafed and did lots but you would be surprised our little effort it is to shot a few pictures as you go by. We saw lots of both Samoas and enjoyed the people we met and worked with. Only bad experience was when they left my suitcase in American Samoa on our way back to Samoa. Didn't get it til noonish the next day and had to check in with the temple presidency at Apia with no makeup, comb etc. I'm sure I was beautifiul but they probable thought Dad was married to a different woman the next time they saw us. We were able to attend the temple at Apia the one English session Friday before we came back. We were very impressed with that temple. We felt that it was the most beautiful celestial room we have ever seen. The layout of the temple is really neat. Wish they would build more like it. It was built on land that our bosses wife's family had donated to the church so it was special ground to walk on as well. We arrived late in Samoa as they canceled our plane as we were boarding and we had to change to another. We stayed at Aggie Grey's by the airport. It is pretty grand--flowers and porters--grounds beautifull. We had a lovely breakfast in the morning in the fala by the sea and then went back to the airport for our flight to American Samoa. That was interesting with an 18 seater. Not alot of room to breathe etc. We were met by Brother Fonoti (he is the transplator for the legislature there and a maitai ) and his daughter and granddaughter Louise (16 and cute) with orchid leis. We visited three of their centers that day and checked into our housing at the mission home. The mission includes both Samoas so this one is just the one that the mission president uses when he visits American Samoa. Since the new president is from there and has a huge house on the mountain he doesn't use his bedroom at the home so we got to. It felt like being home--king bed with similar covers etc. The mission couple, Brother and Sister Barnes, are from from Farmington but do not belong to Dean's branch of the family. They would like to be adopted. He wants a desk at the bank to greet people. Thinks that they need a tokan Barnes there. He is W. Floyd Barnes and his wife is Jean. Delightful couple. He was down doing bedrest trying to recover from a blood clot that landed him in ICU for 5 days. We attended the 10th Ann. of the Art's Festival for the Islands that was held there. Saw some interesting shows at the sports arena. (R rated--Easter Island men didn't wear much besides their tattoos). It was really loud. First Rock Concert I have been to. We went with Sr. Barnes and the patriarch and wife of the stake. Left before the end as we could feel our hearts beat in time to the bass key. They had delegations in from all over the Pacific. That is why we couldn't get housing. The LDS service center got us a nice car for 2 days and then we used the mission van for the last day. We had a training session with about 20 people for half a day and then the last day we visited a new Stake Center FHC in Pago Pago so got pictures of the inlet there too. In Samoa (western) we stayed in the LDS Compound. We had a lovely 3 bedroom house. It is literally a compound with guards at the gate to let you in and out with high wire fences enclosing you. Both Samoas have dogs that run in packs all over. They don't really belong to anyone so can be kind of scary if you are out walking at night. Natives walk out in the street at night all the time. No sidewalks except on the waterfront. Brother and Sister Betham took good care of us there. He is the former Stake President, Temple President and regional rep. They have a plantation that provides fruits and veggies to all the hotels and restaurants in Samoa. They treated us to sandwiches everyday at the center and took us to lunch twice while we were there. We trained about 20 people per day for 5 days getting them on to New Family Search and understanding the system. It was a little hard as the center we used is the only one in Samoa with internet so not only are they learning the church systems they are learning to type and how to use internet and sometimes don't understand english let alone read it. The sisters liked me and kept giving me candy, crackers, necklace and errings and hugs etc. They liked Dad too but gave me the food. The finance manager for the two Samoa's was our host at the compound. They invited us over for dinner with their famiy the first Saturday--gave us lots of food to get us by and took us for pizza with their family the last Saturday we were there. We did manage to take her out for dinner one night at the Apia Yaght Club one night. They certainly took good care of us. We had a church pool car (Yaris) that we used while there. We were able to attend the English speaking ward and met many of the 10 missionary couples that are there. The weather was great. Not too hot or humid. We enjoyed it. Of course our house was air conditioned (both) and the cars were also. The centers were air conditioned too. We ate out about 3 night on the waterfront and it was just comfortable. Saw about 1 mosquito but did have weird 'blood' worms that crawled in and died and we swept up daily. They hurt if you step on them and the birds won't touch them as they are too acidy. We also had two pet jecko's (babys) that we kept catching and taking outside. Saw a dead centipede in the laundryroom that kind of grossed me out but he was dead with legs up. We traveled over most of the island--saw the early Mormon refuge site. Pres. McKay rode up there on horseback and dedicated the land and said that it was the site of an early temple. It was a beautiful place up in the hills. The Samoan people are very poor and many live off the land. The pictures show many Foli's---round houses on stilts where they gather daily at 6;00 ish for prayers etc. They sleep there etc. Lots of loose pigs, chickens and dogs everywhere. Anyway it was a great experience. We are back in New Zealand--got back Monday afternoon (missed Sunday) and back to work. We have 3 general authorities here all next week. Quinton Cook, Bro. McMullin and Elder Jensen so we have to clean up our areas and look sharp. We have two special meetings next week with them. We got back in time for the introduction of our new Area Presidency and wives on Tues. morning. We have Elder Hilbig and his wife (lst Q. of 70), Elder Callister and wife (2nd Q. of 70) and President Baxter and wife 1st Q. of Seventy. We also have a Brother and Sister Nally coming soon. He is the infield rep. for all the mission presidents here. So our office is getting busy with moving offices etc. So far we are in the same place but that could change. Our boss is headed to Tahiti for its roll out next week. We just made reservations to go to Vanuatu on the 19th. We will stay til the 24th and visit both Port Villa and Santo islands. We have to start taking malaria meds before we leave, have lab tests before and continue on the meds for 28 days after we return. We wanted to go now before it gets hotter there. We have two libraries there and they only fly in and out on certain days of the week. They are in the Fiji temple district and Fiji is going live on the 19th. We are looking forward to Shannon and Erik visiting us starting Sunday. Hopefully the weather will be nice for their visit. It was wild while we were gone. One of our tree/bushes by the front door was broken at the root during one of the storms. We met our new neighbor girl last night. She is Katrina from Siberia. Very nice and pretty. She is attending the university and looking for a job. Her parents will join her later. She wanted to know if we were orthodox. Well, enough for now. We are welll and enjoying our time here. Kind of sad to see some of the old missionaries get ready to go home. Guess that that is the name of the game. Sounds like lots of stuff is happening at home. Hopefully little Nathan is doing ok and ready for his hernia operation tomorrow. Exciting to hear of Suzanne and Brians new baby boy to be. Sorry to hear of the two flooded basements and Nicole's family flu. Nice to see the rest of you enjoy each other in Island Park. Good to hear of Scott's new job. Wish we were there. Keep us in your prayers. We feel them. Drop us a line or three. We love to get email!

Love to you all, Mom and Dad, Andrea and Woody, Grandma and Grandpa Wootton

July 19th, 2008

Dear Family and Friends: Thought I had better send this update before things really get wild around here. We attended a fireside with Langfords down south of Auckland. It was huge and we were about the only white faces there. It was very interesting with a musical group from the states singing and bearing their testimonies. 7 brothers that were born here. So crowded--firecode broken I'm sure!) Sunday, Dad spoke in church and did a good job of covering 'Fathers" and their responsibilities. He didn't embarrase us too much. Better than normal. We have been up north in the 'Northlands" all week. We left Monday morning and traveled to Matakohe to see the Kauri Museum. It was interesting but slightly out of our way. Pictues to follow. These Kauri trees are huge and very old. Claim to be 46,000 years covered and still usable. Some of the trunks are about 28' in diameter or so. Anyway huge. Saw the gum diggers etc and lots of vintage stuff. We arrived in Paihia (Bay of Islands) just at dusk and stayed at the same hotel we have previously stayed at. Beautiful views from the dining room for the one dinner and 3 breakfasts we had there. Tuesday the 15th we traveled to Whangarei (pronounced Fongaray) and trained about 9 sisters in the details of New Family Search. They were a great group. The director is waiting for her green card to emmigrate and live close to her daughter in Lehi. The mayor's wife was helpful in trying to get us accomodations in Samoa but it was the wrong Samoa. Seems that there is a huge art's festival in American Samoa and the travel agency didn't let us know that. They got us plane reservations but no accomodations or car. We almost had to plan on sleeping on the beach. (However, long story short--the mission office got us a place to stay at the mission home with the missionary couple a Brother and Sister Barnes and a car!) They fed us a lunch etc. We worked on their equipment and gave them a new printer and hookup. We were there for 7 hours. Long session but they were enthusiastic. We traveled back to Paihia for dinner and wandering around the downtown tourist area. Wednesday the 16th we traveled to Kaikohe (pronounced Kaicohe) and worked with about 9 sisters. They fed us again and we were there for about 5 hours. As we got out early we hurried back to Paihai and changed and went to the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi. This is where all the chiefs came to sign a treaty with the English. Beautiful place on the point. We got to see the grounds, house, etc. (Another beautiful golf course--pictures to follow). We had dinner at the Thai Garden Cafe and I had the best soup I have ever had. It was soooo good. Thursday the 17th we traveled way east and north to Kaitaia (Kitia--long i's) and worked with about 5 people. The director is Grey Jamison and come to find out he grew up at Mahurangi Regional Park (pictures from before. Seems that one of the bays is called Jamison Bay and there is a Jamison road where the family holdings are. He had the 2nd largest cosmetic company in NZ and is retired and helping a daughter in the north but will return to live at the family estate. We thought it was one of the most beautiful places that we had seen. He and his wife Ngaire took us out to dinner at the famous Mangonui Fish House on the pier in Mangonui which is next to the cove where we stayed for the night at Cooper's Beach. This is all on Doubtful Bay where captain Cook explored in the early days. Very beautiful but very wet and gray while we were there. Our room overlooked the beach and we heard the surf all night. More pictures. Friday the 18th we drove back down to Maramaku (dirt roads) for a meeting with consultants and director at 11:00-3:30. The director is Merilene Horsford--head peds nurse in Whangarei. She had had no sleep for 3 days so we tried to hurry so that she could go to bed. This is the chapel out in the middle of a cow pasture with a little graveyard beside it. You go over cattle guards to get onto the church lot and then the church is beautiful with lush blue carpets in all the classrooms even. This is the home of the famous Going brothers (rugby) They were a delightful group and very knowledgeable about nFS. They wanted to know when we could come back. We are just filling in for the couple that has been released and helping Lelo's out with NZ areas that they can't cover. We will go to Invercargill probable in Sept. or October. We drove to Whangarei and went to the Quay area and looked and took more pictures. Had ice cream cones for dinner. (Ice cream here is really rich and sooo good). Then on to home in a driving rain storm that was very scary. We did get behind a huge bus so just followed him for miles and miles. Figured that if he fell down a gully we could stop in time and not follow suit. The roads up north are VERY windy (sp) but very lush landing if you fall off. In the dark with the torrents of rain here it would not be fun. I was very grateful to finally get back to our 'flat' at about 7p.m. We found out today that our young neighbors did sell their flat while we were gone and are moving immediately. A Russian family bought it and are leaving their 20 year old daughter here while they return to Russia to finish their move. The flat was listed for $559,000 for a two bedroom. It probably is a little larger than ours and has been updated with new kitchen cabinets and central heat. We will be sorry so see Jason and Ann leave. They had loaned us two heaters so we will have to buy new ones today to replace them. We are at the office checking on our email and travel arrangements for Samoa. I headed off to the restroom with my 'fob' (it was for the copier not the door!) out of the desk drawer. Couldn't get back into the main area and knocked and knocked for Woody to hear me and of course he ignored the sounds. Finally another employee showed up from downstairs and let me back in. (It's Saturday) I teach my first lesson to our class on Marriage and Family Relations tomorrow up in the Hibicus Ward. That way when we are gone the class can just go to the regular gospel doctrine class. We will be away for the next 2-3 weeks. We are invited to dinner at the 'ranger's house at Wenderholm Regional Park. They are in our ward and very nice. He is the ranger that we ran into at the other regional park a few weeks ago. Monday the Lelo's (he reminds us of Bill Cosby) are meeting us for dinner at Wildfire so we can exchange projectors before our trip to Samoa next week. We will leave on Wed. --get there on Tuesday--stay overnight in Samoa and fly out the next day for American Samoa. Stay there til the 25th and then fly to Samoa where we have a car and housing at the 'church compound' for the duration of our stay. We will be working at the FHC closest to the Temple before, during and after the roll out of New Family Search on the 29th of July. We stay longer to do training and fly out on the 3rd for Auckland which gets here the day after on Monday the 4th so we lose Sunday. The next day we get a devotional with the new Area Presidency which should be interesting. I think that they will all be here by then. We are getting lots of new people with the consolidation with Australia so things could change. We already will probable not be going to Tonga in August. Michael is thinking of sending Brother Howard (from Wellington) there again as he just got back and knows where to go etc because the area director is going to be away during that time. So he is planning on sending us early to Vanuatu, Kiribati, Niue, early. We will talk with him Monday on that. The gospel is true, we love the work and the people we meet and feel so blessed to be seeing as much of New Zealand as we are. This is really a unique experience that few missionaries get. We feel your love and support and prayers in our behalf. Keep them up. Things are going great. Keep us informed as to what is going on at home. We love to keep in touch with each of you. Pictures to follow===probably Monday if I get a minute.

Love, Andrea and Woody, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa.