Cute children, stolen bikes, and fires!

When you let a little girl play with your iPad you often get selfies you were not expecting. This is the daughter of an investigator. She hasn't felt comfortable going to Primary and so this is during our Gospel Principles class. We couldn't resist putting this on the blog.

This is our team of Ward Missionaries and Full time Missionaries at our Missionary Correlation Meeting. We now have 2 Elders and 3 Sisters in our Ward, along with the Ward Missionaries and the new Ward Mission Leader and his Wife. The full time Missionaries also cover two other Wards besides ours.

This is a new Senior Missionary Couple, the Downs, who are now serving in the New Zealand Auckland Mission. Our childhood friend Danzelle Lewis Allen was good friends with them back home in Utah. They are serving in the Church Education System and teaching Institute. This was at our Come and See fireside which is where missionaries can bring their investigators to hear music and testimony. Danzelle and her husband are serving in Greece.

We had to say goodbye to most of the beautiful trees that lined the golf course behind our flat. Evidently this golf course merged with another adjacent golf course and they are redesigning the one in back of us, which means they are cutting down trees. So now we have a logging camp behind us. This day was so unusual since we had this sunny day with a few clouds and in just a few minutes it all changed and we had this

cloudy day and rain. Then in a couple more minutes it was sun shine again. That is how fast the weather changes here.

Last Tuesday we received a phone call from two Sisters who said the had their bikes stolen the previous Thursday. We immediately called the police and reported the bikes stolen. We decide to go see where the bikes were stolen to see if we could spot them. We also decided to check

the local pawn shops but didn't find anything. We had to go to the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions so we left the area. When we were done with picking up the prescriptions, we decided to go back and check again. As we drove past the home where the bikes were stolen we noticed that two doors down there were two boys on bikes that looked like the Sisters bikes. We stopped at the home and the two boys rode away. We knocked on the door and talked to one of the boys mothers. She said she would get the bikes back for us. We drove around again looking for the boys and when

we returned the mother waved us over. The two boys were there with the mother and the father. They gave the bikes back and agreed to listen to the Missionaries message.

On Wednesday, we received a call from the Pokekohe police and they said they had an Elder's bike that was stolen about 4 months ago in Mangere. Pokekohe is about 30 kilometres from

Mangere so that was a little surprising. We took about 30 minutes to get down there. While we were there we needed lunch so we found a Turkish restaurant and this was our food. Sister Bartlett had something chicken and Elder Bartlett had shrimp. Very interesting, and the person serving us was from India.

Friday night we had a Missionary game night. Members and Missionaries could invite investigators and less active members to play games with the Ward Members. This is our Bishop in the middle in the apple eating contest.

The hit of the night was a human Hungry Hungry Hippos. One team member laid on a skateboard with a strap tied around their waist and a bucket

in their hand. The team members would push the person on the skateboard out to the center of the hall where there were balls. They had to grab as many balls as they could with the bucket and the team pulled them back to their corner with the strap. We also did Face the Cookie and the M&M game. Great fun was had by all.

We woke up Saturday morning to a panicked phone call from a Zone Leader who said there was a fire and some Sisters were at the Middlemore Hospital Emergency room. So we rushed over there to find four Sisters and their Zone Leaders. Sisters Graf, Fuimaono, Fehoko, and Tanuvasa. Elders Stringer and Del Rosario. These Sisters were being checked out to make sure there were no after effects of them inhaling smoke. Sister Graf had soot all over her face from the smoke but she

was OK and no other problems. We took them all back to our flat and fed them waffles. Food can cure many ills.

When we went back to the Sisters flat we saw what had happened. Since they don't have central heat here all of the Missionaries have to use space heaters. One of their blankets somehow came into contact with the space heater and started to burn. You can see below the damage done to the mattress and box springs. Luckily no one was injured in the fire and it was put out immediately by one of the Sisters. This is a picture of the mattress and box springs and the heater, and the small bundle at the feet of the Sisters is what is left of the blanket. Sister Graf and Sister Fuimaono are posing by the damage.

We know that the Lord is looking out for these Missionaries. There are so many things that can

go wrong. We pray for their safety and health, and for their bikes. We have joy in this service and hope you all have joy in reading this blog. Love Elder and Sister Bartlett.

Called to Serve!

It has been a hectic couple of weeks and that is why this blog is slow in coming! We had to prepare for Missionary transfers, outgoing missionaries, and incoming Missionaries. We had to catch several meals at some of the local takeaway shops like this one that was English Roast run by oriental people. It was pretty good and close to the doctor's office where we spend a lot of time.

We also had to transport a lot of bikes to the Mission Home for the incoming Missionaries so our car often has bicycles on the back. We always have our bike rack on and ready for any occasion as this picture shows during one of our trips to the Mission Home.

This was a nice meal we had after one of our morning meetings. We made a short trip to Devonport where it was suggested we eat at Manuka. Steak and Salmon, yum. This was not Takeaway (fast food).

When we had a few minutes between delivering bikes and meetings, we drove up to Mount Victoria to get a good panoramic view. Mount here is usually an extinct volcano several hundred feet above sea level. The island we are looking at is Rangatoto, which is a wildlife reserve in the Auckland bay.

This is Mount Victoria from the road below so it is not very high and is located in Devonport. There is an old military fort that is dug down into the top of the mount and it has a very large gun in it.

We had 10 Missionaries die (go home). Among these were Sister Cacho from the Philippines. We are sad to see them go because we are just getting to know some of them.

Sister Dinglas and Elder Ponse are also some Missionaries that we were able to take to the airport for their flight home to the Philippines. Their flight left at 11:55 pm so we were at the airport rather late. Many times the members from the Wards and Stakes they serve in come to see them off at the airport.

They do get close to some families and it is bitter sweet when they leave. They are excited to see their families back home but sad to leave the people they love here on their Mission. A new chapter in their lives is about to begin. They will be a great asset to the world and to the Church wherever they go. Good luck to all of them. We love them and will miss them.

We also have some wonderful Senior Missionaries who are completing their Missions. The Freemans will be leaving us next week. We are able to have family home evenings once a month with some of the Senior Missionaries serving in the New Zealand Auckland Mission so it is sad when they finish and go home. We will miss them also and need more like them to come serve.

They are sorely needed here and have many wonderful miracles they told us, about families they have helped back into the activity. You couples please consider coming here to serve among these wonderful people and see these miracles happen.

Next it was on to new Missionaries. We were originally supposed to have about 21 new Missionaries come into the Mission this transfer but because of VISA and other delays, we only had about 14 new Missionaries. It was quite hectic to get all of their bikes ready and we have been working long hours trying to get ready, along with taking care of other bike and health problems.

Because of the hectic schedule we didn't get any pictures of the new Missionaries. We had about 5 countries represented by the group, including 2 from Brazil. While the new Missionaries were having lunch, we went to get some lunch also. We ended up in the parking garage of a mall and this was interesting. They just incorporated the natural rock as part of the underground parking garage.

We took a few minutes while delivering and picking up bicycles and going to doctors appointments to visit Achilles Point and found these three statutes. We just couldn't resist taking a picture. It was a beautiful overlook of Ladies Bay.

This is another picture from Achilles Point looking at Browns Island. It was a little windy as you can tell from Sister Bartlett's hair.

We also wanted to get a view from Mount Wellington a few minutes from Achilles Point so we drove up there just before sundown. This is a picture from there out to the ocean where you can see Rangatoto Island in the distance. This is also an extinct volcano.

In this picture you can see the crater on Mount Wellington with the city below in the background. This is the first one we have seen where the crater is very visible. There are some people down in the bottom that are hard to see.

To top off the week we were able to go with the Ward to the Temple on Saturday. The bus left our Ward building at 5:30 am and had about 44 people on board for the Temple including about 22 young men and women. This is them after they were through at the Temple in the Visitors Center.

We also visited the new Library/Church History Museum for the Pacific area. The first outside of the United States. It was fun to see the youth doing dress up.

It was also fun to see Priests playing with blocks and building their own Temples with them and taking pictures of what they built. They even had tiny Angel Moroni's to put on the top of the Temples.

This one hit home for Elder Bartlett. You peddled the bicycle and the film on the screen showed you cycling around different missions. There was one that even showed Mangere Bridge where we have been on the same street. At least Elder Bartlett didn't have to fix this bicycle.

This is a picture on the bus getting ready for the ride home. At this point the youth have been spiritually fed and physically fed and full of sugar and are very excited. For us old folk they actually kept it kind of quiet for the ride home. The people at the Visitors Center and the Library were surprised that there were so many youth from just one Ward. What a great opportunity Elder Bartlett had to help them do Baptisms and Confirmations in the Temple. When our cups get kind of empty it is great that the Lord provides these opportunities to fill them up spiritually. We love being here and serving with the Missionaries and with the Otahuhu Ward. Our life has been blessed greatly. We love our Mission and each of you. Love Elder and Sister Bartlett.