Blessed are thy Creations dear Lord

We do have a very diverse neighbourhood here in Papatoetoe where we live. This we found one day while traveling around the neighbourhood. It is a Hindu Temple. Very beautiful and interesting. Many of the people here in Papatoetoe are Indians from Fiji.

This week we had our first Zone Conference in Whangarei. Since it was on Friday and Saturday was our preparation day, some of the Senior Missionary couples decided to see some fun things in the Northland of New Zealand. This is us at the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves. Elder and Sister Ashby, Elder and Sister Woodard and us.

We have just enjoyed the beautiful glow worms. The actually glow a greenish blue. Glow worms are actually fly larvae. They live as a worm for about a year. The glow worms are very interesting. They are about the size of a match stick and one end glows. They adhere themselves to the top of the dark caves and produce what is like a fishing line hanging down as much as about half a meter. They attract flying insects by their light and the insects get caught up in their lines and are instantly paralized by the chemical makeup of the line. This line is also very poisonous to humans and if swallowed it would cause instant death. So we were sure to keep our mouths shut while we went through the caves. We were not able to get any pictures inside the cave since it is very dark and flash photography will cause the glow worms not to glow. Once the larvae goes through his whole cycle it becomes a fly that only lives for 3 days.

This is our glow worm cave guide and his wife. We found out he was a Maori and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had a very informative time with him and we feel blessed to have met him.

We spent the night in Paihia and when we went to breakfast the next morning we were blessed to see this beautiful sunrise over the Bay of Islands.

Of course we had to get in the picture.

The highlight is always the Hole in the Rock. We didn’t go through it at this time since the ocean was a little rough.

We had a good time together and met some wonderful people from India who had been vacationing in New Zealand for 25 days. The father was a software engineer and his wife a doctor. They had two lovely teenage children, a boy and girl who were very friendly.

Bartletts and Ashby’s with our tour boat in the background getting off at Russell to spend a little time in this quaint little whaling town.

Of course we couldn’t do our blog without putting in one of the beautiful flowers that blooms in the winter.

All good things must come to an end and this is no exception. We had a wonderful time with these other Senior Missionaries and enjoying the beautiful earth that Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ created for us. Please take the time to thank Him for our earth and all he has put here for us. Also share with others what you have and the joy that you feel. We love you all and will say goodby until next time.

Love Elder and Sister Bartlett.

Did you all miss this?

So many things have happened since we last wrote. The Elders in our Otahuhu Ward had a baptism of a lady from Fiji. She comes every Sunday and brings her grandson who is not a member. She is quite something and has had visions which has led her to the gospel.

After the baptism we had a meal with some of our favourite things. The above is kind of a banana and chia seed warm pudding. Rolls with coconut cream on the bottom. Also these round things are what they call pancakes but look more like donut holes.

We also had our son Jarom and his girlfriend Tatelyn come to visit us for a few days. We visited some of our favourite places like Hobbiton.

We also visited Rotorua and went this time to the Tamaki Maori village which was a slightly different experience than the last two we visited. We did have a hangi dinner and show just like the others.

They also fed us a great Hangi (Meal cooked underground in Maori style). Great chicken, pork, kumara, potatoes, mussels, etc. For dessert they served pavlova and steamed pudding.

We also visited some of our favourite sites like Cathedral Cove.

What do you do at a beach? Why, build a sand castle of course. What do you find there? Why, a mermaid of course. Jarom and Tatelyn did play in the water a bit.

This is a panoramic shot from the trail to Cathedral Cove. It was so beautiful and the weather was gorgeous.

Also along the trail to Cathedral Cove we found these very unusual mushrooms. Yes this is natural not painted. We just love the vegetation especially the flowers.

All of these flowers were around the little motel we stayed in by Cathedral Cove.

We also saw this clever sign at one of the cafes we ate at. They do like their Lord of the Rings here.

We had a little fun with photography at Hunua falls on our way back to Auckland. We love the illusion this gives. We were a little thirsty.

Jarom and Tatelyn at Hunua Falls.

We took the opportunity on Sunday to visit Cornwall park and One Tree Hill and took this photo from a tree branch there.

Tatelyn and Jarom at Karekare Falls on the West side of New Zealand near Auckland.

There were heaps of these little curly shells on Karekare beach and we even found this little dead crab. The birds were also very friendly and Tatelyn was able to get them to eat out of her hand.

We also visited Piha beach on the west side of New Zealand not to far from Karekare beach. This is a black sands beach similar to Karekare beach. Again there were heaps of these curly shells so Tatelyn made some shell art.

We also did some shopping at the Otahuhu shops and Tatelyn liked this headpiece which is often worn by the Polynesian Sisters here in New Zealand.

We also visited Hells Pizza. Yes they have the pizzas named after the seven deadly sins. Pretty good pizza, and yes those are pickles on that pizza. They also put mangos on a pizza. As is always the case, all good things come to an end. Jarom and Tatelyn had to leave us. We are alone once more and just in time for the next transfer.

Going home this transfer were (from top left) Elder Hou to Taiwan, Sister Tramacchi to Australia, Elder Salesa and Elder Tavina to Samoa, Sister Gorrela to India, Sister Pi to Taiwan, and Sister Graf to Germany.  We all gave Elder Hou a big group hug because we will miss him so much.

We were also able to send Sister Wilson off to her Mission to the Phillipines. She has been working in our Mission waiting for her Visa.

We had a talent show at the Ward and of course the children and the Young Adults stole the show.

At times we have to wait for Missionaries and in some cases we catch a beautiful sunset on the ocean like this one.

We had a fun time at Family Home Evening with the Senior Missionaries. Elder and Sister Kopp are from Switzerland and they gave us a great view of their country. We also had some traditional meats and cheeses from Switzerland. To top it off we also sampled some Swiss Chocolates and other desserts. Yumm!

We will finish this post with the service project that the Otahuhu Ward participated in on Saturday. We worked in downtown Otahuhu on the Otahuhu Beautification along with other volunteers from the city. Elder Walters and Elder Imms our Missionaries had a great time planting new plants and many Ward members participated. We love our service even though Elder Bartlett has changed about 20 tires during the last transfer and fixed about that many other bikes. Sister Bartlett continues to help Missionaries mend bodies. At least we have had no injuries from bike crashes during this last transfer. We continue to pray for our missionaries. We love you all and miss you dearly. Love Elder and Sister Bartlett.