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.