Zone Conference

Zone Conference
June 13, 2012
Porirua Ward Building

We had the privilege of attending Zone Conference this past week.  It is always fun and very spiritual to be around these amazing young Elders and Sisters and also around the other Senior Couples.

President and Sister Kezerian are very inspiring.  Sister Kezerian recently was informed by a doctor in New Zealand that she needed to have shoulder surgery. Instead of having the surgery in New Zealand she decided to have her brother  (who is a surgeon at UC Davis) perform the surgery.  Therefore,  she had the opportunity of  returning to the United States and seeing her children and grandchildren before having the surgery.  She returned to New Zealand last Saturday.  She and President Kezerian have five girls who are all married.

It is always sad when the time comes for some of the Elders and Sisters to return home.  In three weeks the mission will lose Elder Finlinson,  Elder Van den Hoogen, and Sister Fetu'u.  Elder Finlinson is an Assistant to the President and he attends our ward and he will be greatly missed.

June 13, 2012

U.S. Marine Forces Pacific Band

 On June 12, 1942 the U.S. Marines entered Auckland and on June 14, 1942 they landed at Wellington in support of the New Zealanders against the forces of Japan.  In remembrance of that event the Old St. Paul's Cathedral sponsored the U.S. Marine Forces Pacific Band to do a performance at the church.

 In this picture the marines are singing "There is Nothing Like a Dame"

The performance lasted about an hour and a half and the members were very energetic and very talented.  They had two conductors and they were amazing to watch their motions while leading the orchestra.

June 13, 2012

New Car Park

 The car park (parking lot) at church is too small to accommodate all the people for church on Sundays.  It is also a Stake Center so they now have to bus people in from the outlying areas to attend conference.  To solve this problem the church bought the house next door to the church and they are in the process of moving it.

 They cut the house into four individual sections.  There are two sections on the top and two sections on the bottom.

 Tuesday night when we took the missionaries out to church they had already loaded the two top sections for moving.  When we looked inside the house it was like looking into a large playhouse.

They moved them around midnight so that the traffic would be light.  Don and I discussed that this is probably the most expensive car park the church has ever built.  The car park will take about 6 weeks to finish so parking is very limited.

June 12, 2012

Alison's Pictures

Alison has only been painting professionally for one and half years.  She had her work shown at an art gallery in Lindale on Friday night so we went to support her.  Her art work is amazing and she is very talented.  She attends our institute class and also attends Family Home Evening.

She was also supported by Kree, Jasmine, Crystal and Ephraim.



June 1, 2012

Jarom and Katie

 We will be saying goodbye to a great couple Jarom and Katie.  He is our ward mission leader and she is the Young Women's President.  They have lived in Wellington for a couple of years and will be returning to the United States in about a week.  He has worked for WETA and was a production manager for the film The Avengers.  His contract for WETA will expire this week.

 Jarom is 6' 8" and so Don had to stand on a chair to be his height.

The ward will be having a farewell party for them this Saturday and then they leave the following Tuesday.  Because they can't take any cars or household items with them they have been frantically selling all of their possessions.  We wish them the best in their new adventures.

May 27, 2012

Lake Rotomanu

 The officials of New Plymouth wanted to build a bridge that would frame Mount Taranaki.  They say that on a clear day that if you stand at the end of the bridge that the mountain is centered right in front of you.  However it was so overcast that when we stood on the bridge we couldn't even see the mountain.  It is a strange looking bridge and probably was very expensive to build.

May 26, 2012

Tasman Sea Coast

View overlooking the Tasman Sea

May 26, 2012