Family Home Evening

Tonight was FHE and Mikey did a great job with the lesson.  He first gave everyone 3 lollies and then they had to go around and ask questions about the other people.  If they answered with a yes, no or a nod of the head they would lose their lolly (candy).  Then he gave a lesson on how it felt when you got a lolly or lost one.  He correlated it with friendship and how it feels when you are a friend or lose a friend.  We then play a game at the end.  We put chairs around in a circle and then the person in the middle would say something they had never done but if you had done it you had to find another chair and if you didn't you were in the middle.  Don got a little carried away so I don't know if we will be invited again or not.

Kim (who goes by Cree) works for an oral surgeon.  She wasn't busy on Monday so she made some glasses out of dental material.  As you can see she wore them to FHE.

Lupe's Farewell

On Thursday, September 22 Lupe (who worked with us at the archives and lives in West Valley, Utah) left to go home.  She is going to Auckland for a few weeks to visit her sister.  She originally came from Tonga.  She is a very sweet sister and we will miss her at the archives.  Roy and Lorraine Ditchburn brought her to the bus station which is in with the train station and we went early to work to say goodbye to her.  The bus and train station at just across the street from where we work.  We only knew her for 2 weeks but she became a big part of our lives.

A Day at the Archives

 Don and I have to have badges to get anywhere in the Archives Building.  We have to have them to ride the elevator, eat lunch or even to go to the bathroom.  It is a very secure building.

 Sister Van Cleave (the sister missionary who just left decided that the room was a little drab since it use to be a shower room.  The room also can't have any windows because light will affect the cameras so she decided to paint an outdoor scene with a kiwi and also a large kiwi.  This kiwi looks after us all day.

 The documents that we are working with are from the early 1900's and so they have been tied up or put in envelopes for about 100 years.  When we take them out they are very fragile and very bent.  In order for the camera to digitize them they have to be flat so we have to prepare the documents.

 We untie them or remove them from the envelopes and lay them out on blotter paper.  They have to be in a certain order when we lay them out.  We start with the will, affidavits, motions, miscellaneous documents and end with the probate.

 This is a picture of one of the large wills.  Some are small and some are very large and very ornate.

 After they are laid out they are stacked together with a little pink slip in the corner indicating the reference number of the person and their name.  This is important when we put them back in their envelopes and refile them.

 The documents are then placed on shelves and boards are put on top of them to weigh them down.  They have to stay on the shelves for about a week or two to help flatten them out. The pink slips on the boards tell us which box they came out of and the camera operator needs this information to help them film them.

 Here is Don busy at the camera.  When he places the document where it is suppose to be he then lowers the glass and pushes a button and the picture comes up on the screen and he can then see the picture.  If it is OK he leaves it but if it is not OK he can adjust the paper and retake the picture.

 These are the boxes that are empty because all the documents are under the boards being flatten are they are being filmed.

 This is our tea room where we eat lunch every day.  It has a very nice view of the ocean and the ferry (which takes cars and people to the South Island) and we will have a very nice view of the cruise ships when they come in the summer (which is winter in the United States).

Sister and McVey and Fiona (who works for the archives) are getting boxes for us to film.  Those boxes are a very small portion on the boxes we have to film

A Day at the Archives

Ward Conference

Today was our ward conference.  The theme for the stake is "Trying to be like Jesus" and the ward goal is friendshipping everyone.  They are a very friendly ward.  The Bishop spoke and then 2 members were ask to bear their testimonies.  After that the Stake Relief Society President and the two counselors to the Stake President spoke.  The talks were outstanding.  In this ward we always stand for the rest hymns.  It is a nice idea because it wakes you up.

Also in priesthood the counselor in the Stake Presidency ask Don to bear his testimony.  The speaker was left on in the Relief Society room so all of us got to hear part of his testimony.

Whenever they have ward conference they do a munch and mingle afterwards.  They know how to throw a munch and mingle. There was so much food and it was all very delicious.

Also in Relief Society they gave us a new book put out by the church called "Daughters in My Kingdom."  It is about Relief Society and I think that every sister should get one.

This morning we got to Skype Heather and Ethan.  I think James wondered why his grandpa and grandma were on the computer.  It was fun talking to them and especially being able to see them.

Don drove to church today and he is doing an exceptional job.  I would be freaking out if I was driving.  To get to church you have to go through a long tunnel which is very narrow.  Don has to stay towards the middle so he doesn't remove a side mirror.  Elder Brazzeal said it costs about $2,000.00 to replace a mirror.

Nghi Nguyen Quang's baptism

Later we went to a baptism for Nghi Nguyen Quang.  He is from Vietnam and is in his early twenties.  He is studying accounting at the University.  They said there have been 15 baptisms in this ward this year.  This is the second baptism since we came three weeks ago.

At night we watched another rugby game.  It was between New Zealand and France.  New Zealand won.  When New Zealand plays they do this dance at the beginning.  It is like a Maori dance.  It looks like a fearsome war dance with the tongue hanging out.  It is fun to watch.  We also watched the game between USA and Australia.  USA lost 67 to 5.  It was very sad.

Because it is considered spring here we set our clocks forward (spring forward) for daylight savings time.  Daylight Savings Time starts tomorrow.

Don drove around today and did a great job.  We got lost a couple of times but the important thing is we made it back home.

September 24, 2011

Driving Lesson

Today we went out to Porirua to Elder and Sister Brazzeals to pick up our car.  It is a silver Toyota which is smaller than a Toyota in the states.  They sent us a car a week ago but it was larger and the streets in Wellington are so narrow and crowded that they exchanged it for a smaller one.

Elder McVey and Elder Brazzeal took Don driving and then we had lunch there.  The round abouts and driving on the other side were a little tricky for Don.  The car was a mess because of the young elders but Elder Brazzeal cleaned and waxed it before we got there.

September 24, 2011