Birthday Time and Learning our Duties

Sometimes the challenge is getting our days and nights synchronized with the rest of the world.  We are 19 hours ahead of Mountain Daylight time.  So last Monday morning here it was the 6th of October, our grandson James' birthday.  But in Canada where he lives, it was still Oct 5.  We had to wait till Tuesday morning to call him to wish him "Happy Birthday".   We called him Tuesday at 7:30 AM here which was Monday 12:30 PM there.  He made sure to tell us how old he was.

They waited till evening to open his presents.  Below he models the cape he asked Grandma to make for his birthday when in Utah this past summer.  Can you tell what he thought of it?

His Mother and Father created this special cake for him.

Wednesday, October 8th, we stayed up late to see the lunar eclipse.  It was suppose to be a clear night. However, we are in the "land of the long white cloud".  There were many clouds, but they were very fast moving.  We just had to wait for an opening in the clouds.  Here are the series of eclipse photos.  Not too bad for a couple of cell phones and a point-and-shoot camera.  We thought they turned out okay. This first photo was about 10:50 PM.

This is what we saw about 11:15 PM.  It was pretty cool.

Thursday Gary felt prompted to get to work early.  When he got there, he received an email about heavy rains and flooding on the island of Vanuatu.  Prior to Wednesday they we experiencing a drought.  Many homes were damaged, families were homeless and one man died trying to save his livestock.

Friday morning another communication came regarding flooding on the island of Kiribati.  Gary spent a lot of time on the phone both days.  It appears that we may be visiting these islands sooner than we thought.  Local Church leaders have used fast offering funds to help those in need.

We are getting organized and learning how to use some of the new computer programs.  If we don't know how to do something - we google it. 

You want what?

Side by side desks

Friday night we went for a walk along Takapuna Bay for our date night.  It was a bit brisk, but quite an enjoyable walk. New Zealand is a beautiful country and we are truly enjoying our time here.  Our children call this "our mission-cation".

The beginning of our walk 

Kite surfing - he was really moving

Seashells for the grandkids

Yes!  I am cold!

Interesting rock formations

The end of the beach 

The island in the background is Rangitoto - a volcano

Sunset at the end of our walk

Saturday we went to the Stake Center to listen to General Conference - one week later than Salt Lake. Saturday night Gary went to the Priesthood session while Susan went with some of the sister missionaries to the flat of the mission doctor and his wife for an ice cream social.

Sisters Brown, Winters Cotterell, Balli, Reeves, and Broberg
Sister Perron was taking the picture 

Sisters Perron, Broberg, and Winters
Sisters Brown, Cotterell, Balli, and Reeves

The Brown's flat (apartment) was something else!  It is located in Devonport which is on the north shore of Auckland.  This was the view when we first got there.

As we visited it only got better.  This was not the sunset last night, but one just as good.

As we left this was the view.

Sister Brown has a great camera and was kind enough to share her pictures with us as the pictures we were taking with our cell phones did not do the view justice.

Sunday we were back at the Stake Center for the last two sessions of conference.   We have enjoyed viewing the conference and listening to it via the internet.  It is hard to imagine what people went though to get conference before the convenience of modern technology.  We close our post for this week with a quote from Elder Ballard "Stay in the Boat and Hold On!"