Kia-Ora from Elder & Sister Perron: Talofa! Malo e lelei! and Aloha!

(Elder Perron’s additions to the blog post are in blue print)

Kia Ora! (Maori;) Talofa! (Samoan); Malo e lelei (Tongan); Aloha! (Hawaiian); Hello! (English)

Sister Perron left out – Fijian: (Ni Sa Bula) and Niuean: (Faka A Lofa Atu)

We are happy! Serving a mission is awesome! We love being in New Zealand. We love the young single adults. We love their leaders. We love the Stake Presidencies. We love the other Senior Missionaries here. We love the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love being members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We see the happiness and joy it brings to individuals and families who put the Lord first in their lives. We love the fun that we have in the church. All the activities that are available for us to mingle, mix, associate with, serve and learn. We truly feel blessed. We know that we have a kind and loving Heavenly Father that loves all of us. We are thankful for Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and atonement. LIFE IS GOOD!

Truly we believe the words of the prophets: “Adam fell that man might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” We are OVER JOYED!

I will find out if Sister Perron loves her companion, she was not mentioned it in this post so far.

Tuesday, June 3^rd, Elder Perron and I celebrated yet another wonderful year of marriage. Eight big ones! Some of you are going to say, “That’s all!” Others will say, “It’s been that long!” We say both these things! Someday it feels like it’s been forever and other days it feels like it was just yesterday! Either way it’s been eight delightful years!

Others will say, “Who cares!” but we do!

We had a very interesting cooking class this week. We made a Tongan drink called , Otai. It is a fruit drink and very good! It is a favorite made usually during the summer and on big occasions. I enjoyed it. If you want to give it a try you can pull it up on the internet. We made ours with apples, which seems to be a favorite around here. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it. Darn…because it was interesting!

It is best if you drink it with a spoon.

Saturday we went to the temple in Hamilton with a young single adult named Holly. She took out her endowments for the first time. Holly is an amazing young lady. She has had challenges and trials in her life and they have only made her stronger. She has two beautiful young daughters. We love her and applaud her for the living her life the way she does, setting an excellent example for her family and peers. Woo hoo Holly!!

Sister Perron obviously wanted me to tell you about our trip to Cambridge following the Temple endowment session. The beautiful village of Cambridge most notable for its thoroughbred horse stables is blessed with trees, parks and array of specialty shops and cafés located 17 miles southeast of Hamilton on the banks of the Waikato River. I served in Cambridge 50 years ago. Back then the town was so anti-Mormon that the city officials were trying to pass an ordinance prohibiting the Mormons from building a chapel in the town. Those were the days when the church had what was known as building missionaries serving throughout the South Pacific so the church leaders erected a building in Cambridge virtually overnight. When I served in Cambridge we had the new building and only 17 members of the church. It was in Cambridge 50 years ago where I had an experience with an evil Spirit. The residence where Elder Sayers and I lived back then is gone. So much has changed but so much is the same! Sister Perron and I drove around the area, took a picture of THE church building, finally concluding our visit eating lunch at a sidewalk café.

Sunday we went to our usual three blocks of church meetings. It is great though. One of the wards was a Tongan ward where the sacrament meeting and Sunday school class was in Tongan. In another ward there was one of our favorite young single adults and institute student, Kasia. (Pronounced like Asia with a “K” in front of it). She is from the little town of Albion, Idaho. She didn’t think we would know where that was. Of course we do! She is over here studying at University of Auckland getting her doctorate. She is an amazing person! I will send a picture in the next couple of weeks. She actually left Sunday evening to fly back to the States. She became an “Auntie” for the first time and she was going home for two weeks! She was so excited! We kind of had an instant bond with her since she is from Idaho!!! Another ward we went to there was another Institute student, Katrina, a new convert as of January. She taught the YSA Sunday School class which was on the Old Testament. And Wow! She did a very good job! At the third block of meetings our Institute Director, who is also in the Stake Presidency of that particular stake, was visiting this ward and speaking! What a treat for us we thought… except then he called us up to bear our testimonies. Every meeting was great that day! Sunday evening we went to a YSA Devotionals put on by Mt. Roskill stake. The speakers were the New Zealand MTC President and his wife, President and Sister Tarawhiti (pronounced Tara-fee-tee). Talk about amazing! These people are older than us and were so full of energy. President Tarawhiti definitely hit it off with the young single adults. He was dynamic, fun and a to the point speaker. This is President and Sister Tarawhiti’s fifth mission. Previously they presided over the Papua New Guinea mission. If you want to look that up, it is a hard mission! They loved it! We were so glad we were there and got to listen to them speak!

Monday evening we missed the Senior Missionary Family Home Evening. Some young single adults had planned a FHE here at the Institute and we needed to stay and lock up. Our new area President, Elder Pearson and his wife were speaking at the Senior Missionary FHE and I really wanted to go. Elder Perron has been a real trooper this week because he has been fighting a cold. Kendra will be proud, I have been treating him with essential oils and I think he is getting better faster. He won’t admit it, but I think it has been helping! J I have felt sorry for him because I know he is exhausted but he just keeps pushing on. Today is only Wednesday and he is doing great today!

There is nothing but love and harmony in this companionship, therefore I am enduring the essential oil treatment; it matters not whether it works or DOES NOT work since life is all about being happy. Therefore you can take it to the bank - I am a HAPPY camper!

Good news! The Institute repair and remodel was finally finished on Friday. They have been doing final touch-ups the last two days with internet and such, but finally it is done!! The youth are loving their remodeled facility!! Where before it has been pretty quiet around here, it is really busy now! Pictures below of this astonishing event!

We have seen the youtube video of our Stake Presidency all the way over here promoting their youth conference! The young single adults put it up on the big screen TV here in New Zealand and watched it! Yeah, you are famous! J For those who don’t know what I’m talking about it was on Deseret News.com or youtube. If you want to watch our famous Stake Presidency from Idaho, go to Meridian North Stake Youth Conference 2014, on youtube and you will see a cute video! You guys rock!!

We have only been here three and a half months and Sister Perron talks like a young single adult already; without a doubt, a gift of tongues.

Well that’s it from us here in Kiwi land. We love you. Thank you for all your support.

Sister Perron forgot to mention our visit with Elder Pearson of the Area Presidency. We had some ideas that we thought worthy of discussing – related to the YSA and Institute – and Elder Pearson was gracious enough to meet with us. We spent an hour in his office. Sister Perron thought she had been translated but she was not. I know she was not translated because she is still chasing me around with oil!

Out e alofa ia te oe (We love you)

Elder and Sister Perron