Kiwis, Kangaroos and Kanoes: Webfoot Winter

It does seem strange to have darkness descend about 5PM now and the days are getting rainy and chilly. Winter is upon us as those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are swimming and mowing lawns! Although winter here is nothing like central Washington, it is still nice to curl up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate....at least that sounds nice, but has yet to happen! We have been very busy lately and our plans to take a short trip to see the sites on a sunny weekend were interrupted. So our pictures are local but even local is beautiful!

Well that is tour calling and we are loving all of it!

Last Saturday we took a drive out to the East and found this quiet little park with lovely views of....wait for it....Brown's Island!! Although it was very green! New Zealand is a bit like California. The hills green up in the winter when the rains come and look a little drier in the summer months, so we are enjoying all of the green!

It was overcast so the vibrant green does not show well in the pictures.

There are 33 islands around New Zealand and they are classified as islands as long as they have trees and grass on them, so the giant rocks in the harbors and along the shores with no vegetation do not count and there are probably 50 of those!

One of the things that occupies our time when we are not in the office is the Chinese Branch! Here is a picture of our Relief Society. They are delightful gals and it is a joy to serve with them!

The Branch President aasked us to be the parents of the YSA, so now when we are not teaching English in the evenings, we are working with these great young people. Many of them join the church in New Zealand and then travel back to China to teach the gospel to their families, so we try to prepare them the very best we can!

This picture of a picture are most of our Chinese speaking missionaries. We have two more sisters that are not in this picture, but they are in the Relief Society picture above. These young men and women love the Lord and are working long hours and having much success!

Sara- do you see your nephew Elder Sweeten on the front row!! He lives up to his name! We feed them often and give them and their investigators rides when needed!

Of course a blog is not complete without a photo of our stunning harbor! We took a walk at 6:30 PM one evening and got this shot and the one below from a park at the end of our street.