When we have hope, we trust God’s promises. We have a quiet assurance that if we do “the works of righteousness,” we “shall receive our reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come”. Mormon taught that such hope comes only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ: “What is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise” (Moroni 7:41).

Monday we made pumpkin soup for our dinner with Sister Pratt and then held a FHE. We had a good discussion on hope and read a few more chapters in the Book of Mormon with her.  
Lisa made a pan of lemon bars to take to our district council meeting.

Tuesday we traveled to Whangarei for our district council meeting. 
It is always a great opportunity to see the younger missionaries in action and to feel of their spirits. It is amazing what these "teenagers" can do!  They conduct and present the whole meeting, and we are really there just for moral support and to find out how the work is progressing throughout the district.
After the meeting we had to find a "Spark" phone store to have our phone looked at. It had stopped working, after only using it for 6 weeks. The service man fixed the problem and we were on our way back to Wellsford. We arrived in Wellsford about 5 PM to find a truck had hit a power pole on the main road through town and had knocked out the power for all of Wellsford.
We got home to a cold and dark house ...so we headed 1/2 hour south to the town of Matakana, where we splurged and went to a movie.

On Wednesday Lisa made sugar cookies to take on our visits on the way to Dargaville.  We stopped by the home of  Petra and Jarn Bracken in Maungaturoto. Petra was home with the baby, and the other 6 children were at school. We visited for about 10 minutes and then Jarn arrived home for lunch.  Jarn works on a dairy and is just starting calving season. He is extremely busy right now with over 400 calves to be born. We visited with the 2 of them, left them cookies and then headed on down the road. 

We had a 1:00 appointment in Dargaville with the Haki and Ellen Wihongi family, but decided to stop  on the way and see how Sister Rusden was doing since she had been sick. She was out washing windows and was glad we stopped by to check on her.  This put us about 1/2 late for our appointment with the Wihongi's, but as we were pulling up to their home they were just arriving home too. They had forgotten that we were coming. He is a Warden for the Maori people and is a liaison with the New Zealand Police department. They are currently raising their 9 year old great grandson, who  is taking the missionary discussions from the Elders and will be baptized soon. 

We left the Wihongi's and tried visiting a few more families on Logan street.  One house we knocked at, and heard a voice yelling from inside the house telling us to "go away!" We knocked again and received the same response 2 more times. I went out to the street to check the address on the mailbox and found we were knocking on the wrong house!?

We continued down the street and around the corner, but did not have any luck finding anyone home. 

Our next appointment wasn't until 5:00, so we took a drive up the road to a lookout at the Dargaville Museum and took a few pictures of the river and of a couple of small old churches.

We met up with Rueben Gilligan and Joseph Douglas for dinner and then made the long drive back to Wellsford.

Thursday was knitting group for Lisa and our Community Choir practice. Lisa wasn't feeling well so we left the practice after about 1/2 hour.

Friday was Lisa's sewing group and I went and met up with the Elders. We put together a couple of bags of canned food and delivered them to a needy family in the branch. On the way we passed the rail yard where logs were being loaded up on trains to head to the port. Lumber is the 3rd largest export for New Zealand, following behind dairy and meat exports.

Friday was the 4th of July!
You can see in the video below how we celebrated it...no fireworks or BBQ

On Sunday we attended the Sacrament meeting in Wellsford and then drove to Dargaville to participate in the baptismal service for Jessica Simmonds.

Following the Baptism, we had a shared meal with those in attendance. We had several people who were not members of the Church who attended the baptism. The Branch President  (President Lisiate) pulled me aside excitedly showing me a text he was sending to the Stake President. The text had the numbers of those attending the Sunday Services for the past 6 weeks in Dargaville.  The number of people had increased each week.  It is so exciting being a part of the Lord's work in New Zealand, and inviting others to come unto Christ. 

After the shared meal we went to the home of Jackie Grbavac. We were told to be prepared to possibly be rejected by her. We knocked on the door and she and her blind poodle answered the door and immediately invited us in. Jackie shared many miracles that have happened in her life, and told us that she has been studying the Bible every day for several years. We left a message with her and we are looking forward to returning and teaching her more about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

This is a beautiful country with beautiful people, we are so happy to be here!
Each week is a new adventure!