A little out of place

I forgot to get the photos of our visit to the Kauri Museum in Northern New Zealand placed on the blog before our visit to Samoa.  So I am trying to insert them ahead of Samoa and you'll have to scroll through to see them...Sorry. If it doesn't insert properly, they will just go here:

Day 3 (We think !!) in Samoa

We begin to loose track of days of the week or which day we visited which Family History Center, etc. It probably is old age or just the fact we crossed the International Date Line and had two Sundays this week !! Anyway, here are some more pictures and stories from the Island of Samoa.


This was the hotel we stayed in on Day 3, on Savaii, Samoa.  It is quite different than the ones we stayed in on Upolu.  For example, when I went to shower the morning of Day 4, there was no hot water and only a small trickle of water. Needless to say, I was soon wide awake for the day !!

The other part of our room at this hotel. And the TV actually got 1 channel (though very snowy !)

This is the outside of the motel.

Another shot of the outside with Sister Kite. It really looks much better than it was in reality.

Behind Sister Kite is the Pool.  However, since no one was staying there we could have had it all to ourselves.  Just didn't have time to try it out.

I tried to photo some of the tropical fish that were swimming near the shore by the motel. I only caught a couple on the snapshot that wasn't blurry.  Adam can probably tell you about each of these fish.

Notice how tight we had to park our van on the ferry going back to Upolu Island from Savaii Island.

I tried to catch the sunset but I was just a little late getting to the camera to get the best light.  Darn!!

This shows a fisherman casting his net and the white building in the background is the Stake Center we were visiting next.

On Friday, the 15th of October, we had finished all our work on Samoa so Brother and Sister Ah_Hoy took us to visit the President David O. McKay memorial. This is the place that Elder McKay

This is the educational complex at the David O. Mckay site.

A photo of Brother and Sister Ah_Hoy, who we grew to love dearly.  What good people.  Brother Ah_Hoy took several days off work without pay to chauffer us around.  They were both ailing from the flu as well but that didn't slow them down.

Again, the Ah_Hoys.  They have a calling to be the Family History Advisors for Samoa.  They oversee all the Stake Family History Directors who,in turn work with the Family History Consultants from each Ward.

A carving of Elder McKay, who was an Apostle at the time.

These carvings on each pedistal depict a special story of the life of the early Samoa people.

This shot is of the beautiful waterfall at the McKay site.  See below for better view (actually this view is better that the waterfall (or I will be in hot water from Sister Kite!)).

Another Boring Day at the Office !!

Above is the room we were in the 2nd, 4th and 5th night in the city of Apia, Samoa.

 We caught a rainbow as we were going downstairs to eat at this hotel.  It was only a little sprinkle, however, and not the rain the people really needed.  Bro and Sister Ah Hoy were saying the rain wouldn't come until the people in the area repented and turned to the Lord.  Maybe that's true !! The little huts were actually rooms or honeymoon Fale's that folks could stay in (for a little more Tala (their money)).

This is a shot out front of the hotel, opposite side of the shot with the rainbow.

 Here is President Higgins again with Sister Kite as we were taking the ferry to the bigger Island of Savaii, after leaving Upolu the second morning.

Again, a typical home (Fale')

This is out back of one of the Stake Centers.  The area between the ocean and basketball standard is a font (see next few shots).

 Here is Sister Kite, Pres Higgins and Brother Ah Hoy exploring the baptismal font.

 Here's what we found in the font.  How would you like to get baptized in this font, Braker?

Yes, this was an eel.  He keeps the font clean and we're told this type of eel is harmless and won't bother anyone. Just the same, I like our Stake fonts in Utah a bit better.

 We took this shot especially for Shanna (Adam's wife) as she loves pigs and wants one for a Pet.  These would be running all over the place by the Samoan's homes along with many dogs.

Finally an update from the Kite's !!

We are sorry that we haven't been good about posting on our blog, but we just today received our modem so we can have internet.  WE REPENT !!  Actually we just returned from visiting some 17 Family History Centers on the Islands of Samoa.  What a great experience. The people there are sooo wonderful and faithful under very dire circumstances.  We would meet with Stake Presidents, Counselors, High Counselors, and Family History Directors and Consultants (not each Stake had all of these in attendence but usually several from this group attended our training).  We would also inventory computers and see how they were using them and what we could try to do to improve the work there.  It is a beautiful place as you can see from the photos (We hope !!). 
All the Stakes we visited were very thankful for our visit and several served us a treat and even a few meals along the way.  What great people.  They have strong testimonies and it is interesting to see that the Church functions similar to our own Stake in many ways, despite how meager their livings are.
Hopefully, we can get the pictures we took to show up and we'll try to explain them on this blog by the photo. If not, we'll appreciate help from Haley, Adam or others to help us figure out how best the post photos with the words close by. So here goes:

Here is the 1st hotel room we stayed in.  It was very nice and even had a TUB !! So Sister Kite was happy.  It was right by the ocean so I went out early the next morning to take a few shots of the Sunrise and see if I could see some fish.  I wish Adam could have been there so he could tell me the names of the little colorful fish....

Sister Kite really liked this hotel with the Pool right by the Beach.  Wish we would have had time to enjoy it, but we only stayed overnight from the airport and were picked up by Brother and Sister Ah Hoy (pictures of them coming up) the next morning at 9:00.

Here is the main area of the hotel where we had breakfast before starting the day.

Here is Siste Kite getting ready for our breakfast buffet.

This is a little hard to see but is a typical view of the homes and most had a little bowery-type Fale' (home-shelter) where they would hold family/villiage counsels.

This is a typical store. They would be varied and all along the way as the main road goes around the perimeter of the Island.  This Island the first day was Upolu, where the capital (Apia) is.

Here is a shot of the Samoa Temple.  It was beautiful, though Samoa is really having a drought right now as it should be the rainy season but haven't had rain for a couple of months.

This is Brother Ah Hoy and President Michael Higgins shopping for a snack along our way on the first day.  President Higgins is the Pacific Area Family History Manager and just happens to be our Stake President in Auckland Harbour Stake.

This was a waterfall we stopped to photo along the way. And this ends Day 1 photos.

Visit to the Kauri Musem that is North of Auckland

We had an opportunity to visit the Kauri Museum as they were having a special "free" day.  So we were invited to travel with Elder and Sister Larsen and decided to go.  The drive of about an hour and a half north of Auckland was very beautiful with rolling hills or lush vegetation mixed with dairy farms. We knew there were a lot of sheep but I think we seen as many cows.  Anyway, here are the shots:

I had some other shots with the Museum trip so I've included them here also.  This one is of Sister Kite at the church near our flat.  Because of lack of parking at our downtown office, we meet at the church and carvan to work each day.

This is a shot of the "Oreo" cows that we spotted on the way to the Museum. I'm sure you can figure out why the name we have given them since that is not their real name of cow!

Here is one of the Kauri trees that was so useful to the New Zealand people for many years until they over-harvested them.  There aren't that many left but they are magnificent trees like the redwood or sequoias in the States.

This is some of the "gum" of the Kauri tree that was also harvested for their excellent properties for using in varnish and other uses. The people would climb the trees and cut into the trees to remove the gum, which lead to the eventual killing of the trees.  Eventually, the outlawed the practice but not until too much damage was done.  They also still harvest some of the trees because many had died and fell to the ground that later became swamp land. So the dig them out of the swamp and find they are preserved well and are still useful as wood since the haven't petrified.

Here, Siste Kite is spinning loose wool into thread on a spinning wheel. It was fascinating to see how a ball of wool would take shape so easily.

A Kauri tree hollowed out that made a great Kodak moment.

These are the Larsen's that we traveled to the Museum with.  They work in the office in the Public Affairs assignment for the Church in the Pacific.

Outside the museum this interesting tree seemed like a good place to practice tree-climbing.

Just a close-up of monkeys in the tree.  Yes, it is a "P-day" so we are in our grubbies.

We re-arranged our flat to try to maximize the space (since there is so little !). This is the living room with the new TV we purchased since the small one (now in the small bedroom) would only pickup 2-3 channels and they were snowy since they were analog.  The new TV picks up the digital signals giving us about 19 channels, though 5 are chinese, one Mouri and a couple other going back in forth between English and Mouri.

You can see our living room also doubles as the dining room.

Here is our kitchen where the fridge and microwave together is about as tall as Sister Kite.

Here you see our washer and dryer (that we affectionately call our "Barbie Dryer".

The small bedroom between the kitchen and living room. 

And finally, the bath room.  The mirror was on the wall opposit the sink so we had nothing to use when shaving. So there are a few things we still need to pickup to improve conditions.  But it is small but adequate.  We really are blessed in America !!