We leave for New Zealand

 Susan and Blair dropped us off for the last time at the Missionary Training Center. 

It is in the 90s in Provo so Elder Rooks' suit coat is slung over my luggage. You can see the Costco croissants we stole from Susan & Blair in my bag. In a few days' time we we leave for New Zealand, after doing much-needed laundry and taking one last tour of the BYU campus. 

Having graduated from BYU too many years ago to count, the residence halls we once lived in have been torn down for new ones.

The Wilkinson Center preparing for an international student box lunch. BYU Food Services certainly knows how to feed crowds.

Our laundry done and our bags packed and repacked within ounces of 50 pounds, we hung this tag on our door and headed toward the airport shuttle.

Flying over Zion's National Park on our way to LAX

The sun setting over Los Angeles during our four-hour layover

We were able to sleep during the more-than-12-hour flight to New Zealand. Fortunately one of our three seats was empty so we were able to stretch out. I caught this view of the moon over Auckland right before we landed at 5:30 in the morning.

We were picked up at the airport by the office missionaries the Nelsons, who kindly put us up at their house overnight. No naps, though, we had to stay awake. The Nelsons take care of all mission vehicles, "flats" (apartment and house) rentals, zone conferences, meals for missionaries, scheduling the mission president, Jeffrey Nikoia, and many other duties. On the road from Auckland to Hamilton, we passed pastures of contented cattle, including this herd. New Zealand dairy products are renowned with good reason.

Another common sight on New Zealand roads, "Give Way" instead of "Yield" 

These two delightfully hilarious senior missionary ladies work in the Mendenhall Library museum in the Matthew Cowley Pacific Church History Centre. Sister Williams, on the right, with her husband Elder Williams, oversee the exhibit on the history of the Pacific Islands, something worth taking in if you are in Hamilton. We told Sister Crow, on the left, that she is probably related to Elder Rooks, which she is taking under consideration. She lived for 40 years in the States and now finds it hard to drive on the left side of the road again.

President Jeffrey Nikoia has assigned us as senior missionaries in the Rotorua Stake, which takes in the Fairy Springs and Tarawera Wards in Rotorua, "a town set on its namesake lake on New Zealand's North Island,  renowned for its geothermal activity and Maori culture." Additionally, we will visit the Taupō  Ward and Turangi Branch around the shores of Lake Taupō, Tokoroa Ward to the west, and Murupara Branch to the east. The stake covers a large area and we will be doing a lot of driving. There have not been senior missionaries in this area for a long time, and the members there are looking forward to our arrival.

Our area on the North Island

The Hamilton LDS Temple can be seen from the Nelsons' house. It is beautiful when lit at night.

Elder Rooks, not wanting to postpone our waiting assignment in spite of jet lag, braved the left-hand driving (which he hadn't done since his long-ago youth mission to England) and we set off for Rotorua. He did splendidly.  Passing from Cambridge to Tirau, I could see why the set of Hobbiton was located not far from here in the Matamata region. (Elder Rooks has not seen the movies of Middle Earth and doesn't know what the fuss is about.) We started seeing sheep as well as cattle. I am hoping Rotorua, a resort and summer-to-winter activities area, will have a thriving fiber arts community.

It took a few tries, but we found our snug brick house off Tarewa Road, behind a big beautiful AirBnB house. The Corolla hybrid drove like a champ. The Elders of the Rotorua Wards, Elder Joyce and Elder Yoder, were right ahead of us and helped unload our luggage.

Elder Joyce, a Kiwi, and Elder Yoder, from Boise, take off their shoes when entering a house, as you naturally do in New Zealand.

Shortly after the Elders arrived, four sisters came to greet us and sing beautiful songs. Elder Joyce is terrific on the guitar as well. The Maoris in particular are a musical people. The six young people were joined by our landlord's son, pregnant wife and two children, offering us any help we needed, and the Relief Society President of the Fairy Springs Ward and her husband brought us some much-appreciated groceries. We felt loved and welcomed.

While working on my blog in the office (Yes! There are two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an office, along with a two-car garage, kitchen and dining area in this house! Plus washer/dryer!) I could hear unnatural shrieking out in the yard. It was a pair of Pūkeko birds having a difference of opinion. Pūkekos are also known as Australasian swamp hens, and they like our yard because there is a geothermal spring running down the center of it. They are known as agricultural pests, so my dreams of a nice New Zealand garden may be in danger. This fine fellow was putting on quite a show for me, shaking out his tail feathers and throwing out his leg from time to time.

Elder Rooks has been working on making our house warm by tending to the space heaters (there is no central heating here) and making sure the insulating drapes are closed at night and open during the day to let in the warm sunshine. We head to a Kmart and The Warehouse tomorrow to get housewares, and to Countdown or Pak'nSave for groceries. Maybe to Noel Leeming for a printer and a smart monitor. Two and one-half days in New Zealand and we are settling in.

End of MTC training

 This week we ended our MTC training. It was pretty intense, and we didn't have much time for anything except rushing to the cafeteria (always an adventure), sitting in class, or attending devotionals. Unaccustomed as we are to being in a classroom, we were pretty tired by the end of the week. Fortunately my sister Susan and her husband Blair live not too far from the MTC campus. They kindly picked us up and brought us to their home for the weekends, which we mostly spent doing laundry, eating normal food, and taking naps, along with taking long walks along the paths under the trees, and catching up on each others' lives.

Elder Rooks on one of our walks through the neighborhood

My adorable sister Susan and her husband Blair at home

The Māori Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ displayed in the main hall of the MTC. The alphabet of Te Reo Māori ("the Polynesian language of Māori") has 15 letters: A, E, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, R, T, U, W, NG, and WH, so the letter B is pronounced using a P. The macron (horizontal line) across certain vowels gives emphasize or length of pronunciation to that vowel. Using a double vowel is the equivalent of a macron. The only consonant clusters are WH, pronounced as an F, and NG, which has a soft pronunciation; all consonants alternate with vowels, and all words end with a vowel. The word "scriptures" is "karaipiture." Jesus Christ is "Ihu Karaiti." 

More flowers on the MTC campus

In one of the halls of the main administration building are pictures of all the current mission leaders. Our former stake president Dr. Brad Barlow, an emergency room physician, and his wife Angie, are now mission leaders in Resistencia, Argentina, for three years.

Skylights to the T3 building basement

We saw this lady who was so familiar. Sister Michelle Ray was an ordinance worker in the Meridian, Idaho, LDS Temple, at the same time we were, and she recognized us, too. She and her husband will be going to the Philippines. I thought she was much shorter than I am, but as you can see I was wrong.

An amazing 12.5' x 27' painting called "The Last Judgment" took up the entire wall in one of our classrooms. Formerly hung in the Washington, D.C., temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it depicts Jesus Christ at the Second Coming and what joy or pain all who have lived may feel at that event. Seventh-Day Adventist artist John Scott painted himself and his wife on both sides of the canvas.

Mural inside one of the buildings: Matthew 28:19, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."  

Next week, I will be writing the blog and posting pictures from Hamilton, New Zealand.

Provo Missionary Training Center

On July 10th, Dewane's daughter Aimee and her husband Tony McClellan dropped us off at the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC). Several stout young men (referred to as "Elders") helped us wrangle our bags up the stairs to our little dorm room. There is no elevator in our section of the building, (although there is a "courtesy luggage elevator" which may or may not work for you,) so we were assigned to this older section because we said we can climb stairs in our application papers.

Tony and Aimee, Sister and Elder Rooks

About 35 senior couples arrived today at the MTC, to join 35 already here. 35 couples will leave by the end of the week. They are assigned to missions ranging from Alabama to Botswana, from Colorado Springs to Berlin to Taipei. We can be seen toward the right of the picture. I am the short one wearing a green skirt.

Our "digs," as Elder Rooks calls our little dorm room.

The giant map in the entry hall where your picture is taken, pointing to where you will be going. Hamilton, New Zealand, for us.

The MTC campus, indistinguishable from the Brigham Young University campus

One evening we attended a devotional with a 1,000-voice choir of young elders and sister missionaries. It was thrilling to hear them sing. There are currently 1,600 young missionaries at the MTC. It is at times alarming to enter the cafeteria when all of them are at lunch, or try to do your laundry when it is actually open and you are not receiving training, which is continuous. They are, however, unfailingly courteous and kind to senior missionaries.

Another shot of the MTC campus with flags of the world all around

One of the most beautiful "chandeliers" I have ever seen, hanging over two stories inside the T4 building. This reflects the Plan of Salvation, along white strands of fiber-optic lights. In the center is the blue globe of the earth, surrounded by small white fluttery "spirits" spiraling up and down, representing pre-mortal souls coming to earth and returning to heaven at the end of mortality.

The campus from the T-4 building against the Wasatch mountain range

After our first full day of classes

The famous Bicyclist statue

This is our "district" of four senior couples. We are going to Togo/Benin, Africa (the Rodriguez); Spokane, Washington (the Sharps); Hamilton, New Zealand; and Santiago, Chile (the Romos). Our young afternoon teacher Bro. Aguiñaga is of Basque heritage, from eastern Idaho, who served a mission to Peru. He and our morning teacher Sis. Rich have been teaching us Gen-Z words like Tea, Queen, Ick, Slay, Periodt, Hot Take, and Cheugy (def. “Out of date, not trendy, trying too hard”) which describes all of us senior missionaries.

We have another week of classes at the MTC, but hopefully we will get more sleep than we did in the past week.

Leaving home

Today we are leaving for Idaho Falls. Dewane's family grew up in Blackfoot, Idaho, and hold their yearly reunions at Marvalee's house. We will meet up with Dewane's daughter Aimee and her husband Tony McClellan in Idaho Falls with the rest of the Rooks family, and the McClellans will drive us to Smithfield outside of Logan, Utah, where the rest of our luggage is waiting for us. (It wouldn't all fit in our car.) 

The North and South Islands of New Zealand. Hamilton is on the North Island, south of Auckland.

Last night we were set apart, or given a blessing by our stake president, President Eric Dahle, to be authorized senior missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He read to us from Doctrine & Covenants 31:3, "Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation."

When we get to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo on Monday, they will give us badges and we will officially be missionaries for one year.

The area of New Zealand's north island covered by the Hamilton mission. Auckland is north of Hamilton and Wellington to the south

We will be serving in the New Zealand, Hamilton, mission as MLS - Member and Leader Support missionaries, to serve in whatever ward and stake the mission president, Jeffrey Nikoia, asks us to. The Hamilton area, we are told, is more "English" (from the European settlers in the 1800s) and more rural, with a less busy lifestyle and more sheep. Since we are country people, and since Dewane went on a mission to England as a young elder, we should fit right in. 

Here we are enjoying the fireworks at my daughter Vanessa's house on July 4th

Me with 17 of my grandchildren at the recent Kennington family reunion in Cedar City, Utah

My granddaughter Amber will be living in our house for the year, so I have been saying goodbye to my flowers and trees and writing down instructions so Amber can keep everything alive while we are gone.

The front yard

The back yard in the evening

The patio and pergola

I am told New Zealand has spectacular botanical gardens, and with all the rain it gets (40" a year in the area we will be living in) the plants are thriving and happy. So maybe I will find new gardens to love.

Our friend Jason Gaskill, who lived in New Zealand for over 20 years, 
tells us that when in New Zealand, you must drink Ginger Beer.

He brought us some to try. I love it, Dewane doesn't yet.

The two of us on an earlier trip to Hawaii. 

We love the islands, and are looking forward to getting to know the wonderful people of Hamilton, New Zealand!