Macca's® is what the McDonald's franchise is called in New Zealand and Australia. I wasn't quite sure what everyone was referring to, being clueless as I am when it comes to eating out, until I went with a group of ladies from the Fairy Springs Ward to attend a concert by the Rotorua District Choir at St. Luke's Anglican Church where one of our number was singing a solo.
It is rare that I look in awe at the decor inside a McDonald's, but this was one of those occasions. They ought to spend this much time and detail on Mickey D's interior design in the U.S.
The program included two songs by a young soprano and alto, Maria Davenhill and Lauren Thompson. They were fabulous.
Rebekah sang a beautiful solo, and then the choir performed the "Magnificat" oratorio by Mark Hayes, for the first time in New Zealand.
Afterwards the ladies wanted to have hot chocolate at Macca's. It was late, and we were pretty much the only people there.
Elder Rooks and me with three of the Myler boys
I forgot to include this photo of Cooking Lessons, with Simon looking on (one of his favorite activities is watching other people cook) as Elder Mouritsen expertly cuts up vegetables, with Elder Karaitiana photobombing
We met Belinda, a friend of the Tarawera Ward sister missionaries. She is a red-haired spitfire with wonderful energy and a healing way about her. She works with special needs children. She attended one of our monthly Family Home Evenings and greatly enjoyed the evening.
Belinda does needle felting, something I learned to do when I was in Chile, so she brought a mobile of angels to show me. I admired the decorations on her wool sweater.
The children's book she has written using her needle felted figures for illustrations. It appears to take place in the redwood forest in Whakarewarewa
One of the illustrations using her wool figurines
She brought wool roving to add decorations to a plain green wool dress I have hanging in the closet. She has very clever fingers
We had a great time chatting, and the leaf design really added to my dress.
Photos of our most recent, and our last, Zone Conference in Tauranga. We will miss seeing everyone, but not the wild drive through the two gorges with their narrow, winding roads and one-way bridges.
Pilot Bay, Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, New Zealand (photo by Jean Kearns)
Our beautiful sister missionaries
Spaceship cloud over Kuirau Park
No pictures of pukekos this time, although I got a few shots of fantails dive bombing Elder Rooks as he was raking the giant leaves under the magnolia trees
Doing somersaults in the sky
...and flitting about in their usual charming way. I will definitely miss the fantails, even if I don't mind not hearing pukekos shrieking anymore
