Driving Adventures

All of you children remember how calm dad always was when you were learning to drive?  I wish you could all be here to watch dad try to navigate these busy roads where everything seems backward with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car and right turns are the dangerous ones.

Elder Thatcher by our car - Faith required to drive it!

We got our car yesterday.  Elder and Sister Briggs picked us up at the motel and took us to the flat of two other senior missionaries, the Freemans.  They are from Farmington and know who Aaron and Lorraine are.  The sisters stayed at the Freeman's flat while the three Elders drove somewhere to pick up a car we will be using.  Dad drove it back following Elder Briggs.  I was relieved to see them upon their return all still among the living.

We followed Elder and Sister Briggs to the MTC where we greeted and ate dinner with the missionaries, had a short meeting with President and Sister Howes, looked over some papers on the missionaries there now and then started back to our motel BY OURSELVES. YIKES!

We had purchased a GPS device earlier so believed we could navigate ourselves home.  It was pretty funny.  We were so very lost in no time and in landscape that hadn't anything familiar about it.  Dad kept asking what the GPS was saying and I kept telling him it was asking us to turn where there were no roads and naming roads that were no where to be seen.  We must have driven around for over an hour getting more lost with every turn.  I kept telling dad that we should call the Briggs but he thought we could find our way.  We nearly got killed trying to turn right once.  Must have had guardian angels watching over us is the only explanation.

Dad, I should say Elder Thatcher, went into a gas station to ask for help after declaring that the GPS unit was a piece of junk!  The instructions gleaned there got us into another area that seemed unrecognizable.  We finally crossed a street that we recognized - it has palm trees down the middle of it and is called Te Irangi, or something like that.  I wanted dad to turn around and head down that street.  He stopped at another gas station and came out feeling like he could find our way.  He headed back toward Te Irangi and then turned down instead of up that street. (I'd say north or south or east or west but I have no idea which direction we were heading.  I can never tell which direction we are driving here)  It turned out that dad's turn had been the right one and in about 5 minutes we turned into our motel.  We remained calm most of that adventure but our ability to navigate these roads is a big question in our own minds.

This morning Elder and Sister Briggs called to see if we would like more help driving and we jumped at their offer.  We have spent the day driving around with them.  We first took the  GPS unit back where we bought it and they programed it for us.  It had been in demonstration mode and arbitrarily showing roads from downtown Auckland! No wonder we were confused.

We drove to their apartment which is the cutest little honeymoon cottage on a beautiful hilltop.  They are the sweetest people.  Elder Briggs worked for the church for years traveling all over the world doing auditing for Deseret Management.  He used to write the report they would read in conference.  I think he was in charge of it.  She is the cousin of Sister Barbara Winder who just passed away.  Such wonderful people.

We went to a little town called Clevedon.  The drive was through beautiful rolling hills with cattle and sheep and everything charming. We stopped at a quaint little stand to have fish and chips and  delicious berry ice cream.  They have treated us to the most delicious things.  We can't thank them enough.

Elder Thatcher navigating - Elder Briggs driving on our way to Clevedon for Fish and Chips

we drove through beautiful countryside

They dropped us off at the motel and will be back momentarily.  We will follow them to the MTC for tonights happenings there.  Such fun to think of seeing the missionaries.  It is Saturday here even though we know it is only Friday at home.  Tomorrow is our first Sunday here at the MTC and it should be very interesting.  We start early there around 7:00 am and go till 9:30 at night.  They haven't given us any assignments for tomorrow, just wanting us to observe but we will be starting with assignments and responsibilities shortly.

Later . . .

Tonight we successfully drove to the MTC with Elder and Sister Briggs following us.  Our GPS worked perfectly.  We greeted and ate dinner with the missionaries and had a Presidency meeting afterwards with President and Sister Howes and President and Sister Briggs.  President Howes went over our Sunday Schedule tomorrow.  It will be a busy day but I am sure a spiritually rich one.  So far we are loving being around these outstanding missionaries.

Elder Thatcher got a new name tag with 'President Thatcher' and 'New Zealand MTC' on it. We used to joke about naming one of our babies 'President'.  We thought it would give the child distinction.  President Thatcher is quite impressive if I do say so myself.  I know he is loved by his companion.  It might sound impressive but President Thatcher is feeling very intimidated right now.  We both are.  We feel small and inadequate.  We are surrounded by great people who have served in so many capacities.  We feel as green and as in need of direction and help as these young Elders and Sisters at the MTC.  We need the Lord's help to do what is being asked of us here.  We are relying on your prayers.

New Missionary Badge

We just read 1/2 of the Missionary handbook together.  We are underlining all the ALWAYS and circling all the NEVERS.  It is what Sister Howes has the missionaries do.

For all of you back home, here is a little request, ALWAYS remember to say your prayers and NEVER forget to pray for the missionaries.

Much love to all of you so far away yet held so closely in our hearts.