"Have you been to Disneyland?"

 A glimpse at our two worlds . . .

Murphy, Benson, Easton and Ray observe the new snow back home

Spring arrives here in Auckland

Sister Liu at the MTC is from China. She will be serving her mission in Sydney.  Yesterday President Thatcher had an interview with her.  Here is his report:

In my interview with the ESL missionaries it is difficult to ask them questions and have them be able to respond unless it is just yes or no questions.  It's hard to know how to do an interview for 15 minutes.  I ask them how they are coming with English and then I start asking them questions, holding up objects and seeing if they know the names for objects like; bottle, tape, pencil, stapler, or desk.  If they are really good I will ask them what a pencil eraser is and they will say, 'rubber'.  I'll say, 'Yes, that's right, and another name for it is eraser.'  Then I will write it out on a piece of paper so they can see the word.   When Sister Liu, from China came in I asked her if she could write to the side of the English words how you would write that in chinese.  I was amazed at how quickly she could put all these little marks in different places - almost making a little picture.  That was my wonderful discovery with her.

I will do the same thing with the French Elders.  I will ask them how they write the name of the object in French.  They are teaching me at the same time I am teaching them.  If we can't figure something out then I will ask Siri on my iPhone what a particular English word is in French.  Then I will show the word to the missionary and he will say, 'Oh, yes!'

President Thatcher's Chinese lesson with Sister Liu 

Sister Liu (China), Sister Malaki (Samoa), Sister Tarati (French Polynesia),
Sister Chaves (Manaus,Brazil), Sister Fonseca (Brazil)

Since most of our time last week was spent at the MTC we had little time to visit our investigators or do much of President Thatcher's favorite activity - tracking.   But when President and Sister Howes returned on Wednesday President Thatcher wasted no time hitting the sidewalks again and I followed along in his wake.  We first stopped at Natasha's home.  She is the lady we met with the daughter with  Cerebral Palsy.  She couldn't meet with us so we went tracting - still on Cluthe Crescent.

Two young women let us into the first house we knocked at.  We told them we would only take 5 minutes to show them a little video about Jesus.  We pulled out our ace in the hole - one of the Children's Bible Videos and played it.  They, like everyone we show them to, loved it.  Older people in the house were calling for them to come, so we left but the girl in the bright yellow sweater told us that God would surely bless us for sharing such a wonderful message and wished us well.

There were three girls doing backbends on the front lawn of a home next door.  They were interested in the funny way we talked.  President Thatcher told them we were from America and that made them very excited.  "Are you really from America?" they asked. They doubted us at first and then asked,

"Have you ever been to Disneyland?"

That brought a smile to President Thatcher who reassured them that Sister Thatcher had been to Disneyland many, many times.  They were in awe and thought that we must be very rich.   I even pulled up some pictures of us at Disneyland as proof of our claim.

 Do you grandchildren, who are able to go to that 'Happiest Place On Earth',  appreciate your very good fortune.  Disneyland must seem like an impossible dream to these children.  We were instant friends.  Disneyland can do that.  How could we tell these children that it is the people we love that make us rich not the places we go, and that they are rich too, because they have families.  They could be richer still if they only knew how to make those families 'Forever Families'.  They sat with us on their lawn and watched a little video with us.

Two of our three new friends - not sure which is which but the names were
Gabby, Preses, and Dezeary

Next on our tracting beat we stopped at a home where a man was sitting outside on a chair next to the steps to the home.  There were beautiful, gigantic pink roses blooming in the yard surrounded by  orange blooms of some variety.   The man was from Samoa and was here visiting his family and grandchildren.  He was very welcoming to us, as so many here are.  His name is Sione Lewer and he told us that half of his extended family were Mormon, the other half Catholic.  It just depended on which side of the island they were from.  He told us he loves to read the Bible and had been enjoying visits from some Elders.  They had given him a Book of Mormon and he had read a little.  We asked if he could understand it better if it were in Samoan and he said that he definitely could.  We retrieved a Samoan Book of Mormon from our trunk along with a couple Samoan pamphlets.  He said he loves to read and was genuinely appreciative.

That was the extent of our tracking this week.  But wasn't it fun?  We are always happy we have gone. We feel better in our hearts when we do.  We feel like missionaries should feel.  Tracting, though scary for me, is an adventure with President Thatcher.

We passed out two more copies of the Book of Mormon at Botany Town Center.

Elder Thatcher at Botany Town Center - he is having a woman make a Book Pack for him to wear under his suit
that will allow him to always have some copies of the Book of Mormon at the ready

The first one to a nice man running a Gold buying machine who noticed our name tags and began talking about the Church.  He had been to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and seemed much impressed with the church.  He has a passion for family history and Elder Thatcher taught him why the church is so involved in Family History.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet on Family History.  His name is Keith Prohl.

The second copy went to the son of a Chinese woman who has done some altering on President Thatcher's suits at her shop, 'The Sewing Bee'.  She told us she was Christian but to teach her son who was there manning the desk.  He had been born on Christmas Day so she thought he should become a Christian.  He seemed quite surly to us but after visiting for a moment he told us that he was not totally a non-believer.  He said he has read the Bible cover to cover 10 times.  We told him if he loved the Bible he would for sure love the Book of Mormon.  We will take a Cantonese copy back to his mother tomorrow.

These are examples of the fun you can have as missionaries with just a little bit of time to spend and a smile on your face for those around you.

We also attended the 1 year birthday party for little Waimarie Edmonds.  She is the youngest of the Edmonds family that we have home evening with most Mondays.  It is kind of like what Naiko and those from the Marshall Islands do to celebrate the 1st birthday of a child.  They throw a big bash.  The Edmonds rented 'Inflatable World' where all the children could play and held a big dinner there as well.  It was filled with family.  They treated us like special guests and asked Elder Thatcher to say the blessing on the food.   The cake was a masterpiece.  There was a table laid with gifts for all the children attending and the food was amazing.  It must have taken so much preparation and lots of money as well.  Little Waimarie didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

Waimarie's cake

Georeah, who was so excited to see us, by the table with presents for the attending children

part of the group - there were enough that it reminded us of a Thatcher family gathering

Keala w/ Waimarie, Georeah and the two of us

This will be a short Blog today.  We have been so grateful this week to hear from Lorraine about Aaron's scans.
"Aaron's dr  says Aaron's scans show dramatic amazing response!!  He added an antibody 6 weeks ago and hat combined with the chemo he started on in April has done wonders.  If we had gone by what dr Akerley wanted to do Aaron would be short over a year of life and counting.  That dr is on my black list!"

We love Lorraine's fighting spunk.  It keeps us all going.

Birthday Shout outs to the following - if you send birthday pics well post them on the blog

Jen Thatcher - October 29
Steven Hadfield - November 4
Lindy Ellis - November 9
Thatcher Ellis - November 11
Max Hadfield - November 15
Emily Thatcher (Jeff and Amy's) November 21
Cody Mark Bayles  - November 24

We miss you all more than we can say. We hold you gently and fiercely at once in our hearts.

Mom and Dad
Grandma and Grandpa
Elder and Sister Thatcher