Written by Faye

Dear Whanau and Friends,

We had a fun and interesting little trip up to the northernmost end of the north island this last week. Most of New Zealand shuts down for 2 weeks during the Christmas and New Years holiday and most everyone goes on vacation. Even the doctors’ offices are closed for the two weeks. It was difficult to find a place to stay but we finally found a little farmhouse on Air BnB that had two rooms. We went with another couple here, Brent & Ella Romney. It turned out to be a pretty cool old farmhouse built in the early 1900’s that had a river running behind it with a dock. I used the word interesting to describe this trip because when we arrived, the lady who lived there was drunk….she smoked almost constantly except for when she was sleeping and swore way more than I’m used to hearing. (Ella and I did a lot of giggling that first night because … what else could we do but laugh!!) She also had two big Rottweilers that roamed the house freely. The dogs were really nice though. We had no other place to stay so we decided to make the best of it. The rooms were clean and the river in the back was so beautiful! Rosemary turned out to be really nice and gentle and it will be a great memory for us. She ran her place like a bed and breakfast and made bacon & eggs for us the 3 mornings we were there. The home was located out in the country two kilometers off the highway on a dirt road. We walked in the mornings and saw horses that ran up to the fence to meet us with a fantail bird flitting around the horses like a fairy. It was magical!. There were herds of cows along the beautiful hills and valleys. We had 3 full days of traveling around the area and had a great time seeing some new parts of beautiful New Zealand.

Rosemary asked about our missionary tags and we got to tell her why we are here and what we do as missionaries. Carter gave her a Book of Mormon and I left a pair of my reading glasses with her so she could read it.

I hugged her when we left… she smelled like cigarettes, & bacon. We are friends. I’ve been praying for her. I hope she’s going to be OK.

January 1, 2021

Yesterday I went to a car wash to clean up our car after our trip. The automatic wash had just started when there was a big crash. My car lurched forward and the car wash stopped. I sat there a little dazed wondering what had just happened. I got out and saw the car that had been waiting behind me backing away with her front end banged up. I just got rear ended! Who gets rear ended at a car wash? The manager was yelling at the woman. I felt bad for her and walked around to talk with everyone. It was obviously not intentional. The manager stopped yelling when he saw me. We exchanged information for insurance purposes and took pictures of the damage to each other’s cars. The right side of my trunk was buckled and the right back tail light was broken. She became pretty rattled and started crying. I gave her a hug and told I was sorry this happened. Her name is JoAnn. After she drove away, the owner of the place drove up to access the damage to the machinery. I could tell he was stressed. They gave me my money back and the manager finished washing my car in one of the self-serve bays.

As I drove off, I realized that I had just witnessed another situation that Who I represent made a difference! I remembered that when I walked up to the yelling manager, he looked at my badge for a second and stopped his yelling. He was very calm and optimistic after that. When the owner walked up to me, he also read my badge, paused for a bit, looked up at my face and kindly said, “We have Sister Mayberry here.” I felt him calm down too.

Our car is still very drivable, all the lights and blinkers work correctly, but when I drive it, there’s a constant dinging sound and light on the dash trying to tell me that a door is open. We also cannot open the trunk. I emailed the fleet manager at the area office but it was New Years Eve here and I have not heard back from anyone yet about what I need to do.

I testify that the Lord is in the details of our lives. He calmed that little storm at the car wash. His influence was there… and I am so grateful.

Oceans of love to you all as this new year begins!