At church today, none of the speakers showed up including the high council speaker. That has never happened before. The program is usually planned and goes well. Bishop asked the Elders, Carter and me to bear our testimonies. Then he and the one counselor who was there spoke. They both told some interesting stories.

The counselor grew up in Samoa. He said that growing up in Samoa was hard for kids because if they did anything wrong they got hit and sometimes beat up by their parents. He liked volleyball and really wanted to try out for the volleyball team after school. But he also had the responsibility of cooking their family’s dinner, especially the taro. So he ran home and cooked the taro quickly. There’s a rule in their family that if they don’t have any meat to eat with the taro then there needs to be some coconut cream to eat with it. He knew there was no coconut cream and he knew he would be in trouble, but really wanted to get back to try out for volleyball. He was feeling good after the tryouts because he did well but when he got home, his brother told him that mom & dad were waiting for him. He said the next thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital and heard his mom crying at his bedside. He had been beaten up before but never this bad. He joined the church when he was 14 and loved going to the church school because the teachers there were not allowed to hit the students. He said he still loves his parents because they were doing the best they could with what they knew. He went on a mission and loves bringing his family up in the gospel of Jesus Christ that teaches us to treat each other with love, patience and kindness.

Bishop Kau grew up in Tonga. He said as a child going to school he never ate lunch. They got up in the morning and ate what was left over from the meal the night before. There was no food to take for lunch and he didn’t eat anything until dinner that night. He told us that now he gets up at 5:00 am to go to work. His wife is still sleeping but there is a lunch waiting for him to take to work… he cried when he told us about the lunch. He also told about how his father would make him take notes when they were at stake conference. When something was said that his father wanted to remember, he would tell him to write it down. He said he felt like his dad’s secretary and didn’t like doing it but he wanted to obey his father. On the way home his father would ask him about what he wrote down and they would talk about it on the 1.5 hour walk back to their village. He appreciates having to do that now.

It turned out to be a wonderful sacrament meeting. Those 2 men are good, kind men. I appreciate their leadership in our ward. The bishop admonished us to take just 5 minutes a day to pray, go read a few verses in the scriptures and do something kind for someone else. Just 5 minutes. We can all take 5 minutes.

After our trip to Queenstown I’ve had this thought: 

I’ve never really liked taking pictures of landscapes.  I used to think that there needs to be an actual person in the picture to make it memorable and relevant. But after living in New Zealand and especially now that I’ve been to parts of the South Island, I’ve changed my thinking on that. 

I now see my Creator. 

These pictures are only taken with my phone. But even so… He’s there. I see Him. I feel Him. He is the Artist, the Sculptor, the Landscape Designer of this breathtaking beauty. 

Oceans of Love,    Faye