Water

"Waka" in Maori means canoe and "Ama" is the outrigger of a canoe.  

This past week Takapuna Beach hosted New Zealand's premier longest Waka Ama races, the 2018 Takapuna Beach Cup Waka Ama Outrigger and Paddle Race.  
It attracts both NZ and International competitors.  We finished our Saturday morning walk just as some of the teams began lining up for the 42 KM race around Rangitoto Island.

Facebook Takapuna Beach Cup 

Water seems to figure into just about everything here in New Zealand.

Living just a stones throw from the ocean, and rivers, and more waterfalls than we’ve ever seen, we are enamored by the beauty, the mystery, and the great power of water.  We are trying to learn more about the waves, the tides, tsunamis, torrential rains and tropical storms; and even a little about fishing and sailing.  We are also living in a spot where rain and humidity are off the charts sometimes, so it’s natural to find yourself thinking a bit about water. 

Small river in the Waipu Gorge

A rainy day early this week (one of the many) at Takapuna Beach

   

Great heaving waves...(literally for some) from our boat ride on the ocean.

We think we may be getting the hang of the tides (but still clueless as to why dogs are so intoxicated chasing balls into the salt water...our favorite white German shepherd beach friend)

Gentleman Vance going for the car after church in a deluge.

We need water, it is essential for life as we know it on earth.  It makes up 71% of the earth and can take on many forms, solid, liquid or gas (as it is naturally affected in one way or another by heavenly bodies like the sun and moon).   

   It’s not surprising that water was a pretty consuming part of at least one day of creation. 

Water from above and below played a key role in Noah’s story.  

It’s a big part of all our stories to one degree or another.  

"Amateurs built the Ark,

Professionals built the Titanic."

(The difference: THOTL - The Hand of the Lord)  

Water is critical to hydrate our bodies, around 60% of the body is water. We use it to cleanse ourselves inside and out, to cook with, to sail on, to swim in, to recreate, to harness electricity, to grow beautiful plants and food, to run machinery, and on and on. 
Without water there would be no fishing, no diving, no ice or ice-cold lemonades, no puddles, no need for umbrellas, no snow, and definitely no rainbows.  

Rainbow Falls

On a walk this week we encountered the local fire department making use of heaps of our wonderful H2O to save the Takapuna movie theatre.

More of the beautiful flora and fauna that soak up the NZ waters

.  The wise Leonardo DaVinci once said: “Water is the driving force of all nature.”  

Water is vital and a source of much good, especially if its in the right places, and in the right amounts. But things can quickly be destroyed when water isn't where it should be, or is where it shouldn't be...
 “All the Water in the world, however hard it tried

Could never sink the smallest ship unless it gets inside.”

 This past week the South Pacific has been full of the effects of Cyclone Gita.  Samoa and Tonga are still cleaning up.  We are being warned that New Zealand may still get another blast this coming week from a now downgraded Gita.   

Cyclones and hurricanes thrive in the warm waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  While the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and Tonga sit in very warm waters, the waters around New Zealand are much cooler. There’s no record of a named tropical cyclone crossing the land of New Zealand, so we are just expecting more rain.

mormonnewsroom image
A destroyed home in Tonga from Gita.

Photo by Eleanor Ainge Roy 
Aftermath of Gita in Tonga

Its hard to imagine more rain than we’ve had the past week, and I’ve never heard of humidity over 100%...but us desert folks are experiencing “water” in a whole new way…sheets and hair and paper and clothes that never dry out.   What a sheltered waterless life we have led. 
 Vance asked the question “Would you rather live where there is not enough (always a drought, and never quite enough) or where there is too much and it’s always raining and flooding?  Tough one to answer.

Meanwhile, (pondering the water question) we had another great FHE with other waterlogged senior couples, celebrated Valentines Day and our favorite scriptures.  It was great to hear what was their scripture and why from these good folk. 
(Vance quoted Helaman 5:12,  Lou said Alma 60:36. Do you have a favorite that seems to get you out of deep or hot or swirling water?) 

After a great fireside with the Manakau YSA ward, they had some fun with speed dating.  Like the YSA's back home, they too often just "tread water" when it comes to really dating.  This was a "moving experience" for them...and some real dates came out of it!

Our Institute staff at a little surprise lunch.  Notice we (Manuia, Tafi, Elly and her beautiful daughter, and the two old missionaries) are drinking water.

We have learned that water is powerful, and necessary, and to be respected; and that it obeys and is controlled by it’s Creator and His laws.  Moses was told he would be made "stronger  than many waters" by the power of the Lord God, Pharoah was powerless against His waters and Him. 

With His power He walked upon the waters, calmed stormy seas, and turned water into wine.   

Through our obedience and heed to Him we are offered not only power over worldly waters, but we are offered another kind of water, Living Water, the kind of water our spirits need. 

 “(Living Waters are) a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ and His teachings. As water is essential to sustain physical life, the Savior and His teachings (living water) are essential for eternal life.”  

They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, Jer. 2:13. 

Images from climatecentral.org of parched earth in drought, and Disney's Little Mermaid Ursula's captive shriveled souls

We've seen before the scorched and shriveled world when it's starved for water.  
We've also seen the scorched and shriveled lives of living souls when they are starved for living waters.

My commandments shall be a well of living water. D&C 63:23. 

Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst- John 4:6–15 .

Most of us are familiar with the account of the folks in Noah’s time who didn’t heed the warnings to stick with the source of Living Waters and got consumed by the waters of the world (physically and spiritually).  And though we know the story, we too sometimes forget the warnings and the the outcome of forgetting.

Respect and give heed to the Water in your life, let it quench your thirst. pay attention to It's warnings and keep an eye on it's Source.  Then it will give you Life. 

He lives, and is the Living Waters!
Love,
Vance and Louenda

Elder and Sister Downs