Great Things

ZOO Lujan
At the recent YSA Fireside with Elder L. Whitney Clayton and his wife, Sister Clayton told of her visit to one of the zoos in the area when they lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina called ZOO Lujan. All the animals in this zoo were in enclosures where you could go in and pet them. Including the Lions! She said it was quite an experience to pet a lion and these lions seemed okay to be petted. Then after she had petted the lions she noticed something she hadn't been aware of at first in lion enclosure, there were little yappy dogs in the enclosure with the lions, nipping at lions heels and following the lions everywhere they went. She asked about the dogs and learned that when the lions were tiny cubs the dogs were put in the cages with them. At that time the dogs 🐶 were bigger than the cubs and the cubs were afraid of them. These controlling little dogs had groomed these lions to do what, and be where, the dogs wanted them to, whether out of fear or habit. It appeared that these lions had yet to discover their greatness, that they were in fact the king of beasts. 

Do you know who you are? Is there a something in your little enclosure of life that you might have relinquished control to, either out of fear or maybe habit? A yappy little “dog” that has confused you about who you really are, tapped away from you any memory of your greatness, your heritage, your power and potential?

A web photo of a great NZKauri tree...more to follow on another of the "greats".

 

This is probably a diversion from any "greatness" theme...just a some pics of our latest "teaching a few dances" adventures, this time to the area office senior couple FHE.

A little "Squeezy" in the small lunchroom, we traded pardners, stepped on each others toes, and managed a few "Yehaws".

Polyfest 2018

Polyfest here in NZ is the annual HS/college festival of Polynesian cultures, the largest of its kind in the world.. The kids from each school who are Maori, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Cook Islanders and from Vanuatu learn the dances and songs of their culture and then compete New Zealand wide. It’s held at the sports bowl and is huge, and the performances are incredible. 

web photo
It’s also a brilliant way to preserve the cultures and their heritage.

 web photo
These participants won’t soon forget culturally who they are and where they came from. Each HS team wants to win the best of show prize, the greatest, the king of the Polyfest.

It was a colorfest as well as Polyfest, everyone in some kind of costume for their performances, heaps of flowers and color.

Rookies missionaries (us) got lost trying to find the different stages we needed to go to, these two "angels" (Lele and ?) saw that we were missionaries (THOTL) and saw how lost we were, and volunteered to be our guides.  The best guides!

 The crowds were GREAT...we are sure they were great people, but the sheer numbers were great too.  In the 6 figures of numbers attending.  Prime Minister Ardern and others there as well.

These two amazing YSA's were the teachers for one of the Maori groups, and the ones who invited us special to come.  This is Awanui Morris and Sarai McKay.  Awa was baptized in December and they are engaged!  Yahoo!

The Maori Stage.  After they finished all the Maori kids from their school in the audience got up and did some kind of a celebrating Haka to show their support for the performers...pretty interesting and GREAT!

THOTL-we had been at Polyfest for an hour looking for Awa and Sarai, our NZ phone didn't work and we were a bit lost.  We found a quiet spot, said a prayer and within a minute they found us.  Never doubt.

Don't know if you classify this as "great" but the firemen were definitely "Great"...when we arrived at the AIB building on Thursday the fire alarm was going off.  One of our own Fred, was downstairs frying chicken in our little kitchen...and there was a bit too much smoke....so we evacuated and had another "fire alarm" adventure.

We are becoming well acquainted with many of the GREAT NZ fireman.
THOTL-(this timing thing happens alot) lesson preparation time was relinquished to something bigger like fire evacuation this time.  But with prayers and some faith the Lord can take your incomplete lesson plan and turn it into something better when you've done your best and you're out of time, and He did.   

Our area S & I Director Aaron Wirepa spoke at our Thursday "LUNCHSIDE" devotional (we let the students order burgers or salad from the University cafe and we pay half).  Aaron reminded us to feast on the Words of Christ daily to find answers and direction and peace.  He was better than GREAT...and our salads were too.

Made a GREAT discovery in downtown Auckland,  a large somewhat hidden Jewish and Catholic Cemetery.

Most of the graves were from the 1800's.

Cemeteries can be mysterious and fascinating...who are these people and what is their story.  WE are sure if we knew them we would appreciate their GREATNESS.

We had a GREAT turnout to our Wednesday Devotional (the one put on by our Institute Student Council).  We have been getting heaps of member and non-member alike coming for a spiritual message and some lunch.  Love it and love them!

Couldn't' pass up this GREAT gate and the little inscription in the rock wall "Roslyn".

On our walk downtown...a U.S. building of some kind.

The Kauri Museum on the west coast village of Matakohe, is just south of the Waipoua forest and tells the story of the GREAT NZ Kauri  giants.  We got to spend an afternoon with the Senior Mission Couples in the museum, it was GREAT!
THOTL-got the wrong address and got lost again with no working NZ phone to call or get a new address from our party (no one will want to travel with us "get lost" people)...anyway, said a prayer and the Lord had us on our way in only a few minutes.  Though these happen regularly, we are still in awe and grateful for His Hand, really grateful.

Kauri trees (it's Maori name, these are coniferous trees also known as agathis australis) are definitely trees of greatness from size to quality of wood.   The Kauri, the second largest tree in the world (second only to the great sequoia/redwoods) once filled the forests of NZ. Many ancient and even prehistoric kauri forests have been discovered under swamps. Even thousands of years wet, the wood is extremely hard and well preserved. Pretty amazing and beautiful wood. 

A great "slice" of  one of the large Kauri trees. Sadly the Kauri is scarce from hundreds of years of harvesting forests and exporting the wood and the Kauri gum (sold for lacquers, varnishes, linoleum etc.). There is also a spore that can attack these great forest kings from within and cause them to die. NZ is working hard to preserve them. 

This museum was fascinating and full of boats and furniture and things made from the wood and the gum, along with life in NZ at the time (1800’s-1930-ish) when these great forest kings were thriving.

Strange people at the museum.

Basket of Kauri gum.  They even had some beautiful carvings that looked like alabaster carved from gum. 

More from the time period in NZ, a boarding house with displays on the business side of logging Kauai trees and furniture made from the great trees. 

Shows how they extracted the gum from the Kauri by making cuts in the trees.  Sometimes too many cuts would cause the tree to die.

Some wooden bowls made from Kauri.

A museum piece from the era...thought it appropriate because about now this is what this blog may be to you... a BIG BOAR.

One of the many "room" displays inside the museum made to look like the people who were involved in the Kauri logging and exporting business.  According to the photos they were pretty accurate (there was a bit of a Disneyland feel to some of the museum). 

Great big tree trunk flanked by a great looking guy.

This was our GREAT senior missionary FHE group on the deck of Rudy's compound (after we toured the Kauri Museum).  Rudy is a Turkish man who studies health and is the landlord of one of our missionary couples.  Rudy fed us an amazing dinner, much of which he had grown or speared fresh from the ocean.  It was awesome.  He had quite a story of his health quest that started at his wife's death from brain cancer.  Some of the evening was truly THOTL in a variety of ways.  At the least one of our take-aways is that we are going to drink tons more water.  We may not be able to spear our own kingfish but we can drink more water.  

 And it WAS ST. Patricks Day...

One of the local ward members wove these shamrocks from some flax plants, the same plant the Maori make their grass skirts, basket, sails, etc., from.  Pretty GREAT art here in NZ, and nice centerpieces.

Disney Lion King web photo
Back to the story of the lions at ZOO Lujan who it appeared didn't realize who they were and their greatness and potential.  Love the LION KING story.  Don't get caught either not knowing or forgetting who you are.  You are a son or daughter of the King of the Universe and He has great plans for you.  Stick with Him and in the end things will be GREAT!
We think you are GREAT!  Have a GREAT week!
We love you,
Vance and Louenda
Elder and Sister Downs