Lanterns

Auckland Lantern Festival is in its 19^th year.  

(Auckland eventfinda website, above 2 pictures)

It is held the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar.  It’s the final celebration here welcoming in the Chinese New Year; this year is the year of the Dog.  Heaps of people attended!

The Chinese in Auckland make up around 25% of the population so the festival is very popular.  They bring the lanterns in from China along with all kinds of Chinese performers.

(These are not the talented Chinese performers...just the Henshaws, Downs and Stosichs)

  Lanterns, whether decorative or plain, are a protective covering for a light source, and have been used through the ages.  Chinese lanterns are traditionally made of paper or silk with a wood or bamboo frame to cover a light of some kind.  Whether they hang from trees that are situated on the ground, they qualify as "lanterns".

Folks love the dragons!

More lanterns and missionaries.

Under the sea

Chinese performers taking a break.

Chinese lanterns symbolize joy, celebration, good fortune, longevity and protection from dark and evil, so a new year is a great time to bring them out.  Other places in the world (India, Thailand, Vietnam, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Poland, etc.) have lantern and luminary celebrations as well.

Web photos above and below

 (photo from the website) Disney's Tangled included Rapunzels fascination with the yearly lights in the sky, the lanterns.    We agree, they are pretty fascinating.

Matthew 25 is another lantern-type story of the 10 virgins. 

1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.   ² And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.   ³ They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:   ⁴ But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 
 

 The lamp or lantern isn't much good unless you have the light inside, and the light source is pretty key.  Make sure you have that taken care of your light source before you head out in the dark to a wedding.

On our morning walk its getting darker and darker...we appreciate those who have made sure the lights inside the "lantern" bulbs are working. 

Grateful that the Creator has the "big light" working dependably on a regular basis.

This ice cream truck comes and parks at the beach all through the summer.  It's lights are always on, and it guides the ice cream starved public to relief (or calories).

Even this dog got in the lantern mode with his little blue light on his collar on the dark beach.

There's something about the lights in the morning darkness just before dawn, even the organic milk man's truck looks dramatic...as does the Harbour bridge (below).

web photo

This is our Auckland Institute Building 2018 Institute Student Council ( a few missing).  We are hoping to light the year and lives of those who come here...and focus on Christ. 

And do as Plato suggests...

Another great Sunday in a Tongan ward in Mt. Roskill.  We are enlightened each time and we pick up on a few new Tongan words:
love-ofa
happy-fiefia
thank you-fakamalo
mother-fa'e
father-tamai
children-fanau
God-Otua
Jesus Christ-Sisu Kalaisi
book-tohi
flower-matalai'i'akau
family-famili

Crystal Weoung's (lady in the red shirt) great Institute class in Panmure Stake.  She is an awesome teacher and the YSA's were equally awesome.

Large metal balls that hang at the Takapuna mall entrance.  Their reflection lights up the dark morning on our walk to the beach.

The Lady with the Lamp

Florence Nightingale was a young British heiress who gave up a life of pleasure and wealth to become a nurse.  During the Crimean War she fought her own battle for better hospitals and help for wounded soldiers.  She became known as “The Lady with the Lamp” because she would visit soldiers at night with a small lantern in her hand.

One reporter of her time wrote of her:

She is a "ministering angel" without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.

Her work and her light and her little lantern brought them hope.

Lantern lights and all light can bring hope. 

The lights on the firetruck (and the blaring alarm) brought another "outside meeting" of all the residents of our apartment building as well as "hope" that it was again a false alarm...it was.

We find words not often used back home...some lit up, like this "CHEMIST" sign found at many pharmacies.

New sister missionaries on our flat inspection rounds, they passed.

Love to do flat inspections here because there is always some new tree or fruit growing near-by we get to inspect along with their flat.  Here is a lime and lemon tree...grafted together.  These guys passed too.

Will add here a THOTL experience related at a fireside where Elder L. Whitney Clayton spoke to YSA’s and youth (great Q & A fireside).  This experience was in a talk by a recently returned missionary, Elder Taupau, who also spoke.  Elder Taupau and his companion were serving in the Philippines and had just determined to not judge or look for the negative, and sought the Lord's help  to be happy and positive and friendly to everyone no matter what, when they came upon a group of 20 young gang members.  A little daunting, Elder Taupau decided to approach them and try out his positive attitude.  He asked them if they were in a gang, and when they replied yes, he asked who their leader was.  They pointed to a large young man and Elder Taupau asked why he was the leader. They said because he was the greatest and strongest and smartest. Like many Islanders, Elder Taupau had a tatoo on his arm and when the gang members saw it they said, "Hey are you in a gang too?"  He thought for a moment and then said, “Yes, I am.”  He pointed to his missionary badge and said, “This is my gang.” They asked who his leader was and he pulled out a pamphlet with the picture of Christ on it and said, “This is my leader.”  Then when they asked why He was the leader, this young elder was able to teach them (and when he was transferred out of the area to have them taught by another missionary) about his Leader, the greatest, strongest and smartest (wisest) of them all.  He said 5 or 6 of them actually embraced the gospel and were baptized.  Pretty sweet.  It’s easy to judge or be negative, and it’s much harder to be positive and friendly.  Seek His help and stand up for Him and you'll see His Hand.  We were inspired to try harder to do just that.

This past week we recognized that when you ask to see THOTL you really can find it every day, even every hour if you want.  We saw it on a walk, running into just the person we needed to talk to, finding the answer to a question someone asked us in a class from something we thought was random we had studied early that day, finding an address quickly (after a little prayer) when GPS took us to the wrong place, quick healing for you or your loved ones in daily little challenges, being in the right place just when someone needs you to be there…the list goes on because THOTL just keeps going on.  

Disney Tangled Web photo

It takes effort on our part, and we made need to reach a bit to see and experience it better.

THOTL:

If you are looking for a bit of light, a little lantern of hope and feeling of being loved by God, try an experiment.  For a day ask to see more clearly the Lord’s Hand.  If you are sincere you might find His hand in:

Timing: when we just happen to meet someone we need, or they need us, or we happen to find ourselves in the right place at the right time. You may recognize this in the lives of others, in the media, and in our world as well.  Sometimes we recognize THOTL right away, sometimes we see it later.  We don't believe it's just coincidence.

Protection: When we are in tune we can receive Physical and Spiritual protection.  We most often recognize this THOTL right away.

Words:  What to say (or how) when we have no clue...He can provides us with words and wisdom (even tongues) beyond our own.  You might have been the one speaking or you may have recognized it in another.  This THOTL is often immediate as well.

Comfort: When we are hurt, lost, or alone and turn to Him we can find peace even while storms rage. Sometimes He sends an “angel”, sometimes the Comforter.  This is another THOTL that can often be seen right away.

Help and answers: All kinds and in ways we never think possible.  It often comes through a big sacrifice or a price that must be paid, but we eventually see that the end result is what was needed.  This is hard to wait for, especially when we seek this for loved ones.  This THOTL often takes time, His time, and heaps of patience and trust.

You probably KNOW where we are going with this…He is the Hand behind THOTL, the light in the lamp, the lantern, the sun, the moon, the stars, wherever there is pure light, He is there.  Without Him there is only darkness, no sight, no lantern festival, no THOTL, no Leader in our gang, no hope.  

We are so grateful for Him and, in whatever vessel or form, for His light.

He lives, He is the Light and Life of the world.  He really is.

All our love,
Vance and Louenda
Elder and Sister Downs