To Everything There is a Season



To Everything there is a season and a time…
There are all kinds of “seasons”, and in the last week or so we have experienced more than a few. 
Above is a July morning sunrise on our Takapuna beach walk.


A time for sunrises and a time for sunsets.   

Another Takapuna sunrise this week.
Photoadventure.co.nz photo
An Auckland sunset

A time for rain

 July is winter season and a time for lots of rain, and there has been HEAPS this week.  But with lots of rain comes lots of rainbows, heaps of them this week too!  
And lots of rain keeps NZ green and beautiful and colorful.

Some mornings there are rainbows everywhere...
Milford beach web photo

We assume rainbows have been around ever since there has been rain. With the centuries of symbolism that man has attached to rainbows, we like best the one that the Lord attached when He declared it as a token of His covenant with Noah.  And on incredibly rainy days (wet like we never experienced back in Utah) it's nice to be reminded that the flood waters do have limits.  

web photo
Double rainbow over Auckland
Honey Center fountain, just a bit north of us, green from the rain.
Another green discovery this week was this happy green "growing" postbox...we expected to see tiny ogres living inside.
And degrees in the 50's still works for most green things.  On our walks we see lots of Nikau palms, the southern most palm tree (flourishes even close to Antarctica) in the world..and happy yellow hibiscus. 

A time for marrying and giving in marriage.   

Two of our YSA couples from the Institute were married in the New Zealand Temple (sealed for eternity) this week.  The temple will close for 3 years for major renovations in a week and we know it has “helped” several young men decide its time to propose and get married before it closes…yahoo!   

 A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.

 One of the couples, Li and Tracy, are here in New Zealand studying from China.  It was sweet to attend their wedding and support them as most of their family is back in China.  At the end of the ceremony when they were told they could kiss one another they struggled to give each other a kiss in public, it was pretty innocent and sweet. 

  1.  Tracy and Li Zhang

Students from our Tuesday night Chinese AIB class wait to congratulate Tracy and Li.
 The other cute couple, Lolo and Moe, have heaps of family here, Tongan and Filipino.  It was fun to help decorate the night before.... 
and then celebrate with loads and loads of Tongan and Filipino cuisine (the roasted whole pig made Elder Downs a little sad…poor pig).  

 A time to celebrate and eat, (and eat, and eat,) and a time to stop…

A time to learn and a time to teach. 

 We had our monthly training for Institute teachers, and we begin Second Semester teaching next week at the Institute.  Can’t wait to get back. 

 Heaps of Kiwi are now frequently finding a  "time to eat Krispy Kreme" since this first one opened up a few months ago.  Its pretty busy!!

Sound of Music web photo
So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye
...and in Maori "poroporoaki"!

 A time for new things and beginnings…and endings.  
SWe'll be saying good-bye to many senior couples and friends in the next month…the Buckners, the Smiths, the Garlicks, Elder and Sister Cardon, and the McGuires.  We have so enjoyed the great senior couples we get to share this mission adventure with.

A time to keep silent and a time to speak.  We decided to “Open our mouths” more, and we met Liam at a PitaPit lunch and became fast friends.  He is studying law and goes to school next to our AIB, said he will come and visit us.   Sweet. 
nz herald web photo
 A time to move forward, and a time to stop.   There really is a time when you make more progress by STOPPING.  This past week there was a big Matoriki fireworks celebration planned in Wellington, but a rare Southern Right Whale decided to spend a week in the harbor where the fireworks were to be set off…hmm…what do you do?  Well, they decided to stop…and wait for the rare whale to enjoy the harbor and do the fireworks later.   Smart really, we would all do well to STOP sometimes, and wait for things that are really more important.  Waiting is hard, but most of us could learn heaps by patiently waiting for good things.  Thanks Mr. Whale for the lesson.
ice castles web photo, NZ
 A time for winter and a time for summer
And a time to build ice castles in Utah and a time to build them in New Zealand.     
While attending the Temple this week for the weddings we met Elder and Sister Robison from Dunedin NZ on South Island.   They told us about Jesse Stone, the Utah creator of the “Ice Castles” in Heber Valley who decided to spend his Utah summer in the New Zealand winter.   He brought his family and came to build a large ice castle like the one he does in Utah, here at the Cardrona Ski Field near Queenstown in the South Island of New Zealand!  Cardrona, a little hamlet atop the Crown Range, is an Alpine Resort in what resembles the alps with nearby amazing fiords, ocean, enough snow to ski in the winter, endless waterfalls, terrain parks, and now its very own ice castle.
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 And each season, in its time, brings forth its “fruits” as well.  Can’t get enough of the plentiful citrus right now.  We know we’ll get to enjoy watermelon, but not until January.

The "Fruits" of  all the green.
A time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh
 … a time to mourn and dance (the groom Lolo and his friends celebrating his wedding by dancing) and love and heal…every purpose has its right time.  
Wisdom is knowing what “time” or “season” in your life it is.  Sometimes we want our seasons to line up with our family or friends or what looks fun in someone else’s world.  We may want rainbows but no rain.  We are learning that it's okay for us to be in different seasons than those around us, we can be in winter while our family's having summer…it doesn't have to be the same, its all okay.
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THOTL Our friend Anderson from Brazil has been really struggling, facing so many hurdles from learning the English language, to housing, getting into an English class, understanding his professors, finding people to understand and help him, and feeling so alone and lost and missing his family so much...and wondering if he should just give up and go back to Brazil.  Today he had a family from Brazil offer to connect with him and help him, but he had no way to get to their home.  We had felt prompted to be at the building he would go to, met him and were able to give him a ride to meet this family. There had been such a feeling of hopelessness on our drive over, but as soon as he met this little family HOPE returned and you could physically feel THOTL.  What a blessing.  God loves and cares about ALL His kids.   

There’s a TIME TO EVERY PURPOSE UNDER HEAVEN.  There’s as much to learn from winter as summer, from feeling lonely as feeling loved.  It takes a bit of effort sometimes, but you can find the good and meaning in your season right now, even if its hard to find the joy.  Stick with Him...His Hand is stretched out still. Follow Him, even when and if it's hard. 

lds images web photo

 We’re grateful that there are times and seasons, people and purposes and a Plan. 
And the One Who helps us understand the right when and why and where of all of it, the right TIME and SEASON for when to “fish” and when to stop fishing and just follow Him.  
We hope you choose to follow, and find the hope and the good (and eventually even the joy) in all of your times and seasons.

Love,
Vance and Louenda
Elder and Sister Downs


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