New Zealand had another very large wind and rain storm on the heels of Cyclone Cook.  This one started on Tuesday afternoon and left us without power for part of a night.  Some of Auckland has been without power for many days.   webfiles  A tornado in Taranaki destroyed homes The trampoline of our friends the Clarkes now resides in a neighbors tree. Much of the power outages could be traced to fallen trees.   As we have driven by many fallen trees we have noticed three things, two of which we had seen before: 1. The roots of many of them are very shallow. (lost lots of gum trees, pine trees, olive trees)  2. Even the trees with usually deeper roots have pulled the very wet and soggy earth up with them like the photo 2 above (even a few oaks toppled this go around, with pretty strong winds of up to 214 kgs).  But the third observation was different:  3. Many of the trees snapped right off, not just l...

Our lives are filled with great memories and here in NZ we continue to add more and more memorable things each week.  So this week we will report on some of the latest "memorable".  NZ skies and sunsets never get old, and long after we are gone from here they will be memorable. President/Prophet Russel M. Nelson and Counselors Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring Of the most memorable this week would have to be a pretty incredible General Conference on Easter weekend.   It didn’t take much to feel THOTL, from a new prophet of God to a few changes, not doctrinal changes, but in how we minister to others.   We felt THOTL in all the admonitions to bring us closer to the Lord by: seeking His revelation, loving more purely, serving more sincerely, and continuing to try our best.   We were inspired by the words of the song, “Let us all press on in the work of the Lord”.   We’re in!   Indulge us...we think the birthdays o...