Southern Pettys - News of March

At the beginning of March we went to Opawa Ward for Mark to give Bronwen Knowles’s baby a blessing.  Benjamin is a very beautiful baby and I was happy to hold him for the rest of the meeting. We met the missionaries, and asked one of them where he was from. He said Utah, so I asked him where in Utah, and he said Syracuse. It sounded familiar to me and then I remembered that that is where William’s companion, Elder Benard, is from. It turns out that he and Elder Benard used to both be pitchers on the same baseball team. Small world!

The market went well some days and not so well other days. I made a big poster of a Rogo, illustrated with Rongo and some plants and bugs and stumps and stuff. It turned out way better than I had hoped. It is on the back of white plastic table cloth material. Philippa Dye sewed it into a banner thing so we could thread a rod through the top and bottom. This was a better way to show what we are doing. It still takes quite a lot of selling, but I mostly enjoy it. I do enjoy chatting with people. We had customers from Australia, India, Germany, the US, Denmark and Iceland. I was chatting to the woman from Iceland and said I knew a man from there. His name was Snolfur, but I was struggling to remember his surname. She suggested Olafsson, which was correct. She knew him!

I went to a Queen’s scout reunion  (Like Eagle Scout) and had a blast, dancing with two old friends and talking to some more old friends. I had such a good time at Venturers and it was wonderful to reminisce with others who had the same memories. The band was very good to dance to and not too loud, so it was very good. They were a covers band and played BeeGees and Time after Time and some Mambo song that I don’t know the name of.

Some more big news for us was that we had a good interview with Ewan Sargent, who is an assistant editor, features, for the Press. He interviewed us himself, rather than sending out a reporter. We have heard from John Harford (a member in Opawa Ward) that Euan is pretty keen on Rogo and they are talking about what it will replace!  I made a mockup of what I thought it would look like in the paper, and he was pretty impressed with that. He asked us the history behind the puzzle and was telling him how it started out as an idea for a board game, as I’ve always wanted to make a board game. He asked me why I wanted to make a board game. I felt a bit like that Donald duck frame I like where Scrooge and Donald are looking incomprehendingly at each other. I just said – “well I like board games and thought it would be good to invent one”. In retrospect I realise I should have said, “Well doesn’t everyone?”

The newspaper article turned out well, and you can read it here: Link to article 

We had been planning to have a 21st birthday for Jonathan in August (when his birthday is) and invite lots of people who helped him at school etc. Then I thought William really need to be there, and I’m pretty sure President Porter wouldn’t be too keen on his popping home for the weekend. So we have convinced Jonathan to wait until February or March next year. I’m sure lots of people would really like to see William too. And we can show off our two fine young men.

The big news is that Mark finished at work. He has officially resigned now, though they say they will take him back any time.

We had a tsunami warning due to the Chile earthquake and our Ward was cancelled as our chapel is right beside a tidal river and near the sea. We enjoyed visiting Riccarton Ward. The tsunami turned out to be quite little.  It’s funny how we get disappointed that the tsunami was pathetic. Would we prefer widespread destruction? If the surge had coincided with high tide and rain we would have had some problems in Christchurch.

Jonathan wanted to know if I knew anyone in the US who had preschool children and I thought of Jessica’s sister Rachael. So Jonathan wrote to Rachael about preschool programmes. He’s hoping she might see us on Sesame street when we were extras. She has written back about 4 or 5 times, which Jonathan is really enjoying.

William sure scored a fun area for driving around – Cape Reinga! It would be great if you he could spend the winter up there. It will hardly be a winter at all compared with Christchurch or Rotorua, and the Utah dwellers would laugh at even calling it winter. I don’t think they get frosts at all in Kaitaia. No they don’t. I just looked it up and August, which is the coldest month, has an average maximum of 16 (60F) and an average minimum of 9 (47F). Oh I just remembered the oranges from the Bay of Islands. Mmm. Nothing beats tree ripened NZ oranges. The grapefruit were pretty darn good as well. Lucky lucky boy! If he had to go to his own country for a mission, at least he has had a wonderful variety of areas. Though all fairly poor areas, I suspect.

William seems to be doing just fine as a missionary. He and his companion are having some success, and he really seems to enjoy the country areas. He says that he will never be depressed for long if there is beautiful scenery around. He writes:

It was April fool's day this week (as you may have noticed) and took advantage of it in a way only a missionary would appreciate it. The night before, I put all the clocks in the flat two hours forward Luckily it was out of summer long enough that it was dark in the mornings, so Elder Benard didn't noticed until he had excersized and had a shower! Luckily he took it well, and we had a good laugh. We also had a missionary correlation Meeting on that day, and things were made very... interesting by the fact that our ward mission leader moved without warning! However the ward seems to really be getting it together, and the 15 names are actually being used properly! Have you guys heard of the 15 names?

We also had a trade-off to Kawakawa which I unfortunately forgot to take my camera to, but I will next time, as it was absolutely fascinating. It was by far the least-cared-for town I had ever experienced in my young life. I don't think I saw one even middle-class house the whole time I was there, the were all without exception paint-peeling, peppermint-paintjobbed, microwave-mailboxed atrocities! Plus they had the world's fanciest public toilets... I'm not even kidding! They're world famous, look them up! It was just weird. (link here to the toilets)


Back to Nicola:
Jonathan has been to a speech therapist, who has given him some exercises to do morning and night to try to train his muscles so that he can say his th blend properly. He has especial trouble with words like ‘three’. Interesting thought – anyone who can say “speech therapist” correctly, probably doesn’t need one!

A group of nice young soccer-playing girls from Church College are visiting Christchurch with Rob Cammock – Peter Cammock’s brother. They asked if Jonathan would accompany them in some musical items for sacrament meeting. Jonathan got a CD during the week of one of the pieces, and I got him a copy of “I Walk by Faith” off the church website. They also sang “Lord I would Follow Thee” and “I am a child of God.” He did an outstanding job of all of them, and afterwards the girls were flocking around him and thanking him for his great playing and getting their photos taken with him. He had a great time.  Later President McDonald asked if Jonathan could play an item at stake Priesthood meeting  that night, so we put together an arrangement of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” this afternoon. He is pretty good to work with these days, though he can still be very stubborn. The missionaries came for dinner after priesthood, and then Mark and Jonathan went over to another fireside that the girls were putting on, so that Jonathan could play for Aotea again. Aotea is putting out her own album soon – she has a great voice, and is also lovely. She was just blown away at how well Jonathan played her accompaniment. He now listens to the singer and really makes an effort to fit with their voice. He helps them to sound good. This is NOT an autistic type thing to be doing. We are so proud of him.

The sacrament meeting was really lovely as the young people gave talks about choosing the right, which were very touching and uplifting. The missionaries were really sad as they had several investigators who said they were coming to church, but didn’t make it. It would have been a perfect day for them to come.
At the market one day there was a teenage boy, whose younger brother has some sort of disability. He seemed about 9, but was 14. The older boy really reminded me of William, just from the gentle way he treated his brother. I understood why people were so impressed with the way he treated Jonathan.

Life is pretty exciting for us just now. Dad is enjoying his “retirement”, and bonding with Jonathan. They bike off to the gym two or three times a week, and go to music together on Mondays and Wednesdays. Jonathan goes to Institute on Thursdays, and has computer lessons on Wednesdays. I think he is still writing to Rachael from time to time too.
See y’all!
Nicola, Mark and Jonathan