February - Tyrell's Mission Farewell

Scripture of the Month: Moses 7:18

18 And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

2/1 to 2/4:

Pat Nuku picked Tyrell and I up in the morning and took us to the chapel where the funeral is. It is the same chapel that the aunties and uncles went to when Grandad moved the family to Auckland. It was a beautiful service. All the talks focused on Uncle's generosity, hospitality and charity. Uncle Bill spoke and Uncle Don. I helped carry the casket to the hearse. We had photos outside. Pat drove us to the Mangere cemetery but got a little lost trying to follow Scott. We got there right as Uncle Don was given the dedication prayer. It was breezy and didn't feel hot but I got a bit of a sunburned face. I could feel it the next day. We went to the marae after and they had lunch ready for us. A family from the Ratana church helped with the kitchen duties for 2 of these days and man they did a lot. Very awesome of them. Tyrell is loving this experience. We visited and talked later on at Deb's home with Vaughn, Kristi and Deanna then went to the Harbor bridge again on the north side under the bridge to see the city lit up. We got dropped off at Lian's home.

We got picked up in the morning and drove to Hamilton. Tyrone and Deanna came with us. We got an ice cream in Pokeno, yum. We dropped Deanna off at Strantz' Steve Hemi's home on corner across from chapel where Golders used to be. We walked around Temple View and visited Aunty Charmaine and Uncle Don at the visitors center. We also got to visit with Elizabeth and Sis May. We got a feed of fish and chips in Dindale. Deanna was with us. A drunk maori fulla with a case of beer and an open can came in all wobbly. Started talking with Tyrone and everyone. He turns to me and says, "You're a handsome fulla, are you gay?" We start laughing. He says "oh  sorry bro". I can see Deanna will have a new story to share with everyone. We ate our feed in Temple View by the park by Daniels old home. We are staying with the Heperi's. We visited with Aunty Pat and Uncle Bill and Luella. We also visited Harland Paki later on in his home. Good to have a chat with him. His boy Lane is on a mission. We took photos up at the Temple.

Friday, 2/3 we drove out to Dad's grave and also visited Buck Nin's and Les Rose's graves. We went into Hamilton and walked around for a bit. We bought some Momma's Doughnuts and took them over to Pat Nukus. We had lunch with him and Kath and Jas. It was a nice visit. After we went to Hamilton Lake and relaxed a little and walked around. At about 7pm we went to a restaurant to eat out with some TVBs. Reuben Harris and JP Keung shouted us all. Patrick Kailahi, Harland, Daniel Golder and Apa Watene came. We had a good time and some good laughs. We ate steak. Afte we went and got an ice cream at McDonalds. We saw Hono Wihongi Troy's boy there. It was a good time.

Saturday, 2/4 we drove to the Waitomo Caves. Tyrell was videoing the green hill surroundings. He loved the country side. It looks like the Shire. The caves were fun and nice. Our maori guide shone the light on the worms for us. He wasn't supposed to. We took photos on a little walk we had in the paddocks. On the way back we stopped at a Kiwi house. It was like a little zoo. We got back to TV and had more photos at the Temple. We ate dinner at Trina and Israel Wirihana's home. The aunties were there too. Dolly, Raihi and Charmaine and other relatives. The Lomax's I think. I bought a Lion House plaque from Trina that is made out of the CCNZ gym bleachers. We also visited with Bro and Sis Brown, Dana's parents who were there at the dinner. It was a nice feed. Israel can cook. We slept again at Uncle Bill and Aunty Pats'. They were very happy to have us for a short stay. It was like old times. They are very much the same.

We were off in the morning back to Auckland. We got dropped off a Lian's so we can shower and pack then got picked up again later in the day. We went over to Deb's home. We went to do some last minute goodies shopping. We had another feed of fish and chips then hung out until we went to the airport to catch our flight home. We said our goodbyes to Gene, Deb and whanau. What a trip. I bought 2 brown sheep for the little girls at the airport. The flight home on Air NZ was so much better. Tyrell and I were moved to our own row with 2 seats. We slept good. The seats had these head wings that come out to lean on. The movies worked nice. The food was good. Just an enjoyable flight. Our families were waiting for us at Utah. Was so good to see them again.

Jason and Tyrell were still in New Zealand. I took the Leila and Erana to the dentist, Leila had teeth pulled and Erana had caps put onto her back bottom teeth.

2/5 to 2/11:

Jason and Tyrell were coming home today, Sunday in the evening. Went to get them around 7ish at the airport. Heather and Marci were there with kids.  Erana had made a sign that said 'Dab' on it and then corrected it to say 'Dad'! I filmed and took photos when they showed up, it was good having them back. At home Jay gave everyone their gifts, Jaxon got an all blacks top and a pounamu and goodies. Girls got bone carvings and lamb teddy's and goodies. I got a lavalava and a new bone carving and lots of goodies, rashuns, pineapple lumps, watties sauce, passionfruit syrup etc...
On the 8th Jaxon got ordained a teacher it was just us there. Girls had Tausala and I'm liking the new location on state street.

2/12 to 2/18:

We had Stake Conference, Polo Fifita spoke about his experience on being sealed in the temple to his wife Mele, their journey there. Didn't do anything that special on Valentines day, not even for the kids this year too poor. Friday the 17th went through the temple with Tyrell at about 11am. Went to Draper Temple, Mum came and so did Aunty Raihi. Jared and Camila also showed up. Was a nice experience and I think Tyrell did well, Jason helped him. Took photos afterward and went and ate at Chuck-a-rama. For my Birthday I got anti-aging lotion, a samsung wireless charger for my phone and Sushi! I turned 42yrs young!!!

2/19 to 2/25:

Went and celebrated Ariki's 2nd Birthday after Church, Mum, Scott, Heather & kids, Joshua, Serina, Melia and Jonah were there too. Jared throwing Alessandra's used diaper around is what I can remember of the night?! On Tuesday the 21st Uncle Danny passed away, which was sudden for us, but Mum knew he was going to, but just told us last Sunday that he wasn't doing so well? There is no funeral, he is just being cremated and Uncle Paul found money in Uncle Dannys bank to cover costs. Jason ordered Tyrell's bike for his mission.

Mums 42yrs young! 

2/26 to 2/28:

Sunday we had Tyrell's Mission Farewell, we only invited the Aunties, Brent Hillams family, The Finlayson's, Schaap family, Kasey Lords family, Tyrones family, Sreeves family. Everyone showed up except the Bakers, Sreeve & Finlaysons. Tyrell gave an awesome talk, he always does, was a little funny too. Then he played a piano piece, 'Come Thou Fount' he messed up a little, I think he was nervous. We ate at Scott's house, Quinn Lawrence was the only friend Tyrell had there, because Tyrell told his girl friends that it was just for family. I had prepared almost all of the meat, and used Carol Boley's oven cooker. Meat turned out awesome, yummy!  Food was good and so was the weather and everyone had a nice time together. I was sad I didn't invite Ko Ngati Hiona, and then later found out I could've just invited them to sacrament! duh me!

 

January 2017! Jaxon's 14th Birthday

Scripture of the Month: Moses 1:39

39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

1/1/ to 1/7: 

Church started at 9am for us and so it was hard to get up and go.  We celebrated Mums 76th birthday at 'Outback Steak House', I had an appetizer for my food wrong choice - raw fish ehh was ok. Then we took Mum to see Rogue One - Star Wars. Went to get mission clothes for Tyrell at CTR clothing in Orem. Got his suits and slack and shirts. We left the suits behind and had to go back and get them, blimin heck.

1/8 to 1/14: 

Took the kids to the Dentist for a check up.  Looks like Jaxon is ready for braces, so I made him an appointment to the orthodontist. And it costs about $2800 on our HSA card! He's excited to have straight teeth. Ended up going back to CTR clothing to exchange his shirts as they were too baggy. Then we found out the pants were too big so on the suits so we just returned them. Tyrell will look at other stores for suits.

1/15 to 1/21: 

Had Monday off for Martin Luther King Day but didn't do much. Tried to do taxes but didn't have everything I needed.

1/22 to 1/28: 

We heard that Uncle Alwood went to hospital for a stroke. It's not looking good and he may be brain dead or pass away soon. Had to make a decision to go to NZ quickly. Went to Scott's Monday to discuss as he is going. Decided to go and take Tyrell. Scott got our tickets while we were there. $2300 is the total for both of us and we paid him back. The NZ tickets were $855 each so not bad for this time of year. Tyrell is excited to go. Got a new suitcase and got things ready. We left Friday evening 1/27. Tyrone got the same flights as us which was nice. The cousins pitched in to get his ticket. We had a 2 hour lay-over in LA and boarded Air Tahiti at 10:45pm'ish. I was excited to be going and a little nervous at times. We stopped in Tahiti after a 8 hour flight. Could hardly get to sleep. Was in a half sleep state when I tried. The food was good. Tahiti was so hot and humid. The airport was small. I bought a pareo for Candi and a couple metal hooks with tahitian designs. It was a few hour wait before we got on. Tahiti was 2 hours behind LA so it was still 1/28. But when we got to NZ it jumped ahead to Sunday. The sound wasn't working on both seats I sat in so couldn't really watch anything.

1/29 to 1/31: 

When we landed in NZ Scott got his internet on his phone and we found out Uncle had passed away not long before. We thought we would spend time in the hospital with him but we'll have his funeral Wednesday instead. We got a rental car from Scottie's rentals and went over to Deb's home. Shaun was there already. We greeted everyone and relaxed a little before going to the cemetary to see where Auntie Paea is buried and other relatives including Loreen's girl. It was the first time Tyrone visited his mum's grave. We stopped for a pie and yum it was good! After we went back and then went to help dress Uncle at the mortuary. It's a maori custom for relatives to dress the dead. Edith's uncle Barney Silva is a mortician and stepped us through it. At first I was hesitant to assist as I thought I'd get in the way but it ended up being a really special experience. Barney stepped us through it all the way telling us what to do and made it feel really comfortable. With Uncle in the casket all ready we took him home for the first night. A lot of friends from Dion's Ratana church and Deb's ward came. Some neighbors too. They dropped off a lot of food. We talked and visited and ate. At night Scott dropped Tyrell and I off at Lian's home to sleep. It was a good sleep.

Monday 1/30 Scott took us to Mt Eden and we walked around and enjoyed the view. It was a mild summer day prob in the high 60's with a little breeze. We thought it was very hot for being in the middle of summer. After we stopped at the Manukau shopping center. We bought some feijoa smoothies and mad was is nice az! Then we went to get a fish and chip feed before going to help move Uncle's casket to the marae. We found an empty rugby park to eat our feed. Was nice az. Love it! When we got to the house they had already moved Uncle, we missed it. Edith was not too happy. Auntie Charmaine had to help and was struggling. lol. I said if Uncle was here he'd say nevermind let them have a feed. We drove to the marae in Panmure and hung out there. They had an evening service in the marae and they asked me, Scott, Tyrell and Uncle Don to give a short testimony each. Geez what an experience. It was full of friends from Deb's ward and Dion's Ratana church. Tyrell did well. Something he'd have to do on his mission. We slept there the night. I didn't get much sleep. A lot of night sounds coming through the wide open door.

Tuesday 1/31, Scott, Tyrell and I went to the Auckland Museum for a few hours. It was nice. We went over the Harbor bridge and enjoyed the view from right under it. We went back to the marae in Panmure. We went to some stores and got a drink and pie. They have a feijoa fizzy drink which is yum. We welcomed people onto the marae and listened to many koreros and had heaps of hongis. We tried to get out a few times before doing it all over again when more visitors came lol. We visited with Tracy Haraki and many more relatives and friends. Tyrell enjoyed the experience. We loved listening to the maori songs sung. We helped shell a big bag full of mussells at the back of the marae. They had another service at night. We missed most of it shelling the mussells but caught the end. A lot of people were there. Met Strantz and Vicki there. We slept at Lian's home again. Shannon's little baby is so cute.

December

12/1 to 12/10: 

Beginning of December we had tithing settlement with the bishop, kids were very honest in telling the bishop if they were a full tithe payer or not.  Very exciting on Thursday the 8th Tyrell received his mission call in the mail. I was still working when he received it, we had to make arrangements for family and friends to come over at 7pm.  I was so distracted by Tyrell's mission call that I messed up on a customers itinerary!   Since it was short notice for people to come over we just had a small group, Mum, Jody, Jared, Camila & kids, Rachel-Tyrells friend. We went live on facebook, which was funny!  Tyrell was calm his voice shaky a little, and then he announced he was going to 'NORTH CAROLINA'!  I was a little bummed, thinking whaaat? what happened to New Zealand or some other overseas country.  But we're relieved Tyrell has finally got his call and will be leaving on March 8th. On the 10th my sister Alison got married to her beau Ross Smith, I wanted to go but couldn't many reasons, cost too much, it was too close to Christmas and I had work..... The wedding looked beautiful and I was bummed I didn't get to be with everyone, I was the only sibling not there.
We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday the 10th and we love going to this, it's tradition, we eat our yummy breakfast and then have photos with Santa.

12/11 to 12/17: 

On Sunday the 11th we went to Jody's for Jonah's 10th Birthday, we had pizza and good times with family.  Jay and I have been shopping and preparing for Christmas, will be ordering mainly through amazon for the kids gifts. And I we have Jody's family this year, got them a gift card to Megaplex and then got small gifts for the kids and money for Josh.

12/18 to 12/24: 

Went and watched Wiramina sing in her School Choir at Taylorsville High School for their annual Christmas Concert. That's what our Family Home Evening was. Did our last minute Christmas shopping this week.

On the 22nd I was on my bed watching tv and Jay was at he desk on his computer, the girls came in they were both crying and Erana was saying that she cut her lip, and I said how'd you cut your lip and apparently Leila and Erana had been in the bathroom and had shaven the hair on their upper lip because they thought they had mustache's.  I was upset and told them off and said something like its gonna grow back long and thick.... but when they left Jay and I thought it was funny and we were cracking up, I took photos and messaged them to my sister and Grandma Barbara!

Christmas Eve we had dinner at home I was busy this Christmas eve that's because I was making Lobster bisque for dinner and I messed up by adding tomato paste to it and paprika... Long story short I had to make it again.  Dinner was good, we decided we liked shrimp soup instead of Lobster bisque! and we had crab wontons too. Ead read our Christmas story from the scriptures.  And the girls made sugar cookie men, because no one had ginger bread cookie dough, but that's ok they still had fun making santa's cookies.

12/25 to 12/31: 

Jay woke me up in bed saying he heard kids up, so we got up to film.  When I came down the time was about 7am and the kids were already dressed for church. We had the kids start on their stockings first and then their gifts, they didn't get alot this year just expensive stuff. Tyrell loved his new Piano and Mina her base guitar, and Jaxon his drone, Leila loved her stitch pillow from Mina and Erana put her red cowboy boots on to wear to church, they are just her! Our church starts at 9am this year, we had a speaker this year, it was kinda boring because we were missing Bro. Buys's Christmas program, a tradition that is sorely missed. 

We came home and enjoyed our gifts and I prepared our food to take to Scotts. At Scott's got there early and I carved up my pork roast and it was sooo yummy that whoever was there early got all the good juicy, crackle and bits! We ate good food and we traded gifts down stairs, after we watched a video that Scott made about our families to music.  We had Jody's family this year, got them a megaplex gift card and individual small gifts for the kids, tip-choco from NZ and sparkly for the newly married couples. 

December 29th Jay and I went to Hannah and Bubba's sealing at the Draper temple, there were alot of people and we had to sit two to a seat! We had a good seat though close to the bride and groom, front row. Then we, mum, Scott, Heather, Jared and Camila went and ate lunch at Chuckarama. 

New Years eve was at Scott's again we had a lot of yummy food again and then played a few games and then we had visitors from NZ show up, one of Scott's childhood friend and his family.  Reuben and Dwayne Harris Whanau.