"Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars"

Hey guys! Once more I am short on time, so I am sending mostly just pictures. I don't know how many I can send per email, so I may send several emails... 

On p-day we went to some caves they were awesome. On Tuesday I went on a trade off with one of our zone leaders. Other than that we have had some new people or investigators and they are SOLID. We are hoping to have 4 people set for baptism next week. It is going to be awesome! Love you all! :)) (these pics are my first views of New Zealand)

New Zealand Temple

All the Americans in the MTC

MTC District

Obligatory MTC picture

New Zealand Scenery

"Even the Smallest person can Change the Course of the Future"

Hi guys! I really can't say as much as I want, cause I am crazy pressed for time. We are going to a place called Waipu caves and we want to leave in about an hour and we haven't done shopping yet. So just a quick, well-wishing update.

 For p-day we went back to Whangarei Falls and the most recent convert in our ward went with us and he showed us a little faux trail that led to a mini fall and a pool with a stream and oh it was gorgeous. Then me and Elder Palmer went all bushwhack and crossed some crazy stepping stones and it was not the easiest thing ever. Then I went behind the falls two more times, cause it is amazing.

As for the rest of the week, it was good. Nothing of much note except that we mowed a huge as lawn. It was intense. And we had another trade-off, but instead of staying in my area, I went down to Wellsford. It's like the Wyoming of our zone. There's nothing there and what is there is crazy far apart with only sketchy narrow gravel roads to get there. And it is really far away from us. And I had to drive. Which wasn't bad, just different and fun. We also had our wards most recent convert get his patriarchal blessing so that was super exciting!! 

I have had lots of requests and questions about sending pictures. I acknowledge the need and I plan to address it next week, so fear not!! Other than that, I love emailing you guys and hearing from you. Haha! There's a few missionaries out here who never email home. Including my companion. He almost never does, it's funny. Yet, he gets so many packages from the most random people. All the time!! He has gotten one almost every week from someone different every time. Haha! And apparently he even asked people to stop sending them, but I think he enjoys it. It is really fun to tease him about going home, because he leaves in February, which isn't long, but he refuses to admit. He says he's "got ages".

 Anyway, love you guys and I will talk to you more next week! With media that's worth a thousand words too! ;P Be awesome!

-Elder Clayton-

Sam and His District at Whangarei Falls

"Fear nothing! Have peace until the morning! Heed no nightly noises!"

 Life is good! Things are getting a little more repetitive, I don't think I have as many crazy stories. But that's not to say I am not enjoying myself. Because I am. IMMENSELY.

We went back to Mount Manaia. It was still sketchy, if not more so. But I loved it. Both times we went we were on there too long so we had to run down to save time and there is so many stairs. It really does a number on you. But it is cool. Haha! And when you run down, you feel like you are in one of those Nike commercials where the person is just running on a trail in a super green jungle. Then cue logo and "just do it". One of the other Elders, Elder Palmer, and I really like to climb on all the rocks and trees. We just go and find a bunch of awesome places. It's so cool. This last time we went I finally brought my camera, so I will have pictures to send out eventually. :-)

(http://nzfrenzynorth.wordpress.com/)

 After we did Mt. Manaia, we went and did a service project for a less active member of our ward. He tore his Achilles tendon, so he is pretty limited right now, so we mowed and weed-eated his lawn. He was very grateful and it was nice to be able to do something nice for someone and see his gratitude.

 We have a person we are talking to named [Tanya] and she is very interested. Right now she is living with her less active partner who is named [Richard], but they both are feeling like they need the church in their lives so we have been able to teach her and we even were able to give her a Maori Book of Mormon. Both of them are actually fluent in Maori and they are only about 21-22ish, but they are so mature it sometimes feels like talking to 30 year olds. But they are awesome and lots of fun.

They weren't at church, but a LOT of people were there yesterday. It was the fullest I have seen it. It was so awesome and it just made me smile. Other than that, we have just had more of us getting to know people and helping out everyone we can.

 But there is something you will probably find interesting. First: some background. So New Zealand has two big chocolate brands. Cadbury and Whittaker's. Cadbury is Australian and basically an equivalent of Hershey's. But Whittaker's is only in New Zealand. I don't like their white chocolate that much, but their milk chocolate is AMAZING. Now New Zealand also has a drink called L&P or Lemon & Paeroa (I think that's how you spell it), but it is fantastic. It is like lemonade but not even close and so good. 

                                               (http://gorgeouswithattitude.blogspot.com/)

But a while ago Whittaker's teamed up with L&P to make L&P flavoured white chocolate. I have tried it and I think it is good, but apparently when it first came out, it was HUGE. And now, Whittaker's has done it again. They have teamed up with, apparently, "New Zealand's best milk" to make a Whittaker's chocolate milk. And people are going crazy over it. It reaches shelves at 11, and when it first came out, it was gone by 11:30. It never even reached the shelves. They had to limit the amount people could buy to 2 containers a person. And people have been trying to trick the system. It costs 6.50 for a container that's not even a quart, but people are still trying to get as much as they can! I also heard that people have started selling it on-line for a ceiling of 1,000$, and it's getting BOUGHT!!!! So we are going to have to try some and I will tell you how it is. Because everyone who has tried some has said it's very much worth it. So yes we are very desirous to try for ourselves. There's three main supermarket stores here: Countdown, Pak'n'save, and New World. It is only at the latter two because Countdown is Aussie owned. It will get there eventually, but not yet. So it's so weird how big this is!!

(http://lollyaddict.blogspot.com/)

Anyways, on that note of amusement, have a good week and stay the awesomest!! 

-Elder Clayton-

"Dwarves' Tongues Run On When Speaking Of Their Handiwork, They Say."

HAI GUYS!! How are you? I can't hear your responses, but I hope they are good!! I have had another good week! I apologize because I forgot my journal again, and it is especially bad this time because I was quite tired this week, and I get forgetful when I am tired. But I shall endeavor to do my best!

 We finally managed to see Wellsford(the companionship in our district that we don't see often) so that was cool. Last p-day (Monday) we went to Mount Manaia. It was awesome. Not anywhere near as high as any of the Colorado peaks, but it was still demanding and sketchy as all get out. It was nice because it was indescribably green jungle the whole way, but it was quite rigorous. There were wooden stairs built in the dirt in a lot of places and I jogged up every single one. MAN that was tough. And the "summit" was nothing close to a peak, it was just this big old rock. Like, BIG. But it was so cool. And like I said, sketchy as all get out. To get to the top, we had to walk under this sloping overhang, with a trail only about two feet wide. On one side was the huge rock, and the other was a gorgeous, breathtaking, indescribable...sheer drop straight down. And then once you got around it, it was basically a sloping rock climb that many people had gone up so it was pretty worn down. But still awesome. And the view was amazing. There's actually two big rocks, but that's the one people go on. The other is like a big rock on a bigger rock. We climbed just the bottom rock and it was crazy. But there were a lot of hand/foot holds because of the volcanic nature of the rock. We want to go back out, but we don't really have cars right now, so I will tell you next week what we do later today.

 Other than that, we have taught some cool lessons. One of the coolest was with a man named John Smith (Ed.: Not his real name.  We aren’t allowed to share names of members or investigators.)  He actually used to be a pro rugby player and he was relatively famous. He is planning on writing a book and you can even google him. But his cousin [Jim Smith] is even more famous. He was talked about in general conference and he is temple president. But anyway, the whole family has been members since, his grandfather I think? He has been less active for a long time, but he is starting to come back and it is WAY cool to see the blessings he is experiencing. Apparently he sometimes has a hard time accepting lessons, but this time he did really well and he said he learned a lot. AND, apparently he even lived in Colorado for a while. He also gave us the two biggest steaks I have ever seen. Not eaten. Seen. And I have seen many things. So they were HUGE. And delicious.

Another cool thing that happened was a Missionary leadership meeting down in Auckland. Usually just Zone Leaders go, but District Leaders went this time too and my companion is a District Leader so I was able to go and learn some cool things. I apologize because usually I send more, but I guess not a lot has happened and like I said, I probably forgot something important, but that's why I have a journal (which I also forgot).

As a side note and just something interesting, we got so many oranges from people this week. I don't know why, but they are amazing, so I am not looking that gift horse in the mouth. OOH I have something else too... We got to do a couple of service projects on Saturday and one was clearing these big trees off a large hill ('twas very manly) and the other was out at that boat I was telling you about and we sanded and stained wood (also...manly.). But they were good. The family on the boat is super cool, but they are less active, so it is really good to get out there and show them that we still care about them. And we do, they are awesome.

Anyways again, I love being happy and I love all of you. Mix the two and I super love when you guys are happy! So stay joyful! (If you aren't email me cause that must be fixed) Thanks guys!! :D

-Elder Clayton-

(Ed.--The pictures are from http://www.mywhangareinz.com/mt-manaia.html because Sam has still yet to send us any pics.)

'It's The Job That's Never Started As Takes Longest To Finish"

And boy have we started! First things first. Last p-day. (Last Monday) After I sent out emails, our district all went over to Whangarei falls. At first, it was not all that spectacular. You didn't have to hike to it or anything. It was just a short walk on some grass from the road. Don't get me wrong, it was gorgeous(you can Google image it), but it wasn't, like, breathtaking or anything. But then we found a trail near it, and our whole district(6 of us. 6 Elders and 2 Sisters, though one of the companionship of Elders lives way far away so we hardly ever see them. Even in district meeting they had to speaker phone call in. So usually when I say district..I mean everyone except them....) went on this hike and followed all the back-trails and we really got in it. Went over fences and everything. That's a strange difference there. Back in the states, if you see and fence or a gate, you stop. Cause you aren't supposed to go there. Here, you just climb over the gate. It's funny. There was actually steps specifically built to allow you to get over a big wooden fence. And it is the same at people's houses too. Almost all of them have these big "you shall not pass" sort of looks, but then you open it and pass anyway. Heh. 

But back to Monday! So we went on a big hike, did some awesome stuff and had a great time. And after the hike, after we got back to the falls, they looked a lot more spectacular. And then I did one of the coolest things ever that was totally on the bucket list. Elder Palmer and I (one of the Elders in the other companionship in our district[that was there], with his companion being Elder To'angutu) climbed on the rocks closer to the falls, and ended up just going all the way behind them and around. It was SOO COOL. I have ALWAYS wanted to go behind a waterfall. And man it delivered. I was wearing Converse, and they do not have the best grip. Ha. So we were slipping around on the very wet rocks. One part we even had to sort of wedge in between a rock and another to climb across. (Nothing dangerous or hard. For Mom's benefit. For everyone else: yeah it was super dangerous there were thousands of alligators and native people were all trying cannibalize on us and the water was actually lava and we both had malaria and had to carry orphans) But we got really wet and muddy. OH, I super loved it. 

And then we went on trade off's with the other Elders that had come to the falls with us. For those of you who don't know, trade offs is when you swap companions with another companion ship. So, Elder Palmer and I stayed in my flat, and my companion went with Elder To'angutu down to his area, or Bream Bay. The reason Elder Fanger went down there is because he is district leader and he had to give a baptismal interview to a girl who got baptized on Saturday and only the district leader can give the interview. It did not go well because apparently her dad was drunk as all get out. Which is not surprising because the Maoris really struggle with substance abuse sometimes. It can be really hard to get people to stop smoking and drinking when they and everyone else have been doing it since they were six, UGH it's frustrating. Anyway, I tangent. So, because it did not go well, the trade off was unusually long(Wednesday morning till Thursday night, they don't usually get longer than 24 hours). 

Neither me nor Elder Palmer knew our area well. So I found a list of people in our ward that we needed to visit and I found a mostly helpful map and we just found people that lived near to each other, we drove out there, and then just walked around a bunch. Both days we did that. Wednesday went much better, but Thursday was good too. Wednesday rained HEAPS. It was torrential. All day. Like it looks like it is going to do all day. But all the days between today(Monday) and Thursday have been way hot. Actually, we were going to hike a place called Mount Manaia(sp?) today, but it is raining. So we will have to find somewhere else. 

Anyway, once the trade off was over on Thursday night, Elder Fanger came back quite sickly. So Thursday night and all of Friday he had a headache, some very minor vision junk, and vomiting, it was not the best condition. But he's all good now. But on most of Friday, he just slept it off (he had permission don't worry), so I just sort of hung around the flat and took care of things. 

We had an appointment with a family around 6 though, so we went over to their house, and it was not completely a house... cause they live on a boat. YEAH. Oh it was awesome. It was a nice boat too. A lot more space than I thought it would have. So yeah, we stopped by, ate dinner, and shared a message. We actually might go help them with some service or something on Saturday. I am actually kind of hoping, and it's actually a strong possibility, that we will actually get to "swab the deck". Holy cow. What's a chore for them, would be so cool for us. All I know though, is if we did, I would have no control over at least humming various pirate shanties. "argh!" 

But it sounds like we may do a lot of service this week, which is both good, and exciting! Saturday and Sunday were both good. Our ward, and actually, its the entire South Pacific area, had a special fast yesterday, and it was mostly for the benefit of a special church meeting that every ward is having on the 30th of November. Mostly, it is going to be all about Jesus, but after that, it is up to the individual wards to decide what else they are going to do. But it is supposed to be something we can invite everyone, both members and non, to some see. I think it is going to be really cool and not something that happens very often. So we are pretty darn excited. 

But when we got home last night, we broke our fast and went all out for dinner. We had lots of meat and eggs and such that we needed to use. So we made some of the most unhealthiest, most densest, most delicious scrambled eggs ever. There was so much sausage (the sausage here isn't as good), bacon (the bacon isn't anywhere even close to near as good as american bacon, it's mostly just like, really really good ham), eggs (12 of em), cheese (it says cheddar but it's white like Parmesan so it's also not as good. Doesn't taste as strong or just the same sort of wonderful), and butter (now that is really good here). Haha!

Actually, speaking of food being better, the food here is great (not in price), but yesterday my companion and I were just talking about food in the states. Mostly doughnuts, pizza, and Taco Bell. They just don't do it the same!  But it is all good, at least the fruit here is amazing. And the nuts are good too. We got a big bag of nuts almost two weeks ago, and she said they were walnuts, and we accepted it, but then we realized that they were not walnuts. They're still really good. We think they're Macadamia nuts. 

But anywhos, it was a good week, and I think it shall continue to be weeks of like goodness! I don't have my journal with me, so anything I missed, I apologize for, and I will either send next week, or never.  ;P Anyway, thanks guys! I love getting your emails and I am grateful for your friendships! Love you all and stay da bestest! :D

P.S.--AH. Ok, just to answer some questions that I have received or that you may not have even known you wanted to know the answer to. Yes they have Halloween in New Zealand, but it is not NEARLY as big. Which is both shocking, and disappointing. Actually though, when we saw that family on the boat, that was Halloween, and they do it mostly cause the Dad is from Canada, and it was kind of themed and nice. But it was kind of sad cause these kids would have their bag of candy and just think they got the biggest haul ever, when really, in America, that would have been like a street. And just an average one, not even one of the biggest ones. But Elder Fanger's family sent us a huge box filled with American candy and some themed decorations. We gave a lot of it to some of the kid's we have been visiting, cause they love to try the American candy they don't have here, but we ate some and already it was nice to sort of touch of home. Man I am sentimental. Hehe. 

I guess I am against the social faux pas just a bit here, because over here it isn't candy, it's "lollies", but I refuse to say that! Haha. My companion and I have talked about it several times. We aren't against the culture, there's just some things we won't change over. Lollies is one of the worst. But there are some other weird ones: Ground Beef=Mince. Soda=Fizzy. Trunk(as in a car)=boot. Hood(also a car)=bonnet. Haha! Those are just a few examples. I mostly pick up the inflections and some other conveniences. I already talked about as meaning more so. But heaps is another one people use. And a lot of people say "bro" here, but it's different. It is in a Kiwi accent, so it just sounds so different. Not in sound, just, it's hard to explain. It is definitely an interesting accent. It's quite soft, but still very recognizable. Quite hard to imitate or pick-up. Course, I can just come home and speak pretty much any accent and not many people will know the difference. ;P Anyway, all that sappy "love you guys" stuff again. ;) :)