STAKES OF ZION

A new stake in Zion has been formed and we were blessed to be there for it!

The Dunedin district was formed 124 years ago in 1892. It was the oldest district in the world and finally became a stake on Sunday the 17th of April, 2016. I'm sure it was hard for those early saints to project into the 1900's more or less the 2000's! Yet through years of sacrifice, faith, and work the desire of thousands of saints and their prayers finally became a reality.

 When the church drew up the plans for the chapel in Dunedin they had actually started laying the footing stones before the building plans were sent to Salt  Lake. When President David O. McKay saw the plans he wrote back to the brethren to tear out the footings and replace them with footings for a stake center sized building and that is the building we met in and organized a stake in! As a side note, President McKay also saw a vision of a temple for the South Island of NZ when he dedicated the Hamilton temple. So we are one stake closer to fulfilling that vision. 

President Mitchell was the District President for a total of 15 years. He had a break of a few years while serving in the Hamilton Temple Presidency. When he was made District President again, 6 years ago, he was given this stake by the Pacific Area President for them to pound into the ground when they became a stake.

Meeting over and time for hugs hand shaking.

Since so many saints had to travel so far, over 5 buses from different areas, lunch was provided so no one would have to eat out on the sabbath.

It had been drizzling rain until the services were over. The sun broke out over the chapel and it stopped raining as the doors were opened to go outside.

For those of you from Utah and multi-stake areas, it is hard to express the emotions felt by all those in attendance. This was a truely historic and spiritual event for these saints. Many tears were shed, not only in the congregation, but also by the speakers. Every since we have been here, every sacrament opening prayer seems to mention the coming stake, it has been mentioned in every branch council meeting, and every correlation meeting. The building was full to overflowing by those in attendance and they were the most diversified group of saints we have ever been around. It was a beautiful thing to see. Surely HE is a respecter of no man and loves us all!

An interesting story about the new Stake President, President Smith. He was from Canada and serving a mission in NZ 20 years ago. He had been transferred to Dunedin for a few weeks and had met with the District President-- yes, President Mitchell the one above with the stake in his hand. He had moved here some years back, teaches law at the university, and was the Dunedin Branch President.

Some boundary changes took place which will have an impact on our work here. Timaru, a town about 50 miles north of us, was moved from the Christchurch stake to our stake. In doing so, Timaru became part of our mission district. They realigned the mission district lines and we are not part of the Dunedin district any more but have become the Oamaru district. We now have the Timaru ward to help out besides our two wards here in Oamaru. We will be starting an English class next Wednesday here in Oamaru and may drive up to Timaru for that also. So now we are teaching at institute class on Tuesdays, English classes on Wednesday, and Addiction Recovery on Friday's

Here is a picture of the last time we would be together as the Dunedin mission district.

We are going to miss those Dunedin Elders and Sisters HEAPS.

After that meeting at our house we took the Sisters out to lunch at our favorite eatery, Riverstone.

Sister Lotua from American Samoa, and Sister Andeson from Famington, Utah.

We recently had a zone conference in Gore where we were in charge of the opening song. Alecia had us all stand and sing "Armies of Helaman"

This is a picture of the last District Training in Dunedin.

Back in the first part of March we had a great DT at our house. Several of these missionaries have. either been transferred or completed their missions.

Elder Morunga's goodbye card

Sister Gabler's goodbye card 

Just before Elder Mendoza was emergency transferred, (that broke our hearts), he baptized this young man with Elder Simpson.

Not all work and no play. We took a weekend trip to scenic Queenstown and had a really good time. 

Water taxi from our hotel to the town center

Watching a sidewalk "show".

Riding the gondola up to the lookout.

Cool shades

View at the top

We really had a good time that day. We had to climb several dozen stairs and walk a steep grade for several blocks to get to the start of the gondola ride. That really did it in for Alecia's polymyalgia. It kicked in big time that night and we had to do room service for dinner. We drove the 31/2 hours home the next day and she was layed up for the next two weeks.

Speaking of her polymyalgia, I gave her a blessing not too long ago. While doing so I felt the presence of her father there with me. Unbeknowst to me, she was also feeling him. During the blessing I announced his being there with us. After the blessing she asked me where he was standing and I indicated, "right there on your left". She was kinda checking her experience out and with tears said that was exactly where she had felt him. That was a tender mercy for us at a very needed time. We know our departed loved ones are watching over us. Who is your guardian?

Well, fall colors are starting to show here as you go into summer. We have had a beautiful fall so far.

Goodbye for now. We want you to know that we have had so many tender mercies given to us and so many special missionary moments which have made it all so worth the mission so far. We want to leave you with our firm testimony that we know this is the true church with all the keys and ordinances for all of our salvation; the Book of Mormon is scripture from our Father in Heavn, and we are lead by our Savior Jesus Christ through His prophet Thomas S Monson. We love you and look forward to our reunion in 8 months.