I Love Sundays Especially in New Zealand

Today is the last Sunday here in New Zealand. It’s very bitter sweet. I can’t believe the time has gone by so fast.

The morning began by waking up to experience going to Catholic mass. This didn’t actually happen because we mixed up the times. Instead we just sat inside the chapel and enjoyed the peace and quiet. We then walked around the back of the church and examined all of the tombstones that were there. It was really sad because most of the people that buried there were anywhere from the age of 1mo to 31.

Then we got to go to our church. For the day we were part of a teeny tiny branch.

It was a wonderful experience because not only was it fast and testimony meeting, but we got to be in the same branch as Sid Going (the most famous rubgy player of all time. We met him when we milked the cows back in Whangarei.) and his mother. She was the sweetest lady and she is 104 years old! Holy smokes!

We then went to the Brown’s (a family in the branch that we met in church) home for a fun Sunday afternoon. We brought our own food over to cook and then Brother Brown make some amazing fry bread. Seriously it was delicious.

As a initiation right into their home you have to introduce yourself. So, we stood on a handmade coffee table by Brother Brown. I stood up with Brooke Cannon (a friend from high school) and introduced ourselves as the Brooke’s and sang You Are My Sunshine.

Then they had an older daughter that had a funny daughter of her own. She worked at the Waitangi Treaty museum and told us that she could sneak us in the back. We didn’t want to pay to go in on Friday so we decided to sneak in on a Sunday.

The museum had a lot of really cool things.  There was a giant waka! Wakas are the warrior boats of the Maori people.

We also got to go into the Mori which is a meeting house for the Maori people.