I am standing on the bridge of the Mataura River, which is the river that runs through Gore and the town of Mataura and other places then out to the ocean, which is about an hour from us. Grandpa has said several times that they don't have rivers like this iin Utah. This is wide and is not in the gully of two mountains. Formerly it has been the brown trout capital of the world but the creeping pollution from sheep and mainly dairy farms has caused it to have a rather tarnished reputation. Not just the farming industry but a small number of people have found the river convenient to dump their trash rather than drive it to the dump. That is being blamed on the increased cost of dumping prices... No one likes human trash in their river.

Grandpa's fishing buddy in Bountiful knew of the reputation of the Mataura River in New Zealand and was so happy for dad to come fishing here. He has not and probably will not. The season closes in a couople of weeks and to rent equipment would be prohibitive and he is not goin g to borrow either. So...I have encouraged him but he isn't. We thought we would see many more fishermen than we have. I have seen 3 the entire time. However, we are in the city and they could be fishing elsewhere.

We are looking up river and it flows under me and out to the town of Mataura, for which our Branch was named. It runs behind Gore and you can see the industrial part of town with the colored tin rooves and the town proper is to the right of those. Main Street has proper shops for about a block in length and 3-4 off-shoot streets 1/4 block in length with more shops. Tiny town. Just the right size.

What else do you want videos or pictures of? Assuming that I am a fabulously entertaining photographer and you want more of either...hm-m-m.

Love you Mom

This is the toy maker at the Gypsy fair. He lives in a wooden mobile home and he and his wife travel the country selling a vaariety of toys at the fairs. He is here, busy, sawing a piece of wood to turn into a toy. He had wonderful toys like pirates swords, elastic shooting guns, tops, etc, plus decorative art hangins, all from wood. Did you notice his bare feet. This machine is powered not by electricity like most things are, but it is powered by his feet rocking the pedal back and forth and the big gear spinning, moving a belt attached to the blade, to make the blade of the saw go up and down. That is how things were done in the olden days. I used to have a sewing maching when I was a girl that had a pedal like his which moved the needle up and down instead of electricity! It also had a large gear that moved a belt just like the toy makers.

This video is taken at the Cathedral Caves on the beach. The ocean is at low tide so we can walk on the beach. When it is at high tide, we would be standing in water. You can enter one cave and come out the other one because they are connected at the back, like a giant letter "U." It was fun. When the ocean is churning alot it can wash away the sand floor of the caves and reveal the big boulders at the bottom. When this happens it is dangerous for people to try to crawl over the boulders to get inside the caves so they close the caves and wait until the sand base, which is about 5' gets built up again. Interesting.

Love, Granny

Grandpa has his wood stacked according to the month it will be used. We hope we have enough for autumn and the beginning of winter plus some for the next occupants.

All of the school children whether young or old wear a school uniform. All of them are different but this the elementary school near our home. If the kids attend school in a rural elementary school there is no uniform but they wear one when they go to highschool. They are usually a wool skirt for the girls and the guys wear long wool soxx and knee shorts. I really like them. The warm weather uniform changes to something lighter.

Grandpa is raking up the clipped lavender. We are at the church; the building is to his right and Gore's Main Street is behind him.


I wish I knew a bit more about mushrooms. I remember somewhere learning that poisonous things in nature are usually red, to act as a warning. These are sure cute. We fell in love with how fun they look. The Mataura River is in back of Jack.

We love you guys,
Love, Granny

This is one of the videos from the Crankup at Edendale...it takes forever to load these, ahem. How do we do it to YOUTube, which seems so fast, anybody?

The first one is how they carry the sheep from the holding pen to the shearer or once he is shorn backk to the holding pen...

The second one is several shearings going on.

Hope these work.

Auds, you and Cam looked fabulous! and good news re: the residency! Yahoo!

Love everyone who reads this, Auds, Jax and Abe...

We attended the Crankup Festival yesterday in Edendale. It was displays of vintage tractors, Mini Coopers, VW's, cars then several live performances from pipers to Dixieland. They have bizare competitions i.e. hay rolling, tractor pulling and then the best was the vintage shearing demonstration which I have videos to show you.

It rained off and on, mostly on all the time we were there and we had a single, single-person umbrella for the 3 of us. We got a bit wet but eventually dried. Lunch was an "American Hot Dog" which wasn't too bad but it was boiled as were the accompanying onions. Then, wow, we went to the "fried bakery" and had a cherry tart which was fried dough with cherry pie filling! So good...I almost ate two. Now I wish I had another one!

We had a great day. We took Helga (burnt granny) with us and spent the day...

videos following. Actually, I will load the videos later. Mom

Our Branch visitors, sent to us twice monthly to break the monotony of just "us" for Sacrament Meeting, brought their 4 darling children aged 9 to 1 1/2 years with them to Church. The parents were the speakers and as mom stood up to speak I whisked the baby from her arms and took him outside where we had a great explore for 45 minutes and was as happy as could be dropping tiny pebbles down a watermain cover. I came in just in time to hear the testimony of the dad and play the closing hymn. Jack said that both of their talks were great and referred to Sister Smith's talk on "forgiveness" several times during his Gospel Doctrine lesson.

It was our Pot Luck luncheon after Church today and as unimaginative as tuna fish sandwiches are, those plus chocolate chip cookies were my contribution. The sandwiches were eaten by both young and old and no longer is my "self concept" damaged by gorumet dishes that aren't eaten. For months I made pilaf, which was a huge success, but cleaning up the rice mess on the floor created by the children got very old and I switched to sandwich quarters. We always have Pavlova and triffle amongst the desserts.

No more driving lessons for our Fillipino mother until she passses the written driving test. We set her a date for March 15 to be prepared for the test...

Our week has been eclipsed by the help that Helga has needed after returning home from the hospital to nurse her burns. Though she is provided a home nurse to bandage her hands 3 times daily plus domestic help I have been the back up and spent much time helping her. I have done everything from bathe her to do her laundry. It is really wonderful to be able to help her. She is determined to be as independent as is possible and she is doing very well. Everyday is an improvement.

I have avoided weather commentaries 'cause most of you are being clobbered by a wicked winter but we used our fireplace on Wednesday to battle the cold then three days later we couldn't sleep for the heat. Saturday night it was 92 in our house at 9:00 pm. Our wee island can't capture enough of any kind of weather to make it endure. We are very susceptible to a variety of weather in a single day. It makes it very interesting.

We love you and pray for you...
Love, Dixie and Jack

Though we are few in numbers our spirit is as great as that of General Conference with the Prophet and Apostles. Jack was the sole speaker (and because he was the only priesthood holder when Church began, he also said the opening prayer and adminstered the Sacrament). His talk preparations prompted him to speak on "keeping the Sabbath holy" and it was gentle and powerful. The entire world is suffering for the lack of obedience to God's commandments and in particular the holiness of the Sabbath. Amen. It was a great discourse...The grandmother from South Africa had a terrible accident and "cooked" 3 fingers on her left hand and burned the right hand with smoking oil from a pot, which she, in a panic to douse the flames, applied running water which caused it to explode on her hands. She went to 3 hospitals, remember Gore is tiny and had to eventually be flighted to Christchurch (7 hours north by car), but enroute to hospital #2, she stopped here for a priesthood blessing. With her hands wrapped in glad wrap (new burn treatment) and in a state of shock she exhibited great faith. I just spoke to her in the hospital and she said that she new she would heal after hearing the blessing. The surgeon has already told her that no surgery would be necessary. She is also programing her brain to help her heal. We are being blessed. She is an artist and needs her hands.Mary, my 12 year old Y.W., and I drove to Dunedin on Friday afternoon to join Y.W. in another branch in making gingerbread houses. We had more fun than we were allowed, ate too much candy and enjoyed every minute of it.Our plan was to stop at a second hand store afterwards but between the one way streets and the bay, we never made it to the right street in the 20 minutes we had so we headed home. A detour to a dirt road, caused by a car that was flipped while towing a trailer on the highway, created an exciting time as my car fish tailed at what I thought was a reasonable speed. At one point coming around a bend, heading downhill at a narrow point on the gravel road, with an open trench on my side and a car coming up I experienced a brief moment of panic as we fish tailed again but we were blessed to arrive home safely. We have had some vicious rain storms and the noise sounds like a freight train coming around the bend. Our corrugated roof really enhances the sound effects and I am sure exaggerates it but most storms sound serious and capable of raining for hours. I timed one of these fierce storms...4 seconds. Yup. It does rain hard and long but we have our share of 4 second storms...The Church is true and being obedient to the gospel principles blesses lives. Love each other and take care of everyone...Love, Sister Sloan
hasEML = false;


Jack's harvest of broccoli flower and chopping the stem with a hatchet.jpg

blue hydrangea at the neighbors house.jpg

happy making gingerbread houses.jpg

YW home builders.jpg

looks aren't everything.jpg

daliahs for church

Though we are few in numbers our spirit is as great as that of General Conference with the Prophet and Apostles. Jack was the sole speaker (and because he was the only priesthood holder when Church began, he also said the opening prayer and adminstered the Sacrament). His talk preparations prompted him to speak on "keeping the Sabbath holy" and it was gentle and powerful. The entire world is suffering for the lack of obedience to God's commandments and in particular the holiness of the Sabbath. Amen. It was a great discourse...The grandmother from South Africa had a terrible accident and "cooked" 3 fingers on her left hand and burned the right hand with smoking oil from a pot, which she, in a panic to douse the flames, applied running water which caused it to explode on her hands. She went to 3 hospitals, remember Gore is tiny and had to eventually be flighted to Christchurch (7 hours north by car), but enroute to hospital #2, she stopped here for a priesthood blessing. With her hands wrapped in glad wrap (new burn treatment) and in a state of shock she exhibited great faith. I just spoke to her in the hospital and she said that she new she would heal after hearing the blessing. The surgeon has already told her that no surgery would be necessary. She is also programing her brain to help her heal. We are being blessed. She is an artist and needs her hands.Mary, my 12 year old Y.W., and I drove to Dunedin on Friday afternoon to join Y.W. in another branch in making gingerbread houses. We had more fun than we were allowed, ate too much candy and enjoyed every minute of it.Our plan was to stop at a second hand store afterwards but between the one way streets and the bay, we never made it to the right street in the 20 minutes we had so we headed home. A detour to a dirt road, caused by a car that was flipped while towing a trailer on the highway, created an exciting time as my car fish tailed at what I thought was a reasonable speed. At one point coming around a bend, heading downhill at a narrow point on the gravel road, with an open trench on my side and a car coming up I experienced a brief moment of panic as we fish tailed again but we were blessed to arrive home safely. We have had some vicious rain storms and the noise sounds like a freight train coming around the bend. Our corrugated roof really enhances the sound effects and I am sure exaggerates it but most storms sound serious and capable of raining for hours. I timed one of these fierce storms...4 seconds. Yup. It does rain hard and long but we have our share of 4 second storms...The Church is true and being obedient to the gospel principles blesses lives. Love each other and take care of everyone...Love, Sister Sloan
hasEML = false;


Jack's harvest of broccoli flower and chopping the stem with a hatchet.jpg

blue hydrangea at the neighbors house.jpg

happy making gingerbread houses.jpg

YW home builders.jpg

looks aren't everything.jpg

daliahs for church from the neighbor.jpg

> Is a "9-ring" circus 3 times as busy as a 3-ring> circus? That is what it felt like during Church trying to> keep the grandchild of a member quiet with only paper and> pen which I provided. We did well, but it took everything I> could muster; then teaching the same grandchild and 2 non-> English speaking children a song during Primary; then moving> on to Gospel Doctrine with the same grandchild and paper and> pen, again. I think Church was really nice but I was tired.> > > We drove to Dunedin for a Zone Conference which turned out> to be just interviews... so we took advantage of the> situation and ate lunch at an Indian restaurant and invited> the owner to sit and visit with us. He was> "turbanned", had his grey beard wound in a knot> tucked under his chin and wearing several gold rings when he> shared with us a most interesting story. He is a Shek (?)> (very devout) and told us about a dream he had one night of> Jesus Christ. Prior to the dream occuring he had been to the> doctor for a weeping sore on his back that would not heal. > His wife dressed it daily but for months it persisted with> oozing pus and no improvement. The doctors were unable to> help him with it. In the dream, Jesus asked him 3 times if> there was anything to be done for him. Finally the 3rd time> he replied "only because you keep asking, yes, I have a> persistent wound that won't heal on my back." > Christ placed his hand on his back and he was healed. In> the> morning it was healthy flesh on his back where the> infection had been. True story. We asked if was a Christian> yet...and he said "No," so this is to be> continued...> > Now that we had been filled spiritually we went for> something wild and crazy. We knew that in a wee town> outside of Dunedin there was a dairy (think 7-Eleven) that> sold really great ice cream with hot chocolate sauce (hot> fudge sundae.) We knew because one of the families who> travels to Dunedin from Invercargill to District Conference> twice yearly, stops there with their children to top them> off before arriving on Saturday for the conference sessions.> With the bit of information we had we scoped out the town> of Milton and discovered only two dairies. I had a> delicious but small soft vanilla cone and Jack had an> expensive chocolate cone. Indications were that we were in> the wrong dairy so at the other end of town, 6 doors down> and even on the same side of the street, was the> "Granny's in Heber City" dairy. Well, yours> truly had, for the first time in her life a second cone on> the same day; not only that, it was within 10 minutes of> finishing the> first one. But it was worth it. The cones were 1/4 the> price and 4 times the the ice cream...that makes it a 16> times better deal. Each scoop was the size of two fists> together...Jack had a double and I had a single. Jack says> he learned from me to not wad his napkins but instead to use> one side at a time but the mess he made of himself, his> mouth and hands was no evidence that he had actually learned> how to use a napkin, except in a wad. We laughed and had a> good time. > > One of my service projects is teaching a Filippino how to> rive...Factoring in her poor English skills, zero> understanding of turning, steering, or going straight> coupled with the only car she has ridden is with her husband> who learned to drive with only one lesson and is a hazzard> on the road, it is a miracle we didn't crash. However,> at 3 miles/hour we are always okay. MOre than once we were> heading for a ditch, tree, lampost and she continued> straight for it, sometimes steering in to it. Maybe it is> poor teaching on my part. I will visit that possibility> next time... I had no concept of how much is absorbed by> just riding in a car for 16 years before learning to drive. > > Yesterday in the middle of a cold and gray rain storm we> received a bit of sunlight from our Bountiful Ward. Some of> my darling Primary children had spent time learning of> serving others, like King Benjamin taught in the Book of> Mormon, and had written and drawn things for us. It> brightened everything significantly. Thank you for learning> of service and making us feel so appreciated, missed and> loved. Your thoughts warmed our hearts. We love you and> miss you!> > We are planning a "summer party" for the branch> but our South Affican member is wondering when it will be> summer, so we dropped the "summer" and are calling> it a party! It will be in February...whether it is summer> or not.> > Love to you all,> Love, Sister Sloan
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Happy Birthday Grant! Big guy, you are six years old! We love you! Granny and Grandpa!

Picnic at Kaka Point with families playing games and kids in the water wake boarding.jpg (885KB), The nuggets just beyond the lighthouse..jpg (934KB), Nugget point lighthouse. Looks like the Great Wall of China.jpg (846KB), Yellow-eyed penguin is dead center. He is only 12inched tall....jpg (824KB), In the Catlins...we still cannot pronounce long words..jpg (749KB), The falls with the P. name..jpg (681KB), speed limit sign.jpg (784KB)
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One just cannot improve on the Spirit in Sacrament Meeting...not with dozens of visitors, nor perfect organ-congregational accompaniment nor more members. When the Spirit is there all feel it and little else matters. Our members were back and our visitors were gone and we had a whopping 13, our regulars at Church and it was wonderful. We were asked how we fill the time for Fast and Testimony meeting...don't know, but we do. Our members testify. We even went over today. HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone. All of our noisey neighbors packed up and left town for the holliday and everything was so quiet! We forgot how stressed boom box music can make us. Midnight on New Year's Eve we stood outside and gazed at the stars. I have never seen more stars in my life...not camping, not at Moon Lake no where! Probably because we are a wee island and the light pollution is minimal we could see so many but there were thousands. Jack commented on his crooked neck the next day so I washed a tarpoline and let it dry to spread on the ground for star gazing the following night but at 10:30 p.m. it is still LIGHT! We will have to wait until later in the season for darkness to descend earlier, but I have my plan and a clean tarp!We drove to an area called the Catlins, 1 hour from here, which I visited with Sue, and Sue, we missed the good stuff! Besides people in the water at the Kaka Point beach we saw seal lions and the rarest yellow-eyed penguin, but his back was to us, they are bashful, another light house at Nugget Point with spectarular giant "nuggets" in the water, a waterfall and some really nice scenery. Every road but the main road was a dirt road and we eventually fatigued of driving on them, though they are nicely maintained, we had had enough "dust-breathing" and headed for the local bar for dinner. Yup! That is the only option in the wee towns frequented by trampers who only want to quench their thirst. We had eggs, sausage and chips (fries) and headed home. (The bar was connected to the hotel/restaurant and we ate in the restaurant portion...) We took a shortcut on a dirt road to get home faster!I have harvested our broccoli; shared 2 heads with a neighbor who brings us zuccini, blanched it and froze it. Yum! Gardens grow themselves in NZ! It is nice to have Jack's expertise but I think even I would succeed, no discredit to Jack!Did I mention that we are already on water rationing for the gardens and lawns? We get plenty of sprinkles of rain but nothing really refills the aquifirs, except for the two deluges we had yesterday, complete with thunder and hail. It rained buckets. Usually our storms are 10 minutes and blow on through...rain is good and needed! A member gave us a rolled turkey breast for Christmas. We feel like we have now had Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's dinner... The turkey was delicious and we are licking our chops. It was a sacrifice for her and an indication of the esteem in which they hold the missionaries! We feel loved by all. I hope you feel love from this end because I love you! We miss you! We have had a really nice Christmas and New Year celebration and feel blessed to be here in NZ. The Church is true...and the gospel if the power of salvation for we earthlings. Amen!Love, Jack and Dixie
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