These past couple of months there has been a lot of things happening in Dunedin. The LDS Dunedin District , that we have been in since January, is the oldest District in NZ. On April 17th the District finally became a stake--the second stake on the South Island with the Christchurch Stake being the first stake. This ward, I shall say, has been a great experience for us because it is much different than back in Utah, as a lot of the ward members are converts. We have one ward family near us in Brighton, which is the Solomons. The new stake president is President Smith and he was our branch president. The First Counselor is also from our ward, President Solomon and the sad thing is that he recently suffered a heart attack, but he is fine, but he wants to work still, and so his family needs to restrain him from working until he heals. The YW and YM programs are very great. Right now Manassah Kutia is the YM president, and with Josh Solomon as first counselor. They knew each other from Church College in Hamilton which was set up as Maori technical college. They are young, athletic, and really devoted to the gospel. Cool thing about Josh (they just use first names here) is that every single week he is nice enough to give Martha and me rides to and from Mutual. Josh is half Maori and served his mission in Tahiti where he learned fluent French. In the YW program, Josh's wife Shannon is president, Mannassah's wife Xzenia is First Counselor, and Sister Melanie Taurarii is Second Counselor. Sister Tauraii is an American who met her husband on Facebook, and they fed us awesome Cook Island food a couple of weeks ago. All of the leaders and the youth in YM and YW have been really embracing towards Martha and me through just reaching out and being kind.
We went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Dunedin a couple of weeks ago. It is has been cool to go to the big Dunedin Library and I am currently reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. There is a WW1 war memorial in downtown Dunedin which is typical for all communities in NZ. Sophie and Eliza have a Maori feast called a hangi that is coming up in a little while. We are nearing winter in a couple of months. Though it is very strange weather for almost winter time, because one day it might be very hot , and the next day the weather is cool, and then the next day raining. Even local Kiwis are agreeing that this weather at this time is very strange. We have gone to a lot of local places for my dad's work around Dunedin like Orokonui Ecosanctuary, Sandfly Bay, Invercargill, and the Catlins. In Invercargill we saw Kakapo Chicks. Sandfly Bay we saw some Yellow-Eyed Penguins. Also in Dunedin we saw a rugby game Highlanders vs. Hurricanes. In late June we will see All Blacks vs. Wales at the Dunedin rugby stadium.