Monday, March 20, 2017

Hiking and Serving

On Monday we decided to try the 40 minute hike to Cathedral Cove. It was a beautiful day. The drive is about 45 minutes to the parking area and you have to arrive early to be able to get one of the 20 or so spots available. Otherwise you have to park about 2 miles away and hike up to the trailhead. You know those trails where the beginning is steeply downhill and you keep thinking, "All of this downhill is going to be uphill coming back...". That's this one. Here's a picture of a flat spot in the trail:


The best thing about the experience though is the beauty that awaits at the end of the path and here is that view:


This is probably the most crowded beach we've been to yet so the next time we'll go even earlier. This was taken about 10:00 or so. Here's the inside of the arch:


It was so worth the effort to get down there, even the 100 or so stair steps at the end.
The rest of the week we kept busy with visiting and serving. Monday evening was our opportunity to drive meals around to people but we were saddened to hear that one of the ladies had died of a massive stroke since we last took her meal to her. She had been confined to a wheelchair as she awaited a total knee replacement (the socialized medicine here has a long waiting list for such surgeries). After the deliveries, we washed dishes and got to know the new lady in charge, Tanya. It was Val's last day. :(
  On Tuesday, I had a meeting to begin cutting out the fabric for the grocery bags. There were about 12 people in attendance so we got started off with a bang. One couple that showed up even have an industrial cutter so that'll make things a lot easier. While there, a lady came up and asked me if we could help in their community garden. So, we got to do that today. It's a beautiful little spot where they grow things to give to the needy and they also give salad stuff to the soup kitchen. We loved digging around the dirt and we only dug up a couple of things that weren't weeds. 🙊 On Thursday, Elder O'Neal and the young elders, taught the last prebaptism lesson to the two young girls. Their baptism is scheduled for Tuesday and they want Elder O'Neal to baptize them. We're so excited and hoping that we can continue to fellowship them and get their parents ready for baptism as well. The baptism will be in a lovely pooled area of a creek on the way to Coromandel so I'll include pictures afterwards. When Elder O'Neal and the Branch president went over to check out the area on Friday, there were also lots of mosquitoes in residence so I'm getting the repellant ready! And the baptism clothes fit so that's all ready too. Great week coming up!   Kia Ora Elder and Sister O'Neal

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