The hurrier WE go, the behinder WE get!

The idea for the title of this blog comes from a quote from Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 

which seems to perfectly describe our lives lately!

Don's Birthday was September 2nd and it's the 27th already!  
Well, remember that in New Zealand, we are "Tomorrow"!!!  
We are totally playing "catch-up"!

At least Don was able to celebrate his Birthday with friends!  A Birthday Dinner with the Henshaw's and the Downs; Birthday Games with the Streeter's; A Birthday "Tea" at the office; and even one of the stores in the mall was celebrating!

      

Don's Birthday "Cake" was called Gu - yes, Gu!!!  (It was good Gu though!)

On the Thursday of Don's "Birthday Week" we took an afternoon off and drove to the Hamilton New Zealand Temple, which is about 2 hours south of where we live in Takapuna. 

This Temple was built entirely by church labor missionaries!  The local members supported them with money, food, and lodging.  The temple took 3 years to build and was completed in 1958.  It was the first temple built in the Southern Hemisphere and the second to be built outside of the US and Canada.  According to legend, the Maori King Tawhiao accurately predicted the site of the temple before he died in 1894!  The missionaries in the Visitor's Center told us that the Hamilton New Zealand Temple is an official historical site in this country!

For those of you who don't know about the work we do in our temples for our ancestors, go to lds.org and search "temples"!

There is a beautiful statue of the Savior in the Visitor's Center, which is right across the street.

The Temple is located outside of Hamilton in the countryside.  This is the little town of Temple View as seen from "Temple Hill".  When the town was first built, it was said that every home had a view of the Temple!

    
We went back to this beautiful Temple last Saturday, the 23rd, for our Stake Temple Day  
. . . and the flowers were blooming!  It's Spring here in New Zealand!

There are two things you HAVE TO DO after you visit the Temple - 

Mamas Donuts from the little cart in Temple View and ice cream from Pokeno's ice cream shop on the way home! 

    

 Last Saturday night, on our way home, we took a quick picture from the car of the Auckland Sky Tower as we drove through town.  Most of the time lately (like the quote at the beginning of this blog) we have felt "hurrier" and "behinder"!  However, most of this day, we had been "removed from the world", as we participated in ordinances of "Eternal" consequence.  We had been as close to Heaven as people can get in this life . . . and now, driving through town . . . we were back.  As beautiful as the city seemed to us that night; it can never match the beauty and peace experienced in the House of the Lord.  May we all have that "peace" carry over into our daily lives.

"In the temple of your God you are endowed, not with a rich legacy of worldly treasure, 

but with a wealth of eternal riches that are above price."  

- Harold B. Lee -