On Saturday, August 29, 2015 we headed to Hamilton for Reed's first official carving lesson on Maori Carvings.  Ash Puriri is a Master Carver and agreed to teach Reed.  He works out of this storage shed by the side of his home.  Reed loved it and learned a lot.  Ash is the brother of one of our Self-Reliance Managers, Arama, and went with us a couple of weeks ago to Hastings for some meetings with Stake Presidents and Self-Reliance Specialists.  He showed us some of his carvings on Marae's in Hastings and told Reed he would teach him so here we are.

Reed took home a practice board and is getting pretty good.

We headed to Hastings to speak at an Education Fireside for youth and parents at the Hastings Stake on Sunday the 30th.  What a beautiful drive.  It is coming into Spring here in New Zealand and the blossoms are gorgeous.

Thursday, September 3, 2015 we went with some other Senior Missionary couples to the Circus.  Just down the street from where we live is a big open field and a Big Top Circus went up one day and then for two weeks they did performances so we decided to check it out.

It was amazing how big the inside of that tent was.  They had a big performance area and then about 8 rows of bleachers.  The performers were all young people and they did a great job.

These young boys climbed up these polls so quickly and then jumped back and forth and turned upside down.  The kids moved all the equipment and did all the performing, we never saw an adult.

They were so strong.  The oldest looked about 20 and the youngest looked about four or five.  They performed for two hours with a 15 minute intermission.  The lights were low so the pictures are not the clearest.

These young girls literally bent in half.   My back hurt for them by the end of the night.  Imagine doing this four nights a week.  Their bones must be made rubber!

This was hard to believe a body could do this.  These three girls did this over and over that night.

They were pretty amazing.  We kept praying none of them would fall or get hurt.

This girl and young man were kind of like the Prince and Princess of the night.  The balance and strength of these young people was awesome.

They were very entertaining.  They even had some comic relief between acts.  But they never spoke in English.

Not only are the holding each other up and balancing here but they are all spinning these cloth circles on their arms and legs.

These little boys kept bending themselves and performing different things inside these tubes.  We can't imagine how they can bend their bodies like that.  They were very cute and very strong for such young boys.  These three looked like the youngest in the company.

Below they are taking their final bow.  You can see their faces and see how young they are.  We are very glad we went.  It was very entertaining.

It was called the Zirka Circus.  After two weeks they dropped the Big Top, packed up their trucks and left.  Now you cannot even tell there had been a Circus with all those trucks, trailers, Circus Tent and people there.  Things grow so quickly here because of the rain and climate. 

A lot of our work is done on Sundays and in the Chapel so it is hard to post pictures and blog about that.  Hopefully you enjoy seeing some of the fun things we are able to do and beautiful places we are able to visit.  New Zealand is a very beautiful diverse country.  We feel so blessed to serve here.  Until next time.  Love Elder and Sister Spencer (aka Reed and Nada