Sunday Fireside

Today was a successful Sunday!  We walked to our new church building which is only about 25 minutes.  Heidi, Anna, Christine, and I were all asked to start helping in the Primary of this ward :)  We're glad that the bishop is using us as ward members for the next few months.  The four of us were also asked to sing at a youth fireside at our old ward this evening.  The four of us sang the EFY medley with the missionaries that are serving in this area.  We put it together last minutes and it wasn't perfect but it was a really neat experience.  That song always invites a sweet spirit.  I loved getting the chance to be part of the fireside for some of the strongest youth in the church.

One of the speakers of the night gave a talk with 10 tips to help the youth survive their teenage years.  I think these things apply in my life still though.  But I want Garret, Becca, and Kib to read through this list and write it down somewhere so you can remember them :)

1. Identity- find out who you truly are and know that you are loved so much from your family and the Lord.
2. Honor thy father and mother- our parents have a wealth of knowledge and always have our best interests at heart!
3. Chose good role models- pick out characteristics of people you want to emulate
4. Get you patriarchal blessing
5. Chose good friends- make sure they are always uplifting and bringing the spirit to your life.
6. Develop your talents- I know us Bringhurst's have so many its hard to chose which ones to work on :)
7. Keep a journal!
8. Serve a mission- I'm so excited that you're turning in your papers soon Gar!  And Becca and Kib keep the thought in your mind about a mission but for now you can be a missionary at school
9. Understand and use the power of prayer
10. Develop a testimony

I thought these were some good ideas that were shared tonight!

Last Week of School!

This week was a very exciting one because it happens to be Dad’s Birthday Week!  I just want to remind him again how amazing I think he is!  I am so lucky to have the world’s greatest dad!

This was my last week of school!!!  I am done with my winter semester of classes! 

I'm going to miss our fun lunch breaks sitting out the grass outside the church building.  

But I won't miss the 45 minute walk to school every morning and home every afternoon.  We decided to try and save money and get a little work out by not taking the bus to school each day but it was definitely a long trek.

We have been studying social studies and science for the past six days.  It has definitely had more work that most of the other courses we have been taking.  One of the best parts about this week though has been the science experiments we get to do every day.  A few of my favorites are
- Making bishop paper airplanes

-Putting 6 sided metal nuts into balloons and swirling it around to hear the noise it makes
-Standing on upside down tables with balloons underneath to support us.

-Making chemical reactions while we try to make hokey pokey

-Making rockets
-Dissecting flowers and food
-Making explosive volcanoes

We also have had some amazing discussions in our social studies class about helping students become active participating citizens.  We learned about the story of a boy named Iqbal that was one of the most life changing stories I have ever heard.  To make a long story short there was a boy named Iqbal who was from Pakistan.  His family was very poor and had to sell him for the equivalent of $12 US dollars.  Iqbal was sent to a carpet factory where they bonded and force children to make weavings and carpets all day long.  The men would have children do this work because they have little hands.  They wanted to keep the kids as small as they could for  as long as they could so the kids were barely ever fed.  The children were literally chained to their work and were beaten if they made any mistakes in their weavings.  At the age of 10 Iqbal escaped this horrible place and began speaking out and rallying against child slavery.  How amazing this that a 10 or 11 year old boy leading protests.  Eventually he was even able to travel to the US to speak at meetings and schools about the seriousness of the issue of Child Slavery.   He touched the lives of many with his words and strong will to fight for this cause.  Eventually he had to leave the states and go back to his home land.  Many people asked him why he was going back to a place where he was now in great danger.  He was making the child labor industry unhappy with how much support he was gathering.  Iqbal’s reply was that he had to go back to finish the work that he started.  Soon after he returned home he was riding his bike near his house and he was shot to death.  At 12 years old this boy had done an amazing amount of good with his life, and then sacrificed his life for what he knew was right.  There were schools that rallied together to gather money to have enough to build eight schools in the middle east.  What an inspiration to get involved and realize that there is so much more we can do to help others around us.

Thursday night some boys from our YSA took a group of us out to see a place called Devonport which is a war dug out battle places from World War II.  The sight was built on a beautiful hill overlooking the ocean.  

There were giant cannons placed on top of the hills and secret dug outs and tunnel caves throughout the hill side.   It was amazing to think that this was set up and built so many years ago to help protect their nation and now I was walking through it all.  

We ended up climbing up one of the biggest cannons and going to the top of the hill side that over looked the major city part of Auckland!  It was such a beautiful night!

I have to show a picture of the transportation we had for the night.  It was this sweet yellow van that had curtains in each of the back windows, that we packed everyone into.  We were driving in style that night for sure!

On the way home from Devonport everyone was hungry so we stopped at a Wendy’s.  They have Wendy’s here ha, who knew!  The drive thru window was the craziest thing because you feel like you are going through completely backwards because the drivers seat is on the opposite side.  It was pretty fun!  But they don’t have the wonderful dollar menu like we do at home.  Here it is the $3 value menu.  Disappointing.
 Christine and I both got viruses on our computers last week and we each had to pay about $175 to get them fixed.  So we decided to save our money and not eat with everyone else.  But when we got home we realized that we were starved.  So we crept into the kitchen to not wake up Phyllis at mid night and brought ourselves a cereal snack to our room!  Such a great way to end a fun night!

Friday night was girls’ night out for dinner with Phyllis and Christine and a buffet called Valentines!  We had an assortment of every kind of food imaginable.  We spent an hour tasting everything there and really getting to know the dessert counter.  Phyllis really knows how to party with us!  It’s been really fun to spend dinner with her every night because even though she is reserved and not super open we have been able to get to know her and learn about her amazing life a little bit.  She really has accomplished so much.  She was a doctor, did a medical mission for her church for 12 years in India working at a leper colony, got married at age 52, and now is a school Chaplin at the local elementary school.  She said that she had an amazing job, a wonderful marriage, everything she ever wanted except for her own kids.

Saturday was an activity filled day.  We started in the afternoon with a few hours at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.  

There were three levels to explore.  The first was the cultural part.  We were able to watch a traditional Maori performance.  They used poi balls and did a Haka for us.  

There were also huge long canoes, carvings, and traditional homes.  The detail of the walls and art work was very impressive.

 I may have secretly loved one of the performers that we saw during the show :)  I had to get a picture with him.  He told me to try to make my eyes really big how the girls in the show were, so I did my best!

 The next level of the museum was all about the New Zealand land.  It talked about all the volcanoes around, the animals, bugs, and plants.The traditional kiwi bird was one of our favorite displays because of how much we had talked about them in class.  

There were also some animals that are now extinct that use to live on the island.  There was also a giant shell fossil.

  The top floor was the memorial for the wars that New Zealand has been a part of.  There was a hall dedicated to the names of the thousands of people that died throughout those wars.  It was interesting because on our way home some of the girls and I got to talk about the museum experience on the ride home.  This floor of war information was covered in tons of names of people who were fighting and died.  The WWI museum gave a pretty good description of the men that were used as the main combat weapon coming face to face as certain confrontations occurred.  War is such a horrendous thing and yet some how we think that the fighting will fix our problems.  In fact its hard for me to fathom that people were so mad towards each other and there were enough misunderstanding that would allow for all these terrible things to take place.  Even when we read in the Book of Mormon there are wars that wipe out entire nations.  It is amazing that people let anger lead to such violence.  Even in our lives when people let frustration lead to hurtful words and actions towards one another as if that is the best way to solve problems.  Any ways I'm not sure if these thoughts all make sense.  And through out this part of the museum I could not fully comprehend what these soldiers and nations during the times of intense war went through and suffered.  But my heart goes out to them and I hope that people throughout the world can learn from these devastating events from the past.

After, we went to the Kelly Tarleton exhibit to see the ocean animals.  At the beginning we got to watch the HUGE sting rays being fed.  I had never seen one this up close before.  The boy who was feeding him was telling us all about these sting rays.  He said that if you get bitten by one it feels like getting your hand slammed into a door.  But yet he was just right in the water with them. 

Then we got to go through this tunnel that shows you all the penguins they have there.  There is a place on the south tip of the South Island in New Zealand where people leave to go explore Antarctica.  

We watched a short film and walked through an exhibit that talked about Shackleton, one of the first groups to try to explore Antarctica. 

After that we walked through one of those clear tunnels that have the fish and sharks swimming over and around us.  

I'm still shocked at how big most fish are.  The only fish I really ever see in my life fit in small tanks in peoples homes.  But I have begun to understanding that there are a lot of BIG fish in the lakes and especially the oceans that I swim in.  I don't really like this realization that I am having.
 Then we had the opportunity to stand next to a skeleton of the jaw of one of the largest sharks ever found in the world.  Just its jaw towered over me.  This was not the most comforting thought either.

 This yellow guy was my favorite fish that I found here!  He almost looked fake!

 Then in one of the cages we got to see peronna fish that come from South Africa.  I could see their teeth when I looked up close

Today was too much to take in.  I really needed a week to truly explore all the things that we saw today.  But it was fun to be with all the girls and see important parts of New Zealand history and what its known for here.

For everyone who is reading my blog, specifically my grandmothers, I am flying out to the South Island Monday morning (Your Sunday morning) for a week and a half trip!  So I won't be posting on my blog for a little while!  But don't worry about me I'm being safe!  And Grandma Patti I'm still making my bed every day and keeping my room clean :)  LOVE YOU family!!!

Kayaking Weekend

Thursday after school Whitney suggested a great idea… Group work out video- thank you Jillian Michaels!  With Jillian Michael’s (from the biggest loser) work out video all 16 of us stayed after school at the church to get an extra good work out.  We were quite the sight.  But we could feel it in our calves the next few day, we got worked!  There is no other bond like the one that comes from sweating together as you dance along with a video!

Friday night the BYU American girls decided to attend a big YSA (young single adult) activity!  It was called a Milo-Side.   Milo is a warm drink that they like here that is similar to hot chocolate.  When we got to the milo-side to our disappointment we found that the milo had been replaced with soda because the soda was cheaper ha.  But besides the switch in treats the activity was great!  We started out with games and a little “mingle jingle.”  We have a friend from our ward that calls the social interaction at these activities mingle and jingling.  He is probably one of the biggest guys I have ever seen but so nice and is always entertaining us.  After the games we had our first New Zealand Dance Party!!! I was so excited to dance with all my girls but I was a little bit shocked how shy the New Zealanders were at dancing.  It took some forward American girls to get a few of the guys to dance.  Our friend Daniel, who is from Zimbabwe and a few other Kiwis joined us occasionally.  But all the study abroad girls could have had fun even if we were the only ones dancing the whole time!  The girls I’m with are so great!   We do have one really great friend that we have made with the YSA named Natalie who was showing us a few moves and helping us get some of the kids to come dance with us!  She is also been so sweet to help get us to all the YSA activities, she is going to introduce us to New Zealand music, and were hopefully going to explore the main city part of Auckland with her soon.  After the dancing we got the chance to listen to some of the most amazing musical talent I have ever heard.  There were about 10 performers from around the North Island that sang and played live for us.  There must be something in the Kiwi blood but it was a extraordinary performance.  One of my favorite numbers came from a group of about four guys.  They walk up to the stage with their gangster clothes on, hats backwards, and they sing a unique version of  one of the hymns, and I was blown away.  There was such a strong spirit that they brought to that event through their musical talent.  Over all the activity was a success and were starting to fit in with everyone a little bit better.  Actually maybe not fit in, but they are starting to accept us into the YSA little by little.

Saturday Phyllis took Christine, Whitney, Emily and I on a kayaking adventure along the Puhoi River.

  The weather was overcast but perfect temperature for our two hour trip along some of the prettiest scenes I have ever seen.  The pictures that I took don’t even give it justice.  We had to time our journey down the river just right because of the way the tide was.  While the tide was high the river has enough water and current to help us make it towards the ocean.  Only a few hours after we had finished our kayake ride the water was so low in the river you could have walked across and only gotten your feet wet.  Phyllis was so impressive on this trek!  It was an arm work out for sure but she did pretty well at staying right with us and even passing me and Whitney up a few times!  We had a few troubles with running into the side or running into trees but overall no injuries.  It was so peaceful and serene as we listened to the birds around us and taking in all the amazing hills and plants!  It was the perfect afternoon.

Then Phyllis had a surprise for us for lunch.  She took us to this Cheese Café.  It was full of different kinds of aged cheese that came from different animals… kinda weird ha… but interesting.  I have never been into knowing and tasting different cheeses but it was a new experience.  The food was great!  I split this huge plate of Nachos with Christine and she split her penne sandwich with me.  Her sandwich was a big on the skimpy side but it was the whole experience that we enjoyed!  

On the way home from our adventure we took a more scenic route along the northern coast.  It started raining a bit but we still hoped out to walk out onto Long Bay.  

I have a new favorite thing to do… be on the beach when it rains!!  It was so beautiful and you could really smell the ocean.  Surprisingly there were quite a few people still swimming out in the ocean.  I found some of the most beautiful shells and I started collecting some of my favorites!

Christine and I got the chance to cook dinner for Phyllis that evening!  We made breakfast for dinner with eggs, hash browns, toast, and bacon.  It was a success and I think Phyllis liked the break from cooking!  After cleaning up dinner we sat down to watch one of the best New Zealand films I have seen yet, it’s called Whale Rider.  This movie was about this Maori tribe and some of their ancient beliefs. 

It’s been a really good week and only one more week of classes to go!  A week from Monday I will be flying down to the south Island and then a week and a half later I will be teaching at the primary (elementary) school!