October 4th
We took off today for Samoa and it was so fun to be back there again. It was warm and fun to be with our good friends again.
We went to the national PA meeting on Monday, trained the national council on Tuesday then trained the stake directors of Public Affairs’ on Thursday. We were supposed to go to Savaii on Monday to train the other three directors but it was a holiday and we couldn’t get ferry tickets for the return trip.
The native Paul at our new beach

So we just had some fun days on Saturday and Monday by going to the beach with the Squires and the Tolman’s. We went to a beach that we have never been to before called Virgin Cove and it was beautiful. It was one place on the southern part of the island that didn’t get destroyed by the tsunami last year. We just loved it and spent the whole day swimming and visiting.

On Monday we went to another beach that we have never visited and it wasn’t as nice as the first one but it was still fun. We made it back in time to go to FHE with the other senior missionaries. Everyone said they missed us terribly because no one is there to do funny things to make them laugh anymore. Paul was really excited to go snorkeling and he managed to work it in everyday. He is part fish I think.

We were very happy with our time in Samoa. The training went really well and we finally feel that Samoa is on top of the game. They are all trained and the council is working great.

We left for Tonga early Wednesday morning and were met at the airport by our new PA director and two of the other committee members. Lacking a decent meal on the plane, we decided to take them all out for breakfast at our favorite little café “Escape”. Everyone ordered in Tongan except for us and you should have seen their breakfasts. They each started with a large dessert and then had “The Big Breakfast” plus smoothies. We kind of blew our meal budget the first day so we made sandwiches for the next two days.

The senior couples in Tonga(Bain's, Card's, Sister West, Arbon's and Elder Gordon)

We were invited to dinner with the Gordon’s (a cute senior couple) on Sunday and then we were invited to a fireside that evening by the stake president (that we thought was the mission president) we were introduced as officials from New Zealand over the pulpit. The stake presidents wife took the lei off of her husband and put it on me. We felt like we were dignitaries. Then he asked us to come to his high council room where they had a feast set up. The stake president, counselors, and all the senior couples were invited to attend. Boy, do they like to eat. It seems like after every meeting they have a huge amount of food for afterwards. And it was good too.
Monday Oct. 18
We flew to Vava’u early in the morning and it was a beautiful ride. When we could look out the window you could see tons of little islands. Some were inhabited and some not.
We had a great hotel with a balcony that over looked at a beautiful bay. There were dozens of sailboats anchored there and it was a gorgeous setting. They said that we were past the sailing season but I bet there were at least 30 boats in the bay.

We were scheduled to train the 3 Stake PDA’s on Wednesday but it turned out to be just a little bit of a challenge. We thought we were just training the 3 of them but when we arrived at the stake center we found that they had also invited all the bishops (17 of them) to attend our training. Since wards are not involved in public affairs work, we couldn’t figure out why they had been invited. We were told that they didn’t feel like we should fly all the way there just to train 3 people and they wanted to pack the room. Of course very few of them spoke English so it made it a little more difficult to use a translator for everything we wanted to say. I don’t think it was that beneficial for the bishops but at least now they’ll know what public affairs is all about. It went well in spite of the language barrier. We thought we might have some time to go out on some whale watching boats or maybe go for a snorkel but with the tourist season just over there weren’t many people and none boats would take just two people.

Paul's underwater picture
Vava’u is pretty small and there wasn’t much to do. We drove around most of the island and stopped at a couple of beaches but never got our feet wet.
On Wednesday we flew back to the main island of Tonga and when we arrived we were greeted by Elder and Sister Gordon’s who were asked to pick us up because the PA van was already on the way to the other airport to get things ready for Sister Beck’s Arrival. Because of mix-up transportation, no one came to pick us up and we were not able to get a ride to the airport to greet her and enjoy all the nice food they had prepared. Darn.

October 21
The next morning we went to a zone conference with all of the missionaries where Sister Beck was speaking. Before the meeting started she stood in front of the podium and took the time to shake everybody’s hand. When it was my turn I told her that our parents were good friends and that we had been in Uruguay when she was living in Brazil. When she was finished speaking, she stopped by and gave me a kiss on the cheek and told me I was darling. That made up for me not being able to go to the airport.
She was also speaking at a 2:00pm meeting for all priesthood and relief society sisters but I missed that one because it took us too long while getting a rental car and by the time we made it back to the campus I was 45 minutes late. I did go to the 4:00 meeting for all RS sisters and got to listen to her one more time. She is an amazing person; I could listen to her all day. She spoke about guarding your tongue. She said that if a horse doesn’t have a bit in its mouth that it won’t do what you want it to. But if it has a bit it’s obedient and does what it’s suppose to. We need to always keep a bit in our mouths so that we are careful what we say and do.
Paul and I were invited to a dinner with Sister Beck at 5:30 that evening. We couldn’t figure out why we were invited but when we went to the room there were 15 Stake Relief Society Presidents.

The only men in the room were Brother Kaufusi the service center director and Elder Nielson from the Area Presidency. Paul got to sit next to brother Kaufusi and talk football. He’s related to several of the Kaufusi’s that have played for Utah over the years.

This is me, Falaetau (my roommate from church College of Hawaii) Sister Nielson (Area Presidency's wife) and Sister Beck

It was a lovely dinner with gold napkins and lace tablecloths and the flower arrangements were fabulous. At the end of the dinner Sister Beck and sister Nielson were given beautiful gifts made by the sisters. These people are so humble and giving. I just love them. After the dinner, poor Sister Beck had to be rushed out again to another meeting with the Young Adults. She had to speak at 4 different meetings in one day.

The next morning she spoke to the students at the church school and then we were invited to a small lunch for her before she left for Vava’u. Paul and I felt a little out of place again with all of these church leaders so we just tried to remain invisible and not be noticed. It just seems so strange that we are just lowly missionaries and yet we get invited to lunches and dinners with Sister Beck, Elder Neilson (Area President) and the Area Seventy, Elder Fineaganofo. It was an amazing experience for me; I could listen to Sister Beck all day long. She is so inspired and down to earth. I can certainly see why she was called to do that job. It certainly isn’t for the weak of heart or mind.

We left Tonga on Saturday and arrived back in NZ around midnight. When I woke up at 3:30 I couldn’t figure out where I was. We had stayed in two different places in Samoa and 2 different places in Tonga so I was a little confused. It was hard to travel for 18 days and live out of a suitcase but when I thought of Sister Beck’s schedule I didn’t feel sorry for myself. Of course Paul is clowning around with the Elder Nielson. He thought his lei looked like a pizza.

Monday October 25
Thank goodness it was a holiday in New Zealand we slept in and then took a leisure day at the beach. It was a bit cool but I just sat in a chair with a sweater on watching these crazy New Zealanders play in the water.

Sept.

I thought we should start this entry off with a picture of our wall. Since its football season we can't be without our flag flying. Sept. 4th

We had a pretty bad earthquake in Christchurch this morning and they have had several aftershocks. I don’t know what it is about us but everywhere we go they have earthquakes. Jodi said that a doctor she works with wants to know when we are coming home so that he can take out earthquake insurance.

We have been working on a setting up a meeting for Elder Hamula and the President of the Marshall Islands. The meeting and dinner turned out very well and president of the Marshall Islands wants to be a friend to the Church. A few weeks after the meeting the Stake President was at the president’s office to have some checks signed and he told him to sit down and visit with him for a while. He told the stake president that it was the first time he had been involved with our church and how much he enjoyed meeting with our church leaders.

He then asked what he could do to help our church in the Marshall Islands. We now have a great friend there.
A fun side note as Paul was communicating with the mission president about this dinner, he asked Paul if he was related to the Streiff’s in Rose Park at which Paul said he was, and as it turned out he worked with Rick and his father was in the bishopric when he was growing up.

Our next huge undertaking was the MTC dedication. They asked us if we would plan a public affairs event. We decided to invite the ambassador’s or high commissioners of all the Pacific Area embassies . We had to figure out who they were and send invitations from the area presidency. We sent out over 17 invitations but only three said they could attend. As it turned out only two showed up. The high commissioners from Fiji and Samoa both came and it was a great evening. They took a short tour of the building and then we had refreshments in one of the classrooms.

We had missionaries there to greet them from their home country who were serving in NZ, one who had served in their country and a new missionary who was currently training in the MTC to go to their country. We had made up a little gift packet with a CD of the Tabernacle choir, President’s Hinckley’s book, "Way to Be", and a DVD on the humanitarian projects that have been done in the Pacific Area.
The missionaries gave them the gifts packet and a book of Mormon in their language. It was fun to see these cute missionaries surround the high commissioners and visit with them. They were very impressive speaking the ambassador's language and talking about their missions.

This is Mere Tora from Fiji

We then attended the actual dedication and the meeting was so spiritual that the Commissioner from Fiji said that she had never felt such a warm spirit. She was very warm and friendly and at the conclusion of the meeting we ended up taking her back to her hotel. I think we have made a great friend in Fiji.

We decided to take a journey up to Goat Island to see where everyone says the best snorkeling is. It was a windy, rainy and very cold day but there were people in wetsuits going out to snorkel. These New Zealander's are very hardy. I afraid we got too spoiled in Samoa for us to have fun in this cold water.

September 27
We were in charge of family home evening for the senior couples so Paul and I planned a bowling outing. We had everyone make a dozen cookies so we played and ate cookies all night. Paul and I both started out great on our first game but we both went in the toilet for the second game.

This picture was taken on the Tasman sea on a windy day. You can see someone in the background kite surfing. The water was so stirred up that it looked like he was in mud or chocolate milk. Its a black sand beach, therefore the muddy looking water.

August 1,
What a horrible start for the month. The girls were up to Bear Lake for the “Girl’s Week” and on Sunday Beth was dropped and hurt her leg. She wouldn’t bear any weight on it so Natalie knew something was wrong. Jodi and Natalie decided to take her to Montpelier to the small hospital. On the way there they had a blow out and the tire was destroyed. Some kind man pulled over and helped change the tire.
The doctor at Montpelier hospital checked out her leg and at first said that it didn’t look like it was broken. He looked at the x-ray again and decided that it was broken and decided to put a cast on. Meanwhile Jodi called an orthopedic specialist (Drew Van Boren) to ask his opinion. He told her not to put a cast on because it was too soon for child that young due to swelling. Jodi had to tell the doctor to cut the cast off.
He only cut one side to loosen it up and poor Beth was screaming the whole time. They went back to the cabin and Beth slept fine that night.
They decided to take her over to the clinic in Garden City which turned out to be the best decision and a blessing. The doctor cut the other side of the cast to remove it and discovered that Beth’s leg was cut and burned from the blade, all the way down. Poor Natalie and Jodi were sobbing at the site of the blood and the doctor was horrified. They took pictures to document the injury and put a removable splint on her so that they could watch for infection. It’s been a few days now and the cut is not infected so they were able to put a cast on her. She is doing really well and has started to walk with her new cast.
August 8
We have been really busy getting ready for the Prime Minister (John Key) visit to the MTC. We just got another assignment to provide the food. They love dropping these little assignments on the missionaries at the last moment. Paul and I thought about using a caterer but then decided to do it ourselves. We weren’t sure how many people there would be until the day before so it was pretty easy to do for only 5 people.
There are so many places here to get sandwiches and desserts that all we did was pick them up at a local deli and cut them into finger foods size pieces. I made a vegetable plate at 5:30 in the morning because I couldn’t sleep. I don’t know why I worry about such an easy assignment. After all it was just for the Prime Minster of New Zealand.
We got to the MTC an hour early so that we could set out the food in a fabulous manner and after he came and left, we discovered that the food had not been touched, Oh well, it looked nice and the missionaries wolfed it down in no time.

There was a choir of missionaries who sang the New Zealand National Anthem as he entered the building first in Maori then in English. It was beautiful and I got all teary eyed while listening to them. They have such a wonderful spirit surrounding them. After they finished singing the Prime Minister took the time to shake everyone’s hand. He asked them where they were from and how long they have been serving here. He even shook our hands.
After the meeting the Area President gave us a brief summary of their meeting with him. The P.M. was so impressed by the humanitarian, welfare and the job placements centers. Our goal was met!!! It was a perfect end to a perfect meeting.
We had two different reporters there and they were taking pictures, getting quotes and making sure they had the names correct.


The next day we were very busy placing the news releases with several different countries with our pictures of the individual missionaries and quotes from them. .
President Callister wants the area flooded with positive stories about the Church and this should be a good one for each of our countries. We have already surpassed the area goal for news stories for the year and its only August!
This kind of Public Affair work is fun when you have a successful meeting with a great outcome.

Paul likes hanging out with the women. Rosey Nance, PA Gae Pearce PA, Kathy Callister(Area Presidents wife) and Sister Porter( Mission Presidents wife.)
This month has been almost totally consumed with the MTC open house. We were involved in 6 days of tours, taking people through the new building. All of the senior missionaries were involved. We took groups of 25-30 people through every 15 minutes. Our job was taking people into the chapel to see a 15 minute video and then hand them off to the missionaries who then took them on the actual tour.
It was really fun to associate with the young elders and sisters. They are so pumped up about the work and they just shine. Paul found a young missionary, Elder Kafusi, who had just signed to play football for BYU at the end of his mission so of course he had to tease the young man about his decision.
We have a great group of senior missionaries and we really have fun with them. It’s an amazing opportunity to associate with such special people who are here to serve the Lord. I love them all. The Carlston's( Janet and Gary )are from Logan and Elder Nance is from Wyoming.


August 28 Mayor Brown from Manukua City came to the MTC open house and Elder Callister took him on the tour. He seems to be so impressed with the church. Elder Callister was excited about the friendship that has been made with him. I love the way the Lord works.

Sept. 4 2010 Paul and Terry Pearce left at 3am this morning to drive down to Rotorua to do a little fishing. I can’t imagine getting up that early to go fish. They wanted to be on the river by 6am but I guess they took a wrong road in the dark and didn’t get there until 7. Paul said it was 1 degree Celsius when they got there. Paul caught one really nice fish and then it just died. They stayed for another hour or so but didn’t see another fish caught. It was still early, so they didn’t want to come home so then decided to try one of the little lakes they had fished before. Terry misspelled the name of the lake in the GPS and they ended up at the wrong lake.
It looked nice so then stayed and fished for about two hours. Paul said that as he was getting ready to fish a man walked up to him and said, “Fish and Game, Are you planning to use that spinning rod here?” Paul said “Shouldn’t I?” and the officer said those are not legal until Oct. 1. Now that is something that would never happen in Utah or Idaho. The officers there, would just wait for you to start fishing and then give you a ticket and take your pole. Once again they didn’t have the right fly and never got a bit. They did meet a nice senior couple that showed them what they should use this time of year and as they were leaving, the lady gave Paul two of her flies. He said “why thank you and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Her husband said, “I’m glad I didn’t give those to you” and Paul said “me too, because then I would have had to have my friend give the kiss”.

July 1st
We had a meeting today with President Callister to discuss the mayor coming for an Area Office tour. In the middle of the meeting President Callister decided to have a book made up for him all about the church.
He wanted a brief description of all the programs the church does and a picture to go with them. This was Thursday afternoon and the mayor was coming Tuesday. So Friday morning by ten in the morning we had to have the descriptions written and the photos picked because the printer was coming to see how we wanted it all put together.

This is the book we put together.

When Aaron arrived we had a lot of the pictures picked and some of the descriptions done but everything had to go through Elder Callister. He didn’t like some of the pictures and thought our descriptions were too long. So back to the drawing board for us. I found some pictures on the web site and substituted them so that he liked it and we revamped the descriptions and he approved our draft. We gave it to Aaron and he was going to format it and send it to us to approve and then we had to get Elder Callister to sign off on it for the final approval.

Anthony Wilson, Mayor Brown, President and Sister Callister, Ross Cuff and Pat

The mayor was coming at 9:30 so we made sure that everyone he was going to be introduced to was prepared for his visit.
I bought muffins and cut up fruit for the meeting in Elder Callister’s office and had it all set up on his desk. I had the bright idea to make hot chocolate in the hot water heater that heats water quickly. Well, it wasn’t a good idea to do that. When it boiled it gushed out the top and flowed all over the desk. This was 15 minutes before he arrive. I was mopping up hot chocolate off the desk and the floor. What a mess!!! But I got it all cleaned up minutes before he arrived. The meeting came off great and the Mayor was very impressed with all the things the Church does. This mayor is running in the election to be the Mayor of the Newly formed Super City that will include Auckland plus several other smaller cities.

Jodi’s 40th birthday. Tricia and Natalie made a video about her and her life for a surprise party. We had to reenact the scene where Jodi wreaks the car door or actually the two boys who did it. Tricia really went to a lot of trouble. I was laughing so hard that I don’t know how it turned out but Tricia was hysterical.
I feel so blessed that my girls are so close and that they love each other enough to go to so much work for each other. Jodi is an amazing person and I can see why everyone loves her so much.
I only wish that we could have been there to see the whole thing.
Our good friends the Tolman’s arrived today from Samoa, Deb with only a lava lava wrapped around her shoulders.Reed had a long sleeve shirt on but neither of them had a coat. They brought a missionary from Samoa that needed to have surgery here on his shoulder.
I knew they were coming so I had brought a jacket for Deb. She was so grateful for it. We just love them and were so excited to have them stay with us. They did say that they were excited to get out of the heat for a while but I don’t think they expected to be so cold.
I gave Deb some long pants, socks, my merino wool thermals and my fleece PJ”s. she was so excited to be warm. As it worked out Rich (our boss) was out of the office Wednesday and Thursday so we took advantage of it and played with them. We did work a half a day on Wednesday and took them to our favorite Mexican Café. They haven’t had good Mexican food for over a year and they loved it. We then took them to Victoria Park to shop for a while.
Thursday we drove to Rotorua and took them to the luge. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun tearing down the hill. We then went to Hamilton to attend a temple session.

You can see that serving a mission can also be so fun.


We didn’t turn our propane heater on when we got home tonight. It’s the first time since we've been here that we didn't need some heat. But it didn't last long, the next days were cold and raining so we had it back on again. Maybe we are getting used to the cold because I don’t mind it as much as when we first got here. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I wear long johns and three layers on top.

This is how we watch TV. Hats and blankets are a must.
I thought I would write about some of the projects we are working on so that everyone will know that we are actually working hard and not just taking pictures of beautiful places.
For Samoa we are still working on the freedom of religion issue. We are trying to get positive stories about Mormons in the media and working on service projects in the 33 villages’ that still won’t allow our missionaries to preach the gospel. We are also hosting the Head of State from Samoa(president) to SLC. He wants to have a speaking engagments at BYU and BYU Hawaii. We thought we had everything arrange and then he found out that the entire First Presidency wouldn’t be there to meet with him in SLC so now he wants to change or cancel the trip. We are in the process of rescheduling everything to make sure that we have at least two members of the First Presidency there to meet him. Fun, Fun, Fun.
In Tonga we are trying to arrange a meeting with the King to hopefully persuade him to let the church digitalize the records of births and deaths so that we can get Family Search started there. We are still trying to come up with the perfect plan on how to do that. Last month a delegation from Tonga visited the church’s vaults in SLC and was really impressed with how the church does things. A great positive step for us and now we think that with the help of that visit, they will be more receptive to the idea of letting us do their records.
In Kiribati we are trying to set up a meeting in September with the Vice President and Elder Hamula from the Area Presidency. And for his trip to the Marshall Islands we are setting up a meeting with the President of that country.
In New Zealand we are hosting the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, at the new MTC in August. With that it requires us to make another book with all information about our church in NZ. We will be having a missionary choir organized and put together a small luncheon for him and our area president.
We are trying to prepare for the visit of Sister Beck and Sister Cook for their trip to the Pacific. They come in October. Our preparation includes getting bio’s on everyone involved so that everyone knows everything about everyone. We also send the countries Church statistics with the bio’s and some talking points (things we think they should talk about) to SLC for the sister’s so that they will have information about the county, know who they are meeting with, and know what to talk about. It takes a bit of time to gather all that data for them. It’s a good thing they give us a few months notice.
We are also in charge of training for the newly organized Multi-Stake committee which is made up of the 12 Stakes around Auckland and the north areas.
Life is great but with being so busy we don’t have any time to get into trouble.

June 2010

June
We moved back to New Zealand the end of May and Tricia and Lee Arrived June 1st for a conference that Lee was speaking at.

What a fun treat it was for us to have Tricia, Lee, Dallin and MeKenna come for a visit. Of course their plane got in at 5 AM which meant that we had to get up at 4 AM to get to the airport on time. It was so fun to see them. I just love having our family come for a visit. The timing of the visit was not the best for us because we were not completely settled at work or at home. In fact, we had only been in our home for one night before they arrived.

Tricia’s really saved the day for me. All of our things were either still in the boxes or piled all over the kitchen cupboards so she and the kids got busy helped us to move in. When we looked in the cupboards we found lots of mouse poop and they really stunk. I wanted to just pack up and find a new place to live. But Tricia and I pulled everything out of the cupboards, stripped off the old cupboard paper and replaced it with brand new stuff. Boy what a smelly, dirty job. Trish had her whole upper body in the cupboards trying to reach back into the corners to clean out the poop. What a trooper.

Guess what the name is of these falls.?

If you look and Lee and Dallin you could get a clue.

They are called "Fairy Falls"

They are located in the mountains above Auckland. It's a 45 minute hike down into a canyon with over 500 steps. It was a beautiful and amazing place. The hike was spectacular through the mountains and it seemed like the falls went on forever.
When I was taking Tricia and Lee’s picture at the top of the falls, Lee pretended to slip on the rocks and I screamed in horror. I guess I’m still suffering from post traumatic syndrome from when Natalie got hurt in Samoa. Lee felt so bad that he had scared me, he promised not to do any more crazy things.

Lee did a fabulous job on his presentation so now we can just have fun with them.

Pat and Dallin at the conference with Paul and McKenna.

Our fun trip to Hobbiton

They are getting ready to film a new movie "The Hobbit" and are rebuilding the shire. It was so fun to see the little places built into the mountainside and the amazing detail that they do for a three second shot. They told how they found this location while flying over it and they fell in love the huge tree (the party tree) next to the pond. It was amazing how one scene would be filmed here and the next one would be filmed on the south island. We had fun taking pictures and hearing the stories of how everything was done. What a huge amount of money they spent on things that are hardly visible.

Rotorua

It was a cold wet rainy day but we went to Rotorua anyway. We wanted to go down the luge ride. It kept raining but we just decided to go for it anyway. We waited for a small break in the rain , bought our tickets and headed up the mountain. . When we got to the top of the mountain it started to rain so we decided to wait for a while until it stopped or at least let up for a while.





There are three trails that you can go down so when we had a small break we decided to take the longer scenic one first. It started to rain half way down and in the middle of the trail it looked like a small river running down. You had to stay close to the edge or you would get soaked. It was so fun and we all met at the bottom. Of course I was last because I like to look at the scenery and not go like a crazy person. We waited for another break in the rain then we all went on the intermediate trail. It was much faster.
On the last run everyone wanted to take the very fast advanced trail but me. I wanted to take the scenic one again only this time I got behind a small family and their child stopped just before the end so it slowed me down and I couldn't get started again. When I finally reached the bottom Everyone was making fun of me because I couldn't get going again so when another lady came down I told her to hit me to get me started again. We went to the top again and everyone wanted to go again so Paul and I bought a season pass and put four more rides on it. So Dallin, McKenna, Lee and Paul could go again.
When they returned they were all so wet. I went into the bathroom and put McKenna’s sweat shirt under the hand dryer. We were cold and wet but had a great time.












Hulka Falls near Taupo

It was raining and a very dismal day but we made the best of it and went to see an amazing relatively small waterfall named Hulka. The water coming through the falls would fill up 5 Olympic swimming pools in 5 seconds. It was awesome. We then went to see the bungee jump and there were people jumping on this cold wet winter day. These people must be nuts.

Our favorite shell beach

Our Whangari trip, a lovely little sea port town up north. We didn’t get away until around noon that day because of work so we were pressed for time. We didn’t realize how far away it was and by the time we got there we only had one hour to look around. On the way home we had quite the experience. Paul calls it the $500 coke story. As we arrived in Wellsburg Paul saw a McDonald's/gas station and decided that he needed a coke. (What else is new) As we were going in, Paul decided to fill up the church van. So we went to get drinks and Paul pulled over to the pumps to fill it up.

He knew that the Van used diesel so he made sure that he pulled into the proper pump. He jumped out and grabbed the green handled pump and started filling the tank . Just a few seconds into this he looked up and saw that the pump said "regular"as in gas. (in New Zealand, the Diesel fuel pump is Black not green) He stopped the pump and thinking that he had only put in a gallon or two, finished filling the van with diesel.

He asked the gas attendant how much gas could go into a diesel tank without hurting it. The guy told him you could only put in 3 %. He didn’t think that he had put that much in but in checking the pump he found that he had put in 14 liters. The attendant said that if you started your car with that ratio in it, the engine could be ruined. Of course we are on a tight time schedule because we had to get the kids to the airport by 7 PM. We are two hours from the airport and they were not completely packed yet.
The attendant ran across the street to a repair shop and asked for help. They sent over a truck, towed the van across the street and tried to drain the gas. No drain plug. They tried to siphon it out but the van had an anti-siphon flap on it so they couldn't get any gas out that way. They tried several different ways and only drops would come out. It was 4:30 by now and we were worried about making the airport on time.

Paul could see that this was not going to work for us and asked them for rental car number. Of course there were none in this town and the next town was 15 miles away and they would have to put a car onto a truck and bring it up.
When they brought the car it was an old Subaru station wagon with only five seats and it had 250,000 miles on it. It rattled and shook but we all piled and off we went. We made it to our place and within 15 minutes we were off to the airport, praying that this car would make it. We arrive at the airport at 7:30 just in time for their international flight. We honestly couldn't believe that we made it. It was sad to see them go but with everything that had gone wrong we were glad to see that they made it.

The story is not quite over. The next morning, we got up and drove the rental car back up to Wellsberg. We picked up the Van, paid the $170. bill. (Not too bad) and then drove the rental car back to Warkworth. We made it home and discovered that we had left our Garage door opener in the rental car. It was too late to go back so we got up early on Saturday morning and made one more trip to Warkworth to get the opener. When all the bills were totaled, repair shop, rental car, two tanks of Diesel fuel, one tank of gas and two large cokes,it came to just over $500. Hey, its only money.