McVey Kiwi News: Pg 5 - Single Adults - as of 16 March 2013

We will be eternally thankful for our Young Singles and Singles

The room was locked so up to our flat we came!

The objective was to pass a message with your fingers

Everyone was having a fun time

A typical group at YSA Gospel Doctrine....a hard bunch!

These three had a pedometer and had to see how far they could pedal while on their backs!

These single adults have started attending and added a great deal to our group!

Israel

Les

Phillipa

Ardyn

Danielle

Kendelle

Rangi

Ray

Reuben

Robin

Stacee

William

All below this point is pre-January 2013

We did a Christmas party in our flat again and had over 40 in attendance. Take a look at their faces...do you see a frown in the lot...not a one, they had a great time and this will be a treasured memory!

Empty Chairs and Empty Tables - not for long

We hustled to get ready!

They came and had a great time!

We repeated the "White Elephant" gift exchange and was it a hit!

We added new YSA or updated photos for a few....

Updated Aereau

Debs

Anthony - headed to a mission in Japan

Jessie Berends - Just home from a mission

Holly - a frequent visitor from Palmerston North

Karnea Berends - hard working primary worker

Kim - just returned from a mission to Florida

Updated photo of Michael Heleotis

New Addition - Lisa Belleza

Mischa - works in the US Embassy

Zandria - a new addition

Thorin - comes frequently to visit from "Palmmy"

We had another fun project writing letters to all the missionaries serving from the Ward.

Aereau, Kale and Jared busy writting

Chelsea and Jasmin giving it a go!

Debs & Kaylana working

Destany and Matt hard at it

Always the cut-up, but hard at work...

Zeranya cannot not smile!

Astrid and Jonina adding special features!

Elder & Sister Overton jotting down a note.

What, no pens in hand...our work comes later!

Here's the entire group hard at it!

Guy....writing himself....by the time the letters get to the missionaries he'll be in the MTC in Provo....oops, that didn't work out. He's serving in our mission for two months then off to Provo!

Time for a little fun games also!

And we had to say goodbye to Grace. What a spiritual giant. She's off to turn in mission papers!

All below this point is pre-November 2012

We continue to have heaps of fun with the YSA.

Here's a picture we took wishing a friend all our best.

Just how many YSA can you get on a table supported by balloons?

The answer is about 15!

We had a special dinner for the YSA from Wianuiomata

Aereau, Alison, Orini and Kaylana

Then a dinner for Astrid, Kale, Zeranya & Aloeweis

We also met a number of new folks

Chanelle

Destany

Frances

Frances - yes, 2!

Kara

It's been a very busy 3 months with the single adults. Our numbers at Family Home Evening are now averaging around 25. They are a powerful group! We're working on focusing that energy to do some good and have a lot of fun!

We've started doing family history research on some of them that have an interest and the results have been nothing short of a miracle! Read our post to see what we're talking about!

Here are a couple pictures of the fun we're having at FHE...

Chelsea made this amazing bulletin board. Ann helped her with the assembly!

For "Mother's Day" the YSA was asked to put gifts for all the Ward mothers together. Here they are doing some of the labor.

Here William is teaching a lesson on talents. He had the YSA in the palm of his hand doing an amazing job. He followed it up with "Face Book" updates!

Here's some of the new single adults that have joined our group...

A.J.

Emerald

Jabba

Kalana

Levi

Louise

Mika

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(Everything below this point was posted pre-July 2012)

Wow, the past 3+ months have been packed with activites with the singles! We started having a Fast Sunday dinner with a little older group along with a message and that's been super fun. We've also had Family Home Evenings weekly and our numbers have grown to an average of 20+. The new school year (began in late February) brought a number of new members and that's fun! Here we go with some of the pics....

We were "Heart Attacked" by some of the YSA group...hearts and balloons everywhere!

The covered the car with hearts and balloons.

They covered the steps down the back of the house.

We have yet to find out who did this. Someday we'll find out. It might have been inspired by Mario from Australia and we're sure Kree was in on it! No one will face up!

Chelsea volunteered to create an activity board for YSA and wow did she go above and beyond. Doesn't it look great!

One of many dinners here with Melissa, Guy, Astrid, Ann, Jasmine and Chelsea.

Valentine's Day brought out a lot of fun from the group. Besides the pictures you've seen above, here they are just having fun!

Even the guys had a smile on their faces during these activities.

Don's in on the action also.

Kree is always in for some fun!

Here's one of the Fast Sunday (first Sunday of the month) dinners with some of the singles.

Here's pictures of some of the new attendees....

Aereau

Alison

Charmina

Jared

Kale

Adam

Becca

Chad

Eru

Heidi

Michael

Michelle

Orini

Tara

Yusuf

Everything below this line was posted prior to 2012

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We continue to have just a great time with the single adults in the Wellington Ward. As a last activity in 2011 we hosted a dinner for 45 at our flat. Everyone had a great time with children of some leaders participating adding a special Christmas Spirit. These youth are a special blessing in our lives!

Here you can see Don Overton in what was our front room! We removed all the furniture to set up tables for 50 people and it was packed! We even took the door to our apartment off so that people just came and went as they needed. It was potluck and some special plates were contributed!

Chelsea and Jasmine both brought specialty plates that were gobbled up as soon as they hit the serving table!

Mario gives a double thumbs up for the food selection!

The young sisters seem to be all enjoying full plates!

We made the boys wait until everyone else had been served. They were gratious during their wait!

Bishop Howard and his family also joined in the fun. It was great to have them with us!

We had the Ropata's there (Institute Teachers). The youth just love this couple and their daughter!

Kids around the world are all the same! Looking forward to the gift exchange. Along with the Howards and Ropatas, we had the Ostlers and Rawiris along with all their kids.

These singles can't wait to get their "white elephant" gifts! Do you think they had a good time?

The boys weren't so sure about this deal. This might have been their first "white elephant" gift exchange!

Astrid could not keep it in! She had a real fun time with the various gifts being swapped out or "stolen"!

Chelsea was having a difficult time opening her gift. She was really got into this activity! Looks like Ben wants to help and everyone else is tensely looking on!

Kree is not happy that her gift was taken from her about 10 times. Was it the suitcase or the stuffed animal she really wanted? Only she knows!

Guy, Dustin and Mario all agree that this is a thumbs up activity! What a great group of young men!

And yes, I was there doing dishes at the end. That's ok, we got holiday paper and plastic and only the cooking dishes had to be washed. What a fun activity!

At the singles Family Home Evening, we continue to have a great time with good lessons capped off with fun activities!

The goal here was to use a roll of toilet paper as fast as you can and wrap one of your teammates! Mikey was for sure the winner of this competition!

Here you've got to put the pieces of a box back together as quickly as possible!

We have three full-time missionaries serving across the world from the single adult group. Here we are putting cards and packages together for them!

Wait just a minute, I think Chelsea and Sister McVey are discussing their next recipe or was it stitching they were discussing?

Here's the picture we sent to the missionaries. We even laminated the picture and then cut it up like a jigsaw puzzle. Mario is so talented!

We even had a little fun with Halloween. Who is that between Ephriam and Mario? I can't make her out!

To get the high school graduates involved we had a special dinner for them! A couple were late so we invited Mario, Guy and the Missionaries up thinking all would not arrive. Then they did and we had 10 for dinner. Ann came through as always with lots to eat!

Mario wanted to have his going away party on the top of the building so everyone went along with it and it was a great event! It was waffles and bring whatever topping you wanted! There was fruit, whipped cream, jams and jellies, honey, syrup, chocholate, ice cream and my favorite...peanut butter!

During the past few months, we've also had opportunity to meet more of the single adults in the ward as we've worked with them to come out in activity! They continue to amaze us with their activity and fun spirits! Here's a few of the more recent that we've met!

Anton

Charlotte

Emily

Eru

Jerry

Krystal

Lani

Lina

Among the many fun things we do here, one of the funnest is working with the Wellington Ward Single Adults and being responsible for their Monday Family Home Evenings. We've never seen such a great group of Single Adults. New converts and life long members. With a number of universities based here in Wellington the numbers of singles is hugh! There are 129 on the rolls of the Ward. Of these there are of course those that we don't know about, those that are less active and those that are super active.

The Family Home Evenings on Monday's are held here in our building and average attendance is about 10 singles along with the McVey's, Overton's, Ostlers (Ward assigned to work with singles) and the Missionaries if they have someone coming that they are teaching. A number of the singles stay at home and have FHE (Family Home Evening) with their familes.

We just recently started inviting groups of the singles over to our home for dinner prior to the FHE. We really enjoy bringing them into our apartment and getting to know them a little better.

The full-time missionaries are also trying to track down those that we don't know who they are and no one in the group knows them either. That's a big task since there are some 70 on this list. Thanks Elders!

Below are some of the recent activities we've had on Monday's

Dinner with Melissa, Mikey, Nic and Guy. Melissa is going to school, Mikey, Nic and Guy work in Wellington. Guy is preparing for a mission.

Dinner with Chelsea, Aloeweis, Ephriam, Mario and Jonina. Chelsea is working in town, Aloeweis, Ephriam, Mario and Jonina go to school. Mario will be leaving December 29th to Brisbane, Austrailia on his mission and Ephriam is a return missionary. Aloeweis turned in her mission papers just last week.

They have more activities than we have ever seen. Here "Ninja" is being conducted. You go around the circle and with a ninja motion try to put out one of your two neighbors by hitting them with your ninja motion before they can evade the move.

Here we are writting letters to missionaries from the group that are serving out in the world. Right now there are three serving. One is in Florida and two in Australia.

We even tried knitting items for the serving missionaries. It didn't get too far, but here Mario gives the thumbs up to Elder Bonnefoy-Jenkinson's knitting ablities.

Below is a picture array of all the singles we know at this time.

What a great looking group!