A New Assignment, YSAs, and a great Share Expo--Week Three

We’ve had a BUSY week! We were just beginning to feel like we could take a breath when we were called in and given a new assignment--coordinating the Area Communications Committee. Exciting and challenging! Just what we love… (chuckle). As we left the office Barry said, “the pool just got a little deeper.” 

But, we are too busy to even take our temperatures. We get up every morning ready to tackle another day and have new experiences, because no two days are alike. Today, for instance, Barry ended up submitting three (THREE, mind you!) articles for our mormonnewsroom.org.nz website. Good job!! That must be some kind of record. One has already been posted, and you can check it out. It’s the one on the Wellington Stake’s 50^th anniversary. He has another article below it on the Liahona Stake’s 35^th anniversary. My article on an outstanding young Mormon basketball player heading to USC is up this week also, along with my article about mobility aids in Kiribati. So we feel we earned our pay this week! (‘Course that may not be saying much, given our pay… ;))

We were also involved in plans for the Fiji Temple Rededication activities coming up in January and making arrangements for a Catholic Sister to attend a symposium at BYU next month. Never a dull moment.

Speaking of that, last weekend was jam-packed with fun and faith! We traveled with our northern New Zealand Public Affairs Directors, the Samuelas, to Whangerei (say fong-er-ay) in beautiful rural north New Zealand. Wow. Green doesn’t get any greener. Of course, the buckets of rain that fell all weekend promotes that. But our spirits were not dampened by the rain.

We set out early Saturday morning with this most fun group of young people, our YSA team from the Auckland area. They included among others, an engineering student, a civil engineer (female), a pre-med student, a young service missionary who led the group, and a young woman who has sailed the ocean from island to island with her family. (I can’t imagine getting on a little sailboat and sailing seven days, on the vast and powerful ocean, to the first island.) We watched with awe as they led training sessions for two stake public affairs committees…Whangerei and Kaikohe stakes.

Our YSA team!

Sunday evening they conducted a stake Share Expo where the members of the stake were invited to come learn (hands-on, games, and prizes for posting) how to use websites, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook to help spread the good news of the gospel throughout the world. It was well-attended and everyone had a fun and productive evening. As the scorekeeper (and lollipop rewarder) I was especially proud of the “older” generation that completed the tasks and came by to collect their prizes. I even posted my first Facebook blog complete with pictures!

A busy Share Expo

 We met early with the Whangerei stake presidency to talk about their needs and goals and how we could help. Then President Poutu invited us to go with them to the Hikurangi ward, driving even farther north into the beautiful countryside, which we were happy to do. The early spring flowering shrubs are in bloom and the camellia bush outside the chapel there was just gorgeous. President Poutu was to speak and he asked Barry and Sister Samuela to bear testimony before he spoke. They all did a wonderful job.

Sister Samuela, President Poutu, and Elder Preator

The church in Hikurangi

I just had to take a picture of Brother McDonald sitting across the aisle from me. I wish I could have videoed him with his darling three week old son, Miller, sitting on his knee while he sang just to him, “You can make the pathway bright, fill the soul with heaven’s light, if there’s sunshine in your soul.” It was the sweetest thing ever. The baby was looking right back at his daddy and trying his best to sing along.

 We arrived home late Sunday night, exhausted, but filled with gratitude for a wonderful Stake President who spent the whole weekend with us and the members of his stake (what an example!), for brilliant, fun, and dedicated YSA’s, for committed and hard-working directors of public affairs, for valiant members who accept difficult callings and do their best to perform them, and for a Heavenly Father who loves us, who watches over us, and wants all of us to live righteous lives, to bless and help each other, so that we can return to live with Him when this life is over.