While spring is springing at home, fall has arrived here in
Kiwi-land. Everything is lush green with all the rainfall we’ve received, and
it is more beautiful than ever. Even with fall, big bright flowers continue to
bloom and the weather has not turned cold yet.
We loved watching conference even though here in New
Zealand, where we are almost a day ahead of you at home, that means turning on
our laptop at 4:00 a.m. Sunday and Monday to watch the morning sessions. Then
we watched all through the break (great stories!) and the afternoon sessions
ended at 10:00 a.m. Then we went on with our days’
activities, which included attending Fast and Testimony meeting at our 1:00
ward Sacrament meeting.
The Church practice here is to wait and watch conference the
following weekend when the sessions are broadcast over the satellite system to
the stake centers at the normal conference hours. But, we simply can’t wait
that long and like to see the sessions “live.” Wonderful talks, inspiring and
uplifting. Did you feel the love the brethren and sisters expressed? I felt it
and also felt that, perhaps, I am doing okay even in my very imperfect state.
I especially appreciated Elder Holland’s words as the final
conference speaker:
“First of all, if in
the days ahead you not only see limitations in those around you but also find
elements in your own life that don’t yet measure up to the messages you have
heard this weekend, please don’t be cast down in spirit and don’t give up. The
gospel, the Church, and these wonderful semiannual gatherings are intended to
give hope and inspiration. They are not intended to discourage you. Only the
adversary, the enemy of us all, would try to convince us that the ideals
outlined in general conference are depressing and unrealistic, that people
don’t really improve, that no one really progresses…With the gift of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can improve, and the great thing about the
gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed.”
Doesn’t that just give you happiness and hope?! Love, love,
love to hear from our Prophet and Apostles each conference. Now Barry and I are
reading and discussing the conference talks for our FHE lessons so that we can
hopefully remember them. (In our advanced years, that is a trick!)
By the way, if you haven’t watched conference on your
laptop, try it! (You can attach it to your flat screen TV with an HDMI cable to
watch full-size). The great thing is that it starts earlier than the television
stations do, so you get to see the conference center fill and the brethren come
in and take their seats, AND you get to watch all the sessions and the
in-between sessions without commercials. It’s wonderful! Plus, you get to watch
for quite some time after the session ends as the brethren leave and the
conference center begins to empty. It’s sweet (or as they say here in
NZ…”sweet-as!”).
We appreciated hearing from our Area Presidency as they
returned from conference and their pre-meetings with the brethren. We get to
hear their perspectives on their personal associations, thoughts, and
inspirations which are always uplifting. This time, their message was, “The
Church has never been stronger than it is now. And as the world grows darker,
the Church will shine even brighter.”
We continue to teach our Temple Prep Sunday School class and
look forward to that each week.
We have been very busy still writing articles for Mormon
Newsroom online (check out our latest articles—mine on the Sister Missionaries
conference and the Living Legends tour and Barry’s on a Helping Hands project.
Here are some of the links:
Here are some of the links:
We have also been preparing to host BYU’s performing group, Living Legends
(formerly known as the Lamanite Generation). They arrive here next week to
begin a three-week tour in New Zealand, Tonga, and Samoa.
We see this as another great way to help people here get to
know Mormons, the Church, and these great young people. We are encouraging
missionaries and members to invite their friends and neighbors to go to the
shows with them. The group has scheduled many outreach daytime activities where
they will visit hospitals, schools, care centers, etc. And Barry and I get to
tag along with them and help out in any way they need. How cool is that?!
In the meantime Barry has been using all his advanced
Photoshop skills in preparing the promotional materials—posters, invitations,
VIP and media materials, etc. He also went to bat to get the notices out to all
the wards and branches in the area. I taped posters up all around our building,
with special attention to placing them on the inside of the many toilet stall
doors for more attentive reading. ;)
We have also been purchasing foods for an arrival sack
brunch (“brekkie”), making our own travel arrangements to go with them to
Tonga, and buying the candies (“lollies”) to assemble their welcome leis.
Which, thankfully, we don’t have to make because I have no idea how, and they
would probably fall apart.
We get to teach the gospel wherever we go. Barry had a
wonderful opportunity last week, when he got his hair cut, to teach two women
who were very attentive and sincere in wanting to learn more. We were able to
talk with two other women, separately, who are each involved in their own
religions and are wonderful believers in Jesus Christ. And many more, as we
share with waiters and waitresses, shop clerks, taxi drivers, hotel employees,
fellow tourists, etc. The gospel is wonderful and we love that our badges often
invite questions.
Most fun of all, this past few weeks, was the visit of our
daughter Kathy’s cute family—her husband Kyle and kids…Dylan (12), Paris (9),
Tienne (turned 7 while here!), Brigg (3), and Everett (10 months). We loved
that we were able to take some time to travel with them to Bay of Islands,
Hamilton area, and Taupo area while they were here.
If you haven’t seen Barry’s
pictures you need to find him on Facebook and take a look at the beauty of
these places.
Most special was the morning we spent at the temple in
Hamilton where we were able to take some 1800’s family members’ names and Dylan
and Kyle performed the baptisms and confirmations and Barry, Kathy, and I
joined them to complete the work. It was a very touching experience. With great
thanks for the generosity of a wonderful couple there who took such special
care of the littles while we were away, feeding them, dressing them, and taking
them to a fun park. That’s so typical of the people here. They have to be some
of the nicest in the world.
We are almost halfway through our mission! We just couldn’t
have imagined beforehand what our mission would be like. Even now, we never
know from day to day what the day/week/month will hold for us. We do know that
it is very different from what we had expected, but very fulfilling,
interesting, challenging, fun, sometimes difficult, certainly tiring!, and very
humbling.
We work with wonderful people, in a beautiful part of the
Lord’s kingdom, and feel very blessed to be here, doing what little part we do.
We love you and pray for your health, happiness, and Heavenly
Father’s care.
Elder and Sister Preator
