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Longing For Home 

Week 7

29 September 2024

Kelly and I are pretty melancholy today, thinking of all of my family together celebrating the life of my sister-in-law, Shelley Ray, who passed away of cancer last week. It's hard not to be with everyone at the funeral today and feel of their love and support. We feel like we said our goodbyes before we left but it is still hard to miss out. I hope you feel our love and prayers.



What a sweet picture of Launette's brothers during the funeral. 
Sweet brotherly love.

Speaking of brotherly love I don't think we have mentioned how much K.C. and Judy have done to help us adjust and get settled. Not only were we surprised when we got called to the same area, but we were surprised how easy our NZ and mission adjustment has been and much of that credit goes to K.C. and Judy





This week we covered a story of President Lund, the YM General President, visiting Tonga and speaking to members. He visited along with President Meurs and President Wakolo of the Area Presidency.  They spoke on modern revelation and supporting the prophet as the gathering of Israel happens. It's exciting to see all that goes on in the Area.   

General Conference is coming and in the Pacific, the church works hard to get local TV stations to carry the broadcast. This week our job was to collect information of when and where listener can view conference in each of the islands and then we wrote an article encouraging participation. We work with about 14 islands.  Generally speaking conference is carried a week after the conference is live in SLC. Many of the areas we work with don't have electricity or internet coverage and so the local members have to walk to the church to hear conference. We are so blessed in the States.

Efforts are being made to have the "New York City Chirstmas video" shown near the Sydney Opera House this Christmas season as part of the worldwide "light the World" initiative. More to come on that.


Part of our mission assignment is working to get JustServe established in the country of New Zealand.   It is actually a challenge to start from scratch to build a network of Country, Coordinating Council and Stake JustServe specialists that generate the needed excitement and willingness to get JustServe working.   Cross your fingers on this one as we try to make a difference with the program.

 

For our P-day Saturday we hiked Mt. Victoria. It is the highest hill (not mountain) in Auckland. You can walk all around the top to get a bird's eye view of the surrounding cities. It was a beautiful sunny day and the walk filled my soul. You know those experiences where you feel one with nature and Heavenly Father at the same time.
  




These are my favorite birds this week. How cute are they with their black and white pock-a-dot tails and red feet and beaks? Noisy little things, though.

We did a Zoom training call this week with the communication director for Cook Islands, a country of 13,000 people. She has been married 5 years and is probably 30 years old and very capable and talented. We asked her if she works with the District President often and she said she is married to him.   We were amazed.   Such a young couple and he is district president (similar calling as a Stake President but in an area were there are mostly branches and not wards). She is the country's communication director. So many people doing so much to serve in the church and make such sacrifices. It is impressive to see. We will leave you with that thought.

We love you and miss you. We are thankful for each of you and the roll you play in building the Kingdom of God in your world.

Love,

Elder and Sister Shaw

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