-

 Week 10

Heart-felt Love for the Papatoetoe Stake and Small and Simple Things

(Sometimes called Papa2toes)

20 October 2024


This week we were asked to help with our Stake Conference special event. The Papatoetoe Stake did an event on two nights that was called, "The Temple, Your Eternal Journey."  It was really a wonderful experience.  I didn't expect to feel the spirit the way we did.   They had the stake center set up in 7 different rooms and groups of 20 would go to each room for a 10 minute presentation.   One of the most touching rooms was of primary children telling stories of their ancestors that made sacrifices to join the church which made it possible for them to be sealed in the temple.   It was touching to hear their stories.  






No slam on the young men missionaries, but this group of young sister missionaries lit up the room every time they entered.  They have beautiful spirits and smiles. Everyone was attracted to them.  They were at the event and helped us organize and usher guests.


This is Teresa and John.   They are the Stake Temple and Family History specialist and they put the event together.   They are so committed to the gospel.   Just great example of what it means to be an example of Jesus Christ.



For our p-day be went to Westhaven Harbor boardwalk. The city of Yachts. They had a few for sale and the most expensive one we saw was about $6,000,000 in US dollars.   It has started to warm-up a little and it makes P-days much more fun. You can see Auckland's skyline in the background.

We watched about 8 sailboats competing in what looked like barrel racing for sailboats. It was entertaining to watch them cut each other off around the bouys.




Parking is a challenge in and around the city.   I can parellel park, but this is off the charts talented for parking.   I still don't know how they did it.  




Low tide is a great time to walk the beach. The tide pools are wonderful. Launette is trying to consider if she can traverse the tide pools without getting her shoes wet. Sometime the sacrifices are just too much for a great sea shell.
Takapuna Beach is for strolling. Not many people sit and bask in the sun. It is mostly full of families walking and talking. We try to make eye contact to start up a conversation but they are not "keen" on talking with strangers. (I'm so proud of myself for using a very Kiwi word. Everything is keen this and keen that. It's adorable.)




Our stake is made up of two Tongan wards, one Samoan and 5 other wards.   Most of the stake is Polynesian.   We have learned much from them including how to sing in church.   Americans can learn a lot from the Polynesians about singing in church.   They all sing with conviction. 

 


These 2 car ushers were a little embarrassed when I ask if I could take their picture but then they started to like the idea. The youth are so polite and very lovable.





This is the stake conference youth choir posing for a picture with the stake president and the visiting authority. The choir was very impressive. Not because of their musical excellence but because of the confidence and gusto in which they sang. They sang with conviction and with a love for music. That is very typical for islanders. They love music. They love to sing loud. I love watching them.


Lessons Learned This Week

  • We have been assigned to teach an Institute class and we already love doing it and the students.   Something about teaching that age that is very endearing and meaningful.
  • Satan is working harder as the temple open house gets closer.   Interesting to watch.   This week the largest newspaper in New Zealand is running a series of 6 articles against the church and they have made a splash here.   We spent a portion of our week preparing a response to the articles by gathering positive experiences and stories from our members. The response was profoundly written by our boss, Rich Hunter. We just gathered the quotes and pictures. It will be posted on Facebook and Church Newroom.
  • Launette experiences a tender mercy this week with her heath. There is a sickness going around but instead of getting sick like everyone else, she had a cough that seems to have cleared up now.
  • The Lord says multiple times in the scriptures that the "small and simple things" will spread the gospel.   That is never more true than with missionary work.   You quickly come to find out that it isn't the grand and glorious things that make a difference in people lives.   It is the very small and simple acts, words, and kind deed that makes a difference.
We love and miss you immensely!

Elder and Sister Shaw



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Office Life is Getting Easier

-
Image
Office Life is Getting Easier Week 3 Well, it is week 3 and the office routine is getting easier. We still eat our lunch at our desks to catch up and cram everything we can in a day. I hope we can relax a little more in the coming weeks.  In all honesty, we are still trying to figure out how we can be most effective bringing others to Christ. We are trying to lift where we were planted, but it will just take awhile.  This is our office and it's kind of fun to wheel backwards to say hello to each other anytime I would like. I think Kelly gets tired of all of my computer questions. Yesterday I reminded him what he felt like when he first purchased a Mac. I have never worked on a PC so it's a double learning curve for me. We have both been working on our first publications this week. They usually give missionaries a month to do so but we are eager and they have time to teach us now. I wrote an article on the New Zealand's national family history month. Kelly is writing an arti...
Read more
-
Image
Peanut Butter Creamy Style Week 4 Some of you may be saying, "Look, they match."  That was a total accident, but at least it was a good looking accident. Scary thing is, it happens a lot! I dress first, it's his issue.:) (It looks like we are going to prom together.) Some of you have asked what we do, so here is a list of a few things we did this week. We wrote articles for the Church Newsroom on a humanitarian project in Tonga that provided nursery's for two cities.   An article on Tonga missionaries driving world dignitaries to a special inter-island conference.  An article on a youth concert.  We wrote a press release for the 170th year anniversary of the Church in New Zealand to distribute to media outlets in NZ.  We provided talking points to the Area Presidency for a church book release on New Zealand Church History and will drive 3 hours North and cover that event that Elder Jaggi of the Area Presidency will commemorate.  We made arrangements fo...
Read more
-
Image
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 Wa...
Read more