Week 27

Television Interviews and Rugby

16 February 2025

This is what an in-office Zoom (the Church uses Teams) looks like.   This is the Area office communication team and our intern from BYU.   We have missionaries from Australia and Papua New Guinea who join us.  On this day, Rich Hunter the Pacific Communication/Public Affairs manager and employee Zoomed in.   These happens a couple of times a week as we catch up on everything happening around the Pacific.  Very typical. Take special note of the attractive Valentine's Day dress worn by Launette.

The Super Bowl was on Monday here and so some of the employees and missionaries gathered in the Area lunch room for about an hour to watch the game.   Funny side note, they don't run the American commercials in NZ, they are all local commercials and nothing out of the ordinary.  You would be hard pressed to find another group of white shirt and tie people watching part of the game.  This was Launette's first Superbowl.

Just your typical outdoor cement ping-pong table in our town of Takapuna

I know we talked about Hamilton Gardens in a prior week, but this is worth showing.   One area of the garden is fantasy land and everything makes you look so small.

This is a typical Saturday on the beach by our home.   There is a rowing club on the beach and they gather to race on Saturday's.   Fun to watch and I wouldn't last 5 minutes working as hard as they do during the race.

Happy Valentine's Day, my love!

This is the most New Zealand thing we have done yet.   We went to our first professional Rugby game on our P-day.   It was the Blues vs the Chiefs.   A few taka-aways from the game.  Rugby is a passion for this country.   The sport is brutal and resembles gladiators dying in the arena.   Beer is consumed in large amounts.   A streaker graced us with his presence during the middle of the game, he was brutally tackled by security. It was the hardest tackle of the night. Ouch!!   A great time had by all.  We think we understand 80% of the rules by the time the game was over.   We went with about 5 other missionary couples and it was great time.

Happy 69th birthday to KC.

This picture doesn't look like much but it represents the most meaningful thing we did all week. I did not have the nerve to take a picture of the 2 brave souls that live in this home.  Kelly and I have been assisting a television reporter, Lineni, that is a "less-active" member of the church who is writing a 3-part story about the new Auckland Temple and what happens inside the temple. I'm really impressed with Lineni, she will do a great job and feature the Church at its best. 

Anyways, we were asked to go to this home and prepare the couple that live here for an interview with the TV reporter. This family has been a member of the Church for 8 months and are preparing to go to the temple. Their story is inspiring! They are Maori. He was a member of a gang but wanted to change his life at the same time 2 missionaries knocked on their door. The husband and son attended church for a few months. The wife noticed a change in her husband with the way he treated her and their son. She also said he had developed more love and humility so she started going to church also. They were all baptized together. 

As they told their story, we told them what information to include in the interview, how to express the doctrine clearly, and validated/encouraged their righteous desires and decisions. Then we asked them questions so they could practice answering.

The gospel changes people! We could see that change in their sweet conversion. The best part of our mission is meeting people! There are good people everywhere, trying to do the best they can! The Lord loves effort and we see effort everywhere.

The gospel is changing us also. We both feel the Lord's love for the people here in the Pacific. That love softens the hearts and changes people

We love and miss you.

Please read to my grandchildren.

Elder and Sister Shaw