-

 Week 28

Law Symposium and a Beautiful Whare

23 February 2025


Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a blur of activities and scrambling to get them all done. There were some big events and we hope and pray that we were able to contribute just a little.


This is a picture of a humanitarian water project completed in Vanuatu. We couldn't help but add this picture of these 2 adorable sister enjoying water near their home. Here are a couple of links below that were included in our story that brought tears to my eyes when I first saw them. Simple needs of people here in the Pacific.  The story we wrote about this event made it to the Church News worldwide, not because of quality writing but because it is such an impactful event when the church blesses lives.  It is inspiring to see the love of the Savior for every person on the earth.   The background on this is that the Church humanitarian services completed a clean water project in a Vanuatu village.  Prior to the completion of the project the villagers were walking about a mile twice a day to retrieve clean water.   Now they have clean water in the village at the turn of a tap.









This is the part of the Pacific Area Communication and Public Affairs team.  It also includes Kim Woodbury (the middle in blue).   Kim is from SLC headquarters and has the job of supporting communication and public affairs in our area and is on the Temple Open House Committee.   We also have a senior missionary couple in Australia and one in Papua New Guinea that work on the Pacific team.



Simple request this week to prepare the media kits for the temple media day which is tomorrow, Monday.  We have about 30 media people showing up for media day.  If you counted all the hours of everyone working on this media day event, press kits, invitations, food, tour preparations, interview prep, etc., it would likely be close to a 1,000 hours.   The church is amazing what they can get done.


This is Jasmine. She is our intern from BYU and is with us for the about 3 months. It is a highly coveted internship to come to NZ and work in the communication department. She is very qualified and wonderful to work with. She is displaying all the VIP gifts we have been rounding up. Maori Book of Mormons, Maori Family Proclamations framed, crystal Christus statues, temple tie pins, pictures of the Savior.






The BYU international law symposium on religious freedom was held in Auckland and experts from all over the Pacific came to present, discuss and build relationships. We helped with some of the planning and then along with the Area video team, we did interviews of the dignitaries for a Church Newsroom video.  There are a ton of brains in this room and unbelievable resume's.  Must admit that a few of the presentation on law and religion were beyond my braincells to follow. Others were very interesting.  


Sunday morning, we took the symposium guest to a mosque and then to a Moari Marai. A Marai is a Moari ceremony that takes place in a Whare (community building), such as the one in this picture. It is a very sacred and meaningful ceremony. We took our shoes off before entering. There was singing (chanting) back and forth between host and guests. For me, the beauty of the Marai was the similar symbolisms between the Maori ceremony and the temple ceremony. I want to know if these symbolisms were created before Christianity came to NZ or if it was influenced afterward. I will look into that.


Duschon- an amazingly talented man. He does most of the videos on the Pacific Church Newsroom and Facebook.  Yes the sun was bright and thus the face.


We found a sweet friend in the media world. There are good ones out there. I think we told you about Lineni last week. We have been working (emailing) with her for 3 weeks, lining up interviews for her 5 part episodes on the Church and the Auckland Temple. Today we met her at a Maori Sacrament meeting where she was given permission to video people coming and going. We also lined up people for her to interview. This means we tell them to look at her not the camera, you can say the same thing over until you feel good about it, state and spell name before you begin, and give your title and where you are from. Then we give them a few possible questions that they might be asked.

Lineni was a member of the Church as a child but is less active in the Church now. She is a beautiful person with integrity and depth. She wants others to see the Church in it's best light. 

So, my question is....is this a coincidence? I think not!  I use to say "there are no coincidences in the temple" but I need to expand that phrase to "there are no coincidences in the Lord's work". I believe Lineni was placed and prepared for this work to promote the new Auckland Temple. Only she can do what she is doing. I love watching the many intricate moving parts in this area of the Lord's kingdom. It is awesome!

We love you and miss you!

Sister and Elder Shaw




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
Week 1  The MTC Will Not Be Forgotten   You have been called to serve in the Pacific Area as communication specialist!  2 months ago we spent a week in SLC training to be communication specialist. We came away from that experience feeling like the church is in great hands! We were very impressed with our mentors (Lyle and Cricket Parry) and all of the communication employees that work at the church headquarters in interfaith relations, public relations, hosting, photography, church newsroom, and publications. What did I miss? It was a privilege to be set apart for our missions by Pres Walker. Our blessings were beautiful. They gave us spiritual confidence to begin this adventure. Off to the first day of the MTC.   Just like all of our grandkids who went back to school this week. Thank you to Judy and KC for letting us stay at their very comfortable home. It was perfect! What we have found out is when we tell everyone we are going to New Zealand many of them say,...
Read more
-
Image
Making Kiwi Land Our Home Week 2 We made it and it feels so surreal! We have (I have) been anticipating a mission for 40 years and I'm finally here. After a grueling flight of 13 hours, we arrived at 6am with these wonderful people as the welcoming crew. On the left are Ben and Pam Tanner. They are our partners in crime in the communication department. They work beside us and the sharing of their information has been our salvation! They are wonderful and already we can tell life will be fun, fast paced, and informative with them as our mentors. The couple on the right are Judy and KC Shaw, Kelly's brother and sister-in-law. We have been in close contact with them for a couple of months learning everything to bring in preparation for our mission. Just by coincidence, we have been called to the same mission location but with very different assignments. They work with the missionaries and the Pathway Program. They are amazing! We are so grateful for their help showing us the ropes...
Read more

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