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 Week 35

The Hosanna Shout on Palm Sunday

13 April 2025

What an awesome week. On this Palm Sunday, we were able to stand with Elder Kearon and do the Hosannah Shout at the dedication of the New Zealand Temple. Almost 2 millennia's ago people lined the streets of Jerusalem shouting hosanna for the Savior as He entered the city on this same day. It was a wonderful way to spend the Sabbath. All the stake centers in the temple district participated in the dedication. We sat with K.C. and Judy and many other senior missionaries.  It was completely full and to hear them all sing "The Spirit of God" at the conclusion of the dedication was a spiritual highlight. We have an endowment session scheduled for this Thursday.


Just a side note on the temple dedication, the full-time employees in our department handled all of the coverage, broadcast and interviews for the event.  They only allowed 100 people to attend the dedication and SLC is very prescriptive on the logistics of the event. It is kind of fun to see the behind the scenes work that happens.


This is Hina and her cousin Tuiani and they are from French Polynesia (Tahiti).  They visited us in Auckland this week for extra training as FP's communication director.  She doesn't speak English, so she brought her cousin to translate.  We had a wonderful experience with both of them. The best part of our visit was hearing about their conversion and life story. Everyone was in tears.  It is inspiring to learn about the sacrifice people make to be members of this gospel.



The above picture and the two below are of a refugee center in New Zealand.  Remey is one of the directors and we met with him this week to coordinate a service project with the BYU women's soccer team that will be coming in two weeks.  We were blown away by the service they provide to the refugees.  The refugee families show up with absolutely nothing and stay for 5 weeks while they learn to do everyday living skills.  The government of NZ then steps in and helps them find a place to live and prepares them for work. The US could learn from this organization.


 The soccer team is bringing a big bag of used soccer shoes for the children and teens. Very needed. This young man only owns flip flops.


Cool hair picture!


I am not going to say this is a bar in Takapuna on Tuesday at the exact time the National Championship NCAA basketball game was playing.   Just saying, you have to make sacrifices on a mission.



Easter Jeopardy FHE with the senior missionary couples in our Zone.  So fun and yes, the Elders won by one point. 





The above two pictures are of the goodbye party for the Hafen's.   Elder Hafen served in the legal office and Sister Hafen served in our Communications/Public Affairs department.   Always hard to say goodbye to such wonderful people.   If you have looked at our Instagram or Facebook, you will see a video of the song we performed.   Rich Hunter (in the blue suit coat) is our Comms/Public Affairs employee manager.  He is very talented and writes a song for every departing missionary from our department.   He asked three of us to help perform this one.   It is our first public Ukelele performance and so the bar was low.  The Brother on the right is Paul Rytting and he is the Area Legal Director.   He named the group the Pacific Ukes or PUKES for short.  

It is a privilege to watch the Lord's work in action in our neck of the woods. We continue to be amazed that this is happening all over the world.  It is definitely a church of living, caring, inviting, and uniting.  We are so blessed.

We love you and miss you.

Elder and Sister Shaw



Comments

  1. NoreneApril 13, 2025 at 6:07 AM

    Such a good email! We sure enjoy these every week. And....well done, PUKES! :)

    ReplyDelete

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