The Pacific Post

 Week 46 Baptism and Sea Monsters! 29 June 2026 I don't think we showed you our new office. We moved from the 3rd floor offices to the building right next door.  The Area is expanding with many new employees. They now lease an additional floor in the building next door.  If is very nice and we have more room, but I miss working by the missionaries. Typical lunch break. Generally the senior missionaries find each other to chat and enjoy a lunch together.    No one told us how hard it would be to say goodbye to fellow missionary friends. They come and then they go. Goodbye Elder and Sister Hillier!  They are good people and did a fantastic job as the executive secretary and with the temple patron fund.  We hope to track them down when we are done and attend a BYU game together.  We share the same passion for BYU. This view caught me off guard on our evening beach walk. Sea Monster with a sweet tooth.:) Ministering comes in all shapes and sizes. We t...

 Week 45 Another Week Flies By 22 June 2025 Hello Everyone! It's hard to believe that it is a new week. Last week went extremely fast. This picture gives you a feel for a day in the life of an office missionary. Kelly feels like there are too many meeting, but he cannot argue about this one. This was a new idea. It's called a 10 minute stand up meeting. Candace spontaneously called a stand up meeting first thing Monday morning. Everyone reported what he/she is working on that day. It was actually pretty interesting and helpful.  The men that are our desk buddies are Duschon and Tetoki. They are amazingly talented. They work on editing reels all day. It's interesting to watch them. I caught Duschon singing "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" from 7 Brides. He said it is his favorite movie. We are besties now. Our emphasis this week was doing research to better understand the reputation of the church in the Pacific. Kelly and I were trained on software called Brandwatch. It...

 Week 44 Church Reputation Management 15 June 2025 Hello Everyone. Happy Father's Day to all of the dads. Kelly and I love you and appreciate your service, sacrifice, and dedication.  This is an old picture (I forgot to take a picture during one of our many meetings this week) but is shows most everyone on our Public Affairs team for the Pacific.  There are new interns and one additional full-time employee not shown.  If there is a public affairs issue or event happening in the Pacific, this is the group to blame or thank.   We have often been asked what we do for our mission.  Public Affairs and Communication handles the inter-faith, political, media, and community relationships and events. We also provide all of the content (articles, stories, pictures and videos) for the Pacific Church Newsroom and also the Pacific Facebook Newsroom Group. We train, support, and coordinate all the national and coordinating council communication directors. We are als...

 Week 43 CPD (Comm/Publishing Department) Seminar 8 June 2025 We hope you all are enjoying some great summer activities and weather. I love June; having the children home from school, long summer evenings in the yard, family reunions, vacations, and a more relaxed schedule.  This week we spent the entire week with our department (24 people) up North at the Bay of Islands (about 3 hours away) in a seminar for training and planning. Our department has grown significantly in the last six month. Twelve out of the 24 are new hires and so with such a large Communications and Public Affairs group we needed to get everyone on the same page with processes, systems, assignments, coordination and planning. They are great people and we love being with them and learning from their talents and commitment to bringing the Church out of obscurity in the Pacific. Interesting fact, in the last year almost every single trackable statistic is up in the Pacific: baptisms, sacrament meeting attendan...

 Week 42 District Growth and Winter's Coming 1 June 2025 This week was a full in-office week and that hasn't happened in awhile. It was nice to catch up on some items we have been putting off for awhile. We are headed out of the office again this coming week for a conference with our entire department.   The other change is that the weather has changed. We put an extra blanket on our bed and are wearing a jacket everywhere we go now. We are grateful that it has been such beautiful weather. We are preparing for the rainy season. This is a follow-up to the BYU Women's soccer team visit. The team left about 50 soccer balls and some soccer cleats for the refugee center and we finally got around to delivering the donation. They were very thankful for the gifts and appreciated their time with the team. This is John and Linda Leach. They serve in the Area Office with us and are wonderful people. They are from Las Vegas and he serves in the legal office and she is area mental hea...