Week 54

National Humanitarian Day & Social Media Metrics

24 August 2025

Hello Everyone! We are alive and well. We miss you, especially seeing you get together for reunions and family activities. It's a good/hard feeling all at the same time. It's great to see the people we love together and enjoying each other, but it's sad to miss out, but we wouldn't want it any other way. Here are a few pictures that tell about our week.

The picture above and the three below are taken on National Humanitarian Day.   We decided it would be a good idea for our team to honor the day by providing some humanitarian work.   We found an organization that provides food for children in need in Elementary schools.   We packed 360 lunches for the children, boxed them up, and made the delivery to the school.  In light of how much humanitarian work the Church does in the Pacific, we thought we could do just a small part to honor the day.

The gentleman on the left if Derek Good, the NZ national comms director. The lady on the left is Candace, very talented with a broadcasting background. She is a project manager in our department, convert of 3 years. The man beside Kelly is Rich Hunter, our illustrious boss and public affairs manager.

Th other senior missionaries in our group are the Hanceys from Layton. They are great to work with, very easy-going and get-it-done.

Elementary school drop off.

New Zealand has some very classy roadside bathrooms.  These are in Matakana which is about a 45 minute drive north of our Takapuna (our town).  It's a very cute, picturesque town.with a fun Saturday market, nature reserve, and great places to eat.

The natural beauty of this country is amazing (referring to Launette in the picture).   It is literally everywhere you look.   It isn't a tropical paradise because it is cold at times, but since it gets so much rain, the greenery is everywhere.   Hard to beat.

Given that someone in the marriage has taken 100's of food pictures and rarely if ever posts them or looks at them again, this picture must be something special.   It made it to our blog.  We mentioned earlier that there are yummy restaurants in Matakana, well here is the picture to prove it, chicken salad with citrus dressing in a grilled parmesan cheese bowl.

We have "small world" connections all the time. We taught Institute twice this week and during one of our classes we connected that this sister served a mission with a mission leader that we know.  She served in Hamilton and Jeff Erekson (from Boise) was her mission leader.  We made the connection and sent them a picture.

A significant part of the week was spent doing a rather large project of analyzing the social media channels for the Pacific.   The Church has authorized Pacific Church pages for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Newsroom Website, and X.   There isn't really a defined and dedicated plan for each audience, post, or tool.  So we took on the task of inputting all the posts for the last year, tagging them and then doing the research so that we can refine, target, and better manage all the Church communications on those channels.   Part of the challenge is that the Church is struggling with their reputation in Australia and New Zealand, however, they are having great success in the islands.  Figuring out how to design all the messages for the entire Pacific takes some work and effort. Thank you to Braiden and his social media connections for running some of these analyses for us. 

Another project we spent time on this week was arranging for the meeting and visit of the High Commissioner of Race Relations for New Zealand.   That is happening on Wednesday and the hope is to build bridges and develop a relationship. We will give her the Church booklet call Human Dignity. It is beautiful.

Spring is starting to show signs here in New Zealand.   We do get a few beautiful days mixed in with rainy days.   We think of you often and pray for you all the time.   

It is great to be on the Lord's errand everyday. We feel the importance of this work and see miracles in the progress and process of proclaiming the gospel to all of the world.

We love you and miss you,

Elder and Sister Shaw