Week 61

Area Council & Dragon's Eye

12 October 2025

We learned a lot this week about Church communication protocol when a prophet passes away.   It is always interesting to watch the internal workings of the Church during such events.  One of the blessings of our mission assignment is that we get to work with so many departments and people in the Church.  It is a testimony building experience to watch how it all works and see the Lord's hand as the work moves forward.  FYI, not that we think anyone is counting but 14 months down and 4 to go.

Kahoot family night. Everyone sent in a baby picture and a little-known-history-fact about themselves no one else knows.  The Couchs put all that information into Kahoot. We had about 18 couples attend and it was a Ka-"hoot'.:)   Learned a lot of interesting things about our senior missionaries!  

I tried a new fruit today. It's called longan fruit or dragon's eye fruit. I totally get it. It looks just like an eye ball. It tastes like a pear with the texture of a grape. You don't eat the black seed. Very interesting.

This picture was actually taken about 9:30 at night with a full moon over our beach.   It was absolutely beautiful and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a picture.

Nature reserve park 1 hour away. So pretty!

We went to dinner with Elder and Sister Zarbock from Sandy this week. I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't even include them in my dinner picture. I was a little fixated on my salad. It was so yummy. That is a grilled cheese bowl holding my salad. The Zarbock were great also! Very interesting people. They are infield-reps for all of the mission leaders in the Pacific, Asia, and Asia North. They handle all the missionary problems in those territories. Crazy job. We wouldn't want it. :)

We were asked to do logistics and organize the meals for the Area Council conference this weekend. There were 25 region and general authorities that traveled to Auckland for this council. They are quarterly and we helped in the past but this time they just gave it to us to do. It was a lot of work. We recruited good help.

The Merkleys from Mesa. They were great help for the lunch.

Hannah the caterer for the evening meal. I'm so glad they budged for a caterer for one meal. I wanted to ask her for her BBQ brisket recipe, but I didn't. Maybe when I leave. This is her dessert plater, chocolate cake and carrot cake. Carrot was the best!

We did dishes for 2 days, nice dishes, no paper plates. It was killing Kelly!!

Elder Guidi from New Caledonia. He is from France and knows how to work a crowd. He is kind and loving, a true servant of the Lord.  He has a new job and he mentioned how hard it is to explain to his employer that he needs to be able to work remotely most Friday's.  He get's on a plan and travels to a Stake Conference.  I think I have mentioned this before but our mission is 9.000 miles across and 5,000 miles up and down with 8 time zones and the international dateline.   So travel on the general authorities is really hard.  We pray for them and are thankful for them.

We received a note and this picture from a friend of ours on the island of New Caledonia. She wanted me to thank all the US missionaries.:)

She said, "My children stayed motivated throughout all three Saturday sessions of General Conference thanks to a game prepared by the sister missionaries, called “Conference Bingo.” Also, the children received a paper with the names of the Twelve Apostles and ties that they had to color according to the ties worn by each Apostle during their talk. They also had to check the boxes that matched the topics the Apostles spoke about.

At the end, the children received some candies and a small statue of Jesus Christ — a special gift from a young boy in the United States. He had asked his sister, who is currently serving as a missionary in New Caledonia, to give it to the Primary children in her mission ward."

There are good people all over the world just trying to live the gospel to the best of their ability. Many people benefitted by this act of kindness: 1. Elder and Sister Shaw 2. The children 3. The mother of the children 4. The missionaries 5.The young boy in the US. Everyone trying to live Christ-centered lives. Isn't this gospel amazing!!

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We love and miss you,

Elder and Sister Shaw