Week 64

Hosting a Podcast, Halloween, & Harbor Cruise

2 November 2025

Happy November everyone! Time just keeps marching on. We have had a fun and eventful week. We will try to explain it with enough detail to give it justice.

These three pictures are of our Christmas Light the World Podcast. It is very similar to BYU TV's Grace Notes. We have a full studio in our office and we are bringing in musical talent from all of the Pacific to be interviewed and perform two song.  They are Christian artists and talk about what the Savior has done for them.  Music is a great way to celebrate the Christmas season. The talent we have on our team can make anything look great. You can find these episodes on our Pacific Facebook and Instagram page if you are interested. They should be out just after Thanksgiving.

Candace is the host of the podcast.

This is Trey, our intern.  Needless to say, everyday is an adventure. I tried to tell him the day before, no one dresses up for Halloween here, let alone in a church office building, but he wouldn't have it.   

One of our assignments is picking up, welcoming, and orienting the new missionaries. Two couples arrived on Tuesday morning at 6:30am after a 12 hour flight. They were all smiles until about 5pm and then it hit them. They will both be great and we are happy to welcome them to the mission. We spent the day with them getting them settled, provisioned, grocery shopping, and ready to work.

On a beautiful sunny spring/summer Saturday, what do senior missionaries do? They go on a harbor sailing cruise of the Auckland harbor.   It was a perfect day and also perfect company.

We wondered what a senior missionary Halloween costume party would be like. (Scripture themed) Most couple really got into it and about 1/3 came as a missionary. No judgement. We just about did the same thing, but Kelly found a cheap Moses costume online. I used the gown portion of his costume, so it was a two-for-one.

Moses is parting the Red Sea. I'm supposed to be Zipporah. (All I could think of was the sister dancers in the 10 Commandments movie.)  I got called every biblical name, you name it. We had to guess what everyone was. Prize for the winner.

Think about it... binoculars and she is in a bubble bath.

I love the bloody arms.

Moses being cute!

We had the Barrus over for dinner. They are the new mission couple that arrived this week and their assignment is executive secretary to the Area President. They have a very busy job, at all hours of the day and night. They will set up and participate in the Zoom meetings with the apostles at 3am once a month. Sister Jaggi found out they were coming for dinner, and wanted come also for the visit. We were on our best behavior. The Barrus even brought flowers to thank us for dinner. I guess that is what fancy people do. Mental note.

This week included an inordinate amount of meetings.  Between Light the World, Giving Machines, project manager training, channels committee, YSA, institute, news articles, and feeding senior missionaries, we seem to always be doing something. Often when we walk to the office we wonder what the day will hold and it always seems to full of something different. We are thankful for opportunity we have to serve.

I have been studying President Oaks conference talk this week about families. There are 4 footnotes to his talk. 2 of them are talks from President Nelson. In the 2nd footnote he said, "When a mother worthily bears and cares for a child, she not only helps the earth answer the ends of its creation, she also glorifies God." This is a shout out to all of the mothers. You are doing great things! You are glorifying God with your sacrifice, love, and diligence. It takes a great amount of faith to be a mother (and father). Thank you. You are amazing!

We love you and miss you.

Elder and Sister Shaw