Week 68

Christmas Spirit and Crucial Conversations

7 December 2025

If variety is the spice of life then we had a spicy week.  One of the things you have to get used to as a senior missionary is that you never know what will happen from day to day and what you will be asked to do and thus learn in the process. You just go with the flowwwww!

 2 projects this week without pictures-

1. We had two sets of missionaries leave and two arrive and so we coordinated their housing, cars, computers, phones, and access cards.  

2. We are planning the annual training seminar for our Public Affairs department which involves brining 40 people from  the islands to New Zealand.

  

Let's start the week with the Christmas tree. Charley Brown would be proud of this tree.  For the younger generation, look up Charley Brown's Christmas and watch it.  A classic that tells a wonderful Christmas story.

The above three pictures are from our training seminar this week.  We organized and provided a training for some of the managers of our Communication and Publishing Department this week.   We went to the west coast of New Zealand by the Tasman Sea.   Most of the beaches on the west coast of New Zealand are black sand beaches. The night before we had a great meal with our team and then next day we covered topics that included, workflow, crucial conversations (how to successful have hard conversations), vendor management, messaging for the Area Presidency, and Church product management.  This is an amazing group of people who are deeply committed to trying to do the Lord's work in the best way possible and are very willing to learn, grow and expand their skills. 

Ever wondered what a group of YSA do after a Friday night temple trip?  Well, they go to the downtown Auckland institute building at 9:30pm have pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, popcorn and cinnamon rolls.  They play pool, karaoke, laugh and visit until about midnight and then go home.  Such a great group of YSA and the good news is that we did see some flirting going on.  Some of it awkward but none-the-less progress.   

Karaoke, some pretty good, some pretty bad.

  

The Auckland Symphony and Chorus Christmas concert is a treat.  We went last year but this year it was even more special because we knew many of the performers. (Guys, we know people, talented people!)

Lo and behold, my desk buddy can sing!!!!  This is Dan Nathan.  He is an employee in our department and he is crazy, crazy talented.   He was the feature soloists for the concert.  He has perfect pitch, can play anything on the guitar by ear, is the best sound engineer in New Zealand, and has a voice that would rival Michael Buble'.  Best of all, his is just a great person.

And behold and lo, our YSA friend can sing too!!!!!  This is Keisha Nonoa and she is in our YSA ward and wow, another amazing performance.   She did a Celine Dion song better than Celine Dion.  She also did a Christmas revival song that had everyone amazed.   

Senior missionaries walking up Queen Street in Auckland after taking the Ferry ride across the harbor and headed to the Concert.

This is President M.  (It sounds like Marsupial but I don't dare say that.) He is the Stake President of the Henderson Stake and such a good man. We love him.  He is also the best dressed and styling Stake President in the Church.  We taught institute for him. So good to connect with him again at the concert.

We helped plan a zone progressive dinner to each of the Area Presidency's homes. The Area Presidency does a nice dinner each December to thank all the senior missionaries for their service.  

Elder Wakolo

Elder Meurs wanted to do a sing-along at his home. He is a very good pianist.

Elder and Sister Meurs from Australia

I am studying the conference talk by Elder Jaggi about altars. It intrigued me.

Questions:

What do altars symbolize for us?

Why has the Lord asked us to come to the alters?

I think it's to show humility, learn sacrifice, to worship, to exercise faith, show gratitude, show a desire to change. Each of those are from a different scriptures. There is more about altars than I thought.

The other thing I'm learning is: the sacrifice of the animal or partaking of the sacrament, does not take away our sins, it's remember and understanding the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and offering what is need of ourselves that sanctifies us. It helps us become more like the Savior. A little heavy but I just wanted to include you in our scripture study.

We hope everyone is happy and healthy.  We fasted today for those babies today. This is the "big" month. We pray for you all everyday.

With love,

Elder and Sister Shaw