Week 76

Communication/Public Affairs Seminar 2026

1 February 2026

We have spent the last 18 months of our mission working closely with these people. We have grown to love them and their sacrifice and dedication to the gospel. They inspire us. These are the communication directors from every country in the Pacific; Tahiti to New Caledonia to Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, and the list goes on. 

We had our annual training seminar in Auckland over the last three days. We also had the Church communication directors from SLC come. We will miss our daily interaction with these good people. The Church public affairs and communication is in good hands in the Pacific. This was a perfect way to end our mission!

We learn as much from them as they learn from us.  They shared great insights from their experiences. We call it "bubbling up" information. We share messaging from the Area Presidency focus but we need the "bubble up" information from each nation to know how to categorize and message the Area focus.

The man in the blue shirt standing next to me is Simon O'Conner. He is a former parliament member in New Zealand, former trained Catholic priest, acting Baptist, strong advocate of families and a dear friend of the Church. We invited him to spend some time with our group to let us learn from his perspective as a influential political leader and social media expert on how we can help others see us in a positive light.

This is an interesting picture. During one discussion we split into 2 groups. This circle is the island CDs. The people in the back are the CDs from Australia and NZ. They have very different concerns, needs, and interests.

In Aus and NZ religion in general is struggling. They handle concerns with Church reputation, and negative press.

On the islands, they have questions about humanitarian handovers, huge membership growth, and how to budget money.

Their concerns are different at times but both have the same purpose and desire: 

1. Share messages that focus on the Savior

2. Build meaningful relationships.

I know we can't have favorites but these two women are up there in our esteem and love. (I just want to take them home with me.) They have real lives, hard lives, and yet they are as good as you get. Hina and Sylverine are from New Caledonia and Tahiti, both French speaking countries. They both struggle speaking English and made great sacrifices to agree to their callings and come to the seminar.

On our way home, we dropped them off at KMart to go shopping for their families. They were giddy with excitement to see what they can find. The cost of living is very expensive in both countries.

Micheal Buble has nothing on Dan Nathan. This is Dan Nathan and his wife, Lisa.  He is an employee in our department and can sing.  Not just sing, he kills it when he sings.  I would put him up against Michael Buble and I think Dan Nathan would win that contest.  He was our after-dinner entertainment for the group. They absolutely loved him.  

This is Supi and Andrew from Tonga. When we went to Tonga to meet them and do their initial training, we knew right away they were going to be great.  They have done more good for the Church in Tonga than you can imagine. Inter-faith dinners, inter-faith concerts, meetings with political leaders, Prime Minister of Tonga meetings, media interviews, and the list goes on.  They set the standard for public affairs and communication.

Rich Hunter, our director, wrote and performed a farewell song for us. So creative, kind,  and funny.

This is Michael van Rosen and Amy Truax. They came from SLC to help with the seminar.  Michael is the Church Director of Communication and Amy is our Area Manager.  We spent a day with them showing them the sites of Auckland.  

It was very nice of Elder Meurs and Elder Jaggi (Pacific Area Presidency--Elder Wakolo was out of town) and their spouses to take us to dinner. It was an inspiring visit and we have nothing but love and admiration for these couples. They are a huge force of energy and love! They have dedicated their entire life to service in the gospel.

Only one more blog post before we come home. Crazy! This last week has been extremely busy with all of the seminar preparation.  We need the coming week to catch up.  We saw and visited with so many people this week that we won't see again.  It is a sad and uplifting experience.  The Pacific will forever be a part of our life.

We love you and miss you,

Elder and Sister Shaw