We had an interesting experience the other day; two Catholic priests came to the Service Center wanting to know about the church. The receptionist directed them to us so we invited them into our office. (I guess they think Public Affairs have all the answers….NOT….)
Their question was “Why does the Mormon Church have such a presence in Samoa and what motivates us?” Paul pointed to the picture of Christ in our office and said that is why we do what we do. I then told them that when you have the Gospel of Jesus Christ which makes you so happy, that you want to share it with all of your brothers and sister.
We had a great conversation with them. They felt that the Catholic Church has been around since Christ so it has to be the only true church. We told them that in the scriptures it talks about the falling away and that our church was the restored one. When I asked them where their twelve apostles were they had no answer except to say that they had a lot of bishops. I think we all learned a little more about each other and then we gave them some Mormon Tabernacle choir CD’s and they left. It’s funny what others think our job description is, but we just try to be helpful. I just wished that I would have had our camera so we could have taken a picture with them.
I couldn't take a picture of the Priest so I thought this one would do. Look closely at the face.
We have been very busy getting ready for our Public Affairs Conference in New Zealand. Paul and I are the only PA couple that has been asked to do a presentation. No Fair!!
March 13th
Our ward went out to Saleapaga to help build another Fale for the tsunami victims. This was the third one our ward has done. The men laid cement for the bathroom and the floor of the fale while the women planted a garden. Trying to get the ground prepared was extremely hard with one pix, two rakes, and two hand shovels. What I would have done for a giant tiller! We planted sixty pineapple plants, taro, cucumbers, and some flowers.
March 13th
Our ward went out to Saleapaga to help build another Fale for the tsunami victims. This was the third one our ward has done. The men laid cement for the bathroom and the floor of the fale while the women planted a garden. Trying to get the ground prepared was extremely hard with one pix, two rakes, and two hand shovels. What I would have done for a giant tiller! We planted sixty pineapple plants, taro, cucumbers, and some flowers.
We had begun our day by meeting at the Church parking lot at 4:00AM in the morning and by 10:00AM I felt that we had been there for days. When it started to rain the dirt roads became so muddy and it was hard to get the trucks up and down the road with the sand and cement. We finished around 1:00PM and headed straight to the beach where we all just walked into the water clothes and all. We were filthy from head to foot and the cool water was so refreshing. It was so funny to see everyone just swimming in their clothing.
The senior couples that went on the service project
March 16th
We celebrated Paul’s birthday a day ahead because we leave on the 17th for NZ. The Squire’s, Bells, and the Tolman’s showed up at our house for a surprise birthday for Paul. They brought sweet rolls and ice cream to celebrate. He didn’t want to go out to dinner for his birthday in Samoa because he wanted to wait and have Mexican food in NZ.
We celebrated Paul’s birthday a day ahead because we leave on the 17th for NZ. The Squire’s, Bells, and the Tolman’s showed up at our house for a surprise birthday for Paul. They brought sweet rolls and ice cream to celebrate. He didn’t want to go out to dinner for his birthday in Samoa because he wanted to wait and have Mexican food in NZ.
March 18
We left Samoa on the 17th landed in NZ on the 18th and just a year ago we had arrived there on the 18th also. What a coincidence!! We had to stop at Dunkin donuts by the airport to have some donuts, (Paul’s birthday cake). We haven’t had a donut for almost a year. Boy did they taste good.
Our first day there we went for Mexican food for lunch enjoying chips, salsa, enchilada’s tacos and guacamole. What a treat! When we went into the office after lunch I hugged the other missionary couple and Sandy said “You had Mexican food” I guess we smelt like hot sauce.
We left Samoa on the 17th landed in NZ on the 18th and just a year ago we had arrived there on the 18th also. What a coincidence!! We had to stop at Dunkin donuts by the airport to have some donuts, (Paul’s birthday cake). We haven’t had a donut for almost a year. Boy did they taste good.
Our first day there we went for Mexican food for lunch enjoying chips, salsa, enchilada’s tacos and guacamole. What a treat! When we went into the office after lunch I hugged the other missionary couple and Sandy said “You had Mexican food” I guess we smelt like hot sauce.
Our presentation went well. We were assigned to teach a session on how to run a PA council meeting. We were scheduled in the afternoon, the second presentation after lunch, so we knew that everyone would be tired and falling asleep. So we had to jazz up our presentation. Paul dressed up like a Chef with a tall hat that he borrowed from the kitchen staff at our Hotel and came into the room carrying a big Bar-B-Q fork and spatula all ready to make a soup. He drew a big pot on the board and we proceed to teach them using the preparation of a soup and its recipe to make our point. We both had aprons on and the whole group really got into it. I don’t know if they learned anything but they were all sure paying attention and having a good time.
March 21
We were able to have our own Sacrament meeting in the Area Office and it was wonderful to hear from President Callister and President Nielson from the Area Presidency. They are amazing men and after hearing them speak, you know why they are called to be General Authorities. They are down to earth but have such a beautiful way of teaching the gospel.
We said good-bye to our country PA directors on Sunday and started our PA Missionary meeting on Monday. We received great instruction from a real New Zealand reporter and even had to practice doing interviews on radio and TV. It’s never fun being on TV in front of other people but I think everyone did an amazing job. We were also taught how to write better news releases for the media. One that hopefully won’t go into the garbage.
We had one of the directors of PA from Salt Lake, Clark Hirshi, with us the whole week and we thought he was amazing. He was so impressed by what we are doing here in the Pacific Area. He said that he wished he could pick us all up and move us to all of his different areas around the world and have us train others how to do Public Affairs work.
We spoke with him on one of the breaks and suggested that they should consider letting couples go to some of these areas that need help for 5 or 6 months and then return home after they got the public affairs committee running well. He got really excited about that and is going to take it back to SLC. 6 month missions would be so nice.
We were able to have our own Sacrament meeting in the Area Office and it was wonderful to hear from President Callister and President Nielson from the Area Presidency. They are amazing men and after hearing them speak, you know why they are called to be General Authorities. They are down to earth but have such a beautiful way of teaching the gospel.
We said good-bye to our country PA directors on Sunday and started our PA Missionary meeting on Monday. We received great instruction from a real New Zealand reporter and even had to practice doing interviews on radio and TV. It’s never fun being on TV in front of other people but I think everyone did an amazing job. We were also taught how to write better news releases for the media. One that hopefully won’t go into the garbage.
We had one of the directors of PA from Salt Lake, Clark Hirshi, with us the whole week and we thought he was amazing. He was so impressed by what we are doing here in the Pacific Area. He said that he wished he could pick us all up and move us to all of his different areas around the world and have us train others how to do Public Affairs work.
We spoke with him on one of the breaks and suggested that they should consider letting couples go to some of these areas that need help for 5 or 6 months and then return home after they got the public affairs committee running well. He got really excited about that and is going to take it back to SLC. 6 month missions would be so nice.
March 26
We finished the conference so Paul and I and two of the other couples decided to take Friday afternoon off and go to the beach. It’s a remote beach that has lots of beautiful shells.
We finished the conference so Paul and I and two of the other couples decided to take Friday afternoon off and go to the beach. It’s a remote beach that has lots of beautiful shells.
This beach doesn’t get much traffic because you must climb down a very steep and brushy hillside using a rope in one location, but was so worth it. You have be there at low tide and can only stay a hour or two before the tide starts coming in again. In just an hour I think we found over 100 shells each. What a find for us.
This was another beach we went to and it was beautiful black sand with what looked like glitter on the sand.
March 27
We spent the last few days of our visit looking for a place to live when we move back in June. The only problem with looking this early is that if we found one now, we would have to start paying rent on it immediately. We found some good places but can’t afford to pay for two places (Samoa and NZ) at the same time. There aren’t a lot of rentals in the area we like to begin with and then most of them are unfurnished. The cost of buying furniture for just 8 or 9 months would be too big of an expense. Hopefully something will come up between now and when we move here the end of May.
March 28
We are involved in a project that has the Church in Samoa really concerned. AT the prompting of the so called big three Churches, the Government of Samoa has organized a commission to see if it would be in the best interests of the country to amend the Freedom of Religion section of the Constitution. The Catholic’s, Congregationalist’s, and Methodist’s want to limit Samoa to only those three religions. They think that there would be fewer disputes if everyone belonged to just those three but in truth, it’s all about money and control of people’s lives. The LDS Church is growing at a very rapid rate while those three are losing members at about 4 % a year. The News media is totally against changing the constitution as are we.
We spent the last few days of our visit looking for a place to live when we move back in June. The only problem with looking this early is that if we found one now, we would have to start paying rent on it immediately. We found some good places but can’t afford to pay for two places (Samoa and NZ) at the same time. There aren’t a lot of rentals in the area we like to begin with and then most of them are unfurnished. The cost of buying furniture for just 8 or 9 months would be too big of an expense. Hopefully something will come up between now and when we move here the end of May.
March 28
We are involved in a project that has the Church in Samoa really concerned. AT the prompting of the so called big three Churches, the Government of Samoa has organized a commission to see if it would be in the best interests of the country to amend the Freedom of Religion section of the Constitution. The Catholic’s, Congregationalist’s, and Methodist’s want to limit Samoa to only those three religions. They think that there would be fewer disputes if everyone belonged to just those three but in truth, it’s all about money and control of people’s lives. The LDS Church is growing at a very rapid rate while those three are losing members at about 4 % a year. The News media is totally against changing the constitution as are we.
The Mormon Church has around 30- 38% of the population yet they don’t consider us one of the big three. They don’t consider us Christian either so I guess it all goes hand in hand. We were fortunate that they had invited a member of our church to sit on the commission and what a blessing that is for us. We were able to get a wonderful presentation for the commission prepared with the help of the BYU law society who are top notch legal experts on the subject of Freedom of Religion. We were told that this was the best presentation ever made to this commission. Everyone is very concerned about how this will turn out. The Area legal counsel, Craig Christiansen, is flying in here on Monday to see if he can help in any way.
1 comment:
You must have a very large shell collection by now,,, I know Brandon took back many,,.
Congratulations on all you are doing. And I wish you a safe move back to NZ, and much more success.
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