Auckland at Night
Easter
Sunday
Today is
Easter Sunday. Hard to believe we have
been missionaries almost two months now.
Our MTC date was February 24th, the date from which all
others have relevance!
There are
thirteen senior missionary couples in the Auckland area, six of whom office
together with us on the fourth floor of the Area Office. The assignments include public affairs (us
and another couple), CES working with the young adults, welfare, a doctor, a
psychologist, area legal counsel and his assistant and self –reliance. The Auckland Mission office is just around
the corner. Two senior couples serve
there and are very busy given growth in missionaries assigned to the area.
The Area
Office includes approximately 55-60 full time Church employees as well as the
Area Presidency. It is located on the
north shore in a suburb of Auckland named Takapuna, an upscale suburb at
that. I admit I never envisioned this
type of an environment. My vision
included the austerities of a nineteen year old proselyting missionary in South
Germany. (You California RMs can’t relate.) Quite to the contrary. New Zealand could not be more modern. While more expensive by about 30%, every
creature comfort you find at home is readily available in abundance. As an example, the Area Office is across the
street from Shores, a large upscale shopping mall including a food court.
Our day
begins with a ten minute walk to the Area Office arriving at 8:30 AM. We have a car but parking is for the most
part unavailable. The day typically
concludes at 4:30 PM with an hour for lunch.
Frequently, we will pack a lunch and eat in the downstairs break room. Our evenings and weekends are generally free
unless we are on assignment which in the past has taken us to Christchurch,
Hamilton (location of the temple) and in the near future to Wellington, the NZ
capital.
During the
day, we work on a variety of activities.
However, our primary effort centers on the Church pacific newsroom site,
www.mormonnewsroom.org.nz. Please log on and amaze yourselves at all of
the articles which for the most part are the effort of Elder and Sister
Wallace. I am sure a Nobel Prize in “literature
for newsrooms” is in the offing although I have yet to hear from Sweden. This could be reasonably compared with Obama’s
Nobel Prize for Peace after less than one year in office but I digress. In addition and from time to time, we plan
for particular public events. The next
is a Young Single Adults to Parliament to be held in Wellington in May. There, fifteen young adults from various
stakes together with ten Catholic young adults will observe a parliamentary
session , host a luncheon where Elder Kevin Pearson together a member of
Parliament will speak and participate in a debate concerning religious freedom.
Every month
on a designated Sunday evening, the missionaries gather together with
investigators and members for a “Come and See” meeting. Tonight was the night. These are held in a stake center, and both
times we have attended, the entire chapel and recreation hall have been
filled. Two beautiful musical numbers were
followed by testimonies of recent converts.
The convert from China gave an inspiring account of his journey to find
the “truth”. Our favorite part of the
evening was listening to over 200 missionaries sing “I Stand All Amazed”. The program ended with a video of a talk
given by Elder Holland on Christ and the
Atonement.
After two
months, we are comfortable and settled.
While we miss family, friends as well as certain things at home, we feel
an opportunity to make a contribution and look forward to the next sixteen
months.
Good friends
and senior missionaries, Jim and Renee Arveseth went home last Friday. There is a real camaraderie amongst the
seniors and we dearly hated to see them go.
However, two new sets are due within the first week of May with four others
departing in the next four months. A
real revolving door!
We hope all
is well with you. We appreciate your
love and support. Have a
wonderful Easter. Here is a short video
we posted on the newsroom about the importance of this special day.
In case you
haven’t seen the new video the Church produced this year ……
Love these updates. Both of you have such great sense of humors! Debbie G
ReplyDelete