Sunday Evening

February 8, 2015

Greetings All,

Seems we have settled into blogging about once every month.  We are now fast approaching the anniversary date (Feb. 24th) of this great adventure – hard to believe, huh?  In the words of Kermit the Frog, “Times fun when you’re having flies.”  How’s that for hard up humor?  Now for the mission report.

Recently, we have been spending the majority of our time organizing the national debut of Meet the Mormons which takes place in approximately 20 venues throughout the Pacific on the evening of February 9th. We have managed to rent theaters similar to the Megaplex facilities you experience.  The objective is to invite opinion leaders, civic leaders, friends of other faiths and others of similar background to an introduction of the Church.  There is a concerted effort Church wide to foster strong relationships with all individuals and organizations of faith.  As previously reported, secularism is viewed as a common and formidable challenge.

For those of you who are dying of curiosity and have not seen the production, I’m sure it is available on Amazon,Netlfix, etc.  Once this is complete (tomorrow) we will be posting articles on Mormon Newsroom so if you have not visited that site, give it about two to three days, then go to mormonnewsroom.org.nz and you will be able to see what we do in this life – write articles, interview individuals and chronicle events of general interest involving both the Church and the community.  And you thought we were vacationing in New Zealand, collecting social security as expatriates (partially true).

 

Of interest, patrons to the event are asked to contribute what is referred to as a “gold coin” donation, an amount of their choice. The aggregate of these collections is being donated to Caritas, the Catholic humanitarian organization with whom we have a great relationship here in NZ. (This ought to make Bunnell and McInnes warm and fuzzy.)

Later in the month, Apostle David Bednar is coming for the 2015 review of the Pacific Area plan.  During his visit, he will be in Australia meeting with the Catholic Archbishop in Sydney as well as local civic leaders.  Here in NZ, we attempted to have similar meetings but were unsuccessful.  He will also be dedicating the new missionary training center which has been materially expanded.  Look for that article as well on newsroom.

Kids Visit

Yes, all of our kids together with their spouses came to visit January 22nd through February 1st.  A great, heartfelt reunion. We managed to cover both the north and south islands as well as fly fishing for Adam, one of his lifetime goals.  I will now describe the event in pictures.

Eight and one-half pounds, 30 "

We are bearing down on the last months.  Our release date has been set for July 25th.  The intent is to fly  directly into LA then meet the family in Newport for our annual week long beach trip.

So that’s the latest from NZ.  Hope this finds you well and happy.  By the looks of weather reports, your weather rivals ours.  What up with that?