New Area Presidency in the Pacific

Pacific Area Presidency - L to R:  Elder S. Gifford Nielsen; Elder O. Vincent Haleck, and Elder Craig A. Cardon;
 Photo from Mormon Newsroom.

We had a special devotional today to welcome the new Pacific Area Presidency.  All of us here at the PAO already know and love Elder Nielsen and Elder Haleck.  Elder Haleck is now the new President following the release of Elder Pearson.  The new counselor is Elder Craig A. Cardon.  It was great to get to hear both he and his wife speak so we could get familiar with them.

Elder and Sister Cardon are from Arizona.  As it happens,  he and Larry met before when they both were serving Stake Missions and were ordained at the same time by Sterling W. Sills in 1974.  Elder Cardon mentioned this in his remarks to the group.

I especially appreciated Sister Cardon's talk.  She spoke of their time in Rome, Italy when her husband served as mission president there.   It was a busy time for her with seven young children and many responsibilities as a mission president's wife.   She talked about the overwhelm and discouragement she sometimes felt when it seemed impossible for her to keep up with all that was expected of her.  Then she recognized that she really could not do it alone, but that with the Lord as her guide she was never alone.  She spoke of learning to rely on the Savior in all things, both in having discernment to know what things were needful and in having the strength to do whatever was asked of her.  Wise words! 

Afterward, when her husband spoke, he paid her high tribute as a woman of faith who abhorred conflict.  I thought about that a lot.  In today's world argument and contention are so common.  I thought about ways that I can be a peacemaker.

A group of the employees sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" and did a great job. Music truly brings a special spirit to our meetings. 

 At the close of the devotional Elder and Sister Cardon shook hands with every person there.Then we all gathered in the lunchroom to enjoy refreshments and visit.  Some of the staff and sister missionaries had spent the whole morning cutting up fresh fruit and veggies and arranging platters various hors d'oeurves and sweets.  It was quite a spread.

These special gatherings are times we will long remember of our service here in the Pacific Area Office.  We truly do serve with some great people.

(Note:  All photos, with exception of top one from Mormon Newsroom, taken by Elder Reed Spencer.  Thanks for sharing!)

Packets of Light To Live By

Right across the hall from where our office is on the third floor of the Pacific Area Office are the Public Affairs missionaries. These are great folks we love associating with! Pictured here are Senior Missionaries Cheri Loveless, Barry Preator, Susan Preator,Jeff Champlin and Linda Champlin On the far right is their department manager, Rich Hunter. Together they make a formidable team indeed.

They are tasked with preparing news stories about the Church for various formats. They cover all sorts of stories ranging from visits by church dignitaries to local service projects. They publish in Pacific Mormon Newsroom and post things on Facebook.  I took the photo above at a recent gathering to celebrate the milestone of their having reached 20,000 likes on the Facebook page for Pacific Mormon Newsroom.

What do social network sites have to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Rich Hunter talked about that some in this morning's office devotional. I was very impressed by the things he had to say,  so I asked his permission to share his message. He was kind enough to grant permission for me to reprint his talk in its entirety. This is what he had to say:

Twitter is a social media platform that launched 10 years ago. A tweet is a message of 140 characters or less. So the idea is to say as much as  you can in as few words as possible  210 million people used Twitter in the month of Mrch, 2016. I was one of them, @richNZhunter.

There are serious tweets, like this one from @CNN yesterday:
"Scientists find cancer in million-year-old fossil and it could change everything." and another from @BBCWorld:  "Turkey's President Erdogan seeks to rein in spy agency after coup."

There are humorous ones, like this one by @usedwigs:  "It doesn't feel great when a co-worker asks what you had for lunch and your reply starts with "A tub of..."  and another, "@sbellelauren: "The divorce rate among my socks is astonishing."

President Thomas S. Monson uses Twitter. On Thursday he tweeted "Let us - all of us - have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle." On Friday, President Henry B. Eyring tweeted: "Never forget that a loving God is as close as a prayer." Also in the last few days, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf took to Twitter, saying: "There are opportunities to serve our fellowman. We should reach out and give one-on-one service to help and lift those in need."

In 2011 Elder Richard G. Scott said the following in a conference talk: "Scriptures are like packets of light that illuminate our minds and give place to guidance and inspiration from on high." And, by the way, people are still tweeting and re-tweeting that particular quote.

Articles of Faith 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 12 are all short enough to tweet. The others would need two or more tweets to send out. The prophet Joseph Smith wrote these short statements for a newspaper editor, and for public understanding. Little packets of light that I memorized as a Primary Boy, and which have illuminated my path on countless occasions throughout my life.

Rich Hunter

We can choose to seek packets of light (in the scriptures and in other good places), to help lighten our heart, our load and our way; and also choose to send out packets of light to bless others.

While Twitter is a great way to seek and find packets of light, and send others packets of light, we can share light and goodness in many, many ways. Most importantly, by the way we talk with each other and about each other, and in all of our communications. A great foundation for a life built upon this kind of communicating includes prayer, testimony and expressions of love and appreciation. May we strive to always share light, goodness, faith, hope and charity. In all of our words --spoken or written, Packet size, family size, and when we're communicating in bulk (Like I am here today). And when we fall short, we can say, or write: "I'm sorry, please forgive me." (Now that's short enough to tweet.)

The Lord commanded: (Matthew 5:16) "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

The Saviour also revealed: (D&C 84:45) "For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoeer is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit. And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father."

Listening to the Spirit

Brother Mike Ramirez works as a Media Services Producer with the Publishing Services Department of the Church.   He gave an inspired message at our Monday morning devotional that I've been thinking about a lot.

The context of his message was about the importance of family history work, so of course I found it to be of interest.  He spoke of going home to his native land of the Philippines to find information about his family.   He bore strong testimony of the truth of this work and the inspired nature of the My Family 15 in 15 challenge from the Area Presidency.  He shared some key quotes form church leaders.  It really was a great talk.

But what impressed me most was what he said BEFORE the main subject of his talk.

Apparently Mike had been on the ball, preparing his assigned talk several days ahead of time.   He had prayed and pondered to know what to say.  He looked up key scriptures to use, included a personal story and put together a talk that he felt good about.  On Sunday night he went to bed, feeling confident he was ready for devotional on Monday morning.

However, he woke up about 1:45 AM with a feeling he should not give that talk that he had worked so hard to prepare.  Mike recognized the feeling for what it was, not any personal misgivings about speaking,  but a prompting of the Holy Spirit telling him that the Lord had a different message He wanted Mike to share.  At first he was tempted to tell the Spirit "Shut up. My talk is ready.  It's a good talk.  I don't want to start all over now."

But as much as he would have liked to simply roll over to go back to sleep, Mike is an obedient servant of the Lord.  When he recognizes a spiritual prompting, he knows he must do what he is asked.  So he got up out of bed, said a prayer for guidance, and started from scratch to write down whatever it was the Lord wanted him to share.  Mike said the whole talk just came to him in about ten minutes.   He typed as fast as he could to capture the words as they came to his mind.  What came out was this beautiful talk about family history.

Many people were moved by that talk and several followed through right away by going on to FamilySearch to find family names to submit for temple ordinances.   Families will be strengthened on both sides of the veil as a direct result of  that talk.  That's powerful stuff!

The part that impressed me, however, was how the talk came about.  I will long remember Mike's ability to recognize the voice of the Spirit and his willingness to follow through.  The scriptures refer to communication from the Holy Spirit as "the still small voice".    When that sort of inspiration comes,  it is a whisper, not a shout.   It comes as a gentle nudge, not a shove.

Boyd K Packer has taught:  "The Holy Ghost speaks with a voice that you feel more than you hear. It is described as a still,small voice. And while we speak of listening to the whisperings of the Spirit, most often one describes the Spirit's prompting by saying, I had a feeling."

I so appreciate Mike Ramirez for his wonderful example of heeding the Spirit.  I hope in the final days of our mission and throughout my life, I can do a better job of following that example.  I know that quiet, gentle prompting do indeed come.  I want to be ready to recognize them when they come, to learn to be able to distinguish clearly the promptings of the Spirit from my own ideas and emotions.  Then, when those true, genuine promptings do come, I want to have the faith to heed them.  

***

I'm including some links to talks about "the still small voice" so I can come back here and review this topic more.

From a 2005 Conference talk talk by Richard C. Edgely of the presiding bishopric:
"When Elijah was fleeing for his life from the wicked Phoenician princess Jezebel, the Lord directed him to a high mountain, where he had a most unusual experience. As Elijah stood upon the mount before the Lord, he felt “a great and strong wind … ; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice” (1 Kgs. 19:11–12)."


Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant, (2011), 180–87 https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-heber-j-grant/chapter-20?lang=eng

S. Dillworth Young. April 1976 General Conference Address:  "The Still Small Voice".
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1976/04/the-still-small-voice?lang=eng

PAO Christmas Party

Today we had the Pacific Area Office Christmas Party.   There was a lovely buffet luncheon for the entire staff made up of both church employees and all the senior missionaries that work there.

For the entertainment, all the Missionaries and Church Employees had been assigned into groups for a skit / lip synching contest.  Family History was teamed up with Human Resources group.  They are pictured here as follows from Top stair to bottom:

Human Resources Department

Lorena Costa – HR Coordinator

Nilo Penales – HR Operations Business Partner, S&I

Ruth Hamon -  HR Generalist Business Partner

Vanessa Teio-Poleo – NZ Human Resources Manager

Albert Niuelua – Area Human Resources Manager

We did a dance to mash up of  Feliz Navidad and I Wish You a Merry Christmas.  Doesn't Larry look great with Blue Hair??  We only had a few times to get together to plan what we would do and practice it once or twice.  Having seen the video later, let's just say none of us should give up our day jobs to try to take this sort of thing on full time.  Still, it was a lot of fun working with these folks during our lunch hours to share some laughs as we put it together.  

Here are some of the other staff that work at the PAO:

Self Reliance Department

Elder Reed Spencer  & Sister Nada Spencer – Pacific Area Education Specialist Coordinating Couple

Renee Solomon – Pacific Area Self-Reliance Support Specialist

Paul Reid – Pacific Area Self-Reliance Manager

Dean Westerlund – Pacific Area Education Manager

Ariel Wetere – Pacific Area Self Reliance Operations Manager

(in front) Dallas Olsen – Senior Admin Assistant (Welfare)

Public Affairs Department

Missionaries:  Elder Barry Preator & Sister Susan Preator on left
Elder Jeffrey Camplin and Sister Linda Champlin on right.  

In center is Rich Hunter,  Public Affairs Manager for the Area.

Previous public affairs missionaries that we worked closely with were the Fugals and Wallaces:

Paula and Guy Fugal

AP Missionaries and Secretaries 

Carol and Keith Wallace

(These department photos were taken a few months AFTER the Christmas party and added later.  Back at that time The In-Field Rep was Elder Dirk Cotterell, assisted by his wife Sister Sally Ann Cotterell.  Elder Bruce Brereton was serving as Exec Secretary to the Area Presidency, assisted by his wife Sister Patsy Brereton.  Elder Allen Whidden with the Mental Health Rep assisted by his wife Sister Arendje Whidden.  The Area Medical Adviser when we first came was Elder Doyle Brown assisted by his wife Sister Jeanne Brown.   Part of mission life is getting used to the fact that we get close to people who cycle in and out of our lives as their terms of service come and go.)

Publishing Services Department    

Materials Manangment Derpartment

Physical Facilities Department

Finance Department

Legal Department

And of course, our own Family History Department:

Area FH Manager, Mike Higgins, Elder Bennett & Sister Bennett

We truly do work with a great group of folks.  Some we know better than others.  In truth, there are more than a few that I don't know at all, as shown by the fact that I couldn't put a name to every face in the photos.  Still, we appreciate the friendly way we are greeting in the lunch room or as we are going about our business.  We see a lot of these folks at Monday morning devotional and have visited with some about various things.  Others we've worked one-on-one with to help them with their own family history.  Being surrounded by such high caliber people is a great benefit of working in the Area Office.  So we enjoyed being with them all at the party today.

However, it did seem strange that this party was to celebrate Christmas.  We have been so incredibly busy between our preparations for our upcoming trip to the USA and our ongoing work assignment working hard to meet the My Family 15 in 15 goals  that we have not done any decorating or baking or other things to keep our usual holiday traditions.  Also, with the seasons reversed here in the Southern hemisphere, it's summer now which is a big switch from our experience in the state.  The other major difference is that very few houses are decorated here and most stores don't make a big deal about it at all.

In the US, Christmas is blasted from every store beginning as early as October.  Private homes become beacons as owners drape every window, gutter and tree with lights.  Here there is very little sign of the upcoming holiday, either commercially or in neighborhoods.  Every now and then we will see a decoration or two someone has put up, but it just isn't publicly promoted the way we are accustomed to.  In a way I like that it is not a commercial extravaganza here, but it is hard to get into any sort of festive mood without some of the sparkle we have come to associate with Christmas.  

Nevertheless, the PAO party went off well.  We enjoyed the company of those we work with and a good time was had by all.

Choosing Gratitude

Every Monday morning we have a brief devotional in the Pacific Area Office before starting a new work week. We have been SO blessed by the thoughtful messages that have been presented in these meetings. Today we got a great reminder about Choosing to be POSITIVE and focus on GRATITUDE no matter what!

The speaker began with a question to ponder - "What is your response to terrible things?"  He then told the story of a District President in New Caledonia who was persecuted for bringing religion to the villages there.  One of the village leaders beat the man with a stick and called him many insulting names.

The man did not fight back.  He did not show any outward sign of anger or resentment for the treatment he received.  He actually expressed gratitude for his absolute knowledge that the Gospel of Christ was true.

We were then challenged to consider our own opportunity to fully experience and express gratitude in all circumstances.  With Thanksgiving coming up I've been thinking a lot about all that I have to be grateful for.  Truly, I DO have many blessings to give thanks for.  However, I have not been inclined to turn first to gratitude when things go terribly wrong.   Today's message was a good reminder that I can make the choice to be thankful in ALL circumstances.

These weekly devotionals have totally reformatted the way we view Monday mornings. Instead of "UGH - weekend is over...gotta go back to the grind of work" we get up perky and ready to be spritually fed. LOVING this mission!

Meeting Boletta

We are trying to get a handle on what our duties will be here.  So far, our main assignment is to work as office support in the Pacific Area Office for the family history department.   That means we basically have an 8 to 5 job taking care of administrative duties like shipping out equipment to various family history centers throughout the Pacific,  planning programs, maintaining accurate inventory and staffing lists, supporting family history center directors, answering questions, etc.  

Part of the time we will travel to various areas to train leadership about the importance of having strong family history programs and activities in their stakes, wards or branches.  But we don't generally work directly with individuals doing family research.

However, on Friday a woman and her daughter came to the office hoping to find someone to assist her with a particular task on her own family tree. She had done genealogy on paper for many years, but was not familiar with computers so she was not sure of how to submit names in FamilySearch. She wanted help entering the information for her deceased brother and his wife so she could get their names cleared to take to the temple.  

Bolleta came all the way from a small town near Greymouth, on the West Coast of the South Island, seeking help.  She did not have a functioning family history center close to where she lived, so she was hoping that a trip to Auckland would provide the assistance she needed.  Rather than tell her that the Area Office didn't really do that sort of thing, our manager said I could see what I could do to help her out.

                       
Fortunately I had been well trained during the time we were in Mesa taking classes, so in just a few minutes I was able to get her logged on and the necessary information entered into the FamilySearch trees program. With just a few clicks we were able to print out the ordinance request form for her to take to the temple to get her brother's work completed.  The love this woman felt for her sibling was powerfully evident.  Both she and her daughter were so grateful to get this accomplished. It felt wonderful to help make that possible.  

While I knew all the office support tasks I was being assigned were important, and ultimately contributed to the work of preserving family history and leading people to the temple, having someone right there in front of me with a need I could solve had a very different sort of feel to it.  Seeing her beautiful smile and tears in her eyes as she expressed the love she felt for her brother touched my heart in a way that updating spreadsheets never could. It made me feel like a REAL missionary!