South Island Trip - Day 5: On to Invercargill

Sunday morning we went to church at the Queenstown Branch.  This congregation is what we call a "One Slice Branch", meaning they only use one slice of bread broken up into pieces to pass the Sacrament.

There were around twenty people attending and a few of those, like us, were visitors. The leaders and members there were very welcoming, but we could tell it is a struggle for them to keep things going with so few people.  It reminded us of our early days in Paw Paw Branch back in Michigan.

Both Larry and I were invited to bear our testimonies which we were happy to do.  After Sacrament service was over we headed out so we could get on the road to Invercaragill.

At the encouragement of the Sister  McClean we took time to walk through the Queenstown gardens on our way out of town, knowing it was unlikely we would ever be in that beautiful city again.  We were very impressed.  The trees, shrubs, flowers and pathways were truly spectacular.  By this point we had seen so much beauty I almost felt my ability to take it in and fully appreciate it was exhausted.  Still, the calm, peaceful feeling I had as I walked through those gardens is something I hope to never forget.

When we had begun planning this trip we made several attempts to contact someone from the branch in Invercargill that we could meet with, but we never got a response. We knew their FHC had been closed for several months since their building was undergoing some renovations,  Still, we had hoped to get in touch with one of the leaders so we could at least hand off the electronic files we put on all the FHC computers and to learn what their plans were going forward for their center. With no prior arrangements in place we figured we would just take our chances when we got there and see what we might find.

It was on this part of our trip we had another interesting thing happen.  Larry had originally made reservations at an inexpensive motel in town.  However, after talking it over we decided to cancel that reservation and find something a little more charming as the motel he had found had been very bare bones.  We didn't need fancy, but we didn't want ugly either!

So we did some looking on line and had found a place called "Down South Cottage" on HomeAway that looked nice that was in our budget. 

  Being totally unfamiliar with the area, we had no idea what this might be close to.  When we arrived we discovered that the new accommodation we felt drawn to when we looked online was just down the road from the LDS church we wanted to visit.  It was just one more in a long line of  little blessings that made this trip - like our whole mission - feel guided from above.

 Once we got settled into our place we decided to go on down to the church on the off chance that someone might be there.  We knew this was a long-shot as it was late in the day on Sunday afternoon long after all the meetings would have ended.  As expected, there were no vehicles in the carpark. However, one of the back doors was standing wide open, which rather surprised us. Then we saw a bicycle propped against the building so we knew someone was indeed there. We went on in to see who we might find. 

Imagine our surprise when the person we found in the building was James Stapleforth, the Family History Center Director we had been trying to contact. He also served as the ward clerk so he was there working on some reports. He was happy to open up the center so we could put the training resources onto the computers and take inventory of the equipment. Then we worked with him to help him submit a family name since he had not done this in quite a long time  We had a really good conversation with him and felt like everything on our South Island adventure was falling in to place.

South Island Trip - Day 3: Queenstown in the Spring

On Friday morning we had planned to spend some time exploring around Fox Glacier, but the weather "turned to custard" as they say here in New Zealand.  The skies were totally grey so we couldn't see the mountains at all and it rained hard all morning long.  So we simply got on the road and headed on down toward Queenstown.  



Because it rained most of the morning we got glimpses of many waterfalls coming down the mountain sides.  The rain let up enough for us to get out and do a short walk at Fantail Falls.

A 23 metre waterfall, Fantail Falls is located in Mt Aspiring National Park, along HAAST Highway. 

It rained for quite a bit of the morning, but once the skies lifted we began to get some amazing views as of the stunning South Island scenery.

We stopped for lunch in Wanaka which was a lovely lakeside community surrounded by stunning mountain views.  We would have like to have had more time there, but we wanted to make Queenstown while we still had plenty of daylight, so after lunch and a short walk around town, we got back on the road.

Travelbrochures.org

After several hours of car time through some very beautiful country, we finally arrived at our destination of Queenstown.   This is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Queenstown (Māori: Tāhuna) is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island.

It is built around an inlet called Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu, a long thin Z-shaped lake formed by glacial processes, and has spectacular views of nearby mountains such asThe Remarkables, Cecil Peak, Walter Peak and just above the town; Ben Lomond and Queenstown Hill.

Queenstown has an urban population of 13,150 (June 2015 estimate),^[3] making it the 29th largest urban area in New Zealand, and the third largest urban area in Otago, behindDunedin and Oamaru.

The Queenstown-Lakes District has a land area of 8,704.97 square kilometres (3,361.01 sq mi) not counting its inland lakes (Lake Hāwea, Lake Wakatipu, and Lake Wanaka). The region has an estimated resident population of 32,400 (June 2015 estimate).^[3] Its neighbouring towns include Arrowtown, Glenorchy, Kingston, Wanaka, Alexandra, and Cromwell. The nearest cities are Dunedin and Invercargill. Queenstown is known for its commerce-oriented tourism, especially adventure and ski tourism.

We LOVED the view of the mountain range known as the "Remarkables" we had from our room.                      

After finding our motel and getting settled there, we went out to find where the LDS chapel was so we would know where to go for meetings on Sunday. Being early spring, all of Queenstown was in bloom. We were very impressed by how beautiful the town was. 

Next we went to find a place to have dinner. There is no FHC in Queenstown, so we did not have any appointments there. We expected our time here would be a chance to catch our breath between meetings and relax a bit.  However, as we were sitting in the restaurant eating our fajitas, I got a STRONG prompting that we needed to contact the leaders of the church in the branch.

We brought up a hotspot with Larry’s phone so we could go online and check the Church Director of Leaders (CDOL) for contact information. The person listed as  “Acting Branch President”, had no phone number given. However, there was a phone number for the first counselor, Peter McClean, so we called him. A child answered the phone and began chatting, apparently not too eager to hand the phone over to an adult. Eventually, however, a woman’s voice came on.  I was able to introduce myself and explain we were Family History missionaries from Auckland.

As soon as I said “Family History”, I heard a sharp intake of breath. Then Sister McClean explained: “I can’t believe this. My husband and I are planning to go to the temple.  We want to take family names to take with us.  Also, we want to teach our children about our family history.  But, we don’t know how. There is no one in our branch who could help us. So I said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help me find a way to learn how to do this. And now you are here. You are an answer to my prayers.” That was very humbling. 

I told Sister McClean we would be in church with them that Sunday. However, she said there was a game night activity at the church that very night and they would love it if we could come. So we hurried up and finished our dinner, then went back to our room to change into fresh clothes and get our computer to take to the church.  We very much enjoyed getting to know the McClean family.  Originally from the island of Vava'u in Tonga, they have lived in New Zealand for about ten years.  When we told them we knew Vava'u they were excited and we had a very animated conversation about life on the island.  Then I helped both Brother McClean and his wife to submit family names to take to the temple. This was their first time ever being able to do this for their own ancestors. Getting a chance to work with them was an extra blessing for us we had not expected.  We had much to give thanks for that night.

A Perfect Autumn Day in New Zealand

 After several days of gloomy skies and rain, the sun finally came out today.  It was a beautiful fall day in New Zealand.  This morning Larry and I took a walk out at one of our favorite places, Tuft Crater.  We enjoyed the colors of the changing season and crunch of falling leaves mixed in with lush evergreens and fern trees.

Then this afternoon we got together with Elder & Sister Graham and a cousin of theirs who was visiting, Parker Andrus.   The Grahams are fairly new here, having replaced the Whiddens to serve at Area Mental Health advisors.   Parker is originally from Utah, but currently lives in Japan.  He is a sales manager with accounts throughout the Pacific Rim.  Since he was here for a couple days on business, he decided to look up the Grahams.  

We all went together to One Tree Hill, a place where we always take newcomers to get a good view of Auckland and the surrounding area.  Generally we drive all the way to the top, but today the road was gated off for runners who were participating in a race.  We didn't mind parking in the car park half way up and walking the rest of the way up the hill, but we certainly weren't going to try to run!   We enjoyed visiting and taking in the views

I've been at the top of this place many times, but it never gets old.  From the monument platform you get a 360 degree view, and on a clear day can see all the way to the Coromandel.  We enjoyed sharing this special spot with the Grahams and with Parker.

 When we came back down we introduced them to their first taste of New Zealand ice cream at the Creamery  (to die for!) and then walked over to the big fig tree we always like to see.

While we were walking down the hill I was sharing some of our experiences from our mission with Parker and he was telling me about his own heritage - with a mix of Samoan and Scottish on his mother's side.  As he said that I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  Where was his Samoan ancestor from?   From the island of Tutuila - where we so recently were.   While there, we had worked with a lady whose ancestors included a local island lady and sailor from Scotland.   Could it be the same?

Suddenly this chance encounter of our meeting Parker seemed bigger as  we might be the exact people he needed to meet to make the connection to that long ago relative.

I'll have to do some digging to find out more details about Parker's family and then reach out to the people we met in American Samoa.  But this very much seems like one more time when we are put in the right place at the right time to help someone make connections.   The list keeps growing of times when it seems so clear the Lord has used us as his instrument to help people find their family lines:

Sometimes it's just us doing our assignment, as we would expect.  We've helped many stake presidents, bishops, high counselors and others to find family names to submit for temple work.  That aways is a special blessing for us.  But there have been other times when the circumstances came together in such remarkable ways that we couldn't help but believe the angels on the other side were guiding our words and our steps.

Dallas Olsen's family in Fiji
Raj and his Father-in-law in Labasa
Jual Franks who I met at Cape Reinga
Sister Loveless's great aunt who she has always felt such a special connection for

 It is such a blessing to be part of this sacred work.  Through the blessings of the temple, families really can be eternal.

Labasa - Answer to Prayers

One experience I always want to remember from our recent trip to Fiji is the time we spent with Raj and his father-in-law, Dharam,  in Labasa.

We had been somewhat disappointed by our time at the Family History Center in Labasa on Wednesday 7 October.  We spent an entire afternoon there when no one came.  We were able to use our time productively as Larry was working on the PKI reports and I had things I could do. But we really wanted to help members with their family history.

The following day as we prepared to head back to Suva. We packed up our things and got checked out of the hotel a little after 10:00 AM.  We then walked around the market some and bought some fruit.  We were just killing time as we had no appointments or any specific things to do.  Still, we had a very strong feeling there was someone we needed to help.  We just didn't know who that might be.

So we walked over to the chapel and sat in the courtyard reading Preach My Gospel.   We prayed together, asking Heavenly Father to help us find someone we could teach and to help us know the right words to say.  

We saw an older man sitting on the opposite side of the courtyard so we went to talk to him. We often hear people talk about receiving "spiritual promptings".   I suppose everyone experiences this in their own personal way.   It's hard to describe exactly what it was that we felt that morning as we walked across the courtyard to where this gentleman was sitting.  All I know is that when we absolutely KNEW we needed to talk with him.   There was just one problem with that.  He did not speak any English.   

The man we felt so drawn to was of Indian decent and only spoke Hindi.  (There are many Fijians of Indian descent around Labasa and in Suva - these are descendants of the indentured servants who were brought over from Calcutta by the British between 1879 and 1916 to work the sugar cane fields. Native Fijians have retain most all of the land in the islands, so the Indian population have become merchants or laborers.)  We had a My Family book in Fijian, but even that was of little use.  We tried our best through gestures to explain who we were and that we were hoping to talk with him about family stories.   He smiled and nodded, but just said again   “No English”.  

Shortly after this, one of the workmen that was there to do the power washing of the roof noticed us and asked if we needed the Family History Center to be unlocked as he had the key.   We said yes, so he opened the door.  Then he looked over to the man we had been trying to talk with and told us the gentleman was his father-in-law. The workman, Raj Naidu, told us his father-in-law, Dharam Raj, was not a member of the church, but it would still be good to get his information about family history.   We said we would very much like to work with him.

So Raj took a break from his working and brought Dharam into the family history center.   Acting as interpreter, Raj helped us get the information about his father-in-law’s  parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.   Dharam also knew the details about Raj's ancestors since the two families had been well acquainted for many years.   Three generations of Raj's family were all from Labasa, but those before had come from India.   We took photos of Raj and Dharam to add to FamilySearch and thanked them both for sharing their stories with us.   Then we helped Raj submit one of his great-grandparents’ name for temple work. 

We told Raj about how it had felt very important to us that day to find someone we could teach about Family History.   We told him of our prayer asking Heavenly Father to guide us to the person He wanted us to help, and then feeling strongly we should try talking to Dharam.    Raj explained that normally his father-in-law would not be with him on a work day, but that particular day  Raj had felt a strong prompting that he should bring Dharam with him.  We told Raj that with the information Dharam had provided there were now several names in Raj’s wife’s family who could have temple work done for them.   Raj said it was a miracle to him that we were there on the one day that he brought Dharam with him and that Dharam was able to provide all the details of their family.   We felt like the whole experience was a very clear answer to our prayers.   When we left, each of us felt like we had been guided to be there at that particular time to accomplish this work.

It is so humbling to know that our prayers truly are heard and answered.   This work we are involved in is not our own.  It is the Lord's errand we are on.   We are deeply grateful for experiences like this that remind us of that.

Beyond that, we often feel the presence of people's ancestors in the room when we work together to add names, stories and pictures to their family trees.  We can feel the sense of urgency and excitement like static electricity in the air.   In my mind I can still hear Raj's soft, lilting voice with the Hindi accent saying what a miracle it was to bring us together that day.  To others it may have seemed like chance or coincidence.   To us, these are the sort of experiences that we can never forget.  We are so grateful for this calling. We know that families truly can be eternal and is is a tremendous blessing to be a part of bringing that about.

Raj with his pedigree chart and ordinance request form after submitting  a family name for temple work

Our time with Dharam was truly an answer to prayer

Nakawakawa Branch

As we traveled around the island of Vana Levu, we kept hearing stories about a very special branch up in one of the mountain villages.   
It was said to be the fastest growing LDS church unit in Fiji.   

People spoke about meetings with 10, 20, sometimes 30 investigators.  Some of those inquiring about the church were said to walk for miles to come find out about this group that had been meeting in a tent,  teaching of a new religion.  After the membership outgrew that primitive shelter, they banded together to build their own church.  They cut down one of the local mahogany trees and planed it into boards with a chainsaw.  With the help of some village boys and a few service missionaries, they cleared a site on the mountaintop and built themselves a chapel.

While the building was very basic, it had one of the most beautiful views of any LDS chapel, situated as it was high up in the mountains of one of the most remote areas of the island.

   


   The congregation at Nakawakawa had been meeting together for just two years and gained new members nearly every month.  When investigators were ready to commit to joining the church, they were baptized in the nearby river.

1st Counselor Brother Nawele showed us the river where he was baptized
after telling us his conversion story.

This congregation was so new that all the leaders were learning their roles step by step as they embraced the gospel.  They were formally organized as an independent branch the day we were in Savusavu.   The following week we had an opportunity to go visit the new branch  for ourselves.

We had quite a long journey to get there.   We headed out from Labasa at 6:00 AM.  For the first few hours the road was paved.  But about half way there we shifted to a bumpy gravel road , and then that gave way to nothing ore that rutted dirt with several rivers to cross on small, precarious bridges.

Road to Nakawakawa Branch

After about five hour travel from Labasa, we arrived at Nakawakawa Branch and met the newly appointed Branch President, Pita Vakalala.

Bro. Senikuriciri and President Vakalala meet

President Vakalala was a quiet, very humble man with powerful faith.  I learned part of his story from his counselor.  Although born in Fiji, Pita's family had emigrated to the USA when he was a very young boy.  He had grown up in Salt Lake City, with all the modern conveniences and perils that city life has to offer.  Although his parents were strong members of the church, Pita was a very rebellious youth.  He fell in with the street gangs.  Then, as a young adult, he was arrested and deported back to Fiji.   

At first Pita was devastated by the abrupt change in his life.  Instead of fast food, movies, and modern life, he was thrown back to traditioanl village culture, eating primarily fish and taro.  He became very discouraged.  He went through a painful, dark period as he came to terms with the consequences of his choices.  He finally recognized that the only path for him to reclaim his life was to repent of all his sins and turn his life over to God.   Once his heart was turned, he made up his mind he would go to his father's village in Nakawakawa and teach the people there the gospel.  It has largely been through his powerful testimony that this congregation has been established.

A few of the members of Nakawakawa Branch who came to our Family History training

 

  We were literally on top of a mountain MANY miles from any sort of town. But through the miracle of technology we were able to get online with our Vodophoone Flashnet dongle and bring up the online program FamilySearch.org to teach the people how to build family trees and record stories of their ancestors.  We also were able to help three people submit family names for temple work. It seemed like a true miracle that we were able to accomplish this in such a remote place.

Then Elder Bennett said to President Vakalala, "this has been a wonderful opportunity.  It sure would be nice if we could actually print out the forms so the people could have them now to look forward to taking them to the temple."  President Vakalala said he would be right back.  He took off in his truck and came back about 20 minutes later with a printer and a generator.  We hooked it all up and before we knew it, we were printing out the Family Ordinance Requests. Everything worked perfectly.  These were the first ever family file names for the temple from their newly organized branch.

We showed President Vakalala how to sign on as a helper so he could continue to work with the members after we left. We also helped him get his Patriarchal blessing online and showed him how to add photos to FamilySearch.   We absolutely loved the reaction of this shy, reserved man when he saw the pictures he uploaded appear for the first time.

There is NO DOUBT in our minds we had angels among us as we worked together teaching both the doctrine of eternal families and the tools for how to bring it about.  We had never felt so much love and faith and willingness to do whatever the Lord may ask as I have among these humble people. It was an amazing day.  We were very honored to spend time with President Pita  Vakalala,  1st Counselor Brother Nawele  and 2nd counselor  Bro Tomasi.  Hearing their conversion stories and learning of the history of the branch was very inspiring.

Afterward we joined them for a meal before heading back on another long, bumpy ride back to Labasa.

Today was a very good day.  We will add these experiences to an ever growing list of our mission miracles.