One of the fun things we do while traveling to various places on this mission is to do a bit of geocaching. (For more info on what that is, check out Geocaching.com). We've been playing the game since 2006 and have enjoyed it immensely. Today we logged our #300 find at a place we never would have expected to find in New Zealand - an ELVIS PRESELY museum.
It is actually a private collection of memorabelia in a guy's garage. But he has things set up to display for anyone who is interested to see it, so we took some time to check it out.
Kevin Wasley of Hāwera, Taranaki, began collecting Elvis Presley records and memorabilia in 1959. His collection grew so large that he turned his garage into a museum, which is open to the public by appointment.
We had the opportunity to make a second trip to the Taranaki district to do a Family History training in Waitara Branch. This time we stayed in New Plymouth. The training went really well, particularly the connection we made with the Young Women's president and the Branch Mission Leader. We got some beautiful views of the mountain and had a bit of time to explore again in Pukekura Park. It's a long drive down there, but we really like the area and love working with the saints there. We had a positive meeting with the Director of the Family History Center in New Plymouth. Many FHC staff feel somewhat isolated and disconnected from the stake or district leadership. It's important to us to get to know as many of the directors as we can and let them know how much their efforts truly are appreciated. Often times we find that with just a little bit of validation these faithful men and women begin to blossom. As we draw closer to the end of the year we are pushing really hard to meet our goals for the My Family 15 in 15 program. The monthly reports we get tell us that more people than ever before throughout the Pacific Area are getting engaged in Family History work. We certainly can't take credit for that, but we do know that as we plant seeds where ever we go and try our best to lift people up through instruction and encouragement, amazing things are happening all over. It is such a privilege to be part of this great work.
Brother Arana Kipa-Dakin - Waitara Branch Clerk
Ilona Ruru signed on to FamilySearch for the first time ever and now had all but one of the names for her "Family 15 in 15". She was very excited to submit her mother's name for temple ordianances.
Peter Patuwairua, Branch Mission Leader submitted is great-grandparents for temple ordinances to work toward completing his 15 in 15
One of my favorite stories from the Book of Mormon is Lehi's Vision of the tree of life (1 Nephi Chapter 8). In this vision Lehi sees many symbols that represent the importance of staying close to the gospel. Over in chapter 11 we read about when his son, Nephi, is allowed to see the vision for himself and is given the interpretation to the things that he saw. Lehi sees a tree "whose fruit was desirable to make one happy" (representing the love of God). Or, as Elder Bednar said in the October 2011 conference, "The fruit on the tree is a symbol for the blessings of the Atonement. Partaking of the fruit of the tree represents the receiving of ordinances and covenants whereby the Atonement can become fully efficacious in our lives."
Photo of stained glass depiction of Lehi's vision from LDS Conference Center taken from Shannon Brown's blog, Find Joy in the Journey Here
Lehi also sees a rod of iron that extended along the bank of the river, leading to the tree. (This, we are told, represents the word of God.) There is straight and narrow path along this rod of iron. Some of the people in the vision, including Nephi and Sam and Sariah, take hold of the iron rod, follow the path and go directly to the tree where they partake of the fruit. Others, including his older sons Laman and Lemuel, do not follow the path. They go a different direction. Lehi sees other people who start out on the path, holding to the rod. But somewhere along the way they become distracted, falling away, getting lost in the mists of darkness. Lehi goes on to describe seeing a large and spacious building (representing the pride of the world) in which there are many people in fine apparel who are in an attitude of mocking, pointing fingers and laughing at the people who are on the path to the tree. Some of those who managed to make it all the way to the tree and eat the fruit afterward were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing them. Because of this, some fell away into forbidden paths and were lost. Still others were making their way to join the great and spacious building.
"Lehi's Dream" By: Damir Krivenko of Russia found on Pinterest Here
Recently there has been a great deal of controversy in social media and in various blogs about a change in the LDS handbook of instruction for leaders regarding how to respond to those in same-sex relationships and council about their children.
Currently there is a huge furor among some, claiming the leaders of the church are promoting unreasonable discrimination. More than ever before I have felt that the "large and spacious building" is luring people away from the tree. The Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled that marriage between same sex partners will be legal in all states. Regardless of the laws of the land, the Church maintains that marriage is ordained of God to be between a man and a woman. In the recently updated Handbook 1 the Church defined homosexual relationships to be apostasy requiring church disciplinary court and stated that the children of same-sex couples should not be baptized or advanced in the priesthood until they are of legal age. Although the Church made efforts to clarify this position as one intended to protect young people from being put in the difficult position of conflict between loyalty to their parents and loyalty to the gospel (see Elder Christstopherson's statement HERE ) many people reacted to the news of the policy change with hurt, anger, and in some cases have chosen to leave the Church over this issue. While it is not unusual to hear attacks on Church policy or practice from people outside the church, this case brought a tremendous amount of wavering from people who were long time members. People I know and love were questioning whether or not they could support this and some were seeing it as reason to doubt whether our leaders were truly prophets at all. As the world increasingly moves further and further away from the teachings of Jesus Christ and the revealed word of Heavenly Father, it will become harder and harder for many to stay true to the covenants they have made. Now more than ever it is critical that we follow the council of Elder Kevin W. Pearson, President of the Pacific Area from his April 2015 conference talk:
I don't always fully understand or feel comfortable with every statement or rule the Church comes out with. But this I know for sure - The Book of Mormon in true. Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in that famous vision in Palmyra, New York in 1820. The Atonement of Christ is real. The covenants we make in temples are essential to our eternal progression. We are led by true prophets today. I believe these things with all my heart. So, whenever there is some new statement that I may feel uncertain about, I can go back to the talk by Dieter Uchtdorf who made very clear that doubts and questions are key ways that lead to truth. "Inquiry is the birthplace of testimony".
I have a firm testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But that does not mean I understand every piece. One of my favorite scriptures is Mosiah 4:9 which says: "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all things which the Lord can comprehend." (Emphasis added). I feel sad for those who will allow their doubts to carry them away from what they once knew to be true. My goal in life is to ALWAYS stay by the tree. I love the words of Jeffrey Holland, who also spoke of Lehi's Vision as it applies to the world today: I know there will indeed be "Mists of Darkness" that will make it difficult to discern what path to follow. I know that the pride and opinions of the world will ridicule those who choose to stand firmly on the path that leads to Christ. But I also know that by holding firmly to the word of God by continued intentional prayer and scripture study, I can find peace - no matter how disruptive and chaotic the world around me may be.
On Saturday we went over to Manukau to meet with Elder and Sister Calderwood who are new Member and Leadership Support (MLS) Missionaries in the Auckland Mission. They are from Idaho and are the parents of one of the ladies in our home ward. I talked with Sister Calderwood (Debbie) quite a bit on the phone as they were preparing to come out, sharing some information about what to expect here and making suggestions about what things to bring or not bring. It was great to finally meet them in person.
(We didn't take photos during our visit that day, but did take some later on at various gatherings).
We had a delightful time visiting with them and a delicious meat loaf meal. Elder Bennett and Elder Calderwood found they had much in common from their professional backgrounds and interests. Debbie and I thoroughly enjoyed getting acquainted. We hope we will get to see more of them. With our travel schedule we don't get a lot of time to connect with other missionaries, but when we do it is always a real treat. After we left their place Larry and I headed to the Auckland Botanical garden. It was a beautiful late spring day (which seems strange to say in November, but that's how it is here in the South Pacific!) All in all it was a beautiful day.
After our conference was over in Tugan, Larry and I rented a car and traveled to Brisbane. We had two main reasons for going there - we wanted to attend the temple and to visit with Jessie Lammi and his family. "Elder Lammi" was one of our favorite missionaries who served in our ward back in Boise. We had him and his companion, Elder Alvarez, over for dinner and often would visit with them. Knowing Elder Lammi lived in Australia we hoped we might somehow be able to connect with him when we learned we would be going there for the conference. At first we were disappointed when we looked at a map and discovered that Bundaberg was so far away from where we would be - over a four hour drive from Brisbane.
As it turned out, his family was traveling to Brisbane at exactly the same time we would be there since Jessie's younger brother, Triston, would be leaving for his mission. This was just one more "coincidence" of our mission that felt like a special tender mercy from the Lord. Being with them in the temple was a real highlight of our trip.
We drove up Friday evening, after dropping off the Schwenkes in Surfer's Paradise where they were going to be visiting with some family there. As we headed on to Brisbane we were treated with a magnificent Australian sunset.
We stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast, Chapel Woods B&B that we very much enjoyed. I captured this film of the bird sounds in the back yard which were pretty amazing.
Chapelwoods Bed and Breakfast After our time in the temple Saturday morning we went out to eat at a local restaurant with the Lammi family and had a great visit. Once we said our good byes we headed out to return to our B&B. However, there was one problem. Our GPS quit working! Larry does a great job of driving in all the different countries we go to. But Brisbane is a BIG city of over 2 million people set within an urban area that extends even further. We had NO idea of how to find our way back without navigation.
We both started praying really hard that we would be guided to know where to go. We had about half an hour of white knuckle tension as we tried to figure out what to do. We took what we THOUGHT was a turn in the right direction and ended up in the longest tunnel either one of us had ever experienced - over nine miles long. Once we were in that tunnel there was nothing we could do but keep going till we got to the end, which was clear out by the airport. It was rather scary to be so lost in such a big city. We figured we would go find the place where we were supposed to turn in the rental car and tell them we needed a new GPS. However, around the airport the one we had suddenly kicked in again, so we were back on track. What a relief! Once our directions were pack in place we had no problem getting to the part of town where we needed to be. We got a bit more of a tour of the beautiful city of Brisbane than we had intended.
One of my most vivid memories of Brisbane was all the many jacaranda trees that were in full bloom when we were there - the deep purple blossoms were beautiful and the scent was heavenly.
On Sunday we found a ward near where we were staying so we could attend church. On Monday we did a bit of hiking and found some geocache. We saw some huge white cockatoos along with other interesting birds along the way.
We got to walk around the lovely Botanical Gardens but discovered there I had lost the battery to my camera. Oh no! When I fell and broke my hand in Fiji my camera had gone skittering across the sidewalk. The clip that holds the battery in was broken so ever since I've been holding it closed with a piece of tape. Apparently the tape had come loose and the battery dropped out somewhere. We searched all over the car and the area we were walking there, but no luck. We probably lost it in the woods when we were geocaching. I was very disappointed to not be able to capture any more photos of our trip. But we did the best we could to stay positive. So my lesson learned from this was that this trip, like life had some GOOD things (meeting with the Lammis and the wonderful B&B where we stayed) and some not so good things (getting lost with no GPS and losing my camera battery). I could stay stuck in being upset about the things that went wrong or I could focus on my gratitude for the blessings and beauty we had enjoyed. The choice was mine. Sometimes it's really hard to stay optimistic when things are not going the way we want or when serious adversity comes our way. But in good times or hard times, there is ALWAYS plenty to be grateful for. Learning to keep that perspective is the journey of a lifetime.
One of the stories we were told during the Australian conference had to do with how sharing knowledge between generations increases resilience.
The story was of a village where people lived in homes with thatched roofs made from the local grain plants. The young people had opportunities for education that had not been available to the village elders, so sometimes the generation coming up thought they knew more about the world. However, a time came when there was a terrible drought and all the crops the village depended on dried up and died. The young men tried everything they knew to keep their families going, but over time they became truly desperate, with no food for their families, much less grain for planting new crops for the future.
That was when one of the old grandfathers came forward with a solution. He told his grandson to take apart the thatched roof of their home and to carefully thresh the reeds to find the remnants of seed heads that would surely be there. The young man did this and was astonished to find enough grain to put in a new crop for the coming season as well as some that could be ground into meal to make cakes to feed his family. There was just enough to keep the family alive till the rains came.
The young man asked "Grandfather, how did you know there would be grain there?" The grandfather told the young man that there had also been droughts and famine in his day when he was very young, and he remembered this was the way their village had survived that earlier hardship. We were told to remember that Family History is much more than collecting a litany of who-begat-who names and dates. It also includes the stories of each generation - how they endured challenges, life lessons they discovered through experience, and skills they developed. Future generations may face very different sorts of challenges and have access to different resources than their elders did. Still, knowing about the ways grandparents and great-grandparents faced the world can offer courage and creativity for the next generations coming up.
I think of the stories I've heard told about my own grandfather, Frank Pendley, and how he solved the problems he had on his homestead in Oak Creek. Knowing those stories inspires me to look for ingenious ways to solve my own problems and to be willing to work hard. One of my goals for the coming year is to begin recording some of my own stories to pass down to my posterity. I've done a pretty good job of documenting the histories of my fore-bearers. I've been pretty lax when it comes to my own personal history. It is time for me to start changing that. In 1980 Elder John Groberg said: "by writing personal and family histories, we are helped immeasurably in gaining a true, eternal perspective of life. Writing our histories with the proper blend of fact and feeling (and so often, feelings in spiritual things are the real facts) gives us a deep spiritual insight into the meaning and purpose of our lives. In his classic talk "The Angels May Quote From It" President Spencer W. Kimball said: "“What could you do better for your children and your children’s children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved? …" Many church leaders, both ancient and modern, have counciled us to keep a record of our lives. I've tried to do that a bit with this blog, so I will have a record of this mission. Still, I know I can do better. I want to be more diligent in keeping a record of the experiences I'm having, the lessons I'm learning. Memory is so fleeting. Through words and pictures, I want to capture the times I am living. Perhaps one day my own children, grandchildren or beyond may find some value in it.
We had an opportunity to go to the Gold Coast of Australia, and then spent a couple of days in Brisbane that were really special. We went for a conference of all the New Zealand and Australia Area Family History Advisers (AFHAs) where we got to meet some truly great folks. We flew to Coolingata on Tuesday, 3 November.
During the conference we stayed at Golden Riviera Beach Resort in Tugun, which as the name implies, is right on the beach. Our days in the conference were pretty full, but we did get some free time in the evenings that were great for quiet walks along the shore and playing in the surf. While it was very beautiful, I did not do much actual swimming in the ocean there. Something about the net fencing to keep out Great White Sharks kinda made me hesitant to go very far out into the water. Supposedly with those nets in place a person is more likely to get hit by lightening than they are to experience a shark attack. Still, just the idea of the possibility was a little unsettling for me. My rational mind knows the beach there is quite safe. I guess I've just seen the movie Jaws a few too many times. (Insert scary soundtrack here!) We very much enjoyed meeting the other AFHAs and comparing notes between how they do things in Australia vs. our approach in New Zealand and in the islands.
From our NZ team we had the following:
Art & Heather Schwenke who cover the stakes around Auckland: Harbour, Henderson, Manukau, Manurewa, Mt. Roskill, Otara, Panmure, Papakura, Papatoetoe, Penrose, Redoubt, Tamaki, and Waterview
Dave & Jill Hayward who cover stakes and one district around the middle part of the North Island: Gisborne, Glenview, Hamilton, Hastings, Hastings Flaxmere, Rotokauri, Rotorua,Tauranga, Temple View, and Taranaki District
We serve as AFHA's for the stakes in the Northlands (Whangarei and Kaitaia) as well as some of the island countries. The bottom of the north island and all of the south island is covered by Garry and Karen Howard, but they were not able to make it to the conference due to family commitments.
They cover Christchurch, Dunedin District, Nelson District, Palmerson North, Porirua, Upper Hutt, Wellington, and the Wellington Mission
From the Australia team we had:
Derek & Margaret Hall
Kings
Husseys
John & Anne Parton
Paul & Diane Parton
The managers who were there included our own Mike Higgins, Mark Kelly from Australia and Wayne Van Ness from South Africa.
Mark, Mike & Wayne
We also had help from one of the Australian Service Missionaries, Elder Cummings.
Next year Larry and I will be responsible for putting on a conference in Fiji for the AFHAs from some of the island countries (Fiji, Tonga and Tahiti) so this one was a good experience for us to see what sort of things were included so we can give some thought to how may present similar information and what we may want to differently. All in all it was a great experience.
