Another busy week ...

We had another fun week with lots of activities. 

Sunday night we did  a practice LDS Share Expo with the youth in a local Ward.  We had about 40 in attendance and the event went great.  We did mini-classes, workshops, and did a few contests as well.

During the week we worked on the setup for the other LDS Expo’s that are coming up … putting our kits together, lining up training sessions, making posters, getting volunteers assigned to each event, etc. We’ll have 7 event and we’ll need about 40 volunteers at each location. We’ll be in two places in New Zealand and three places in Australia.  

     

We taught seminary this week as well, so that was fun too.  It is the winter time here in NZ and so the kids are all in school.  They are doing the Book of Mormon. That was nice, since I taught the same topic in the Alameda Ward just a few months ago.

On Saturday afternoon, we did a training session with our key trainers in the Auckland region (this covers 12 stakes). We reviewed what they need to do, made assignments, and ended off with some pizza!

We did a nice 2.5 mile walk on Saturday and we went by the lake and then the ocean:

Then we went to Howick Beach:

We are working hard on the LDS Share Expo's ...

It was a busy week as we did more preparations for the LDS Share Expo's that will be coming up in September. The Young Single Adults (YSA's - ages 18-30) will be a our trainers for the event. We met with the Perron's several times during the week since they are the Institute/YSA missionary couple for the Auckland region. They had some great names to suggest to us. They did a survey with the youth and now they have almost all the 40 trainers that we'll need.  During the week we worked on the various items we'll have for the event like cards, signs, posters ... and Sister B has a t-shirt all ready to go.

It's going to be a great set of events (with 7 events - 3 in New Zealand and 4 in Australia). This coming week, we'll start on training our "key" people in Auckland, who will then be training the 40 trainers. Today we are reviewing our plans with the Public Affairs people (at their conference) and then tonight we'll be doing a mini-Expo with a local Ward.

On Saturday we went to Devonport (a seaside town about 4 miles away). It was very cute!!!  Plus, we saw a sailing race:

Devonport, New Zealand

Another week ... and we are starting to feel better.

So, Sister B. is just about all better now.  We visited the doctor in the building and he said it is likely we just didn't have the antibodies to combat some kind of NZ bug.  Elder B. is about on the downhill side now and we are hoping we'll both be back to 100% in a day or two.

We made a lot of progress on the LDS Share Expo's. We've got 7 events planned and were are just mapping out more of the details. The folks from the More Good Foundation are providing us some training and their expertise from having done previous Expo's. Over the weekend we picked up some supplies for the events, including the containers for each platform.

We had a fun Saturday and visited another beach ... got some cool shells. On Sunday morning we walked over to the lake that is very close to our apartment.

A busy week ... and a week full of sickness!

Today is Sunday we gave talks last Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. Sister B. was feeling pretty ill on Saturday (a week ago), but powered through Sunday and gave a great talk. Then we were invited to dinner, so we went there as well. When we got back, she was really worn out.  Her cold got worse and worse and only made it to work for a half day.  Starting on about Thursday, Elder B. got the plague as well. So, we've been drinkings lots of water, getting plenty of bed rest and just taking it easy. Plus, we got some good medicine at the local pharmacy. We are hoping we can get back to work on Monday.

Elder B. had a very busy week. Elder Pearson left on Monday evening, so things were crazy Monday with several meetings. Our big push now is getting ready for the LDS Share Expo's. These are expo type of events where we'll have a 20 minute opening (in the chapel) and then we'll do classes and workshops to show members how to share the Gospel with social media tools.  We'll be concentrating on:  facebook, websites, instagram, and pinterest.  The More Good Foundation (they do: www.lds.net) have done this in several other locations.  We'll be doing 8 expos: in Hamilton, Auckland (both in New Zealand) and in 3 cities in Australia. We'll start near the end of September so the events will be done right before General Conference.

Also, Elder Pearson asked us to be the Area missionary couple handling YSA (along with our other assignments). We are working on a template for the YSA conferences that are coming up. Also, we'll be doing the social media Expo's at the conferences. I've been doing some Exec. Sec. items, but since the Brethren are gone in July, this won't pick up until August.

We had a fun Saturday (even though we were mostly resting) ... went to a bakery, the lake, and a beach.