It's hard to believe we've been out 6 months already. As you can tell, we don't post too often on our blog, but it is a nice way to record things. We do put pictures out on Facebook more regularly, so that is a good place to go if you want to see what activities we have been doing.
Even though on FB it looks like we have tons of fun, we mostly are just working in the office. Sister B has suggested she take a picture of me huddled over the computer or in the conference room at a meeting and this would have given you a better idea of what we mostly do. Actually, it is very fun and exciting, and it has been interesting interacting daily with the three General Authorities in the Area Presidency. Of course, they and their wives are all wonderful people. It's been nice to have a calling where we work together with them. Besides working on a big project this week (where we were in the same room for more than 20 hours together), we went to a Christmas concert in Auckland (with the Area Presidency) on Friday night and last week we had Thanksgiving dinner together.
It's hard to believe that Christmas is coming up. It is just starting to be summer here, so it's strange to see the decorations coming up in the shops and then it seems funny to feel the warm sun when we walk on the beach and it's December. We did get our Christmas stockings up, but I don't think we'll do too much more when it comes to decorations. We have two options for what we might do on Christmas . Our friend from the office, Hatu, has invited us to his family land in northern New Zealand. They have a great camping site there and it is right on the beach. We may do that or the other idea is attending the Perth, Australia YSA Convention. We need to get approval to go to the convention, so we'll have to see how that works out. We've been working with the team there to get them all set for their LDS Share Expo event.
I thought it would be fun to let you know what we normally do during the day. Sister Brereton has taken over on the LDS Share Expo assignment almost completely. She pulls me into things on occasion, but it's not too often. Last Sunday we did a skype call with about 10 people from Perth, we are getting things going with the convention in Sydney, we have a meeting tonight (it's Sunday here in NZ) concerning the New Zealand YSA convention, and then we have a few events happening within the stakes in Auckland. Sister B explains the program, provides them information (cards, scripts, banners, videos, etc.) and helps them get all organized. Also, this week Sister B did a "brown bag" lunch event for the office staff about social media. She is also working with the Publishing Services department to firm up the plans for 2015 (we are hoping to do a trip to Samoa or Tonga). Besides this, Sister B works on a number of different projects:
- she handles all our office finances (approving credit card expenses and doing the monthly report)
- does the Temple Patron Assistance fund (this includes checking each form, correcting information as needed, getting it approved by Elder Haleck, forwarding information onto finance and the originator, etc.)
- is working on music for the office Christmas devotional (which will be Dec. 16)
- organizes the meals for our regular events (weekly Area Presidency meetings, quarterly Area Council, semi-annual Mission Presidents' seminar, Area Review, and a few others)
- handles the Chinese convert letters
- files and records Patriarchal blessings done from the Area
- on occasion processes the weekly batch of missionary call letters
- helps me tremendously in reviewing many of my emails for accuracy, brevity and typos
- is a great "ideas" person and has helped the office improve a number of processes
- plus, she does lots of other things too ... many of which I don't even know about!
I am turning into the "meetings" person ... either getting ready for a meeting, having a meeting, or following up on a meeting. On some days, I'm tied up until 6 or 7pm (sometimes later). On days where there are lots of meetings (and when Sister B has finished all her work), she sometimes leaves the office early. That has been a nice break for her. During her time at home, she has gotten our two bedroom apartment in wonderful shape. We recently moved to a new location, so she had to buy all the furniture and setup everything (which was actually pretty fun). The place is looking fantastic, so we are ready for visitors!!!
I have a very busy assignment. I am always up by at least 5am working on emails or other projects. But, I still do enjoy running (usually 3 times a week) and then walking with Sister B on the other days. We usually get to work by 8am and then the days can go long (with email and project work in the evenings as well - when I'm home). It's not uncommon to put in a 14 hour day. Even though that sounds long and hard, it has been very enjoyable and fulfilling.
A typical week starts on Monday. The Brethren have their P-day on Monday (given that they work on the weekend), so Monday's are normally a great day for completing projects. We have an office devotional in the morning and then I work on cleaning up things from the previous week. Sometimes this includes finishing off the minutes from Wednesday's meeting or a few other things. I try to get completely ready for the new week. On Tuesday, typically all the Area Presidency are in the office. So, when they come in, new assignments may come my way. Or, there may be a few meetings. We have a really nice video conference room right in our section of the building (which is only accessible via a security card). Tuesday afternoon, we have a review of the agenda for Wednesday's meeting. So, getting this all prepared usually takes a couple of hours. Then I also prepare the video for their Seventies Quorum meeting (which is viewed at about 4pm on Tuesday).
Wednesday is the big day of the week. We get up early and are in the office by 7am. Sister B gets the room ready with snacks and water, I finalize the paperwork/computer setup, and then the meeting starts right at 8am. Typically, we'll have a department come in for a report or we might have one or two video calls during the meeting. Sister B handles our lunch, so no time is wasted (I've learned to take a bathroom break whenever I can - since sometimes there are no breaks for several hours). Although we are working on ending this meeting sooner, it is not uncommon for it to go until 6pm and (if I'm lucky) I get home by 7 or 8pm. My goal is to complete the minutes within the first day, but sometimes a few critical items surface at the meeting and these have to be completed before I can do anything else. Our area (the Pacific Area) is 10,000 miles wide and 5,000 miles high with about 500,000 members, 10 temples, 17 missions, 165 stakes and districts and over 1,000 units (wards, branches and groups). It covers many countries, islands, and languages. The Brethren often refer to the church here as consisting of 3 types: "the Mature Church" (similar to the USA), "the Growing Church", and "the Emerging Church". In Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands, the Church is still in the beginning stages (i.e., "emerging") and they deal with many of the basics of life with some places being very primitive. To get to one of our Districts in Papua New Guinea the Brethren have to take a 4 hour boat ride on a dingy (with alligators in the water). In other areas, we have barbed wire fences around the building and guards on duty 24/7 (so the natives don't steal things). Our Area Presidency Wednesday meetings deal with all types of issues: approving (or disapproving) leadership changes in stakes, districts, wards and branches, planning events, reviewing the construction of buildings, discussion of initiatives to be recommended, legal issues, meeting with departments, reviewing other meetings that are coming up (see the list below), and numerous other items.
Thursday and Friday is taken up with just following up on things from the Wednesday meeting, but a number of other items will come up on these days as well. Typically two of the three General Authorities are gone each weekend and they usually leave on Thursday or Friday. They will typically be going a Stake or District conference, doing a Temple review, or a mission tour (and many times two of these items). Given the distances here, often they have to leave a day ahead just to get to where they need to be. It is not uncommon for them to get home on Monday at 2 or 3am. So, their P-day is really just catching up on sleep. On occasion they get home on Tuesday early in the morning (given international date line differences), so they just catch a few hours sleep and then they are onto a busy week in the office.
I have also been able to work on a few projects that I have come up with. The most exciting one is "My Family 15 in 15". We are trying to motivate all members to get their 15 names (themselves, their parents, their grandparents, and their great grandparents) entered into familysearch.org and then make sure the temple work is complete ... and have this done in 2015! Our idea is to first start with the leadership of the church. So far, with the help of Sister B, we've made over 200 pedigree charts (for the AP'cy, the A70's, and all the Stake, District, Mission and Temple Presidents). These are being reviewed in the Coordinating Council meetings that are being held across the Area this month. Then, our next step is to show a slideshow about the program at each Stake/District Council meeting. If this works, we'll have created over 3,000 pedigree charts (with help from local Family History consultants). Then we move onto Ward/Branch councils with a 5th Sunday presentation the last Sunday in March to introduce the program to all the Wards and Branches. I also came up with an idea to survey the stakes and districts via google forms. This has been really helpful to get quick feedback to the Area Presidency. Plus, an idea to provide an online version of the New Member Progress form to every ward and branch (with the actual data of converts from each specific unit).
Another aspect of the Area Executive Secretary assignment are the meetings and events that come up during the year. Now that I've been here 6 months, I have a good feel of these. I'll outline them:
- Weekly: Area Presidency (described above)
- Quarterly: Area Council (with our 11 Area Seventies and the Area Presidency)
- Quarterly: Video Conference call with our first contacts in Salt Lake (Elder Neil L. Andersen, of the 12, and Elder Robbins, of the Seventy)
- Semi-Annual: Mission Presidents Seminar (with our 17 MP's and the MTC President)
- Semi-Annual: General Conference (it takes about a month to get ready for this - they do video conference calls with many of the departments in Salt Lake and then they visit with others when in Salt Lake - these all require agendas and other setup work)
- Annual items: Area Plan (a document that is produced and provided to Salt Lake - this takes many hours to create and review), Area Review (where a member of the Quorum of the 12 comes to New Zealand and our contact in the Seven Presidents of the Seventy - we'll have Elder Bednar here in February), and the Area Presentation (a video conference call with all members of the 12 and all members of the Presidency of the Seventy).
The Brethren also have a one month annual leave. Elder Haleck goes in June (since he is from Samoa and this worked more conveniently for him) and Elders Pearson and Nielsen go in July. As a general rule, one of them should be here in the office at all times. However, at times, this isn't possible. Typically, it is no big deal and it is a much quieter time then. But, occasionally things are hectic when they are all gone and then I need to handle the item. Once we had a situation where the niece of the King of Tonga passed away. She was a member of the church and the service was held at a LDS chapel, and the King attended. This took a bit of coordination to contact all the right people to get approvals for the changes that had to be made for the King. Also, they are always all gone during conference, so if something comes up, I contact them (sometimes at their homes) and then we take care of things.
Well, that is probably enough about what we do ... We usually have a very fun time on the weekend. A few weeks ago we went up north because we had a Share Expo that Sunday and stayed from Friday to Monday (since the Brethren aren't in the office on Monday). That weekend we attended a branch in the Bay of Islands area and they asked me to speak during the Sacrament meeting (other than that, everything was great :)).
One of the things we love doing is walking on the beach. We went to a beach in Devonport yesterday and found tons of "beach glass" (probably over 200 pieces). Here are some of the items we found recently (Sister B is getting them cleaned):
Sister B has been starting to make her rugs again:
Here's our front door ... as you can see we are getting into the Christmas spirit.
We are definitely ready for some visitors now that our new place is all setup. Let us know if you can make it for a visit!!!
You can actually write us by sending letters to a Salt Lake address:
Elder/Sister Brereton
Pacific Area Presidency
New Zealand POUCH
50 East North Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
