It was so fun to have Doug and Jamie stop by for a visit! Charlie and Caleb were watched over while they were gone, so that was nice as well.
Given Doug's interest in "foiling" his laser sailboat (he's even made foils for his boat), one of the first things we did was take him to a place that rents sailboats. They have a foiling kit that they can attach to an existing boat. It is still pretty chilly in New Zealand, so Doug put on one of their wet suits.
He got some good instruction from Josh as we followed him around with the trimaran. I took the picture below from other sailboat.
"Foiling" is not eaasy to do, but Doug did get the boat out of the water!
We went to Puhoi for lunch.
Then off to the Bay of Islands.
Paihia (in the Bay of Islands) is a very cool spot.
On the ferry to Russel.
The dolphins were very cool!
We had a very fun boat trip!
Doug and Jame went to glow worm caves ... they had a great time there!
The night before they headed off to the Cook Islands, we had dinner on the Sky Tower.
The Pacific Area includes 17 countries that have Church congregations, and stretches 9000 miles east to west and 5000 miles north to south. The Area includes eight time zones and straddles the International Dateline. There is also a total of 14 Church schools which operate in Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati and Fiji; combined they have more than 5,500 students. In addition to the Area Office, there are eight Service Centers located in key countries throughout the Pacific. Within the Pacific Area, there are more than 38.5 million people. Of these, 23.5 million live in Australia, 7.5 million live in Papua New Guinea, 4.5 million live in New Zealand, and the remaining 3 million live in various Pacific island nations.
Here's a map of the area which includes 10 temples, 17 missions, 130 stakes, and 37 districts.
Socially, the Area consists of essentially four distinct cultures. There is (1) the European-derived culture (Australia and New Zealand); (2) the culture of Melanesia (the ‘dark islands’: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia); (3) the culture of Polynesia (‘many islands’: Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu, Nauru and French Polynesia); and (4) the culture of Micronesia (‘the little islands’: Marshall Islands and Kiribati). Within each of these cultures are many sub-cultures.
The Area Presidency thinks of the area as having 3 different church cultures: the “mature church”, the “growing church”, and the “emerging church”:
1) The “mature church” includes Australia and New Zealand, where the quality of life consistently ranks them among the top ten countries in the world.
2) The “growing church” consists of countries such as Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga where economic conditions are slowly improving in urban areas, but are still quite impoverished in rural areas.
3) The “emerging church” includes 3rd world nations such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Kiribati, where the people live largely subsistence lifestyles and have limited educational, health care, and employment opportunities.
Elder and Sister Nielsen just got back from a mission tour to Papua New Guinea and a new mission president orientation in Vanuatu. This is the “emerging church”, so I thought I'd include a few photos from them since we don't usually see members from this part of the world.
Flying into Papua New Guinea (PNG)
Public Transportation
A marketplace in Lae, PNG
The Lae Missionaries (the Nielsens are in the middle)
Branch President Eric Kalowia and his beautiful family live next to the church. His wife's mother was the first LDS convert in Vanuatu.
A church building in Vanuatu. They lost the roof during cyclone Pam and a new one was put on.
We had the Mission Presidents' Seminar (MPS) last week and it was a great experience! I thought I'd write down what we do for the seminar, plus I'll mention some of the events during the week.
We started about 3 months ago. I began with the outline from the previous seminar (from 6 months previously) and made a template of the meeting we'd be doing this time. Then, I included this on the agenda for an Area Presidency meeting. The Area Presidency then fills in the details (who will be conducting each day, who will speak, what kind of activities will be held, etc.). I took notes and then updated the document to reflect their input. Our DTA (Director of Temporal Affairs) attends our Presidency meeting as well and his team does a number of things for the seminar. His secretary does a lot of work with arranging all the flights for the mission presidents, suggesting specific activities (given the guidelines), and putting together estimates on the costs. The DTA also suggests hotels that we could meet in and provides the AP'cy a list of options.
There are two MPS's each year. One is called the "seminar" and the other the "interim seminar". The interim seminar is usually 3 days and the other 4 days. There are several purposes for the event and all of the Areas of the church hold these. One purpose is to give the Mission Presidents and their wives a little break from the 24x7 work as a mission president. Another is that it gives the Area Presidency an opportunity to teach, instruct and consult with all of them together. Missionary work is an important aspect of the church. In our Area we have 17 missions and 1 MTC, so that was 36 people scheduled to attend. Along with the Area Presidency and their wives, we also have some support staff attending (like, Sister B. and myself).
We typically have the interim seminar in Auckland and recently, we've been rotating the other seminar in Australia (Melbourne, Brisbane, or Sydney) since this is fairly centrally located and easy to get to. Sydney was a great place to hold the event and we stayed at the InterContinental Hotel which is right downtown. We arrived late Sunday night to Sydney and after we checked in we went for a walk to see the Sydney Opera house.
On Monday we went for another walk in the morning and then mission presidents and their wives started arriving. We helped with getting them into their rooms (the local mission office did the pickups from the airport and then we met them when they arrived to the hotel). Everyone got there by the afternoon and we had a group dinner Monday evening.
Elder Pearson provided some introductions and instructions for the week. The food was fantastic and it was fun meeting many of those we hadn't seen for quite a few months as well as the new mission presidents and their wives that arrived in their missions in July.
The next day the seminar began with instructions from Elder Nielsen. Before arriving to Sydney, I had worked several hours with Elder Nielsen on his PowerPoint (which included videos, pictures and text slides). Attending the seminar from Salt Lake was Elder Stephen Allen the Managing Director of the Missionary Department. They both gave excellent presentations.
I got to the meeting room about an hour ahead of time so we could practice everything
Sister B. is responsible for name card tents for all the meals and for the meetings. She designed a method that guaranteed that each couple had an opportunity to sit with an Area Presidency member and each other at least one time. This way everyone got to visit and learn from each other.
After lunch we had some free time. We went on a fantastic tour of the Sydney Opera House, and then we went on a dinner/cruise that went around the harbor.
A picture from the water while on a our dinner cruise!
Day two of the seminar we received instruction from Elder Haleck and Elder Allen. After lunch, the brethren and sisters separated for breakout sessions. At 3:30pm we loaded the bus and headed for the Sydney temple.
Here's our group picture that we took at the temple
On Thursday, we had a nice morning walk with the Haleck's and went over the Sydney Harbor bridge and back (this took about an hour). Elder Pearson gave the main presentation for the final day of our seminar. I was there early as usual and working on the final touches to the PowerPoint. Carl happened to get a picture of me working with Elder and Sister Pearson on some last minute changes.
Here's a video of the event:
Here was a nice note from President Maxwell:
Dear Elder Brereton,
Thank you for the email and the documents and
video clip that you attached. I loved seeing the photo of the group at the
Temple. Thank you for the work on the video. That was a great
reminder of the memorable and inspiring experiences we had at the Seminar.
I am so grateful for all you do for us and
for the Area Presidency. It is sad for me to think that we will probably
not see you at the next seminar—that your mission will have concluded before we
have another one. It was wonderful to see you and Sister
Brereton there. You both are such kind, warm people and have a zest for
life that I admire.
It is a blessing to associate with you.
Thank you for all you have done for me. You are always patient and so
quick to help.
Warmest wishes,Cory H. Maxwell
President,
Australia Melbourne Mission
Here's a note from Elder Allen: Your support has been excellent. Thank you for your service, kindness and GREAT attitude.
It was so fun to have Doug and Jamie stop by for a visit! Charlie and Caleb were watched over while they were gone, so that was nice as well.
