Area Council Meeting

We had our Area Council meeting this past weekend, so it was a busy week. Here's our Area Presidency (seated) and 11 Area Seventies:

The meeting was held in Auckland. We have two new Area Seventies, so we had them come into the office a day early so we could provide some training. While they were here, I reviewed the "My Famly 15 in 15" program with them:

Elder Sinjoux from Tahiti and Elder Leota from Sydney, Australia

We had some additional groups come in (a ward council from the Albany Ward) and nine of our local stake presidents. This allowed our Area Presidency to model some of the training.

Sister B, Debbie, and others worked hard on the meals and arrangements.

We were also able to review some of my ideas on how to automate the "New and Returning Member Progress" form, so that was fun.  Plus, in the last quarter, the number of members in the Pacific Area that have added all 15 names into familysearch.org has increased by 20,000. It is wonderful to see the progress.

It was a great event!!!

My Family 15 in 15

Over the last few months, I've had a great time working on a family history project in our Area. Of course, I've had my normal assignments with the Area Presidency, but it's always fun to do something extra as well. It started in October 2014 when Mike Higgins, our Area Family History advisor gave our Area Presidency his normal update on FH work in the Area. Elder Pearson made the comment that we should do better and we should see if we could motivate our priesthood leaders to lead the way on family history work.

Of course, that just got me thinking and about a week later I gave them a presentation on what could be done. How we would concentrate on just the 15 names in a person's genealogy (not the full 4 generations, which includes the children of each of the parents in your ancestry). So, this would be just for: you, your parents, your 4 grandparents and your 8 great grandparents. We had heard that in 2014 the "My Family" booklet had been well received, but many people were not entering the data into familysearch (which needs to happen in order to get the temple work done), so that needed to be addressed as well. In actuality, I felt this first presentation to the Area Presidency wasn't very well received. I had modeled it after a program I had done in a previous ward. I then went back to the drawing board and simplified it quite a bit, updated my powerpoint and made it a lot more straightforward. And, for the next presentation, which I made it in the middle of the day instead of the very last item on the agenda (you can get pretty tired at the end of a 10 hour meeting!) ... it was very well received. Elder Pearson had the idea of calling it, "My Family 15 in 15", since we'd want everyone to get their 15 names done in 2015. Of course, we all immediately loved the name and we talked about it several times in Area Presidency meetings throughout November and December.

The next critical point was that we added "My Famly 15 in 15" to our 2015 Area Plan and our 2015 Area Goals/Training Priorities which were finalized in December.

We have six expectations in each category and the "My Family 15 in 15" goal is #1 item in the Temple and Family History Work category.

For the November Area Council meeting, Sister B and I made the pedigree charts for 204 of our Area leaders (Area Presidency, Area Seventies, Mission Presidents, Temple Presidents, and Stake Presidents). We provided a powerpoint to all 11 Area Seventies so they could then present the program in their Area Council meetings (which is attended by the Mission, Temple, and Stake Presidents). This would lay the groundwork for the program being rolled out to 165 Stake and District Councils.

With the help of our Area FH advisors in New Zealand and Australia we put together training packets that included instructions, sample emails, tracking sheets, and a powerpoint. We then rolled out the program to the stakes. We've now delivered this to 88% of the stakes in New Zealand and Australia and we've done pedigree charts for over 1,500 stake council members. We are now starting to bring the program to ward councils, and from there to the wards.

As you can see above, our goal is simple and there are just two items everyone should do:
  1) enter your 15 family names into familysearch.org
  2) and then perform their temple ordinances in 2015

This then lead to Elder Haleck talking about "My Family 15 in 15" in our 2015 Area Broadcast that was done in February:



I did a Facebook group page for "My Family 15 in 15" and this has been a great success as well. We have over 3,500 in the group and it has been so fun seeing people include a picture of themselves with their pedigree charts. Here's the link to the group:  My Family 15 in 15 Facebook Group.  Feel free to join!

We did a contest in the office as well (which was Elder Pearson's idea) and that was fun too. I had the idea of posting the pictures on the wall of our meeting room and I feel that added to the excitement. Here's a video of the pictures:



This has been a tremendous project and we've heard some wonder stories of members finding family names, processing their work and then going to the temple.

We also get stats from Salt Lake and here is our March report:

We started in January and our trend looks positive. We just need to keep it up!!! 

Another statistic we receive from Salt Lake is how many of the 15 names have been entered into familysearch.org. They give us just an overall number, so we then asked how many have 100% of the 15 names. You have to have all 15 names entered to be counted as being done (which is the first half of the "My Family 15 in 15" goal).  On January 1, this was about 15% of the area.  At the end of March 2015, it was 19%, which equals an increase of about 25,000 members in just 3 months.  So, that was great news as well.

March was a busy month ... and then Vanuatu was hit!

We had busy month in March. Getting ready for General Conference is a big process.  There are several meetings in Salt Lake to prepare for and we had about 10 video conference calls from Auckland (with various departments in SLC). Then the cyclone hit Vanuatu and that was a traumatic experience. It was the strongest cyclone to hit there in many years. We worked hard to get supplies and food/water to the various islands. Right after the cyclone hit, we had 51 missionaries that we could not make contact with. After 4 days we were down to just 17 unaccounted for missionaries. We were able to send a boat to one of the islands (that had 6 missionaries) and then a small plane to the island of Tanna that had 11 missionaries. The 5 sisters on Tanna were flown out on the first trip and then the 6 elders on the following day.

We heard some neat stories from the elders. We knew Cyclone Pam was on the way, so with 2 days notice we were able to get all the missionaries to a safe place. In Tanna, they went to a cement building on the west side of the island (it was not hit as hard there). There were many people hunkered down in this building. The police, seeing the missionaries there, asked them to provide a devotional including a song and prayer every morning and night.  From the reports back, it sounded like we was an uplifting and calming experience for all that were there.

Eliza helped me to create a blog for the parents of the missionaries. This was particularly helpful in the beginning when we didn't know that all the missionaries were safe. We had over 8,000 page views on the site.  Here it is:
  - Vanuatu Missionary Blog

Here's some pictures:

Our Vanuatu Staff Meeting - my computer is at the empty chair.

Vanuatu ... in many places 90% of the homes were destroyed.

We sent 800 food boxes to Vanuatu (assembled by a 2 stakes in Auckland)

The Elders taking off from Tanna!

It was fun hearing from Elder Eyring in General Conference this morning about Vanuatu. We gave several reports to those in Salt Lake (mostly to Elder Neil L. Andersen, our first contact, and the Presiding Bishopric).

One more neat story:
  - This came from President Brewer, the mission president on Vanuatu.
  - Initially after the cyclone hit, all cell towers were out so communication was difficult, we did have a satellite phone at the mission home, but it was tough getting through at times.
  - After about 2 days, phone service started to get fixed and we could more easily talk with those in Port Villa (where the mission home is at).
 - The mission home (where about 40 missionaries were staying) finally got electricity restored after 3 days and it was much nicer to them (as opposed to be in a place that was 95 degrees). They had to keep the windows closed otherwise the mosquitoes would come in.
 - After about 4 days we were still very concerned about Tanna, since we had not heard word from them yet and we couldn't fly in.
 - President Brewer would try their cell phone periodically (maybe 2-3 times a day) since the cell phone towers were working on the island of Efate (where Port Villa is at).
 - Then on the 4th day, he tried again and the zone leaders on Tanna answered!  We got the good news that all the missionaries were safe!!! The phone call only lasted 15 seconds, but we were happy to hear from them.
 - The president was in town at the time and noticed cell phone company office, so he stopped by. He thanked them for getting the service up and running in Tanna.
 - They were very surprised by his comment, since they reported that no one had made it to Tanna yet and they hadn't done anything. All the cell towers in Tanna were still down.
 - So, everyone felt very fortunate to have made connect even though none of the cell towers were operational!

It was great hearing Elder Pearson's General Conference talk on Sunday. I sent him a note congratulating him on doing such a good job. Here's his note back:
===============

Bruce

Thank you for your kind note.  We are so grateful to have you and Patsy serving in the Pacific.  

We love you both!

Elder Pearson

===============
It is certainly an honor for Sister B and I to be able to serve here in the Pacific Area!

We've been out for 9 months ...

It's amazing to think that we've been out for 9 months already ... that means we are halfway. Although, we've heard some rumblings that they'd like us to extend our visa for another six months. But, we'll have to see what happens.

Over the last month we've been very busy with an Area Council Meeting, Area Review (which included Elder Bednar and Elder Robbins), and our Mission Presidents' Seminar. Here's a few pictures:

We had a dinner at the Pearson's with Elder Bednar and his wife.

Mission Presidents' Seminar with our 18 Mission Presidents the their wives'.

Area Council Meeting - Sister B organized all the meals!

Of course, we manage to work in some fun activities from time to time as well. We stayed two nights in an available condo and saw a yachting race, a wonderful sunset, and some fireworks off the Sky Tower:

My brother goes on a mission!

My brother Dave and his wife Valerie arrived at their mission at the beginning of January. They were called to Guatemala and on the same type of mission as us: Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency. I thought I'd make the January post about this. We've emailed back and forth and it's been interesting to compare some of the different things we do:
================================

Hi Dave!  How's everything going for you guys?  Pretty busy?  I kind of felt like it took me about a month to really get into the swing of things. It's been crazy here lately. Last week we had the Area Report (a conference call with the Q12), we did an Area Broadcast last night (not all places do this, but what we do is a presentation to a stake concerning the goals for the year, from the Area Plan, we record it and then we'll be distributing this in February) … and then tomorrow is our Area Council meeting (all day Saturday and half day on Sunday).  Not to mention the day long AP'cy meeting this week and it seems like it takes at least a day to get ready for this and then a day to complete the meeting (which I haven't done yet). Hope you guys are doing well!

Elder Bruce G. Brereton

Executive Secretary to the Pacific Area Presidency | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

P:+64-9-488-5554 | M:+64-21-049-5003 | breretonbg@ldschurch.org

================================

I'm in the same boat as you. Very busy. We just finished a week long visit with 2 GAs (Christensen one of the 7P and Andersen a 70). It was all about area plan and self-sufficiency. And we are having daily agenda meetings for our real GA visit in 2 weeks (Andersen-Q12 , Maynes – 7P and Davies – BP). So we will have a week’s worth of agendas for them. I'm pretty much on an all day Monday preparation for the AP meeting. We get about a dozen leadership requests and 2 or 3 boundary requests every week. All day Tuesday in the AP meeting, then all day Wednesday sending action items, processing the approved and not approved leadership requests, etc. Fortunately we have 2 Exec Secs here (the 3rd goes home in 2 weeks). So the other Exec Sec handles a lot of the other meetings. Valerie is doing all the missionary applications. About 20 a week.

Sure makes the time go by fast though!

Elder David Brereton

Secretario Ejecutivo

Centroamérica Área

================================

It sounds like you are doing great and you guys are super busy too. We have Elders Bednar and Robbins (7P) visiting in 3 weeks, so we are getting ready for that, along with our Mission Presidents Seminar which will be in the middle of their visit. We had a full day of Area Council yesterday (which was Saturday here - I was up before 6am getting things ready and didn't get home until after 7pm). Since I'm a computer type guy, I do a number of the powerpoints. Elder Nielsen called last night at 9:30 and he had a bunch of changes that we worked through on the phone so we'd be all ready for the morning. All our leadership and boundary requests go through me, but I don't do as much work on them as you do. We have an MLU person that does all the processing. Our IFR's wife was not too busy when she arrived, so she does all the missionary applications. Patsy does other things and also spearheads our Social Media training efforts for the Area. Not all Areas are pushing Social Media, but Elder Pearson wanted to this here in the Pacific area. We are doing 3 days of workshops this coming week (mostly on the weekend) at the national YSA convention. We've done this in multiple places in New Zealand and 3 cities in Australia. It looks like we might be doing some training sessions in Tonga and Samoa this coming year (during the time when the Brethren are at General Conference). That's interesting how you had 3 Executive Secretary's ... it's just me and Patsy here. But, I do get a lot of support from the employees. It's early Sunday morning now and we have another half day of Area Council ... we have mini-sacrament meeting with them, so I've got to get the sacrament table all setup and a few other things prepared. We live just a half-mile from the beach and the office, so that is something we really enjoy. We walk to work almost every day and we'll have a walk on the beach this afternoon, once we are all done with things. Patsy does the meals for our weekend meetings (and has some other senior missionaries help her out). It's funny to think that we've been out 7 months already. It does go by fast and we do really enjoy the work, but we miss the kids.

================================

(from Dave) Interesting that you have things divided up a little differently. For leadership requests, I do all the history research, tithing history, etc. and bring the whole packages to the AP. We don't have a translation dept which I think you do, so I do most of that myself. We do have a planning dept so they do some of the growth projections on boundary requests. Should be an interesting visit with Elder Bednar. 

================================

Yes, it is interesting how things are different between our areas. Wow, that's cool that you do your own translation! Yes, we have a big group that does that here. We have about 6 people that work full-time in translation and I believe they also have about 20 more that they outsource the work to and are part-time. Most things go into 8 languages and this group does the translation for Salt Lake as well. Also, they do the translation of our languages for General Conference. 

We had a good Area Council meeting this last weekend. Also, I'm working on a project where we are encouraging all our Stake Council members to get their 4 generation Family History done (and then we'll be doing Ward Councils and then Ward members). We are starting with our AP'cy, then Area Council and Stake Presidents.  Here's some pictures from the weekend:

- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10155078801305411.1073741978.710030410&type=1&l=f4117cc9dc

I'm now working on the video conference calls (and agendas) with the various departments in Salt Lake. They now do these calls before they get to General Conference (there are about 12 of these meetings). How many secretaries do you have? We have two. They take care of all their travel, memos, and they setup their mission tours, stake conferences, temple reviews, and other things. So, I don't have to worry about these at all. We also have a person whose full-time job is to do boundary and leadership items. You do a lot more of those items, than I do. Let's continue to keep in touch on things!

Elder Bruce G. Brereton

Executive Secretary to the Pacific Area Presidency | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

P:+64-9-488-5554 | M:+64-21-049-5003 | breretonbg@ldschurch.org

Dave and Valerie at the MTC

After our Area Council meeting, I got a real nice note from Elder Nielsen (who is the 2nd counselor in the Area Presidency).  It's been a real honor to be able to work with Elders Pearson, Haleck and Nielsen.

===================================

Bruce and Patsy,

We just wanted to let you know what an honor and privilege it is to serve with you in the Pacific Area. The two of you are remarkable and we are richly blessed to have you here.

Patsy, your wonderful smile and can-do attitude is so refreshing. You do things FIRST CLASS all the way and represent the Lord and us in a most respectful way. The food over the weekend was excellent with the lasagne being especially delicious!

Bruce, you are always so willing to not only help out but make things so much better. Your vision of the things we are doing is remarkable and you add so much to all of our teachings and presentations! Your attention to detail is amazing and I'm not sure what we would do without you so start working on an extension........PLEASE!!!  You have such a pleasant personality and are so sincere. As you were teaching out of the handbook in our last presidency meeting about the power of music, I wanted to start taking piano or singing lessons!

Please know you are love and respected in every-way. Now, on to the Area Review our dear friends!

Much love and respect,
Wendy and Giff

LDS Share Expo's

Sister B continues to work hard on LDS Share Expo's where we show people how to share the Gospel with social media tools. We have three YSA conventions coming up soon and we've arranged to do social media events there. In about a week, there'll be doing one in Perth, Australia. This is over 5,000 km away (5 times zones). We would have liked to have gone, but it's too far away so we've done all our training via phone calls, email, sharing folders, and skype calls.  Below is a note from them and we thought it was very nice, so we posted it here. We wish we could have attended!

Hello Elder & Sister Brereton, 

I briefly met you both via Skype when we had our first LDS Share Expo training session with you hosted by Brother Chalwell - a few weeks ago. 

I would like to extend a very warm invitation to you both, to attend Perth's first ever - National YSA Convention! I understand and can appreciate how much effort, thought and pure passion you both have poured into the collaboration of the LDS Share Expo - which has been both enjoyed and no doubt touched many lives across not only Australia but also across an International platform...Hence in essence, because you have both been 'founders' and 'pioneers' to help materialize Elder Bednar's address to let the 'Gospel flood the earth' - we'd like to again invite you both to address a National YSA crowd of over 500 participants - as the opening speakers for our very first LDS Share Expo in Perth. 

It's both exciting and captivating to think that 500 plus YSA will be missionaries in their own right, as they stand together united - to share their testimonies with their online and real network of friends.

It will be an honour if you accept our invitation to be there and to speak. We'd also like for you both to be present in the Platform Classes - as you can roam where you like and just sit in. 

At the closing of the LDS Share Expo - both our MC and I will announce 3 Prize Winners - but we'd like you both to present the prizes and certificates to the winners. I have attached the LDS Share Expo Runsheet for you to review which has everything you need to know - date, time, location and events and also another document which re-iterates the Runsheet in finer detail. Please do let us know if you would like to and can attend! 

Thank you so much for all the good you're doing! 

Warm Regards,
Tynan Parry

We've been out 6 months!!!

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