General Auxiliary Visitors

This last weekend Brother Stephen W. Owen, the General Young Men’s President, and Brother Brian K. Ashton, the Second Counselor in the General Sunday School Presidency begin their visit to the Pacific Area. They started here in Auckland and arrived on Saturday morning. On Tuesday, they left for Vanuatu, then they go to Fiji, and they return back to Salt Lake Sunday night.

Elders Pearson and Haleck were gone on other assignments this weekend, so Sister B. and I helped out with the visit. She provided them an awesome welcome basket! 

They did some "rescue" visits on the day they arrived. We were going to go out to dinner with them to the Sky Tower, but the Bradfields (from the Ward) offered to take them on a sailing trip. So, we did that instead. I picked up dinner for them at a Thai restaurant.

And then we were off on our sailing trip. I had reserved a van from the office and I was the chauffeur. Here's a few pictures from the sailing trip.

Sunday was a busy day with us going to the Epsom Ward, the Sunset Ward, and then a country wide devotional for all the YM and the leaders. We had the devotional in the Redoubt building and it was broadcasted throughout all of New Zealand. Again I'm the designated driver and here are a few pictures from the day.

Popsicles for all ... after the devotional!

On Monday they did a devotional at the office and had some activities during the day. We ended off with a FHE at the Nielsen's.  It was a great trip!

Sister B's famous lasagna - this is the 3rd time she made it for an event here!

They are gone now and we are back to work. Sister B. is working on her weekly batch of letters that have to go out, we have agendas to do, calendars to submit, emails to send, follow-up to complete, an area plan to get ready so it can be reviewed next week, and numerous other items to finish off.

Here's a super nice note from Elder Nielsen (we worked together everyday on this event ... which included many hours of effort before they arrived). I know it's personal note, but I thought I'd record it here since I don't want to forget it associated with this event:

<< Where do I begin? Let me feebly try. Words cannot adequately describe my feelings for the two of you. It is not easy doing what we do but the Brereton's are always first in line willing to take the load off everyone's plate.

With our recent effort to host two of the general auxiliary presidents Steve Owen and Brian Ashton, you lifted a heavy load and you do it will great attitudes. Sometime we bob and weave a bit but you adjust beautifully and just make things workout. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for always being there and adding the strength to survive some grueling schedules and relentless events.

A couple of weeks ago in our Area Council meeting, I looked at the two of you sitting together with an arm around each other during the sacrament and I got tears in my eyes wondering how we were going to carry on without you. Your consecrated efforts bring light and happiness to so many people. We all marvel at what you get done and you do it with smiles bigger than the state of Texas....that's BIG!!!!

Wendy and I feel richly blessed serving shoulder to shoulder with you in this wonderful cause. With gratitude in our hearts, we express our deepest appreciation to you for always being willing to not only jump in to help but also to do it FIRST CLASS!!!!

We love you and express our sincere heartfelt gratitude for your friendship and the joy you bring to those you serve with in the Pacific Area.

Much love, respect and appreciation,

Giff >>

Area Council Meeting

This was our last Area Council meeting ... we are very sad about that! We are going to really miss our Area Seventies. It seems like I communicate with them all almost every week. They are such wonderful men and servants of the Lord. The Pacific Area is 9,000 miles by 5,000 miles, so that gives them quite a large area to cover. Plus, not all of them live in the location they are responsible for with Elder Cummings handling Papua New Guinea (and living in Sydney), Elder O'Riordan covering Perth and Adelaide (and living in Melbourne), Elder Thomson covering all the way from south Auckland to the south island (and living in Hamilton), etc.  They are all just fabulous!

The Area Presidency and Area Seventies in the Pacific Area

As usual, Sister B. did a superb job on all the meals. The other sisters helped out as well and it turned out perfectly.  Sister B. also used her shell and sea glass collection (items we've picked up here on the beaches over the last 17 months).  She got lots of compliments on the table decorations.  I was asked to make some remarks and bear my testimony, so that was pretty nice too!

We had some great meetings!

The Area Presidency all help with the clean-up!!!

Temple Trip with the Area Presidency

We've talked about doing a temple trip all together, but given everyone's schedule we just haven't done this for a while. Well, we finally got a day where all of us had some time.

We left the office at about 1:15pm (after the weekly AP meeting). Sister B. had made lunches for everyone, so we had that on the way done. I drove the van and we had fun discussing the "Area Plan" on the trip.

We met up with the senior missionaries that serve in Hamilton (about 20 couples). The mission president, President Rudd, was there too, so that made for a great session. We met President Going (the temple president) as we entered (he checked our recommends).  It was a wonderful session!

Left to right: Elder Haleck, Sister Haleck, President Pearson, Sister Pearson, Sister Nielsen, Elder Nielsen, Sister B. and Elder B.

We went to the distribution center as well and had a great day.

Youth Conference in Christchurch

We were asked to do some social media training at a youth conference in Christchurch, so that made for a fun weekend. Elder and Sister Thomson were also there, so we stayed with them. They found a great rental that was just 20 minutes from the conference (a lot closer than being in the city), and it was cheaper too! Elder Thomson is the Area Seventy that covers the south island. We were able to see some of the sights here as well, so that was fun. They had been numerous earthquakes in Christchurch from 2010 to 2012, so they are still doing a lot of rebuilding.The youth conference was great and the kids were fantastic!

Sister B with our luggage!!!

A lot of reconstruction work going on!

Here's the video we made of the skits they put on:

Teaching in Samoa

Given the General Conference weekend, the Area Presidency were in Salt Lake for almost 3 weeks. So, we took the opportunity to do some additional "social media" training for the PSD department (Publishing Services). In the past, we've been to Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne (in Australia); to several locations in New Zealand; and during their July break this year we went to Tonga. So, now we are off to Samoa. They have high schools on the island of Upolu and on Savai'i. We started off going to Apia on Upolu. The school is right next to the temple and we were able to stay in one of missionary housing apartments there (that happened to be vacant).

Our flight arrived late Monday night and we went for a walk around. Here's the Apia Temple. It was about 40 feet from where we were staying. It is a lot warmer in Samoa ... like 85 degrees! This is something we were not used to, given the typical 65 degree weather in Auckland. The apartment had air conditioning, so that was nice. But, we did have a few issues in the apartment (fridge didn't work well, no internet, and some bugs). But, overall, everything was just fine and we had a wonderful time.

Here's some of the classes we taught: 

The kids at the high school were just fantastic ... and they were so fun to be around. I now have more than 100 new friends on Facebook, so that was exciting too!

They have so many cool buses in Samoa ... how about this one: "Queen Patsy"!

On Thursday we caught the ferry to Savai'i ... it is about a 1.5 hour trip.

We are at the campus!

Our first class ... we taught a total of 10 classes.

This is the Vaiola school.

On the weekend, we had some time off, so we saw some turtles, went snorkeling, and found some awesome shells. 

We went on several walks and it was fun to see bananas growing by the side of the road. Also, on Monday it was Patsy's birthday!  We had a fun birthday breakfast in downtown Apia.

On our last day, it was raining, but we still had a great time at the beach!