FSY2020NZ AND OTARA FARMER'S MARKET

Another week has flown by.  This week was FSY (For the Strength of Youth) 2020 in New Zealand.  Over 1200 youth from the South Island and the southern half of the North Island attended at King’s College here in Auckland.  Next year the other half of the youth from the North Island will attend.  I ok’d the contract months ago for the venue and meals, and that went well.  On Tuesday their classes and workshops were held.  I presented along with about another 25 presenters, I was the only American, the rest were from NZ.  My power point presentation was entitled “The Little Red Hen Principle—The Value of Work.”  I taught 4 classes of 40 youth each on the topic.  They seemed to be interested and were well behaved.  These FSY conferences are the direction the Church is headed around the world. Since each class was 50 minutes long, my throat was a little raw from speaking so much, but otherwise it went well.

Otherwise, I put in another full week at the office.  The pace hasn’t picked up again yet since a lot of the outside attorneys and the Church employees I work with haven’t returned from summer vacation.  That should change this coming week.  This slow down allowed me to get caught up on my real estate and construction projects.

Saturday 5 senior missionary couples attended the Otara farmers market in south Auckland.  I had sent out an email invitation to the senior missionaries, and 4 couples responded.  I previously went to this market last June in the middle of the winter.  I figured that since it is middle of summer now there should be even better selection, and I was right.  The parking lot was jam packed with shoppers, it was tough to even find a place to park.  I enjoyed just walking around and sampling the produce.  I finally found reasonably priced cherries, 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) for NZD$12, about USD$8, and they were delicious.   Alisa and I also purchased onions, asparagus, beef steak tomatoes, nectarines, sweet corn, grapes, oyster mushrooms, avocados, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, papaya, mandarins, and a rock melon (cantaloupe).  The cantaloupe was $3 but the farmer wouldn’t charge me, since he was a member of the Church I found out.  I also tried a meke burger from one of the food vendors, and purchased a sea food assortment and a home made steak and cheese pie for eating later.  In the evening I took Alisa to see the new movie “Little Women” which was surprisingly good.  It reminded me of when I read the novel to my little women (my 4 girls) and I think Ed may have even listened in.