Monday Alisa and I took off during the lunch hour and drove
to the New Zealand Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Redoubt road.
The new Auckland temple is being built next door, they are pushing dirt
around for the building pad. We were
told that the ground breaking will be in June, after the dirt has settled. At the MTC we met with Pres. and Sis. Dil,
then were assigned to work with senior couple Elder and Sister Bourne, who will
be serving as the branch president in Queenstown on the South island. We were assigned to play a less active couple
so that they could practice fellowshipping us.
So I started off by telling them that Alisa and I have never married but
have 10 kids, and that I’m a former missionary in Tahiti. Alisa looked at me and said “why did you just
say that, none of that is true”, and I replied, “because we’re role playing?!” We all got a good laugh out of that and then
went on with our role play. The Bournes
will do well on their mission, and they invited us to drop by if we make it down there. The NZ MTC has 100 missionaries in it this week, a record number. Monday evening
we attended our YSA ward’s FHE which had the theme of family history work.
Tuesday evening we were invited, along with Sis. Bundy, to
the Yamashitas’ home for a Japanese meal, to thank Alisa and Ellen for working with
them on their English.
Wednesday was my 63rd birthday. I took some gentle ribbing at work, and Alisa
made me sweet and sour spare ribs and broccoli stuffed onions for my bday
dinner. I enjoyed my calls from family
members.
Thursday I dropped Alisa (and Inoke Tune, a Tongan area 70
who had been visiting in town) off at the Auckland airport for her flight back
to America to help Rachel out with new born Redd and family. Alisa has been planning this trip for
months, and received special permission for it. We were lucky we got her out of
town when we did. The next day the Area
presidency sent out instructions that all international travel for Church
employees and missionaries was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. In fact, the local general and area authorities aren't even allowed to return to the US for General Conference in April. So far NZ has avoided what appears to be a
pandemic, but the virus is breaking out around the world and the US, and I hope
Alisa can get back into NZ when her trip to the states ends in about 1 ½ weeks!
Without Alisa here to keep me company, I just put in extra
hours at work this week, including working at the Area offices all day on
Saturday. Last week I got a good property
report back from local counsel about the new Neiafu Tonga temple location. This week I started working on the Pago Pago
American Samoa temple and the Port Moresby Papua New Guinea temple sites. This information is likewise still confidential
since the Church hasn’t yet announced the exact location of the actual temple sites
to the public. I will be working with
local counsel to make sure we have good title to the properties, and that there
aren’t any unexpected liens, encumbrance, claims or other problems with the
properties. I’ve really enjoyed working
on these temple projects which seem more in line with my mission objectives, as
opposed to some of my other cases. I
also this week took over Elder Gordon Low’s litigation files in the isles and NZ,
as he is returning to America at the conclusion of his mission. After 9 months here, I finally have seniority
with the older legal missionaries returning home, so I finally get to determine
the types of cases and the areas I work in, which will make this job much more
interesting going forward!
I had a few visits with Ed via face time this week, as he had
a few days off from school and is in St. George at our vacation home taking a break. With an early spring the yard looks like it
survived the southern Utah winter. One
water line popped out, but Ed caught that and fixed it in time. All of my fruit trees are beginning to
blossom out, which means that I got them planted and established in time in order
to take advantage of 2 growing seasons while we’re on our mission. Besides worrying about the family, the other
major worry for senior missionaries is the care of their homes while they are
gone. I believe that our 2 vacation
homes are doing just fine. The
landscaping should also be fine, and I’ll be home in time to take care of
things as we go into winter at the end of 2020. The weather here in NZ has been quite
pleasant this week, I can tell that summer has ended in the southern hemisphere and we are going into nice
fall weather.
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