Week 7 — Senior couple mission — New Zealand Hamilton Mission
February 16, 2014 to February 22, 2014
Hello, wonderful friends and family,
1) Scripture joke of the week — The Book of Mormon tells us that the righteous who are sanctified and become holy will not be able to keep their dogs as pets! Explanation below.
2) Church history quiz of the week –The city of St. George in southwestern Utah was named after one of our latter-day apostles. Can you identify this apostle and the unusual use of the word “Saint” in the city’s name?
3) Quote of the week— If at first you don’t succeed, it’s a normal life you lead!
4) Weekly Update — We have had a wonderful, busy week. In just 7 days we have done the following:
- Scheduled and participated in 5 financial audits of the branches and district in which we live (four “passes” and one “failure”).
- Wrote, published, and distributed our first edition of the “Taranaki District Newsletter”, a newsletter giving the details of past and upcoming church events. Our first edition consisted of 120 copies. The cost of this publication will be a story for another time.
- Received Addiction Recovery seminar training from two brethren from LDS Family Services in Auckland and then led and conducted an Addiction Recovery class with them present later that night.
- Taught another Addiction Recovery class and a Temple Preparation class during the week.
- Did missionary apartment inspections for all 7 apartments in our missionary district, covering over 100 miles in the process.
- Ate dinner with a wonderful couple in Hawera. Their kindness and hospitality was very Christ-like. Made friends with their cats, Laman and Lemuel (or was it Nephi and Sam?)
- Attended two weekly missionary district training meetings, speaking in both of them.
- Attended the baptism and confirmation of a wonderful new convert in Manaia, the very farthest outreach of our district. Participated in the confirmation ordinance and bore testimony in the Sacrament meeting. The story of this sweet sister’s conversion will be a separate entry.
- Attended a court hearing to support a member of the New Plymouth Branch. The wait just to get into the courtroom to see the judge was 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Spent an evening participating in “rescue visits” with the full-time elders, visiting the lost and struggling. Visited one receptive brother and four very “uninterested” brethren.
- Participated in giving an “emergency” priesthood blessing to a struggling sister in the area. Blessed by the spirit as we did so.
- Participated in an all-day service project called “Helping Hands in Manaia”. We all congregated at the Manaia Primary School and worked on fence lines, trimmed, cleared weeds, mowed lawns, removed dead trees and limbs, and fully enjoyed ourselves. Our aching muscles that lasted two days were of no concern to us. ;o)
We love our mission. We love the wonderful saints we are getting to know. The spirit is strong and the tender mercies of the Lord are everywhere manifested. We couldn’t be happier.
Elder and Sister Taylor
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5) Answer to the scripture joke — Moroni 10:33 tells us that if we are perfect in Christ and if we do not deny his power, we are sanctified and become holy, WITHOUT SPOT. Sorry, Spot — no dogs allowed!
6) Answer to the church history quiz — The city of St. George was named in honor of Apostle George A. Smith, who served as an apostle from 1839 to 1875. Elder Smith also served as a counselor to Brigham Young from 1868 to 1875. Elder Smith received the nickname of “The Potato Saint” due to his advocacy of growing and eating potatoes while the saints were encamped at Winter Quarters. He believed potato consumption would prevent the development of scurvy. Elder Smith was the first settler in the Salt Lake Valley to plant potatoes. He spent considerable time in the southern part of the Utah Territory, and was recognized as the “father of the southern settlements”. Thus, St. George, the chief southern settlement, was named in honor of this great apostle, with ‘Saint’ being added due to his Potato Saint moniker.
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