They're everywhere!

After three days we left for Australia. We first flew into Brisbane and then drove down to Coolangatta (part of what is considered the Gold Coast) for a Pacific Area Public Affairs Seminar.  We met with our counterparts that are serving in Sydney and Melbourne, the Merrills and the Lloyds, and the Assistant Director of Public Affairs, Elder Robert J. Dudfield, for a few days.

Traveling for most of three weeks from Apia (Samoa) and Pago Pago (American Samoa) to Wellington (New Zealand) and Coolangatta and Sydney (Australia) was both exhilarating and exhausting. We felt like we were everywhere. As we entered the airport at Coolangatta a man looked at our missionary badges and told another close by, "They're everywhere!"

Beautiful Gold Coast in Coolangatta

The shrimp were huge.  Took up the whole plate. Tasted a little like lobster! Notice the eyes!

Kookaburra just outside our window.

Australian Outback Spectacular: We enjoyed a great evening with the group attending a a great show. We enjoyed outback food while donning our cowboy/girl hats. 

Love these hardworking, devoted missionaries and PA leader, Rob Dudfield.  Unfortunately Rich Hunter was home sick with a kidney stone.

For the three days we were there, names were drawn from a bowl determining who would present their previously prepared book report on a book that is applicable to Public Affairs. Books shared were Organize Tomorrow Today - Selk, The Color Code - Hartman, The Four Agreements - Ruiz, Crucial Conversations - Patterson, The Resilient Farmer - Avery,  212 Degrees - Parker  ,  When Helping Hurts - Fikkert & Corbett, The Outward Mindset - The Arbinger Institute,  I Will Lead You Along, The Life of Henry B. Eyring -  Eyring and Eaton, and Thank You for Being Late - Friedman.

As part of the seminar we discussed area outreach and now plan to arrange one Area Presidency member contact with a government leader each month.  Not an easy task because of their time limitations while they are traveling each weekend.

JM -  For two full days we were taught by Elder Robert Dudfield, an Area Seventy (center of back row with yellow shirt). Elder Dudfield is the Assistant Director of Public Affairs in the Pacific Area.
Suffering from a kidney stone, our Director, Rich Hunter, wasn't able to be with us. We missed him and his wisdom terribly, but we learned a great deal and got to meet and interact with our counterparts in Australia. That was a real blessing!

We stayed in a Crowne Plaza hotel a few blocks from the beach. Our room had a view of the ocean so there weren't many times (only when we were asleep) that we were in our room when we weren't gazing out at the beach.

Gold Coast sunrise

Three amigos enjoy a beach walk. Jim, Elder Pinson and Elder Thomsen

One morning we got up early and went for a walk on the beach. It is a beautiful white sand beach that stretches for miles in both directions. What a great way to start the day.

The Australian Outback Spectacular was really quite fun. Using horses, they told some of the history (mostly 20th century) of Australia. If you go, don't think you are going for the food, though.

We were saddened to leave beautiful Coolangatta and our new friends, but Wednesday afternoon it was time to catch a flight to Sydney. Paying our own way we spent two days and three nights in Sydney. Our room at the Sydney Marriott Harbor Hotel in Circle Quay had an opera house and partial harbor view. It was spectacular!

View outside our hotel window

We toured the opera house and purchased tickets for that night to a one person show there. That evening we walked to the opera house for the show. The atmosphere was wonderful as we walked along the harbor, passing sidewalk restaurants along the way.

Sydney Opera House

Harbour Bridge near Opera House

Bernadette Robinson performed impressions of many female singers like Judy Garland, Barbra Streisant, Patsy Kline, etc.  She had a wonderful voice and it was a very enjoyable evening.

Electronic Kiosk in the plaza walking towards the Opera House. Wonderful conversion stories are coming out of this production.

While in Sydney we took a ferry to Darling Harbour and walked to the market. The walk was interesting as we passed many very modern and architecturally interesting buildings. We bought a few things for the grand kids, but the market was mostly disappointing (poor quality of the merchandise).

Another day we took a ferry to Manly Beach while some of the others with whom we were traveling went to the zoo or Bondi Beach. Although it was a nice beach, the weather was chilly so we just walked along the sidewalk and enjoyed the view.

One day we walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens to Macquarie's chair. It was a lovely (but long) walk that would have been much shorter if we had found the shortcut on the way rather than on the way back.

It was nice to stay at the Marriott because we ran into several Americans. One family was headed to Hamilton, NZ, to pick up their daughter who had been serving in the visitors center. We learned that he is a dentist and had purchased his practice in Delta that had been owned by a friend of ours in Draper. He also knew Roger and Kay Stowell. Roger was my first boss when I worked at Salt Lake City Corporation. 

After enjoying Sydney for two days we headed home to a hoped-for recovery from our travels.

I am now referred to as "The lady that's married to the man with the striped socks". Jim may or may not take a little liberty in his sock selections.  Teehee!

As we are about to enter the fourth quarter of 2017, we are beginning to assess what we have accomplished in 2017 and establish plans and goals for 2018. We began that process with some internal discussions with our co-workers the Pinsons under the direction of Rich Hunter.

Among many other things, we decided we want to increase the number of unique visitors to our websites and increase the number of articles the media picks up from Mormon Newsroom NZ.
We also want to fight a bill introduced into Parliament in NZ to legalize assisted suicide. We are involved in declaring to the Parliament the Church's position on this.

Last Saturday in Hamilton we met with Tim MacIndoe, an Anglican and a member of Parliament, to discuss having LDS and Catholic youth present a bill to Parliament opposing euthanasia. Tim has agreed to lead the opposition.

We learned what is entailed in a bill going through Parliament and how we can have input into the process, including from first reading, public submissions, whole house committee, and so on.  As we met with him, we were impressed that Tim MacIndoe is a good friend of the Church and he shares many of the same values we do.

Traditional marriage is under attack in Australia. The Church has combined with several other faiths to oppose the legalization legalizing same sex marriage and Public Affairs is involved in that opposition as well.

We want to annually invite and then arrange for two members of the media from the Pacific to be hosted by the Church Public Affairs dept. to visit SLC, BYU, etc.

Our Public Affairs team in Samoa is still working hard on developing better relationships with Samoan villages that are not allowing religious freedom.  We're targeting 5 specific villages for 2018 and think we will make some progress there. All in all, when we left we felt that our time was put to good use there. We were all ears as we heard Elder Haleck speak at General Conference and shared an experience of a village chief in Samoa that had developed a good relationship with the Church recently.  It's exciting to see these relationships develop in the smaller islands.

Many of you know who  Brother James Hamula is.  He is a well-loved person here in the Pacific, having served here as Area President for three years. Something he said recently was so very applicable to each of us. "I want to be remembered as one who returned through grace." I echo those words.  So do I.

Talofa and Welly News!

SM:  We arrived back to Samoa Saturday evening.  Sunday we had breakfast and went to Church at Pesega (the village where the temple and the Church-operated Pesega College (high school) are located). At Church we met several people visiting from the U.S. Jim Winegar and Phillip (can't remember last name) were there for the annual garden party at the Robert Lewis Stevenson (RLS) Museum. Jim W. and Rex Maughan (in ill health and so not here this year) are two former missionaries who purchased and restored the RLS home and grounds. Apparently Rex is very wealthy and has been the financing behind the project and Jim W. has been the "managing partner".

It is truly a beautiful and peaceful place. Jim W. took us and President and Sister Tanner (he is the President of BYU Hawaii) and the Smoots (there with LDS Charities) on a private tour of the museum. What a special opportunity!

The Tanners were there for the above mentioned and to speak at a Devotional. They are visiting several Pacific islands to encourage youth to attend there.

I was very tempted to stop at "The Caravan of Love" for a snow cone! 

Luncheon with Samoan Public Affairs team. (Elder Fata - the Area Seventy, and Sam - Interfaith)

Motisha - Secretary, George - Gov't. Relations, Leo - community relations. These people are all great. They are dedicated to their callings and to the Lord.

Fish with a giant claw!

As part of the meal a huge fish was brought out.  It appears that the whole fish was battered and deep fried.  I wasn't quite sure what it was at first, considering that it had a giant claw. It was placed in front of me and I had to ask how to eat some of it. I just jabbed a portion with my fork. Not too bad, actually. JM - I likewise thought the fin was a claw and I wasn't brave enough to eat any of the fish.

Jim reviewing the Public Affairs online reporting system with Motisha.  Please note his cute turquoise and black glasses.  He left his so I loaned him mine. Lol.

We loved our stay in Samoa.  The hotel always sends us off in style!

JM:  We arrived home to Auckland Tuesday night and then flew out again the next morning for a one and one-half hour flight to Wellington.  What a beautiful city Wellington is! Area President Haleck and the Samoan High Commissioner for New Zealand, Tommy Scanlan, spoke at a devotional held in Porirua (pronounced "Poddyrua"). They spoke regarding the value of education in our lives.  Here's the story from Mormon Newsroom.

Beautiful Wellington with Tania Toria, the Public Affairs director for that area.  JM -  Tania's mother is fighting cancer so we weren't able to spend much time with her (Tania). She is a lovely, faithful Latter-day Saint.

Elder Haleck speaking with H.C. Tommy Scanlan seated on the stand, right.

It was so cold in the church - this woman had the right idea by bringing a hot water bottle to keep her warm.  I was pretty envious.

Thursday, the day after the devotional, before flying back to Auckland we went to the national museum, Te Papa. Their current main exhibit is about Gallipoli, a battle during World War I, where New Zealand suffered defeat. It is a very moving exhibit. The figures are 2.4 times actual size and were done by Weta Workshop.

Sorry, no flash photography was allowed.

Below are a few creations of Weta Workshop. We weren't allowed to take photos of most of their creations.  If you are a fan of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit then you will appreciate them.  We hope to get to Hobbiton sometime before we leave New Zealand.

Got back to Takapuna Thursday night. It was good to be back to our home away from home.

Swaying Palms, Reefs, "Fatu-Ma-Futi"

SM:    There's a saying - "Near the sea you forget to count the days."  This must be the case here.  Time is passing quickly.  We have been here seven months! 

On August 15th, we flew out early to Samoa. We stayed overnight then flew on to American Samoa the next day. The little prop plane was interesting.  We were two feet from the cockpit that had no door and could have easily grabbed at the controls.  I wondered if, with Jim being a pilot, he was yearning to maneuver the plane. There was no air conditioning for the 30 minute flight but we managed without too much discomfort by fanning ourselves. After we landed he commented, "that's the first time I've ever seen a plane do a u-turn on an active runway."

 

Apia Samoa Harbour

Headed to American Samoa

JM - I was amazed that Shirley would get on the plane! She doesn't like flying even in a large jet, but a small prop! She must have just put her trust in the Lord because we were on His errand.

I thought the plane ride was a lot of fun. We flew relatively low (climbing to just 7,500 feet over the ocean).

Beautiful Am. Samoa Young Women returning home on our flight wearing YW Values necklaces.

Am. Samoa Airport

When we arrived in American Samoa, the first thing we noticed at the airport was the American flag.  What a beautiful sight it was.  We miss our homeland and all that it represents.

Unlike the U.S, American Samoa (and all the other smaller islands of the Pacific) never seem to be in a hurry. For Americans it's Go-Go-Go. Move Fast.  Not so, here. That's good and that's bad, from what I can tell.

Oka - a Samoan dish consisting of raw fish in coconut milk in lime juice! One bite was enough!

We stayed at the Tradewinds Hotel (Owned by Elder Haleck, our Area President and GA Seventy) in A.Samoa.  It was a pretty good stay except for the bugs in our room.  Oh, and the 3:30 a.m. wakeup
with an intoxicated woman trying to break down our door.  I can truthfully say that our mission is never boring.

Our National Public Affairs Director, Kalilimoku Hunt, our friend and island contact, kindly drove us around to see some of the island and to meet with people there. Kalili played linebacker at BYU during the years when BYU had some great teams.

He shared some interesting facts about A.S. with us.  Apparently AS has the biggest babies in the world.  A little light shed on that is the fact that the two McDonalds in that country have the highest per capita revenue for all of the US and it's territories.  Quite amazing.  And most likely, the tuna you eat probably comes from AS.  There are two huge tuna plants in town.  (When you drive by the plants you can really smell the tuna.) Pacific Area President Haleck owns a tuna boat there.

View overlooking Pago Pago Harbour

Working at the hotel

The "Mormon Lake" - next to the stake center

Kalili drove us by what has been nicknamed "The Mormon Lake".  This has been an issue since the stake center was completed.  Considered doing a story for Newsroom on this but decided it would be best to leave this one alone.  Claims are that the Church is responsible.  Church says government is responsible because of clogged drains.  It's been like this for over a year.  The members living across the street have written to "Pres. Monsoon" at Church headquarters about the issue.

Kalili and me meeting with the director of the American Red Cross in A.S. - the Church donated paint and other materials for the construction of the new Red Cross building.

Siainiu sharing her story with Jim while she takes a break from working at Carl's Jr.

We loved meeting with the members there.  Click here to read about Siainiu and her amazing story.

Kalili took Jim shopping for Lava lavas. The actual name for ones with pockets and buckle is  
'ie faitaga.  I convinced Jim to get one against his better judgement.  (JM: That is a slight misrepresentation. She didn't convince me to get one, she just bought it.)  I've promised Kalili a photo of him wearing it with flipflops (Jandals).  I've got my work cut out to get the photo shot.

Jim (uncomfortably) trying out a skirt!  Brotherly love!

View looking down into Vatia

Famous 'Fatu-Ma-Futi' (Rocks in the Ocean)

Legend says that Fatu and Futi were lovers who tried to sail to Tutuila (modern day American Samoa) from Upolu (modern day Independent Samoa). They almost made it, but their boat floundered and they expired in the waves just before making it ashore. 

Turned to rocks where they passed, their remains stand in the surf and the swell to this day, highly visible from both the coastal road as well as on the way in and out of magnificent Pago Pago harbor.

We love Polly.  To meet her we drove down into the humble "Tongan Village". Something I wouldn't recommend doing alone.  Fortunately the missionary couple there, the Anthons, took us. We never would have found her house without the Anthons. 

Polly has had many challenges but is determined to rise above them and get an education.  Here is her inspirational story. 

Two Dollar Beach

Junior

Let me introduce Junior! Read his story "Spiritual Strength Overcomes Spiritual Challenges" here.

In writing stories for the Mormon Newsroom I'm continually learning new journalism techniques such as anecdotal leads, nut grafs, headlines, etc.  It doesn't hurt that our friend and Public Affairs missionary, Steve Thomsen,  a journalism professor at BYU, (serving with his wife, Dorie in Tahiti) gives me pointers.

JM:  When we first met with Junior we asked if he had ever talked with anyone about getting a prosthetic. He said he had been measured for one two years ago but had not been contacted since. We asked who had measured him and he told us where he had gone to get measured. After our meeting we went to the location he had told us and, sure enough, there was a small storefront advertising prosthetics.

No one was there at the time, but there was a telephone number on the door. We called and asked the man who answered if he was familiar with Junior. He said he was and that he had a prosthetic for Junior in his office. He said he would get in touch with Junior the following week.

After further discussion we learned that Junior had come in some time ago and tried the prosthetic but didn't like it. The man said it isn't uncommon that amputees get used to using a wheelchair and don't want to go through the adjustment to use of a prosthetic.

We had a meeting and a lovely dinner with Kalili's public affairs team and some priesthood leaders. It was wonderful to get to know the people with whom Kalili works. I was greatly impressed with the quality of our public affairs team and the priesthood leaders we met in American Samoa. It is such a beautiful (but small - only 77 square miles) island and the people are beautiful too.

The American influence was very apparent in this little island. The food was much more American than the food in Samoa and we loved that the American flag is proudly flown. The flag made us feel more at home than we have for the last seven months.

There aren't many beaches on American Samoa. On most of the island (except in the area around the airport where most of the commercial development is) the mountain drops steeply to the ocean and a road has been built between the mountain and the ocean. Homes are possible only in those spots where the mountain isn't so steep or by building on the mountain side with access only by a very steep road.

The side of the island opposite the airport is gorgeous but sparsely developed. It is not easily acceessible. Only a few roads go over the mountain to the other side.

We took two hours on our last day and traveled to the west end of the island. On our way we came across two sets of young Elders. They were happy to be in American Samoa and were loving the work. We heard that President Hanneman (the Mission President) had put the best Elders on the island out west in order to increase the membership of one of the branches there so it would be large enough to become a ward. In a very short time that happened and the work is still moving forward on that part of the island.

I'm rethinking how I'd like my remains honoured.  A nice little pavillion with picket fence will be most appropriate and will definitely reflect how much we are loved.  I think I shared that in many of the Pacific Islands the deceased parents are buried in the front of the house.  Of course I don't want any fighting amongst our children as to who the fortunate ones are that get the honor.  I also heard that the higher above ground loved ones are buried, the greater honor they are showing.  Hmmm.

Graves of honored parents

The best gifts are tied with heart strings and our hearts are bound to Kalili and his beautiful wife Tupu. Like so many of the islands of the Pacific, we found kindness and generosity to be the hallmarks of American Samoa.

We boarded the twin engine prop and headed back to Samoa. This time, instead of sitting in the second row, we sat in the sixth row. It was much more fun in the second row where I could watch the pilots and some of the instruments. They don't have GPS capability in the small planes used here, so the pilots relied on the navigational equipment of VOR stations like I used when I was flying.

We left American Samoa on Friday afternoon and 35 minutes later arrived in Samoa on Saturday afternoon. Apparently the international dateline was altered so that American Samoa would be on the same day as the United States.  After landing, a young man boarded the plane and shut the door behind him.  Then he sprayed something up and down the little aisle and around our feet.  I asked why and was told it was to help prevent the spread of Zika, Dengue Fever, and one other.  Hope I didn't inhale too much of the pesticide!!