APPROACHING THE HOLIDAYS

We’ve passed from 2016 into 2017 living in New Zealand. While our experience hasn’t been what you might call exotic (Isn’t that the way most people picture New Zealand?), it hasn’t been without its adventure. 

Everyday we face new experiences to deal with. Our days are always busy. There’s much to do while living here in Dunedin to strengthen the membership and reach out to non-members—inviting everyone to come to Christ again and again. We’re learning that there is no problem that can’t be solved by seeking Christ sincerely and in faith. Christ truly delivers us from the harm and danger, the trouble and affliction, we experience from the outside, as well as the false assumptions and wrong-headed thinking we’re bound to on the inside. He comforts us when we let Him, gives us direction when we’re open to it, refines us when we’re willing, and inspires us as we seek instruction. This and more He does always. He never changes. His arm is outstretched continually. He stands at the door of our hearts knocking. It’s up to us to let Him in—not just for an occasional brunch, but with a standing invitation for supper.

A New Zealand Miracle

Missions tend to reveal one’s inner weaknesses. The more you search the scriptures, the more the scriptures seem to search you. One guilty habit JannaLee has given up to her credit is her addiction to Dr. Pepper. 

Coming on this mission has really helped. JannaLee tried over and over again to kick the habit in the states. She just couldn’t do it. But here, on our mission, the Lord has changed her heart. The scriptures tell us that the Lord works through “means” in order to save the souls of men. This works for women, as well. A twleve-pack of Dr. Pepper runs $18 dollars here in New Zealand. JannaLee discovered this and immediately she was liberated from her addiction. Amazing! A New Zealand Miracle!

(JannaLee here. Sorry to dash the whole miracle thing. But really? My like, okay, love of Dr. Pepper, an addiction? The first step to any miracle is admitting I have a problem, and I'm out of control. Not sure I'm there . . . yet. 😏)

Scrawny Tom

Speaking of outrageous pricing, a 12 lb. turkey costs between $69-80 dollars at Pak ‘n Save. I’m not sure whose packing and whose saving at that price. But JannaLee and I ended up buying two turkeys this year: one for Thanksgiving; one for Christmas. Both turkeys were scrawny. 

Yet both turkeys were delicious. We discovered that the key to a succulent turkey is not so much the brine you marinate it in, (although I’m sure that adds flavor); it’s waiting for a half-hour after you take it out of the oven before you carve it. Who knew? All these years I’ve burned my fingers trying to carve the turkey right out of the oven in order to make sure that it is juicy. I even went to great lengths to find turkey carving gloves to keep from getting second-degree burns on my hands and fingers. Turns out you just have to wait.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a great dinner with the Wards. They invited some friends from home school and the ward. 

The dinner was scrumptious. I even popped my first cork from the bubbly we drank. 

We played games afterwards until the food from the first-go-around was partly digested, then we dove in for more. 

We ate and played throughout most of the afternoon and evening in true Thanksgiving style.

Olive Turns 12

Olive’s birthday this year was a special one. She turned 12. That means, she graduated from Primary, and became an official Young Woman. For her birthday, the Wards took the family to the Hamilton Temple where Olive was able to be baptized for her relatives on Bea’s side. 

She was so happy to do so. The Wards also attended the wedding of their dear friends, Mady and Kam. The girls were privileged to be flower girls for the occasion. 

What added more to their holiday was a trip to the beach and wandering the green hills of Hobbiton.

Happy Birthday, Olive.

Christmas Trees

We’ve really enjoyed our Christmas tree on the wall this year. Many of you have seen it, already. But what you may not realize is that it went from this:

To this:

We haven’t spoken in definite terms about it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t make a Christmas Tree wall-hanging a must in our home for our Christmases to come. 

We also decorated a tree that was given to us by the Christensens. It was a sad thing to unbox.

But with a bit of love and lots of care, we’ve brought it back to life. It sits across the room from our Christmas tree on the wall. Both trees have contributed a festive spirit to the holiday season.

Jane Grigg is Baptized

We had the sweet experience of helping Jane Margaret Grigg follow the Savior’s example to be baptized. I say “helped,” because Sister Rima and Gibbons did most of the teaching. Sister Ward and I taught a bit when Jane would attend Gospel Principles Class. But the Sisters have extended themselves to Jane and her family unfailingly. But what makes Jane’s baptism miraculous is that Jane is deathly afraid of water. Her fear has been at the forefront of why she’s been holding back from making the baptism commitment for a month and a half. The Sisters have accomplished wonders with her in helping her to face her fear, and, through exercising faith in Christ, to overcome it. But the fear would not leave Jane.

Jane’s fear had been the topic of discussion in our District Training meetings and in Missionary Coordination Meetings with the ward mission leader. We were fasting for Jane, praying for Jane, doing all we could to find the means by which Jane could rise above her fear.

After praying about Jane’s fear the night before, I got out of bed to start my day. I should say, I was about to get up from sitting on our bed to take my shower, when the following thought ticker-taped its way through my mind: “Jane is afraid of drowning when she’s baptized. She’s concerned that when she’s put under the water, she’ll breathe. I wonder how long Jane thinks she can hold her breath. She obviously doesn’t feel she can hold it long enough to keep from drowning. What would happen if the Sisters played a game with Jane to teach her how long she can hold her breath in contrast to how long she’ll need to hold her breath to be baptized?” I then thought of the Sisters asking Jane to hold her breath with the Sisters to see how long they could do it. Then the Sisters could ask Jane to hold her breath for five seconds. Afterward, they could remind Jane how long she held her breath before, and assure her that she need only hold her breath five seconds when she gets baptized.

The thought felt good to me. It felt like revelation. 

So I phoned the Sisters and told them what I’d been thinking. They said it felt like a good plan, and agreed to try it that day when they met with Jane. That evening I received a text from the Sisters. They had tried the challenge with Jane. She was happy with the “experiment.” It was a couple of visits after that that Jane decided to be baptized. And although we were all concerned as we watched her enter the font, (the truth is, we were praying that she wouldn’t have to be baptized twice or more)—notwithstanding our concerns, Jane's baptism was flawless. As she stepped up the stairs to get out of the font, she took Sister Gibbon's hand and exclaimed in a whisper, “That was fun!”

Christmas

Driving home Christmas Eve, sun shining about ¾ the way toward the horizon—and this about 9:30 at “night”—JannaLee asked me if I felt that Christmas had come soon this year. I paused and said no. She asked why. I said because I haven’t felt like Christmas is even close this year. It’s green, rainy, and warm. 

For sure there are some decorations in the stores. 

Some bits of holly-looking lights have been strung on light posts periodically throughout the city. The Warehouse has something that looks like it’s trying very hard to be Christmas Alley. 

The Christmas Kiwi roams the store, stopping in random aisles to offer super savings for this and that item. 

Pak ‘n Save is selling Christmas candy: 

Christmas candy and boxes of “Crackers,” (white elephant gifts wrapped in rectangle and cylindrical cardboard that pop when you pull the two strings attached to either end). All around me it has felt like people are trying to convince me that Christmas is getting close. But my heart wasn’t buying it. Listening to Smooth Christmas Jazz on Pandora has helped. But the music is interrupted by deodorant messages about “having sweet patches” during the hot summer months (that would be “sweat patches”), or “sweeting uncomfortably” (I'll let you figure that one out.). There are ads encouraging us to buy a Presi-Card for those we love for Christmas (most likely a “present-card”). We even ate Chinese food in homage of the The Christmas Story.

Even so, until the day actually came, I couldn’t quite believe it would. 



But you know what? It did. Christmas Day actually came, and, true to form—even on this side of the world—the day was magical.

The Wards had looked only at their stockings before church. So, when they came home, they engaged in the entire Andy Williams Christmas Opening. It was fun to be a part of it. I remembered how the Wards invited us to Skype with them last year. It was, however, almost like an out-of-the-body-experience to watch and take pictures and video of everything going on this year. 

Sophie’s Change of Heart

For six months, now, we’ve been assisting the elders in teaching a young woman named Sophie. Sophie is about 23 years-old. When JannaLee and I first came to Dunedin JannaLee met Sophie during what was referred to as “rescue visits.” (We’ve since changed the name to “cookie visits.”) At that time Sophie had been taking the lessons from the elders, but had decided to stop. We heard some rumors as to why she had become disenchanted, but didn’t know the details. The night of our visits, JannaLee and Sister Smith visited Sophie. They had a heart-to-heart with her.

Fast forward to last week. Sophie is thrilled at the prospect of her being baptized this next year, January 21, 2017. What’s made the difference? She said JannaLee’s and Sister Smith's sincere desire to reach out to her, to understand her confusion, and not to judge, turned everything around for her to start taking the lessons again. 

But during these last 6 months, though she’s met with the Elders (Shaik, Andelin, Ramirez, Gardner, and Teimarane) and us consistently, she just didn’t seem to be catching on. It got to the point where we sincerely wondered if we should just let Sophie go until some better time in her life. But the elders and we felt that we needed to keep teaching her. I can’t describe how frustrating it was each time we’d ask Sophie if she had followed through on her commitments, only to be told why she hadn’t. We all knew when Sophie began to get serious about reading the Book of Mormon and praying to get answers to her questions, things would change. But when would she do that? Only God knew.

Then two weeks ago, while I was teaching Gospel Principles, I asked the class this question: Why might prayer be considered an act of faith? Sophie raised her hand. She spoke about prayer, about faith, about the relationship between prayer and faith in eloquent terms. As she spoke, I was truly surprised. This wasn’t the Sophie we’d come to know and love. That Sophie, though well-intended, couldn’t discuss gospel principles confidently and with assurance. But here she was, doing just that. It wasn’t just once that Sophie raised her hand to answer one of my questions. She did it about three times. Each time she was articulate and spoke with a conviction as to what she thought that I had never before witnessed.

After class I took Sophie aside and shared my surprise. I asked what has made the difference. She said, “Well, I decided that I need to be baptized. Ever since then things have begun to make sense. Before, I’d listen to you and Sister Ward and the elders. The words you spoke made sense. They were English. But I couldn’t understand them in my heart. It was like I could see your mouths moving, but couldn’t hear the sound. It all seemed to make sense. At least I trusted that it did. But I couldn’t connect the dots, so to speak. But since deciding to be baptized the Book of Mormon is making more sense. It's like a switch turned, I understand the lessons more than I have before. I’m praying and feeling better about my prayers. And baptism . . . well I’m definitely going to get baptized!”

I was deeply impressed by what I was hearing. Sophie was describing the change of heart that comes to one who demonstrates a willingness to follow Christ to be baptized. What happens after that step—not only at the step of being baptized—but at the step of determining with real intent to be baptized? The Lord begins to pour out His Spirit upon the person, helping them to understand the doctrines and principles of the gospel so that the covenants they are about to take upon themselves make sense. This is the miracle described over and over throughout the Book of Mormon. Hearing of Christ and His gospel, believing in God and Christ enough to sincerely act on that belief leads to a change of heart that opens the way to receiving greater and greater knowledge. Sophie is a living witness of this truth.

Happy New Year 2017

What greater thing could we all hope for during this coming year than to be drawn by Heavenly Father more assuredly to His Son, and our Savior, Jesus Christ? This appears to be the hope of the Father for us. It appears to be the hope of the Savior for us. It can be both their hopes come true, but only as we hope and live for it as well.

May this be our hope for 2017—and always.

Love from down under,

Elder and Sister Ward