Cluther Crescent . . .

Our Missionary work  this week was weak.  All our appointments seemed to fall through.  It is school break here.  I think they would call it their Spring Break.  But their breaks last longer than in the states.  They have a shorter summer break and longer breaks during the year.  Their summer break is over Christmas and is about 6 weeks long, we have been told.  

This break lasts 2 or 3 weeks and it has meant that our families have been off having fun, or else have had lots of company staying with them, thus not having time to meet with us.  Such is the case with Antonina and Moses.  

Moses' cousin Steve has cancer and is not doing well.  He has been spending time at their home while out of the hospital, and all their relatives and friends have been coming to spend time with him as well.  When our appointment for Saturday was cancelled because they had a houseful of company, we decided to drop some food off for them in hopes it would help them feed everyone.  

Dropping off a box of food to Antonina and Moses

Each time we have stopped by Moses' and Antonina's home this past week, Moses and his cousin and several friends have been sitting outside by their garage.  They are working on an old car.

We are aware that one of the big things people look for while buying a house, (we learn a lot from watching HGTV) is what they call 'A Man Cave'.  In New Zealand it seems that the garage is used as 'A Man Cave'.  They are fixed up with everything except cars inside.  They watch TV in their garages, they drink, and smoke, and play cards in them.  They visit, laugh, and even dance (if they are drunk enough) in their Man Cave Garages.

Moses has greeted us from his garage this week with his cousin Steve, (wearing a hospital mask) sitting with a circle of friends, enjoying each other.  They greeted us with much warmth.  Steve has been on our minds of late.  We met him the first night we met Moses.  We didn't know then that he had a very bad form of Leukemia. He has been in the hospital the last few weeks.

Families are close here.  So many have come to visit with Steve.  He was raised in the church and was even named after a missionary in Samoa.   He has not been active, but still holds a love for what he knew was true in his boyhood.  He is young, in his 30's and has a sweet wife, and a darling little curly haired boy.  (Not sure if they have other children)

We invited all 3 of our investigator families to come with us to Conference.  It is broadcast in the churches a week after you watch it live back home.  It is one of  the only times we would be able to attend church with our families because they would be watching it at the MTC as wel,l and our responsibilities would be less at the MTC.

We dropped off numerous invitations and reminders to our families, and thought for sure they would come, but no one made it.  We even went to each session at our Clover Park Ward, just in case they showed up, but no one did.

Sunday Morning Conference Session in Clover Park Ward

Still it was nice to be with the ward members who we really do not know.  We learned that we love them.  We love our Bishop, Bishop Utai, who we do know and love and met our Stake President.

Many came and sat through the cold sessions there.  It is very cold in the churches here.  No heat.  The longer you sit, the colder you become.  Still the good saints of New Zealand come, and sit, and listen, and love, Conference.  The children are beautiful.  Have I said how much we love the children here?

We arrived at the MTC Sunday morning about 7:00 for breakfast with the missionaries, and for Leadership Council Meeting at 8:00.

I was sitting by President Thatcher in the Moroni room during the meeting and noticed a little scab on his hand.  It was all but healed with only a small, white piece of skin that was not totally normal.   I thought I could just pull that piece of skin and leave the hand like new.  I began to pick.  A little of the skin came loose leaving another little piece that needed pulling.  Using my perfect fingernails, that seemed made for the job, I kept at it trying to clean up that scar.  I was able to pull off the last little piece leaving the hand perfectly smooth, but then noticed to my shock, that beads of blood were oozing out of the scar I had just picked.  I felt badly.  I hadn't meant to do harm or hurt dad but it must have hurt.

The rest of the meeting I kept thinking about how we try to correct others, just fix some little thing about them that we are sure we can set right.  There is a danger in trying to fix someone else.  As you pick at them, you are not in a position to feel when your picking begins to hurt or do damage.

It was a Sunday lesson that I needed to learn.  It wasn't taught by a speaker or in a conference talk.  I learned it from a few drops of blood, the result of my picking at some minor flaw on someone that I love dearly.   I thought of all the hurt I have probably caused each of you.  Please forgive my past picking and correcting.  I will try to do better at only picking on myself.  I can do that, and monitor when I have gone too deep, and am about to draw blood.

For a little sore on dad's hand, it taught me a big lesson!

After we realized that none of our investigators were coming to the Sunday afternoon conference session we slipped out of Dawson Chapel and headed back to watch it at the MTC.

President and Sister Howes had printed off all the talks for us so we could have them while we watched the session. That way, instead of taking notes, we marked our copy of the talks.  It was a wonderful way to enjoy Conference.

The missionaries took notes - not having the talks in front of them.   Between sessions they would hold a Devotional where the missionaries would talk about the things they learned in the session - what had resonated with them.  The Moroni room had been set up with tables and 5 missionaries per table.  They could easily take notes and mark scriptures while watching.  We loved hearing the things that impressed them.  President Howes had them tell the goals they made for themselves as a result of what they had learned in Conference.

Sister Briggs and President Thatcher sing the rest song in Sunday PM Session of Conference - MTC 

 The Sister Missionaries watched the Women's Meeting in the Mormon room while the Elders watched the Priesthood Session in the Moroni Room.  I made a point of being in Priesthood meeting (just call dad and I Aaron and Lorraine) for the opening two songs and the final song.

I knew just when and where to look for Greg, Mark, James, Stephen, Eric and Thatcher and felt the warmth and joy of a happy heart when ever they came on the screen.  The music was beautiful.  We were so proud of you.

Conference filled our hearts.  Was it an extra special Conference or is it just that we are here, as missionaries that it felt so powerful?

My copies of the talks are filled with comments and investigators names by special sentences or stories that I want to share with them.   The margins are also filled with your names - not that I want to pick at you, but rather that the stories or scriptures reminded me of your faith and courage at facing life.  I marked the margin with Megan's name when I felt that something would have special meaning for her as she embarks on her mission.  My marks color faith filled sections that seemed to be meant for me, at this time in my journey.

Conference is a revelatory time - a time saturated with the Spirit.  Imagine how many hearts are warmed, strengthened, filled with determination to do better, and how many thoughts of service to be given, fill the minds of all who listen.  Conference carries power.  We leave stronger saints.  We are so grateful to be members of this church and have the privilege of being taught by prophets, seers and revelators.


Both of us felt while listening to Conference that we need to be better missionaries.  We need to do more.  President Thatcher expressed to me on our way home from the MTC last night that we needed to do more with tracking.

I think I have told you that I am a fearful missionary where tracking is concerned.  I go, but I follow my companion, and I tremble a little as he leads me along.

We went tracking this afternoon.  We decided that maybe more people would be home during the day since the children were out of school.  We first went to our investigators to set up our next appointments.  Then we tried to be led to a road to tract.

Cluther Crescent, seemed right somehow.  Maybe it was the unusual number of birdsongs coming from the trees on that charming street or the flowers that seemed extra bright and blooming there.  We decided to tract for one hour.  It was quite the hour.

pink blooms on Cluther Crescent today

We had stopped at a couple houses where no one was home, and one where the mother with 4 small children didn't seem to have time for two old missionaries.  Then we saw 3 little girls playing in a yard across the street.  'Let's go there.' I said, someone is home there.

The little girls said their grandmother was home and ran to get her.  She said she had an appointment at the hospital but we asked if we could show the children a video that would only take 5 minutes.  We even offered to show it to them on the steps outside.  She asked us to come in to the kitchen.

On our way inside her husband came out of the kitchen.  We thought he was bothered that we were there, but then he so kindly welcomed us and he and his wife sat with us as we showed the Children's Bible Video, 'Fishers of Men'.

The grandfather Enekosi, seemed to really like it.  he told us that he taught the children to pray and sing songs.  I told him we had a song we liked to teach the children called ‘I am a Child of God’ and asked if we could show that short video.  We showed them the video, ‘I Am a Child of God’. We sang along and the children sang along too.  Enekosi seemed very touched as did his wife Leitu.

He told us that he had been a bad man with many sins until 2 years ago when his wife was diagnosed with Cancer.  Since then he has changed.  He reads the Bible and prays every day.  He asked us to pray for his wife before we left.  We asked if he would like President Thatcher to give her a blessing,  explaining that President Thatcher holds the Priesthood, the same power that Jesus had and used to heal the sick.  They seemed to like that and wanted her to have a blessing.  We told them we would come back tomorrow (with President Briggs) to give her a blessing,  and would have a prayer now with them.  President Thatcher offered the prayer.

It was a sweet visit - Angels must have gone before us.  Imagine, Enokosi was asking US to pray,  and wanting us to teach them more.  He is from Samoa. We will go back tomorrow and not only give Leitu, his wife, a blessing, but teach them the Plan of Salvation.

home of Enokosi and Leitu Peni - 12 Cluther Crescent

Across the street we walked and knocked on the door of Natu Papalii.  He told us he has many family members who are members of the Mormon church.  He is not, because his father is the minister in the Assembly of God Church.  Still he invited us to come back on Saturday and teach him more.

We stopped at another home where a little boy answered the door and ran to get his mother.  She told us she was not interested.  She is Catholic.   We left but that little boy watched us from his window, waving to us for the longest time as we made our way to their neighbors home.

We knocked at an impressive door - freshly painted and well kept.  The windows in the door were clean and the porch well swept.  A boy of about 9 answered the door and went for his father.  We are not sure if this was the father or grandfather,  but he welcomed us inside when we told him we would show a video about Jesus to the boys who, he thought had been watching too much TV on their school break.   We showed, 'Fisher's of Men',  partly because we had just shown it at another house and it had been so well received.

The father, Tito Fulutusi, seemed very pleased.  He said he took the boys to church every Sunday.  He was thankful that they watched our video instead of more TV.

We also showed them, the President Hinckley video about the two boys who put silver dollars in a man's shoes.  They liked that one too.  Tito wanted to know what we believe.  President Thatcher made an appointment for Saturday to teach them more.   He wondered if they would like to be taught by Elders who speak Samoan.  Tito said he reads Samoan better than English but the boys like English.  We may have the Samoan Elders teach them.

In less than an hour we had met and made appointments to teach 3 new families.   We came home and fell to our knees.  Sometimes prayers of thanks don't seem to be adequate to thank Heavenly Father for His help.  We felt the angels round about us today.  We felt that the Lord was going before us and was on our right hand and our left hand.  We are grateful missionaries.   We love this work.

President Thatcher is the missionary here.   I'm sure this all means that we will be doing much more tracking.  I will follow my companion down Cluther Crescent, and down other roads where the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming.  Who knows, maybe there will come a time when I follow more boldly and with stronger faith and even a little excitement.

We send our love,
Mom and Dad,
Grandma and Grandpa,
Elder and Sister Thatcher