Sister Kathy Thatcher
Mission Report
Paradise 3rd Ward
20 May 2018
You are a beautiful sight. It’s nice to be home and among those we love. It is also sad to leave our mission. I told our family I think it is a little like death. You leave people you have learned to love. You get on a plane and fly away far from them and there you are greeted by others that you have ‘long since lost awhile’, and you love them. Half of your heart is here with them and the other half back with those you have left. I think this is a little like what it will be like when we die.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to tell you a little bit about our mission. I’m grateful that I have had the opportunity to serve with my companion, Elder Thatcher, and for the experiences we had together. We served in the New Zealand Auckland Mission. We were also part time in the New Zealand MTC where President Thatcher served as a counselor there. We also worked in a ward - the Clover Park Ward. We worked as regular missionaries when we were’t at the MTC. I think it was the perfect mission. We were at the MTC where we got to see and love New Missionaries. And we got to be trained ourselves, over and over again. Then we would go out and try to do what we were teaching the missionaries to do and we’d get discouraged. But, we could always go back to the MTC and be filled again with the Spirit that was there, and receive the instruction that we needed. It was the perfect mission.
One of the great missionaries to the Maori people of New Zealand was Matthew Cowley. The story is told that when he was asked what was important about serving a mission, he said simply, “It’s the people! It’s the people! That is who is important.” It was so with us and I’d like to tell you a little about some of the people we came to love in New Zealand.
We served in the MTC with President and Sister Howes and President and Sister Briggs. We knew the Howes before we went there. They asked us to come serve with them. President and Sister Howes are amazing people, and it was one of the great privileges of our lives to serve with them, and to watch them, and to see what life is like with people who are totally consecrated to the Lord. Their full time, all their energy, was given to the missionaries and they loved every minute of it. We could go home on Sunday nights together. We had arrived at the MTC before 7:00 in the morning and left around 10:00 at night. We were exhausted and so happy to get to go into our little apartment and be by ourselves and unwind. But that wasn’t the case for the Howe’s. They never got to unwind. They lived at the MTC. They were up in the night with sick Elders and Sisters. They woke them up early in the morning. They got up at 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning going to the airport to pick them up when they came or take them to the airport when they were leaving. Their lives were totally consecrated.
We got to hear them teach. They were tremendous teachers. They would teach the gospel with such power. The young missionaries came from the islands of the sea, and from all over the world. We had missionaries from Europe, South America, many from Australia, some from America, we even had Cindy Young’s nephew and others from Cache Valley. Some of these young missionaries from remote islands of the sea were so humble. You have never seen more humble, missionaries. One came carrying a grocery sack with an extra shirt in, and wearing flip flops. It was all he had. He didn’t even have scriptures, and like many, he hadn’t been to the temple. But they came. They came because they love the Lord, because they have been touched by the gospel and they want to be missionaries. The Howes, and the teachers, and those who run the MTC take these young Elders and Sisters, they greet them at the door with hugs and welcome them, and immediately begin to train them. And they grow. These frightened humble young missionaries in 3 weeks time, grow into mighty servants of the Lord. This was one of the great miracles we witnessed over and over again on our mission.
We didn’t know President and Sister Briggs before our mission but they became our dear friends. I’ve thought about the many people that we learned to love there, including the Briggs, and how friendships made when you are serving a mission are probably like no other friendships in your life. They are eternal. They are remarkable. I think it is because you are serving the Lord together in such a great cause, and that binds you. I’ve heard that comrads in arms have a remarkable bond and that is kind of what it is like to be a missionary and serve with other missionaries. You love them.
We met other people on this mission that had tremendous impacts on us. Sister Rangi Parker and Elder Parker work in the Church Museum of the Pacific. We were able to see them quite a bit because we would take the missionaries to the temple two weeks out of three, and while there we would visit the museum with the missionaries. Rangi Parker has spent 40 years collecting memorabilia and letters, and pictures, and stories of the early missionaries to the Pacific. She became a dear friend, and like all the other members in New Zealand, especially the Maori’s and the Polynesian people, she loves missionaries. This is the only church Museum anywhere in the world outside of SLC and it is because of Rangi Parker and her collection. It is marvelous to see.
The Temple President there, President and Sister Roberts were other people that we came to love and admire. They were another consecrated couple who had served as mission president and were on another mission when they were called to be President and Matron of the temple. They would take these young Elders and Sisters and speak to them and teach them. Many of the missionaries came, never having been to the temple so this was their first time at the Temple. We had wonderful experiences there.
Our Bishop in the ward, Bishop Utai, was from Samoa. He had been a Stake President there for over 20 years before he moved to New Zealand where they promptly made him the Bishop. My, we came to love Bishop Utai. When he was a young missionary only out for two weeks his grandfather passed away. A couple months later his father passed away. Then, well into his mission, his mother also died. He said, “I look forward to seeing them again. I never got to say goodbye.” That was Bishop Utai. He served all of his life consecrating his life to the Lord. He and his dear wife have raised 10 children and every one of them have served missions except the two youngest, twin daughters and still in YW’s. He was a great example to us. A great bishop.
There was a Sister Talo in the ward that we came to love. She was the Primary President. I’m not sure how many children she had because some of them were in Samoa but she had about 4 children with her in New Zealand that she brought to Primary and she had a brand new baby when we asked her if she would pick up one of our investigators, a young Hindu boy named Ronak, who wanted to come to Primary. Sister Talo with children in tow, would drive to Ronak’s home, pick him up, bring him to Primary, stay the 3 hour block, take him to her house where she would feed him dinner along with their family, and have him play with her children a few hours before taking him home. Sister Talo and her fellowshipping sons, were some of the saints we loved so dearly.
I learned so much on this mission. I learned a lot about missionary work. We had sent 11 children on missions. I had read so many missionary letters and loved the experiences of our children, but I had always wanted to serve a mission - always. As a young girl I dreamed of serving a mission in Samoa. Isn’t that interesting. I didn’t get to go then, but I can’t tell you how many missionaries and people we knew from Samoa in New Zealand. It was finally my turn to go on a mission. I learned for myself that all the stories I had heard of other missionaries, all the inspiring things I had loved all my life, were true and could happen to me because it is the Lord’s work - it is not the missionary.
I don’t know of anything that can make you feel more humble than missionary work unless it’s motherhood or being a parent. In missionary work you see all of your weaknesses. You know that you can’t do what you have been asked to do and you feel extremely weak. Even things you thought you understood all your life you realize you don’t know. I can’t tell you how many times I felt I just couldn’t do what I was asked to do. Sometimes I even had to play the piano for the MTC Choir. I could just see my mother in the life beyond worrying about me having that assignment because she knew how horrible I was at playing the piano. When I would make a mistake I would think, “I know mom. It should be Janice. Janice should be here. She could do everything so much better than I am doing. But, I am all they have right now at the MTC so I will play the piano making mistakes, feeling very weak.” I do know that the Lord is capable, and any of us, even the little missionary with the grocery sack with a dirty shirt for an extra shirt, can be a missionary because it is the Lord’s work and He helps you.
So many times you don’t even realize that you are doing something that is important to the Lord. One time we had a call from the area office. The secretary asked for Elder Thatcher and said, “There is a woman in your ward, in the Clover Park ward, that needs a blessing. Her name is Mousie Skews, she has cancer, she is not a member of the church, she is Catholic, but she has asked for a blessing. Would you go give a blessing to her.”
Of course Elder Thatcher said he would go. We wondered who to take to help with the blessing and thought of President Briggs, and then we thought, ‘No, she is in the Clover Park ward and we should get Clover Park people to know her.’
We called Bishop Utai who cheerfully agreed to come. This was a Monday night, family home evening, and Bishop Utai was an extremely busy man. Always willing to serve he graciously followed us there in his car.
We had the address but didn’t recognize the street name. We put the address in our little GPS and started driving. We went all through the Clover Park ward and were heading into a different area of Auckland. We were so embarrassed and thought, “Oh, my goodness, we took him away from family home evening and this in not even in our ward.”
When we arrived, and finally got out of our cars, we apologized to him. He assured us it was fine. We knocked on the door and were welcomed inside. We could see through the doorway into the living room, a woman sitting there, her head bald from cancer treatments, and one leg missing from an amputation needed because of the cancer. When Bishop Utai saw her he gasped. He knew she was Samoan the minute he saw her and he began to talk to her in Samoan. They connected as he learned that she his very dearest friends wife’s sister. This friend had served with him in the Stake Presidency and had been a bishop under him for many years. We loved watching them talk together warmly in Samoan. Mousie told him she had been longing for Samoa and missing her home, but had been too sick to go back.
Bishop Utai was meant to be there that night, not Elder and Sister Thatcher, but Bishop Utai. He gave her the blessing in Samoan. We left knowing that the Lord was involved. All these little workings of the Lord happen because Heavenly Father knows his children, intimately, every one of us, and watches over us and feels after us. The Lord is mighty in HIs ministry to people.
When I think about what I learned on the mission. I think I learned the most about the Lord - who He is, how He loves, how He teaches, how He blesses, how He works, His majesty. I was in awe of things that would simply happen on the mission; the times we were led, the people we met, the experiences we had. Sometimes we would leave home and we couldn’t even speak to each other. The spirit was too strong. Then, after a few minutes we would say, ‘Can you believe what just happened in that home?’
I came to know that the Lord is powerful, and kind, and forgiving, and can use even weak missionaries in His work. I love King Benjamin’s great sermon. And I know all of you know the scripture, “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.”
King Benjamin talks about service all through that talk. He also says that we are always unprofitable servants no matter if we serve all our lives because the Lord just keeps blessing us for that service. But the scripture I came to love most on my mission is his statement, “How knoweth a man the master whom he has not served.” I know that when you serve the Lord you come to know Him better. And that is really the only way to get to know the Lord.
We have so many wonderful stories, so many wonderful people we met. There is Enekosi. You see, I had this companion who believed in tracking because on his mission as a youth, he tracked 10 hours a day. He thought that was what missionary work was. I didn’t think we would have to track as a missionary senior couple, but I had this companion who tracted. I learned that if he ever said, “We need to go tracking, we need to increase our teaching pool. We need to go tracting.” I didn’t argue, and I didn’t complain, I would just go. Sometimes I hid behind him on the door, but I went and every time we tracked it seemed there were miracles.
One time he asked, ‘Where do you think we should go?’
You’ve heard stories about how you pray and then you have an idea and you follow that. We prayed, and we didn’t really feel very much, but there was this one street where the birds were singing, and the flowers were extra beautiful and I thought, “Well that’s a pretty street. Let’s go there.”
I think on that one street after tracking we had 6 appointments. One of them was with Enekosi and Leitu. We had knocked on several doors where no one was home and then we saw these children playing in the front yard. We thought we should go there because at least we knew someone was home. We asked the children if they would like to see a little movie about Jesus. Of course they wanted to and called for their grandmother who opened the door. You could tell she didn’t want us there. She said she had an appointment and had to go. I said we could just sit there on the steps and show the children this little two minute video and then we would leave. She said, ‘No, come in, come in.’
We were half way to the kitchen when her husband, Enekosi came out. I was kind of afraid, he looked a little angry. But he wasn’t angry. He took us into the kitchen and sat us down. We showed him the little Children’s Bible Video ‘Fishers of Men’. It softened him and When It was over he said, “I have been a very bad man most of my life. But, my wife has cancer and for 2 years I have not been drinking. I read the Bible every day and I teach my grandchildren songs about Jesus. I said, “Well, we have a song that we love in the church. On our little computer we played, ‘I am a child of God.’ Enekosi was in tears. He said, ‘You need to come teach us.’
So We had the marvelous experience of teaching Enekosi and Leitu. We introduced him to the Book fo Mormon which he loved. This was a man who read the Bible at least 2 hours every day. But he began reading the Book of Mormon and he would say, “I love this Mormon Book. It is the same. It is the same gospel. It’s prophets teaching about Jesus. It is the same. I love this Mormon Book. It is more clear than the Bible.” I could tell so many stories about Enekosi but I always talk too long.
I know the Lord knows us. We would go on fun walks in the evenings, just Elder Thatcher and I. One night we walked up a road we had often gone on and there, on a little round-a-bout was a sign - ‘Garage Sale’. Well, if any of you know me you know my DI habits and my weakness for yard sales. I said, ‘Look at that Elder Thatcher! It starts at 7:30 in the morning and I’m going!’ I had never seen a thrift store or a garage sale in all the time I had been in New Zealand.
I got up the next morning, took off my name tag and just went in my walking things. There I found, you won’t believe it, a large plastic container full of legos for 5$. I thought, ‘I shouldn’t buy these.’ But, I couldn’t pass them up. I thought, ‘Everyone of my grandsons would love these, but I’m too cheap to mail them home. That would cost a fortune!’
Unable to stop myself, I bought this $5 huge thing and then a young man that was there said, “I have more legos at home if you would like them.”
“Really!” I said and he said, “About twice that many.”
“How much would you sell them for?’
“10 bucks”
And so he went home and brought back this HUGE container of Legos. I had walked to the yard sale but I had to go back home and get the car to bring the legos home. There was no way to get them home to the grandkids. So we started thinking who we we could give them to and we thought of Ronak, our little Hindu boy. And we thought of Sister Talo’s two boys who had befriended Ronak. We took the HUGE one to the Talo brothers and asked them if they had ever had lego’s.
“No! But we have dreamed about them all our lives.” They said.
Then we went to Ronak’s house. We knocked on the door and said, “Ronak, would you like some lego’s?” He said, “I’ve never had any legos. But I’ve always thought I would enjoy them.” As we handed Ronak this big carton of wonderful Legos his father Roy came to the door and said, “Did you know that it was Ronak’s birthday today?”
Of course we hadn’t known, but the Lord knew didn’t he! And the Lord knew a missionary who, if there was just a little ‘Garage Sale’ sign, it would draw her in. I tell you the Lord knows us and he can use even our weaknesses in His work.
I know I’ve taken up too much time and I will end by telling you one little story.
One of the last times we went to the temple with the missionaries, President Howes son and his wife were visiting with their family. It was their son Luke, who had been our son Paul’s missionary companion in Austria. They were staying at the MTC with their three children. Can you imagine coming to visit your grandparents and you get to sleep at the MTC and watch the missionaries and attend their meetings and eat with the missionaries in the cafeteria and listen to your grandparents teach the missionaries, and dress like missionaries, and act like missionaries, Well you couldn’t walk into the MTC without feeling the spirit and those children were alive with what they were feeling.
It was time to go to the temple and I said, “why don’t you let me stay outside of the temple with the children so that Luke and Jerusha could go.” They had never been to the New Zealand temple and Jerusha’s parents and grandparents had been married in that temple. So I spent the time with the children while all the others attended the temple with the missionaries.
At the visitor center they showed the 4 of us two movies. Wonderful movies that I could watch a hundred times and never tire of. One is called ‘Days of Harmony’. It’s about Joseph and Oliver translating the Book of Mormon. The 2nd one is about David Whitmer and takes place at the Whitmer farm where the Book of Mormon translation was completed. They are inspiring films. They put us in a little private room where we watched together.
At the end of the last video, after the church has been organized, and the Book of Mormon has been published, and all of these difficult things are behind them, David Whitmer says to Joseph, “The work is finally finished Joseph!”
Joseph looks at David and says, “The work has just begun.”
At this point of the young Howe boys said to me, “I’m glad that the work isn’t over. I want to be a part of the work.”
That touched me. It was what I was thinking as well. I’m glad the work isn’t over. That all beautiful missionary experiences didn’t end with Parley P. Pratt and Wilford Woodruff and Joseph Smith and Matthew Cowley, and all of the great missionaries of the past. There is a tremendous work to be done. The Lord is moving in His majesty. The restoration has come. The church has been restored. The gospel is here. But there are so many Enekosi’s and Truan Trans and people throughout the world who need to be taught. There is work for each of us. There is work for every mother and every father, for every child and every youth and every little humble person on one of the isles of the sea. There is work for us to do.
I pray that we will all have a desire to be servants of the Lord, to come to know Him as we serve Him. To learn to love, which is what happens when you are a missionary. You love the people you meet. It really is all about the people.
I’m grateful to the Lord for the opportunity of being a missionary. I’m thankful for the good companion I was able to serve with. I got to see him as a missionary, his faith, how he studied, how he taught, how he tracted, how he loved the Lord. It was different than seeing him as a husband or as a father. I’ve loved him all these years for those things. I’m grateful to the Lord that he lets weak people be a part of His great latter-day work. And I’m thankful to be home.
I remember as a child hearing about David O McKay, whose father served a mission. He was called just after 2 sisters had passed away and his wife was pregnant. When he returned from that mission, young David McKay asked his father, “What was the greatest miracle you ever saw on your mission?” His father pointed to his wife, David’s mother, and said, ‘She is the greatest miracle I saw. She added to the family home, and kept the farm running, and kept the children going.”
I felt that too. Some of the greatest miracles we saw were in our own family here at home. The way they helped each other. The way they conducted their lives. The way they lived. We have seen many miracles in our family.
I love the Lord, I love this work, I love the Book of Mormon. I love everything about this latter day church, this gospel, and pray we will be faithful and true and live according to our covenants. That we will serve the Lord with all of our might, mind, strength, and heart. And that we will be consecrated as those wonderful people we have learned from on our mission.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
Mission Report
Elder David Thatcher
Paradise 3rd Ward
20 May 2018
Brothers and Sisters it’s good to be home. It was good to serve a mission too. We had, as Sister Thatcher said, a perfect mission. Before we left on our mission, secretly, I wanted to be a proselyting missionary. Now, Merv Weeks, when he went on his mission he apparently asked the bishop and the stake president if he could serve a proselyting mission. I didn’t want to do that because I did not want to keep the schedule that we kept as young missionaries. And so, I kept it to myself. But it didn’t matter because we still got to serve a proselyting mission and not only that but we got to study ‘Preach My Gospel’ along with all the Elders at the MTC and every week we got to go to the MTC and get retrained and get help on what we were doing wrong as missionaries.
One of the responsibilities of the Presidency of the MTC was to interview all the missionaries. President Howes is a very organized man so he had a form for us for the first week for the first interview that we would have with the missionaries, and he also had a form for the interviews for the 2nd week, for the second time we would interview the missionaries. It was really boring. The form wasn’t very interesting after interviewing so many missionaries so I kind of deviated a little bit.
Very often I would ask the missionaries why they decided to serve a mission. Very often they would say, ‘My older brother or my sister went on a mission and they liked their mission and so I decided that I wanted to go on a mission.” Or sometimes they would say, “Well, I love the Lord so the natural thing is to go on a mission and tell the people about the Lord.”
Sometimes I would also share scriptures with the missionaries. I found that not all missionaries were brilliant, fully qualified, scriptorian missionaries. I found that sometimes they didn’t know very much at all. Sometimes I would share scriptures about the Book of Mormon with the Elders or the Sisters. And as they were leaving they would say, “President, thank you for sharing those scriptures with me.”
One time I was interviewing an Elder who only spoke Samoan. He didn’t have very much English at all. And so we had one of the teachers come in to translate. At the end of the interview the translator told me that he wanted to thank me for sharing these scriptures with him because he had been looking for them and he didn’t know where to find them. I guess I share that with you to in a small way tell you how much we love these Elders and Sisters at the MTC.
Probably the majority of the missionaries were Polynesian. Many of them had gone to the church high school either in Samoa or in Tonga. The ones that had gone to the church high school were really quite well versed. They normally spoke better English. They also were better prepared to be missionaries. But sometimes we would get missionaries from one of the Islands like Kiribati, or Niue or Vanuatu, and these missionaries were extremely humble as a rule. You just loved these missionaries because they were so humble and they had come from such poor circumstances, but they wanted to serve too. They wanted to serve too. And so they were welcomed and they came and they were being trained just like everybody else.
Oft times in these interviews I would ask them if they liked their teachers in the MTC. They would say, “Oh, we love our teachers. They are wonderful teachers.”
It was always a thrill to rub shoulders with these missionaries. Every meal time at the MTC we would hug the missionaries. Sister Howes and Sister Briggs and Sister Thatcher would hug the Sisters and we would hug the Elders - every mealtime. It was our humble way of trying to show these missionaries that we loved them, and we accepted them, and that we wanted them to be successful.
Most of them only stayed at the MTC for three weeks. We got to know them a little bit. We were always sad to see them leave. Some of the missionaries would stay for six week but only the ones who were learning English. The only language taught at the MTC was English. Even though many of the Elders and Sisters there were maybe from French Polynesia and the only language they were required to speak was French. Or some of the missionaries would only speak Samoan or Tongan which meant they were going back to their island to serve their mission.
We encouraged the missionaries to learn English. I don’t know if you are aware of it or not but if the missionaries will put forth enough effort to learn English. The Church will educate them at a greatly discounted rate so they can afford to get a college education.
My time is up, but I wanted to share one interesting tidbit. When we would come home from working in the evening sometimes we would turn on TV. There were 3 religion channels, First Light, Hope and Shine. These were television channels where oft times there would be a minister or reverend or a preacher that would be teaching on the channel. We found that many of these lessons could have be given in our Sunday school classes. I was amazed by that because when I was a kid and listened to ministers from other churches, you couldn’t have used those lessons in our classes. It appeared to me, and I thought that somehow they have come to learn the doctrines of the restored gospel. I think it’s an indication that the teachings of our church are so compelling, and so wonderful, and they make so much sense that the other churches have adopted these teachings.
We have a favorite talk given by Truman Madsen years and years ago which he entitled, “Are Christians Mormon?” My oldest brother put me on to this talk. In his talk he puts forth a premise that in the latter days we would see the churches all teach the same things and that the only thing that would differentiate the churches would be the Holy Priesthood of God. That our church is the only church on the face of the earth with which the Lord is well pleased and is the only true and living church, because we have the Priesthood of God, which has been restored through Heavenly Messengers.
We had so many wonderful experiences on our mission. We had so many opportunities to teach the gospel. I think Sister Thatcher even came to enjoy tracking. That was a miracle. But I want you to know that whenever I said I thought we ought to go tracking, she never turned me down. She always was willing to go tracking with me, even though it scared her and she did not enjoy it. I think we were the only Senior Couple in all of New Zealand that tracted. That was not something the Senior couples did. And it is a shame, because the people seemed to respond easier to us than they did the young missionaries. I don’t know if they responded better to us than they did the sister missionaries, but they responded probably better to us than they did to the Elders. So it was a lovely experience.
We are grateful that we got to serve a mission. It was a short mission but it was filled with wonderful experiences and wonderful people that we met. As a result of our mission we love the Polynesian people. We are grateful that we got to serve amongst the Polynesian people.
We are grateful to be home. I’m grateful I don’t have to wear a suit everyday. And I’m grateful that I don’t have to wear that name tag every day. I don’t like being conspicuous and whenever we were out in public people would always turn away when they would see our name tag. I like people looking at me or looking me in the eye and not feeling like they have to turn away.
But what a wonderful blessing to serve a mission. A wonderful blessing to be members of this church. A wonderful thing to have the example of faithful people like the Sorensens, and the Nielsens who have served missions. When we were trying to decide if we would go on a mission, and we were praying and fasting and trying to find out if we should go we finally decided, we’ve already been told. The lord doesn’t need to tell us that we need to go on a mission. He has already told us. A hundred times he has told us that we should go on a mission so why should we have to be told again. I’m grateful that we discovered that little secret so that we went on our mission because it was a wonderful blessing.
I bear testimony to you that the gospel is true, that we are so blessed to live here in this wonderful place and have the gospel in our lives. We are grateful for those who came to visit us while in New Zealand, for my sister and her good husband, and for Merv and Clara Jean who came to visit us. We had some wonderful times with them.
So grateful for the opportunity we had to serve. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Mission Report
Elder David K. Thatcher & Sister Kathleen Thatcher
New Zealand Auckland Mission – July 2017 – May 2018
Our mission to the New Zealand Auckland Mission was a sweet, special time for us. We had always dreamed of serving a mission together and were beginning to wonder if we would get the opportunity. Our son, Aaron, was fighting stage 4 lung cancer and we felt needed to help his family of 6 children, 3 of which have Cystic Fibrosis. We have a large family of 13 children and at the time of our service 12 of the 13 were married with families. We had 62 grandchildren. Our youngest daughter was not married and it was hard to leave her as well.
We were asked by our dear friends who had been called to serve as the President of the MTC in New Zealand to come serve with them. They wanted Dave to serve in the MTC Presidency as a counselor. We struggled with the decision to go as we fasted and prayed, wanting to know that it was what we should do. We decided that we could maybe serve for one year – that Aaron might live that long, and if he got really bad we could leave our mission early. Finally Dave said we should just move forward and put in our papers. We received our call and prepared to leave putting our faith in Heavenly Father knowing he would sustain our family at home and hoping that we could serve the Lord as faithful missionaries.
We were called to serve at the MTC and also as MLS Missionaries in the Auckland Mission. We served at the MTC with President and Sister Phil and Judy Howes, President and Sister Ivan and Suzanna Briggs, and ourselves, President David and Sister Thatcher. We were at the MTC on Sundays from before 7:00 am and ending around 9:30 pm. The MTC Presidency was in charge of the Sunday Schedule for the missionaries there, which usually numbered between 50 – 110 missionaries. We were also there every Thursday, which was either an intake day or a temple day with the missionaries. On most Tuesdays and Saturdays we also spent time at the MTC.
What sweet experiences we had with the missionaries who came to serve and learn at the MTC. Many of the missionaries were from the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, and Australia, but we also had missionaries who were called to serve in the islands or Australia or New Zealand who came to this MTC. We had missionaries from America, Europe, South America, China, and many other countries. The New Zealand MTC only teaches one language, English, but there were classes that were taught in Samoan, Tongan, and French for missionaries called to serve in Samoa, Tonga, or French Polynesia, who already spoke those languages. We quickly fell in love with the missionaries who answered the call to serve. Many were poor with little education but a great love of the Lord and a desire to serve him. We watched them come in as shy frightened youth and leave in three or 6 weeks as mighty servants of the Lord.
We also loved the training we got at the MTC. It was a place where the Spirit was felt as you walked through the door. We were constantly inspired and taught by our faithful leaders there. It was one of the great honors of our lives to serve with President and Sister Howes. President Howes is from Adelaide Australia and he had served a mission in his youth in Peru. He had been a bishop, Stake President, Temple President, and Mission President in the Sydney North Mission before being called as the MTC President. Sister Howes was a convert who had taught over 20 years of early morning seminary. They were marvelous teachers. The Howes were totally consecrated missionaries and we grew in our desire to be better missionaries and people by just being around them. All the missionaries loved them and were taught powerfully by them and the Spirit that accompanied their teachings of how to serve as good missionaries. We also became dear friends with the other missionary couple that served at the MTC, President and Sister Briggs. They became the dearest of friends.
Each missionary was greeted at every meal with hugs by the MTC Presidency. We quickly learned to love each missionary and grew in our ability to pronounce their names as well. We sang together in the MTC choir every week. We participated in beautiful devotionals taught by the Area Presidency and other General Authorities. We were visited by two Apostles while serving there; Elder Gary E. Stevenson and Elder Neil L. Andersen. These were highlights for the missionaries, many of whom had never seen an apostle. We loved the staff at the MTC as well. They were remarkable young people who had served missions themselves and had the ability to inspire and guide the new missionaries.
We took the missionaries to the temple 2 out of 3 weeks each intake. The Hamilton Temple was an hour and a half from the MTC. Some of these missionaries had not yet been to the temple so we shared their first Temple experience with them. We got to know the Temple President and Matron well, as they would speak to the missionaries in a special meeting before the session. The temple also served the missionaries a delicious diner in the cafeteria after these sessions. They were beautiful temple trips.
Adjacent to the temple was the Visitor’s Center and also The Matthew Cowley Church Museum of the Pacific. This wonderful museum, the only one like it outside of Salt Lake City, is the result of one wonderful woman’s collection of early missionary histories in the islands of the Pacific. Sister Rangi Parker, who has collected early missionary stories, pictures, and memorabilia for over 30 years became a dear friend. We loved her inspirational stories and her deep love of missionaries.
Matthew Cowley, the great missionary to the island people, is known for a statement he made about what was important in life or a mission, ‘It’s the people, it’s the people!’ he said. We felt the same about what we came to love and value on our mission; ‘It’s the people!’
Though we loved our time at the MTC that wasn’t the whole of our missionary service. On days we were not there we served like other missionaries in the Auckland Mission. Our mission President was President Alan Walker. We loved him and were blessed by his fine leadership.
We were assigned to serve in the Clover Park Ward. Our bishop was Bishop Utai who had been a Stake President in Samoa for over 20 years. He was a remarkable man and we loved and admired him.
Elder Thatcher served as a missionary in the Netherlands in his youth and believed that missionaries should tract, so tract we did. It was a frightening thing for me at first, but I was determined that if Elder Thatcher felt we should tract, I would not ever say no. We had many miracles happen while tracting and were able to meet and teach many wonderful people. Sometimes we would look at each other in amazement at what we had just experienced in a home. We came to know that this work is the Lord’s and he uses his missionaries, and works through them, no matter their weaknesses.
Some of our sweetest experiences were with Enekosi and Leitu. We met them while tracting. Enekosi is a student of the Bible, spending at least two hours a day in its pages. But after we introduced the Book of Mormon to him he came to treasure and love ‘that Mormon Book’. We saw the wonder of this book through the eyes of a man who was learning so much more than he had ever known even though he studied the Bible in such depth. He came to value this ‘Mormon book’ and the beautiful light it shed on what he already loved.
Another investigator was Tuan Tran, a Vietnamese man who was a Christian and loved the Bible. He read the Book of Mormon loving it because it taught of Jesus Christ. He loved all the latter-day scriptures we gave him. Some of the sweetest moments of our time in New Zealand were sharing new truths with Tuan Tran.
We taught others and well. A wonderful Hindu family the Singhs became dear to us. And we loved associating with the wonderful Saints of the Clover Park Ward. They were very missionary minded and would gather every Tuesday evening to have what they called ‘rescue night’. They made visits to in-actives and non- members in the ward.
When we left our mission the Clover Park ward threw a farewell party for us, showering us with love and gifts and even performing a haka in our honor. We thought our hearts would break having to leave these wonderful people.
One of the blessings of serving this mission together was simply being together. Our love for each other grew. I learned what a wonderful, dedicated, hard working missionary my husband is and could see afresh what a dedicated missionary he had been as a young man. I am so grateful for his humble desire to serve the Lord.
We loved watching some of the missionaries we had worked with in the MTC that also served in the Auckland Mission after leaving the MTC and joining us in the field. Attending District Meetings was a treat for us. We would always take fruit and treats for our dear missionaries.
Being missionaries is a humbling thing. You quickly realize that you can’t do this work on your own. You need the Lord’s help. You need the companionship of the Holy Spirit, and many times a day you feel that help. It is humbling and wonderful at once. We know that the Lord loves his missionaries and works with them. He is on their right hand, and on their left, and goes before them. You also learn that Heavenly Father loves all his children and knows them. He feels after them and loves them no matter their circumstances or degree of righteousness or wickedness. It is a marvelous thing to serve a mission for the Lord and a delight to serve with the one you love most, your husband or wife. We will forever be grateful for our opportunity to serve.
We cut our mission short a few weeks due to our youngest daughter getting married. Our son was also not doing well and we felt our time to serve was over.
Our mission seems like a dream since we have been home. We are so grateful we were able, with the Lord’s help, to carve out the precious months we had to serve. We will forever be grateful to the Lord for the privilege to serve our mission in the New Zealand Auckland Mission and the New Zealand MTC. It has changed us and deepened our understanding of the great latter- day work. The Church is TRUE. The Gospel is a treasure and how great and important it is to spread the gospel to all people.
Sister KathyThatcher and Elder David Thatcher
