New Zealand Hamilton Mission

 About November 2018, the mission here in Hamilton underwent a major change.  The missionaries were given access to smart phones.  It makes the work much more efficient because the missionaries have immediate access to their area book, phone numbers of their investigators and members of the Church, and the list of benefits goes on and on.  It also makes our work in the mission office easier.  There is always a potential downside to good things like mobile devices.  Mobile devices can become major distractions to the missionaries.  There is a guidebook entitled "Safeguards for Using Technology" that each missionary becomes familiar with.  Unfortunately, misuse of mobile devices is too common among the missionaries.  There are those who are very obedient to the guidelines, and others who give in too often to misuse.  On the 11th September, we were able to participate in a Zoom mission conference with one of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Gary ...

 Since our last post on the blog we have had a couple of eventful weeks, filled with new experiences.  Last weekend we took a trip down to an area of the island called Taranaki, which is about 4 hours drive from Hamilton.  It is a large peninsula that juts out of the island on the western side.  At the center is a spectacular stratovolcano called Mount Egmont or in Maori, Mt Taranaki meaning "shining peak".  More on that in a moment.  The objective of our trip was to clean and prepare a flat in New Plymouth for closing.  About a month age we received instructions from the area office to begin systematically closing down flats we likely will not use for a while.  With the reduction of our missionary force and doubts it will change anytime soon, I have identified around 12 flats to close including this one. Sister Folland and I were accompanied by Elder and Sister Clayton, our office buddies and Sister Epperson, a single senior sister who works in t...