Conferences

We are at the end of a two-week period of General Conference followed immediately by our District Conference and a Missionary Zone Conference.. In the middle of all this, at home our stake presidency was re-organized and our ward was divided. Life in the Church certainly moves on!

General Conference here follows by a week the conference itself. A re-broadcast on Saturday and Sunday, October 9 and 10, bring all of the sessions into one of the buildings. We start Saturday with the Saturday evening Priesthood meeting and them both Saturday sessions with one-hour breaks between them. And the Sunday sessions the next day. The building was full on Sunday. Re-broadcasts are in both French and English in separate rooms. Encouraged to study in their native tongue, the English-speaking missionaries watch conference in English unless they have 'amis de l’eglise’ who are also attending.

The universality of the Gospel message including the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, through appropriate Priesthood authority, is evident. Our members and their friends are eager to listen to living prophets.

One of the speakers, a native African, spoke of the liberation to his people by the Gospel because the very-expensive custom of dowry, which forces many in his country into co-habitation makes marriage too expensive. Temple marriage eliminates all of that. The people here understood those issues very well. Some of the tribal customs still exist in the northern part of the country.

District Conference for the Noumea District loomed much larger for us. Priesthood leadership meeting Saturday afternoon. For the Priesthood leadership session, I spent 40 minutes in front of a ‘white board’ leading a discussion on branch councils and presiding over them. Then talks Saturday evening and again Sunday morning. A deep breath when all was finished. And a delightful luncheon provided by one the branch Relief Society organizations. Pictures nearby don't begin to catch the flavors of the cold repast. Raw fish marinated in lemon juice then added to a salad of cream and raw vegetables. Perhaps one day I will learn...

But the highpoint of the entire district conference was Sister Mautz’s testimony Saturday evening. She had 5 minutes and she prepared well and worked for hours on her pronunciation. As we always do on this island, she started with 'Cher Freres et Soeurs, bonsoir' with the congregation responding likewise. And then a small child’s voice responded just enough too late to be all alone and clear. There followed complete silence during her entire talk. Nobody wanted to miss a thing. After the session, the choir of sisters also on the stand crowded around for kisses. ‘No more English for Sister Mautz' from one of the branch presidents. Still talked about a week later, and these wonderful missionaries were proud of her and grateful for her efforts.

We enjoyed a zone conference following. We move to a support role in those meetings. We were bidding farewell at the end of this conference to two of our seasoned leaders, both from Tahiti. It is interesting to watch those who remain and know that they will be asked to step up and take on leadership roles they have not had before. These new leaders will be non-native French speakers and know the challenges they face both with the language and leadership. However, they also know that with Heavenly Father's help, they will grow into these new roles and provide the great leadership the work of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ requires. One of the departing Elders, Elder Aiho, was of great help to us as we arrived a few months ago getting us settled and then learning our office duties. He was asked in the last 6 weeks of his mission to work with a branch where the missionaries aren't always well received and turned things much more positive. We have worked together, counseled together and now will likely not see each other again. Sweet associations because of the opportunity to serve Heavenly Father's children.

We did take a morning to visit a local cultural center dedicated to the memory of M. Tjibaou who has done much to preserve the local, Melanesian culture and support the political kanak movement. The architecture catches the eye with delicate symmetry of wooden rib-like trusses in the air. In the morning sun they look like metal glinting in the sun. The center includes these structures as well as a 'typical' Melanesian village with a chief's 'case' and other related buildings. Pictures below will give you flavor of the place. The political overtones are unmistakable

Lifou

The bookends to the week were a family home evening with a family from the Noumea 2 branch and then a trip to the island of Lifou with the senior zone leaders for Elder Mautz.

As we get to know the members better, we are more often now invited to their homes for a family home evening. The Trutruns are members of the Noumea 2 branch which meets in the chapel just adjacent to our office. He is a self employed contractor. When he has made enough to sustain his family, we often see the whole family at the chapel working at maintaining the grounds or cleaning the building. This particular evening, the local sister missionaries, Sister Carter and Sister Swapp were also invited as were some recent converts and friends of the Church. We made quite a group. We started the evening playing a simple game with the younger children. Sister Swapp had brought with her a series of Gospel picture cards which we could turn picture side down on the table. By turn each tried to find a matching pair of pictures. As the players succeeded at this, they 'won' the cards and could then retell the story depicted. The children were quite engaged in the game. After a dinner with too much good food, we enjoyed a viewing of a dvd of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Brother Trutrun invited various of us to share our feelings and testimony about the restoration and the blessings in our lives resulting therefrom. An edifying evening for all of us.

In these situations, we often sit outside to eat, watch the film and then talk together. The climate is such that the house and small yard are easily all apart of the living space at the same time. As a result, homes don't need to be as large because the outdoors is part of the living area.

Saturday morning, I flew to Lifou to join the senior zone leaders who had gone the previous day. Our objectives were twofold. First to visit with and strengthen the local small branch. Second, to evaluate the situation and formulate a recommendation for our Mission President as to putting a team of missionaries back on the island. The last had left in February, 2008. Sister Mautz stayed at home to the disappointment of the saints in Lifou and the surprise of those in Noumea. As she explained to the District president, 'Elder Mautz spoils me and doesn't make me go camping.'

We stayed in a small, Lifou-version of a bed and breakfast. Our 'room' was a case (pronounced 'caz'). This is a local dwelling with a thatched roof supported at the perimeter of the building by a wall made either of stone, concrete or sticks. The roof slopes up from this supporting perimeter to a peak usually 10-15 feet overhead. In those used entirely for living space, a fire pit is in the center. Smoke therefrom fills the upper part of the case seeping out through the thatch. I am told this leaves a layer of 'clear' air from the floor up to the point where the roof starts sloping in to the peak. The inside of that roof is coated with the soot accumulated over many usages. Ours did not have the firepit nor the soot. Pictures nearby will give you the idea.

Lifou is a large island off the east coast of the 'grande terre' or main island of New Caledonia. It is part of the country, flat, in contrast to the mountains of the grande terre, and heavily wooded from one end to the other. Sparsely inhabited, a couple main roads join the small villages and run the length and width of the island. The island is rocky with some beautiful beaches, clear, blue water and beautiful bays. Pictures nearby will show you a few shots of the landscapes and seascapes.

At my arrival, we went directly to the branch president's home for lunch and some planning for the two days I would be there. The Seikos are a remarkable story in themselves.

You will recognize the name as they have two children currently serving full time missions here on the grande terre. They are both working very hard and great missionaries. Meeting the parents told the story.

President Abel Seiko grew up on Lifou but went to Noumea as a young man to work. He and his wife both had good jobs in Noumea. But when he felt impressed to return to Lifou to strengthen the Church several years ago, they both quit these jobs and moved their family of 5 children of their own and 3 others to Lifou. The tribal system granted them a large tract of land covered with scrub woods. They have cleared all of that, built a case for sleeping quarters and another small building housing the kitchen, computer and a working space. Sister Seiko now has an enormous garden where she raises lettuce, tomatoes, papayas, pineapples and whatever else she believes she can sell. She tells me she is making more with her garden produce than she did in her business of providing transportation for school children when they lived here. As she showed me her garden and their living quarters she turned to me and said, 'Elder Mautz, je suis contente.' She wanted me to know she is happy with all of this change in her life.

President Seiko rides a bicycle to work. He bought the cycle from Elder Freddy Axelgard, a good friend of ours. Readers may recall our meeting him at the MTC while we were there. He was back from his mission in New Caledonia as we were leaving and served in Lifou for 6 months. Left his bicycle behind with the Seikos.

I thought their life showed a new dimension of serving Heavenly Father with all their might, mind and strength as the Savior instructs us. Pictures nearby show some of the yard and garden.

The season of late Spring here is the time when amaryllis bloom. They are planted here like tulips would be in the States and are striking additions to a garden.

Before lunch, we harvested fresh coconuts from high in the palms, opened them with a knife-like instrument with a 30-inch blade to chop it open. the milk' is drunk right from the coconut as well as being used for cooking and salad dressings. Quite a delicacy. Pulling one of these down from a tree was quite an art also so as not to get one on the head. Elder Huuti was a master at it.

The rest of the day was spent visiting members of the church, as well as those that Elder Johnston remembered from the early days of his mission when he worked in Lifou for 3 months. His memory was impressive as he navigated us over the island in our little rented Peugeot. We held a fireside that night and then slept very hard. Sunday brought Church services with the branch and then temple recommend interviews with most of the adults in the branch. They will join the members here in Noumea for the annual 3-week trip to Auckland to the Temple there next January.

And then, suddenly, it was time to fly home. I reflected on the lessons of this island with a lifestyle very different than any I have lived. Simple and agrarian. However, the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ including faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, obedience to Gospel principles, families joined together eternally and founded on the scriptures are quite as important to these good members as anywhere else in the world.