Written by Carter. While we were in Dunedin, I spent over an hour looking at (and reading about) the stained glass windows in a beautiful Anglican cathedral. What exquisite artwork! Faye asked me to come to a store that sold Scottish things. I bought a tie with the Macrae (how they spelled it “back when”) tartan; my maternal grandmother’s maiden name was McRae. I also bought a booklet with some of the clan’s history. Turns out that my Young ancestors also came from Scotland! I didn’t know that until I looked on my Family Tree app while I was in that store!
I also visited the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in Dunedin. That was interesting!

The Auckland Mission nurse will complete her mission and return home in a couple weeks. She is a good person, a good friend and a good nurse. I met her replacement, a retired midwife from NZ. I look forward to getting to know her and her husband, to working with her in caring for the health and safety of the missionaries in that mission.
We attended a “new member lesson” with Sarah. Another single member woman was there. She was baptized in 2003 and seems to be solid in the Church. She asked me to give her a blessing after the lesson. It was humbling to be God’s mouthpiece in pronouncing that blessing and to catch a glimpse of how much He loves her!

We called our granddaughter, Sadie, for her birthday. I’m thankful for technology that allows us to keep in contact with family!

The person in the area offices who is over employee health asked me to conduct some sessions where I check blood pressures on the employees who are interested. My first session was Friday. It was nice to get to know some of them better.

I participated in a Zoom training that originated from Salt Lake City. It was for all the area medical advisors around the world. I noticed that there were 130 attendees! It’s humbling to be a small part of such a grand effort to care for the young missionaries, the Lord’s ambassadors who are inviting others to come unto Christ! Mike LeSueur emailed and said he saw that I was in the meeting; I had forgotten that he and Susan and also serving in the same position Faye and I are…but in the southwest part of the US! Cool!

Yesterday, two other senior couples and we went for a ride on segways through Devonport, which was originally a naval town. There are some beautiful Victorian homes from the 1880’s there. Learning to ride the segways was fun!
I often chat with a man from India who lives in our apartment building and who is Zoroastrian. I remember learning about that when I took a “world religions” course in college. We have shared various literature about our respective beliefs over the past several months. We have come to be good friends. His daughter invited me to her son’s 2nd birthday party today. The Indian food was delicious!

While at the birthday party, I chatted with a young couple in their early 30’s who are from Omsk, Russia. They both work in IT. They have a 1.5-year-old son. She is interviewing for a job tomorrow. She’s nervous about her English, but it was very good when I spoke with her. She seemed relieved when I told her that.

Also at the party, I chatted with another man from India who is Catholic. He asked about our church’s beliefs and how they differ from Catholicism. I had a wonderful time getting to know those people today!

I had a good email exchange with a lifelong friend this week. I don’t know if I heard this from someone else or if I made it up…but I believe this statement: “You can’t have too many good friends!”

I’m also reminded of the paradox of being “strong enough to cry.” Similarly, being “strong enough to ask for help” is a gift so needed in today’s world. One of our main purposes on this earth is to serve; do we have a “duty” (maybe there’s a better word)  to allow others to serve us? I think we do! Is it hard to have others serve us? Absolutely! It takes a certain amount of humility to do that…and humility often does not come naturally!

One of our speakers in our church meetings today reminded me of when the Lord commanded Moses to put a tree into the bitter and undrinkable water at Marah. Doing so “cured” the water so the children of Israel could drink it. This is a type of Christ, who was lifted upon a tree (cross) as part of His Infinite Atonement, which (if we allow it) makes the bitterness of our lives sweet and nourishing to our souls.