Wellington New Zealand Mission Blog –
January, 2020
We have arrived in New Zealand and have served the first two weeks
of our mission here. After many months of preparation, we can hardly believe
that we are finally here and able to enjoy the beauties of this Land of the Long
White Cloud. We have both wanted
to come to New Zealand since we were young marrieds. Fred wanted to return to
the place where he served his mission as a young man and Kathy wanted to go to
the place that she had heard so much about from him. As young marrieds, we
couldn’t afford the price of airline tickets to the other side of the world and
then as we had children and our family grew, our priorities changed. But as we
contemplated serving this mission, we knew that New Zealand would be the first
place that we would request to go. There were also some other locations on our
list but when we received our call from our prophet, President Nelson, to serve
our mission, we were both excited to find out that it was indeed to New
Zealand.
We were set apart on Friday, January 10, 2020 by
our Stake President, President Lee. Many of our family gathered with us at the
Foothills Stake Center. President Lee set each of us apart as full-time
missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assigned to
the New Zealand Wellington Mission. He gave Fred a beautiful blessing outlining
some of the responsibilities and opportunities that would be given to him as he
served. Fred was blessed that he would have a wonderful relationship with both
of the mission presidents that he served under, with the senior missionaries,
with the young missionaries, and with the members that he served with. He was
blessed that his influence would be felt by them and that he would help others
come back into the fold of God. Fred has a wonderful personality and is kind
and thoughtful to others and I can see how Heavenly Father could use him on
this mission in this way.
After Fred was set apart, Kathy was given a
beautiful blessing as well. She was blessed that she would be able to be a help
to the mission president and his wife and that she would find great joy as we
served this mission. She was blessed that she would be able to make wonderful
relationships with the people that we served with and the people that we
served. She was also blessed with revelation as we served this mission. That
revelation would help us as we served and as we taught. She was also grateful
to be blessed that Heavenly Father would watch over our family as we are gone
from them and that they would grow and progress. It was a beautiful blessing!
After our setting apart, we took a picture of
all of our family that were there. We were grateful to get hugs from everyone
and tell them that we love them. We will miss them over the next 18 months! And
we know that they will miss us as well!
Saturday, January 11 was a very
exciting day! It was the day that we had chosen to fly down to Salt Lake City
to get ready to go into the Missionary Training Center (MTC). Jonathan and
Janell and their girls came over and helped us get all of our technology packed
up and then Robert drove us to the airport. We were sad to say good-bye to each
of them.
Our plane to Salt Lake was delayed
and didn't leave until about 2 hours after it was scheduled to leave but we had
a nice lunch and a little snooze in the airport. The funniest thing that
happened was after we went through security. We put our backpacks on to carry
them and Kathy decided to bend down to get something out of the briefcase that
was on the ground. Her backpack was so heavy that when she got down there, she
tipped over backwards and ended up laying on her back - and she couldn't get up
without Fred's help. It was so funny!
When we arrived in Salt Lake City,
Fred’s nephew Chad picked us up at the airport and Chad and Shauna and their
children graciously hosted us for the weekend. Then on Monday, Chad drove us to
the MTC (Missionary Training Center).
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| Fred at the desk in our Dorm room at the MTC |
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| "We are going to New Zealand!" |
We spent just over a week and a
half at the MTC. The first week was focused on “Preach My Gospel“ training.
Our focus as missionaries is to invite “others” to come unto Christ and we were
assigned an “other” couple so that we could practice teaching. We had classes
each morning and afternoon and after we had learned some of the principles of
teaching, we were given opportunities to practice with our “other” couple. By
the end of the week, we were ready to start teaching a volunteer member. The
member that we were assigned was a new Relief Society President and a mother of
four. We had 15 minutes to get to know her, 10 minutes to prepare a lesson for
her based on her needs, and then 20 minutes to teach that lesson. Kathy had the
wonderful experience of feeling prompted by the Spirit in the things that we
should teach and the things that we should share with her. (Fred had already
experienced this on his previous mission.) It was wonderful to know that Heavenly
Father would inspire us as we sought to serve and teach. It was a spiritual experience
for all three of us – Fred and Kathy and the member we were teaching.
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| Elder & Sister Hurdman with Elder & Sister Freeman (our "Other" couple) |
Some of the evenings at the MTC, we had
opportunities to attend meetings and other evenings were free evenings. The
first evening that we were there, we watched a broadcast of a talk by Elder David
A. Bednar, a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles. He spoke about the
characteristics of Christ. One of the main characteristics of Christ is that he
always looked outward rather than inward and was concerned about others, even
when he was suffering himself. After suffering in Gethsemane, he was concerned
and healed the ear of the Roman soldier. On the cross, he was concerned about
his mother and her welfare. Elder Bednar challenged us to develop the same Christ-like
compassion for others. It was a wonderful talk.
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| Elder & Sister Hurdman at Provo Temple |
On Tuesday night, we had a devotional with Elder
Renlund, another member of the quorum of the 12 apostles. Fred and Kathy had
the opportunity to sing with the choir that night and it was wonderful to sing
with so many young elders and sisters. The choir was so big even Kathy felt
like she sounded good!
Wednesday was a free night so Fred & Kathy
went to the Provo Temple (which is right next to the MTC) with our “other”
couple, Elder & Sister Freeman. Fred had the special privilege of doing the
work for his stepmom‘s husband, Fred Bergner. It was a choice experience. Fred
Bergner was always interested in the gospel and had many discussions with Fred
Hurdman. It was wonderful to know that he will soon be sealed to Fred’s stepmom,
Kay, for time and all eternity.
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| Esther & King Ahasuerus |
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| Brother of Jared with the 16 Stones |
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| Ammon & his brethren going to the land of Nephi |
On Friday evening, we
went over to another training building at the MTC to look at some of the murals
that they have there. There are 12 murals and each one is about a significant
experience in the Scriptures, such as Moses parting the Red Sea, Esther going
before the King, Paul on the road to Damascus, and the sons of Mosiah entering
the city of Lamoni. At night, the murals are back-lit and they’re very
beautiful. Across from each mural, it tells which story it is and how we can
apply it to our own missionary work. We had fun taking pictures of each of the
murals.
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| Elder & Sister Hurdman with Rod & Donna Gustafson |
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| Elder & Sister Hurdman with Rod & Donna Gustafson, Bethany Gustafson and Sheila Fox |
On Sunday evening, at
5:00 PM Rod Gustafson came and picked us up from the MTC and took us over to
their place for supper. Rod and Donna were good friends of ours in the
Midnapore ward. Bethany, their daughter, Sheila Fox, and another young couple were
also there. We had a nice dinner with them and then Donna mentioned that her
parents had served a mission in New Zealand in Dunedin and Invercargill 20
years ago. After supper, Donna arranged for us to have a FaceTime conversation
with her parents, Brother and Sister Garrett. We had a very nice conversation
with them about New Zealand and the current mission president whom they know
and also the mission president in Calgary, President Keung, who they know as
well. They enjoyed sharing some of their experiences with us and we loved
having that conversation with them. We were so excited to go to New Zealand.
The second week in the MTC, we
focused on office training. Some of the classes Fred and I took together and
some of the classes we split up so that he could study the financial programs
and I could study the programs that I needed to use as the mission secretary.
One of the highlights of the second week was when a senior couple came in who
had served several missions and talked to us about their experiences. They
talked about how we should embrace change on our mission because there will be
lots of things that are different including food, culture, sometimes language,
traditions, shopping, and apartments. We will have to find a place to get our
hair done, a doctor, and a dentist. We need to adapt and be flexible! They also
talked about how important it is to build our relationship with our spouse and
share our mission with our family. Their talk got us even more excited to be on
our way to New Zealand!
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| Chad & Shauna Jones picking up Elder & Sister Hurdman at the MTC |
On Thursday
afternoon, Chad and Shauna Jones picked us and our luggage (all 8 bags) up and
drove us to the airport in Salt Lake City. We left Salt Lake airport at just
after 6:00 PM Mountain Time; had a layover in Los Angeles; then boarded our 13-hour
flight to Auckland. We arrived in Auckland at about 6:40 AM on Saturday
New Zealand time. We completely missed Friday!
After a 1-hour flight to
Wellington, we arrived at our destination. Elder and Sister Brown and the Zone
Leaders were at the terminal to pick us up and they brought us to our new flat.
It is a very nice place.
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| Tawa Train Station |
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| Elder Hurdman at our Flat in Tawa (part of Wellington) |
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| A hillside in the Summertime in Wellington (the Dry Season) |
That night we went out for supper with
the other Senior Missionary couples that are serving in the office or who have
served in the office. We went to a place called “Fisherman’s Table” and the
food was very good and it was right on the ocean. We then came home, finished
unpacking, and went to bed. We slept well that night!
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| Elders & Sisters Brown & Hamon |
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| Hurdman & President & Sister Soloai |
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| Elders & Sisters Hurdman & Mansfield |
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| Elders & Sisters Hurdman & Brown |
The next morning (Sunday), we got ready for
church and Elder & Sister Brown picked us up at 8:30 AM. They drove us to
the chapel where the Tawa Ward meets and the four of us went to church there.
As we were visiting with the sister missionaries that are assigned to that
ward, they asked us if we had felt the earthquake last night. Neither of us had
felt anything, but they said that they had felt something. It was either a very
localized earthquake or both of us were really sleeping soundly that night
after our long trip to New Zealand! We had a great sacrament meeting. One of the
sister missionaries sang “Consider the Lilies“, a beautiful song about the love
that our Saviour has for us. Then Fred and Kathy were both asked to bear our
testimonies, which we did. There were also several other speakers.
The next day (Monday, January 27), Elder &
Sister Brown picked us up at 6:45 and we went into the office for the day. It
was our first day of training and Elder Brown trained Fred on the financial
secretary responsibilities and Sister Brown trained Kathy on the office
secretary responsibilities. It will definitely be enough to keep us both busy!
Kathy is responsible for the intake and outtake missionaries, in other words
the missionaries who are coming into the mission and the missionaries who are
leaving the mission. She needs to prepare packets for them before they go into
the MTC, when they arrive in the mission, and when they leave the mission. She
is also responsible for missionary travel (including ordering all the travel
for the missionaries being transferred), ordering name tags, and helping with
the lunch when the new missionaries come in. Fred has also become the computer
expert in the office since he knows more about technology than anyone else. We
want to do a good job in the office so that we can be a support to these
missionaries in the important work that they do.
When we were finished our training for the day, we
were given a mission car to drive. Fred was ready to get in and drive home.
Kathy was less sure about it. But it turned out well. Fred only got mixed up
once and started turning the wrong way down one of the roads but caught himself
just in time and we managed to arrive safely home with the help of the of
Google maps and the Garmin. We have since driven quite a bit and Fred is doing
very well. Kathy keeps muttering “left,
left” under her breath to remind herself that we are SUPPOSED to drive on the left
side of the road!!
This is a wonderful place to serve our Heavenly
Father and our Savior and we hope that their blessings will be with each of
you!
Elder and Sister Hurdman
