Open Chapel: our program for finding families

Open Chapel is a program we created as a way to interact with community members here in New Zealand where we didn't know anyone.

Everyone loves family. Open Chapel is here to help them find their families, living or dead.

We learned skills along these lines when we were missionaries in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. They include both research skills and familiarity with various kinds of records. We also have skills pertaining to recording what they find.

Every day we open the doors of the chapel from 10am to noon and invite in anyone who would like to come discover their ancestors. We get them to write down what they already know, then send them off to look up other information and to talk to family members.

Many members of the ward have stepped up to help and so we have been able to give one-on-one attention most of the time. And that is really important for beginners!

A great number of those who have come are Maori. They have their whakapapa at home or someone in the family does or they have memorized it. There are helps online for them and ways to help them, and we're learning right along with them. Fortunately several of our helpers are also Maori.

We are working in conjunction with the local library and genealogical associations.

The church has published a small booklet called My Family. It is this we use to record their first several generations as they work backward in time. There is space for photos and stories and makes a nice keepsake. These booklets are free from the church. And there is an online facsimile at familysearch.org that anyone can use. Unfortunately we don't have enough. We have several thousand on order.

In the church, we believe that families are an essential part of who we are. By finding families, including lost or forgotten members, and recording not only their information but stories and photos, we are helping turn the hearts of the children to their forefathers and vice versa.

For more information see The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

We love families! This is a natural work for us. And we are building community here in a place where we knew no one. It's a joy to come here to the chapel each day. The biggest challenge we have is being in four towns, widely separated, to get this program off the ground!

New Zealand: our mission, the more sacred side

Here we are in Feilding, New Zealand. A short time ago we said, 'where?' Now it's home.

Each day we get up at 6:30 (unless the melodious birds wake us earlier) and get ready for the day. Part of that time - usually about an hour to maybe as much as two hours - consists of a prayer together to start the day and the study of scriptures on a given topic.

We use as a guide the marvelous book Preach My Gospel. I particularly like the studies in the chapter called Christ-Like Attributes. I have been transformed in many ways by doing these studies. I can't recommend that book - manual, really - too greatly.

Then we head to the chapel, which is about 5 minutes from our little house.

It's here at the chapel that we can get online, so we check our email and Facebook and so on. Then we open the doors for our Open Chapel program. More on that in another post.

After two hours, it's time to close up and send everyone home. We either stay for a bit to continue online, or walk to lunch a mile or so away, or drive home for lunch.

In the afternoon we visit people, share various gospel-related messages with them, just read the scriptures and pray with them, go for a walk, take a rest or a nap, make supper, or all the above. Or grab some groceries or do the wash.

In the evening we go out and teach, or stay home and write, or take a walk.

Often our work takes us to distant towns. We have four towns under our care: Feilding where we live, Foxton, Levin, and Wanganui. We are getting to know church members in each of them. We share our Open Chapel program with them in hopes that they will find ways to take it up, too. We give talks about the importance of family history, or our journey, or gospel topics.

I'll write separately about what we've discovered in our travels. That will be on Travels with Juan, another blog. (travelswithjuan.blogspot.com).

The real nature of our work depends on an understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'd like to talk about that, since my understanding has changed so much, but I'll save that for a different post.

What is really meaningful, of course, about what we do is the people. That has been a real eye-opener. So I'll save that for another post too.

For me, these six weeks since we have been on our mission have been transformative. Never have I understood the gospel the way I do now. Study of the scriptures and prayer make a huge difference. On our other missions, we were caught up in a workday that was not in itself immersed in the gospel (and a lot of what we do here is not either), but here we have time to study and make ourselves busy in direct missionary work.

I should say that unlike the young missionaries, we set our own schedule and choose our own activities. It's up to us to make of this experience what we will. As you will see if you continue reading, Open Chapel is a result of that confidence the leadership has in senior missionary couples.

Time is going fast. We are almost a quarter of the way through our time here. Sometimes I want to keep going, other times I know it would be good to go home. But we signed up for 6 months, and that is no doubt what we will do.

Angels and miracles, part 1

We are at the airport. Most of the logistics gave been handled, and we have been among angels along the way.

Friends from our last mission housed us and gently counseled us and kept us calm in their sweet atmosphere.

Family met us for lunch today on this last day and shared their good humor with us.

Moriah drove us to the airport and waited at the curb while we ferried loads to the ticketing counter. It's nice to have such a grown-up, responsible granddaughter so willing to lend a hand. I'm sure she'll do 'helpful' things with tour car. :)

And a real miracle, very strange in how it played out, showed us that our angels are everywhere. Here's what happened.

We found out a few days ago that by opting to skip a few days in Hawaii we would no longer be able to take two bags for free. That's because of switching airlines. The cost could have ended up being $360 a bag beyond the first bag.

So we spent hours weighing bags, rearranging suitcases, cutting down our not-terribly-large selection of clothes, and coming up with a plan that would see us with only one extra bag instead of two.

Still it was frustrating to have the extra expense with nothing to show for it.

Then last night, after laying out all the bags, I decided to call Delta Airlines to see what the rules really were. We had seen them listed several different ways, including on the Delta website.

Much to my joy the woman on the phone said there was no charge for the first two bags! That was good news even though we had lost several hours repacking. We closed things up and breathed a sigh of relief.

That was good news but not a real miracle, I don't think. But what follows is.

Today we went to the airport. Moriah waited at the car while John and I went in with a good-sized load each. We were met in the Delta area by a very large, pleasant agent. He took my passport and helped me get checked in, did the same for John when he returned with two more suitcases and a large box of Shaklee goods.

We immediately learned he was from New Zealand, from up north in Hamilton.

He helped us carry things to the counter. But there was a problem. Our ticket info showed we were entitled only to one bag each! The woman on the phone had been wrong.

We told the agent at the counter about the conversation and she sent us to another agent. That agent also said we would have to pay, that she wasn't authorized to remove the charges.

Then she asked our New Zealand helper to go get authorization from an office somewhere else in the airport. He came back a few minutes later with approval.

The miracle? The first agent on the phone, the one who was mistaken, ultimately put us in the position of taking everything we needed. Sam, the New Zealander, advocated for us the whole way and stuck with us. (Yea, John did tip him!) The women at the counters were sympathetic and didn't turn us away. And the unknown person upstairs did his part.

So now we are settled in good season at the gate. We got a pre-authorization to go through security. The airport has stations for refilling water bottles! And we are on our way.

Bottom line: We have with us all the necessities we had planned to take way back. We didn't have to pay any more for luggage. We are well trained and eager to get to work. And it took angels along the way and when we needed them they were there.

Never doubt the smooth ride when you are on the Lord's errand! All the stumbling blocks along the way were not real. Tricky but totally ineffectual. Gone.

It starts again

We are headed to New Zealand, to Wellington on the North Island. The more travel-related parts of our journey are reported on our other blog, Travels with Juan.

This blog is for the sacred side of this trip, which is dedicated to our serving what could be called a 'search and rescue mission'. It's a church mission and I hope it centers on building part-member families into temple-sealed full-member families.

We have been working hard learning all we need to be good missionaries. That includes doctrine and small-group conversation skills, I guess you could call it.

The training experience is over now. It was most enlightening!