HAMILTON, New Zealand — While a renovated temple waits to be rededicated, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf has spent several days ministering publicly and privately to Latter-day Saints in and around Hamilton, New Zealand, including three key meetings over a 30-hour period.
The member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles arrived to a ceremonial Maori welcome Wednesday, Oct. 12, at the old Church College of New Zealand on Temple View, and in three days since has made himself available to the Pacific Area presidency for a series of meetings and one-on-one ministering visits.
What does Elder K. Brett Nattress, a General Authority Seventy who is Pacific Area president, hope Latter-day Saints will learn from Elder Uchtdorf’s ministering?
“They’ve learned of the love that he has for the Lord and for all children of our Heavenly Father,” said Elder Nattress, adding, “When he’s ministering, there’s always a spirit of love, and people feel that love — it’s the love of the Lord, and he shares that everywhere.”
Elder Nattress witnessed Elder Uchtdorf’s attention both to the masses as well as to the individual in large-scale devotionals, smaller-size luncheons and one-on-one visits.
“When he ministers to others, they feel the love of the Lord, and they are inspired and motivated to become better disciples of Jesus Christ.”
As part of his ministering, Elder Uchtdorf conducted three larger meetings in a 30-hour period — a meeting with full-time missionaries, a luncheon with local pioneer members and an evening devotional with youth and young single adults. Some themes carried from one meeting to the next, some messages in one meeting were with other groups in mind, such as older members needing to share their histories with the rising generations, and the young members seeing themselves as pioneers creating their own legacies.
All of this before he rededicates the renovated Hamilton New Zealand Temple on Sunday, Oct. 16.
Missionary meeting
The public meetings of his ministry began Friday, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m. with the New Zealand Hamilton Mission. It started with a mission photo on the steps of the renovated temple, followed by one-by-one handshakes with Elder Uchtdorf and the missionaries after the latter walked from the temple grounds to the nearby David O. McKay Stake and Cultural Events Center. And it ended with a moving, missionary-prompted a cappella singing of the Tongan hymn “Folofoa Mai ’a Sisu” (“Thus Sayeth the Lord”).
In between came messages from the area presidency — Elder Nattress and his counselors, Elder Peter F. Meurs and Elder Taniela B. Wakolo — and the mission leaders, President Jeffery M. Nikoia and Sister Fiona K. Nikoia, before the meeting was given to Elder Uchtdorf.
Sharing the conversion story of his wife, Sister Harriet Uchtdorf, who was absent and convalescing at home in Utah following a recent eye surgery, Elder Uchtdorf reminded the missionaries to go the extra mile to find those who are ready to receive the gospel. And he underscored the third verb in the missionary phrase “love, share and invite.”
“Don’t judge others,” he cautioned, “always invite.”
He acknowledged that 46 missionaries — nearly half of the mission’s 95 elders and sisters — are waiting for the Hamilton temple to open so they can do their own endowment work and make covenants, as well as other missionaries who are anxious to be in the temple with those they have ministered to in conversion or reactivation.
“Jesus Christ is at the center of the temple, the center of our lives and the center of your mission,” he said.
He encouraged the missionaries to always hold current temple recommends throughout their lives, even when temples are closed or unavailable. “Always have a recommend,” he said. “It’s a connection between your heart and you.”
What did missionaries learn through the Spirit from Elder Uchtdorf’s message and interactions with them?
“I learned and was reminded that Jesus Christ walks with me wherever I go — on my mission, before my mission and after my mission,” said Sister Jershon Elkington of Wellington, New Zealand.
Sister Manaia Manousso of Sydney, Australia, added: “The Spirit taught me today that I should use more of my gifts and talents that the Lord has blessed me with, and that Jesus Christ lives.”
Elder Keanu Eteru of Auckland, New Zealand, said: “The Spirit told me that everyone is ready — ready for something in the gospel — so invite. And to make the most of the best decision I’ve made in my life — in serving a mission.”
And Elder Tervia Sulaki of Auckland said he learned, “I’m more than what I think of myself, that I have more talents — to not underestimate what I can do with the ability that God gave me.”
Pioneer member luncheon
Two dozen longtime Latter-day Saints — couples and other pairs of family members — from Hamilton and beyond attended a pioneer-member luncheon Saturday, Oct. 15, with Elder Uchtdorf and the area presidency, held in Kai Hall, the refurbished dining hall used by labor missionaries constructing the Church College of New Zealand and the New Zealand Temple in the 1950s.
After a three-minute video highlighting the labor missionary program, each couple briefly shared highlights of conversions, experiences, sacrifices and blessings — some their own, others of ancestors. The sacrifices ranged from being written out of wills when joining the Church to stepping away from comfortable wages when called to serve a labor mission.
“The gospel gave more than the circumstances took away,” said Debbie Brunton, whose parents were called as labor missionaries in 1954 and worked on the school and temple projects for four years.
Saluting their “valuable” efforts and experiences, Elder Uchtdorf said he and Sister Uchtdorf had similar pioneerlike events in their lives in Germany — she joining the Church in 1954 at age 13, and he in 1947 at age 6 and then being sealed to his family in 1954 at age 14 in the Swiss Temple.
“Make sure these things are not lost, so your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren can cherish them and build on the past,” he told attendees, adding sharing personal and family histories with descendants helps “so they know it isn’t easy to go through life, but that it is worth it.”
Although Henry Nom and his wife, Anne, had met President Spencer W. Kimball in 1978, sharing a summary of one’s life with an Apostle “was just a great experience for me, while I was representing my stake and my family.”
Added Ripeka Gudgeon: “I thought it was amazing, considering where we come from outlying areas, and we’re in the presence of an Apostle of Jesus Christ and actually seeing him and knowing that he is indeed a spiritual witness on this earth of our Savior and Heavenly Father and a presentative of our Prophet as well.”
Mark Brunton echoed Elder Uchtdorf’s teaching that one’s history is important to be shared with younger generations. “That’s what we’ve started to do now, and our grandchildren are starting to talk about what their great-grandparents sacrificed and how blessed they were and how they feel part of that.”
Youth and young adult devotional
Back at the stake center later that evening for a combined youth and young adult devotional that was broadcast throughout the Pacific Area, Elder Uchtdorf was joined by a surprise speaker — his wife, Sister Uchtdorf, joining virtually from Salt Lake City to share a message.
“I could give you all a big hug — even by digital means,” she said.
In their instruction, both Elder and Sister Uchtdorf mentioned her conversion, teachings from the new “For the Strength of Youth” guidebook, and Christ being the center of the gospel and the Church.
She encouraged her listeners to stand up for what they believe in. “Don’t be swayed by peer pressure or negative comments,” she said. “Just be yourself, and I promise you angels will be on your side.”
She cautioned the youth and young single adults to avoid distractions, to follow the principles and values in the FSY guide, to always strive to added sacrament meetings and to always have a plan. “Make the plan of happiness your plan,” she said. “You are the creators of your own future — a better future.”
Elder Uchtdorf cited a quote from “Harry Potter” literature about choices and the Bilbo Baggins’ “There and Back Again” book of journeys and adventures from “The Hobbit” to talk about using agency since the premortal world and how mortal life is an adventure with treasures — gaining a physical body, developing faith, experiencing joy and sorrow and having been given a Savior.
“We are more ‘there’ now, and we want to go ‘back again’ to our Father’s presence,” he said.
The trolls and dragons of life can be avoided “if you stay on the covenant path and trust God,” he said, listing key helpful resources such as the FSY guide, “Come, Follow Me” lessons, the scriptures, and seminary and institute.
“Strive to find God and Jesus Christ every day. Make sure your prayers are one of commitment and not just satisfying the duty of having daily prayers.”
Elder Uchtdorf reminded the youth and young single adults “you are also pioneers — you are building your own legacy right now in your life. It’s up to you.”
He invited his listeners to take the tempe rededication in 2022 as a time “to start your legacy of faith in Christ.”
What were the learnings from the Spirit that attending youth and young single adults had while listening to Elder Uchtdorf?
Sizzle Joseph, 15, of Palmerston North, said: “I leaned that we have to love others, no matter what. Matthew 5:44 says we are to love our enemies. That is my biggest weaknesses — loving those who have hurt me before.”
Korm McCarthy, 13, of Hamilton, said she was reminded of “just knowing that the Lord is there for you and knowing He’s beside you.”
A trio of Hamilton friends — Renatu Puriri, 14, Fenesi Bourle, 15, and Ancient Tangataterekia, 15 — agreed a shared lesson they learned was the importance of always having faith in the Lord and trusting Him in everything.
Porter Higgins, 19, of Hamilton, said, “What stood out to me was the Christ-centered messages, with Christ being our strength.”
Alec Cassidy, 17, Hamilton, said he left impressed with “the way Elder Uchtdorf talked about how if we follow the plan of salvation, it will help us become the best version of ourselves possible.”
Young single adult siblings Anau Poulava, 18, and Zarya Poulava, 23, said Elder Uchtdorf’s application of the quote from the “Harry Potter” books and movies — “It is our choices that show who we truly are far more than our abilities” — was meaningful to them.
“The choices you make determine who you are, so doing the right thing is always good,” Anau Poulava said. “But if you make wrong choices, you can still repent.”
His sister said her two learnings were to find joy in Christ and “to know the difference between temporal happiness and finding eternal joy.”
