Eulalia and John Welch in New Zealand

My great-grandparents' missionary time in New Zealand (1917-1920) was formative for their family--and the fact that my cousins performed a haka dance at a family reunion talent show a century later speaks to that legacy. I've been eager to see that faraway land for myself, and grateful for a recent opportunity to travel that direction.

John and Eulalia Welch in New Zealand, 1918

In preparation, I read this book and some of John 3's missionary journals, and the write-ups done by John 4, John 5, Don, and Barb about the John's life, the Maori Agricultural College (MAC), and prior pilgrimages. I don't need to repeat those well-documented details, but just wanted to share some of my thoughts and feelings while traveling.

First of all, it was special to make the connection that we were in New Zealand for the 107th birthday of John Sorensen Welch, the baby who was born on their mission who only lived a few days (January 24-28, 1919).  I realized that Eulalia must have always kept that week tenderly in her heart.

iconic fence built 1913-1923

The connections were plentiful: we heard the Welch name over the airport announcements. A young family sat next to us on the flight over with a little daughter, and I thought of the Welches' transit with toddler Edith (by ship for long seasick weeks). We didn't travel to the actual area where they lived (Hastings/Napier), because the Maori Agricultural College there was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1930s. But we thought of the Welches in Auckland, knowing they arrived and departed there by ship and would have seen the ferry building and the red lantern port fence from that era, and had a wonderful day in Hamilton thinking about them at the Church History Museum, temple, and gardens. 

the historic Ferry Terminal built in 1912, five years before the Welches arrived

now dwarfed by modern skyscrapers

Eulalia had a green bead necklace that my mom's cousin made into jewelry to share amongst the female descendants a few years ago. While we were in New Zealand, I learned about their greenstone, nephrite jade, and realized that's what the necklace is. I was honored to wear my necklace and earrings back in the land they came from!

Eulalia was a young mom at the time of this mission, concerned about her family overseas. She learned by letter months after the events that her sister died, and that another sister's husband passed away. They were concerned about the ongoing World War, and John's brothers who were enlisting. They lived through a brutal time with the influenza epidemic, burying friends. She was often sick and pregnant, in a foreign land, far from home. She had some dental issues to deal with there. Her red hair must have curled in the humidity and her fair skin burned in Aotearoa (the land of the long white cloud). She may have never met Maoris, or heard a foreign language, before this trip. Did she learn how to speak some of the language? How did she feel about this assignment? Being set apart by J. Golden Kimball hopefully gave her peace and confidence about the situation. 

She saw new scenery and plants, ate different foods, probably experienced some persecution and cultural misunderstandings. There are four seasons of weather each day! And flip-flopped seasons that made the holidays feel off-kilter. Laundry and cooking and the mail and transportation were constant issues, and challenging ones. Giving birth to little John, and his subsequent death, must have colored the whole time too (along with the challenges of getting his coffin home). Her husband was deathly ill with diphtheria for months, and Eulalia was so sick with pleurisy (and pregnant with my grandfather) that she nearly couldn't travel home on the ship. It was a trying time amongst all the wonder and growth and beauty. 

Her daughter in law Nita took some notes about this era of her life:

The Hamilton temple was finished in 1958, and there is a Church History Museum in the nearby complex that has some exhibits about the MAC. 

hats the Welches would have seen (and worn?)

a pulpit John undoubtedly orated from as he spoke and conducted funerals

the MAC blazer that the students wore, did John?

We attended the Hamilton temple thinking of the Welches. (It was one of the most intense sealing sessions ever, the native sealer was not going to let a single card slip by or anyone leave, I think we were there almost two hours and did a hundred ordinances. Very sore knees!) Two of the children sealed to parents were appropriately named Edith and John. And the celestial room is ethereally gorgeous. Maori symbols such as the koru curly fern are part of the decoration, and I loved learning that the fern symbolizes new beginnings, growth, strength, peace, and the continuous cycle of life. 

However, I really wanted to connect with my redheaded great-grandmother's time in New Zealand, and instead, as I sat there, I really felt strongly about an experience she had years later in Utah: how she felt learning of the 1958 temple dedication here. 

At that time, Eulalia had been widowed more than a decade. She had just turned 68 and had several grandchildren, but they didn't live nearby. On a rainy Saturday in May, perhaps her Church News arrived on her Logan porch steps, and Eulalia went out in her housedress to pick it up. She put on her gold-rimmed glasses and opened up to read the news about the dedication of the Hamilton, New Zealand temple by President McKay:

"We express gratitude that to these fertile Islands Thou didst guide descendants of Father Lehi, and hast enabled them to prosper, to develop and to become associated in history with leading and influential nations among mankind."

She thought of that fertile isle, the beautiful green hills and flowers, and the time of hardship and growth in her young married life.

"We invoke Thy blessing particularly upon the men and women who have so willingly and generously contributed their means, time, and effort to the completion of this imposing and impressive structure. Especially we mention all those who have accepted calls as Labor Missionaries and literally consecrated their all upon the altar of service. May each contributor be comforted in spirit and prospered many fold."

Eulalia remembered her consecrated years away from friends and family. Her hard work, overseas adjustments, her infant son. Her deceased husband whom she missed daily and who was the only one to reminisce with about New Zealand.

The next day would be Mother's Day, and she would get calls from Edith, and John, and Robert, and Julie. She would always be thinking of her beloved Jack, and her dear little baby, the first John. But on this morning, reading about the New Zealand temple, her mind wandered back decades to their time there. And she didn't feel like she had anyone she could share these memories with. Edith had been too young to recall the times well, and didn't like to talk of religion, and Jack was gone.

Perhaps she pulled out some photos, and laughed at seeing the long skirts in the ocean waves at the beach. Maybe she thought of a friend like Ida Stott from those long ago days. John's Maori scriptures and his journal were at hand to leaf through. Did she put on her green beaded necklace and remember its origin? Did she pull out the Maori skirt and cloak she was gifted (where did those go?) or stroke John's hand-lathed wooden bowl (also, where did that go?).  How she wished she could travel back in time, or back around the world, and relive some of those moments. How she longed to join with the saints today celebrating in New Zealand, and give a hongi to some of those dear associates.

It was a benediction for her to reread those words from the prophet: "May each contributor be comforted in spirit and prospered many fold."

Was it on this day she wrote what seems to be her only record of her time there? This poem:

Memories of New Zealand

Orange-tinted twilights-

Purple shadowed dusks-

Weeping willows kissing streams

Soft green hills everywhere-

Towering pines and Eucalyptus

Flowers--flowers--

And peace-restful peace.

Orange Tinted twilights

Purple shadowed dusks

Weeping willows kissing streams

Soft green hills everywhere

Peaceful praying sleep

Trees-

Stately pines and eucalyptus

Flowers--

and restful peace.

We saw such beautiful views as she described--soft green hills, towering pines, eucalyptus, and flowers, flowers. Our stop after the temple was at the glorious Hamilton Gardens. We had a redheaded guide there, and saw orange butterflies, carrot top flame flowers, and on the way home a rust colored vintage 1960s car. I just felt Eulalia's presence in ways like that all day. 

I loved seeing the sights the Welches had enjoyed and memorialized:

Eulalia with the koru fern and fellow missionary Ida Stott

Maori garden and ancestral gathering house

the haka (at a later stop)

ancestral walk in New Zealand

and peace, restful peace. I'm glad Eulalia's memories of this era of her life were so peaceful and beautiful in the rear view mirror. Grateful for my Welch heritage in New Zealand, and those consecrated hardships and examples that continue to bless and inspire us.