Eight missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a classroom full of Northcote Intermediate School students in Auckland, worked in tandem recently to prepare computers for shipment to Tonga, where they will be used by Ministry of Education staff.
The missionaries loaded up 46 computers from Rangitoto College in Auckland.
Then they helped students unload them at Northcote Intermediate and set up the hall, ready for the computer savvy students (and some students with little to no knowledge, as they were working in pairs to help spread their knowledge) to work their magic, rebuilding and repairing the computers.
The missionaries met Principal Phil Muir, Teacher & I.T Coordinator, Conor McHoull, and the Information Technology students with whom Pacific Assist and Latter-day Saint Charities are working to get the computers ready to ship to Tonga.
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Northcote Intermediate School teacher, Vaha Fapiano, said, "Our kids have put their skills, their heart and help into rebuilding these computers."
Sister Paea Kulihaapai, a missionary from Tonga who helped with the project, noted, "As missionaries, we volunteer to serve others just as Christ did. With cooperation from Latter-day Saint Charities and Pacific Assist, we are helping to ensure that these computers make it to Tonga so our brothers and sisters back there will be able to use them."
In referring to the complex language of the computer world, John McClean, Pacific Assist director, expressed his appreciation for "Cameron Voss who acted as our Pacific Assist IT liaison person on the day. Without his IT knowledge I would not have known what language these kids were speaking."
Conor McHoull, Northcote teacher and Director of Innovation & I.T, wrote, "We had a blast the other day, and the feedback from students/parents/community has been very positive."
In the October 2019 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church President Russell M. Nelson said: “Latter-day Saints, as with other followers of Jesus Christ, are always looking for ways to help, to lift, and to love others."