Seminary, Family, Walks, Meetings, Inspections, and so forth...

Emma in Réunion

I think we are officially integrated into the Ward! We were asked to help with Seminary because the 2nd adult was sick. She was supposed to come back on Wednesday morning, but her mother is sick, and she has gone to take care of her. So, now we are the second (and third) adult until they can find someone else to be a second. It is OK; however, we need to adjust our going to bed time. Lol. It is a small class that is held at the home of the Seminary teacher. By the end of the week, she asked if I would be willing to start teaching on Mondays to give her a little break.

Since it was P-Day we did our Zoom call with Sierra's family. We were supposed to do it a little earlier so we could have Alena on the call. She is currently working in Newport, but Sierra and Shonee when home a little early because of the weather. So, we called Alena and talked to her until Sierra and Shonee got home. We had a lovely visit with Alena learning all about her job and what is going on in her life. We had a great Zoom call with the rest of the family. I love catching up each week with one of our children and their families. After a nice and fun call with Sierra, we sent Emma a message to see if she would like a video call. She is currently living in a place called Réunion, which is near Madagascar.  It was the middle of the night for her. She texted us back a couple of hours later and we had a wonderful video call with her. I love modern technology that allows us to see and talk to everyone in real time.

Tuesday started nice and early again with Seminary. When we got home, we did our Scriptures Study and then went for a nice long walk. We had a little break from the rain that had been going on since the middle of the night. It started to drizzle on the last little bit, but for the most part we were rain free.

We visited several people and invited them to our Family Home Evening group and a Musical Devotional that is on May 5th. We had to rush back to get home in time for Sister Budge to do her Pathway class. Luckily the class got postponed for 30 minutes, which gave us enough time to get home and her settled before her class started. The last person we visited to a lot longer than expected AND they lived a lot further away than the other. Everything turned out all right. We will make sure we are home before 2:30 next week.

Wednesday, again started with Seminary. We did our walk when we got back and then headed for our DCM meeting. The South District is also meeting at our building, so we were able to connect with Sister Buchanan. Elder and Sister Buchanan have an electronic picture frame exactly like we do, so they let us borrow their remote control. We were able to connect our picture frame to our Internet. Now we have our New Zealand pictures added AND it shows the correct date and time. I have also programed the sleep schedule and the motion sensor, so we don't even turn it off now. It goes to sleep when no one is in the room, or it is nighttime. Pretty cool.

Cool face on a tree in our forest.

We held another Missionary Choir Practice after our meetings in preparation for the Musical. I think we are sounding pretty good. We visited five more people on our way home. We met with four out of the five people so that was good. We had some really good visits. We invited all of them to the Devotional. We also invited several of them to our Family Home Evening group.

When we got home, we connected the picture frame to the Internet. Then it was time to go to the Hesters for dinner. It had been a while since we had been together. We had a wonderful visit with them.

Thursday was a little different for us. After Seminary and our walk, we had our SPF Zoom call with the mission. Then we did Flat Inspections. We have our Denby Sisters as well as the Elders from our ward. The Elders share their flat with another set of missionaries. We did the Sisters' flat first. They did a great job. We found a couple minor things that we had to dock a point for, but they made up for it by doing some extra create stuff, so they got full marks. We left them some candy for a job well done. I told the missionaries we would be coming sometime that week, but I didn't tell them when. So good job to the Sisters.

The Elders were pretty good. We did have to start in a different room so they could quickly do the dishes. They had a few more things that we docked points for and ended up 10 points below the max. It was still good enough to give them candy. Lol.

We stopped at four more houses on our way home. No one was home so we left Devotional Invites. We did find out one person moved. The Elders showed up for Comp Study not long after we got home. We had a good discussion about Preach My Gospel and then about the people we are both working with. I am so glad we meet each week. After they left, I worked on HawkSoft for about 1 1/2 hours before we headed to Choir Practice. We had such a good turnout. We sounded so good. I actually think we can pull this off.

Sister Lawrence at the Whangarei Quarry Gardens

On Friday, we slept in a bit. No Seminary. I ended up staying home all day as I had a lot of things to catch up on. We had several people drop by for various reasons. We had a sister show up to pick up some large pieces of cardboard what we had from our furniture boxes. Then, because several of the boxes had a bunch of Styrofoam in them, we had to pile that up to go out in the rubbish. Of course, that ended up leaving lots of little Styrofoam beads all over the garage. So, we spent the next half hour cleaning up the garage and vacuuming it. Did I tell you we have carpet in our garage? We have a tarp on the floor so we can park in the garage. We no sooner finished that, than Elder and Sister Garner dropped by. They had a big checklist and keys for closing out our house in Bream Bay. Elder Garner asked us if we would be willing to do the walk through with the leasing company. We said yes, before we read the list of everything that needs to be done. I checked with Elder Garner, and we can hire out a lot of the stuff like shampooing the carpets, washing the windows inside and out, maybe touching up the walls, etc. We left the house clean when we moved out, but we didn't wash windows. Lol.

We did our walk before Steve took off to take care of the Elders' flat. They had a leaky toilet, and Elder Wilcox knows how to fix it. He talked to Elder Garner, and he told Steve to go ahead and take care of it. So, Steve bought the part and a new toilet seat (the other one was disgusting) and headed over to fix it. I didn't need to stand around while he worked on that, so I stayed home and worked on other things like HawkSoft. Later, the Bishop stopped by to see if I could help him with his Tools app on his phone. I first had him sign in on Steve's computer. Everything looked good, so I knew he knew what his credentials were. Next, he tried signing into his phone. Big error message. He told me how old his phone was, and how the app used to work but suddenly stopped working. I decided to have him sign in on my phone. He did and was able to get to the Tools app. Now I knew it was his phone that was too old for the app. I explained how programmers want to take advantage of new hardware in their apps so they can do better and better things. Sometimes that means the apps no longer work on older devices. Mystery solved. We didn't get everything done, but it was still a very productive day.

I started Saturday out by planning all the things that have come up for next week. I needed to get it recorded in something, so I wouldn't have to continue to think about it. I added everything to the Todo app by Microsoft. It has become my life saver. I like it, because I have a repeatable task that contains all the things we do every day. I then add all the other things we do that day. But what I really like is adding all the other things that we don't do for a day or two or a week or whatever. Once they are in my task list, I don't have to think about them until they reach my daily list. I usually review all my upcoming tasks every day so I can be prepared, and nothing sneaks up on me. Steve and I went over the master plan list. 

We had three lessons to prepare for the next two days. We had our Temple Prep class on Sunday. I had the Seminary class on Monday. And Steve had Family Home Evening for Monday also. I had a lunch activity with a Sister from our Ward. We had a Relief Society Service Auction several weeks ago and I bid on the lunch she was offering. We had a wonderful time at the Quail Cafe located at the Whangarei Quarry Gardens. What could be better. Delicious lunch, stimulating and friendly conversation, and a delightful walk around the beautiful tropical gardens. We managed to stay busy and got all our lessons prepared. I think we finished around 7:30 that night.

The Quail Cafe

The Sabbath was long and beautiful. We got to Church early so we could greet people as they came in. Bishop grabbed us to see if we could cover for his wife in Primary. She injured her eye, and he wasn't sure if she was going to come. I got with the Primary President to see where the class was and the age group. We can't do the very young classes, because if a young one needs to go to the restroom, we can't take them. That would require us to separate, and we can't do that as missionaries. This class was for older kids. We went to Sacrament meeting, and I glanced through the Come Follow Me manual for the past week to see what I could teach on. I picked a couple of principles. There was a short video, too. I felt pretty comfortable with coming up with a lesson for them.

After Sacrament meeting, I went to set up the room. Just then the Primary President came by and said the teacher was there, so I headed toward Sunday School. When I got to the end of the hall, Elder Wilcox was there waiting for me. The Bishop had just asked him if we could cover the Youth Sunday School class instead. There were about 10 or so kids already in the room. Since I already had something in mind, I said we could do it. Just as we were going to start with a prayer, the Sister Missionaries came by looking for the class. They said the teachers from their ward were in a different room waiting for the kids to show up. Since it was their month to teach, and I hadn't really prepared a lesson, I sent the kids down to the other room and headed to Sunday School once more. After a couple of minutes, the Bishop came and sat next to Elder Wilcox and said they needed us back in Primary. His wife's eye started weeping again and the Primary President sent her home. So, we headed back to the first class. We had about 9 or 10 kids. They were all so good. They participated well in the discussion. I enjoyed teaching VERY much. I have missed that so much.

Last rehearsal before we sang.

After our meetings, we hung around for an hour or so before our Temple Prep class started. Brother Horsford came into our class and had a wonderful talk with Steve. He is a counselor in the Bishopric. His wife came in later and talked with us about Family History and another Devotional we will have next week. She is the piano player for our choir. They left just before our class started. We had a good class and I think the discussion went well. I made a PowerPoint presentation today. It made it easier to display the scriptures they were to read, as well as the different quotes we had them read. I also added pictures that help make it a little more interesting. For example, one of the quotes was from President James E. Faust. He mentioned seeing a Temple all lit up at night and how it is a beacon to all who see it. I displayed a picture Elder Wilcox just took of the Hamilton Temple at night, all lit up. It worked perfectly.

Once home, we had a fun Zoom call with Douhet and Kylee. Normally, we would do that on our Monday P-Day, but we are having a Senior Missionary activity on Monday, so it just was not going to work. Thankfully, they were able to meet with us today. After the call, I worked on my recap and Elder Wilcox worked on dinner until it was time to go to the Devotional. It was a really beautiful devotional of music and testimony. I teared up a few times. The music was so beautiful. The missionaries in our Stake were the closing number. I think it went very well. Elder Kreutzkamp didn't sing, but he did take a video. Enjoy!

All Our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox 

Sister Lilloux at the Piano.

Temple Trip, Spring Devotional, ANZAC Day, and Choirs 

Monday was a travel day. We were supposed to start our day with a visit from a young Seminary age student, but her aunt texted me they were having car trouble and wouldn't be able to make it. We went for our walk and then quickly packed for our Temple Trip. We ate a quick lunch and hit the road. Just as we were heading out of town, Audrey texted me with a link to the Oregon City Spring Devotional. She told me her dad asked her to send it to us. So, at 2:00 our time, I connected to the Zoom link for the devotional. Our reception was spotty at times, but overall, we got to watch most of it. Steve only listened since he was driving. The miracle for us was we got to see Douhet in the Stake Choir. Then, Season and Madison got up to share a scripture and testimony. I thought, wow, that is cool that we got to see them too. A little later, Anna and Alyx showed up in the Youth Choir. And then as if that wasn't enough, Elle was singing in the Primary Choir. A few days later, I found out that MyLiege and Adrienne made the beautiful bouquet that we saw at the podium. I am so grateful for the miracle of modern technology that allowed us to watch a devotional halfway around the world in real time while driving down the highway. It truly is a miracle.

When we got to Hamilton, we ran into some problems trying to check in. My phone was not downloading the document that had the password to the lockbox so we could pick up our key. Finally, I rebooted my Church phone and was able to reconnect the hotspot so I could download the document. All was well. Our room was like a mini dorm room. It had a couple sets of bunk beds and a queen size bed. It wasn't exactly the Ritz, but it was clean, warm, and comfortable. We both slept well. And the price was GREAT.

Tuesday morning, we got up and tidied the room before checking out. Then we went to our Temple Session. The Spirit was very strong in the Temple and I'm so grateful we were able to attend. On the way home, we stopped at Costco just outside of Auckland and a little shopping mall across the street. We had several things we wanted to pick up where we could get a little better variety. 

On Wednesday morning, I took a picture of a house with a red door that we pass every morning when we walk. It always reminds me of MyLiege because she loves red doors. Lol. We had a wonderful District Council Meeting after our walk. Near the end of the meeting the South Zone joined our Zone for training. Sister Kinikini and Sister Lilloux did our training. I just love them so much. They talked about a lot of different ways we can meet people. They made it a fun activity. We headed home for lunch before we were going to go out visiting, when we got a call from the electrician. We had called our landlord about two weeks ago about a heat lamp issue. The electrician that came out said he had to order a part before he could fix it. The part came in, so he came over to fix it. He was supposed to be there at 12:30 but didn't make it to almost 2:00. They called to let us know. 

After he left, we mapped out a few people we could go see. We got a call from our housing coordinator, Elder Garner. He wondered if we could go to one of the Elders' flats to check out a leaking toilet. We added that to our list. Our afternoon proved very productive. We saw everyone at home except one. They had just moved two days before. On the way home we stopped by Sister Hester's to pick up some butter so we could butter several loaves of bread for our ANZAC activity the next day. We also swung by a sister who lives near us. She fell and broke her elbow the day or so before and we wanted to see how she was doing. Later, Sister Kreutzkamp dropped off the bread we needed to butter. 

Thursday was a very long day. We started with our SPF Zoom Meeting. Elder and Sister Shaw gave a beautiful slide presentation about the Temple. President Allen is letting all the young missionaries who are in a reasonable distance from the Hamilton Temple go to the Temple. I’m not sure how often. Maybe twice a year or once a quarter. Unfortunately for our missionaries in the Whangarei Stake and further up north are too far away to make the journey. I think President will transfer the young missionaries down south sometime so they will have a chance to go. As seniors, we don’t have that restriction. We are allowed to go once a month. It does take two days out of our work week to do it. Well 1 ½ days for sure. 

After the meeting, our Elders assigned to our Ward came over for our weekly Companion Study. We had a great meeting. After we did training on Chapter 9 from Preach My Gospel, we talked about different people we could help each other with. They asked us to visit a couple of people that they thought would be helpful to them. We put them on our list for Friday. We in turn gave them someone to try and connect with as well. 

After our meeting we headed to Pipiwai to the Te Horo school where we were holding our ANZAC activity. We had a pretty good turnout. Sister Kreutzkamp, Sister Hester, and I planned the food. We didn’t know some of the members were going to bring things, too. We had so much food. We were able to send a lot home with some families. We planned on something they call Sausage Sizzler, which is like a hotdog only they use buttered bread instead of buns. They also put grilled onions on them. Yum. We planned for 100 people. I think we had about that many. We also had chips and cookies. Well, someone brought about 5 pizzas. There were also Sloppy Joes. We had more deserts than you could imagine.

Those who wanted to, played Touch Rugby. They seemed to have a great time. I didn’t see much of the game because I was barbequing the sausages. Everyone had a good time. There was a playground where the little ones could play, so there was something for everyone. Of course, there were those who just sat and watched the game. After the Touch Rugby game was over, the rest of the people came and ate lunch. Then a bunch started up with a volleyball game while people finished up and started packing things to go. We invited the missionaries to come too, so that was fun for them. We had our Elders, of course, and a set of Sisters came.

We rested up a bit when we got home, and then headed off to choir practice. We have ALSO been asked to sing at our Ward Conference, which is the week before Stake Conference. We are still trying to recruit people to sing with us. We already grabbed a couple of sets of Sister Missionaries to help with the Stake Conference, but they won’t be there for our Ward Conference. I sure hope we can pull it off. 🙏

Friday was a slower day. We had a beautiful walk in the morning and took some pictures of the forest across the street from our house. We went and visited the two people the Elders gave us the day before. We had a wonderful visit with each family. The first one recently moved into the ward. They are not in the Ward Directory yet. They had a baby boy about two months ago. It was so fun to see a baby. The other man we saw is not technically in our ward. He is in the Denby Ward, but since they have Sister Missionaries, they can't visit a single man without another member present. They have been having problems getting other members to help so they asked our Elders to teach the man. Our Elders asked us to go visit with him since he is closer to our age. The Elders will still teach him, but they thought he might like a visit from us. We had a really good visit with him, too.

We ended up staying home for most of Saturday. We had planned on visiting several people on Whananaki North Road, but everything took longer than we expected. We had several things that just needed to get done and Saturday was the day to do it. Steve replaced a shower fixture in the master bathroom, fixed a handle on one of our suitcases, replaced a wheel on a portable heater, and even did some yard work. I cleaned the house, did the laundry, paid some bills, and took care of some paperwork that needed to be done before the end of the month so I could send it to MyLiege via email so she could print it and mail it to the Social Security Office for us. The paperwork needed to be signed by two witnesses, so we headed to the Hesters' house so they could sign our paperwork. I even managed to get an hour or so in on some work for HawkSoft. All in all, it was a very productive day. We accomplished several things that have been bugging me for some time now. I feel much better to tackle next week.

Sunday was a little busier than normal. We always start early with Church. We had a wonderful meeting and Relief Society lesson. After our meetings, we had Ward Council. It was fairly lively today. There were a lot of things that were brought up and we had good discussions. It is nice that we are able to contribute from time to time. Today we announced that someone we were trying to visit had moved just a week ago. The brother happened to be the 2nd Counselor in the Elders Quorum. No one had been able to get a hold of them for a few weeks, so it all made sense. Everyone was surprised by the move. Sister Hester called the Sister when she got home from Church to get the new address. She found out they did NOT move after. The address is wrong in the Ward Directory. Instead of 27 we needed to go to 21. I guess we will try and visit them again this coming week. 

After Ward Council we had our Temple Prep Class. It went pretty well. We have a great group of people in the class. I'm excited to be able to go to the Temple with them in the coming months. We came home after that, and I worked on my Blog Recap. Steve made a delicious dinner. He spoils me so much. After a few hours at home, we headed back to the Chapel for a Missionary Choir. The Stake is putting on a Devotional on May 5th, and the Missionaries are singing. I love serving here.  

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Exercise, Visits, Internet, and Zone Conference

Monday morning started with finally getting back to an exercise routine. We took a very nice walk around our new neighborhood. The morning was beautiful and fresh. The homes we passed have lots of greenery and are beautiful. There were plenty of little, rolling hills to challenge us. Shortly after we got home, it started to rain so we timed it perfectly. 

Since it was P-Day, we busied ourselves with lots of things that needed to get done. For example, Steve took care of collapsing the cardboard from our move and getting it out for the rubbish collection. I spent time on the phone to get our internet ordered. They told me on the phone it could take up to 10 days to get started. They turned it on the very next morning. 😊

We had a nice Zoom call with MyLiege's family. They told us all about their trip to California for Disneyland and the HUG meeting in Carlsbad. Djeryd, Eva, and Ruthie got on the call too. It had been way to long since we saw baby Ruth. 

We went to the doctor, finally, so we could get our prescriptions renewed. We are all set now and don't anticipate any issues. We have to see him again in three months for the next renewal. He wants us to send him our medical history before that. After that I don't know if we can just have them automatically renewed.

We walked again on Tuesday morning. Two days in a row!!! I spent way too much time trying to finish setting up the modem/router. I finally called the Office Elders for help. Since the router came from the Mission, I couldn't get help from our service provider. The Elders said they would come by sometime on Thursday when they got here for Zone Conference. So, we stayed on our Hotspot for two more days. Next, we worked on planning our visits. Since there is a school holiday for two weeks, we decided to focus on Seminary students that aren't attending. We found out that two had moved and one had a SOLD sign in front of their house. We were able to leave a couple of messages with some parents, but we didn't see any kids. We took the opportunity to invite them to our ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Touch Rugby game on April 25th.

Wednesday was our DCM (District Council Meeting) and more Seminary visits. We also got our walk in before our DCM meeting. We were on a roll. We had a great District Council. We had some fun, shared some great Book of Mormon insights, reported on our activities from the previous week as well as a miracle that happened, and received some great training. Sister Allen showed up for the last 10 minutes to share a message with us. Basically, she said we are where we are supposed to be by “divine design.” We talked a lot about trusting in the Lord, even when we didn’t understand why. Several of us shared experiences when we thought we knew best, only to realize that what the Lord had in store for us was far better than what we had in mind. We finished up visiting the rest of our list of potential Seminary students. Out of the four we were hoping to see, we scheduled an appointment with one for Monday morning next week. We should be able to visit with her aunt too, as she is bringing her to our house. We were able to visit with two others and extended the invitations to Seminary and the ANZAC activity. The third one moved over a year ago. As we were leaving our last visit, we were met by our Sister Missionaries. They told us we got back too soon. They were trying to "heart attack" our car. It was so sweet. We love our missionaries.

After our walk on Thursday morning, we had our SPF Zoom call. Several missionaries shared their favorite General Conference talk and why. I found myself thinking with everyone that shared, "that's one of my favorite talks too." Not long after the SPF meeting, our Elders from our Ward came over for a companionship study. We haven't done that before, but we are asked to meet with them once a week. I decided to make some cookies so they will like us. 😉They already love us. LOL. They came as a threesome. We had a great study session. As they were getting ready to leave, Elder Cockbain asked what I thought was wrong with the router. He is a techie and wanted to take a look. I had plugged in the ethernet cable that came out of the wall, but it didn't connect to the Internet for some reason. It turned out that cable was not connected to the Fiber Optic box that was hiding in a hall closet. We moved the router to the closet and connected it directly to the Fiber Optic box (since I didn't have another ethernet cable to connect the Fiber Optic box to the ethernet connection in the wall) and voila, we have Internet!!!

Friday was Zone Conference. We managed to walk again before Conference. It is so wonderful to see everyone. In our two short months we have made so many wonderful connections with members, missionaries, and people. They both leave on May 20th but will spend the weekend in Auckland so they can go to the Temple one last time before they head home. We heard some beautiful musical numbers from "our Sister Missionaries." I call them ours because we have really developed a great bond with them. Sister Kinikini is leaving on May 20th. 😢Sister Lilloux played the piano in the first number and the violin in the second one. Sister Allen sang for the second number. They were both so beautiful. Brother Ah Mu from our Ward presented some Māori Culture. He gave us several handouts with awesome information. He shared one Māori prophecy that talked about the coming of a church that would be for the Māori people. You can find it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%81ora_Te_Potangaroa.  He said, "You will recognize it when it comes. Its missionaries will travel in pairs. They will come from the rising sun. They will visit with us in our homes. They will learn our language and teach us the gospel in our own tongue. When they pray, they will raise their right hands.” It was all very interesting.

After a delicious lunch, the Elders and even some of the Sisters danced the Haka for those missionaries that are leaving before the next Zone Conference. I can't believe how much that got to me this time. After they do the dance, they all sing, "God Be With You ‘Till We Meet Again.” I cried. After that, the young missionaries went back for more training, and several Seniors went to a Flat Inspection meeting. We will be inspecting two flats between transfers. Elder Garner is also going to rely on the Seniors in the northern areas more to help care for the young missionaries. We will take care of things like when they lock themselves out of their apartment, or get a flat tire, or some furniture breaks, or whatever. We have been asked to watch over the storage unit and move furniture in and out when needed. We won't be doing full moves; Elder Garner will come up for that. But if something needs to be replaced, we can take care of that. We ended the day by getting a flu shot that President Allen said everyone needed to get for a particular strain in New Zealand that is particularly nasty.

It rained on Saturday morning and put a damper on our morning walk. So, I decided to do a walking exercise on YouTube. 😅6 days in a row. We attended a baptism of a cute 10-year-old girl that our Sister Missionaries in Denby were working with. Nearly all the missionaries turned out in support. Her family was also there. None of them are members of the Church, but I think they enjoyed the baptism. We talked to Season after that to wish him a Happy Birthday. It is tricky to get the day right since we are 1 day ahead and 5 hours behind. We wanted to call on our Friday, which was his Thursday and his birthday, but by the time we sat down to call it was after 7 PM our time and so it was after midnight his time. So, we waited until Saturday and sang him "Happy Belated Birthday to You!" It was nice to visit with him. Finally, we headed up the very long and twisty road that we have been on several times before. We have about 8 members on the road. It is several miles long. No one has been home before. We didn't know if they were working or moved away. We decided to try Saturday since we KNEW one brother lived there. We found him home and he was a wealth of knowledge for us. Most everyone on the list still lives there. There was one that moved to Australia and two had passed away, although their families are still there. We had three that didn't have house numbers and he was able to tell us where they live and an educated guess as to what their address is. We picked the furthest one away and found him at home. We had a nice visit and invited them to our ANZAC activity. He suggested we drive a little further down the road to get to the actual ocean. We had seen several inlets, but this time we saw the actual beach. It was also the end of the road. It was quite beautiful.

Sunday was another rainy day. We woke up VERY early so we could watch the funeral of a very dear friend, Jim Bean. It was a beautiful service. His wife, Helen, passed away in 2020. We considered them some of our best friends. 

We had to get ready for Church while we watch the funeral on Zoom. It finished just as we were ready to leave for Church. We got to speak in Sacrament meeting today. I think the talks turned out pretty good. I spoke on the General Conference talk by Elder Jose Alonso entitled, "Jesus Christ at the Center of our Lives." Steve spoke on President Eyring's talk entitled, "All Will Be Well Because of Temple Covenants." After Church we had our Temple Prep Class. It went well too. One of our students is going to miss two weeks, so we will be making those classes up with her after she gets home. 

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Visits, Dinners, and General Conference 

Because of the time difference, New Zealand will watch General Conference next weekend. We decided that we wanted to watch at least ONE session live. The only one we could see was Sunday afternoon when we watched live on Monday morning at 8:00. It was a fairly emotional experience for us. It was the first session we've seen live since April 2021 before our mission to Headquarters. While watching it, we were emotionally and spiritually attached to our Interpretation team back in Salt Lake City. We had been praying for them for weeks. We longed to be with them at that particular time. We missed all the excitement and energy of being with the Interpreters and our team, but we also felt excited to be watching it live. We were excited to hear the announcement of the Yuma, Arizona and Brisbane, Australia Temples as well as 13 other Temples. 

Steve put the chairs together

We didn't really take a P-Day because we wanted to visit with Brother and Sister Ah Mu. They work at the Temple on Wednesday and Thursday, but because of the distance they leave on Tuesday. So, Mondays are about the only time we can visit with them. We had a great visit. They worked with us going through the ward list and giving us information about people who have moved. Sister Ah Mu also asked me to direct the Ward Choir for Stake Conference. Hesitantly, I said yes. I've never directed a choir before, other than a few times at practice. Wish me luck.

We started Tuesday fairly early as we had to take the Rubbish cans out at the Hester's house. They only live a little way from us now. They went to Auckland for a few days. I spent most of the day working on the Ward Directory. Steve hung our pictures. We tried to keep busy since we had to wait for a repair man to show up to fix a burned-out heat lamp. It wasn't just burned out, it was broken. We called the landlord and told them what Steve had done to check it out. We told them we would probably need a new unit. The guy showed up with two new bulbs, but of course that was not the problem. After he looked it over, he said it would have to be replaced and he would have to order a replacement. So, we will have to wait again at some future time for him to come back and replace it. 😏We also secured a big tarp to the garage floor. Our garage is carpeted, but we want to actually put our car in there. The tarp is working out great. I created a couple of flyers. One for the Choir and another for an activity we are having with the Te Horo Branch on April 25th. 

We got an email that our office chairs had arrived and were ready for pickup. After we picked up the chairs, we picked up a small potted plant for the Hesters as a thank you gift for all their help with our move. We dropped the gift, all the boxes we borrowed for the move, and her casserole dish off on our way home since they arrived back on Tuesday afternoon. We didn't stay long, and they kept their distance as they thought they may have caught COVID while in Auckland. They did. 😢We watched the first session of Conference that evening.

Wall Hanging in the 
Seminary Teacher's House

Wednesday was our DCM (District Council Meeting). We have moved back to the North District. The South District has been moved to meet in the Hikurangi building until further notice. The Buchanans have been assigned to that district now. We got to do a role play in our DCM. It was fun.

We stopped at several homes on our way back to our flat for a very light lunch. Unfortunately, no one was home. I finished up the work on the Ward Directory and Steve finished scanning some documents that Brother Ah Mu gave us, so we could return his notebook on Sunday. After watching the World Report from General Conference, we headed to one of our Temple Prep class member's house for dinner. She was sick on Sunday, so she missed our class. We offered to come and teach her during the week, and she invited us for dinner. We had a wonderful visit with her. Her husband was away on business, so I think it was a win win for everyone.

Thursday was a "banner day." After our SPF (Short, Powerful, and Frequent) Zoom meeting with the mission, we headed out to do more visits. It was kind of a stormy day, but we decided to brave the wind and the rain. We got to our first house, and it was pouring rain. We said a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to bless us for braving the weather to visit the members of the Ward, and that we would find some home today. Well, our first house was a wonderful visit with a family we see each week with three little kids. We say Hi and shake hands and give High Fives to the kids, but we didn’t really know them. We had no idea they lived there. The kids were in school and both parents were home. It was nice to finally get to know them.

The Seminary Teacher
with the Wall Hanging

The next few were either not home or had moved. Then we went to another home and had a great visit. One of the older daughters is in our Temple Prep class. We knew her but did not know the rest of the family. We learned a lot about them and enjoyed our visit. Next one was not home and then another great visit. This one was our Seminary teacher. We had a fairly long visit with her. So much fun to get to know the members of the ward. A couple more were not at home before we headed home ourselves. Oh, and the other frosting on the cake was the heavy rain stopped after we went to the first house. There was wind and a few sprinkles, but no more rain. Heavenly Father heard and answered our prayers!!!

Friday was a day that prayers were answered. After watching another session of General Conference, we headed out for a day of visits. The first place we went too, we missed the day before. I think there must have been a reason for that. We were expecting to find one couple but ended up connecting with an investigator that the young missionaries have been working with. We had a wonderful visit with Joe. We have met him a few times at Church. He had set his baptism date for July. Joe has had some very difficult times. He lost his wife last September to cancer. It was her wish that he look into the Church. To honor her he started attending and found peace he never expected. He told us about his struggle since she passed away and about the miracles he had been experiencing. He even told us that he had been thinking about us that very morning. He sort of prayed us there that day. Since he is not a member yet, he doesn’t appear in our directory. We never would have gone to visit him with our present searches. Anyway, we were meant to be there.

Flyer for our 
Combined Activity

We connected with a few other places enough to verify they lived there, but only because there was someone else in the house that told us they were at work. A few others moved and some were just not home so we left a little calling card.

We finished just in time to head over to Charlotta’s to give her a blessing to help with a problem she has. She had texted me earlier to say that she wasn’t feeling well and could we move the blessing to another day. I never picked up the text, so we showed up at her door. Again, it ended up being exactly what she needed. We visited briefly and then Steve gave her a beautiful blessing. Later she sent me a text saying how glad she was that we stopped by. She said that she had always been told that things work out the way they are meant to be, and so it did that day. I’m so glad I didn’t pick up her text in time. I’m grateful that we were in tune to follow the promptings we received. And I’m grateful for the miracles we see in our lives every day.

Saturday was spent at the Chapel watching General Conference. It was mostly just the missionaries there, but we did have a few members show up. One thing that was nice was we only had ½ hour between session, so we were done with everything by 4:30. I took lots of notes. The talks were so good. It was so good to see President Holland speak again. He gave such a personal talk. I have missed him. I loved all the talks. Each one spoke to me. The one central theme that I noticed was about the Temple. I love the Temple. We get to go again on the 23rd. 

After the last session, we rushed home to fix dinner. We invited the Hesters and the Kreutzkamps over for dinner that night. Part of what we needed to do was plan for a combined activity with the Te Horo Branch and the Hikurangi Ward on the 25th of April and part of it was to say thank you to both families for all the help they have given us since we arrived here. Unfortunately, the Hesters came down with COVID last week and had to cancel on us. We still did some planning via the phone. We had a lovely dinner and evening with the Kreutzkamps.

Sunday was also spent at the Chapel watching the Sunday sessions of General Conference. Again, I loved the talks. Elder Patrick Kearon spoke for the first time as a new Apostle. He said a funny.  He said, “behind every new Apostle stands an astonished mother-in-law. I don’t know if that has actually been said, but in this case, it certainly could be. And I suspect that the fact that my mother-in-law is no longer with us does nothing to reduce her astonishment.” He gave a great talk about God’s Intent to Bring Home all His Children. I loved it.

President Nelson was a concluding speaker for the Sunday Afternoon session. He focused on Temples and the Gift of Priesthood Keys. After explaining all the blessings we receive because of the gift of Priesthood Keys, especially those found in the Temples, he proceeded to announce 15 more Temples around the world. That is always an exciting part of his talks at Conference.

After conference we had Choir practice for singing at Stake Conference in a few weeks. We actually had a pretty good turnout. Hopefully we will have more on Thursday evening. I’ve been asked to direct the Choir. That is funny because I have never done that before. Oh, I substituted a few times with Ward Choirs when the Choir director was out for a week or two, but that was only during our practices. I have never directed a choir for an actual performance. Wish me luck!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

The MOVE!!!

Our Empty Kitchen Cupboards

Most of this week was focused on our move to Te Kamo. This move wasn't just packing our clothes and moving to a new flat. We were actually moving everything from the existing flat to the new flat. They were turning the existing flat back to the landlord to be rented to someone else. Since the Mission furnishes all the missionary flats, we had to pack up everything. So, we spent much of our P-Day packing and preparing for our eventual move. We managed to pack almost everything except for the few things we needed for the next few days. That included planning our leftovers, so we didn't have much food to pack.

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent working. We started visiting our April birthdays in addition to the other people we added to our list. We are still meeting lots of people who are not home. We are hoping to meet with a couple of members who have been around forever so they can go through the ward list with us. Mainly, we want to know who moved or who passed away. It is hard for us to know if someone doesn't answer, if it is the person we are looking for or if they have moved away. We brought it up in Ward Council on Sunday and were told to check with a couple of brothers who know everyone. 

Last District Meeting

We did get to see two people on Tuesday. The first one was one of our birthday people. She is a Young Woman, and we didn't expect to see her during the day. We were hoping to meet with the mother. However, it was a school holiday, and the kids were home, but both parents were working. Anyway, we had a wonderful visit with the kids. There are seven girls and one boy. Several were home and seemed happy to visit with us. The birthday girl was one of them. 😊The last home we went too was sort of successful. We were dropping another birthday card off for a 20-year-old sister this time. Her mother answered the door but kept her distance. She was sick. She told us her daughter moved out last November, but she was coming over the next day for her birthday. So, we left the card for her to give to her daughter. 

Elder Jones in the back
and Elder Garner in front.

In the middle of our travels, we got a call from Elder Jones telling us we would be moving on Thursday! He said he and Elder Garner would be there around 10 depending on traffic and construction coming up from Auckland. We contacted Brother and Sister Hester to let them know we were on for Thursday. They offered their trailer and their help when we saw them last week.

Wednesday was our District Council Meeting and our Pre-Move Day. We were all set to meet at the Bream Bay Chapel. The Sisters who serve in Bream Bay had the key and were trying to unlock the door when we got there. After trying it on every door, we finally decided to hold our DCM meeting at our house. I wasn't about to sit on the skateboard bowl again. Lol. This particular meeting was special. It was the last meeting before transfers, meaning we were not likely to all be together next week. Our District Leader made a delicious  chicken, broccoli, and cheese soup and one of the sisters brought rolls so we could all have a nice lunch together after our meeting. We ended our meeting with each of us bearing our testimonies. It was a very special meeting. It was hard to say goodbye, knowing that we would not see some of them again. It looks like we are staying with the South District until further notice, so even after we move, we will be back in the area once a week.

Brother and Sister Hester

One of our visits on Wednesday took us to the Horsford house. They live on a farm. Brother Horsford is a counselor in the Bishopric and Sister Horsford does Family History and plays the piano and organ. She is a nurse too, so she misses Church sometimes. When we got there, they were out working. We didn't expect to stay very long, but they seemed to want to talk. I think they were wrapping it up anyway since Sister Horsford had to go to work later. We had a wonderful visit with them. They informed us that the next person on our list had passed away. After trying the next two house with no luck we went home. We spent our time doing most of our last-minute packing and cleaning in prep for Thursday's move.

Move day started early. I wanted to get my scriptures done before everyone showed up to help us. After scriptures, I started moving as much as I could to the garage to make things easier for our helpers. By the time they all arrived, we only had a few things on the kitchen counter that we were using, and the big furniture. Everyone arrived around 10:30 and we were on the road to the new place by 11:15. Not bad. We sent a request to both the North District and the South District for any young missionaries that could meet us at the new house and unload and got one set from each district. I think we had everything unloaded a little after 1:00. The two young Elders did double duty. They went with Elder Jones to pick up the rest of our furniture from the storage unit in Kamo, and then unloaded that too. Everyone was gone before 2:00. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and organizing. Sister Hester came back with a delicious hot casserole for our dinner. That sure beat the frozen pizza we were going to go buy. 

Friday continued to be very much a part of our move. After we discussed what we needed to get done for the day we decided we had to start with shopping since we needed some things to help with our other projects. Unfortunately, it took much longer than we anticipated so we got a very late start on the projects. We ordered a couple of office chairs. We have been using folding chairs for over a month now and they are not really working for us. We had lots of groceries to buy as well. We had been buying food for only a few days at a time, so we didn't have anything to make real meals. We bought spices and other staples as well as food, so we are pretty well set to cook for ourselves. 

After we got home, we dug into putting the desk together. That also took much longer than expected. It was nice to finally set up the computers, monitor, and printer again. I'm very spoiled. Thankfully we had enough left over dinner from the night before, so we didn't have to fuss about that. 

Saturday was what the young missionaries call a FIRE Day. We started the day attending a baptism for the Elders that helped us move. They meet in our building while the Stake Center is being worked on. After that, we visited the mother of a sister in our ward who is the hospital. We ran into the daughter in the grocery store when we were shopping on Friday. She asked us if we could visit her mother. Of course, we said yes. Her mother was surprised to see two strangers come to visit her. After she found out her daughter sent us, she was happy to see us. We had a very nice little visit with her. Before we left, Elder Wilcox gave her a blessing.

We headed back home and had some lunch. I made a big pot of slow cooked bean and ham soup while Steve started putting the dining room table together. I did laundry and Steve hung the pictures around the house. I managed to work on HawkSoft for an hour or so. We also tackled a project in the garage. We actually have a beautiful garage. It is carpeted. We really want to park the car in the garage, but we don’t want to ruin the carpet. SOOOOOOO, we bought a big heavy-duty tarp and taped it over the carpet. We will probably have to retape the front over the next two years, but I think it should work out great. It was raining BIG time today so we wanted to get it done so we could put the car in the garage. We ate our bean and ham soup that turned out pretty good. Then we showered and watch a movie. I think we are finally done with the house.

The Sabbath! Oh, how I love the Sabbath day. Sunday was Awesome! Since we are closer, we got to Church early. It was nice to be able to greet the members when they arrived. Most of you were watching General Conference, but because of the time difference, they do General Conference next weekend. We are going to watch it this week as well as next weekend. I think we can watch the Sunday afternoon session live Monday morning at 8:00 AM! So, that meant we had our normal Fast Sunday today. I can't believe how wonderful Fast and Testimony meeting was. The Spirit was so strong. We had a good turnout for our meeting. We seem to have more people each week. Our Sunday School lesson was also excellent. While the Stake Center is being remodeled, we have Wards meeting in our building. We share our Sunday School time with another ward that meets after us. They take turns with which ward teaches each month. This month is our Ward's turn to teach Sunday School and the other Wards turn to do RS and Priesthood. At least I think that is the way it is working. The sister from our ward did a fabulous job of teaching. We had a wonderful discussion covering receiving personal revelation and being responsible for our own Testimonies. I loved it. 

We saw this as we were leaving Church.

After Church we had a great Ward Council meeting. After that, we held our Temple Prep Class before heading home. After Church, we were invited to dinner tonight by a ward member. It will be nice to get to know them better. We have a dinner appointment this coming Wednesday too. We are loving the members and beginning to feel at home. They are all so welcoming and loving. 

There is nothing better than serving the Lord. 

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Beach Trip, Whangarei South District Meeting, and Happy Easter! 

On Monday we got up fairly early for a P-Day. We had to travel 1 1/2 hours to Coopers Beach for our Northland Senior Missionary Activity. We had a total of 6 Senior couples. They try to have an activity once a month at a location near where the Missionary Couple that is planning it lives. This time it was at the topmost portion of the North Island. Now, we have a beach not very far from our front door, but we traveled 2 1/2 hours to join our fellow Senior Missionaries to go to their beach. 😊It was so much fun getting to know the other couples. We are the newest couple, but only by 2 weeks.

Lunch was delicious. Someone brough pulled pork for pulled pork sandwiches. Someone else brought oven roasted potatoes that were in something wonderful. So delicious. We also had a vegie tray, a yummy fruit salad, and of course cookies and desert squares.  We talked and visited and just enjoyed each other. The weather was a little breezy but not too cold. I only put my jacket on when the wind started picking up a little stronger. When it came time to leave, we all packed up and then stood around a talked for at least another 1/2 an hour. No one wanted to leave.  

On the way home, we stopped on the side of the road to have a Zoom call with Sierra's family. That was a lot of fun too. We talk with each of our children each month. Each child gets a week on their own.

On Tuesday morning I went out the front door to check if the trash needed to be put out. I walked right through cobwebs. That started the hour-long project of cleaning cobwebs all around the outside of the house. We were too late for the trash, but did manage to be in time for the recycling items.

Once we finished with that, we headed into Whangarei to enroll with a doctor's clinic. We have some prescriptions we need to get refilled, and we can't do that without being enrolled in the Medical system. As soon as they finish getting us enrolled, we will be able to get our prescriptions. 

After we finished that, we started visiting the members we had picked for the day. The first sister we visited was very sweet. She acted like she had seen us at Church, and we had a very nice visit. We realized about halfway through our visit that she wasn't the sister we were looking for. For one thing she mentioned she was 81 years old and the sister we were looking for was 92. She also mentioned her neighbor name and it wasn't the name we were looking for. Finally, she talked about the Kingdom Hall and we realized she was not a member of our Church. We still had a great visit with her. I think she welcomed visiting with someone. I left our "calling" card with her and told her to call us if she needed anything. She sent us on our with with a nice box of chocolate! The other three people we contacted didn't go nearly as fun. One wouldn't talk to us, one thought she had COVID, so we only talked a little through the screen door, and the last one was at the apartment, but she no longer lives there. She was visiting the people who live there now. I think they were family.

On Wednesday, we attended our first Whangarei South District Council. We were supposed to meet in the local chapel, but the Sister Missionaries were unable to get the key and so we held our meeting at a park nearby. Where we thought was a picnic table, turned out to be a big square bench kind of thing. Since we didn't want to sit with our backs to each other, we thought we would try the skateboard "bowl" and sit on the edges. It was a little tricky, but we managed to climb up the ramp and sit on the edge. Our meeting went very well. Again, I am so impressed by these young missionaries.

Thursday morning started with our SPF (Short, Power, Frequent) Zoom meeting. Our topic was the last week of the Savior's life. Several Sister Missionaries and Elder and Sister Bailey presented it. They did a very good job. We went over to the Hester's for a light lunch, before heading out visiting with them. They are so good to us. They have volunteered to help us move this week. Brother Hester has a trailer that he is going to bring down to help us. We will have to do something special for them after we get moved in.

We ended up staying home on Friday. We spent our time working on the Ward Directory, making birthday cards for members with birthdays in April, catching up on our studies since it has been hard to stay on top of that since we moved out to Bream Bay, and working on some stuff for HawkSoft. It is a long holiday weekend because of Easter. The whole island shuts down for Good Friday and Easter Monday. Stores close and everyone goes on holiday for the long 4-day weekend.

We planned on packing for Saturday. That didn't work out. We got a text on Friday evening asking us to clean up the side yard. Most of the yard work is done by gardeners. We don't ever go on the side of the house, so we didn't really think about it. We had a house inspection a week or so ago from the home association in the neighborhood. Apparently, they were the ones asking for the cleanup. So, we tackled it on Saturday. 

Steve did most of the tackling, as I was doing laundry and working on HawkSoft. I did go out and help with the picking up of everything when he was almost done hoeing and digging out the dead stuff. I think it looks pretty clean now. Our showers sure felt good after that was done.

Easter Sunday started early so we could make it to Church before 8:30. We had a lovely program. The Primary started the Easter story and sang a song. The Young Women continued the story out of the scriptures and sang a song. The Young Men continued with scriptures. Then ALL the Priesthood sang a song. Next, we finished the scripture story with our Young Missionary in the Ward. He also gave a brief talk. He was followed by our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Hester. The last speaker was Bishop Henare. He also gave a very nice talk. Elder Wilcox gave the closing prayer. We just had one meeting today. We were home by 11. We spent time reading and studying more about the Easter Story. After that, we made dinner together. We then settled down for a nice relaxing evening.

I hope you have all remembered why we celebrate Easter. The symbols of the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs should point us to the Savior. Easter Morning was His resurrection. He overcame death and paved the way for all of us to one day be resurrected. Our bodies and our spirits will be joined together, never to be separated again. Easter is related to new birth or a newness of life. Both the bunny and the egg symbolize new life. Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!

May you all have a VERY HAPPY EASTER!!!

Elder and Sister Wilcox