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