FHE, Farewell DCM, More Bream Bay House, and Stake Conference

I couldn't resist a picture
of Ruth.

Our P-Day was nothing like last week. We stayed home and took care of a few neglected things we've been trying to get done. We started with Seminary. I presented the lesson and I think it went pretty good. I received several more Mother's Day greetings as our Monday is the US Sunday. It was very sweet to get them. Anna's text was so touching it made me cry. I love my family so much.

We made some foot warmers to keep Steve's feet warm in bed. We had a wonderful Zoom call with Season's family. Madison was home from college, so it was wonderful to see and talk to her. We talked to everyone except Brooklyn since she was at work. I love our weekly video calls with our family! I'm not sure we could do this without modern technology. I also worked on some HawkSoft for a while.

We had the Elders and the Davises for Family Home Evening. We should start getting a few more each week. We have to cancel next Monday as we will be in Auckland for the day. I hooked up my laptop to our TV and we discussed the same information I gave for my Seminary lesson. We had a very nice discussion and a fun time playing our game. I love our Family Home Evening. I'm anxious to get more people join our group. 

The two girls next to me are going home.

We went to The Chemist Warehouse after Seminary on Tuesday morning. We have been waiting for Steve's prescription for weeks. It finally came in and we were able to pick it up. We shouldn't have any problems in the future. They now have fixed our phone number and our address. That made all the difference. 😊

After our scripture study and daily planning, we headed out to visit. I printed up some little invites for Stake Conference that we handed out to those we visited. It is always nice to have an invitation to something to give them. We made sure we were back home before Sister Budge got there for her Pathway class. 

Sister Kinikini and Sister Hinton

We had our "transfer" DCM meeting combined with the South District. Two of our beautiful sisters are going home on Monday. We had a RWH (Return with Honor) party. The Elders took care of everything. They decorated with balloons, streamers, and a streamer curtain. Another sister was celebrating her 9 month mark. At the end of our meeting (before the party), nearly every young missionary bore such strong testimonies. It was very touching. The Spirit was strong. 

After the closing prayer, the "party" started. The Elders brought out three little cakes and some ice cream. They sang to the three girls. We took lots of pictures, gave lots of hugs, and shed a few tears too.

Cleaners Cleaning

President and Sister Allen called us this morning to see if we would be willing to serve as assistant vehicle coordinators. Elder and Sister Bailey are leaving in a month. A new service missionary couple will take their place, but they only work part time and won't start for a couple of weeks. They won't have the opportunity to see how transfers work before the Baileys leave. So, we will learn the ropes and train the new couple next transfer. We will also act as assistants to be a backup for the new couple to answer questions that occur when the other couple is not working.

Around 5:00 we got a call from Elder Garner. He asked if we could meet with one of the property managers about two apartments in our area that they have some issues with. He thought an in-person meeting with the property manager would be best. Since it was after 5:00 I emailed to try and set up an appointment for Friday.

The Storm

Thursday was long and somewhat boring. After Seminary, we quickly changed clothes and packed a lunch before heading to Bream Bay again. We met the cleaning crew to take care of cleaning the windows inside and out, shampoo the carpet, and take care of the spots on the walls and ceilings. I was told it might be around 3 hours. We let them in and headed to the beach around the corner. Our original plan was to take a nice walk, but it was rather stormy. The wind was blowing and it rained off and on all day. So, I pulled out my laptop and worked on several different things.

After a couple of hours, we headed back to the house and parked in the garage. I needed to plug my laptop in. We pulled out our camp chairs and plugged the laptops in the garage. I had Elder Wilcox join my Zoom meeting so I can see what the Seminary students will see. I want to teach them how to use some features like writing on a whiteboard or sharing their screen. Their interface looks different than mine as the host. AFTER 7 hours they finished and we headed home. We got there with enough time to grab our music and head to choir practice. Our final choir practice went well.

On Friday, we borrowed a water blaster (power washer) from Brother Ah Mu so we could get rid of the moss on the walkway in the side yard at the house in Bream Bay. While Steve took care of the walkway, I contacted the property manager. I then called Sister Garner to report. We went back and forth a few times. We will be making a few visits over the next few days.

In the middle of all that we got an urgent message about another change for our Stake Conference. To summarize: Originally, we were supposed to have Stake Conference at the Stake Center that has been under construction being remodeled to make it bigger. It was supposed to be done by Stake Conference. That didn't work, so the Stake tried to make arrangements to hold it in the auditorium at the Whangarei Boys High School but were told it was booked already. Then they decided to have 4 wards show up at our chapel in Hikurangi and broadcast to several other buildings for the other wards and branches. That was where it was at last Sunday and that is what was told to the Saints. 

On Monday we were told our visiting authority wanted to see everyone in person, so it was announced we would hold two sessions of conference in Hikurangi. One at 10:00 with 4 wards and branches, and a second one at 2:00 with 4 wards and branches. That was the flyer I printed, and we delivered all week to let people know. That was going to be tough on our little choir. We had about 10 children in the choir, and it would be hard for them to sit through two full sessions of conference. Our choir is AWESOME. Everyone agreed to do both sessions. I was very humbled.

The urgent message on Friday was we were now going to all meet together at 10:00 at the Whangarei Boys High School. Apparently, the event that was scheduled was cancelled. The Lord knew we needed to all meet together. I spent the rest of the time, while Steve cleaned the walkway, sending out all kinds of messages about the change for conference. Steve finished about that time so we could rush home in time to meet the Elders for our Comp Study.

Sister Hinton, Sister Lilloux, and Sister Kinikini

Saturday morning, we took care of a few things around the house like washing the car, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and working on my Seminary lesson.

We headed to the leadership meeting of Stake Conference in the afternoon. Our visiting authority is Elder Paul B. Whippy, an Area Seventy based in Suva. He was so tender and spiritual. He shared great stories and also has a great sense of humor. In our leadership meeting he introduced a pilot program for the Pacific Area that we will be participating in for the next three to six months. I expect we will see some great results and the leadership embraces this.

Sister Kreutzkamp played the piano and I conducted both the leadership and the adult sessions Saturday. Three of our sister missionaries played and sang a beautiful prelude number. For the evening session, both Sister Hinton and Sister Kinikini were back. They attended the Temple that morning and got permission to come back to Stake Conference because they are in my choir for Sunday. Anyway, they were sitting right next to us on the front row of the right-hand side near the piano and organ. Sister Lilloux played prelude music and accompanied the special numbers in both sessions. Near the end of the adult session, the Stake President started doing sign language and mouthing words to the sisters. I thought he was asking them to bear their testimonies, but that wasn’t the case. He finally texted Sister Lilloux and asked the sisters if they would sing a song at the end of conference. They gave a thumbs up.

They whispered a few things back and forth and then settled down to listen to Elder Whippy give the closing talk. He shared story after story about different ways to minister to people and help them get on the Covenant Path. Some stories were personal, others were about other people doing the ministering. It was all so beautiful and loving. The whole meeting was that way. I think the Stake President mentioned to Elder Whippy that he had asked the sisters to sing a song after the closing prayer, because Elder Whippy ended about 10 minutes before the hour. When the closing prayer was said, the Stake President asked everyone to remain in their seats for a few minutes for a special musical number, then he nodded to the sisters, and they got up to sing. They motioned to Sister Budge and Sister Griffin to join them. Then they sang a BEAUTIFUL arrangement of I Know That My Redeemer Lives with interludes and a second ending. The music was straight out of the hymn book, but the arrangement and flair was all Sister Lilloux. The other impressive part about this is they had never practiced a note. It was all on the fly. I cried!

Whangarei Boys High School

We left early Sunday morning to get there in plenty of time to check out the auditorium for Stake Conference. Thankfully all the chairs were set up. The only thing we had to do was set up the chairs on the stage. The first row was for the speakers, the next two rows were for the choir.

The stage was not very deep and only three rows would fit. I would have preferred it to be deeper so we could have had more narrow rows and more of them. The choir was spread out very wide and it was hard to hear them. Several people in the audience told me they sounded beautiful. I’m glad the microphones worked. I also had to conduct the music for the hymns. The music stand was in front of the first row. There was not much room. I felt OK when leading the music for the congregation. When I turned the music stand around so I could lead the choir, I worried that I might fall off the stage. Thankfully I didn’t!

It appears the sound system was great for the audience; however, those of us on the stage could only hear muffled sound at best. We would pick up a few words here and there. Some speakers I didn’t understand at all. The others I at least got the basic premise of their talks. From what I heard was wonderful. It was so nice to meet Elder Whippy and even talk to him several times. I’m so glad the choir got lots of complements. They really did sound good. The pianist and I were so happy it was finally over.

Once home, we had a fantastic Zoom call with MyLiege’s family. It is so fun to talk with each person in the family as they share the different things they are doing. Anna graduates in two weeks!  I can’t believe that because that means I have FOUR beautiful grandchildren graduating this year. Kinzley, Brooklyn, Anna, and Joey. I can’t believe they are that old. It has been a GREAT day.

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox