P-Day, Bream Bay House, Choir,  Funeral, Mother's Day, and Ward Conference

Our Senior Missionary P-Day started right after Seminary. We quickly changed and hit the road for a long drive to Manea Footprints of Kupe. It is a Māori Museum. We had two wonderful tour guides who told us all about the history of how the Māori came to New Zealand. They have some beautiful and very unusual carvings of their ancestors and gods. They told us their stories and beliefs. Near the end of the tour, they had a video and interactive presentation. Our tour guides interacted with the video in dance, song, and storytelling. They had some special effects, too. We all enjoyed it very much. I think we had a total of seven couples. It was so much fun to visit with them and enjoy this cultural event together. 

After our tour, we had a very nice lunch al fresco. And from there we went to see the Tāne Mahuta tree about a half hour away from the museum. It is the largest known living kauri tree in New Zealand. We had to scrub the soil off our shoes and have them sanitized before we could walk into the forest on a special walkway to see the tree. It was a WOW moment. 

The day was actually a miracle as it was supposed to rain all day. We had rain on the drive over and a few little drops here and there while we were outside, but the downpour didn't come until on our way home. Tender mercies.  Once we got home, we had time to get ready for Family Home Evening. I made brownies, and Steve cut up ice breaker questions for our getting to know you game. The Elders showed up, but no one else did tonight. We will continue to invite. We had a fun time with the Elders.

Tuesday started with Seminary again. On the way home we stopped by the Elders' flat to pick up several broken chairs. They don't give the young missionaries these wooden chairs anymore because they break too easily. Now they have heavy duty plastic chairs and are practically indestructible.  After a visit with a couple of our seminary students, we headed home to meet up with Sister Budge for her Pathway class.

Wednesday started with Seminary and then our District Council Meeting (DCM) and finally a nice visit with Joe. After that we packed a nice lunch and headed to the Bream Bay house to do some cleaning in preparation for our final inspection on the 24th. We decided to eat our lunch at the beach since it was a beautiful day. I worked in the house vacuuming up spiders and cobwebs. Steve worked outside weeding and brushing down all the cobwebs around the house. We left after several house. Still more to do.

Our Thursday was a little more traditional. We had Seminary, then picked up a few groceries on the way home. We had our weekly Zoom SFP meeting with the mission. Sister Allen shared about the Pacific Area meeting in Tahiti they recently returned from. It sounded awesome. Elder Soares was the visiting General Authority.

Our Tour Guides

After the SPF meeting, our Ward Elders came over for our weekly Companionship Study. We had a wonderful discussion on Faith in Jesus Christ. We shared scriptures and insights we all have experienced. I really enjoyed it. I spent a little time working on our Temple Prep lesson before we headed to Sister Collins' house for a nice visit with her and her husband. She is pretty much confined to her easy chair and doesn't communicate very well. Her husband is a great talker. We always enjoy visiting with them. 

We got another email from Sister Garner about the Bream Bay house. We were trying to get a straight answer on what they needed done. At first, they were trying to get us (the Church) to replace the carpet because it is badly worn in the master bedroom. We can prove it was before we ever leased the property. So now they just keep sending the list of things to do, which includes professional cleaning of the carpet. So, I started trying to find a company to do the carpet and windows all before May 24th. Everyone I talked to was booked through the middle of June.

We finished the day with choir practice. We did not have all our choir members, so it made me a little nervous. We were scheduled to on Sunday. Most of our children were not there and they do a whole verse by themselves. I prayed they would all be there on Sunday. 🙏

We planned on going back to Bream Bay on Friday but got an invite from our Bishop to attend a funeral in a Marae. Typically, the family and friends will have a ceremony for about three days. The body lies on a marae. A marae is kind of a community center for the Māori. It is made up of a courtyard and several buildings that surround the courtyard. They hold weddings there too, as well as other things for the Māori community. The body is placed in a beautifully woven sack. It is open for a day or so, while the family and friends gather together to share memories and songs. There is food too.

On the final day they have the funeral. This can actually be done twice. They will have one at the marae and if the Church is close, they may take the body to the Church and hold another funeral ceremony. We only did it at the marae today.

Before the actual funeral started, several people sang. Some were solo songs, and many others were joined by the whole congregation of people in the marae. We recognized a few songs even though they sang them in Māori. We sang in English. Others we did not know at all. ALL of them were so beautiful. I think I loved the singing most of all.

The funeral itself was similar to what we are used to. The oldest daughter shared the eulogy. She had some wonderful stories to tell about her mother. Two of her brothers also shared their thoughts and feelings. A group of her grandchildren sang a beautiful song called Testimony. It was the same song the missionaries sang for the devotional last Sunday. Most everyone stood up when the songs were sung as a sign of respect. 

After the closing prayer, they carried the body out of the marae followed by family members and then friends. Many of them proceeded to walk up a very steep hill behind the marae to the graveyard, where they buried her and dedicated the grave. It was a very beautiful ceremony. I’m so glad we had the opportunity to attend.

Saturday, we were back at the Bream Bay house. We did some more things around the house. I mopped all the floors and cleaned the blinds. Steve worked in the yard again as well has changing some light bulbs and a few other things in the house. We met a cleaning professional around noon and got a bid for the work we wanted done. Since the other guy never showed up, I went with the guy that did show up. We will meet him and his crew next Tuesday morning. On our way to the house, we got another text from Elder Garner asking us to stop by the Elders' flat to check out the bad leak they reported from their washing machine. They said it was flooding the washroom. 😮 Since we had to pick up the keys, I had Steve drop me off so I could finish preparing all the lessons we are giving. So, I spent the rest of the day working on several lessons and doing laundry.

Sunday dawned bright and early. We were singing for Ward Conference, so I had the choir come early so we could run through the song. It was a good thing we went even earlier than the practice, because Bishop needed some help on the computer that I was able to help with. I was a little worried because we didn't have many people show up early from the practice. It was also Mother's Day, and our song was about mothers. Thankfully, people started joining the choir in the choir seats. Over the course of several weeks' practice, we have never had the same number of people at practice. Everyone that showed up had been to at least one practice so that was good. We ended up with about 8 or 9 children and youth, so our children's verse turned out very well. The rest of the choir filled out well also. The whole song turned out beautiful. I was able to breathe a nice sigh of relief when it was over. Everyone seemed to really like it. The counselor in the Stake Presidency came up to the piano player (Sister Horsford), Sister Ah Mu (ward music leader), and me to talk about Stake Conference next week. Our choir is singing two songs for that. He asked Sister Horsford if she was willing to play the organ next week for the Sunday Session. Sister Kreutzkamp is playing for both sessions on Saturday. He then asked if I could direct for both Saturday sessions as well as on Sunday. One good thing came out of all that directing. I put my Fitbit watch on my right wrist and I get to count ALL those movements as STEPS. Hahaha. I get a good workout directing the music. 

Ward Conference was very nice. During the second hour, we met with the counselor in the Stake Presidency where Elder Wilcox received a new call. I mention what it is in two weeks after he gets sustained and set apart. We talked with the Seminary teacher about some changes that are happening there. It looks like we will be holding in-person lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays when most of the kids show up. Tuesdays and Thursdays we will have only Zoom meetings. I will be doing those lessons, and we can do that from our house. We don't have Seminary on Fridays. This coming week will be "normal." We will implement the new changes next week.

We finished out the day with a special Temple Devotional Sunday night. It was a very inspirational Devotional. They made two key announcements. They are starting a Temple Bus once a month. The Stake Presidencies of both the Whangarei and Kaikohe Stakes talked with the Temple President and have arranged a special time once a month for just our Stakes. They will open the Temple much earlier on Saturday morning for our two Stakes to do ordinances. At first it will be 50 seats on the bus. Of course, we can drive ourselves if we want, but we need to let them know as the number of available ordinances will be limited. Everyone was very excited for this. They also said this will pave the way for a Temple to be built in Northland someday. If we can consistently get our members to the Temple, we will be able to qualify for a Temple of our own. I LOVE THE TEMPLE!

All our Love, 
Elder and Sister Wilcox