Transfers, Seminary Zoom, the End of Bream Bay!

We had a very unusual Monday this week. It was Transfer Day. No, we were not transferred, but we were asked to go to Auckland for the day. We left immediately after Seminary and arrived a little after 10. It was kind of a zoo all day. They had the missionaries come in stages. The sisters were there from 10 to 11. The new trainers were there from 11 to noon. And the Elders were there from noon to 1. In a perfect world that is the way it would have worked. It may have started with sisters only, but as soon as they started getting into the next time slot, we had both sisters and Elders for the rest of the day. There were still some around until 3:00 or later. Most of the ones that were late were those waiting to go to the airport to go home.

Cool escalators that lock
the trolley so it can't roll.

We weren't going to meet up with Elder Bailey until 3:00, so we took off on a Costco run around 11. We picked up some lunch, too. There is only one Costco in the entire country, so we save our trip to when we go to Auckland on a Temple trip. This was a bonus trip. Lol. Anyway, we hung around and talked with young missionaries and met several Senior missionaries in the Auckland area. It was a lot of fun. I spent quite a bit of time with Sister Garner about some housing issues we are dealing with. Have I mentioned Bream Bay? Hahaha 

About 3:15 we finally got together with Elder Bailey and another couple in Auckland that is going to help with vehicles in the south. We will meet the new coordinators next week when we go to the Temple. They are Service Missionaries and will only work part-time. I think that is why they are getting some additional couples to help. We were there to observe the transfer day process so we can train the Service Missionaries next transfer after the Baileys go home.

On our walk.

We took our P-Day on Tuesday. I also had my first online Zoom class in the morning. I will be teaching via Zoom every Tuesday and Thursday. We have about 8 or 9 kids that are in Seminary. On Mondays, we usually get 4 or maybe 5 in person. We have another 2 or 3 on Zoom. The Zoom combination with in-person is difficult. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, three of our in-person students have sports so they do not come to Seminary. They do make-up lessons. That means there is usually only 1 student (maybe 2) that shows up in-person, plus the other 2 or 3 on Zoom. The Seminary teacher thought it might be a better experience if they were all on Zoom for those days. It definitely makes the Zoom portion easier because there are lots of interactive things we can do with everyone on Zoom that you can't really combine with people in-person. Or you can do the interactive with the in-person, but not with the zoom people. Anyway, we are trying this for a few months to see if it works better for the kids. We had a few glitches on Zoom for the first class, that I'm sure will smooth out in time.

Sunrise during Seminary

Our "P-Day" was not exactly a normal P-Day. Steve installed a washing machine in the Elders' flat. We brought it with us from Auckland. I spent much of the day preparing for my lesson on Thursday. I also spent time communicating with the property manager for the house in Bream Bay so we could get the remaining "issues" resolved.

The Elders taught Seminary Wednesday morning. They did a really good job. It was the Part 1 to my lesson. We went for a nice walk when we got home. With everything that has been going on, we have missed our walks lately. 

Another picture from one of our walks.

From there we went to DCM. We combined both Districts again so we could play a "getting to know you" game. We had lots of new missionaries in both districts. Elder Wilcox and I presented a spiritual thought on our personal scripture studies. Steve shared Moses 6:5-7 that talked about the priesthood. I chose Mosiah 24:13-14 that talked about how the Lord was going to deliver the people of Alma from bondage and how He eased their burdens while they were in bondage. It emphasized that because they had humbled themselves, kept their covenants with Him, and called upon Him to deliver them, He had compassion for them and delivered them. They were to stand as a witness that God visits His people in their afflictions.

Sister Budge and her "split" companion came over to our house for a meeting and then Sister Budge's pathway class. We made them lunch and spent some time getting to know the new missionary in our district. Sister Bird went back to study, and I did some work on Thursday's Seminary lesson. I also started working on the mean for Zone Conference in June. Sister Bailey has been doing meals for all the Zone Conferences, but she is going home with Elder Bailey. Now each Zone will be responsible for their own meals, and I have been asked to take charge of the Hikurangi meal. We are getting a roasted pig donated by a local member. I just need to organize side dishes. All the Seniors are so good it is a piece of cake to "be in charge." 

Between rainstorms.   

Thursday started with my Zoom Seminary lesson. It went well. We did breakout sessions that turned out good too. We had our SPF zoom meeting with the mission. President Allen talked about some chapters in Alma that will help us grown our testimonies. We walked after that. We still had some time before Sister Budge and her new companion, Sister Szott, came over for Companionship Study. The Elders are now going to study with the Kreutzkamps. Anyway, I used that time to work on HawkSoft for a while. The Sisters arrived and we had a great study session. Since it was noon again, we made them lunch again. Our next session will be at 10:30 on Tuesday and I told them "No lunch." Hahaha.

You can see the
Double Rainbow

When they left, we headed to Bream Bay again for some final work. From the correspondence with the property manager, we had to remove a few more things, including some hooks on the wall. We also had to brush off the cobwebs around the house again. After we got home, I got a response from the missionaries who lived in the house before we moved in to find out what was there when they moved in. There were several things that were not Church issued so we didn't know if they came with the house. We found out that they bought quite a few things that we had left behind because we didn't know.

So, on Friday we went back to Bream Bay for the final inspection. We got there an hour early so we could collect the rest of the things we had left behind. We picked up all the garden tools, two potted plants, a picture, and a set of curtains and a rod. The property manager arrived, and we did our walk through. It looked like she was pleased. She didn't have any other complaints or requests for us to do anything. We were happy to turn the keys over and head back home. On our way home, we did some visiting. We dropped by two homes to visit and drop off birthday cards. 

We went to the Elders' flat Saturday morning to check in with them about the flea issue they reported. Apparently, they have had fleas since they moved in many months ago. The Garners sent a list of things to do and things to buy to help with the infestation. We wanted to go over the list with them. We offered to buy all the products since it is easier for us to get reimbursed than for them. They must wait until someone comes up from Auckland. I am set up as a vendor, so they just do a direct deposit for us. We found out while we were there that their keys don't work so they can't lock the flat when they leave. We called Elder Garner to see if we could get some keys made for them and he gave us the go ahead.

So, we headed to Whangarei to pick up the supplies and to get haircuts while we were out. Then we headed back to the Elders' flat. Two of the Elders were back with we arrived, so we gave them the stuff and instructions on how to use it. We then tried the keys and none of them worked. We then tried OUR keys for their flat and they didn't work either. Apparently, when the Kreutzkamps inspected the flat before and we did last month, the Elders were there and let us in so we never used the keys. I called Elder Garner back to see if we needed to get a locksmith. He said he was going to check his stash of keys to see if he had any others. We may pick them up on our way back from Auckland next week, or they will have to wait until Zone Conference. The Elders said they had a couple of skeleton keys, and it turned out that one of them worked on the back door. The back door also has a dead bolt, but that is one of the locks we don't have a key for. And there is only one skeleton key, so they still can't lock the door because there are two sets of Elders in the flat. Oh well, we will get it straightened out eventually. 😊

Sunday was rainy in the morning and absolutely beautiful in the afternoon. It poured all the way to Church and lightened up long enough for us to walk into Church. Our meeting was good. I really enjoyed our speakers. Steve was sustained as the new Ward Clerk. Their previous Ward Clerk was sustained as the Stake Clerk last week. They did the setting apart during the second hour and he was taking notes for Ward Council after Church. We had a fairly relaxing afternoon after Church.

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox