DCM, Visiting, Youth Activity, Primary, and Goodbyes 😢

We were able to slow down a bit this week and catch our breath. I spent some time after our Seminary lesson Monday morning trying to figure out why Sister Paratene can't use the Annotate capabilities on our Zoom meetings. I had tested everything I could from home but found nothing. So, after class, I started a Zoom meeting on my tablet and had Sister Paratene join the meeting. We looked EVERYWHERE and no annotate icons were anywhere. What was really weird was she used to be able to do it. I finally did a google search on missing annotate on Zoom and Chromebooks. Apparently, Zoom made a change to their meeting platform when they introduced AI (artificial intelligence). They call it Zoom Workplace. Well, according to Google, Chromebooks and Macs no longer support Annotate. I'm hoping they will fix that very soon, but at least now we know it isn't something Sister Paratene was just not seeing. The mystery is solved, but the problem is not resolved. In the meantime, she will tell me what she wants to write on the screen, and I will annotate it for her.

Sister Budge, Sister Wilcox, and Sister Bird

We half expected to a bunch of missionaries for P-Day on Monday, but we didn't have any. They all went somewhere else. We were able to have a nice lesson with Madison and then a nice visit with Sierra. We spent the rest of the day planning the coming week, working on clerks' stuff, and reviewing my Seminary lessons.

Sister Budge and Sister Bird

Tuesday was very similar to previous Tuesdays we have had lately. After Seminary, we went to the library to find more addresses for our lost members. Steve actually took a detour to the city council first and was able to obtain a FREE parking permit for Whangarei. Everywhere in Whangarei is paid parking, so this will save us a bundle. The Zone Leaders joined us at the library. The other sets of missionaries had at least one companion sick so they couldn't come. We covered a lot of books, but we only found 1 name. 🙁We only have 13 more books to look at. We should take care of those this coming week. There is one book missing that we think may contain more names for us. It is one of the Māori books. We are going to see if we can find it in Auckland when we go down there this week.

We were home by 1:00 to receive Elder Moyes and Elder Sanders and then Sister Budge and Sister Bird. Elder Moyes and Sister Budge had to do their Pathway class. Sister Bird was sick so she couldn't do splits with the other sisters. She sat away from the rest of us. We were a pretty quiet group, each of us caught up in projects we were working on. At 3:00 the Elders left, and the other sisters came to swap Sister Szott for Sister Bird. We then had a wonderful companion study with Sister Budge and Sister Szott. We had such a wonderful discussion with the sisters. This is Sister Budge's last everything. She ends her mission on Monday. Her mother and sister are coming to get her, and they will tour New Zealand for a week before she goes home. She may still show up at our door next Tuesday for her Pathway class. She isn't sure what she is going to do about that. 

Wednesday was a busy day. The Elders were supposed to teach Seminary Wednesday morning, but Elder Cockbain was still very sick. We found out the night before they weren't going to make it. I at least read through the lesson. Sister Paratene always reads though the lessons just in case. She had to work the graveyard shift, so she didn't hear the Elders weren't going to be there and she didn't get home until about 10 minutes before class started. We talked about it briefly and said between the two of us and of course the Holy Ghost, we would make it work. It turned out to be a very good lesson and it looked like we had coordinated the whole thing. She taught part and I taught part, and it went very seamlessly. That just reminded both of us, that it really is the Holy Ghost that teaches these lessons when we just get our own egos out of the way. 😇

Later in the morning we had our DCM meeting. We were still missing our Hikurangi Elders and the Kreutzkamps. We had a great meeting. Several missionaries arrived early and decorated the cultural hall for a party. It was Sister Budge's and Sister Bird's last DCM. They both end their missions on Monday. Sister Bird was still not feeling very well, but she was a lot better than she had been on Tuesday. It is always so hard to say good-bye to these missionaries that we come to love so much.

Sister Enosa writing on cards

One the way home we stopped at several homes to invite them to our Stake Devotional on Sunday night. We caught everyone but 1 family home. We had some very nice visits. It has been a while since we have gone out visiting. 

After we got home, Elder Wilcox worked on contacting people for talks and prayers for the Sunday program. We got the information we needed to add a member to our ward. I worked on doing our bills and then some HawkSoft work. I also made some brownies for the Youth Activity at our house Wednesday evening. 

Elder Douherty in front and Elder Tqatafu in back

We had a GREAT activity. Because there was a holiday on Friday called Matariki which is the Māori New Year, Sister Lawrence gave a short presentation about it to the youth. It is a constellation that is best seen at the end of June or early July. It was a very interesting presentation about the significance of the different stars in the constellation. After the presentation we played games and ate dessert. They actually brought dinner over which they ate before the presentation. Everyone enjoyed it and we will probably get to host more activity nights in the future.

Our Thursday Zoom Seminary was a bit odd. Our family of three is still sick so they didn’t show up. The one other student was headed out of town this morning for the long holiday weekend. So, technically we didn’t have any students. Sister Paratene wanted to hold the class anyway, just in case the three that were sick decided to join us. We enjoyed the lesson. We had GREAT participation and discussions. Steve said it was the best lesson he has ever attended. Lol

Elder Dixon, Sister Lilloux and others

Later we had our SPF Mission Zoom meeting and then headed out for a long overdue walk. After lunch, we headed to the Chapel to take care of business there. We hoped to do more visiting on the way home, but everything took longer than expected. One of the main things we focused on is the annual supply order for the ward. It took some work, but we managed to get everyone to tell us what they wanted. We will place the order this weekend, in case someone wants to add anything to the order.

Sister Bird and Sister Lilloux

On Friday, we went out and did some more visiting. It was a school holiday and we managed to see someone at every place we stopped at. We had some really good visits. Later, I worked on some logistics for our next Zone Conference. I'm trying to secure permanent catering. I think I have someone who will continue to do it for us. They want to try it out for this next conference before they commit 100%. The mission is cleaning out some storage units that were used for doing the Zone Conference meals before. All the other Zones have caterers, so they don't need any supplies. Our Zone was going to do it ourselves because the mission couldn't find us a caterer. So, they are asking if we want all this stuff. We are going to pick it up next week when we go to Auckland. The caterers I have lined up are a couple of sisters in our ward that do some catering on the side. They don't have a lot of stuff so this will help them out too.

Sister Budge and Sister Szott

While we were out, I got a call from a member in the ward hoping I could find and send some missionaries to his family down south who have been involved in the flooding down there. He texted me the information. When I got home, I looked up the address to see who the missionaries will be. They are actually in a different mission, so I contacted our Mission Chat to see if anyone could help me. A wonderful Elder sent me the names of the Elders in that area, so I sent them a text about the situation. I then notified the member that I was making contact and that I would keep him posted. A few minutes later I heard from the missionaries down south. They immediately went over to meet the family and see if they could arrange a service project. I reported it back to the member and he was so surprised it all happened so quickly. We have such a wonderful network to take care of people in need. It is awesome.

The Matariki poster we made depicting the
nine stars in the constellation.

OH, on a side note. Our mission posted a video on Facebook of the Haka that the missionaries were doing for those that are leaving. I have posted it from our Zone Conference in the past. This time, however, they posted the words of the Haka AND the meaning!!!! It is wonderful. It is all about how they are the armies of Helaman serving the Lord. I need to take time and transcribe it so I will have it in my journal. 

On Saturday, I texted the Elders in the flat that has 4 Elders. They are the ones who keep passing sickness around like it is candy. They are also the ones whose washing machine is broken, so they have been doing laundry at our flat. I told them we had leftover Sloppy Joes from the Youth Activity that we would feed them for lunch if they were planning on coming over to do laundry either Saturday or Monday. Elder Bailey texted right back and said he and Elder Lea'ana would be over. We only got two of the Elders, because Elder Cockbain was still very sick and Elder Dixon had to stay with him. We had a nice lunch and visited with them before they took off to work in their area. I'm hoping we may have Elder Dixon and Elder Cockbain on Monday. 

Elder Wilcox and Brother Toi

Steve did some shopping, I took care of our laundry, worked on HawkSoft, and worked on my Seminary lesson. We also spent some time working on some training for another new assignment we have been asked to do for the Mission. I don't know much yet, but we will be receiving more training later on. I think each mission in the Pacific Area will be participating and as soon as they have a senior couple in each mission we will start our training.

Sunday was a longer day than expected. We got there early to get set up for Sacrament meeting. When the Bishop arrived, he asked if I could teach his wife's Primary class since she couldn't be there today. Elder Cockbain was supposed to speak, but Elder Dixon covered for him. They left Elder Bailey home with Elder Cockbain and Elder Dixon and Elder Lea'ana came to our Sacrament meeting. They had to leave right after Elder Dixon spoke so they could head to Elder Lea'ana's area for their Sacrament meeting. It is almost an hour away. All our talks were very good. 

Primary went amazingly well. Sister Henare had prepared all sorts of things to put on the board for the lesson. There wasn't really a lesson to read, but the things she prepared were all about Priesthood ordinances. So, once again, I got out of the way and let the Holy Ghost teach the lesson. The kids were very engaged, and I think it turned out very well. 

Steve had a Bishopric Meeting after Church, so I hung out in the hall for about an hour. I didn't find out about the meeting until all of my possible rides home had left. It turned out to be good because I was able to see Sister Budge and Sister Bird one last time before they headed to Auckland. 

Later this evening, we headed back to the Church for our Stake Devotional. That turned out very nice as well. There were lots of musical numbers and a few talks. I lead the music and joined the other missionaries for one of our songs. The Spirit was strong. It was very nice.

I loved seeing the baby while
she played the piano

Sister and Elder Wilcox, Elder Lea'ana
in back and Elder Bailey in front.

All our Love and Prayers,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

NZ License, Young Missionary P-Day, Birthday, Power Outage, and Membership Audit

Anna, Sean, Elle, MyLiege, and Alyx

Right after Seminary on Monday morning, we headed to the doctor's office so Steve could obtain a medical certificate so he could finally obtain his New Zealand driver's license. The whole process took less than 15 minutes. Next, we headed to the Automobile Association (AA) so he could get his license. This time there was no hassle! He is OFFICIAL now. 

We had a wonderful video call with MyLiege's family. It is always the highlight of our week when we get to see and talk with family. The bulk of the rest of the day was spent with the District Elders. They called to see if they could have P-Day at our house since the weather was dismal. Plus, some of them had laundry to do. Their washing machine is broken. We have been in the process of trying to get it repaired only to find out on Friday they can't get the part. So, we contacted Elder Garner and see if he has a replacement washer that we can pick up on July 4th...unless he heads up north before that time.

Elle playing Pink Panther

The Elders brought food and fixed lunch. They gave each other haircuts. We all talked a lot. Sang some songs with Elder Dixon on guitar and Elder Moyes on ukulele. We played games and just had fun. They left a little after 5 as they had dinner appointments, and teaching appointments they had to go to. At that point, I was able to get back to what I had planned for the day. Lol. It was a good think I had already prepared my Seminary lesson on Saturday. I only needed to review it.

Tuesday was similar to the last several Tuesdays we've had. Our Seminary Zoom class went reasonably well. After Seminary, we headed to the library to find more addresses for our lost members list. The Zone leaders showed up not long after we did and they stayed the whole time. We only found 7 addresses, but every bit helps. 

P-Day with the Elders
Elder Bailey, Elder Dixon, Elder Lea'ana, 
Elder Moyes, and Elder Sanders

Once home we had Sister Budge and Elder Moyes over for their Pathway courses. Sister Budge was sick, but still needed to do her class. I made her some chicken soup and put her in the office. Elder Moyes did his class in the spare room. Sister Budge's companion and Elder Moyes companion hung out with us during the classes. Normally they would have gone on splits with another companionship, but there is so much sickness going around, they didn't have anyone to split with. We enjoyed a nice visit with them. 

I received several birthday Facebook posts and chat messages throughout the day. It is nice to read them. Steve got me a beautiful necklace and matching Kiwi earrings. Birthday wishes continued through Wednesday, since that was Tuesday the 18th in the States. So, I got double birthday wishes. 😇

The Elders taught a great Seminary lesson on Wednesday. Elder Cockbain was sick, so the recovered Elder Bailey came with Elder Dixon. They did a great job. They started with a little game to show how Satan uses different tactics to deceive us. Everyone had a good time. The rest of the lesson was all about detecting those deceptions and more importantly, learning how to decern the truth by listening to the Holy Ghost.

We had a very small group for our DCM meeting. We had exactly half our people. The South District ended up cancelling their meeting. Elder Bailey planned a little birthday party for me and Elder Lea'ana. Elder Dixon made some yummy chocolate mousse and sent it with Elder Bailey. He had to stay home because his companion, Elder Cockbain is sick.

Elder Lea'ana cutting 
Elder Moyes' hair

We worked on the Membership Audit, but we needed some input from the Bishop. He came over in the evening so we could review it with him. We found a couple of ordinations that occurred that we needed to track down dates. Steve worked on that on Thursday and we were able to submit the audit.

Thursday was an interesting day. I'm not sure if we were coming down with something or only feeling sympathy ills because of all the sickness in our District. Anyway, after my Zoom Seminary class and our Mission Zoom SPF meeting, I decided to take a nap. I was so tired. I NEVER nap. I fell asleep for two hours. When I woke up, I was very cold even though I had a blanket on. I looked at that clock and it was blank. I figured I must have accidentally unplugged it. I headed out to the living room to find Elder Wilcox on the couch with a coat on looking at his tablet. He informed me the power had been out for over an hour. Some tower fell over and took out the power for half of Northland. A VERY LARGE area.

Mission Zoom SPF Meeting

We were supposed to go to the Hesters at 1:00 for a meeting, but it got postponed until 3:00. We stayed bundled up until then. We stayed bundled up at the Hester's house. Since Elder Cockbain was still sick, they joined us on video chat. We had a fairly productive meeting about our missionary work and strengthening our ward. After the meeting, we had a nice visit with the Hesters over some yummy desert they served us. We headed back home before dark.

Sister Lilloux presenting in SPF meeting

Back home, we got flashlights out and made some sandwiches for dinner. We were supposed to host the Youth Activity that night, but with the power still out at 5:00, they decided to postpone the activity until next week. Our power finally came back on by 5:30. We were able to fry our ham and cheese sandwiches so we could eat something warm. It was so nice to have lights and heat again. 

Steve and I went back to the library Friday morning. The city council is right next to the library, and we found out that we can apply for free parking in Whangarei since we are over 65. Since we were going to be there anyway, we decided to hit the library. Steve didn't have enough information to get the free pass yet, but he got the application, and we were able to obtain the rest of the information we needed. He will go back on Monday or Tuesday, in hopes of getting the pass. We have to pay $2 an hour every time we go to the library, so free parking would be very nice. It was just the two of us that day and we didn't find any new addresses, even though we looked at 6 books. 

We headed to the Church to print off some ordination certificates. We picked up some parchment paper on the way. We also cleaned out some very old papers that were filed in a drawer. We will shred them next week per the Bishop. On the way home from there, we stopped at a really nice family's house who live very near us. The father is an inactive member. They are wonderful people, and we had a lovely visit. They have 5 beautiful girls. He drives trains in Australia two weeks at a time and is home in New Zealand for two weeks. That seems hard to me, but they make it work. They seem like a very happy family.

Saturday, I spent the morning working on the computer. I did my scripture study first thing. Then I worked on my Seminary lessons. In between we cleaned the house, did the laundry, and changed the linen.

After lunch, I took a walk to Charlotta’s house. She is home alone, since her husband is down south with his father who is in the hospital. His father is finally doing better. It was very, very serious for the first part of the week. He isn’t out of the woods yet but doing better. Charlotta and I had a nice visit. She had been baking for the Stake Youth Karaoke night. Charlotta was just called to the Young Women’s organization two weeks ago. After a while, we both needed to get going. 

When I got home, the Elders’ car was in the driveway. They showed up to do laundry. Their washer is still not fixed. Elder Dixon and I talked about Seminary for a while. I was hoping he had a good idea for an opener that would work for my Thursday lesson. He came up with a good idea that I think will work. 

After the Elders left, I worked on HawkSoft for a couple of hours before we settled in for the evening.

We were at church all morning on Sunday. Our meetings went well. Steve got to bless the Sacrament today so that was nice. After Church, we had Ward Council. I feel it was a pretty productive meeting.

At home, I worked on my scripture study and then the recap for my blog. Elder Wilcox updated the minutes for the Ward Council meeting, and we got that sent out. He then worked on a few things for the ward and started preparing for the Quarterly Reports that are do the first week in July.

At 4:00 we dropped off a document to a very sweet sister in our ward and visited her for a little while. Then we headed to Sister Paratene’s house for dinner. Since she lives alone, she can’t have the Elders over with someone else there. So, we get to benefit from that situation. We had a very nice time.

Once home, we joined a virtual Area Meeting for perspective Senior Missionaries. We participated in a bunch of those meetings when we were serving at Headquarters in Interpretation. They are always really good meetings.

All our Love and Prayers,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Miracles, Missionaries, and Zone Conference 

After Seminary on Monday morning, we had a real treat. We started teaching our granddaughter, Madison, the Temple Prep classes. We had a wonderful Zoom meeting with her and a great discussion. We are looking forward to doing that each week for the next several weeks. After our lesson, we got to video visit with Season and some of the rest of the family. I love our weekly visits with each of our children and their families. 

I spent the rest of the day working on my Seminary lesson, some HawkSoft work, and a large task that I was completing for the Elders in our ward. I was amazed that all my projects were completed in record time. I was worried I wouldn't get it all done, and instead, I had time to help Steve with some clerking things he needed to work on. At 5:00 we walked over to Charlotta's house to have a wonderful dinner with her and her husband. I couldn't believe how quickly the time flew by. Before we knew it, it was 8:00 and we needed to head home to get to bed so we could get up early for Seminary. We experienced some miracles with time.

Tuesday took us to the Library after Seminary. I had no idea if or how many missionaries might show up to helps us out. We got there around 9:00. The Hikurangi Elders showed up a little before 10:00. They stayed until noon. Around 11:00, our Sister Missionaries showed up and stayed until noon. During that time, we experienced another miracle. In all the times we have been going to the library to find lost members of our ward so we could move them out of the ward, we only ever found one or two each time. On Tuesday, we found 28 names!!! It was mostly from one of the Elders who happened to look in the RIGHT book. There are 72 books to look in. The one he grabbed had a pot load of our "lost members" in it. We were so happy. The rest of us found a few more names, but Elder Dixon found the most.

We stopped at the hospital on the way home. The Bishop asked if anyone could visit Craig in the hospital and since we were in the area, we volunteered. There was a family that I had just mentioned to Elder Wilcox that we hadn't seen in a few weeks. I thought we should try and visit them that week. I didn't recognize the name the Bishop posted until I looked him up in the Ward Directory. He was the Brother whose family hadn't been there in a while. We had a short but very good visit with him. He was hoping to go home the next day or Thursday.

We arrived home about 2 minutes before 1:00. We were expecting Sister Budge to be there for her Pathway class. The Zone leaders were knocking on our door as we pulled into the garage. Elder Dixon had asked if we would be available between 1 and 3 that day for Elder Moyes to do his Pathway class. So, we put Sister Budge in the office and Elder Moyes in the spare room. The other sisters left to work in a threesome. I thought the remaining three Elders would do the same, but they hung around for lunch. Elder Dixon brought some food to make lunch. Elder Wilcox was already making our lunch before we knew Elder Dixon was making lunch. Anyway, everyone had some lunch and the Elders hung around for a while before eventually going out to work. Around 3, the sisters dropped off Sister Szott, Sister Budge's companion and they left. The Elders came and picked up Elder Moyes and they left. Sister Budge and Sister Szott stayed for our Companionship Study. They left around 4:15. I finally got on my computer so I could update all the findings we made at the library and help Elder Wilcox get them updated and moved out of the Ward Directory. I think we finished around 7:00.

On Wednesday, we headed to Whangarei to get our New Zealand Driver's License. We must get the license before we've been here a year. Steve wanted to get it done now so he would quit worrying about it. They require proof that you've been driving for 2 years. Both Steve and I renewed our license just before we left for New Zealand so we could get the new Real ID, consequently our issue date was only a few months. Luckily, we were told that we could request our Oregon Driving Record before we went to get our license. I was able to get mine with no problems. It took a while, but no problems. 😊

Elder Wilcox, on the other hand, ran into a problem. He should have had a line on his DMV record that stated the issue date of his previous license, however, it was missing from his record. That meant he could prove he had been driving for two years. I had a picture of his previous license on my phone, but that wouldn't work for them. So, he left without his NZ Driver's license. 😢Once we got home, I requested his record again and this time that line was there. 

Elder Lea'ana Carving the Pig

We went to our DCM meeting. Our District Leader has been sick and wasn't there. One of the Zone Leaders got an allergic reaction to a dog and was all swollen up. So, Elder Moyes stayed home with Elder Bailey so the other Elders could come to DCM. The other Zone Leader, Elder Sanders, ran the meeting.

After the meeting, we went to the Elder's flat to check out their broken washer. They have a washer just like ours so we brought our manual so we could determine what the error code they were getting meant. It turns out it is a water level sensor that isn't working. The solution...Turn off the water and call for a repair. We called Elder Garner to let him know. He asked us to find a repair man and get it fixed. We took care of that after we got home.

Since it was already halfway through the afternoon, we headed home so I could prepare the Seminary lesson for Thursday. Part of the lesson mentioned part of a talk by Elder Uchtdorf about going in circles in a forest.  I was going to show a short video about the experiment they did, but I’m always concerned about showing videos on Zoom. Some of them don’t have great Internet so the videos are very choppy. Instead, I decided to share my story about when I got lost in the forest next to our house. I thought the point Elder Uchtdorf was making could be met in my story too. Sometime personal experiences help to make a point. It was a scaled down version of my story.

The lesson went well on Thursday morning. I'm glad I did my story. I was able to engage the kids quite a bit by having them annotate on the screen answers to some of the questions. I think they prefer writing on the screen than answering out loud. Steve headed back to get his license, with his updated DMV report in hand. We also sent along a document from the panel doctor we saw to get our visas before going to New Zealand. Since Steve is over 75, he had to have some kind of medical certificate. He got there and almost immediately found out we forgot to send his passport too. So, he drove home and picked it up and went back. He walked in the door at 10:00, just as the Mission Zoom SPF meeting was starting. He still didn't get his license. Apparently, there is an official document he can only get by seeing a doctor here that he must turn in for his license. So, we set up an appointment for Monday morning after Seminary. Cross your fingers that the third time will be the charm. 🤞🤞🤞

Sister Paratene

We received a call from the Seminary teachers wanting to know if Elder Wilcox and the Elders could give her foster son a blessing. He is in a group care facility as he is severely handicapped. He is on Hospice now as well. He is in his 40's and has lived longer than expected at this point. We got a hold of the Elders, and everyone met at the care facility. Sister Paratene has never married. She raised four children belonging to her nephew. They were newborn, just turning 1, 2 and 3 at the time she got them. Plus, she supported the foster son from the time he was 7. She worked full time in different care centers, starting with the one where she met the boy who would become her foster son. She still works part-time now. She is an amazing sister. She asked Elder Wilcox to be voice of the blessing. He gave a beautiful blessing. The spirit was very strong. Dean, the foster son, cannot communicate but he can hear. He is also blind. He seemed pleased. We visited for a while and then Elder Dixon took out his guitar and sang two beautiful songs. I think he takes his guitar everywhere with him. 

The Missionaries that are leaving

Since we no longer have comp study with the Elders, we have not had a meeting where we could go over our ward together. We invited them over after the blessing. Since it was noon, Elder Wilcox made some lunch. We call it "Missionary". He ate it a lot on his mission when he was younger. Our kids and grandkids like it. Djeryd even asked for it for his birthday dinner. The Elders liked it too. 😊It is much better with Costco Polish dogs, but they don't have them here. 😢 

Elder Wilcox, Elder Cockbain, Sister Wilcox,
Elder Dixon, Elder Lea'ana, and Elder Bailey 

We spent the rest of the day and into the evening roasting vegetables and making brownies for our Zone Conference the next day. We received a call in the afternoon from the Office Elders asking us if they could stay at our place while they were up north for our Zone Conference. Because we only have a queen bed in the spare bedroom, one got the bed and the other one had to sleep on the floor. They were good with that. They were the Elders who arranged the pig for our conference. Apparently, they both served in that ward nine months ago and know the Elder Quorum President who was roasting the pig. Normally, they would have stayed with the Kreutzkamps because one of their extra bedrooms has twin beds in it, but Elder Kreutzkamp was sick. They got in about 9:00 that night and left early the next morning to help the Brother prepare the pig. They were absolutely no problem at all.

Friday was Zone Conference!!! We got there a little after 9:00. It started at 10:00, but we wanted to help with setup. Luckily several Elders arrived by 9:30 to help set up tables and chairs
We had everything ready to go before the conference started. I stepped out around 10:30 to get some of the roasted vegetables in the oven to warm them up. We had some mashed potatoes in a slow cooker to stay warm. Everything else was either room temperature or in the fridge. I checked a few more times and all was good. About 11:30, Elder Wilcox saw someone walk down the hall carrying a large metal food container. I followed them down the hall as they were putting stuff on the serving tables. I smiled and thanked them and then asked who they were. They said the Stake President had asked them to cater the Zone Conference. No one in our mission office nor anyone involved in the Zone Conference had any knowledge of this. So, instead of having a meal for 70 people, we had enough food for 140 people!!! I guess the spirit must have been telling me something, because I kept trying to find out if anyone else was supplying food. They kept telling me that it was JUST the guy with the pig. That was all. We gave away a LOT of leftovers. We called it the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Nothing ran out.

I sent Elder Wilcox to go buy some zip lock bags so we could bag up all the leftovers so people could take stuff home. While we were cleaning up, we got interrupted twice. The first one was to take a group picture and then for the Haka for all those missionaries who are going home. We had three couples going home and 5 (or 6) young missionaries leaving. The longer we are here, the more missionaries we know and love, the harder it is to say good-bye to them. It was very emotional for me. The second interruption was for a quick meeting about Flat Inspections. By the time we finished bagging food and doing dishes, it was nearly 2:00 PM. We were able to attend the closing session of Conference. Almost all the missionaries, senior and younger, were able to bear their testimonies. That was also fairly emotional. I know the Spirit was so strong. After a little more follow-through after the conference, we went home. We were exhausted!!!

Saturday, we slept in for the first time in ages. It was nice. We planned on doing laundry and other things around the house. I wanted to get a head start on my Seminary lessons and work on the Lost Members list, as well as anything else that came up. It was not meant to be. A little after noon we heard a knock on the door. Four Elders were at the door wanting to know if they could use our washer and dryer. We had not started our laundry yet, so we said yes. Elder Bailey was still unwell, so he rested in our recliner. The other three Elders went and bought some fish and chips take out and brought it back for lunch. We pulled out some salad fixings to go with it. After lunch, they debated on leaving Elder Bailey with us so they could go to work or take him with them. I felt he needed to go home and go to bed. He was getting weaker by the moment. He went to Zone Conference and then was out that morning too. I told him he over did it again, and needed to go home and go to bed and stay there until he was better. He said he wanted to go work, but in the end, he ended up at home in bed. We told the elders we would rotate their laundry so they wouldn't have to keep coming back to the house. As it turned out, they arrived back just as the last load finished drying. We finally started our laundry and managed to get it done before going to bed. After they all left after 2 (I think), I was able to start work on my lessons. I got most of it done. I never got around to the Lost Member list. Hopefully I can get that done before next Tuesday morning when we go back to the library.

Sunday was short and uneventful. Church was good. The Bishop was out of town, so we didn't have Ward Council. We were don't with everything not long after Church ended. We stopped by a less active member's house on the way home, but they were not home. At home, I started on the blog recap and then crashed on the couch. I keep thinking we will have a quieter week, but it won't be next week, that's for sure.

Happy Father’s Day to those in the USA. Father’s Day in New Zealand is in September, sol Elder Wilcox with get two of them. Lol.

I hope you have a GREAT week.

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Seminary, Ward Clerking, and Flat Inspections

Our P-day on Monday was pretty slow. It was a national holiday for the King's birthday, so we didn't have Seminary. We had a wonderful Zoom call with Douhet. He and Kylee were on an anniversary weekend at the beach. With school and seminary over for the summer, they are both feeling a little free for a while. It is also the first time in a very long time where they don't have an assignment at Young Women Camp. Sometimes it is nice not to have so much to do. 😊

I spent the rest of the day working on my Seminary lessons and Family Home Evening. Steve went grocery shopping and bought a deadbolt for one of the Elders' flats. As it turned out, no one showed up for Family Home Evening. 😢 I think we may only do it once a month and see if that gets more people.

Tuesday started with our Zoom Seminary lesson. Sometimes I feel like I'm pulling teeth. We had some technical difficulties with getting students on the call. It also seemed challenging to get any answers out of them. 

We headed to the Elders' flat so Steve could install the deadbolt he bought. I gave each set of Elders a key. For the first time in I don't know how long, they have been able to lock their flat when to go out for the day. I'm so glad they finally told us they didn't have a working key. Steve also checked on a potential new leak they reported. He checked everything and couldn't find any fresh leak. We think it may be the result from when their washer overflowed a week or so ago. We asked them to put a fan in front of the wet spot to dry it out and told them we would check on it again to see if there is any new dampness on the carpet in the closet. They also told us they were still experiencing fleas and bed bugs even after doing all the tips we gave them to do. So, we called the Garners to see if we could get an exterminator in to take care of the problem. They said yes and we scheduled an appointment for Thursday morning.

Next, we headed to the Whangarei Library to try and find more addresses in the books containing the electoral rolls. There are a total of 72 books, and we have 96 names to look up. We got through most of three books and only found 2 names. 😢We reported that at our DCM meeting on Wednesday and several missionaries said they would help us look once a week until we are done. So, next Tuesday we will see how many we can find.

Sister Budge

Sister Budge did her Pathway class in the afternoon, and then her companion joined us (she was in a threesome with another sister companionship) so we could have our Comp Study session. After our study, they asked for some help creating a lesson for a mother with several young children. Her mother wanted the sisters to teach them about faith. We bounced several ideas off each other and they came up with an outline for a lesson. They reported back to us after our DCM meeting that it went well.

Elder Dixon and
Elder Cockbain

Elder Cockbain had been sick all week. He was hoping to be better so they could teach their seminary lesson on Wednesday morning. Just before 10:00 PM, Elder Dixon called us to let us know they wouldn't be at Seminary and could I cover for them. I had told them previously that I had actually already prepared that lesson as I thought it was the one I was supposed to give. However, a new schedule was sent out because of the holiday, and I ended up teaching the previous lesson instead. Since I already sort of had the lesson prepared, I said that it wouldn't be a problem. 

It was our in-person lesson. We had four girls in class and the family of three joined via Zoom. The lesson went quite well. We had good participation and interaction. I was also able to piggy-back off the previous lesson that I gave before. I gave the next lesson on our Thursday Zoom lesson. We did another in-person on Friday and Sister Paratene gave that lesson.

Later in the morning we had our District Council Meeting (DCM). I always enjoy those. We headed back to the house after our meeting to take care of some administrative things for the Ward as well as preparing my Thursday Seminary lesson. I prepared a nice excel spreadsheet that we can use to track the lost names we need to look up at the library. 

The Thursday Zoom meeting was so different than the Tuesday Zoom meeting. It went very well. All the technology worked, and the kids interacted on the screens very well. We had all three of the siblings join us as well as one of our young women. The other three young women have sports practice. I'm hoping that will end before too long so we can have everyone again.

We had our Mission SPF meeting. Elder and Sister Leishman did our training on ways to work on reactivation. They had some great ideas we want to try. We headed back to the library to try out the new spreadsheet. Since it is on OneDrive, we were able to access it on our tablets. It worked pretty slick, and I didn't have to manually update when we got home. The main reason I created the spreadsheet is so we can track what books we have looked at since we can't do more than one or two books at a time. 

The Hesters

At 2:00 we headed to the Hester's house to meet with Brother Hester and the Elders. We held our first Missionary Coordinating Meeting. We are going to try and schedule it every week, or at least every other week. I think it went well and we have a plan we are working on. The Elders are going to work on looking for 3 new friends a week, contacting
and working with 10 less actives a week, and continuing to teach the 5 or so current friends they are working with. We will work with the less active as well.

Back at home, we worked on preparing the Sacrament Program, preparing for flat inspections, and other administrative things on our list. Steve is picking up the computer portion of his new calling pretty good. It will be a while longer before I can back away completely. 😇

The Bream Bay Sisters Inspection

Because of the King's birthday on Monday, we had Seminary on Friday. Since Sister Paratene was teaching, we just had to show up. We thought we were going to have a fairly light day, but it ended up being very long, when you consider we begin our day at 5:00 AM. 

After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed down to Bream Bay. We were assigned the Bream Bay Sisters' flat since their previous couple went home. They have a beautiful house that rivels our house. It is the nicest young missionary flat I've seen. Everything was spotless so we gave them full points and a bag of candy. 😊I wondered how the other two flats we needed to inspect would look compared to the Bream Bay house. 

We went to the Denby Sisters' flat since it was on the way back. It is an older home but is still in great shape. We found a few little things that we docked 1 point off each but managed to give them bonus points for other things, so they still got awarded full points and a bag of candy. The place really looked great.

Lastly, we headed to the Elders' flat. We have two sets of Elders living there. The Hikurangi Elders and the Punaruku Elders. I wasn't sure what to expect. The past two times we have been there it has been a stretch to give them passing points. The first thing I noticed was the drapes were all open. They have sheers in front of the windows. I actually think it is the first time I noticed the sheers. The dishes were done, the counters were clean, the floors were vacuumed, their desks were fairly neat, the beds were made, clothes were picked up, there was no lint in the laundry room, bathrooms were clean. It was AMAZING. They even cleaned the windowsills. The flat looked bright and inviting. We gave them full points too, and because there are two sets of Elders, they got two bags of candy. 😄All three flats got perfect scores. That is a first! We were so pleased with all our missionaries.

Dinner at Sister Paratene's

As much as we wanted to call it a day, we had a few more things to do. We told the Bishop we would pick up some paper for the printer. We forgot to do it when we were in Whangarei inspecting the Denby Sisters' flat, so we had to go all the way back to Whangarei. Then we headed all the back to the Chapel. It is only a block from the Elders' flat. I needed to print about 40 copies of one of the new songs from the new hymnbook since the actual hardbound book won't be printed until 2026. Elder Wilcox needed to finish the Sacrament Program as well as take care of some financial things and member updates. We thought it would be very quick, but as usual, things always take longer than expected. We didn't get home until 4:30. Once home, I worked on our finances and then started on a big project for the Elders. I didn't finish it. Elder Moyes stopped by our house around 7:00 to pick up a package we picked up for him when we were in Auckland. We had the package with us at DCM but forgot to give it to him and he forgot to ask. 🙁Then at 8:30 PM, we had a group call with our Elders and one of their friends they are teaching. We all visited with Joe for a few minutes, and they started doing our group Book of Mormon reading. We are hoping to stop in and see Joe this week. We try every couple of weeks.

Elder Dixon, Elder Cockbain, and Sister Paratene

It was nice to stay home on Saturday. Elder Wilcox did go out to do grocery shopping. Since I hate to shop, I decided it would be a good time to work on HawkSoft. Hahaha. Steve also started working on his quarterly reports for Church. We still have time, but he needs to know what all of them
are. He is also going through all the training videos and documents to learn everything he needs to do. I wanted to work on the Elders' project some more as well as preparing for Seminary next week but ran out of time. There is always Monday.

Sunday was wonderful as usual. We got there about 7:30 so Steve could take care of last minutes updates to the Sacrament Program before printing it for Brother Horsford, who was conducting. 

The Elders' Flat

I updated the hymn numbers in the hymn board for Sacrament meeting. I also had the printed music out for the new song we were singing today. And finally, I greeted people at the door as they came in.

Our meeting was good, and our singing was so much better than last week. I think last week no one knew the songs that we tried to sing. I didn’t know them. Today we had familiar songs, and everyone sang great. 😄

We had a couple people get sustained for new callings, so Elder Wilcox had something new to do after Church. Brother Horsford gave us a family that moved out of the ward. He even had the address they moved to, so they won’t show up on our lost member list. 😊

This evening, we had a lovely dinner at Sister Paratene’s house. She is a single sister and
cannot have the young Elders over without another adult present. She asked if we would like to come to dinner so she could have the Elders too. Normally she would fix them something and they would pick it up and take it home. This turned out to be a very nice evening.

One last thing. We had a very special event that is happening in our family that won't ever happen again. We have four beautiful grandchildren graduating from four different high schools from each of our four children this year...probably happened this weekend. I feel bad that we are missing it, but we are so proud of each one of them. I know they will all do GREAT things in their futures.

All our Love,
Elder and Sister Wilcox