Ward Clerking, Seminary, Walks, Auckland, Hamilton Temple, and The Tasmin Sea

Monday started with our in-person Seminary lesson. We had all our students in-person. No one on Zoom. In-person is always better. The combination is hard. All Zoom is second best. Our lesson was about the rebellion of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah. The students did a great job of discussing different aspects of the value of repentance.

We took a walk in between rain showers. Steve went out and bought a big monitor since he will need it with his new calling as Ward Clerk. He is actually ALL Clerks. Hahaha. We started tackling the Ward Directory making the corrections we have found when we have been out visiting. Lastly, we held our Family Home Evening. It was still a small group, but we had a lot of fun.

We did our Zoom Seminary lesson today. I think it went pretty well. We continued our discussion on prayer and repentance. We focused mostly on how we can pray for others and Heavenly Father will hear our prayers and help them when it feels there is nothing we can do.

I worked on HawkSoft for a while, waiting for Elder Wilcox to get ready for our walk. We never made it out. 🙁We had a Zoom call with the Garners about housing inspections. They also introduced our new Service Missionary Couple that will be helping them. Before that call was over, the Sister Missionaries showed up for our weekly Companionship Study. I really enjoy meeting with the young missionaries every week. I'm not sure if this is a normal thing or if the Allen's just started it, because the missionaries have said they had never done it before. Anyway, we all like it.

I had planned on going with Sister Hester to visit a sister who had been in the hospital, but at the last minute she said she was not up to visitors. So, we work some more on cleaning up the Ward Directory. Sister Budge was back a little later for her Pathway class. We actually put her in the dining room so we could stay in the office and keep working on the Ward Directory. 

The Elders taught the Seminary lesson on Wednesday. They did a really good job. They broke the class into two groups so they could discuss how Alma and the sons of Mosiah behaved before they saw the angel and then how they behaved after they saw the angel. They had some great answers. They helped them apply the principles to themselves.

We got a nice walk in before our District Council Meeting. We met as separate North and South districts. The Zone leaders did our training today. We also all shared our favorite Book of Mormon scripture and why it was our favorite from the past week's study. It was really a very touching experience to hear such powerful testimonies about a book I love so much.

We did some visiting on the way home and had a wonderful visit with the father-in-law of a brother we were dropping a birthday card off for. The birthday boy was working, but our visit with his father-in-law was delightful. I found out later that we had visited his wife in the hospital about a month ago before she was moved to a memory care unit in a care facility. I was finally able to put all the names and faces together for this family. 

Our Zoom Seminary lesson on Thursday was focused on Doctrinal Mastery review of 12 scriptures. I tried to make it fun for them as well as help them figure out ways to help them connect to the scriptures in a way to help them in life.  We took a quick walk before our Mission SPF Zoom meeting. Then we grabbed our bags and hit the road to go to Hamilton for our Temple trip. We stopped at a beach along the way to eat our packed lunch. It was very beautiful.

We also stopped in Auckland for about an hour. We had to meet with the Garners on several housing issues. We also had to pick up several things to deliver to people up north. Lastly, we wanted to mean the new Service Missionary couple. They only work in the office Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We got to our motel about 4:30. Our request to stay at Temple Housing was too late to get a room. The motel was very nice and very reasonable. We may stay there again in the future. 

Friday started with our Temple Session. When we walked into the Temple we found several members from our ward. That was a very pleasant surprise. Our session was pretty full. We enjoyed it very much. I am always amazed at how the world simply disappears when we are in the Temple. The peaceful spirit there is so nice. I love being in the Temple whenever possible. Other than a quick stop at the bookstore so Steve could pick up a few things, we headed straight home.

Sister Lilloux and her companion, Sister Bird came by to pick up the stuff we picked up from Auckland for a sister they were going to see on Saturday who lives in the next Stake up from us. It saved us about an hour drive on Saturday.

Saturday was spent taking care of household responsibilities. We did laundry, car washing, Seminary lesson prep, baking brownies for a dinner we were going to later that evening and finishing up some HawkSoft work. Steve even dabbled in the garden a bit. We have an orange tree, lemon tree, avocado tree, spinach, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and a banana tree. I guess we are going to have to learn how to take care of a garden. (I have a black thumb, so I’m scared.)

Later we got ready and headed to Dargaville where the Buchanans live. We picked up some English Connect books for them so they can help an Elder in the ward and they invited us to dinner as a thank you for delivering the material. We wanted to see their new flat too. They invited the Elders for dinner too, so we had a grand old time.

Sunday morning started about 1/2 hour earlier than usual. We were actually the first ones there and opened the building up. The Bishop showed up shortly after. Steve got signed into the ward computer and asked for some help with a few things he needed to do. We had to call the previous Clerk to find out where he had the program he wrote to create the sacrament bulletin. Once we got the link, we were able to figure out what to do. Church was good. I enjoyed our Fast and Testimony meeting. I was going to get a ride home with the Hesters after Church since Steve had to stay for a bit, but we decided he may need my help for the next few weeks navigating the computer. We were right. We took care of creating a new record for a baby blessing today. He also had to enter receipts for reimbursements. It will take a few times of doing these things for it to sink in. 

We hope you are enjoying the beginning of summer, especially after the very cold and lengthy winter you had. We are moving into winter here. We are seeing a lot more rain and the weather has cooled off quite a bit. We have a nice heating and air conditioning system in our home, so we are very comfy. We are pretty sure we won't need heavy coats. We see people bundled up all over, and we are still doing just fine with our regular clothes. I hope it stays that way. We didn't bring any heavy coats. 😮

All our Love and Prayers,

Elder and Sister Wilcox