More New Convert Initiative, Training Bishop, FHE Mid-Week, and Flat Inspections

I presented my New Convert Initiative spreadsheet to the group on Monday. I think it went well. I sent along several other things I created for the project; the google sheet for the Bishops, and the PowerPoint training presentation. 

After that, we had our video call with Sierra. We gave her a video tour of our house. She suggested we create a video to share with the other kids along with the floorplan. We still haven't done that yet. I did some HawkSoft work and also prepared my lesson for Seminary. Near the end of the day, I got a call from Elder Farrell about some things to do with the Pathway laptops before we have an orientation video call on September 14. I think we are all good to go now.

Tuesday started with our Zoom Seminary lesson. I think it went well. I prepared for our flat inspections later in the week. I also helped Elder Wilcox with some Ward Clerk stuff he had to do. Lastly, I sent out the email to all the Stake Presidents throughout the mission. I have only received one email back requesting training. Looks like I will need to send that out again. We took the afternoon off since we have missed our P-days for the last several weeks. 

That evening the Bishop and Charlotta came over so we could train Bishop on the New Convert Initiative. Charlotta needed a limited use Temple Recommend, so we were able to walk Bishop through the added feature to help a member find a name to take to the Temple. I took a few more screen shots that I added to the slide show presentation. 

DCM on Wednesday was AWESOME.  I was expecting it to be just our North District in the building, but we ended up with all three districts. It was so good to see everyone. I think the South District will go back to Bream Bay next week. Not sure why they were there, but I’m so glad they came. I expected the Central District to meet at the Stake Center, but they were told they can’t meet there yet. I was so happy they were also in our building today. That meant we headed back to the cultural hall again because we are the largest district. There are no heaters in the cultural hall. But then someone remembered we could meet on the stage and there is a heater up there. It is bigger than any of the other rooms and it worked PERFECTLY. I think we found our new “home”. 

Elder and Sister Ward did our training today. They technically belong to the South District, but Elder Sanders thought it would be good for us to get to know them too. They basically did an introduction but managed to tie principles for good missionary service into it. It was really good. Sister Ward is President Allen’s older sister. They grew up in Southern California in areas that I grew up in too. It was fun to mention places we all knew about. We chatted after our meeting for another half an hour. 

Once home, we prepared for the mid-week Family Home Evening we were doing with a single dad and 4 of his little children. He has older kids too, but they were at their mother's house. He only gets his kids a few times in the course of two weeks. We also made them some Sunday bags to make it easier for him to take them to Church. The lesson went OK. It was a little crazy with the kids, but I think we kept them engaged the whole time. 

Thursday was Seminary first thing in the morning. Then I went for a virtual walk indoors because the weather was not so hot. Then we had our Zoom SPF meeting. It covered all the positive ways we can use Facebook to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so refreshing to find so many positive and uplifting messages on Facebook. They counter all the negative ones. Since I like all the positive posts, I don't see any negative ones anymore. Its great.

After that we had a Comp Study with all four Elders from the Hikurangi flat. It was a very nice visit. We had a good discussion.

After a quick lunch, we headed out to start on our flat inspections. We were able to get two of our outlining flats done before it was time for our Missionary Council Meeting (MCM) at the Hesters. The traffic was horrible, and it was pouring down rain. Needless to say, we were about 15 minutes late. We still had a great meeting with the Hesters and our Hikurangi Elders. We discussed all the people Elder Cockbain and Elder Dixon had been working with. With all the sickness that has been going on around here, we have not had much progress in our Ward lately. Hopefully with warmer weather and fresh Elders, we will be able to get our members excited about sharing the Gospel with their friends. 

Friday was a gorgeous day. No rain, white billowy clouds and a mild temperature of 68 degrees. I was able to take a nice walk in the neighborhood again. I started on my Seminary lesson for next week, before we headed out to finish up the rest of our flat inspections. We took a lot of pictures at the Clark Road flat because there are a lot of issues, we are asking the landlord to take care of. There are four issues in particular. 

1. The drapes are horrible. They are falling apart, and the Sisters took them down because they are so dusty they can't breathe. I'm afraid if we try to clean them, they will just fall apart. Besides the hooks have ripped through the top of the drape so they can't hang up very well. We took pictures.
2. The post that is on the opposite side of the gate is so loose it can't even keep the gate closed.  After the scares the Sisters have had in the last couple of weeks, we want them to be able to feel safe in their home. 
   
3. The steps and the walkway leading up to their front door are scary at best. Elder Moyes twisted his ankle right before they moved out of that apartment. I twisted my ankle a couple of times when we visited. It needs a lot of work.
4. There is a big gap between the roof of the house and the overhang on the porch. When it rains, it is like there is nothing overhead. 

If we have to fix these issues we will, but we feel it should be the landlord's responsibility. I just hope it doesn't take forever to get done.

On Saturday, I was able to finish my Seminary Lesson prep. Elder Wilcox went to the Fairway Drive flat to spray for weeds. Their backyard is completely enclosed with no entry except from the house. So, we can't have the lawn service take care of the weeds. That means Elder Wilcox will spray every time we do flat inspections. He forgot to do it the day before. 😉

I also took care of all the inspections reports as well as submitting the report on all the issues for Clark Road. We finished our preparation for Sunday by posting the Ward Council Agenda and finalizing the Sacrament Program.

The District went out on a Blitz in our area. We baked brownies and they all came over after the blitz so they could “return and report”. It wasn’t as successful as they had hoped. One set of Elders found a family that may need some service in a few weeks, so that is somewhat promising. 

We also took care of household things like laundry, shopping, and cleaning. We will have our flat inspected in a couple of weeks, so we are starting to make sure all our bases are covered. I cleaned the oven and microwave today.

Sunday was Father's Day. We had a nice attendance in Sacrament meeting. The increase can be attributed to a new family that moved in and a few visitors for Father's Day. It was nice to have our organist back. She has been gone for the last few weeks helping her previous ward with their Primary Sacrament Program. The testimonies were great. Brother Toi was the first one up. He is always so happy and upbeat. He gave an exuberant testimony about his love for everything: the Gospel, the Book of Mormon, Prophet, people, Church, family, everything. I think the whole congregation was just smiling. It was so refreshing to hear. Not a single word about any problems or trials and he is not a man that is free from trials. He has had more than his share. You couldn't tell that by listening to him.

After a wonderful Sunday School lesson, we held an abbreviated Ward Council meeting. Because it was Father's Day, Bishop didn't want to take up too much time. At home I did my scripture study. Just as I finished the Elders showed up so we could review missionary work in our Ward. They are still getting their feet wet, so it is slow going. They have had trouble finding people at home. We did some brainstorming on how we can engage the members more in going out with the missionaries. We are going to focus our efforts on emphasizing how families can be together forever through the Holy Temples. Family is very important to everyone here. We are hoping to help them see how they can be together forever.

That is my prayer for all of my friends and loved ones too. Heavenly Father has prepared a way where families can be together forever, not just until death do us part. I have known this was true from the moment I heard this doctrine over 53 years ago. It is my driving force. I want to be with my family forever and I don't ever want to do anything that may take that away. Part of being with my family forever is being with my Heavenly Father and His family. We are all brothers and sisters as children of God. 

All Our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Spreadsheets on my, DCM, Transfers, and Stake Center Re-Dedication

MyLiege's Girls

We spent most of our Monday P-day on the phone. We waited for Sean to initiate the Teams call as he is the one who normally initiates the call, but it didn’t happen. So, I initiated it. Sean answered, but he was NOT at home. Then I remembered he was on a cruise for HawkSoft. The team is checking out the cruise for the National HUG meeting in 2025. We had a brief chat then I told him we had to go so I could talk to the rest of the family and see baby Ruth. He understood there were higher priorities for a great grandma. 😂

After that I called the family on Zoom. Their connection was not so hot. Anna said Sean got a new FASTER internet connection and he was raving all about it. The only problem is it is ONLY fast in his office upstairs. The rest of the house is horrible. They kept freezing on us. We could hear them, but their picture was frozen. Ruth didn’t get there until AFTER the screen froze. MyLiege sent a picture so we could see her. Later she sent a video so we could hear her too. I sure hope they get it fixed before our NEXT video call. 

Elder Tuaina, Elder and Sister Wilcox
Elder Moyes, and Elder Lea'ana

After that call we had our weekly Area call. The spreadsheet changed again. We hope this will be the last time. The only good thing is we can copy and paste what we input on the other spreadsheet, so we don’t have to completely redo it every time. Hahaha. Our mentors had a meeting with the Area Presidency last week and it looks like we don’t have to capture quite as much information as we thought. It should make it easier to manage going forward. I tweaked my PowerPoint presentation for our training, so I think we are good to go. 

The rest of the day included calls about catering, speakers and prayers for Sacrament meeting, and scheduling appointments for the Bishop. That was pretty much Monday.

Tuesday morning started with our Zoom Seminary lesson. From there I spent the rest of the day working on a new version of the "new" spreadsheet we got from our mentors about the New Convert Initiative. After I had spent all day filling in the new spreadsheet, I was checking the formulas to see what my numbers were not showing up. After some research and playing around, I decided to try my hand at a different approach. After I came up with a solution, I contacted our mentors to see if I could show it to them the following day.

Our District with a Māori Face

Steve spent most of that day on the phone, calling the remainder of the Lost Members list to see if we could get a few more addresses. I think he got three or four. We are now ready to show the Bishop what we have done and get his permission to send the rest to Salt Lake since we have no other way to track them down. There are probably some Senior Missionaries at Headquarters who have better tools than we have for looking up lost people. 😇 I also created a catering spreadsheet for our Zone Conferences and sent that off to the Mission Office as they asked us to gather information. And we did some work on gathering additional information about the flats that we inspect and sent that off to the housing coordinator.

Wednesday morning started with a video conference call with our New Convert Initiative mentors. I shared my spreadsheet with them, and they liked it. Elder Sorenson made a few suggestions and asked to see it again by the end of the week.

Elder Lea'ana and Elder Tuaina

Then we went to DCM. it was one of those bittersweet meetings. It was our last DCM with this particular group. Our two Samoan missionaries are both headed south to Auckland, probably to serve in one or two of the Samoan wards. Elder Moyes is also being transferred, but he is staying up north. He could go further up north or just get transferred to one of the other wards in our Zone. We do know that he will be a trainer as well as Elder Sanders. That will leave us without a District Leader or any Zone Leaders. We are expecting at least 4 or 5 missionaries to join our District. All our Sisters got to stay; however, they are changed flats. 

After we got home, we called Erik for his birthday and had a nice chat with him. I had another meeting scheduled with the mission office about catering, but they were ready yet. So, I spent several hours working on my Seminary lesson for Thursday morning. Just about the time we started eating dinner, my other meeting was ready to happen. Sister Dayton was happy with what we came up with. We will be doing something very similar to what Elder Wilcox did in our last mission for feeding Interpreters. I think it will work out just fine.

As soon as that meeting was over and we scarfed down a quick dinner, we headed back to the Church for an audit. We met Brother Haika from the Stake to perform the audit. The Bishop was supposed to meet us there too. I called and left a message for the Bishop while Elder Wilcox and Brother Haika started the audit. Or I should stay TRIED to start the audit. Steve couldn’t get into it, so Brother Haika signed in to see if he could start the audit. He didn’t have authority either. He called someone on the Stake level and found out that since he is on the Audit Committee, he can’t actually perform the audit. About that time the Bishop called back, and we let him know he didn’t need to come down after all. He was at the hospital with his auntie.  After the call, Brother Haika was talking about his connection to our Bishop. They are cousins. Steve mentioned that he is a 13th cousin to our Bishop, so we all checked to see if we were related. It turns out Brother Haika and Steve are 10th cousins through the Brough line. Of course, I’m not related to anyone. 😢

Just about the time we got home, I got a call from Sister Ferrell about the laptops for Pathway. She let me know she would send up two or three laptops for new students starting in our area. She also sent me instructions to install the Parental Control on Elder Moyes's laptop. Since the program is going to go worldwide soon, they want to make sure they have all temptations locked down. The laptops are only used for Pathway. And the last call came from the Sisters. They had another leak under the laundry room sink. It wasn't too bad, so Elder Wilcox said he would take care of it the next day.

Thursday turned out to be a lot busier than we thought. We started with our Zoom Seminary lesson. It went pretty well. Then we went to the Sisters' flat so Elder Wilcox could fix the leak under the sink. The Sisters were not home, but their flat was in the process of being moved to a different flat. Elder Wilcox decided to get something from our flat that he thought might fix the leak. I stayed at the Sisters' flat. They came home so I helped them load more stuff into their two cars. I called Elder Wilcox to bring some extra boxes over so they could pack up the fridge and a few other things in the kitchen. They also started cleaning the flat for the Elders that were moving in. When Elder Wilcox got there, two of the Sisters mentioned they didn't have box springs for the beds. They were the two Sisters who had to vacate their flat one night after they came home and found a scary drunk man sitting on their porch. They quickly went to the other Sisters' flat and had been there ever since. There were already extra mattresses there. 

So, we went to the store to buy a part since we didn't have what we needed at our flat. We also called Brother Hester to see if we could borrow his trailer to pick up the box springs from the Sisters' vacated flat. Long story short, we took the box springs to the new flat, went back and fixed the leak at the old flat and then went home. We found out about all the transfers taking place. Elder Moyes stayed in our Zone and got transferred to OUR Ward! We are very happy about that. His new companion is Elder Derrick. Elder Sanders is staying where he is at. He stays our District Leader and is a training Elder. We got new Zone Leaders assigned to the Te Horo Branch. That is the Branch the Kreutzkamps used to be assigned. I think they are going to be moving closer to their area in the future, but for now they will be in Whangarei. They are making 3 districts instead of two. The Sisters will be in the new District along with the new Elders that will be in Riverside.

Friday morning started with our very first Stake Training for the New Convert Initiative. I had been working with a High Councilor in the Harbor Stake named Jeremy. It turns out, Jeremy is related by marriage to Steve Stebbings. We worked with Brother Stebbings when we worked in the Interpretation Department at Headquarters. It is a Small World. Anyway, we kept trying to schedule a time to train all the Bishops and leaders. We were shooting for the Leadership Meeting for Stake Conference, but it was already fully scheduled. We tried a few other options, with Jeremy asking if I could just train him and he could train everyone else. So, we had our training meeting Friday morning. I think it went well. He had a few questions that I have now addressed int he PowerPoint presentation. I added full notes to the presentation and sent it off to him Saturday night. He will let me know how it goes. 

I worked more on the Google Sheets I created for the Bishops and lost track of time. I missed my meeting with Elder Sorensen by 15 minutes. Luckily, he was still around so we were still able to meet. He asked me to add an Area Summary page that would link to the other Mission pages in the workbook. He asked me to be ready to train on our Zoom call on Monday and made some suggestions on specific things to train on. I spent the rest of the day working on the master Spreadsheet until it was time to go to the Stake Center Re-Dedication.

We left around 5:00 to go to the re-dedication. They didn't let anyone in until 5:30. Lucky for us, Elder Moyes and his companion were supposed to usher, so they were there early and were told to save seats for the Missionaries. We were 5 rows back. Nice Seats! We got to meet almost all the new missionaries, including a new Senior Couple in our Zone. Sister Ward just happens to be President Allen's sister! They will be serving at the southern end of our Zone, so they are not in our District. The meeting was wonderful. A sister shared the history of the Whangarei chapel from when it was built about 66 years ago. She was 13 years old at that time, so she had lots of memories. The music was beautiful, and the Spirit was strong. President Reti gave a wonderful Dedicatory Prayer. After the re-dedication, we got to wander around the building. They added an entirely new wing to the building. They used the original pews in the Chapel but had them refinished. They look BEAUTIFUL. We were invited to attend a reception in the new High Council room. Lots of yummy food. It was a wonderful evening.

Saturday was spent almost entirely on the computer finishing all the final touches for the master spreadsheet. I had to check all 16 mission pages to make sure all the formulas were correct and not accidentally pointing to a different mission. (I had to fix quite a few. Hahaha) I also added an instruction page to help the Senior Missionaries that will be using the spreadsheet. Finally, I finished the Pacific Area Summary page that summarizes all the mission pages into a single area summary. It also allows the user to click on the mission's name and go directly to that page.

The NEW Zone having fun without us.

While I was working on all of that, Steve ran over to the Sisters' new flat. He had to make sure they weren't home since I didn't go with him. He fixed their shower door. One of the rollers came off the bottom of one of the doors so the door could swing freely. It sort of still worked if you carefully closed the door, but it really needed to be fixed. The parts we ordered came on Friday. I think that was the last issue we had with any of the flats. Hopefully, we can keep them all fully functional this transfer. Lol.

It was nice to not get up at 5:30 on Sunday morning. We arrived at Church about 8:45. Elder Wilcox went into a Bishopric Meeting, and I printed out the program as well as a full ward list with addresses for the new Elders to our ward. Next, I put the hymn number up on the hymn board. 

Sister Chapman and Sister Ali

A few people came early, and I greeted them. Elder Moyes and Elder Derrick were among the early ones. I was able to introduce them to almost everyone that came early. Normally, we have about 10 or 20 people before our meeting actually starts. Today, we had almost the whole congregation. There were just a few that straggled in. It was so nice to see a nearly full chapel. 

We did have one glitch. Our organist didn’t show up. We have three organists that play for us, and none of them were there on Sunday. No one else said they could play. We sang the first song completely acapella. I actually thought it sounded pretty good. The Sacrament song, I had Elder Wilcox play the starting note on the organ to pitch us. That one sounded good too. For the last two songs, I played the music for the song on my phone through the microphone at the pulpit. We sang those songs just fine. The only problem with that was both of those songs started playing extra verses before I could shut them off. Oh well, live and learn. 

Elder Fernandez and Elder Christensen

We had a lovely dinner at Sister Paratene’s house with the new Elders. She is a single sister and can’t have the Elders over unless there is another adult there. It works out great for both of us. 

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Lots of Area Work, Family Home Evening, The Sisters, and Catering Research

This week was a lot of time on the Computer finishing up several projects. I finished the preliminary work for the New Convert Initiative project. Now it is a matter of maintaining the spreadsheets and training the leaders. Wish us luck. 

Monday we were able to talk with Season's family. Karsten told us all about FSY. We do so enjoy our calls with family each week. A little later, we had a 1 ½ hour video conference with the Area for more instruction and brainstorming. Since it is a pilot program, we are kind of making it up as we go. That is the group is making it up as we go. I'm sure it will change several more times before we have the kinks worked out and it will be ready to roll out to the rest of the areas.

Later that evening we had a nice Family Home Evening with the Wihongi family. I told them they were my guinea pigs for my Seminary Lesson the next morning. It was a good thing I did that, because I realized I hadn't finished my lesson prep on the previous Saturday. I was in a hurry and finished the bulk of it, but I still needed some fine tuning before it was ready for Seminary. I had forgotten that, so it was a good thing I tested it out before the actual time. The lesson still turned out good and I was able to tweak the PowerPoint lesson when I got home that night. After our lesson, we played a fun game where Sister Wihongi dumped a packed paper cup of flour on a plate and put a chocolate on top. The object of the game was to "cut away" the flour without making the chocolate fall down. If it did fall down, then you had to eat the chocolate without using your hands to pick it up. It made for some funny pictures with flour on the faces of those who had to eat the chocolate. By the time it was my turn to cut the flour away, there wasn't much left, and my chocolate came tumbling down. 

Tuesday was all about the Sisters. We had planned to go to the library to finish looking for our lost members. We called the Sisters first to see if we could come by and pick up our key so we could get a new one made that we cut off a small piece that made the key tricky to unlock the door. We had sent our key to the Sisters because they locked their key in the flat, along with their car keys the day before. Well, the other set of sisters in our District were staying with them because of a scary incident they experienced the night before with a unsavory neighbor. They are going to stay with the Sister until transfer day this coming week. Anyway, while we were picking up the key, they came out and said the laundry was flooding. So, Elder Wilcox when in to see what he could do to fix the problem.

He needed to buy some stuff to fix it, so we told the Sisters not to use the sink until we got back. We got a new key cut, picked up some plumbing stuff and headed back to their flat. The Sisters were home for lunch. Elder fixed the clogged drain and replaced some piping that really needed to be replaced. We tried the new key, but it wasn't any better than the old key. While we were there the Sisters mentioned they had ants marching two by two in their living room and one of the bedrooms. So, we were off again, to buy a new lock and get some ant bait.

We bought what we needed and stopped for some lunch. While in the parking lot, we got a call from Alena. She had finally picked up her birthday call from us about two weeks prior. We had a wonderful talk where her about how she is doing and about her job. She told us she had her first helicopter ride while being the "guardian" for a camper that kept passing out. After that call, we called Kylee again for her birthday. She still didn't pick up so we called Douhet. Kylee was there, so he passed his phone to her. We sang her Happy Birthday, and then had a wonderful talk with her. They are thinking of coming to New Zealand next year!!!!

The Sisters were gone when we got back to the flat. Elder Wilcox replaced the lock and set out the ant traps. Then we headed home. Elder Wilcox worked on some Sacrament Program stuff, and I helped him and worked on the New Convert Initiative stuff. We had sent the Sisters a message to swing by and pick up their new keys so they could get into the flat. The keys work GREAT. The Ngãhere Ward Sisters came to pick up their key. They came back several hours later for comp study and said the keys work great, but the ants were still there. 😂We told them it would take a little longer to get rid of the ants. Since it was nearly 6, we fed them dinner while we did our comp study. We swapped out keys with the other Sisters on Wednesday at DCM.

Wednesday was DCM. As usual it was great. Once again, I love our Book of Mormon Highlights. Everyone always shares such great insight as well as things they have learned from their studies. For example, today Elder Moyes shared a scripture about the Brother of Jarod found in Ether 3:20 which reads, “20 Wherefore, having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil; therefore, he saw Jesus; and he did minister unto him.” He then ta
lked about what he thought and felt about the word perfect, and what it meant to have a “perfect knowledge of God.” He looked up the word perfect and found the usual definitions meaning finish or complete. But then he found one that said, “not damaged.” He pondered that and applied it to himself to see what it meant for him. He came to the conclusion that If his faith and testimony in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is UNDAMAGED then he may have a “perfect knowledge of God”. I like that. If we can have undamaged faith, we can be perfect in that thing. 

After DCM, we headed over to a sweet sister in our Ward who is getting ready to go to the Temple to receive her Endowment. We helped her with laying out a plan of what she needs to do. She has picked a date but needs to make sure she has childcare available. Once she is secure in that, she will call for her appointment. Hopefully she will be able to get all that done this week. We are so excited for her. It looks like it will be the first week in September, as the Temple is closed for the next two weeks.

Once home, I finished Seminary Lesson preparation, as well as trouble shooting lots of different things. I wrote out the email to mass send to all the Stakes in the Mission for the New Convert Initiative and the into email to the Bishops for their New Convert spreadsheet. I prepared a PowerPoint presentation for doing the training to the leaders that I presented to our Ward Council on Sunday as a guinea pig. The Bishop wants some further one-on-one training on his role.

Thursday, we did our Zoom Seminary Lesson. I had a couple of games to help them memorize their Doctrinal Mastery scripture. After that, we had our SPF. Later President Allen asked if we could do the New Convert Initiative presentation for an SPF in September. I guess there was a reason I felt I needed to get that prepared. I finished preparing all the google sheets for each Bishop that has new converts in the last two months. I sent those out on Saturday. We had Elders over for comp study around 1:00. Later than evening, we went to a family we are working with for a visit with the Dad. He is separated from his wife and has the kids every other weekend. We talked about some ways he can keep his little ones engaged when he comes to Church. We are making him some little activity bags for the 4 little kids. The older kids won't need them. He has 7 kids still at home and 2 more away at school.

On Friday, we had a WONDERFUL birthday call with Laila. It was so fun to catch up with her. She is due to have her baby near the end of the month. We are so very excited.  We finally made it to the library to finish looking up our lost members. We finished all the electoral rolls and found a few more addresses. On the way home we did some scouting for things we could get that will work for Zone Conference lunches. We are gathering a bunch of information so we can make the best decision moving forward. I put everything I have so far into a spreadsheet that will help us calculate quickly what it will cost depending on how many missionaries and leadership we have at each Zone Conference. We were able to check off several outstanding issues we had with a few flats, as the missionaries reported that they have all be fixed. We only have one last issue to take care of. Elder Wilcox needs to replace the rollers at the bottom of a shower door in the Zone Leaders' flat. 

Saturday was spent finishing up with all I could do for the New Convert Initiative thus far. The Bishops google sheets were sent out, the catering information was gathered and entered into the spreadsheet, next Tuesday's Seminary lesson was prepared, and I even put in a couple of hours with HawkSoft. We also found out the remodeled Stake Center is ready to be re-dedicated this coming Friday. All three extra wards in our building will go back to the Stake Center and we will be back at 10:00am meeting time. 

We had a very nice Sabbath day. It was also a little bittersweet. We are glad the other wards will be back in their own building; we are also sad that we won’t get to see them each week. It has been nice combining classes with the Ngãhere Ward. Friendships have been made and will be missed. We will have a re-dedication this coming Friday and the three wards will be back in their building next Sunday. We will start Church at 10:00 am!!!

Sunday School was very good. Our teacher started her lesson with poem written by a member of our ward. She called it Roberta’s Poem. It goes like this:

Twas a sheep not a lamb

That strayed away in the parable Jesus told,

A grown-up sheep that strayed away from the ninety and nine in the fold,

And why for the sheep should we seek and as earnestly hope and pray?

Because there is danger when sheep go wrong:

They lead the labs astray,

Lambs will follow the sheep you know,

Wherever the sheep may stray.

When sheep go wrong,

It won’t take long till the lambs are as wrong as they.

And so with the sheep we earnestly plead

For the sake of the lambs today,

For when sheep are lost

What a terrible cost

The lambs will have to pay.

The poem went perfectly with the direction she took with our lesson as we talked about Amalickiah and Moroni and how they each chose to lead their people. 

After Church we had our Ward Council. I gave my little presentation on the New Convert Initiative. We had a pretty good discussion. I pointed out that the process wasn’t just for new converts, it would also work well for welcoming back members who have gone astray. Our focus should always be on the Temple and sealing families together. I am so impressed with how important families are to the Māori people. I know that is the key to reaching our members. Families Can Be Together Forever!

After Church, we took a drive to the north end of our ward to return the HDMI cord I borrowed from our Sunday School teacher since I forgot to bring mine and she shared a video on the big screen in class. It was a nice little Sunday drive.  

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

More Training, Computer Work, Lots of Goodbyes, Temple, and Tender Mercies

I spent almost the entire day on Monday on the computer. I started about 7:30 in the morning and didn't finish until nearly 8:00 at night. I worked on a variety of things. Some of the things I did as Seminary lesson, flat inspection stuff, Area Call for more training, Zoom call with Douhet's family, HawkSoft work, and working on the New Convert Initiative spreadsheet. I won't go into the boring details of that, but suffice it to say, it will keep me plenty busy finishing the setup and maintaining it in the future. We prepared for our Family Home Evening night, but no one showed up. I think we may stick with going to our friend's house each week until warmer weather comes along.

Tuesday brought much needed haircuts for both of us. They cut mine a bit shorter than I intended, but it will all grow back. Lol. We did our haircuts first thing after Seminary and our scriptures study. We may keep that time. We walked in almost as soon as they opened and got the first haircuts of the day. Since we were in Whangarei, we took care of several things we needed to do for one of the flats. We headed home so I could start back on the New Convert Initiative spreadsheet. Elder Wilcox was going to go to the Zone Leader's flat to change their lock. None of the keys anyone has will work on the door, so the Elders have NOT been locking it. That is a big No No.

Before Elder Wilcox could leave, Elder Dixon and Elder Cockbain came by for Elder Cockbain's My Plan phone call. He goes home on Monday. Elder Dixon goes up North to join another Elder who is also losing a companion. Both Elders leave us on Thursday, so Elder Dixon wanted to tell us about the people they are working with. We will be covering for the Elders for 14 days, before we get new Elders in our area.

Elders Moyes and Tuaina arrived so we could do comp study. Elder Dixon made lunch, so the other two Elders ate before we started our study. I kept working on the spreadsheet while we waited. We had already eaten. After everyone ate, we started our study and Elder Dixon and Elder Cockbain went to our office to wait. We thought they left. Lol. After Elder Moyes and Elder Tuaina left, Elders Dixon and Cockbain came back out and we went in depth on the friends they have been working with. Needless to say, I felt a bit overwhelmed.

When they left, I headed back to the office to work on the spreadsheet, and Elder Wilcox went to the Zone Leaders to change the lock. I managed to finish the preliminary setup in the spreadsheet by 7:00 PM. We ate some dinner and relaxed a bit before heading to bed.

Wednesday morning started very early. We had to head to the Chapel for Seminary. Sister Paratene was having a medical procedure done, so we had to host the Elders at the Chapel so they could teach Seminary. The lesson went very well.

Right after Seminary, we headed to Whangarei again, to pick up a few more things for the flats. We needed to get extra keys made as well as some drapery hooks for the Zone Leaders' flat. We have some picky landlords that wanted the drape in their bedroom hung from a rod that was slightly above the one it was hung on. The problem was the hooks on the current drape wouldn't work on the upper rod. We had been chastised twice for not having the drape on the upper rod, so we had to change the hooks.

We got back in time to drop the hooks off at the Zone Leaders' flat and headed to DCM. This was the last one Elder Cockbain and Elder Dixon will attend for our District. I always love our Book of Mormon highlights for the week. After DCM we had a little party. Not only were we spotlighting Elders Dixon and Cockbain, but we also had two birthdays to celebrate. Sister Ali and Elder Tuaina. We were supposed to have a teaching appointment after that, but the sister cancelled. I spent the rest of the day working on my Thursday Seminary lesson. We had the Sisters come over at 4:30 for Comp Study. They didn't have a dinner appointment, so we fed them dinner and just visited. We never quite got into the comp study. They left for an appointment and Elder Wilcox left to give a blessing at the hospital. I did the dishes, finished my Seminary lesson and took a shower.

Thursday was long and busy. We started with our Zoom Seminary lesson. We had a pretty good discussion that morning talking about justice and mercy through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

We spent the next couple of hours with scripture study, packing, and making lunches and dinners for our trip. Then we had our Mission Zoom SPF meeting. We talked about Mighty Prayer. President and Sister Allen gave a wonderful presentation. 

After that meeting, Elder Sanders and Elder Lea’ana showed up for Comp Study. We had a really good study time. We had some wonderful discussions on several subjects. From there we packed the car and headed to a nice restaurant to have a farewell luncheon for Elder Cockbain and Elder Dixon. The entire district showed up. We had a fun luncheon with everyone. 

From there, we took off to Auckland. We left later than we had hoped, but with the pass open we cut off a whole hour of our travel. We got there around 3:35 and took care of business. We picked up several packages for missionaries up north. We took care of some issues with the flats, picked up a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon and then headed to the library. We needed to look up some more names from our Lost Member List, however, they didn’t have the book we needed either. We came to the conclusion that they didn’t print the book. Lol Lastly, we headed to Hamilton to Temple Housing. 

We headed to the Temple first thing Friday morning for sealings. We had a pretty big group, so the Sealer sent a brother out to get a couple more people so we could split the group. That worked out so good for us. We went with the new group and were up first. We were able to get all of our couples sealed. First Tender Mercy of the day. It wasn’t long before it was 9:00 and we needed to leave for our Endowment Session at 9:15. 

We were told that the missionaries that were going home would be on the 8:15 Endowment Session. We know several missionaries, but we didn’t think we would see them since we were doing sealings at that time. Imagine our surprise when we walked into the chapel for the 9:15 Endowment Session and saw all our missionaries and President and Sister Allen. It was such a treat. Second Tender Mercy of the day.

My granddaughter, Anna went to the Portland Temple Saturday morning at 9:00 to receive her Endowment. I wish we could have been there, but we were there in spirit. My third Tender Mercy came when I looked at the name, I was taking on my session. Her name was Anna. It helped me keep my Anna in my heart throughout the entire session. I ended up having a very emotional session. Hopefully, she felt my spirit on Saturday as much as I felt hers on Friday.

When we got to the Celestial Room, we visited briefly with President and Sister Allen. Then we left as we still needed to stop at Costco on the way home. As we got to the foyer, we ran into the Denby Bishop. I saw his wife earlier when we first got to the Temple. They are ordinance workers on Friday mornings. We sat and visited him for a few minutes. He told us about a nice ice cream place to stop at on the way home. He said lots of Temple goers stop there on their way back to Auckland. It is always a treat to see someone we know at the Temple.  The fourth Tender Mercy.

As we were driving in front of the Temple, we saw all the missionaries lined up on the steps leading up to the Temple. They were taking pictures. Steve stopped the car, and I jumped out to grab a couple of pictures. Tender Mercy number 5 for the day.

On the way home, we stopped for the ice cream. Tender Mercy 6. And we made it home safely while it was still light outside. Tender Mercy 7.

On Saturday morning, we headed to a baptism for two young sisters in the Punaruku Ward. It is one of the furthest up north in our Stake. It took us almost an hour to get there. The drive was beautiful, and the weather was perfect. No rain. Two sisters, ages 8 and 13 were baptized. The service was beautiful, and a large part of their extended family was there. Nana gathered her family together and sang a beautiful song called “Family” after the girls were baptized. She also provided a huge lunch for everyone there, PLUS three birthday cakes and ice cream. Three of her mokos (grandchildren) had birthdays. We had a fun time.

After the baptism we headed to drop a Book of Mormon off to a referral we received Friday evening. They responded on a Facebook post. They were between our house and the Punaruku Ward, so it was fairly easy to stop by on our way home. However, when we got to the house there was a fairly deep creek that crossed over the driveway. Elder Wilcox didn’t want to chance it. With all the rain we had been getting, it was probably deeper than normal. We tried calling while we were in the driveway, but we did not have cell service. The house was a way away and with the creek, we didn’t want to walk it. So, I wrote a nice note and put it in the Book of Mormon, and we put it in the mailbox. After we got home, we tried calling the number again, but this time it said it was not a valid number. I left our number on the note if they have any questions.

Once we got home, Elder Wilcox made some phone calls, and I spent the rest of the day working on my Seminary lesson for next Tuesday. 

On Sunday morning, we arrived at the Chapel bright and early. It is beginning to get lighter now, so the sun was actually up. We ran into some fog on our way in, but it was kind of ethereal. We could see clear sky both above and below the belts of fog. I didn’t think to get a picture. I’m not sure how it would have turned out anyway.

The Bishop and his counselors arrived not long after we got there. We had time to turn all the room heaters on so the classrooms would be nice and warm. I put up the song numbers and made sure the song books were in every holder. Steve and the rest of the Bishopric had a Bishopric meeting in the Bishop’s office while I waited to greet members as they arrived for Church. Our meeting was really good. Elder Wilcox was the concluding speaker. He spoke on President Holland’s talk at General Conference called, “Motions of a Hidden Fire.” Relief Society was also very good. We discussed a talk by Elder Dushku of the Seventy called, “Pillars and Rays”. We focused our discussion on things like service, and tender mercies.

Our Granddaughter Anna

On the way home from Church, we called Anna. It was Saturday in the US. She went to the Temple to receive her Endowment that morning. We wanted to know how it went, and more importantly, how she felt. We had a wonderful visit with her. I told her of my experience on Friday morning at the Temple in Hamilton.

While we were talking to Anna, another call came in from Elder Cockbain. We continued our talk with Anna until we ran out of things to talk about. I then called Elder Cockbain back. He and Elder Dixon had a lunch appointment with a returning member in our ward. He wanted to know if we could keep the appointment with him. We called the member and confirmed the appointment. He has 9 kids. The older ones are out of the house, but there were at least 7 still at home ranging from 3 to 16. He recently separated from his wife, which is why he is in our ward now. I recognized one of the girls as she has been in the primary class that I have substituted in a couple of times. We had a wonderful time with him and his delightful kids. We set another appointment with him for next Thursday when he won’t have the kids so we can talk better.

After taking care of a few things in preparation for our Area meeting on Monday, we finally settled down for a relaxing evening.

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Area Video Call, Junior Missionaries, English Connect, Zone Conference, and Baptism

Monday morning started by NOT getting up for Seminary. Sister Paratene's nephew is home from his mission, so he was the second adult for class. It was a nice break. He is only doing Monday and Wednesday mornings until September. Then he goes to Auckland so he can go to the university. We will take what we can get. 😇

The rest of the day was busy enough. We had our last Temple Prep class with Madison. We decided we would continue meeting and switch over to Come Follow Me. We have enjoyed our time with her so much. Not long after the class started, Elder Cockbain dropped off Elder Dixon for P-Day. Elder Dixon is a bit under the weather. The rest of the Junior Missionaries were headed to the beach to play beach volleyball. They can't go in the water, but they can play on the beach. Elder Dixon was smart enough to realize that probably was not in his best interests.

After Madison's lesson, we spent some time on Zoom with Sierra and Shonee and had a wonderful visit. Shonee told us all about her scary experience while hiking on a mountain a couple weeks ago. They were hiking in the middle of the night, because when the sun comes up it can melt the snow and make the mountain dangerous to climb on. Anyway, he experienced excruciating pain in his lower back. They called 911 but they had to get him lower so the paramedics could reach him. His fellow hikers managed to get him down to a save spot so they could treat him. Once he got home, he went straight the emergency room. They figured it was kidney stones. By the next day he seemed much better and went home. Then, the pain came back worse than the first time and he was back in the emergency room. They did another CT Scan and said he did NOT have kidney stones. They think it was some kind of nerve damage. They gave him some stretching exercises and sent him home again. He is doing much better but is still tender. They are still not sure what caused it.

The rest of the day was spent with Elder Dixon. He is going to start Pathway in September, so we had to get him registered. Sister Farrell is over Pathway and asked if I could help Elder Dixon and two Sisters in the next week or so. They needed to apply for a scholarship as well. I found out that our mission is a pilot program to allow current missionaries access to take a Pathway class and help get them started back on their education. There are three terms they can take, but not until they have that much time left on their mission. It is a great program, and they are still working out the kinks before it becomes available to the rest of the world for missionaries.

Elder Wilcox and Elder Dixon

We then received a call from the Bream Bay Sisters who needed me to go with them so they could exchange US dollars into NZ dollars. They needed someone with a passport. The junior missionaries have to turn their passports into the mission office. It was a very nice opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with them. 

Then it was time for Elder Cockbain and Elder Dixon to go home and change so we could all meet at the Wiongi Whanau (family) for Family Home Evening. We have been doing this for a few weeks now. This coming Monday we will have our group Family Home Evening. Hopefully we will get a few more people. Then we will go back to the Wihongi Whanau again for the rest of the month. We have had some great visits with them. 

Elder Chambers, Elder Dixon,
and Sister Paratene

Tuesday started early with our Zoom class for Seminary. After class we went to the empty flat that we inspect to clean it out. We invited the junior missionaries to come and help. Almost all of them came. They were able to take lots of stuff that didn't really belong in the flat anymore. For example, there was a set of barbells that the Zone Leaders took. They also threw out a bunch of stuff, such as really old pamphlets and things like that. We left a few things in the flat for the next set of Elders they get assigned there. We also did some cleaning. 

After that, we had Elder Cockbain and Elder Dixon back for Elder Cockbain's My Plan call. We kicked them out of the house at 1:00 because we needed to head over to Elder Moyes and Elder Tuaina's flat to pick them up for a celebratory ice cream treat for finishing the Pathway term and to pick up their laptops. I have to install updates on the laptops. Sister Farrell called us and asked us if we could take care of that for them. We said, "twist our arm". Hahaha

The final event on Tuesday was our first training video call with the Area Senior Couple who is over the New Convert Initiative. The Pacific Area is doing a pilot program. They have called one Senior Couple in each mission in the Pacific Area to participate. We will be responsible for training Bishops and Branch Presidents and perhaps other leaders throughout the entire New Zealand Auckland Mission on what they need to do to help the new converts progress through the My Covenant Path program. Part of this program helps the new convert prepare to find an ancestor that they can take to the Temple and be baptized for them. They want this to occur in the first month after their baptism. They have found this really helps the converts get grounded in the Gospel and make it part of their lives. It is a wonderful program, and we are excited to help.

Wednesday is DCM. Again, it was nice not to wake up at 5:00 AM! With Zone Conference on Friday, President and Sister Allen are up North. Sister Allen joined our District and President Allen joined the South District. Our meeting went very well. Sister Ali gave our District training this morning. She taught us several different ways to engage the members in helping with missionary work and reactivation. We learned a lot. We had a hour long training after DCM on the Preach My Gospel App. Normally that doesn't apply to us, but with Elder Cockbain going home, and Elder Dixon moving further up North, we will be covering what they have been doing so we need the PMG app now. After that, we held a short practice to go over the song we are singing for Zone Conference.

Then, we invited Sister Szott and Sister Nagawaka over for lunch, since they were already coming over for comp study. Also, Sister Szott is one of the Sisters that is applying for Pathway, so we were able to take care of that at the same time. After they left, I finished my Seminary lesson preparation for Thursday's lesson. Steve went back to the Murdoch Crescent flat to pick up most of the things we left, because the Office wanted them. They did give us several things back that needed to go back into the flat.

Thursday started with Seminary. The sunrise was so beautiful. Elder Wilcox got some great pictures. We were missing quite a few from my little class. Thankfully, Elder Wilcox and Sister Paratene stepped up to answer questions, so we had a very good class. After that we had our weekly Mission Zoom SPF meeting. And right after that, Elder Lea'ana and Elder Dixon (they were on exchanges) came over for comp study. After comp study, I had an English Connect class with Elder Lea'ana. Elder Lea'ana said I was supposed to have a training manual. All I had was a workbook. So, I contacted Sister Shaw, who is over English Connect, and she said there has been a change in the program and Seniors are no longer needed to help the missionaries. It will all be self-taught. So, I did my first and my last English Connect lesson. 😢

After they left, Sister Ali and Sister Chapman came over so Sister Ali could apply for Pathway. She is the last one I need to help register. They have to come to our house because they need a laptop and internet, and they don't have either of those things in their own flats. While Sister Ali worked on her registration and scholarship application, I baked a cake for Zone Conference. I used a bunch of our little fingerling bananas to make a banana cake. The frosting called for fresh lemon, and we happen to have a lemon tree, so I used our own lemons too. 😁🍋🍌 Steve washed the car for inspections at Zone Conference. Later that evening the Daytons arrived from Auckland. They came early for Zone Conference. He is our Mission Doctor, and Sister Dayton takes care of all the stuff Sister Bailey used to do. She helps organize all the Zone Conferences, so I work with her a lot.

Friday was Zone Conference. We got there early so we could set up. It was a good thing too, because the Chapel was a mess. We had to vacuum everywhere. We had help! YAY! Everything was all done well before 10:00. Our caterers showed up around 9:30 and they are so busy setting up a beautiful spread for lunch. The 4 Senior Couples in the Northland supplied the desserts. 

Our Zone did our musical number as kind of a kickoff to the meetings. It turned out beautiful. It is an original song written by a member of the Northland area. She passed away a few years ago. It is called Missionary Medley. I heard it for the first-time last Sunday evening at the devotional. I managed to get a copy of the music. I believe it is the "theme" song at the New Zealand MTC. Elder Moyes and the wonderful Sister Lilloux did the musical number for the end of the Conference. Sister Lilloux is in the office now, so it was a wonderful surprise to see her at Conference. Elder Moyes has a BEAUTIFUL voice. His song really moved me. Especially because he sang, I Feel My Savior's Love.  Not long after we moved to Oregon, Sierra sang that song as a solo. I think she was about 9 at the time. I can't hear that song without thinking of Sierra.

Elder Moyes

Lunch was fantastic. There was such a variety of food. Everyone loved it. We only got to sit in are parts of the Conference. After lunch, we did NOT get to do the Haka. Instead, we sang a beautiful song in Māori that they always sang after the Haka. I need to get the words to that in English. We also sang God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again to our departing missionaries. To hear all those wonderful Elders and Sisters sing is so incredible. 

As the missionaries broke up into two groups for training after lunch, we met with President and Sister Allen about the New Convert Initiative program. It was a very productive meeting. The program just calls for tracking the new converts for the first month or two, however, President Allen has some things he wants to track for up to a year after their baptism. I told him I would be happy to add that information to my spreadsheet...once it gets created. Lol My biggest question for him was how I was going to get the names of all the new converts in the mission. The APs were invited into the meeting, and we discussed several possibilities. I was hoping to be able to have access to the names myself so I wouldn't have to bug someone to send them to me every time some was baptized. That has the great potential of losing people. After Zone Conference, I went home and took a bath and just soaked in the tub. 🛁It was so nice!

The APs came over later that evening to see if President granted me access as we talked about in the meeting. It wasn't there yet. Then the APs showed me a spreadsheet that they have that tracks some other information about new converts and also contains all the information I need to track. They granted me access to that spreadsheet so I can grab the data I need. They update it weekly so that should work out fine. 

Saturday went by way to fast. We cleaned the house and did laundry. Sister Paratene stopped by for a bit to talk about catering for Zone Conferences. Our caterers decided it was not going to work out for them after all. They will do the next conference to give me time to find an alternative. Sister Paratene gave me some ideas of where to look. I would like to talk to Sister Allen about the budget for catering. I really think they need to allow more per head so I can hire an actual catering company. 

We received a call from our District leader wondering if Elder Wilcox’s keys opened the door to the baptismal font. We had tried to unlock the door yesterday and it would open. So, we told him the keys didn’t work. The keys he had didn’t seem to work either. We call the Bishop, but he was out of town. He gave us the name of someone else we could try. We called several other people and couldn’t find anyone. Either they weren’t home or the keys they had didn’t open that door. We called Elder Sanders back and he tracked down the Bishop from the ward that was having the baptism and they finally got it open so they could fill the font. One of the people we called and left a message called us back and said that the keys can be a bit sticky. You really have to jiggle them.

Not long after Sister Paratene left, we got ready to go to the Chapel for a baptism for the Denby ward. Steve tried his key again, and with some jiggling, he was able to make the key work. The Baptismal Service was beautiful. Sister Lilloux was there again, because she was one of the Sisters that was teaching the sister that got baptized. She and Elder Dixon sang a beautiful duet while they were changing after the baptism. Elder Dixon sang the first verse in Māori. Sister Lilloux sang the second verse in French. They sang the last verse in English together. It was so wonderful.

Once we got home, Steve went to work on the Ward Council agenda and finalizing the Sacrament program. I went to work on HawkSoft. We finally finished up around 7:00.

Sunday was a beautiful Sabbath. Fast and Testimony meeting was very nice. I really enjoyed the testimonies. We had several members who had recently lost a loved one. Their testimonies talked about the sweetness of the Holy Ghost and the comfort they received during their time of grief and loss. 

After Sacrament and Sunday School, we had Ward Council. Bishop had to leave right after Church. His cousin passed away on Friday and he was heading to the Marae to be with family. I think we had a good discussion and covered all the topics on the agenda. 

We went home and I started work on the weekly recap, while Steve typed up the minutes for the Ward Council. Between helping him with the computer and trying to finish the recap, we worked until after 5:00. 

Us with Sister Lilloux

I hope you are enjoying your summer. Our winter has been very rainy, but I don't mind. It makes it feel like Oregon. Lol. Friday at Zone Conference we had to go out several times to help unload different cars. When Sister Paratene arrived with food in her car, I went to help her unload. It was POURING rain. When I looked in the mirror, I looked like I had just stepped out of the shower with all my clothes on. I can't remember ever being that wet from rain before. Needless to say, my hair was a mess the rest of the day. ⛈️

Sister Lilloux and Elder Dixon

All our Love,
Elder and Sister Wilcox