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