Walks, Bishopric Dinner, DCM Party, Seminary, Transfer News, and REST!

This week was definitely less busy than the last couple of weeks. It was a good thing because we were a little sick for several days, so it was nice to just be able to stay home and rest.

Monday started out normal. I prepared my Seminary lesson and Steve prepared a Family Home Evening lesson. We ran over to the McClintock flat to meet the owners and close the flat. They were very nice and it wall went smoothly. They were pleased with how clean we left the flat and sorry to see us go.

I thought I was supposed to have an Area Conference call, but it never happened. Later I got an email saying it would be next week. We are going to be gone so I will miss it. We did have a very nice video call with Sierra. It was nice to catch up on things going on. Montana and Lauren are looking into buying a house, so that is exciting. 

After the call I worked on the new Convert Initiative project. We are making some progress. I am hoping it will pick up soon. I am still not getting responses from the Bishops. I think we may have to start phoning the Bishops. 

We did manage to get a walk in before we headed off to our Family Home Evening lesson. We met the Elders there and had a good meeting with the Wihongis. Steve gave a great lesson, and we had a lot of fun with the game. 

Tuesday morning started with our Seminary lesson. I think it turned out really well. We talked about 3 Nephi 11 which talks about Jesus Christ appearing to the Nephites after the great destruction and three days of darkness. I hope the students felt the Spirit as much as I did. The topic was very powerful.

I prepared a Family Home Evening lesson for our visit with the single father and his 4 little kids on Wednesday. We then took a long walk and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Later we had an inspection by the guy that has to check out our smoke and fire alarms. We managed to watch an episode of Follow Him with John Bytheway and Hank Smith. Even though we try to watch that each week as it goes along with our Come Follow Me study, we have not been very successful lately. 

Around noon we started having missionaries show up for mentoring and their Pathway classes. We always enjoy having them over. While that was going on, we went to our bedroom and had a Zoom call with Montana and Laruen. It had been ages since we last talked to them. They told us all about their plans and their house hunting experiences. We had a wonderful visit.

After Pathway, the Sisters all hung out for a while. I was able to help them both get some apps installed on their laptops. Not long after that they left. We were able to watch the second half of Follow Him before getting ready for our Dinner Party. We had the Bishopric over for dinner. We supplied the main dish of slow cooked pork, and they supplied the side dishes. We had a delicious dinner and some very fun visiting. I'm so glad we decided to do it at our house instead of a restaurant. We never could have visited as long as we did. It was fun to get to know each other better and we laughed a LOT.

By Wednesday we were feeling a bit under the weather. Actually, it started on Tuesday, but we just pushed through it. The only thing we did on Wednesday was attend DCM, run a few errands, and latter our Family Home Evening lesson. When we got to DCM the missionaries had the hall all decorated with streamers and balloons. It looked very festive. We were celebrating Elder Sanders' birthday, Sister Chapman's first 100 days, and Sister Ngawaka's last DCM. She is going home to Australia. We are going to miss her a lot. She gave us a little koala bear as a souvenir. 🐻 

We needed to pick up a prescription for Steve, so we decided to check on the progress of the fence repair for the Clark Road flat. It looked great. Steve still needs to do a little tweaking. He needs to install the rest of the lock hardware so they can actually lock the gate. 

Once home, I worked on my Seminary Lesson for Thursday and reviewed the Family Home Evening lesson for that night. We had a GREAT Family Home Evening. The kids were a little more settled and we engaged all of them in the lesson and the game. I think everyone had a good time. I finished my Seminary lesson prep after I got home. 

Thursday started early with Seminary. The lesson was different than any other I have done, and I hope they got out of it what I hoped they would. I gave them an assignment to teach the Doctrine of Christ for a Family Home Evening lesson next week. They are to report back on how it goes. We won't have Seminary for two weeks due to the term break. I'll have to check back with them through our chat. 🤞

After class I went for a walk. Steve just wasn't feeling up to it. I did the long route, and it felt good. It was a little brisk and was just what I needed. After I got home, I visited Steve for a while. We were both coughing and very tired. We definitely had a bug. We watched the Mission Zoom SPF meeting. President Allen gave a great training about encouraging everyone to continue working hard even though we were coming to the end of the transfer.  

After SPF the Elders confirmed they were coming over for comp study and bringing the other Elders in their flat. I baked some cookies for them but got distracted when they arrived, and they got a little overdone. They still tasted good, and the Elders ate them. Elders Moyes and Derrick went to another room to do a mentoring session while we did comp study with Elders Sanders and Shupe. Once they all joined us together, we had a wonderful discussion. We talked about life after their mission. They had lots of questions. I remember having those conversations with the Sisters several months ago when we had a couple getting ready to go home. 

Sister Chapman, Sister Ngawaka, and Elder Wilcox

Not long after they left, I checked my phone. I had a Facebook comment from Elder Shupe’s mothers. She stumbled across one of my blogs and saw her son in some of my pictures. We are now Facebook friends. Lol I’m so glad we can make parents feel better knowing there are grandmas and grandpas looking out for their kids. 😊

After everyone left, we sort of collapsed on the couch for the afternoon and watched a couple of movies. About nine o’clock we had a group Zone call where they announced who was being transferred. It looks like we are losing an Elder in Dargaville, Sister Enosa in Bream Bay, Sister Ngawaka because she is going home, and Sister Chapman is being transferred. We get to keep everyone else. YAY!!!🎉🎉🎉

Our SPF Zoom Meeting

We slept in on Friday. We needed the rest. We stayed home all day and tried to take it easy. We took care of a few things that have been on the back burner, like paying some bills. I also gave Steve a much-needed haircut. I had a video call with Elder and Sister Sorensen who are the leaders of our Area New Convert Initiative project. Since I won't be on the Monday call, Elder Sorensen wanted to touch bases with me to see how things were going and also ask a few questions about the spreadsheet. He works closely with Salt Lake and has sent them all the things we as a team have come up with to help. Salt Lake is creating training videos for the priesthood leaders that will be using the Name Assist Tool and has used some of our material. Things are moving forward. 

After the call I sent out text messages to all the Stake Presidents who have not suppled us the name of a High Councilor that we can work with. I also sent a text message to all the Bishops or Branch Presidents who have not yet filled out their spreadsheets with the dates we need. Steve sent out reminder emails to our speakers and prayers for Sacrament meeting.

After lunch we went for a long walk. I was completely exhausted after that. We should have done a shorter route. We showered, did a little more work on the New Convert Initiative project and finally called it a day around 4:30. 

We felt much better on Saturday. We still took it pretty easy. I worked on some HawkSoft work for much of the day. I didn't have any work to do all week, and then Darrin sent me a bunch Saturday morning. (NOTE: That is his Friday.) Halfway through the HawkSoft work, we took a break to go to the Stake Center Open House. We had a nice time looking at all the beautiful work that had been done. They added a completely new side to the building that is for all the Stake offices as well as the three Bishop’s offices and clerk’s offices. The rest of the building was remodeled and updated. The kitchen is beautiful and big. All new chairs, tables, and accessories. Everything looks beautiful.

Our Front Door

All our missionaries were there giving tours. I think they were pretty busy in the first hour of the Open House. We went there near the end, and it wasn’t too busy. I especially enjoyed the beautiful Family History Center. I may have to go sometime and see if I can get any help with my couple of roadblocks. I know they have lots of new help, but I’m not familiar with them so I can’t use them myself yet. Plus, they are adding millions of names all the time. It is amazing all the changes that are taking place. 

After picking up a prescription, we headed home. I worked on the second half of my HawkSoft assignment and completed it a little after 5. 

On Sunday, we got to Church early so Steve could attend a Bishopric meeting. I worked on my blog for a little while. We had a nice turn out even though we had to set our clocks 🕝 ahead one-hour the night before. Pretty soon we will only be 3 hours different from Oregon. 😊

Our talks were wonderful. Brother Lawrence was our High Councilor speaker. He went first because he also had to go speak at the Denby Ward. Next, we heard from his youngest son who also did an amazing job. After the intermediate hymn, we heard from the Young Women’s President who happens to be his wife. Lol She gave a great talk too. We had a 5th Sunday forum for our second hour. Each of the Bishopric presented some training from the General Handbook. Steve went first and did a GREAT job. The rest of the Bishopric also did great. All our meetings were very uplifting and spiritual today. 

After our meetings, most of us met in the Cultural for a Linger Longer. The Young Women were in charge. They provided ice cream sundaes with all the trimmings and some chop suey for those who wanted some lunch too. It was delicious. We had no extra meetings that night, so we enjoyed a nice relaxing evening. 

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Hear is a beautiful song by two of my favorite Missionaries, Sister Lilloux and Elder Dixon. Elder Dixon sings the first verse in Māori and Sister Lilloux sings the second verse in French. They sing the third verse in English together. 

https://www.facebook.com/lightofchristauckland/videos/854119960017028 

Funeral, 53rd Anniversary, Kerikeri, Great Grandbaby, and Swap Meet

Grandpa Douhet and Baby Roman

Monday started early so I could bake brownies for a funeral that day. While the brownies baked, I prepared my Seminary lesson for Tuesday. Once they were done, we headed to the funeral. I was able to help the family by conducting the music. The service was held in the home of the family, so we did not have a piano. I played the songs on my tablet, and it all worked out just fine. It was small and very special. We had only met the deceased sister once a few weeks after we got in the mission field. The Relief Society President asked us if we could visit a sister in the hospital. The daughter of the sister had requested visitors and a blessing for her Mum. We were already in Whangarei, so it was easy to swing by and visit her. We didn't know anything about the Mum or the daughter. We had a wonderful visit with the Mum, Elder Wilcox then gave her a beautiful blessing of comfort and we left. A couple of weeks later we were out trying to find members and delivering some birthday cards. We drove up a long dirt road to a home that was still being worked on. Actually, it was two homes. The brother we were looking for was working, but his father-in-law was there. We visited with him. He told us his wife was just put in a care facility. We found out he wasn't in our ward records, so we got information so we could request his records and went on our way. A week or so later, he walked into Church with a younger couple. We had seen the wife at the grocery store where she worked, and we would shop before we moved to Kamo. All of a sudden, we put the pieces together. The wife was the daughter who asked for someone to visit her Mum in the hospital. She went from the hospital to a care facility, where she passed away almost 6 months later. Our connection with them grew stronger the more we got to know them. I'm so glad we were able to support them in their time of loss.

After we got home, we had our family call with MyLiege's family. It was a little later than usual. Sean even brought Anna into the video call from Provo. Djeryd and Eva were there too, so we were able to see our beautiful great granddaughter. She is growing so fast. She gave us lots of smiles and kept trying to grab the video. She even showed off by saying "da da". I hope they are trying to teach here to say, "g g".

Tuesday turned into a very long day. We started with early morning Seminary. We have a temporary new student for two weeks. His parents are out of the country, so he is joining our class. At least our Zoom class. I don't know if he is part of our in-person class. Anyway, it is nice to have another voice in class. Since we were gone much of Monday, I spent most of the morning catching up on the New Convert Initiative project. I ended up sending out text message to all the Stake Presidents and the Bishops who have converts since the first of July. I actually got several responses from that, so I'm glad I did it. I think the Bishops are doing the actual work, just not recording it so we can track it for the Area.

Sheep in front of the
Chapel after DCM

In the afternoon we had our three Pathway students show up for their classes. Two of them are two of the Sisters we did the orientation for a week ago, and the other one is Elder Moyes on his third term. The other new Sister went to her Chapel in Bream Bay to access the Internet. It is too far to come to our house. We had missionaries spread out all over the house. One in the spare bedroom (actually 2 since her companion stayed with her), one in the office, and one in the dining room. Just before 2pm I sent Elder Wilcox to Clark Road to meet the guy what is going to be replacing the fence. He never showed. 😢As soon as Pathway ended and Elder Wilcox got home, we booted everyone out so we could head to Auckland.

We were picking up a few things at the office for the Carlisles: a desk, spare sheets, and a modem. On the way there, we ran into all kinds of weather. It was one of the most beautiful trips and horrible trips at the same time. It was beautiful because of the blue skies and white clouds and brilliant double rainbow 🌈 we saw. Then within a few minutes it was dark, and cold, and pouring down rain in buckets along with some very large hailstones. ⛈️ We thought for sure our car window was going to get broken. No sooner had that occurred than the sunshine and blue skies and rainbows appeared again, followed by another hailstorm, although the hail was not as large as the first time. This probably occurred 3 or 4 times over the course of the two-hour drive to the Mission Office.

Sister Chapman, New
Convert, Sister Ali

We picked up all the stuff we needed, and talked about going to dinner with the Garners since were had "plenty" of time before our training meeting. We checked to see how long it would take to get to our appointment and were surprised it was over 30 minutes away. Plus, traffic was a bear and accidents had been reported because of the storm that was still raging on. So, we scrapped the dinner and headed to our appointment. 

We got there about 15 minutes early. I tried to find the email with the name of the High Councilor we were meeting but never did find it. So, we walked in and explained why we were there, hoping someone would know who we were supposed to meet. Thankfully, the first person we talked to knew exactly where we needed to go. We met the High Councilor and the Stake Relief Society President. After introductions and some pleasantries, we had a prayer and got started. I gave them a printed copy of the instructions and then did the PowerPoint presentation I had prepared. They had some questions and insights. We had a very good training. Despite the travel, I think the in-person training is always best. I am hoping to arrange a few more in-person meetings. The Zoom trainings work good too, but I like in-person best. Luckily, the storm had mostly blown over on the way home. We only had a couple of light showers and NO traffic. We got home just before 10pm.

New Drapes for the Sisters

Wednesday was our 53rd Anniversary. We had a few things on our schedule and thought we could go out to dinner to celebrate. Hahahahahaha That was just a dream. I got up early to get my Seminary lesson prep done since I didn't want that to interfere with our dinner plans. Then we headed to DCM. We are back to just 2 districts again. Our North District is a little bigger than the South. Both Districts have 2 Senior Couples, so that is nice. We have 5 young missionary companionships, and the South Districts has 4. We had a great meeting. I am always so impressed with how strong these missionaries are. They have wonderful understanding and strong testimonies. Of course, the Book of Mormon highlights is always my favorite. The Zone Leaders did our training today and did a great job. We even got to role play teaching a principle of the Gospel. We paired up with the Carlisles. 

Karuru Falls

After DCM, we headed to the McClintock Street flat to clean it in preparation for closing it next Monday. We had several young missionaries show up as well as the Carlisles. The only problem was just as we got there, someone must have hit a power pole and knocked out the power in the neighbor. We had no electricity for the vacuum cleaners. Everyone concentrated on cleaning surfaces in the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, etc., as well as cleaning windows and windowsills throughout the house. We figured we would go back on Saturday to vacuum. Just about the time we were wrapping up, the power came back on. The young missionaries left so both Elder Carlisle and Elder Wilcox grabbed a vacuum (we had two). Elder Wilcox worked upstairs. Sister Carlisle and I started on the kitchen floor and the bathroom and laundry room floor. We mopped by hand. The laundry room had a leak, so I had a lot of water to clean up. Everything looked great when we were done. We will turn over the keys on Monday.

From there we headed to the Carlisles to drop off the desk and other stuff we had for them. We tried to get the Internet up and running without any luck. The mission office supplied a piece of equipment I had already given them that we had. We swapped it out, but it still didn't work. I explained that I thought it was they were not actually connected to an Internet Service provider. They are going to see if Sister Garner or Elder Geisler can tell them who the Internet Service provider was when the Kreutzkamps were there. We had another appointment in about 30 minutes so Sister Carlisle offered us some lunch. It was very much appreciated. We figured we would just skip lunch.  While at the Carlisle's the Sisters called to see if we had a printer and could print some baptismal programs for them. They had a baptism that night. I said we could do it and realized we were probably not going to be going out to dinner that night after all.

Our appointment was with the Sisters to help teach a family they are working with about Family History. Last week we got them a free FamilySearch.org account. They were so excited about that. We connected one line for the husband that actually went pretty far back. We were hoping to get another line for him on Wednesday. He kept saying he had Royals in his line and wanted to find the connection. After about an hour we found the confusion. One of his relatives married someone whose surname is Royals. They aren't really royalty. He was a little disappointed, but glad he figured out who the Royals were in his line. We left in time to rush home, print the baptismal programs (after I had to reformat it a bit to get it to print the way they wanted), and then rush to the Stake Center before the baptism. They had a lot more people show up for the baptism than was expected. It was a very nice service. At the end of the day, I realized I never got around to working on my presentation for the SPF meeting Thursday morning. 😮

Thursday was pretty busy too. We started with early morning Seminary again. Then I made some final preparations for the Mission Zoom SPF meeting. Luckily, I had given much the same training to the High Councilor on Tuesday, so it was pretty fresh. I just needed to change my audience and talk about how the missionaries can help the Bishops they work with use the new tool and fill out the spreadsheet I send them. Easy-peasy. It went well, and they asked for my information to go up on the shared drive. Between High Councilors and Missionaries working with the Bishops, we should see some progress real soon.

After SPF, Elder Sanders and Elder Shupe came over for our Comp Study. It felt like it had been forever since we met with them. Lots of things have come up for both of us over the last couple of weeks. Anyway, we had a wonderful discussion and enjoyed our visit and study time.

After a quick lunch, we went to the Clark Road flat to let the lady in to hang the new drapes. The Sisters were home, so they let her in. She must have been a little early because she was almost done when we got there. They look very nice. Sister Ali had a question about her laptop, so I looked into that for a while. I need to contact Elder Farrell about it. 

We went grocery shopping on the way home. We got them put away in time to head over to the Hesters for our MCM meeting. The Elders showed up shortly after that. We had a good meeting and discussed several members and friends. The work is progressing. We are starting up on Scripture reading with Joe again. That will be good.

Bay of Islands

Friday was another High Councilor training. This one came about after I sent out the text messages on Monday. He wanted it to be an in-person meeting as well. He is in the Kaikohe Stake which is just North of us. We drove an hour and met him at a lumber yard at Mt. Pokaka. We parked our car and then jumped into the back of his four-wheel-drive truck and headed to the top of Mt. Pokaka. That is where he lives. The view was spectacular. 

He had been inactive for years and ten years ago had an aneurysm. He said that woke him up and he turned his life around and became active in Church again. He has never looked back and loves his life. After we visited for a little while, we did our presentation. He was so excited about this new program. He had lots of questions and already has plans how to teach his Bishops and Branch Presidents. 

Chickens hanging out at Karuru Falls

After we left Brother Cooper, we decided to take most of the rest of the day off for our "anniversary." We did some sightseeing. It is very beautiful up north. We went to see the Karuru Falls and the Bay of Islands. Both were very beautiful. After that, we went to a nice restaurant and had a delicious lunch.

Saturday was busier than normal too. We only did two things, but they took up most of the day. The most important thing to happen was when we woke up to the news that Laila had her baby. We are the proud grant grandparents of Roman Oxley Morris, 7 lbs 3oz and 21in long. He was born at 11:40pm on September 19, 2024. Of course, for us that is September 20th at around 6:40pm. We couldn't be more excited. The hardest part is not being able to hold him for almost 1 1/2 years. These grandma arms are aching. They ache for our precious great granddaughter Ruth too. She will be 2 1/2 by the time we get home. But we do get to see them on our monthly Zoom calls with each family.

Grandpa Douhet and
Baby Roman

After that news, we got ready for the Ward Swap Meet. Actually, it was a community Swap Meet hosted by the Ward. It went pretty well, although we still had a lot left over. I can't believe how much stuff was donated from both the Ward and the community. We helped clean up everything before heading home. Elder Moyes and Elder Sanders asked if I could mend some slacks for them. Sister Hester said she had an old, donated sewing machine in the RS closet. She didn't even know if it worked. She said if it didn't work, I could borrow hers. 

We took it home and plugged it in. It was ancient, but I could believe how smooth it ran for the first seam I sewed. I decided to reinforce the seam by sewing it again, and that is when things started to go awry. It just spun and spun without the needle moving. Elder Wilcox took a look at it and said it was probably a belt that needed replacing. Since it was so old, we weren't even sure we could find one. He thought some WD40 might help so he put a little on the moving parts. Unfortunately, some of the oil dripped on something and there was a loud pop and then smoke. We also blew a fuse. Needless to say, if the sewing machine wasn’t dead before, it was now. Sister Hester’s machine worked beautifully. I fixed two pairs of pants for Elder Moyes and 3 pairs for Elder Sanders. I’m not exactly sure what Elder Sanders did to get the holes in his pants. None of them were at the seams. I told him that he needed a miracle worker, and I was not a miracle worker. I did the best I can. 

Sunday was one of my favorite Sundays. We had our Primary Sacrament Program. Our Primary is pretty small, so I was expecting the kids to all have multiple parts. However, we had kids come out of the woodwork. We had over 20 kids show up and they did a FANTASTIC job. They sound great in their songs, and their talks were all very personal as they talked about their favorite prophets from the Book of Mormon. It was very sweet. 

We had a huge turnout, too. We more than doubled our average attendance. It was so nice to see a full chapel when I led the closing song. We are hoping many will come back again. I think the heavens were smiling down on us too, as we had an absolutely beautiful day of sunshine!

After that we enjoyed a day of rest!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Seminary, Meetings, Flats, and Zone Conference

Monday was spent updating lots of New Convert Initiative stuff. I sent out spreadsheet to Bishops with new converts, follow-up emails to Stakes and Wards, scheduled trainings, and started planning my New Convert Initiative presentation to the mission that I will give at our next SPF this coming week.

I also helped Steve with several Ward Clerk things too. We also started organizing all the stuff we needed for Zone Conference. On top of that, I dealt with several interactions with different people dealing with multiple projects we are juggling right now. Lastly, I worked on my Seminary lesson for Tuesday, and even managed to put in a couple of hours for HawkSoft. 

Elder Tuaina and Sister Allen at Zone Conference

Tuesday was similar to Monday. Our Seminary lesson went well. I worked more on the New Convert Initiative and even more on HawkSoft. I received an email on what I needed to do to prepare for new Pathway students. I set up an in-person High Council training for the next week in Auckland. Lastly on that day we headed to the Stake Center to do our Ward Audit with our auditor. I enjoyed visiting with several people in the foyer while Steve was in another room for the audit. One of the people I visited with was one of the Bishops in our Stake who had a new convert. He told me all he had done, and I told him all he needed to do was put those dates in the spreadsheet I sent him. He pulled out his phone, keyed in the dates, put "yes" in a few cells and told me he was done!  He was my FIRST Bishop to fill out the spreadsheet. I think we are going to have to start calling Bishops. 

Wednesday was very busy. I woke up early so I could get several things done before our DCM meeting. I had to get my Seminary lesson done for Thursday because I knew I wouldn't have time to work on it the rest of the day.

DCM was great. Since our Zone Conference is on Friday, we had President and Sister Allen visiting us. We also had all three Districts in our building for our respective DCMs. Sister Allen attended our meeting for most of the time. I think President Allen sat in on the Central District. And then they both spent some time near the end of DCM to attend the South District. After that, they spent the afternoon interviewing all the young missionaries. 

We touched base with Elder and Sister Carlisle a bit before heading to the McClintock flat. We passed by the South District and saw President and Sister Allen in there with them. Just as we were getting into the car, President Allen rushed out to talk to us for a while. He wanted to know how the New Convert Initiative was going. He also reassured me that we are doing the work Heavenly Father needs even if we aren’t meeting with people all the time. He said any time we can meet with members is frosting on the cake. We have different work to do. It made me feel good, as I was feeling guilty because we weren’t out meeting the members like we did when we first got here. 

We met Elder Garner and another missionary at the McClintock flat so we could empty everything out of it. We are going to close the flat in the next week or so. The Carlisles showed up to help as well. It only took an hour or so to clean everything out. We will go back this week and clean before we turn the keys back to the landlord. We were home for a bit before we headed back to the Chapel to finish the audit from the day before. We should be good for a year now. 

Once we got back home, I started on the updates to the Pathway laptops. I had 4 to update. Then it was time to head out for our midweek Family Home Evening with the family we see every other week. He has 4 very active little kids that he gets every other week. It takes a while to get them to settle down. Then we can do a short lesson with them. We usually have a picture to color and a song to sing too. 

Once home again, I was back to updating the laptop and managed to finish a little after 9.

Thursday started with our Seminary lesson. It was a slow start, but eventually gained momentum. After the lesson, we quickly cleaned our house in preparation for our inspection. All landlords inspect every property ever three months. When they came much later in the day, they were only at our house for about 5 minutes. I guess we passed. 😇After that we had our mission Zoom SPF meeting. Sister Ward did the presentation. She happens to be President Allen’s sister. They entered the Mission a few weeks ago. Her presentation was about how the missionaries can help new members start on their Family History. This leads right into my New Convert Initiative project that I will be presenting next week. 

Steve ran some errands to get stuff we needed for Zone Conference. I was able to work the rest of the day on HawkSoft. Darrin had been gone the week before, so the certifications that I do pile up. I was able to finish them and get all caught up.

Sister Ali

Friday was Zone Conference! It was wonderful and exhausting all at the same time. We helped in the kitchen to get our meal out. I should have worn more comfortable shoes. Hahaha. The Elders got all the tables and chairs setup so that helped a lot. Steve cooked hamburgers and I helped prepare the different sides that went with it. Everyone enjoyed the Hamburgers and chips (French Fries). In addition to that we had fresh fruit, salad, soup, and of course, a plethora of desserts.  

When lunch was over, the missionaries quickly put all the tables away and moved the left-over food to the kitchen. They put out some chairs so we could take our group pictures. After the pictures we headed to the Chapel. Normally we would stay in the Cultural Hall to sing and say our farewells to the missionaries that are leaving. This time we did it in the Chapel. It somehow made it more spiritual. The songs were sung in Māori. It was so beautiful. I especially love "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again" in Māori.

Sister Ngawaka

We were able to go to our afternoon meetings as the rest of the lunch staff took care of packing up the food and doing the remaining dishes. I tried to get all the dishes done before we ate so there wasn't too much to do after. I especially wanted to hear Elder Moyes and Sister Lilloux do a musical number. Elder Moyes sang such a beautiful song. It was very powerful and very spiritual. It was so wonderful to have Sister Lilloux at our conference. She currently works in Auckland with the media team. She doesn't always get to go to the different Zone Conferences. I'm so glad she was able to come to ours. She plays the piano so beautifully. When the two of them perform together, I always end up crying. Later we had a meeting with meeting with all the Senior Couples. After that we had our testimony meeting before ending our conference. Normally, most of the missionaries take off right after the conference. This time, they ALL stayed and lingered longer. They were still hanging out talking 45 minutes after our conference. We still had a little clean up to do, so I grabbed the vacuum and started in the Cultural Hall. I was ready to go home. When I was almost done, and Elder came along to see if he could help. I asked him to put the small table back in a classroom. By the time he was back, I was done. Finally, they started leaving. It was probably another 15 minutes before we headed home.

Sister Szott

Saturday is normally a fairly quiet day. Not this time. We started with six Sisters showing up for the Pathway orientation meeting. I connected my laptop to the big screen and put my camera on top of the big screen so they could watch and participate in the Zoom meeting. It was far better than all hanging round a laptop screen. When the Zoom call was over, I gave them each their Pathway laptop. We went over how to get on the BYU Pathway site and then explored different areas they will be using during their course. We made extra brownies when we made them for Zone Conference, so we pulled out the brownies for the Sisters. Everyone loves brownies. 😉We had an enjoyable and productive morning. They left a little before noon.

We had around an hour and a half before we needed to meet someone at the Sisters' flat to measure for new drapes. During that time, I was able to get my scripture study done. We also work on the laundry. After the gal measured for the drapes, we headed over to the Zone Leaders to drop something off for them. While there, we got a message that Elder Garner wanted to talk with us. We called, but he was busy. We checked with Sister Ali to get an address for someone they wanted us to go visit with them. 

Sister Lilloux and Elder Tuaina

We finally went home because neither contacted us. We were only home for a short time when we received the address from Sister Ali. In the meantime, we received a dinner invite from the Carlisles. 

We headed over to the Sisters’ friend’s house to help them with Family History. They had actually done quite a bit of work. We set them up with a FamilySearch account. It took a little while to find the key person that would add his family tree, but we finally found her. We are going back next week to help them fill in more of their tree.

Again, we headed home for a little while before heading over to the Carlisles for dinner. We had a wonderful dinner and an enjoyable time. The time just passed by so quickly, and before long it was later than we thought and time to go. We helped them get connected with the shared drive that they will need for future house inspections. Finally, we headed home for the night.

Sister Chapman, Sister Ali, Sister Szott, Sister Ngawaka,
Sister Tua'one, Sister Enosa, and Sister Wilcox

We started our Sunday very early to set things up for Sacrament before heading into Ward Council. I feel it was very productive. We then headed into Sacrament meeting. Elder Wilcox had sent out reminder text messages for all the participants in our meeting, however, when Sacrament meeting started not a single speaker was there. Amazingly, we were not worried. As I was leading the opening song, in walked all three speakers. I’m sure the Bishop was relieved. 

Each speaker did a fabulous job. I was very impressed with each message. They used humor as well as spiritual experiences. It was a very uplifting meeting. We headed to the Cultural Hall for Sunday School. Normally we have Sunday School in the Chapel, but next week is the Primary Program so they wanted to practice in the Chapel. I liked having Sunday School in the Cultural Hall. Everyone was close because the chairs were set up in a couple of semi-circles. It was easy to hear everyone, and our discussion was great. 

After Church we found out that it was the Bishop’s birthday. We visited briefly and eventually we all headed home. 

When evening came, we picked up the Carlisles and went to the Stake Devotional at the Stake Center. Our speakers were Elder and Sister Jaggi the 2nd Counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency and Brother and Sister Webb the 1st Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency. It was a very nice devotional.

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Pre-Spring, Walks, Mission Office, Temple, and Service Project

On Monday we got to touch base with Douhet's family. Griffyn even joined us for a while. YAY!!! We also got to see Audrey, Kinzley, and Kylee. Alyson wasn't around. Laila, even popped in for a little while. She is getting so close to delivering her baby. We can hardly wait! I sent text messages to Brooklyn and Anna since they are both in Provo to start college. Brooklyn responded, but I never heard from Anna. 😢 Madison texted me about a testimony she heard in Church that morning. I love being able to chat with family.

I found out on Monday that our mentors sent my PowerPoint presentation for the New Convert Initiative training to Salt Lake. With only one minor correction, they approved it. It has now been sent to all the other Missionary Couples who are helping with the initiative. The first High Councilor that I've been working with, took my PowerPoint presentation and turned it into a self-help document that he is using to train his Bishops. He added more detail to each step for the training. My presentation was just an overview for the High Councilors. He happens to be an employee of the Church and even works in the Publishing Services Department. That is the department we served our last mission in. He made the self-help document generic enough that I can use it to send to all the Stakes I am working with. I'm hoping this will really kick off the initiative in our mission. The other Missionary Couples have started using the spreadsheet I created and so far, so good.

Tuesday started with early morning Seminary class on Zoom. After Seminary, we went for a walk. The weather was beautiful. We are hoping to get walks every day, but at least a few every week. After the walk, we took some pictures at the Kreutzkamp's old flat for the new Senior Missionary couple that arrived this week. That flat is not easy to find. The address is not visible on the street. You have to turn down, and road/driveway where there are several other houses before you can find the house. The road/driveway does not have a different street name. Anyway, we took pictures of where they needed to turn to get to the house and sent them to Sister Geisler. She is the one who picked them up at the airport and got them on their way up north. They officially moved in on Thursday.

Steve met a couple of Elders at the Sisters' flat so they could exchange their dryer for the one at the flat we will be closing. He spent the rest of the day putting together a proposal for replacing the walkway. I submitted several things that needed to be fixed at the Sisters' flat to the landlord. They decided they would replace the drapes and fix the fence and gate. However, they would not touch the walkway or steps. We got permission from Elder Garner to fix it. We organized a service project for Saturday.

On Wednesday we had an amazing DCM meeting. They just seem to get better and better each week. Next week, we will have Elder and Sister Carlisle in our district. They are awesome. They will be working in the branch where the Kreutzkamps worked. The Zone Leaders work there too. sister Carlisle plays the piano, so she will be able to resume the piano lessons that Sister Kreutzkamp started. I know the branch will love that. After our DCM, we had a little birthday party for Elder Fernandez. The Central District finished up after that. Our Zone was nominated to do a little video presentation for the mission. We chose Christlike attributes. Each missionary stated an attribute they liked and why, then passed the phone off to the next person, usually with a little joke. When it was my turn, I said my favorite attribute was patience, but really it was the one I needed the most work on. Then I said I was passing it to someone who could try my patience every day. Lol. Then it was Elder Wilcox's turn. 

Elder Fernandez

After DCM and lunch, Elder Wilcox went to pick up supplies for the Service Project, and I went to work on my Seminary Lesson. Sister Paratene stopped by so I could help her with a Zoom issue she was having. She stayed for over an hour while we talked about Seminary and how we can engage our students more.

On Thursday we did our Zoom Seminary lesson. I created an online jigsaw puzzle for the Doctrinal Mastery scripture today. We studied Ether 12:27. The puzzle was fun. We then had our SPF meeting. Elder Bailey put together a great presentation on the My Covenant Path program. He wasn't feeling well, so Elder Hutchison did the presentation. They both did a fantastic job. Elder Sanders and Elder Shupe came over for Comp Study. After they left, we ate a quick lunch and then headed to Auckland. We no sooner got on the road than we got a call from Sister Carlisle. They had just arrived at their new flat and had some questions. Since we were hoping to meet them before we left, we turned around and headed over. We visited for almost an hour. We answered questions and gave them some information. I also gave them the spare key we had so they could each have a key to the flat. We invited them over for dinner on Saturday. Then we headed to Auckland and then to the Temple.

Elder Bailey and Elder Dixon

We walked into the Mission Office and spotted Elder Dixon. He jumped up and gave us hugs. Then Sister Lilloux and Elder Bailey came over and gave us hugs. It was so WONDERFUL seeing each of them again. Oh, how we love our missionaries, and we never want to let them go. After we finished taking care of our business, we headed to Hamilton to attend the Temple on Friday morning. 

We awoke early Friday morning to do an 8:00 session. The Spirit was very strong in our session. Right after our Endowment Session, we headed over to do our Sealing assignment. We had a few children to seal to their parents. We were unable to get them done last month. We were a little late, but they let us in, and we are able to get all of them done. 

We stopped at the distribution center on our way home. Elder Moyes wanted us to pick up a leather bound large Triple Combination. They were out and told us we could order them online and get free shipping. When we went to order it at home, they were out of the leather bound. We called Elder Moyes, and he said we could do simulated leather. We got that ordered for him. Not sure how long it will take to get here.

We stopped at Costco a couple hours later. We needed a few things, but Elder Sanders wanted us to buy him so new pants and Elder Shupe wanted some chocolate protein powder. We found their stuff and video called them, but no answer. We knew we got the right pants, so we headed to checkout. Elder Shupe wasn't 100% sure he wanted us to get anything, so I sent text pictures but did not put it in our cart. Just as we got in line, they called us back. I headed back to the protein powder and started showing them pictures from our video call. They finally settled on a container, and I headed back to checkout. Elder Wilcox had already finished, so I bought it separately. Then we headed home. 

Elder Christensen

We stopped at several flats on our way home to drop things off. Luckily, we had keys. We contacted our Hikurangi Elders to come and pick their stuff up as they are NOT on the way home. Not long after we got home, Elder Moyes and Elder Shupe showed up and took the remaining stuff. We were tired.

We got up early Saturday morning to get started on our service project. First, I made a double batch of brownies. That's how I bribed the Elders to come and help. Hahahaha They would have come anyway, but who doesn't love brownies. Brother Davis texted us at 8:15 saying he was on his way over there to get started. We had set the time at 10. Lol. So, as soon as the brownies came out of the oven, we headed over and got there a few minutes after nine. I chatted the Elders on the way over saying they could come earlier if they wanted. The Zone Leaders showed up a little while after we got there. The other four Elders showed up at 10. Brother Davis was our project manager. He had the expertise, tools, and other materials that we needed. He was so good to teach our missionaries new skills. Everyone worked hard but no one was overworked because we had many hands helping. After a job well done, everyone enjoyed brownies before heading out for the rest of their day. 

Brother Bo Davis

We ran some errands on the way home, like grocery shopping, and picking up a prescription. Once home we took showers and finished the laundry we had started earlier. I did a little bit of work on HawkSoft, before helping Steve with dinner. We fixed a nice dinner for Elder and Sister Carlisle. We had a lovely visit with them. They are getting settled in. They still need quite a few things. Some things Elder Garner will be able to bring up here on Friday for Zone Conference. Other things they will need to buy. Some of the things they buy, they may be able to get reimbursed. One problem they were having was with their heat pump. They couldn't get it to work because they didn't have the remote. They couldn't find any manual buttons on the heat pump. Anyway, we suggested they take our remote home and see if it would work on their heat pump. We also sent home a couple of portable heaters that we had. They were very grateful. As soon as they got home, they tried the remote and it worked!!! They have heat now. 

Our Sabbath day was great. We had a little flurry of activity as we scrambled to fix all the last-minute changes in the program. Let's just say, the Elders saved us and it all worked out, but it was a little crazy for a while. The speakers were wonderful. Our little Relief Society group was very intimate. We had a beautiful discussion on Elder Gong’s General Conference Talk called All Things for Our Good. We discussed how even seemingly bad things can be for our good. We can draw closer to Heavenly Father when we face trials and afflictions when we turn to Him instead of blaming Him. Many of us shared experiences where the blessings we received far outweighed the trial we endured.

After Church, we met with Brother Shepherd. He was the Ward Clerk before Elder Wilcox. He is now the Stake Clerk. Anyway, apparently, we were running some reports that we needed to do, so he showed us all the things we need to be doing…at least in the finance area. We are a bit behind since many of the reports are supposed to be done monthly. Elder Wilcox will be working on catching up this week. 😇

I hope you have a wonderful week. You can enjoy the cooler weather you are getting, while we enjoy the warmer weather we are getting. Life is good, and Heavenly Father blesses us with what we need. 

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox