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