Glow-worm Caves, Family History Help, Stripling Warrior, B&B, Museum, Visitors, and Early Thanksgiving Dinner

Our Zone

From the title you can see it has been a VERY busy week. On Monday, we had a wonderful day. We started the morning at Aunty Sandra's house for her "transfer" breakfast for all the missionaries in our Zone. We have always had something going on the day she has scheduled it so we have never made it. This time, we thought we were going to miss it again, when Sister Carlisle suggested we skip leaving early for our Senior Activity day and instead go to the breakfast first. I'm so glad we did. She puts on a feast. It was so fun too, after all the missionaries showed up. Aunty Sandra is this incredible Sister who does so much. She is the principal of the elementary school in Pipiwai. We have met her several times, and she always remembers us. We stayed about an hour and then headed out to our Senior Activity day. 

One of our Senior Couples goes home in a week or so and we wanted to have our activity before they left. We made reservations at a Glow-worm Cave near Bream Bay and then at a restaurant for lunch. We had a wonderful time on the tour and learned so many fascinating things about how the caves were formed and the glow-worms. I think my favorite moment was when we were heading back out of the caves. We had all turned our little lights off, so it was dark. We looked up at the ceiling of the cave and saw hundreds, if not thousands of tiny glow-worms. I looked like the Milky Way. I suppose that is why they are called the Milky Way caves. 😇 I think everyone really enjoyed it. We had a great lunch too and stayed a very long time just visiting with each other. I love all our Senior Missionaries. I love all our young missionaries too.

Once we got home, we finished our day with a video call with Season. Madison poked in for a bit to let us know that she got accepted into a graduate program for optometry in Provo. She will start in May. We are very excited for her. We had a great visit with Season and talked about so many things. It was wonderful to catch up.

After that, Sister Paratene stopped by to talk about Seminary. The class was doing the Sacrament program the following Sunday and she wanted to give me all the details so I could create the Sacrament program. 

Tuesday was pretty normal. I worked on the New Convert Initiative for much of the day. We had our Pathway missionaries over. The Bishop stopped by for a quick visit. He needed some computer help with an email he received. Later, Charlotta came over so we could help her print out her family names so she could take them to the Temple and do the baptisms. It was the first time she did Temple work, and she was very excited. We had a lovely time catching up and printing out her mother's and grandmother's cards.

Wednesday was DCM in Bream Bay again. I think we will be meeting there one more week, before we go back to either Hikurangi or Whangarei. We take half the Elders with us and the other half go with the Carlisles. That way they don't use up their very limited number of miles for the month. I love just listening to the Elders chat with each other in the car. After we dropped the Elders off at the Carlisle's house to pick up their cars, we ran some errands before heading home. Steve worked on his talk for Sacrament meeting, and I finished up the New Convert Initiative comparison spreadsheet. I then did some HawkSoft work. At the end of the day, I found out I will be the concluding speaker for Sacrament. Lol

Thursday was very busy getting lots of things done before our trip to Hamilton and Auckland. I did the Seminary Sacrament Program. (I think it turned out pretty good.) We worked on Ward Council stuff. I prepared my training for Ward Council and wrote the talk for the Sacrament meeting. I also organized getting some food for the Devotional on Sunday. I sewed up a couple of slits on a dress for one of the Bream Bay Sisters. She felt the slits were too high, so I dropped them about two inches. She is headed to the Cook Islands this week. 

We left around 9:30 Friday morning to head to Hamilton for the Temple. We endured heavy rain and wind all day. I felt bad for Steve driving in it. We picked up the Carlisles, so we had nice conversation all the way. Sister Carlisle made a nice chicken salad for lunch. She had some rolls, so we made sandwiches. We furnished some chips, fruit, and cookies to round out the meal. We stopped for lunch once we got through the Auckland traffic. 

Dinner with Carters, Carlisles, and Wilcoxes

We arrived in Hamilton a full hour before we needed to be at the Temple, so we dropped the Carlisles off at the distribution center. They wanted to buy some things and then met up with the Carters, who they were staying with. We headed over to the Bed and Breakfast spot we were staying at. It was very close to the Temple and in such a beautiful spot. Our only concern was the one bathroom shared by the floor. There were only four rooms on the floor so we were hoping it wouldn't be too bad.

Our B&B

We met the Carlisles and Carters at the Temple for our session. They were both encouraged to sit at the front of the room, and I ended up near the back. That was OK with me as the back of the room is actually better seating. The Carters left after the Endowment Session, and we stayed for an Initiatory session with the Carlisles. After that we met up with the Carters at a restaurant for dinner. We had a very nice visit, but it was really noisy in the restaurant. On our way back to the B&B we had to reroute several times because of road closures. We eventually made it back. There was no one in the huge bathroom so we took our showers. They have a separate toilet room so that makes it easier. Lol We honestly didn't see anyone that day, even though they were full up.

Our Hosts, Clive and Coleen

Saturday morning was amazing. We went down for breakfast just as everyone else was finishing. They had a table all set for the two of us. There were a variety of things for breakfast to match any appetite. Elder Wilcox had pancakes, I had granola and yogurt. They brought a small tray of bacon that was so good. We each ate that. She also brought us some Māori toast that was so crispy and good. We put butter and local honey on it. YUM! Since everyone else left, we had a nice visit with the owners. Come to find out, the husband (Clive) served a mission to Australia right after Elder Wilcox served. They shared the same Mission President and even served in several of the same areas. They had fun talking about that. Coleen shared about her family and the role they played in the Hamilton Temple. By the time we left, we exchanged contact information, and she told us to call her directly if we ever wanted to come back. She would give us a better price than we paid before. Needless to say, we are going back next month.

From there, we went to the Church Museum to meet up with the Carlisles. The Carters work there for their mission. They gave us a nice tour of the museum and showed us where they work and what they do. It is pretty fascinating. They told us about a nice souvenir shop that was not too far and very reasonably priced. We decided to stop since we still had plenty of time before we needed to be in Auckland. We stayed at the souvenir shop way too long and bought a lot of stuff. I think we have all the souvenirs we need now. 

We hit the road again and changed the plans we had. We dropped stopping at the ice cream place. We will save that for the next Temple trip. Lol.  We also dropped stopping at a party supply store so I could pick up some table runners for our future Zone Conferences. I wanted to hit a different store instead of Costco, but it was decided Costco was the place to go. So, we dropped the Carlisles off at the front entrance to Costco to pick up the food items we both needed for the Senior Thanksgiving Dinner we were going too, and we went to get gas. For some reason, Costco gas wouldn't take Elder Wilcox's Costco card, so we ended up getting gas later on our way home. Of course, Costco took longer than expected because of lines, so we were later than we wanted to be. 

The Dinner started at 4 and we got there by 4:30. It turns out it wasn't too late after all. They had finished the welcome and stuff and were just getting in lines to get food. I took care of a little business before getting in line to eat. When we sat at our table, we were right next to two missionaries who were serving in the Hamilton Temple Initiatory when we were there on Friday. Sister Carlisle and I were in the Sister's booth, and Elder Wilcox was in the husband's booth. I was sitting next to the husband, and he said he met my husband in the Temple the day before. I looked at his wife and said that I met his wife in the Temple. From there we had a great conversation. They actually serve in the Area Office, so we had never seen them before. Their particular job takes them all over the Pacific Islands. It sounded pretty cool.

Matthew Cowley's Coat

After dinner and group pictures, and pictures with a few of our missionaries that are now in Auckland, we loaded up our car with a bunch of stuff for the different flats up north. The Seniors did inventories of what the Missionaries should have and if they were missing anything. The Auckland Senior Couple in charge put together bags of stuff for them. We didn’t have a lot of room in our car because of our luggage and the Carlisle’s luggage, so we put the overflow in the Ward’s car. The plan was to get the stuff from the Ward's car at our DCM meeting the following Wednesday.

We stopped at the Bream Bay Sisters’ flat to drop off their bag of stuff and a new (used) phone for one of the sisters we had to trade out.  Next, we headed to the Carlisles to drop them off and meet the Denby Sisters so we could give Sister Griffin the music I printed for them last week for the Devotional Sunday night. She accidentally left it with Sister Ali when she dropped her off in Auckland. We met up with Sister Ali at the dinner and picked up the music. CRAZY!

Lastly, we headed home. We got there at 9:00pm and put things away before Brynn and Warren arrived. They were visiting us overnight. Brynn will be back on Tuesday and stay to Thursday before heading back to Oregon. 

Sunday was another very busy day. After staying up too late visiting with Brynn and Warren, we had to get up very early for Church. We had Ward Council and had to arrive early to have everything set up for that. I think my training went pretty well. Brynn and Warren came to our Sacrament meeting then they left to head back to Hamilton. The Stake released our Elders Quorum President and sustained him to the High Council. They also release the counselors in the Elders Quorum and call the previous first counselor as the new Elders Quorum President. Then the Seminary class did their presentation. Since we were studying the Book of Mormon this year, the Class made a big "Stripling Warrior" out of shopping bags. Throughout the year they would post things on him like things about his armor. Each of the kids spoke about some aspects of what they learned. The teacher had 6 speakers before a group song and then 4 more speakers lined up. Needless to say, we went overtime. I was supposed to be the concluding speaker, but I shook my head and didn't speak. I just got up and we sang the closing song. We finished almost 10 minutes late.

After Church, we took care of several Ward Clerk things for the Bishop. We were able to do them at home so that was nice since both counselors were on the computer in the Clerk's office. We had a Zoom meeting with the mission. While that was going on, we made our refreshments for the Devotional that night. Luckily, we could listen to the Zoom meeting while we worked. Lol. Not long after that ended it was time to leave for the Devotional. They wanted people to be early so they could run through the program. I got some tables set up for the refreshments. Just before the Devotional started, I realized that no one was in charge of the food. There were no tablecloths, plates, serving utensils, etc. I went to the kitchen to see if I could find anything that could help. The kitchen isn't well stocked yet; however, I found a bunch of glass saucers in the cupboard, so I pulled those out and put them on the table. I was not looking forward to washing dishes. I found a few tongs to help with serving, but not nearly enough. Luckily, we were having finger food. 

Aunty Sandra Saves the Day!

I went back to watch the Devotional. I left about 15 minutes before the Devotional ended so I could put the food out. Our SWEET Aunty Sandra arrived and had some tablecloths, paper plates, and more utensils, not to mention 100 chocolate eclairs she had just made. She wasn't in charge, but somehow, she heard about the mix up and thought maybe she could help. She SAVED the day. The Devotional turned out great and there was hardly any food left. It couldn't have been better. We had a few dishes to wash, but overall, it wasn't bad. I was so tired by the end of the day.  

All our Love,
Elder and Sister Wilcox