Breakfast at Aunty Sandra's, Visit with George, DCM, and Sailing Adventure 

Monday started with breakfast at Aunty Sandra's house. She is this AWESOME sister in our Stake who does a fabulous breakfast once a transfer for all the missionaries in the Whangarei Stake. We missed the first few she did, but finally made it to the last one. Since then, we won't miss another. This was her Christmas feast. She even had cute little goodie jars for each missionary with treats and soaps and fun things. Sister Carlisle couldn’t be there because she was helping a sweet member in their branch at the hospital. Elder Carlisle was there, and we were there. Breakfast was delicious. We said goodbye to Elder Christensen and Elder Dallimore. They were both headed to Cook Islands.

After running some errands, we had fun video call with MyLiege's family. Anna joined us from Provo. Erik dropped in to show off his new car, so we got to visit him too. Djeryd and Eva joined just before we were signing off, so we got to see Ruthie for a little while. She is getting so big and beginning to talk. I miss her so much. And I miss little Roman too. I haven't even got to hold him yet. 😢

We had our Comp Study with the Sisters on Tuesday. We read and discussed chapters 5 and 6 in the 1 Nephi. We talked about experiences we had when we just KNEW something was true, and no amount of persuasion from anyone else could change our mind. The Holy Ghost had witnessed to us, and we knew it. Jospeh Smith experienced that after his first vision. Even though people would not believe him and even got angry with him for saying what he saw, he knew it had happened, and he could not deny it. He also knew that God knew he knew it and he did not dear deny it. The experiences I have had may not be anything like the first vision, but I know just as assuredly as Joseph knew and I cannot and will not deny it. It was a good discussion.

Later, I put together the Christmas Sacrament Program. Normally we don't hand out a printed program, except to the one who conducts the meeting. But, since the Sacrament Program had lots of Christmas hymns, I thought a printed program would be most appropriate. 

After working on several more things, we left to meet the Elders at George's house. Elder Moyes asked if I could help George set up a Family Search account and get started with his Family History. It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside under a canopy. It is a little hard doing it all on the phone, but we got his set up and added a few of his relatives. I was hoping to add one that would connect to several more generations back, but we didn't quite make that happen. His sister lives with him and she is kind of a family history person. I'm hoping she will help him enter more names. 

I was up early Wednesday morning to address a problem Darrin reported to me the night before. We did a video call so he could show me how I can test the forms I have been sending him. That way we won't have to go back and forth so much. He showed me another issue that I was able to take care of. It will be so nice to test before I send it to him in the future. 

Just about the time I finished, it was time to go to DCM. We had a wonderful meeting. Our training involved what we can do to help the members of the Ward Council focus on members of the Ward who need greater support. We talked about a lot of things that we can do to help. I love seeing that particular meeting focus more on people and less on planning activities. We had a little party after our meeting to say goodbye to Sister Yesslith as she goes home 1 January 2025. We didn't know if we were going to have a DCM meeting on Christmas morning, so we had the party that Wednesday. I'm glad I brought snacks. I baked some Banana Bread the night before. Plus, we had some fruit and vegies. It all worked out well. 

Sister Yesslith

Thursday was a VERY FUN day. One of the Senior Couples in Auckland booked a sailing excursion up north and invited any other senior couples to join them. A week or so before the trip, they found out their daughter has cancer and needs their help with her little children. They flew home the day before the cruise. We missed them and hope they will be able to come back to finish their mission. Anyway, there were six couples that went on the Island-Hopper Sailing Adventure with the small crew of Barefoot Sailing Adventurers. There were four additional people that were part of our excursion. It was an all-day trip with lunch included. We had a crew of three people. Rick owned the boat. He had Jason helping him, and Carmen helped in the galley as well as with the rigging. She has only been working for them for 2 weeks. She did GREAT. 

The boat was a catamaran. From a distance, it didn’t look like it could hold 16 passengers, but it was much bigger than it looked. They had a bunch of big bean bags on the deck as well as some normal bench seats in the back of the boat. We were in the back with the Bennions. Later, Steve and I got on the two remaining bean bags that were also at the back of the boat. The weather was perfect, NO RAIN. It was sunny and even got hot. We lathered on the sunscreen, donned hats and sunglasses and settled in for the wonderful cruise. For most the trip to the island we actually sailed. The wind was with us. Then, all of a sudden it just died down and we had to make the rest of the trip to the island by motor. It took two hours to get there. Elder Bennion got to steer the rudder in the back of the boat for a little while. He did a great job. Elder Carlisle took a turn at it on the other side of the back when they had to move the sails over to get more wind. 

Once we got to the island, we had two hours to explore, snorkel, paddle board, or just hang out. We ate our picnic lunches on the island, too. We strolled on the beach and got our feet wet. The water was nice. We didn’t bring swimsuits to swim in. We were happy just wading in the water. Later, we took a short hike up the trail. Some went to the other side of the island, but we only went about halfway. It was so beautiful. After we got back from our little hike, we got our picnic lunch and found a nice shady spot behind some low hanging tree branches. It was also beautiful. I was able to sit on one of the low branches. After lunch, we wandered down the beach again, to where several other missionaries were hanging out and just visited with them until it was time to get back on the boat for home port.

The ride back was a little more adventuresome. Some dark clouds came in, the temperature got cooler, and the water became very rough. We bounced around quite a bit, but it was fun. Once again, the wind died down, and we had to travel by motor. When we got about 45 minutes away, the sun was shining, the waters were calm, and it got hot again. It was during that time that Carmen came over to us and started asking questions about the Church. We enjoyed talking with her and telling her the many different things that missionaries do. We told her about the young missionaries, as well as many different things the senior missionaries do. She had lots of questions, and we answered the best we could. We even got the share the Gospel with her.

As much as we wanted to recoup from our trip the day before on Friday, we still had plenty to do to catch up. We managed to print the Christmas Sacrament Program, so we didn't have to try and do that Sunday morning. Elder Wilcox fixed a few issues in one of the flats. It happened to be the same flat that Elder Garner dropped off a dresser for the Elders and a couple of bar stools for us, so Elder Wilcox was able to grab them while he was there. I took care of several other things that needed to be done on the computer, including making plans for the joint Central and North Districts DCM Christmas "party" we will have at our house on Christmas morning for the missionaries. It should be fun.

Saturday was spent taking care of household things like laundry, cleaning, bills, and all the other things that I kept bumping them from one day to the next because I never had time to finish them. A big part of the day was spent putting together the Christmas stuff we bought/made for the missionaries. I think they turned out cute. I also finally finished all the New Convert Initiative that kept getting bumped. It is just in time for my next report on Monday.

Sunday was our Christmas Sacrament Program. We invited people from the parade a week ago and it looked like some of them came. We had a lot of visitors today. Some, of course, were other family members visiting their families here. But there were several people that were from the community that came. The program turned out very well. Elder Wilcox did a wonderful job of narrating the story of Christmas. President Sadler was visiting from the Stake Presidency. He had some Stake business to conduct. He calls Elder Wilcox "the voice" because he loves his speaking voice. He was very excited to be here for our program. He was also excited to find out Elder Moyes was going to be singing a couple of songs for us. He has such a beautiful voice. He did two solos for us. We heard from the Primary kids and our Youth as well. And, of course, we had lots of congregational hymns. I was afraid we were going to end way too soon, but the time was perfect. The Bishop got up and gave a few closing remarks before we closed with Silent Night. Afterwards, we all went to the Cultural Hall for a Linger Longer. Normally, it is just some finger food, snacks, fruit, vegies, etc. This time, it was a full-blown lunch. We announced it last week as a potluck and we had everything from pulled pork, rice, chicken, ham, a variety of salads, fruit, and of course desserts. It was a wonderful time to visit and mingle after our meeting and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

We would like to wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox