It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

Monday was spent working on the New Convert Initiative for the morning and HawkSoft in the afternoon. That was a "fun" p-day. Elder Wilcox took care of a couple of issues at two different flats. We ended the day decorating our feeble little Christmas Tree. 

Tuesday had a little more variety. I worked on some reports for Sister Hester that she wanted after our discussion at Ward Council last week. The Sister Missionaries arrived at 10:00 for the weekly mentoring video call. After that we did our weekly Comp Study. We are reading and discussing the Book of Mormon from the beginning. We read and discussed chapter 2 for 1st Nephi. Our discussion focused on the main differences between Nephi and Laman and Lemuel. We decided it all had to do with attitude and desire. To start with, Nephi wasn't crazy about packing up and heading to the wilderness any more than Laman and Lemuel were. But, instead of murmuring and complaining, Nephi wanted to know for himself if it was what the Lord wanted, so he prayed. It says the Lord softened his heart and he did not murmur against his father. Once he knew what the Lord wanted, it was easier for him to obey his father and trust in the Lord. Laman and Lemuel, on the other hand, never prayed or asked. They expected the Lord to just come out and tell them without even asking on their part. That is NOT the way it works. We have to show forth faith and ask the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ what it is we want to know. Only then can we receive the answers from the Lord.

After that, I wrote my recap from the previous week because I was so late in getting it done. I then made treats for our DCM meeting the next day. Lastly, I sorted out all the boxes we received several months ago when we took over the responsibility of doing the lunches for Zone Conference. We didn't have a clue how much of anything we had because they were spread out in many different boxes. We had bought several things, thinking we were running out. We sorted EVERYTHING and organized them into specific boxes and labeled them. Now, we only have to grab what we need for a specific conference instead of putting nearly all the boxes in the car for each conference. I think it should be much easier to track all our supplies this way.

On Wednesday, we headed to DCM. With Zone Conference at the end of the week, President and Sister Allen were there to conduct interviews with all the missionaries. They did the Central and North Districts before DCM and then headed to Bream Bay about halfway through DCM to be there for the South District interviews. That meant we got to have President Allen in our District for the first part of our meeting. After our meeting, we were supposed to hang out until Elder and Sister Buchanan arrived from Bream Bay with our Christmas dresses and ties. All the Seniors had dresses and matching ties made down in Auckland. Sister Ward picked our Zone's up on Monday and took them to Bream Bay since they are in the District. Sister Buchanan brought the Carlisle's and ours to Whangarei, since they have to go through Whangarei to go home to Dargaville. Long story short, we forgot and went to Hikurangi right after DCM. On our way back home, Sister Buchanan texted us that they were at the Stake Center. We quickly rushed back there to meet them and pick up our dresses. 

Once home, I took care of several things on my plate before starting on our lesson preparation for our Family Home Evening lesson that night. I made a puzzle for each of the four little kids, as well as little paper quiet books for Sacrament meeting. The lesson was about the Sacrament and how we can Always remember Jesus.

After that the Sisters came over again for another mentoring call and then some lesson prep for a lesson they were presenting. I did some work on HawkSoft. 

Not long after that it was time to go to our Family Home Evening lesson. The kids were a little wound up that night, but we had fun.

After we got home, I gave Steve a haircut. Then we started on creating a Nativity Table Decoration for our Zone Conference on Friday. We were not supposed to buy anything but make it out of whatever we had in our flat. 

We stayed home all day on Thursday to finish up things before our trip and to prepare for Zone Conference. Besides some "housekeeping" things like laundry and paying bills, we spent part of the day finishing the Nativity centerpiece. We decided to choose pictures from our past Nativity plays with our grandchildren and paste them on some red cardstock. We did three sheets. Then we taped the sheets together to form a circle. It fit perfectly around the bottom portion of some plastic buckets we had so it makes a nice cylinder. Steve cut the rest of the buckets off so you couldn't see them. He then put the lid on the top upside down. It fit just right. We grabbed some mint we have in our garden and Steve glued the leaves to the top of the lid. Then we grabbed Christmas Bulbs off the tree to give it the finishing touch. I think it turned out really well and we got lots of compliments at Zone Conference. 

Friday was a VERY long day. We were up at 5:00 to pick up the Carlisles and headed to Auckland to be there by 9:30 for Zone Conference. We made good time and had no traffic issues. We arrived by 9:15. We normally have two Zones for our Zone Conference, Whangarei and Kaikohe. That conference consisted of four Zones. Two of the northern most Auckland Zones joined us. It was such fun to see several of our old missionaries who transferred out, some recently and other many months ago. First off, we got to see Elder Bailey! We love him! We also saw Sister Lilloux, Sister Ali, and Sister Enosa. Big hugs for all of them. We got to see many of our Senior Missionaries from Auckland. That is always fun. And of course, all our missionaries from our two Northland Zones. I was filled with JOY!

Our first hour was training and then we had a short break. The second hour (turned out to be closer to 2 hours) was the Christmas program put on by the missionaries in the zones. The next segment was what I was really looking forward to. It was the Christmas program the missionaries put together with song and the spoken word. I heard it was FABULOUS! Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any of it. Luckily, our video people recorded it, so we will get to watch it. Instead, we got to be angels. 

We ended up spending the next three hours helping a sister who was in a car accident. Luckily, she was not hurt, but she had to wait for the tow truck to get her car. So, we waited with her and got to know her better. She has such strong faith, and we witnessed several little miracles surrounding the accident. For example, when she talked to her insurance company about getting a rental car since hers was going to be in the shop for at least 3 days, she was told the insurance company wouldn’t cover it. She prayed and trusted in the Lord. She then called back and asked again and was told OK. You can have a rental car. There were several other miracles just like that.

We were running so late that we texted Sister Carlisle to make us each a lunch plate since we were sure we missed lunch and the conference pictures. But when we finally arrived, they were still eating lunch. Like I said, the program was almost two hours. So other than the Christmas program we didn't miss anything. They told us they recorded the entire program so we can still see it. I especially wanted to hear the song Elder Moyes and Sister Lilloux were doing. They make such a fantastic team. 

After lunch they took pictures and then played some games. We needed to leave by 3:30 to meet someone by 4:00. Just as we were ready to leave, the missionaries were seated all it a huge circle singing Christmas song like "Here Comes Santa Clause". President Allen showed up dressed like Santa and threw out candy to all the missionaries. They all loved it, and we stayed long enough to get pictures. 

Next, we met a cute older couple from Bethlehem who emigrated to New Zealand nearly 40 years ago. He is a fabulous wood carver who carves all the Kiwis that the mission gives out to our missionaries if they have perfect scores for keeping their flat clean five times in a row. Seniors don't qualify to earn one, so we wanted to buy our own. They showed us around the workshop, and he even demonstrated some of the things he does to carve his products. Very fascinating. Then we went to the "store" to see the finished products. These are all different buildings on the property where they live. We were blown away by all the things he carves. We got more than just a Kiwi. We also bought a beautifully hand carved unique Nativity set. All the carvings are unique because it all depends on the wood. We bought several other things as well.

Then we headed to dinner in Hamilton with the Carters. They are good friends with the Carlisles. We actually knew them when we served our mission in Salt Lake City. After a lovely dinner, we headed to our B&B for the night. True to their word, they put us up in a BEAUTFUL bridal suite. We had our own private bathroom, not to mention a huge room and gorgeous views from both sides of the room. It was truly magical.

Saturday was another long day. We did have a more leisurely wake up (7:30 vs 5:00) and a very nice breakfast with our hosts.  Clive, the owner, and his son, Coleman took great care of us. Colleen was at the hospital taking care of her month, so we didn’t get to see her. We had a nice visit with Clive and a delicious breakfast before heading out to pick up the Carlisles. 

We did Sealings and then Initiatory at the Temple. Both were wonderful experiences. The workers made us feel very special to be there. We were able to do all of our names this time. 😊We got an early start on the sealings and hoped we could get in early for initiatory too, but that didn't work. They were shorthanded and had to close initiatory down for almost 1/2 hour so they could all work at the veil. They were back in time for our scheduled appointment.

We left the Temple a little after 2:00 and made several stops on our way home. First stop was a little place called Pokeno. The Pokeno Ice Cream place is where "everyone" goes on their way back to Auckland from the Temple. We always see someone from the Temple. (You can tell because they are dressed in white shirts and ties and Sunday dresses. 😇) Next stop was Costco. It is always a mad house there. We went specifically for Ghirardelli Brownie Mix, but they didn't have any. I hope they will be back in stock next month when we go. That is the missionaries' favorite brownies. I'm not out so I should be able to make it another month. Of course we got several other things.

Then we had to drop something off at Waipu for Elder Carter. He lives in Hamilton and the person we were going to see was near Bream Bay up in our neck of the woods. In the course of our travels, we got a message from Sister Griffin wanting to know if they could use our Internet. We told them we weren't home, but they could probably access it in our driveway. It turned out, the problem was a little more complicated than that. They needed to use Chrome to access a website so Sister Yesslith could register for school housing. She goes home soon and is trying to get into BYU Provo for the next term. 

They do not have Chrome on their phones, so they needed my computer. I told them they could meet us by 8:30 if that would work. So, after we got home and unpacked, the Sisters showed up to use the computer. She could take care of some things but will need to come back to finish the process. She needs to have her family send her some things first. She'll be back after she gets that, hopefully on Monday.

On Sunday, we had a nice surprise. We always get their early so we can get things set up before Church. then Steve goes into his Bishopric meeting, and I have time to start on this recap before people start showing up for Church. I signed out of everything and headed to the foyer to start greeting people, when I saw Elder and Sister Garner. We were both wearing our matching Senior Christmas dresses. Lol Elder Garner forgot to get a rental agreement from our Punaruku Elders at Zone Conference and came by to pick it up from Elder Moyes. They share a flat with the Punaruku Elders. That way Elder Garner didn't have to drive ANOTHER hour to the Punaruku Chapel. Elder Moyes didn't know they were coming, so he gave the rental to me to get to Elder Garner. I was going to scan the document and send it to Elder Garner. Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised to see them. They stayed for all our meetings. I tried to get them to stay for lunch, but they had to go back for a Christmas Program tonight in their Stake.

Our meetings were great as usual. It was fun to have Sister Garner in Relief Society with me. She says she is usually in the nursery, so she doesn’t know any sisters in her ward. She enjoyed being in Relief Society. Wini gave a great lesson on Elder Uchtdorf’s talk called “Nourish the Roots, and the Branches Will Grow.” 

I worked on the recap after I got home. Thought I would be done early and be able to relax this afternoon but had several interruptions. It’s all good. Lol

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox