Area Call, Missionaries, FHE, Flat Inspections, DCM, and SICK!

Monday was pretty low key. We had a nice video call with Douhet, Kinzley, and Griffyn. We talked about how the kids are doing and what’s going on in everyone’s life. Douhet talked about the changes to their upstairs to accommodate Laila, Tyus, and Roman when we finish our mission and get our house back. They are going to turn their upstairs back into an apartment for them. It will give them plenty of space. I will love having Roman close by. I can hardly wait to meet him.  He will be over a year old when we meet him in person.  

Sisters Jones, Brough, Smetaniuk, and Douglas 

I helped Leona with something she needed. I actually drove myself to her house! I think that is the third time I've driven since we got here. Hahaha. I got back, just as the Bream Bay Sisters arrived to use our Wi-Fi to call home. After their call we had them for lunch. It was nice visiting with them. While they were having their call, I was on my Area call for the New Convert Initiative. It looks like we will be changing our focus. Instead of tracking dates and things from the Bishops (who don't usually give us the information) we are going to focus on in-person training. So, it looks like we will be doing a lot more traveling when we get back from Australia. Hopefully we can train by Stake instead of individual Bishops. 

We had a nice Family Home Evening with Ben and the missionaries. Elder Wilcox made some delicious lemon bars with lemons from our very own tree!

Tuesday started with early morning Seminary because the Missionaries were teaching. Our Lesson was on Repentance. At the end of the lesson, we made an anagram out of how Repentance is for EVERYONE. Of course, I forgot to write down all the words we came up with for EVERYONE. Anyway, it was a good lesson. 

The rest of the day was spent doing Flat Inspections. I am happy to report that all three of our Flats were the best we have ever seen them. They all got perfect scores of 125. We picked up some stuff from a couple of the flats that we will drop off in Auckland when we go there this week on our way to Australia.

After we got home, I prepared my Seminary lesson for Thursday. I also spent some time working on a HawkSoft project that turned out to be a bit bigger than originally thought. It took several days, but we got it all sorted out by the end of the week. I had to talk with Sean a few times to get things figured out. 

We had DCM today. It was Elder Shupe's last DCM with us as he is being transferred to the Cook Islands next Tuesday. We won't be at DCM next week when it is the last one for the rest of the Districts because of Transfers next Thursday. We will be on our way to Australia. So, we had a bit of a party after DCM with both the Central and North Districts. We had a lot of fun.

After we got home, I took care of lots of business items and prepared a FHE lesson for the Snow family. The Elders showed up for our last comp study for this transfer. The Elders were on splits, so we had Elder Na Nongkai and Elder Shupe. It was nice to see him one last time. He was in our Zone when he first came out on his mission. We were happy when he came back this last transfer as a Zone Leader before going to the Cook Islands. Our Family Home Evening was a little crazy, but it was all good. The kids were pretty wound up. I'm so glad we go over there every other week. 

Thursday morning started with my early morning Seminary class. We studied the general conference talk by President Nelson titled Confidence in the Presence of God. I tried to make it fun. I gave each student a copy of the talk with the paragraphs numbered. Then we spent three minutes reading and marking the first few paragraphs of the talk. We were looking for ways we could have Confidence in the Presence of God. After three minutes, we passed the copies of the talk to the person on the right and started another three minutes. We started on the paragraph we left off with and marked our neighbors talk with what stood out to us. We continued the three-minute rotation until we all finished the whole talk. Then we returned the talks to the original owner.  We reviewed what was marked and highlighted in the talk and shared any thoughts we had. After that, we each created something that reflected what touched us about the talk. Some drew pictures, or memes, or a social media post. Then we shared what we created. Lastly, we picked one thing from the talk that we could work on to increase our confidence in the presence of God. 

I spent time on Friday finishing up the HawkSoft project I had been working on. I had a couple of video conference calls until we got it all sorted out. I was able to fix most of the issues with the dozen or so ACORD forms, but one fix will require a programming change. Sean took that to their planning meeting and actually got it on the docket to get fixed this sprint. It is such a simple fix, they were able to squeeze it in. 

All four Sisters came over for their last Comp Study of the transfer. I'm afraid we are going to lose one Sister from each companionship. 😢We had such a wonderful visit and, of course, lunch with them. We shared some of our favorite times. I gave them all an extra big hug since it may be the last time for a couple of them. 

After they left, we headed to the doctor's office. I could believe I was able to get a follow-up visit so quickly. The doctor wants to send me for an ultrasound on my back. We will take care of that when we get back from Australia. He also prescribed me some pain meds and told me to stop taking the Ibuprofen because they impact my kidneys and he wants to rule out the kidneys as being part of my back pain. My labs numbers weren’t what he wanted for my kidneys. 

I took the pain meds when we got home. The Dargaville Elders showed up so we could make a Baptism program for them. They did most of the work but needed a few tweaks. Just as they were leaving, the Hikurangi Elders showed up so we could make a Baptism program for them also. We had three scheduled with a possibility of a fourth. The three were two brothers and a cousin. The fourth was a young mother who was trying to get in contact with her family so they could be there. Her baptism didn't happen. It will probably happen next week.

After that, it was time to go to Ben's house with the missionaries for dinner. We were looking forward to visiting Ben and his mother. Not too long after we got there, I started feeling a little off. As the conversation went on and we started eating dinner, I started to feel bad. I eventually excused myself to go to the toilet where I proceeded to throw up. I realized that the pain meds were NOT setting well with me at all. I felt a little better and joined the group again. Then, I could feel it coming on again. We had been there
about an hour and that is as long as the Elders are supposed to stay, so we thanked them and headed back home. I had a few more trips to the bathroom after we got home before I was finally able to lay down and hope for sleep.

I was sick all-day Saturday. I thought it would have got out of my system, but it didn't. I made several trips to the bathroom throughout the day. I sent Steve to the baptisms since I didn't think I could make it. I was right. I was able to sleep on the couch for a while. I couldn't eat much and what I ate I lost. After my nap, I felt a little better. I tried to take care of some issues with our medical insurance. I managed to get the first one done but had to lay down again before I could tackle the second one. I made sure I printed the Ward Council Agenda and Sacrament Meeting Programs for Steve to take to Church. I didn't think I would be going. I also sent the baptism consent forms with him again since he forgot to get the parent's signatures. I was feeling somewhat better by the time I went to bed. I managed to keep my "dinner" down. It consisted of a few bites of rice and a little chunk of banana. 

I didn’t sleep well on Saturday night. I still felt nauseous when I went to bed. Thankfully, my body did not act on it. About 4:00am Sunday morning I noticed I didn’t feel any more nausea! I slept well. The alarm went off at 6:00am. I woke Steve and evaluated how I felt. We decided it would probably be best for me to stay home and get more rest. I still felt weak and didn’t trust that the nausea wouldn’t come back. Also, the back pain was back. I hadn’t realized when I was sick that the back pain was mostly gone. I guess the pain meds worked for that part, my body just didn't react well to them. However, I will take the back pain over the sickness any day!

I sort of slept another hour or two before I got up. I did my Scripture study and my blog recap, before crashing on the couch. I dozed off and on for the rest of the day. 

At least I feel I will be well enough to go to Australia now. I was worried before. I should be back to my new normal by tomorrow. 

I hope you have a Wonderful Week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Senior Activity, Early Morning Seminary, Doctor's Visit, and Zone Conference

I taught early morning Seminary twice this week. Leona had to work the night shift last Sunday night, so I taught her Seminary class Monday morning. We talked about different opportunities to continue our spiritual education after Seminary is over. 

After we got home, we prepared for our Senior Activity. I also made Pavlova for Elder Olson's birthday and our Family Home Evening for that night. The Carlisles planned the activity. We held it at our flat because we had more room for everyone. They invited their good friends, Elder and Sister Carter from the Hamilton Mission Church History Library and Museum to come and do a couple of presentations for us. They used to work for the Church History Library in Salt Lake City when we served in the Headquarters mission, so we actually ran into them before. It was fun making that connection when we first got here. One presentation was on the nine different accounts of the First Vision Joseph Smith had. After a delicious potluck lunch, we had the second presentation about the translation of the Book of Mormon. We even had a demonstration of how it happened. Elder Wilcox got to be Joseph Smith doing the translation and another Senior Missionary acted as the scribe. They said the hardest part was having to stop and dip the pen in the ink before they could write again.  

We enjoyed out time with the Senior Missionaries. After they left and we cleaned up, it was time for Family Home Evening. Unfortunately, Ben was not able to make it. We still have a FHE with the Elders. They made a fun "home safe" video to post to the Zone Chat for the Zone Challenge. It turned out pretty funny, mainly because Elder Na Nongkai who is from Thailand started off speaking Thai and Elder Olson interpreted it into English. Then Elder Na Nongkai switched to English and Elder Olson "pretended" to speak Thai. Anyway, they had fun putting it together. We also sang Happy Birthday to Elder Olson. 

Tuesday morning, we were back at early morning Seminary. This time the Elders were teaching about building a Zion society in the early days of the Church, and how we can build a Zion society today. I spent much of the day on the New Convert Initiative report. We also had a nice video call with Sierra, since we missed it on Monday because of the Senior Activity. After lunch, I worked on my Seminary lesson for Thursday. 

No 5:00am Alarm for Wednesday!!!! After my scripture study we got ready for DCM. I had left over Pavlova for refreshments. DCM was great. We played a fun little game at the beginning of DCM called In the Hot Seat. Everyone takes a turn in the hot seat for 1 minute while everyone peppers them with questions. After the minute, they answer 1 final “golden” question that is the same for everyone. 

Elder Wilcox was the star. The first question he was asked was to rate me from one to ten. He said eleven. I said he was a keeper. When it was my turn, I was asked what the sweetest thing that Elder Wilcox ever did. I said he used to call me at work and if I wasn't able to answer he would sing to me "You are so Beautiful to me" as my voice mail message. You should have heard all the "ahhhs" he got. It was a lot of fun, and we got to learn a few fun facts about each other. We also did a fun role play for our training.  

Elder Hague 

After a quick lunch at home, we went to the Doctors for an annual visit. They wouldn't renew our prescriptions until we saw them again. They said it was unusual for people our age not to go to the doctors a lot. The doctor asked if anything was bothering us, so I mentioned that I have been having some lower back pain for several weeks. He decided to send me to get an x-ray. Then he said we needed to get some lab work done since we were both over 70. We could get right into the imaging center for a private company or wait 4 weeks to get in at the hospital. The doctor suggested I check with my insurance to make sure they would pay. So, I called our Medical Missionary, and she took care of everything for me. We went for the lab work, and by the time we were done she had the authorization for the x-ray, and had the insurance company call the imaging place to guarantee payment so I didn’t have to pay out of pocket and hope to get reimbursed. Other than adding an extra hour to our visit, it all went very smoothly. 

Sister Walker and Sister Fale

Thursday morning was my early morning Seminary lesson. We arrived at the Stake Center, unlocked the gate and tried to unlock the door. It wouldn't unlock. We wiggled and jiggled and tried everything we could think of, but it wouldn’t turn. Finally, I called the Zone Leaders since they have a key. I waited until it was 6:30 since that is when they are supposed to get up. I told them what happened, and they said they would be over in about 10 minutes. After about fifteen minutes went by, they called back to say they locked their key in their flat along with their flat key, so they had to go to the Carlisle’s flat to get the extra key. 

By then I knew we would not be able to get into the Chapel before Seminary started. I started calling anyone else I could think of that might be up that early and that had a key to the Stake Center. No one answered until I called President Reti. We explained the situation and he said he would see what he could do. In the meantime, students started showing up. So, we hung around the door, and I started Seminary. Lucky for us, it wasn’t raining at the time, however, it was cold. We eventually moved to the other door where there was a nice brick wall that offered some shelter from the wind.   

Just about that time, the ZLs showed up and unlocked the door. It all worked out just fine. We had a little discussion in the beginning and then by the time we got to our room we were ready for the PowerPoint portion of the lesson and the video. President Reti showed up around the same time and Elder Wilcox worked with him for a bit.  

We had SPF after Seminary, and I spent the rest of the day working on my Sunday School lesson. The Riverside Elders stopped by to use our computer so they could post a service opportunity on the Sake and community Facebook pages. 

After a quick lunch, we picked up the Carlisles so we could shop for Zone Conference. We divided up the food between us and dropped them off at their flat. When we got back, I finished the lesson prep, sent out reminders for our Zone Conference meal and started some of the food preparation that can be done ahead of time.

Friday was Zone Conference. I love Zone Conference. Yes, it is a lot of work, but the Spirit is always so strong. I love mingling with all the missionaries. I love getting to see our other Senior Missionaries from Kaikohe and Auckland. I love the music from both zones. I love the testimonies that are shared. I love singing the Māori songs to our departing missionaries. And I love that we get to provide lunch for everyone, and they are so appreciative of our efforts. 

We made Taco Salad for lunch. Sister Carlisle and I decided we would serve the meat, since we ran out when we did Hawaiian Haystacks a few months ago. It is a good thing we did. We ended up with an additional 15 people. We planned for 60 and had 75 show up. We got several more couples from Auckland than we knew about. It all turned out perfectly. There was enough meat for everyone. About the only thing we had left over was a little rice, lettuce, and fruit from our fruit platters. A few were even able to go back for seconds on some things. Everybody loved it. The sessions of conference were great, and the music from the young missionaries was so beautiful. I loved everything.

On the way home I read the text I got from the doctor about my back. It appears I have a lumbar spine degeneration which is common as we age. There are several treatments that I read about. I'm hoping to get in quickly so I can get a plan to start on. It started with a little back pain once in a while. Then it became more constant. Occasionally it would be a shooting pain that was quite bad. Mostly it is just a constant dull pain in my lower back. The Tender Mercy is I don't feel it when I am serving. I have no pain when I'm teaching a class or even while we served for so long at Zone Conference. When the class or conference is over, I feel the pain again. Maybe that is why I haven't noticed that much before because we are usually very busy. I don't give my brain time to register the pain. Hahaha

The day after Zone Conference was pretty low key. I worked a couple of hours on HawkSoft. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish the project because of some questions for Sean. Hopefully I can touch base with him soon. I also worked on the Ward Council Agenda and the Sacrament Program. The Elders came over to talk about a teaching appointment they had that night. We came up with some things that I think helped. Then it was time for the four of us to head to Leona's house for dinner. Since she is a single sister, she has to have another adult present. We get to be the benefactors of that rule. LOL We had a delicious dinner and good conversation before it was time to head home again.

I love the Sabbath day. I love Church. It just felt good to see everyone at Church. I felt the Savior’s love for each of His children. It was almost an overwhelming feeling of love for everyone. 

I had a nice visit with Tracey before Ward Council. She had missed a few weeks because she was taking care of her husband after he had surgery. It was so good to see them both back at Church. We had a wonderful Ward Council meeting. We have a new High Councilor representative. Our previous High Councilor was released so he could serve as a sealer in the Temple. 

Our Fast and Testimony meeting was good. I loved all the testimonies born today. Sunday School went well. We had a good discussion. This is the last Sunday School lesson for me, unless I have to substitute again. Hahaha. They have called a new Gospel Doctrine Teacher who will start on the 15th. She will be AWESOME!

One of our Auckland Senior couples hung out up north since Zone Conference and decided to drop in to our Ward on Sunday morning. We visited with them after Church for a while. I think they work part of the time in the area office and the rest of the time with the mission. I’m not exactly sure. They have been here about 10 weeks. Once home, I took care of some business before I started on the weekly recap. 

I hope you have a Wonderful Week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox 

Several Early Morning Seminary Days, Windshield Replacement, Two FHEs, Dentist, Māori Choir, and Charlotta's Temple Experience

Sister Hester, Charlotta, and Sister Wilcox

We did Early Morning Seminary for three days this week.  I taught on Monday and Thursday, and we were the seconds on Tuesday when the Elders taught. We also had two Family Home Evenings. The first one on Monday evening, and the second one was on Wednesday evening.

We talked about section 49 in the Doctrine and Covenants in Monday's Seminary lesson. It is about how marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God. The family is the most important unit in society. And we can have eternal families through the sealing power of the Priesthood. We had a good discussion and even had some fun.

After we got home, we had our video call with Sean and MyLiege's family. They were heading to a Fireside, so we got to participate in “Family Prayer” before they left and to enjoy the ride to the Chapel while we had our video call. It is always wonderful to talk to our family each week. I worked on the New Convert Initiative report in the afternoon. The Bream Bay Sisters came over to use the Wi-Fi to call home. Since their branch is combined with one of our wards, they no longer have access to a Chapel. The Zone Leaders don't open the Stake Center up until later in the day and by then their families are getting ready for bed because of the time difference. 

We made brownies for our FHE refreshments and fine-tuned our FHE lesson We talked about Spiritual Gifts that are found in Section 46 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Ben's mom was a bit under the weather, so Ben came on his own. Of course, the Elders were there too, so we had a good discussion. 

The Elders taught the lesson on Tuesday about avoiding Satan’s deceptions found in Section 50 of the Doctrine and Covenants. We had a good discussion. At home I dove into that section ever further for my own personal study. I found it to be very cathartic as I examined my life in a different light. I spent the rest of the day preparing my Thursday Seminary Lesson. 

Wednesday was DCM. We took our leftover brownies and ice cream for dessert. They were all very excited about that. On the way to DCM, we stopped by the Murdoch Crescent flat so we could take some pictures of the broken light covering that is in their kitchen. They were attempting to complete a "challenge" given by the Zone for one of their transfer goals. They work on a specific goal like "finding new friends," and they post a fun little challenge like "best trick shot." The Zone judges both things and the losing companionship has a penalty such as eating a dry weetbix. Anyway, they were attempting a fancy "trick shot" and accidentally broke the light covering hanging over their kitchen island. 😢

After DCM, we took our car in to access what needed to be done with the crack that spread through the ding we got last month and supposedly got fixed. The decision was that the windshield needed to be replaced. We scheduled it for Friday. Before we left, the Hika Elders showed up as they recently got a ding in their windshield. There are a lot of dings in windshields in New Zealand.

Once home the Riverside Elders stopped by to get something printed. I finished preparing for our Family Home Evening at the Snows. Then the Hika Elders showed up for dinner and comp study. After comp study, they headed to Young Men's, and we headed to our FHE. We had a wonderful evening with the Snows. Brother Snow's sister and her husband were visiting so that made it extra fun. We combined our lesson about spiritual gifts with a game of hunting for the blessings Elder Wilcox hid around the room. The kids liked that, and everyone had a good time. 

Thursday turned out to be busier than we expected. I taught my Seminary lesson about the landmarks in our lives that help us navigate to where we want to go, which is the Celestial Kingdom. They started by drawing a simple map from the Stake Center to some place nearby. Then instead of street names, they put landmarks to help direct where they needed to go to get to the destination. Finally, they passed their map to the person next to them to see if they could figure out where they were going based on the landmarks. It was a lot of fun. Then we identified the destination to our end goal in life and the landmarks to different things we need to accomplish or do to get there. Some examples were to finish seminary, graduate school, go to the Temple, serve a mission, marry in the Temple, serve their fellowman, etc. We finished the lesson by reviewing past seminary lessons to see how they related to some of the landmarks we just talked about.

After Seminary, we had our mission SPF meeting. Elder and Sister Garner did the presentation. Their theme was how to finish strong on their mission. Elder Garner shared an awesome story he experienced shortly after they started their mission. Right after SPF, the Sisters arrived for mentoring. One companionship had to leave right after that as they had a teaching appointment. The other companionship stayed for our traditional lunch and comp study. We discussed section 50 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Elder Na Nongkai
and Elder Olson

We headed out to meet the Hika Elders at the Dentist. Elder Na Nongkai had his last wisdom tooth extracted. The dentist wouldn't take the Auckland credit card over the phone, so we had to go in and use our credit card. On our way home, we stopped by to give Charlotta a blessing. She has been sick for two days. We wanted her well so she could go to the Temple on Saturday. Elder Wilcox blessed her with a complete and speedy recovery. By the next day she was feeling nearly 100% and on Saturday you wouldn't have known she had been so sick. 

That evening, we headed to the local high school for Māori Choir. It was very beautiful listening to them sing. They had several songs written on huge cardboard hanging on the wall; however, none of the songs they were singing were on the walls. We learned some hand movements to a few songs too. It was fun, but I don’t think we will make the cut. LOL  

On Friday, Steve ran and did several errands. He got the windshield replaced. While he was waiting, he walked across the street to the mall to see if he could find some light covers for the Murdoch Crescent flat. Since we couldn't match the one that broke, he had to replace all three coverings. He got a great deal, so he bought them. Later, he went over to the flat and replaced them.

I spent the day working on HawkSoft, the Ward Council Agenda, the Sacrament program, and a Prospective Elders report for our Elders Quorum President. I also took care of the bills and laundry since we were going to be gone all Saturday. 

We had been looking forward to Saturday for a very long time. Everything fell into place, including several little miracles. Saturday was the day Charlotta received her Endowment in the Auckland Temple. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The weather was perfect, all the people she wanted to come were able to miraculously make appointments after being told there was no room, the Spirit was so strong, and Charlotta just glowed. It really was a perfect day.

I felt the Spirit all day long on Sunday. Even before we had Ward Council, I was feeling blessed. I had a good discussion with Sam before the council started. We had a good discussion in our council meeting. Bishop managed to snag Elder Na Nongkai's hat in Ward Council. Doesn't he look great?

The Spirit was strong in our Sacrament meeting. Our opening speaker was an 8-year-old who was asked to share her favorite scripture. She said she didn’t have a favorite scripture yet, but she did have a favorite song. She then talked about going to see the Hamilton Temple and the then Auckland Temple Open House. She loves the Temple. She is looking forward to when her family will be sealed together. She then sang her favorite song acapella. “I Love to See the Temple.” I was very moved. The rest of the talks were all so good, but no one could come close to her talk. We had a great turnout for Church. Everyone sang really good, which was very nice. They haven’t been singing as much lately so I was really glad I wasn’t singing alone. LOL

Bishop Henare

I helped set up a video for the Elders Quorum meeting before heading to Relief Society. We had a wonderful discussion about being made whole spiritually even without being healed physically. After Church, we had a lovely Linger Longer with some yummy soup and other treats. 

I had opportunities to help a few others along the way with various things. I love giving service. It was a beautiful day. 

Have a Wonderful Week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Early Morning Seminary, Walk, Relief Society Pajama Party, and Netball

We got to attend early morning Seminary several times this week. We had a good time, although we are not crazy about getting up so early. LOL

Our so-called P-day on Monday was anything but. It just kept getting busier and busier as the day went on. We started with Seminary. When we got home, we decided we needed to make the video that Oregon City requested of us for Youth Camp. It took a lot longer to make than we thought. We had to do a lot of retakes. Hahaha. In the end, we felt pretty good about it. It turned out a little longer than requested, but when we sent it in, they said they loved it. 

I spent much of the rest of the day working on the New Convert Initiative. It was a BIG report this time and actually took me two days to complete it. We had the Bream Bay Sisters stop over. They wanted to borrow the key to the Stake Center, but then we found out they just needed WiFi so they used ours to call home. Their branch and the Ngãhere Ward combined into a new Ward. Since they will be meeting in the Whangarei Stake Center, they no longer have a chapel to use for the WiFi. We have them over every week. Lol.

We worked on the Membership Audit as well as several other projects. We also had a wonderful video call with Season's family. We got to hear all about Karsten's pole vaulting and Garren's incredible baseball game. It was so good to see and talk to Brooklyn too. And we heard about how Madison is doing in her new school in Provo. She is in post graduate school in Optometry. Lots of great things are happening with them.

To finish out the day we had a very nice Family Home Evening with Ben and the Missionaries. We are hoping Joe will be back in town next week so we can have them both together.

We started Tuesday with Seminary as well. The Elders taught the lesson. We managed to go for a walk after we got home from Seminary. It was much needed. I spent much of the day working on my Seminary lesson for Thursday. I also was able to take care of a few fixes for HawkSoft. It was a good day, but not very exciting. Lol

We were able to sleep in a bit on Wednesday, no early morning Seminary. We took our leftover from Family Home Evening Apple Crisp to DCM. I also grabbed some delicious mandarin oranges off of our tree. They don't look very good, but they taste great.

After DCM we had the Hikurangi Elders over for lunch and Comp Study. We talked about Spiritual Gifts. They each downloaded their Patriarchal Blessings so we could extract what Spiritual Gifts they could find in their blessings. It was a good discussion and exercise. 

After they left, I had some rather crucial things I needed to take care of. Darrin emailed me a couple of ACORD form fixes that he needed. I also had a couple of issues for the Bishop. In the middle of working on those things, I got a call from some Relief Society Sisters that needed some technical help for the Relief Society Pajama and Movie party that was happening at Leona's house that night. We went over to see what we could do. After about 45 minutes, we had the problem all sorted out. I rushed back home to finish the issues for the Bishop, as well as the final issue with the ACORD form fixes. I managed to finish both, just in time to have Elder Wilcox drop me off at Leona's for the party. He went to the Chapel to sign a document to complete the last part of the issues he had me working on. The Relief Society party and so much fun. We didn't a have very many people, but those of us who were there had a GREAT time.

My Thursday Early Morning Seminary class went well. We had eight students. We did a group project that split the kids into four groups of two. They each took a particular quote or set of scriptures. They had to summarize what it said and then pull out the clues or key points to help them achieve the objective or summary of the quote. It was all about the importance of education. I likened it to a mystery program. They start by not knowing anything. Then, through observance, questions, and clues they are able to solve the mystery, or in our case, learn what they need to learn.

After Seminary we had our mission SPF meeting. The Sisters arrived shortly after that for their Mentoring meeting. Because both sets of Sisters had teaching appointments scheduled right after the mentoring call, they had to take off, so no lunch or comp study that day. 😢

The Carlisles stopped by to drop off the weed sprayer for Steve. We got to visit while they picked a few avocados. We also talked about the Zone Conference meal and the menu for our Senior Activity, both of which are coming up quickly.

I finally finished the New Convert Initiative report. I then tackled a certification issue that Darrin sent me that morning. It was very quick and easy. 

On Friday, Steve took care of spraying weeds around our house. I was able to get caught up on all the things I kept moving to the next day. I prepared my Sunday School lesson as well as the lesson I will be giving for Seminary next Monday. The Bishop stopped by to sign a document and we all had a nice visit with him. He invited us to a Māori Choir that meets on Thursday evenings so we can learn some Māori songs. We took care of the Ward Council Agenda and the Sacrament Program. We actually finished before 5:00pm that day.

On Saturday morning we went to a netball game. Two of the kids that we do Family Home Evening with every other week have sports games on Saturday morning at the SAME time. Dean asked us if we would like to come and watch his daughter's game while he stayed with his son. We said we would come as it sounded fun. We learned all about netball, which is like basketball, only different. LOL It was fun to be grandma and grandpa for a while and watch the games. Of course it made us miss our little ones even more!!!

After the game, we thought we would take care of a few things and then have the afternoon off, but as usual, one thing led to another. One good thing occurred when Steve was reviewing the itinerary for our Australian trip. We found out we needed a travel visa. As we searched for it online, we found one that said it was a travel application. It then showed a cost of over $700 per person. That couldn’t be!!!! We decided to look further and found out there were several different kinds of travel visas. Thankfully, we found the right one. It only had a $20 application fee and NO other fees. It said it could take up to three days to get it approved. We still have several weeks so we felt pretty good. We no sooner submitted the application and made the payment, when we received the email stating we had been approved and were granted the visa. 

We spent the rest of the day on several other things. Charlotta stopped by so I could hem her Temple dress. We are going next Saturday so she can receive her endowment. We are so excited for her. Later I did some other sewing repairs on a few items of clothing I had. I think everything is repaired now.  

Steve worked on the membership records audit. He was able to move several people out of our ward since they had moved. Lastly, we gave each other haircuts. So much for a leisurely day after the game.

Our Sunday was a little more relaxed than some of our other days this past week. We had a wonderful Ward Council. Several people added items to the agenda, so the meeting ran very smoothly. We talked about everything on the agenda and made lots of assignments. It was a very effective meeting.

Sacrament meeting was great. We heard from two of our youth today. Both gave GREAT talks about what it is like to be LDS in today’s world. I was very impressed with the jobs they both did. We also heard from one of the counselors in our Elders Quorum. He also did a wonderful job talking about service. He shared some great examples, both personal and from General Conference. Our final speaker was Russell from our Bishopric. He gave a great analogy about how daily repentance can make the difference between having a nice clean bucket to be able to do digging work and having one full of mud that is stuck in the bucket, so you don’t get much dirt in the bucket to dig. If we “repent and kept the bucket clean” we can do a lot more work and make the job easier.

Our Sunday School lesson focused on Spiritual Gifts. I think we had a great discussion. Nearly everyone contributed and that strengthened and edified each one of us. After Church, we took care of updating the callings for two members before we went home.

At home, I sent out the minutes to our Ward Council, took care of an expense for a member and worked on my blog recap. Now it is time to relax!

I hope you have a Wonderful Week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Seminary, FHE, Auckland, Lunches, Baptism, and Mother's Day

This turned out to be a busier week than originally planned. First of all, the second adult for Seminary was sick, so we went to early morning Seminary all week. After we were up, it was great! It is waking up at 5:00, that is the problem. LOL. Our two students in Hikurangi were awesome. They were very engaged all week. We had a lot of fun together.

After Seminary on Monday, I worked on the New Convert Initiative. We had a wonderful video call with Douhet's family. Audrey joined us from BYU Idaho so that was very nice. We talked to almost everyone. Kylee was busy preparing a birthday dinner for Tyus. Roman was napping so Tyus and Laila weren't there for the video call. Maybe next time. I'm sure Roman is growing like a weed! I can't wait to get home and hold him. Hopefully he won't be afraid of me. 😔

After lunch, Peggy came over and taught me how to make Pavlova.  It is such a yummy dessert. It turns out it is very easy to make and tastes so delicious. We enjoyed a nice time visiting while we made it.

We finished out the evening with a Family Home Evening with Ben and his mother, and Elders Olson and Na Nongkai. We had a very enjoyable time. The Elders gave a brief lesson on Family History and the Temple. We played a “getting to know you” game with some fun questions. We also ate our delicious Pavlova and just enjoyed visiting with each other.

Tuesday was a VERY long and busy day. After another great Seminary morning, we headed straight to Auckland for a housing meeting. We could have participated on Zoom, but I wanted to be there in person to better participate in the meeting. This first time with the new changes is still in the experimental and development stage. I’m sure we will undergo some tweaking. I wasn’t the only one with concerns. It was a good meeting and a good discussion.

We met some new seniors in the mission, One couple arrived the day before. I was able to take some time with them and show them the spreadsheets we use for doing inspections since they didn't have a clue about any of it. LOL. We visited with other friends and picked up a ton of stuff to take back up north. We also dropped off a couple of things from the north. I felt like the Pony Express. We then went out to lunch with the Garners and the Roses. Such fun!!! We have tried several times with the Garners, but it has never worked out. I'm so glad it worked this time. 

Elder Wilcox, Peti, and Rita

Our trip home was long and roundabout. We stopped at Wellsford to drop off a pathway laptop and pick up one that wasn't working very well. We also picked up a backpack for one of the Zone Leaders who left it behind from splits. Then we headed to Dargaville, which is on the far side of our Zone. We had several things to drop off to the new Senior Couple who replaced the Buchanans. It was the first time we met them, so we stayed for a while to get to know them and share a little about what the zone is like. Then we headed to Whangarei to drop off the backpack we picked up in Dargaville. And finally, we headed home. Got there about 7:00pm. The other things we had left, we were able to disperse at DCM or when the missionaries came to our house the next day.

Wednesday was another busy day. Seminary in the morning, then DCM. The Elders went to Seminary to help teach. We had left over Pavlova, so we took that to DCM. They LOVED it. We did some "finding" scenarios for our role play. That was fun. After DCM several missionaries wanted to go to a Thai restaurant for lunch and talked us into going. We ended up with 10 people. We had to sit at two different tables. So, we put the four Elders together and the four Sisters sat with us. 😇We had a very enjoyable time visiting. And the food was really good too.  

Grandma, Peti, and Mom

Once home, I worked on my Seminary lesson for Thursday and Elder Wilcox worked on the FHE lesson for that night with the Snow family. We also had our comp study with the Hika Elders. We talked about asking inspired questions. Our FHE went very well that night. 

The Thursday morning Seminary lesson went very well. We had seven students, and they were engaged and fun. We had a great discussion on how we can sustain our leaders. We had fun, learned some things, and enjoyed our time together. Elder Wilcox and I even got a few hugs after class! 

Next was our mission SPF meeting. Sister Allen focused on Mother's Day. She started by sharing a portion of a beautiful talk given by then Elder Holland about how a mother’s love for her child comes closed to the pure love of Jesus Christ. From there we heard from Sister Ward, who happens to be President Allen’s older sister, talk about their mother. We also heard from Elder Bowen, who happens to be Sister Allen’s older brother, talk about their mother. In addition to both of them, we heard from several Junior Missionaries talk about their mothers. All the talks were very touching.

The rest of the day was filled with the Sister Missionaries coming over for Mentoring, Lunch, and then Comp Study. We took care of a few things for the Bishop as well. Later, Elders Davis and Gardner came over to pick up a blanket that we brought back from Auckland for Elder Davies.

Friday was very laid back. No Seminary in the morning so that was nice to sleep in. Elder Wilcox did some repairs on two of the flats, while I worked on ACORD forms for HawkSoft. In the late afternoon, we had the Elders come over for Comp Study. We continued to read King Benjamins address that we started last week. There is a lot to discuss in that address. We will probably finish it up next week.

Saturday was also pretty laid back. I finished up the HawkSoft work from Friday. My phone has quit holding a charge for a full day. We actually brought an extra phone with us from America, so I spent much of the afternoon trying to get it all set up. It is older than my regular phone, so I wasn't sure if it would work with everything. We have been using it in our car since we have to have a phone plugged into the car to use the GPS. It has been working great. As it turns out, I can't use WiFi calling in Airplane mode on the extra phone. That means I can't receive my text messages or phone calls from home. NOT ACCEPTABLE! So, I will be changing my phone back and just plugging it in sometime during the day to get me through the day.

We went out with the Elders to try and teach a couple of lessons with them, but unfortunately people were not home.  It was a beautiful day that and I figured after all the rain we had had they decided to be outside for some fresh air. We will try again another day.

Later, we went to the baptism of one of our primary children. Peti’s birthday is the same day as Season’s. Her parents have been trying to put this together since her birthday, but life has been a bit crazy. We are so happy they were able to pull it together on Saturday. It was a very nice baptism.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. Because of all the different things going on over the last month or so, this had been the first time our Ward had met together since Easter. Since last week was Stake Conference, we didn’t have Fast Sunday, so that meant Fast Sunday was on Mother's Day. That meant we didn’t have a Mother’s Day program. However, we had a beautiful Testimony meeting with lots of beautiful testimonies given. It was especially nice to partake of the Sacrament again. It felt like it had been forever. 

After our Sacrament meeting, we went to Relief Society. We were just beginning our lesson, when Bishop popped in for a few minutes. After expressing his love and appreciation for us, he invited us into the Cultural for a Mother’s Day “Tea”. The Elders Quorum put together some light refreshments for us and they promised to do all the cleaning up too. Needless to say, we broke our fast and headed into the Cultural Hall. The Young Men and some Young Adult Men, as well as the Elders did the serving. They were so cute, explaining what they were serving the way they do is some of those cooking shows. They had quite a variety of treats from fruits, cheese, crackers, cakes, meet pies, scones, fluffy pancakes, and more. We did need to remind them we needed some plates and utensils. LOL It was lovely. After we ate and visited, our sweet Sister Darlene Whiongi-Henare, wife to the Bishop, sang a beautiful song to us called “An Angel to Watch Over Me.” By Sally DeFord. It was such a sweet day!

Darlene also put together a beautiful Mother’s Day display for our foyer and our Mother’s Day Tea. Not to mention the beautiful little handouts that were given to all the women when we arrived at Church. 

A HUGE Thank You to Darlene, the Bishop, the Elders’ Quorum, and all those who helped to make Mother's Day so special for each woman and mother at Church.

I hope you have a Marvelous Mother's Day too! 

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox