New Year! New Convert Initiative, and Slow Week

This has been kind of a slower week. Everyone goes on holiday for much of the summer. This is especially true for the Christmas holiday. Everyone up North heads South and everyone down South heads up North. Lol We had good attendance for the last few weeks, but most of the people were visitors and many of our members were missing. Anyway, it made for a slower "work" week for all the missionaries. They all spent time knocking doors, but not many people were home and the few that were home had company and didn't want the missionaries. It was a little discouraging for them. Things should start pickup up this coming week.

Monday was pretty laid back. I worked on things pertaining to the New Convert Initiative for much of the day, which included an Area Call with the fellow Seniors in other missions. I also worked a little on HawkSoft. We shut down early and had a nice relaxing afternoon and evening for our P-Day.

Tuesday was a little busier, but still pretty slow. We had our Sister Comp study in the morning. We had a great discussion. We were afraid it was going to be our last study time with them as it was Transfer Week! We found out Tuesday night that both Sister Jones and Sister Koi were staying. YAY!!!!

After lunch, we went to the different flats and collected their weeds so we could take them to the refuse center. We have a lawn mowing service for each flat, but they don't do weeds. (Well, we don't pay for them to do weeds.) It was determined that the missionaries could do their own weeding, and we would just collect them. We can't put the weeds out for the rubbish collectors, so we have to take them to the refuse center ourselves. It is more cost effective for us to take all of them, rather than pay for each companionship to take their own. 

Our DCM on Wednesday was fun. Since we had a companionship from the Central District and the North District that were in Auckland because they had missionaries going home, AND the Carlisles were still out of town, we combined our two Districts for DCM. The companions of the ones going home stayed in Auckland to pick up their new companions on Thursday. I made a few extra snacks, and everyone appreciated the treats. We had a very nice meeting. It was fun to mix with the other Elders again. 

After DCM, we worked on planning a couple of trips we will be taking this year. Senior Missionaries get some perks that the Junior Missionaries do not get. For example, we can take a few trips (with permission from the Mission President, of course). Many Seniors go home for a week or so for weddings, grandbabies, etc. Some do sight-seeing trips (we are in the latter category.) We are planning a short trip down south to Hobbiton and then on to Wellington for a few days in February. Then in June we are planning a little longer trip to Australia for about 12 days. We should get our approval this week. 

We didn't have SPF on Thursday because it was TRANSFER day. So, I worked on designing a new Family Home Evening flyer to hand out. We are planning on going to different homes and present a Family Home Evening lesson. It didn't seem to work out when we tried to have people come to our house. It may work better this way. 

I also created New Convert Initiative Stake Spreadsheets. When we had the Area call on Monday, they talked about a change in procedure for how we get our information. Apparently, all the missions are having the same problem with getting the Bishops to fill out their spreadsheets. The Area Presidency has decided to send this through the Priesthood line. So, sometime in the near future, each Stake Clerk will be responsible for getting the information from the Bishops and then we will get the information from the Stake Clerk. So instead of contacting 96 Bishops and Branch Presidents, I will only need to contact 16 Stake Clerks. We feel they will have better luck getting the Bishops to respond then we are having. 

Elder Erickson also dropped by to introduce us to Elder Maraetefau from Tahiti. They serve in our Ward so we will get to know them better. Elder Erickson is fairly new and has been serving with Elder Moyes for the last 6 weeks. I think we will see great things with these two missionaries. 

On Friday, we went to a baptism in Punaruku. A young man and his family from way south of the North Island for the holidays were visiting an Uncle in the Punaruku ward. The missionaries taught him the Gospel and he wanted to be baptized. His parents we good with that. They are not active, but who knows what the future will bring. We had a nice talk with the Dad after the baptism. The Uncle baptized him. It was a very nice baptism.

After we got home, I finished up the work on the New Convert Initiative Stake Spreadsheets. I talked with Sister Ward about her project that piggyback on my project. She wanted me to move all my spreadsheets into her folder in the shared drive for the mission. I wanted my stuff on that drive anyway, but didn't have access. By working on her project, it was the necessary "push" the office Elders needed to give me authority to move my stuff over there and be able to maintain it. I didn't get full access until Saturday, but they all got moved over.

I also spent some time withing with one of the Seniors from the Area to see if we could troubleshoot her problem with accessing the master Spreadsheet. It is a real puzzle. We tried a few things. Then I had her call Global Support for some help. They tried a few things and said she needed to call Microsoft. They tried a few things and asked that Elder Sorensen change a setting on the spreadsheet to see if that will work. (I am not holding my breath!) At this point it still isn't working for her. Hopefully it will get figured out soon.

Saturday, we had a lovely Senior Luncheon. Before that, Elders Erickson and Maraetefau came over to get Elder Maraetefau set up in Messenger. The entire mission communicated via Messenger. It didn't take too long to get him all set up.

Shortly after they left, we left to pick up the Carlisles for our Senior luncheon. Sister Buchanan set this up a while ago so we could get to know our new Senior Couple, the Bowens. However, Elder Bowen’s father passed away, so they made a quick trip back to the states to attend the funeral. They will get back to New Zealand on Monday. We will have to meet them on Friday at our Zone Conference. 😊

We had a wonderful time. We went to Tutukaka Coast. We travel on that highway all the time but had never made it to the actual coast before. We were happy when the restaurant was right on the coast. The weather was very unpredictable. We were rained on and sunned on several times throughout the day. Just about the time we were ready to leave, it POURED down, so we decided to stay a while longer. I think we left an hour or more later. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone. We always have so much fun together. 

After we left, we stood outside the restaurant for quite a while longer. At least until it started sprinkling again. 🤣Then we drove to the Marina to look at the boats. We also walked along the beach because it stopped raining again. We drove to another lookout point to take some pictures. There was a tower that Elder Carlisle climbed up on. I gave him my phone just as it started raining again. He sent me to the car and took a few more pictures for me. It was sure fun to have the Carlisles back. We missed them while they were gone.

Sunday was gloomy and chilly. At least it didn't rain. We had two whole rows of visitors who were related to several people in our ward. They were actually visiting Aunty Sandra, who lives in another ward, but Aunty Sandra decided to come to our ward. Lucky Us!!! They pretty much said all the testimonies too. It was a beautiful meeting. 

Sunday School was good as well. We discussed how the Restoration of the Gospel has affected our lives. I didn't share, but I pondered it a lot. The Restoration of the Gospel is everything to me. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, who actually saw God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, just as ancient prophets did in the Old Testament. If God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, than it only makes sense that we have a living prophet today. After all, we need Heavenly Father's help just as much today and the ancients did in their day, maybe even more. I know that President Russell M. Nelson is a prophet today. I also know that I can receive personal revelation for my life. I don't have to have a vision to receive the promptings of the Holy Ghost. 

I know it is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can be saved from our sins and return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. I know that we can be a forever family by receiving the sealing ordinance in the Temple of our God. This sealing ordinance binds us together as husband and wife with our children and grandchildren and so forth sealed to us for time and all eternity. I am grateful for that knowledge and the blessings that come from the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

If you would like to know more, please let me know. I would love to share the good news with you!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox