Zone Conference and Much More

Monday was anything but a nice relaxing day. Lol We got up early to watch our Oregon City Stake Conference via Zoom. Our Stake Presidency was changed.  It was with mixed emotions as our beloved Stake President and his counselors were released. He sent us on two missions and received us back after our first mission. We probably won’t ever see him again, because he is moving out of state. It will be sad not to be able to report our second mission to him. 

However, we are excited about the new Stake Presidency. We know all three of the brethren and know that they are called of God to do this work at this time. God is hastening His work and I’m sure we will see great things in the Oregon City Stake. 

Sister Koi and Sister Fala

We had missionaries a few times throughout the day to use our Wi-Fi so they could call home for P-Day. We had our weekly Zoom call with family, this time MyLiege's family. They had a crowd over for a big family dinner. We got to see our beautiful great granddaughter, as well as all of the Hawkins kids. Anna joined us on the call from BYU. Sean’s parents were there for dinner as well. We haven’t talked to them in quite a while so that was fun too. 

I worked on the New Convert Initiative. I prepare the first of two Seminary lessons. I drove for the first time in New Zealand. Leona needed help setting up her Internet at her new house. Since the missionaries were over, I left Elder Wilcox home and drove a few blocks to Leona's new house. I had no problems driving and I remembered to stay on the left side of the road. I thought the car was running a little rough. On the way home some guy was flashing his lights at me, so I pulled over. He told me I had a FLAT tire. No wonder it was riding rough. Apparently, we had a leak on the way home from our trip and by the time I got in the car it was completely flat. It was on the opposite side of the car, so I never saw it. I'm just glad it wasn't something I had done!

We started early on Tuesday so we could get the tire fixed. We also had to shop for Zone Conference. The Carlisles picked us up at the tire store and took us to Pak 'n Save. We bought all the stuff we needed for our Zone Conference lunch, and they dropped us back at the tire store so we could pick up our car. The timing was perfect. 

When we got home, we started prepping for Zone Conference. Steve put the ham in the slow cooker for shredding later on. I started chopping all the different toppings we were having on our Hawaiian Haystacks. Then the Sisters showed up for Comp Study. We had a great discussion with them and then enjoyed a nice lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches. Sister Kio loves Elder Wilcox's grilled cheese sandwiches. Lol 

Friends I made while 
removing the seashells.

After they left, we headed to the Hikurangi flat to take care of several things the property manager wanted us to do before we could close the flat. Elder Wilcox finished sanding the patches on the walls and then cleaned all the light fixtures in the house. I cleaned out seashells from an outside planter, vacuumed up the mess Elder Wilcox made, and cleaned all the windowsills. 

Wednesday was early morning Seminary (in-person this time) and Zone Conference!  The lesson turned out great. We had four kids, and they all participated. In-person is so much better. Zone Conference lunch was a hit. Everyone loved it. We ran out of food because several took very large portions. Next time we will serve it, so everyone has an opportunity to eat before they go back for seconds. 

President and Sister Allen's 
Family

After conference, we ran home to take a quick shower, work a bit on my Thursday Seminary lesson, and head back to the Church to help out with the Young Women activity. We had to open the building and be a second adult because the president was out of town and the 2nd counselor wasn't going to be there. As it turned out, another couple with a key showed up to clean the building so they were able to close the Chapel, and the 2nd counselor showed up after all. We went home to rest. It was an exhausting day.

My Thursday morning Zoom Seminary class was awesome as well. I had 14 kids, although two didn't stay on very long. As long as I called on people, we had great participation. Hahaha 

They joined us for the last 
of Zone Conference

Later, we had SPF followed by DCM since we couldn't hold DCM on Wednesday because of Zone Conference. After DCM, we headed back to the King Street flat to finish up a few more things to do. Elder Garner removed the piano, weight bench, and some large boards from the garage on Wednesday, so Elder Wilcox vacuumed the garage to get all the cobwebs and other junk out. I fixed one of the sheer curtains behind the drapes in the living room. We hoped we were done but unfortunately got an email on Friday with a vacancy list of things to do. AAAARRRRGGGGG

We spent much of Friday doing flat inspection and finalizing King Street for closing. (Or so we thought.) The two flats we inspected were on opposite ends for our Zone, so it took close to three hours of drive time. We warned everyone a few days before that we would be doing inspections soon. However, neither flat took it seriously. We have always had a perfect score for the Sisters in Bream Bay, but we had to dock them a few points. We were able to give bonus points to almost get them back to perfect, but not quite. They came home while we were finishing the inspection, so we were able to tell them our findings as well as leave them the inspection sheet.

Sister Koi picking Avocados

We currently have 4 Elders in the Punaruku flat, since our Hikurangi Elders are there until we can move them into their new flat in a couple of weeks. Needless to say, 4 Elders in one flat is never a pretty sight. Hahaha 

We got our vacancy checklist by the time we got home. I shot off an email to Elder Garner about 4 things to see how he wanted us to handle them. Luckily, he responded quickly, and I was able to request a quote to have the windows washed by a cleaning company we used for another flat. I got a quote back almost immediately. Elder Garner approved it, and we set a date to get that done. I think all we have left to do is take the window coverings to the cleaners. 

On Saturday I stayed home most of the day. I worked on a tone of things on the computer that needed attention like the Ward Council Agenda and Self Reliance signup sheets. I did the laundry and had a bunch of missionaries come over and pick avocados from our tree. 

Elder Wilcox went back to the Hikurangi flat to take all the window coverings off the windows. He also checked the oven, some vents and filters, and the sink in the laundry room. It took him forever to get all the hooks off the window coverings so he could bring them home. The cleaner is closed over the weekend. We will take them on Monday.

We started Sunday morning with Ward Council. Our discussion went very well. We focused on people and that is good. 

Our Sacrament meeting was AWESOME. We had a primary child recite a scripture. She said it in Māori. It was awesome. Her mom was the next speaker, and she recited the verse her daughter said in English for the rest of us. She gave a wonderful talk and made it very relatable with personal examples. It was all about Trusting the Lord. The next speaker has only been a member for a little over a year. She did a fantastic job. Her message was how to find blessings in our challenges. Our concluding speaker also did a fantastic job. He spoke on Opposition in all things. He laid out the plan of Satan verses the plan of Heavenly Father beautifully. He gave multiple examples of how Satan is still trying to win by thwarting Heavenly Fathers plan on earth. He pointed out how important agency is for us to choose for ourselves.  

Relief Society had a very stimulating and interesting discussion on a General Conference talk by Brad Wilcox called, “O Youth of the Noble Birthright”. We talked about our birthright and what that means. We talked about why we are different from other people. We talked about what is expected of us and what blessings are in store for us. It was wonderful to hear everyone’s thoughts on the subject.

After Church we took care of a few business items for the Bishop before we headed home. Not long after we got home, the Hikurangi Elders came over so I could help them make a Baptismal Program for Ben. They have been working with him for a while, and he committed to baptism for next Saturday. We are all so very excited. It has been incredible to watch the transformation come over Ben. He has been attending Church for about a month now. He just glows. It has been beautiful to watch. 

Sunday evening, we had a fireside for all those who are helping with the Open House for the Auckland Temple next month. We are so excited to be able to participate. We didn’t think we were going to be able to help, because we heard there were so many in Auckland that would going to help. But they gave Northland a whole day to help. We will be there on 15 March. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Elder Wilcox and me. It is such a blessing.

Have a WONDERFUL Week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Glowworm Caves, Wellington, Rotorua, and Hobbiton!!!

We spent Monday trying to get everything done that we could possibly get done before our trip. My New Convert Initiative report showed up, so I was able to get that done. We showed the King Street Flat to a potential renter. We have a sister in our ward who wants to stay in the ward but must move out soon, I think because they are selling the house she is currently renting. We set up the Agenda for Ward Council. I finished preparing my Sunday School lesson, Steve confirmed speakers and prayers for Sacrament meeting, and we did a few other things for the Bishop. I even finished and submitted our taxes.  Oh, and I fixed a formula in my new Convert Initiative spreadsheet that has been bugging me for a couple of months. Lastly, we packed our bags except for a few essentials that we packed Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning, we were on the road. The weather and traffic were good for the most part. Traffic got bad once we got to Auckland. We stopped at John and Diane Hester's new house. The movers didn’t have room for a few beloved plants, so we carried them in our car. It gave us a nice excuse to see their new house! We were on a tight schedule, so we didn’t have much time other than a quick tour of the new place. It is beautiful inside and out. They have a beautiful view too.

We stopped at the Mission Office to drop off something and possibly pick stuff up. Sister Garner was not there, so we left our item on the counter. Sister Ward was there so we told her what it was, then we left. 

Since we got to the Temple early, we called Season. We both missed our Zoom call on Monday. We had a nice video chat in the car before our session. We ran into several people we know at the Temple so that was an added bonus. Our session was very full. As we walked out of the Temple to go to our car, Elder Wilcox was wishing he hadn't left the windows down a few inches. Even though it was sunny when we went inside, it was a thunder and rainstorm when we left. Needless to say, our car was wet inside and out. We grabbed some dinner before heading to our B&B. We had a lovely room again.

On Wednesday, we headed out early to make it to the Glowworm Caves at Waitomo. I think they are one of the largest sights in the country. The caverns are huge. One is so large they call it the Cathedral. There is a natural rock formation in that cave that resembles a pipe organ. The acoustics are incredible. They even hold concerts in there for some famous singers. Kiri te Kanawa (famous opera singer) has sung in the caves. After wandering through the caverns, we reached the river, where we got into a boat to finish our tour of the Caves. There were thousands of glowworms. 

After that, we headed to Wellington. It was about a 6-hour drive. Honestly, there is nothing between Hamilton (well Waitomo) and Wellington except lots of beautiful trees, fields, and sheep. There were some cows too. Everyone once in a while we would get to a small community. I took two hours before we could find something to eat. Once we got to Wellington, we headed to the New Zealand National Museum. It was quite interesting learning about the history and seeing plants and animals that are only found in New Zealand. Eventually, we made it to our B&B for the night. I'm afraid it didn't hold a candle to the one in Hamilton. 😞

Thursday was a day of driving. You know how I said there was nothing between the glowworm caves and Wellington? Well, there is even less between Wellington and Rotorua, our next stop. The scenery was so varied along the way. There were great big forests that reminded me of Oregon, and then we would come to vast open fields with hundreds of sheep and cattle grazing. It was all very beautiful. 

About three hours from the time we left Wellington, we took a detour to the place that has the Longest Name in the World. The name  Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu translates roughly as "the summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his kōauau (flute) to his loved one". There isn’t anything around the sign; however, there are plans to add some additional amenities for future sightseers. 

We stopped again an hour or so later to see the Maraetotara Falls. The trek to get down to the landing to see the falls was a little treacherous to say the least. We both thought we were going to fall more than once. We made it to the spot, took a few pictures and gingerly made our way back to the car. Our balance isn’t as good as it used to be. We felt grateful that we made it back safely.

Friday was Valentine's Day. It was also the day we went to Hobbiton!!! Such a very fun day. Our guide was great. He made everything interesting and very fun. There are so many Hobbit holes to make the whole town of Hobbiton. They make movie magic by making a few of the doors 90% of average human height so the Hobbits look the right size for their homes. They make many others about 40% human height, so Gandolf and other humans look larger than hobbits. We took pictures of many Hobbit holes. Most of them were merely facades without an actual house behind the door. They doors may open, but there is only a small space for storage. However, they do have two fully developed Hobbit houses that we were able to go in and look around. I was amazed that the attention to detail. It was a wonderful Valentine’s day.

We actually went home on Friday night. We finished at Hobbiton around 1:30. As we headed to Hamilton, the more we thought we could just go home. We don’t sleep that well on the road and the thought of our nice hot shower and our own bed was calling us. So, we cancelled our stay with friends and headed home. 

We picked up something for Sister Ward at the Mission Office, visited briefly with Elder and Sister Garner, and headed off to Costco. I’ve decided the best time to shop at Costco is Friday evening at 5:30. There were no lines anywhere. Not only did we walk through the checkout line without waiting, but we walked right up to the food court, punched in our order, walked over to the pickup and it was already on the counter waiting for us. And to make it even better, there was no traffic to speak of.

We dropped off the stuff for Sister Ward and arrived home by 8:30. We had a GREAT night’s sleep. Since we were technically still on holiday, we decided to lay low on Saturday. That only worked for a couple of hours until the Murdoch Crescent Elders chatted us with an issue in their flat. LOL They had a horrible smell in one of the bedrooms coming from a vent in the ceiling. They had closed the door and opened a window. When we got there, we couldn’t smell anything. Elder Wilcox checked around and didn’t find anything like a dead animal that might cause the smell. We told them if it comes back to let us know and we will contact the property manager. 

While we were there, Elder Wilcox noticed that a grab bar was broken in the bathroom, so we went and bought another one and he installed it. They are good to go and hopefully the smell won’t return.

After lunch, Elder Wilcox went grocery shopping, and I worked on several little things that needed to be done. I sent out an updated Ward Council agenda, some information for the Hikurangi Elders, and made a few tour reservations for our trip to Australia in June. We found out when we visited the Garners at the office on Friday that they were able to book the same trip we are taking. We sent them to our travel agent with our itinerary, and they got it all booked. We are so excited to be traveling with them.

Sunday was fairly busy day. We were early to get things set up for Sacrament meeting and Ward Council and print out a few things that were needed. Ward Council went well even though we were missing a few people. Sacrament meeting was good. Our Young Women’s President spoke to us as well as our High Councilor. 

After that meeting, we had Sunday School. I gave the lesson, and I think it turned out pretty good. It was a little struggle to get our discussion going. I think we were missing some of our main contributors. Lol

We moved a family of 7 into the Ward so that was good since we lost 6 counting the Hesters. We had to hang around for the financial audit. I took the break to go over to Leona’s old house to help her retrieve her modem so she can get the Internet in her new house. I made it back just in time. The Audit went smoothly with no real issues. YAY!

On our way home, we stopped at Leona’s new house so I could help her get the Internet set up. She called on Friday to get it transferred over, but I don’t think it occurred yet. I think she is all set when they get it switched over, hopefully on Monday.

Once home I worked on the recap, sent a speaker list to Brother Horsford so he can choose speakers next month, and sent out the Ward Council minutes. 

We have a very busy week scheduled for this coming week. I hope I survive. LOL

All our Love,
Elder and Sister Wilcox

Seminary, Walks, Comp Studies, Transfers, and Moving

We started Monday early with Seminary. When we got there our Seminary teacher was surprised to see us. She said that a Sister had been called as the second adult for her class. Of course, we stayed anyway since we were already there. We had 4 kids and with the three extra adults we had a great discussion. 

I managed to take walks every day this week, except Friday. It is so beautiful in the morning and not too hot. I enjoyed it a lot. I worked on my Sunday School lesson for the 16th all week. We are going to be gone most of this week, and I didn't want to have to worry about my lesson. I finished my preparation on Saturday.

Steve met several missionaries at the Hikurangi flat to get it all cleaned out and ready to close. They moved all the furniture into the living room so it can easily be loaded and moved. They took a TON of stuff to the dump. It is in pretty good shape and almost ready for the closing.

We had our Zoom call with Douhet's family. We got to see everyone except Alyson and Tyus. We even got to see Roman. He is getting so big and cute. He is very bright-eyed and happy. He loves to bounce. I was so happy to see him. We had a very nice visit with them. Kinzley went to the Temple last Friday to receive her Endowment. Most of her extended family plus all her sisters were there with her. I wish we could have been there. 

Lastly, we had a nice dinner appointment at the Read's home. We had Hawaiian Haystacks. We each brought fixings the way we do it and compared our meals. We all got to eat some of both. It was very good, and we had a lot of fun just talking and visiting.

We didn't have to go to Seminary on Tuesday. It was nice to wake up without an alarm. I worked mostly on my Seminary Lesson for Thursday. The Seminary Supervisor sent me a link to a lot of training material, so I spent part of the day watching training videos and reading the material. 

We had comp study with our Sisters. I was sad, because I was pretty sure Sister Jones was going to be transferred on Thursday. She was. However, we had a wonderful Comp Study session. We will continue with the new companionship. I spent the rest of the day working on the New Convert Initiative. 

Wednesday was DCM. We combined with the North District since we were missing one of our Sister companionships. They closed the Denby Sisters and sent them to Auckland. They also had Elders serving in that Ward so now it is just the Elders. The Elders were also serving in Te Horo with the Carlisles. Now they will be mostly in Denby and only stop in Te Horo from time to time. Our DCM meeting went very well. 

The Central District got hit the hardest with transfers. We lost the Denby Sisters. We also lost Sister Jones and Elder Swensen. We are only keeping Sister Koi and Elder Sanders. They dissolved the Central District so we will be meeting with the North District again. Elder Erickson is our new District Leader. North District lost Elder Braithwaite because he went home. Elder Bartholomew already picked up his new companion, Elder Hassel last week. They also lost Elder Shupe. 

The Carlisles came over after our DCM so we could plan for Zone Conference. I was planning on Pizza, but Sister Carlisle said the missionaries would prefer not to have Pizza since they get it a lot for member meals. Apparently, someone suggested Hawaiian Haystacks from our Christmas lunch, so that is what we will be doing. LOL

Elder Wilcox was sick in the morning. He lay on the couch most of the day. In the afternoon Sister Koi and Elder Sanders brought over their new companions to meet us. By then, Steve was feeling much better. Sister Koi's new companion is Sister Fale. She is a friend of Pollyanna. Pollyanna was one of our interpreters in Salt Lake City, so we have that in common. It was fun to finally meet her. Elder Sanders' new companion is Elder Davis. He fit right in, and it felt like we had known him for years. Fun side note: Our previous Elder G. Sanders who served here for many months is BACK in our Zone. He just happens to be our current Elder W. Sanders' cousin. So now we have to use first initials to tell them apart. 

Elder Wilcox was feeling so much better when the Sisters came by, he invited them to dinner. So, they came back around 5:30 for dinner. We had a wonderful time getting to know them better.

Friday was exhausting. We helped the Hesters load up their moving van so they could move to Auckland. The Elders were unable to come, because they were required to have a mandatory three-hour planning meeting with the district. Since Elder Erickson is the new District Leader, they really had to be there. So, it was just us, the Hesters, and the two movers with the big truck. They were well organized, and the men did all the heavy lifting. I carried out a lot of boxes into the garage to be loaded into the truck.  Sister Hester and I also vacuumed the rooms as they got empty and cleaned the baseboards. After about two hours we had to leave for another project. They were almost done, so I didn't feel too bad about leaving early. It was very hard to say goodbye to them. The only thing that makes it OK is we will see them regularly when we go to the Temple in the future. 

From the Hesters we went to the Hikurangi flat to load all the furniture into Elder Garner's van and trailer. Only Elder Garner didn't come. Instead, we had Elder and Sister Rose. Again, the Missionaries couldn't be there because they were still in their three-hour meeting. The Carlisles showed up, so with the six of us it didn't take up too much time. Again, the men loaded everything into the van and trailer, and we Sisters cleaned each room until we were done. We finished about the same time. 

From there, Elder Wilcox and I picked up some Luggage at the Zone Leaders flat. We took it to one  of the Elders in Kaikohe. The Elder was just transferred to Kaikohe in a threesome. There wasn't room in the car, so he volunteered to leave his luggage behind since Elder and Sister Rose were coming up as far as Whangarei on Friday. We know how precious kilometers are to the missionaries and for the Elder to drive down to pick it up would have cost them a lot, so we decided to help them out. Besides it was at least two hours we didn't have to move anything. 🤣🤣🤣

By the time we got back, we only had a thirty-minute break before we had to be at Leona's house to load up her moving truck. She wanted to move on Saturday, but the brother getting the truck could only do Friday night. This time the missionaries were able to be there to help. We were very happy to see them. She was all boxed up, so it didn’t take that long to load the truck. Sam, who brought the truck, also brought another brother to help. They both serve in the Elder’s quorum. Sam is the president and Kapotai is one of his counselors. They are both very strong so that helped a lot.  We were all loaded in about an hour. Then we drove to the Hesters’ house (now Leona’s new house) to unpack. It didn’t take too long before we were done. She still has a lot of unpacking and stuff to do. She left quite a bit of smaller items that will fit in our car that she will move over in the next week or so. The house is much bigger than the one she had. I know she is really going to enjoy it. She had prepared some food for us before the move and brought it out so we could all have something to eat before we went home. 

Saturday was supposed to be a day of rest. Steve took it easy all day. I wanted to, but I had several things I wanted to get done before we leave next week. I finished my Sunday School lesson prep for the 16th. I won’t have to worry about that on the trip. I also worked on ACORD forms for HawkSoft and got those all done. It turned out to be a bigger job than I had hoped, but it is all done. Hopefully Darrin won’t find any issues with them. I’m feeling very good about our prep for our trip. I’m hoping we won’t have to worry about anything other than just enjoying our trip.

On Sunday, we had a packed Chapel because we had a baby blessing. It is always nice to see the Chapel full. All of our speakers were very good. I enjoyed each message very much. The baby is the granddaughter of one of our members. She is adorable with dark, curly hair. 

John and Diane Hester

After Sacrament meeting, we had several items of business to take care of. A record of the baby blessing needed to be created. Since the family lives in Auckland, we wanted to get it done so they could take it home with them. They were all headed to a family gathering at a cousin’s house. We got the record made, and the Bishop signed it. Then we found a family member who had stayed for the second hour to take the certificate to the family gathering so they could take it with them to Auckland. 

We also helped an elderly brother get into his Church account so he could order the Liahona magazine. He didn’t think he had a Church account set up, so we tried to create a new one. In the process we found that he already had an account set up. That meant we had to find out what the username was and create a new password. We managed to get that all done and were finally able to order the magazine. 

At 5:00, Elder Wilcox joined the Ward Clerks training meeting on Zoom. Brother Shepherd, the Stake Clerk) said I could sit in out of camera view. 🤣

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Seminary, Dinner Party, Walks, Baptism, and Linger Longer

We went on several walks this week. It was nice to do it first thing in the morning. I did lots of lesson prep this week between Sunday School and Seminary. 

Monday involved starting on my Sunday School lesson. In addition to that, I created a flyer for a Garage Sale the youth are doing to raise money for Youth Camp. We had a monthly call with Sierra and Shonee. It is always nice to hear news from home. 

I had some fun working on a Birthday List Spreadsheet project I wanted to do. I'm not only trying to remember everyone's birthdays, but also to remember them the day AFTER their birthday. Since New Zealand is a day ahead, I have to remember to wish Happy Birthday the day AFTER their birthday so it will be ON their birthday in the States. It sometimes gets confusing. 

Since it is the new year, I decided to enter all the birthdays in my ToDo list on the day AFTER their birthday so I will remember to call and text them on their actual birthday. After I made my list, that automatically calculates their age, I decided to fancy it up a bit. With the help from AI, I automatically generate a table that shows all the birthdays and anniversaries in a given month in date order. It puts the Date, Icon (birthday cake or heart) and the Name(s) underneath. If it is a wedding anniversary, it turns the block pink. It will make it very easy to add new events to the list and regenerate the table. I think it turned out pretty cute. I got the idea from a present Sierra gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago that I can hang up and have all the family's birthdays on it. My problem was I wasn't adding the new dates. I was still missing the spouses of three of my grandchildren as well as two new great grandbabies. I finally got around to adding them to the plaque, and it prompted me to do the spreadsheet too. I haven't added wedding anniversaries to the plaque. It is strictly for birthdays.

Seminary started on Tuesday. We are making a huge effort to get to bed early so we can get up super early. It is hard when it is still light out when it is time to go to sleep. We are studying Church History and Doctrine and Covenants this year. I'm excited, because it is one of my favorite topics. We had a nice Comp Study with the Sisters after our morning walk. We made a nice big broccoli salad for a dinner party later that evening.

The Hikurangi Elders showed up later to let us know what was going on at their flat. They ran out of kilometers because Elder Moyes used up a chunk driving to Auckland when he went home from his mission. Anyway, our Elders didn't get any extra kilometers, so they were walking everywhere. Long story short, it looks like we will be closing their existing flat and moving them to another in the next few weeks. In the meantime, they will be staying with the Punaruku Elders in the interim. I think they are going to run out of kilometers again as Punaruku is very far from Hikurangi.

After they left, we headed to the Hester’s house for a goodbye party. Sister Horsford organized the little party. We all brought food and our own lawn chairs. The Hesters just supplied the house. We had a wonderful party with lots of food. After a couple of hours, we headed home so we could go to bed early again for Seminary. 

Wednesday started with Seminary again and another morning walk. Then we quickly put together some snacks for DCM since I didn't have time to make anything. After DCM, Elder Wilcox met up with some Elders to move the beds and a few other things for the Hikurangi Elders to have in Punaruku. They will be there for about a month. I spent the time working on the New Convert Initiative and some other work on the computer.

Thursday was my early morning Zoom Seminary lesson. Unfortunately, we didn't have any students show up. I don't think they are in the swing of things yet. Hopefully it will be better next week. Elder Wilcox and I went ahead and held the class anyway, in hopes someone would show up late. I found out later that my three new students from Bream Bay signed in on Friday. Apparently, there was a school holiday, so the Seminary weeks was pushed back a day. We didn’t know. We had fun anyway. After the lesson we did our walk and then got ready for our Zoom SPF meeting.

I spent the afternoon doing more prep for Sunday School and the New Convert Initiative before the DLs arrived for their Comp Study. We decided to study Doctrine and Covenants 3 – 5, which is the Come Follow Me study for this week. I was able to share several things I have picked up as I have been preparing my lesson. 

NO Seminary on Friday. Just as we were going out for our walk, we got a call from our District Leader telling us their alarm was going off. They checked it and checked around the house but didn’t see anything. They turned the alarm off and then back on again. A few minutes later it went off again. We told them to get out of the house and we would come right over. They opened all the windows and met us by the open sliding glass door. We also checked everything and couldn’t find anything. But we decided to replace the alarm. The new alarm didn’t go off, but the windows were still open. We told them if after they closed the windows, the alarm went off again, they had to get out and call the fire department. We are hoping it is just a glitch in the other fire alarm.

From there, we headed to the Chapel as it was our turn to clean. I also wanted to see if I could get my phone or tablet to screen share for my Sunday School lesson on Sunday. Needless to say, I got very frustrated because my phone would not recognize the TV even though they were both on the same Internet network. I contacted the olde Ward Clerk, who is now the Stake Clerk to see if he had any ideas. He said he could never get the screen share to work either and always just used an HDMI connection. Steve later bought an adapter for my phone. However, when I tried to get it to work on our TV at home, I got the same results. They wouldn't talk to each other. It has been a frustrating couple of days for me.

Saturday started with a baptism for a couple of young girls (cousins) in the Ngahere Ward. Our Sisters have been working very hard to mend some hard feelings for a very large family in that Ward. These baptisms were HUGE in mending relationships. They have been reporting great numbers each week and have made a tremendous amount of progress. It has been awesome to watch as that Ward has been very hard in the past.

The rest of the day was spent on busy work. We did laundry, I finished my Sunday School lesson prep, we sent out the final Ward Council agenda, and I got frustrated working on trying to screen share again.

Then it was time to make dinner for the Hikurangi Elders. We also had them for Comp Study. They arrived at 4:30. We had a nice discussion. They were on Splits, so we actually had Elder Erickson from Hikurangi and Elder Shupe from Punaruku. That really turned out good, because we don’t see the Punaruku Elders very much since we are not in the same District, and it looks like Elder Shupe will probably be transferred next week. 😢 This may have been the last time we see him. 😭Dinner turned out good and we enjoyed a very nice conversation during our meal.

We started Sunday morning with Ward Council at 8:30. Our discussion went well, and we talked about lots of ways to help our Ward. Fast and Testimony meeting was good. We had lots of beautiful testimonies that were born. After Sacrament meeting, we had Sunday School. 

Even though I couldn’t do the screen share I wanted to do, I was still able to talk everyone through what I wanted to share. It all turned out OK. I really wasn’t sure how the lesson would go as I couldn’t seem to make it a cohesive lesson in my head. But it all seemed to flow together nicely. We had so many great comments in our discussion. I wanted everyone to go away with an important principle that Elder Holland taught. He said, “I do not know who in this vast audience today may need to hear the message of forgiveness inherent in this parable [or these sections], but however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”

After Church we had a nice Linger Longer to say goodbye to the Hesters. There was just the right amount of food, and I think everyone had a good time. Once home, I worked on my weekly Recap as well as a few things for the Ward. 

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox