Auntie Sandra's Breakfast, Sickos, Transfers, Lots of Missionaries, and General Conference

Auntie Sandra always hosts a breakfast for all the missionaries in the Zone once a transfer. This transfer was Monday morning. We had almost all the missionaries there. Just before we were heading out, we got a call from the Sisters asking if we were going. I said we were and asked if someone needed a ride. As it turned out, Sister Smetaniuk wasn't feeling very well. We offered to stay home so they could drop her off at our house, but they said they were talking her into going. So, we went and had some breakfast and pictures before we transferred Sister Smetaniuk from their car to ours. We had her for much of the day. She stayed in the spare bedroom for the first couple of hours but came out for lunch. She was feeling better. We visited for a while before her mom called for their weekly call with family. She went back to the bedroom to talk with family. 

I spent much of the day working on emails to the Stake Clerks throughout the mission and sent them an email. We then had a nice video call with MyLiege's family. We didn't actually get to talk with MyLiege, as she was busy making Easter Dinner for dinner guests. So, while she slaved away in the kitchen, we talked with everyone else. Erik, Paul, and Carol came over. Djeryd, Eva, and Ruthie were there too. And to our surprise Sassie was there too. It was so fun to visit with everyone for a few minutes. Ruthie was the hit of the visit, and she stole my heart when she finally called me "GG" (for great grandma). It really made my day. She waved and smiled at us too.

Later that evening, we had a nice Family Home Evening with the Elders and Joe. Ben and his mom were supposed to come too, but I think they may have been sick. They missed Church on Sunday as well. We are hoping to make FHE a regular occurrence starting May 5th. 

I got my New Convert Initiative about 9:30 in the evening. So, I spent most of the day on Tuesday working on my report. We had a mission goal of forty something baptism for the transfer. We ended up with seventy-five. I've been busy with that report! Elder Wilcox went out with the Elders in the afternoon to go to a teaching appointment. He said it went very well. It was the second or third lesson they had. Around 8:45 that night we received the transfer news of who was leaving. It always makes me sad. 😢

I got up early on Wednesday to finish getting snacks ready for DCM. I knew it would be an emotional day because of transfers. Our meeting went well. After the meeting we joined the North District so we could all say our goodbyes. Bye-bye books were passed around. Snacks were enjoyed and hugs and tears were exchanged. We are losing a total of six from our Zone. Four of those are from the North and Central Districts. Elder Sanders went home from Wellsford. Elder Bird transferred from Dargaville. Elders Bradford and Dixon transferred from the North District and Elders Maraetefau and Hague transferred from the Central District. However, Elder Hague is moving to Wellsford, so he is still in our Zone. We won't see him very often, but we will see him at Zone Conference. That is really good news, because he only has this one transfer left before he goes home. That way we can say our goodbyes properly. Thankfully, we are not losing any of our Sisters!

Elder Maraetefau is leaving

In the afternoon, we met Elders Olson and Perry at a home in Hikurangi for a teaching appointment. Elders Maraetefau and Bradford were packing which is why we had Elder Perry. We had a wonderful lesson and played some games. They were teaching three young men. It was really fun. 

From there we headed to the Hikurangi Chapel so we could attend our Stake Choir practice. It was only supposed to be the Punaruku and Hikurangi Wards, but Sister Ah Mu did some recruiting from the other Wards. I think we had over five Wards in attendance and about 30 people. We sounded REALLY good. We are singing just two songs. One is I Know That My Savior Loves Me, and the other one is This is the Christ. I think it will turn out pretty good.

We thought we were going to go to transfers to pick up a couple of Elders that don't drive. However, we brought up the fact that we would also need to pick up the Punaruku car that would be at transfer with no driver. They put their heads together and came up with a solution that didn't involve us going to Auckland after all. We were a little disappointed. 

Since we didn't go to Auckland, we decided we could do our comp study after all. We invited the remaining three Elders who were in a threesome come over first. All three will have new companions by the afternoon. Elder Perry has given me a few items of clothing to repair on Wednesday. I was able to get two of them done before they arrived for comp study. 

We had a GREAT discussion. We discussed 3 Nephi 11 and 12. We had some interesting discussions about different verses. Chapter 12 is a parallel to Matthew 5 which is the Sermon on the Mount. We compared the two chapters and talked about what was different and why it mattered. I very much enjoyed it. After a while, they left to get some work done. 

About that time, the Sisters finished their mentoring calls. Elder Wilcox started on lunch. We had a nice enjoyable conversation over lunch. Sister Jones celebrated her 1-year anniversary. However, she wasn’t feeling very well and crashed on the couch. My back was to her, so I didn’t see her lay on the couch. Elder Wilcox saw her and went and got a blanket to cover her up. She promptly fell asleep. 

After we visited for a while, we thought we should do some comp study. By then, Sister Jones was awake and seemed to be doing a bit better. We studied Doctrine and Covenants 39 and 40. We had a great discussion about doing good and how many good people there are in the world. Sometimes we focus too much on the bad that goes on all over the world. There are wars, and gangs, and killings, and robberies, and just so much bad stuff. But in reality, there is a lot more good that goes on around the world. We just don’t tend to focus on that. It was a good eye-opening discussion. 

Sister Jones was still not feeling very well, so she stayed at our flat while the other three Sisters went out to work. She promptly went back to sleep on the couch. I took the time to do my scripture study and a little bit of work on HawkSoft. 

Later Elder Olson dropped by to introduce us to his new companion, Elder Na Nongkai. He is from Thailand. They serve in Hikurangi so we will see them the most. Since Sister Jones was asleep on the couch, we just visited with them at the door. Not long after that Elder Davis brought over his new companion. Elder Gardner is from Utah. Sister Jones was awake, so we let them in to visit briefly. It turns out Sister Jones and Elder Gardner know each other, so that was a nice visit. 

One of our visitors at Auntie Sandra's Breakfast

The Elders left for a dinner appointment and the Sisters showed up with party hats, noise makers, flowers, and donuts for Sister Jones. She was very happy. She was also feeling better and ready to go out. I believe they had a dinner appointment to get to. It was a fun day with missionaries coming and going all day long!

By Friday, Steve's cold was worse. He had been toying with it all week. He pretty much parked himself in the recliner and stayed there all day. He slept a lot and ate Chicken soup. 

I spent most of the day working on HawkSoft. I also coordinated a Bishopric dinner for next Monday evening. I also posted a Central and North District Breakfast for our first Monday after Transfers. 

Not much excitement on Saturday. We had planned on going to the Stake Center to watch General Conference there, but Steve was still under the weather. He was doing better, but we felt it was better to stay home one more day so he could really rest. We had to go on Sunday because we had Stake Choir practice after each session.

I was able to fix Elder Perry’s other shirt, as well as update the master spreadsheet of the New Convert Initiative from the Stake spreadsheets. I hoped there would have been a lot more updates, but at least there were some. 

We spent the rest of the day watching General Conference.

By Sunday, Steve was feeling so much better. I know everyone's prayers helped.

It was so nice to meet at the Stake Center for General Conference. We actually had really good attendance. The talks were great. I got so much more out of them this time around. I know I’ll get even more out of them once I start studying them in my Scripture Study each day. I love General Conference.

Elder Na Nongkai and Elder Olson

We packed a little lunch so we could eat between sessions. We had a quick Stake Choir practice for about 40 minutes so we could learn our second song. The last session as was good as the first session. We had a much longer Choir practice after that session to go over This is the Christ again. We have a nice sized choir. We will meet again on Wednesday for about 45 minutes and then again right before Stake Conference Sunday morning. I think we will do just fine. It feels good to sing in a Choir again. We managed to get all the missionaries to join the choir too.


After Choir was over, the Hika Elders followed us home so we could take them in our car. Elder Olson wanted us to go on a few visits with them to people in our neighborhood. We got to briefly talk to three different people. With one of them we were able to set up a Family Home Evening for Thursday afternoon. I’m glad to see our Elders working so hard. They are doing great work.

I hope you have a GREAT week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox