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

Missionary Meals, Early Morning Seminary, Stake Choir, and Stake Conference

Another very busy week. Monday started with Early Morning Seminary. The normal second adult was sick, so we stepped in to help. It does give us a good way to start the day. Monday was also the first p-day after transfers last Thursday. So, we had the North and Central Districts over for Breakfast. The Carlisles came to help too. It is a fun way to get to know our new missionaries. We have four this transfer, two in each district. We kept our four Sisters and replace one companion in each of the remaining four Elders companionships. It was a lot of fun. They all hung around until nearly 1:00, then headed out to do some other p-day activities. I'm so glad they feel comfortable at our flat. We love having them.

I spent the afternoon working on the New Convert Initiative as well as a couple of video calls with our daughters. We were scheduled with Sierra, but Sean called earlier to give us an assignment for Mother's day. It gave us an opportunity to visit with MyLiege since we didn't see her last week because she was so busy with Easter Dinner. We had good visits with both families. Sierra is currently looking for another job. She is hoping to get some medical insurance, and her current job can't offer that to her. 

Lastly, we had a Bishopric dinner at our house. We slow cooked a ham and made scalloped potatoes. Everyone else brought something to fill out the meal. We enjoyed good food and wonderful company. It is nice to get together once in a while in a non-business setting. We got to know each other better. 

After early morning Seminary on Tuesday, we picked up the Bream Bay Sister to take them shopping for some warm clothes for our new Sister there. She is from Pappa New Guinea, which is very warm. She has been very cold since she arrived in New Zealand. There is a member in the Denby Ward that operates a free secondhand clothing shop. We took the Sisters there first. Sister Kau found several items of warm clothing that will help a lot. She still needed some rain boots and a rain slicker, so we took her to The Warehouse. They have everything. She found just what she was looking for. 

On our way home, a rock hit our windshield and cracked it. So, we stopped at the windshield repair shop on the way home. We were able to take a picture and send it to the vehicle missionary in Auckland so he could file an incident report all the while they were fixing the window. By the time the window was fixed, the paperwork was completed, and we were able to leave. 

Still on our way home, we got a call from the Elders wanting to know if Elder Wilcox could go with them to a teaching appointment later in the day. So, Steve went to the appointment, and I worked on my Seminary lesson.

Wednesday went from early morning Seminary to DCM. Our Hika Elders taught the Seminary lesson that morning. Normally they will teach on Tuesday, but "someone" forgot to set an alarm. Lol It all worked out as Sister Paratene always prepares a lesson just in case. Hahaha DCM went very well. Elder Olson is our new District Leader. He ran a very good meeting. 

My Adorable Great
Granddaughter, "Ru"

After DCM, the Hika Elders came over for Comp Study. We also fed them lunch before having a great comp study. They were teaching a lesson later, so we talked about what they would teach. 

After dinner, we headed to the Stake Center for Stake Choir Practice. It was a short practice, because the Provo BYU Women's Soccer Team was presenting a devotional for the youth. Of course, it made me think and miss my two granddaughters who are attending BYU Provo. Neither one is on the soccer team. 😢As we were leaving, a couple who were travelling with the Soccer Team approached us and called us by name. They then told us that Elder Jackson Swenson is their grandson. He is serving here in the New Zealand Auckland Mission. They were able to meet him briefly. When he found out they were headed up North for a devotional he told them to look us up. Luckily, we happened to be at the Stake Center for Choir practice, or we wouldn’t have met them. We had a very pleasant, albeit brief visit with them before the devotional was going to start and we had to leave. It is a small world!

We didn't have to go to early morning Seminary on Thursday since I normally teach at the Stake Center. Sister Paratene had arranged for someone else. However, since the Stake Center was being professionally cleaned on Monday and Tuesday, they had to bump Seminary down a day. Monday is Zoom, so that one didn't count.) So, my lesson was on Friday. We actually got to sleep in a bit for the week. We had our Zoom SPF mission meeting, which was followed by all four Sisters showing up for their mentoring sessions. 

After the mentoring sessions, we all ate grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and then had a wonderful comp study with the Sisters. After lunch we had a nice discussion about sections 41 and 42 in the Doctrine and Covenants. It was mainly about what the Lord called His “law to govern [His] Church.” I love hearing their thoughts and feelings about different verses in the scriptures. We always have a great discussion. I have to mention here that Steve made a comment, and I challenged him. As it turned out HE WAS RIGHT! I told him I would put it in my journal that night...which I did!

The Hika Elders showed up just as we were finishing so that Elder Wilcox could join them on another teaching appointment. It went very well. I stayed home as one of the Sister Companionships had another conference call.

Then it was time for dinner and another trip to the Stake Center. Steve attended the Bishopric and Elders Quorum Presidency meeting with the Stake Presidency and High Council. They had a guest speak from Auckland in the Seminary and Institute program.  After he talked to them, he gathered the Seminary Teachers that were there into the High Council room so we could receive some training. I enjoyed that very much. He shared a lot of tips and tricks with us on how to get our students to be engaged.   

I taught my Seminary class Friday morning. I don't think everyone got the message that there would be class on Friday. I only had four students. It took a little while for them to warm up, before we moved into a fully engaged. It ended up being a pretty good class. 

After class, we took a road trip to all three flats that we inspect. It wasn't an inspection trip. We taped three laminated flyers on the fridge in each of our three flats. It makes for a very long drive, but for the most part the weather was very nice. We ran into a few sprinkles along the way, but it was mostly sunny and warm. We listed to an audio book about President Russell's life called Insight. We worked on our Mother's Day assignment from Sean after we got home.

Our Saturday morning and early afternoon were kind of a p-day for us. We spent that time relaxing and just enjoying being together without having any official work that needed to be done. By 2 it was time to get ready for the Stake Conference Leadership Session. We had a visiting Area Seventy, Faapito Auapaau for the conference. He is from Samoa and gave two great talks on Saturday. Steve got to read several scriptures during the Leadership session. The Stake Presidency calls him “The Voice”. They love having him read. 

After the Leadership session, we had our Stake Choir Practice for Sunday morning. I think we sounded pretty good. After practice, we headed back to our seats. President Reti gave Steve an “eye” and motioned for him to come up to the stand. Apparently, Elder Auapaau told President Reti he should find something else for Elder Wilcox to read for the evening session because he likes his voice too. President Reti introduced Elder Wilcox to him and Elder Auapaau gave him a hug. 

After the Adult session we had an occasion to visit with him again briefly. He mentioned again how much he likes Steve’s voice. He wanted him to read again so he could get a recording. I mentioned that our kids recorded Steve reading the Nativity scriptures one year after we had a medical scare and the kids realized they wouldn’t have Grandpa around forever. Elder Auapaau asked me to send him a copy. So, I sent him a link to our video.

Sunday started with Stake Choir practice before Stake Conference started. We did the prelude song before Conference started. I think it turned out very well. Then after they did the Stake Business, we sang This is the Christ. It sounded good, but I’m not sure we sounded as strong as we did in our practice the day before. We still got complements. 

We heard from several great speakers, including a young girl from primary, a young woman, and a young adult. Of course, we also heard from several adults, including a Senior Couple who recently returned from their mission, a couple from the Auckland Temple Presidency, and an immigrant from America who talked about how some severe trials in America paved the way for them to come to New Zealand. Of course, we also heard from Elder Auapaau from the Pacific Area Seventies. He focused on ways we can increase our Spiritual Momentum. 

After Stake Conference, Elders Davis and Gardner came over for lunch and comp study. We couldn’t seem to coordinate with them earlier in the week. I’m glad they didn’t give up. We had a great visit and lunch with them.

Have a Wonderful Week! May the Fourth Be With You!!!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox