Post Australia and Back to "Normal" (whatever that is)

Ruthie almost 2

Monday started early with our District Missionary Breakfast after transfers. Technically, it would have been the week before, but they decided to wait for us. YAY!!! Our Zone went from 3 Districts down to 2 Districts. So, most of our Central District is now combined with the North District. Our Sisters went down to the South District, so both the North and South Districts have 4 companions each, plus 2 Senior Couples each. We are so blessed to have so many Seniors up in Northland. Anyway, we were expecting missionaries at 8:00am. They came between 8:15 and 8:45. We were up at 6:00am to start getting everything ready. The Carlisles were supplying most of the food since we got home from Australia late Saturday night and couldn't grocery shop. We did have a couple of pounds of bacon in the freezer that we contributed. 

We met our four new missionaries. Our Denby Sisters are now a threesome. Two of those Sisters are new to Northland. They are great. I will be helping Sister Vili with her English Connect class each week. The Riverside Elders has a new Elder and the Zone Leaders have a new Elder. It was fun to get everyone together. I have missed them. The Sisters left around 10 to go eeling. It is kind of like fishing, but they were trying to catch eels. The Elders didn’t leave until 10:45. They were playing games. 

The rest of the day was fairly low key. Elder Wilcox did Grocery shopping while I did some catch-up work. When he got back, we had a nice video call with MyLiege's family. Eva came over with Ruthie. She is getting so big. She said GG several times as well as lots of other words. She interacted with us on the video call. It was so fun. Djeryd came over after his meeting. We were able to visit with everyone. Elle is getting so big too. She looks like a younger Anna. We are looking forward to being with family again.

Tuesday was very special. We did early morning Seminary. The Elders taught. I learned more about English Connect and an English assessment test that 4 of our missionaries need to take. Three of them will be starting Pathway soon. They can only enroll in Pathway during the last 6 months of their mission. Sister Lili is still very new, so she is doing the English Connect class. At noon, we met up with the Carlisles at the Whangarei Harbor. There are lots of cool restaurants around there and they wanted to take us out to lunch for my birthday. We had so much fun walking around the Harbor and having a nice lunch in a little cafe. We were able to eat outside as the weather was very nice. After we ate, we went to the big clock tower. Near there, they have a big mechanical clock with lots of gears and balls and other fun things that it does to keep time. We got there at the perfect time. It was about 12:55 when we arrived. We watched as the balls rolled around and added 15 seconds at a time. When it made it to 60 seconds a ball would drop to the minute row. At 10 minutes a ball would drop to the 10-minute row. At 60 minutes a ball would drop to the hour row. In our case we already have 12 hours, so when the last 15 second ball dropped, it wiped out the minutes, 10 minutes and all the hours. It then added 1 hour back to the hour row to mark 1:00pm. It was all very clever and fun to watch. After that, we went and got ice cream cones before eventually going home. I spent the rest of the day working on several Seminary lessons.

Wednesday morning, I was back at early morning Seminary. This time I was teaching because Sister Paratene had to work. We focused on "Personal Preparation to Meet the Savior" by Elder Renlund. We had a good discussion about what we need to do to be prepared. 

After we got home, we were notified of the passing of one of our new converts, Joe. It was very unexpected. He had been sick off and on for a while and they couldn't find out what the problem was. Apparently, it was more serious than anyone thought. He gave his first talk in Church last week and did very well. We missed it because we were in Australia. He was going to either bless or pass the Sacrament on Sunday but was sick, so he didn't make it to Church. I was asked to send out a notification to our Ward Council about meeting together on Friday as a Ward so we could all go out to the Marae together to pay our respects to Joe's family. 

Later, we had DCM. It was a nice big group. It was fun to have us all back together again. Elder Wilcox made Lemon Bars and Sister Carlisle brought other fruit and veggies. Next week we will bring the fruit and veggies, and Sister Carlisle will bring the major dessert. That afternoon we started doing the English assessment tests. We could do two missionaries at a time because we have two laptops. We had the Bream Bay sisters first. They are a threesome and two of the three were taking the test. It turned out, one of them didn't need to take the class. 

Later that afternoon we were supposed to have the other two over, but Sister Vili and her companions already had a lesson scheduled so we postponed them until Thursday. As it turned out, Elder Na Nongkai didn't need to take the test. It appears when he filled out his missionary paperwork, English was listed as his first language. He speaks it very well, so that is probably OK. He should have any problems with Pathway. When that was done, Elder Wilcox took the two Elders to go pick up their car from being serviced that day. 

Thursday was another early morning Seminary day. This time it was my "normal" teaching day. The kids were all a little late showing up. Elder Wilcox and I started on time. Once everyone was there, we had a great class. 

Later that morning, we went to the radiologist so I could get an ultrasound on my bladder and kidneys. They want to rule out if either of these are contributing to my back issues. The results came back clean, so that is good. 

We dropped our car off at the dealers for routine maintenance. They had a shuttle van, so they were able to take us home. I spent the rest of the afternoon working on various things like stuff for Bishop, Ward Council, Zone Conference preparations, and the final English test in preparation for the English lessons we start next week. 

No early morning alarm on Friday!!! I spent some time working on certifications for HawkSoft. I have a lot to catch up on, but it is OK if it takes a while. Steve picked up a few supplies to try and fix a leaky faucet at the vacant Punaruku flat. I'm not sure if we are going to get Elders back in there or not. It will stay vacant for this transfer, and we will see what happens next transfer. Our Hikurangi Elders are now covering Hikurangi and Punaruku. That is a VERY, VERY large area for them to cover. Anyway, Elder Wilcox says it is going to require a plumber, so we will turn it over to the Garners to decide what to do.

Later we met many from our Ward Council at the Chapel so we could carpool out to the Marae for Joe's viewing. It was a really long way away. It took us over an hour from our Chapel on a very, very windy road. The view was stunning when we got there just at dusk. The bay is right by the Marae and the sky looked heavenly. The service was very nice. Of course, most of it was in Māori. Different people took turns speaking. After each one, several people sang a beautiful song. We had two from our group speak and after each one we sang. The first song we sang was in Māori. The Sister next to me had the words on the phone so I was able to sing too. After the Bishop spoke, we sang another song. This time we sake “Love at Home” in English. After everyone that wanted to speak was done, we all went into the other big room where they served everyone dinner. After that, we headed home. 

Saturday was very low key. We took care of normal household things like laundry, cleaning, and later, haircuts. I finalized everything in preparation for Sunday. I also spent some time working on ACORD forms for HawkSoft. It was nice not to go anywhere!

We had a wonderful Sabbath. I love being with the Saints each week. In Ward Council I was able to share some things we learned about in our Stake Meeting last week. I was then able to share it again in the last 10 minutes of our 5th Sunday Forum. 

Two of our speakers for Sacrament meeting were unable to make it today. Luckily, we found out before the meeting started. Bishop asked our High Councilor Rep to cover the remaining time. Our first speaker did an excellent job and took 20 minutes. The High Councilor took 10 minutes, so we went over 5 minutes. Hahaha. We sang some great songs today. I just wish we would have had more people. Our numbers were low today. 

After Sacrament meeting, we had 5th Sunday forum. Our main focus was on Ordinance Ready in Family Search. We taught everyone how to do that on their phones. I think it was well received. I may have to help a few people set up Church Accounts. In the last 10 minutes, I showed them the Church created Ward Website. It connects with the Calendar app in the Church website for our Ward and provides an easy way to share and invite others to our activities. I’m very excited about it.

After our 5th Sunday Forum, we headed into the Cultural Hall for our Soup Sunday.

Have a Wonderful Week. I hope you enjoy the Fourth of July Celebration!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox