Senior Activity, Granddaughter Mission Call, Flat Inspections, Seminary, and Family Name Assist

Monday started off with a fun Senior Activity. We picked up the Carlisles and headed North to Kaikohe for lunch and a soak in some hot thermal pools.  It is always fun to get together with our other Senior Couples up North. We managed to see all of that, just not all at the same time. Our core group was Michaelsons (they organized it - Kaitaia), Nygrens (Dargaville), Bowens (Kerikeri), Carlisles (Pipiwai), and Wilcoxes (Hikurangi). The Nelsons (Kaikohe) joined us for lunch, and the Wards (Wellsford) joined us for the thermal pools. Lunch was delicious. We enjoyed visiting with one another. 

After lunch, we headed to Ngawha Springs to enjoy the Nga Puna Pools. They are natural hot springs. The sulfur smell wasn’t so hot, but we got used to it and it didn’t bother us. They have two sets of pools. One set has 16 different pools that range in temperature from about 18oC (64oF) to 47oC (116oF). The other set is smaller with only 8 pools that temperature from about 21oC (70oF) to 40oC (104oF). We went to the smaller set because the big one was closed that day. We went in the 40oC pool for most of the time we were there. Then we moved to a little cooler one (not sure what that temperature was.) The water was muddy looking, but it felt so good. The first pool had a wooden plank floor so that was nice. The other one had a mud floor. It was fun to dig my toes into the mud. The deeper you dug the hotter the mud got. They had benches in the pools to sit on. 

Tuesday was Early Morning Seminary. I had received two notifications the night before. One from Sister Paratene telling me she was not going to make it and if I could cover for her. The Elders were supposed to teach so I didn't think anything of it. We had to be there anyway. I started to glance over the lesson so I would know what they would be talking about. I then contacted the Elders to remind them of Seminary. They responded with they weren't going to make it because one of them was sick. This was at almost 9:00pm. So, I scrambled to put together a full lesson before going to bed. In the morning it all worked out. 

After Seminary, we had a fairly busy day. I prepared a fun FHE lesson for the family we teach every other Wednesday. I also prepared my regular Seminary Lesson for my Thursday class. We had a nice Comp Study with the Riverside Elders. After that, the Sisters showed up so Sister Roylance could use my phone to call BYU I. Unfortunately, it was after hours when she ran into some technical difficulties. We put it off until Wednesday to try again earlier in the day.

After they left, we had our normal Monday video call with Sierra on Tuesday because of the Senior Activity. They are planning a hiking trip with Alena over Labor Day weekend. She shared a couple of cool experiences she had running into different people. She had a visitor at her work who was from New Zealand.  Then she ran into someone, who after talking for a while they found out the man help direct MyLiege at Oregon City High School when she played in Steel Magnolias. It is a small world!

After that call, we had another call with Season's family so we could watch Brooklyn open her mission call. She has been called to the Philippines San Pablo Mission and reports to the MTC on January 10. We are so very excited for her. 

Wednesday was a little slower. We had a nice DCM. Elder Na Nongkai was a trooper. Even though he didn't feel well, he fulfilled his responsibility as our District Leader. He gave a very good training. Normally, he and Elder Ihaka would come over later in the day for Comp Study, but with him being sick, we postponed it until Friday.

We spent the afternoon working on various things that needed to be done, like preparing for flat inspections, researching possible caterers to do future Zone Conference Lunches, and putting out the Ward Council Minutes after Kea sent them to me. We missed the previous week's Ward Council meeting since we were doing a training at the Henderson Stake in the Auckland area. 

Later that evening we went to the Snow's hours for our Family Home Evening. I think everyone had a good time. 

Thursday was a busy day. We started with Early Morning Seminary. We had two visitors from Auckland for a total of 11 students! I think the lesson went well. I had several interactive segments, so it kept everyone busy. For the most part, everyone participated.

After Seminary, we headed to the Murdoch Crescent flat to do an inspection. We were so impressed with our Elders. That flat was the cleanest we have ever seen it. When we finished there, we headed to the Hikurangi flat. It was also very clean.  Both sets of Elders received 125 points. 

Our SPF lesson kind of matched the theme of our DCM training. President and Sister Allen taught the need to simplify our message. President Allen is a heart doctor. He asked an Elder to explain to the group what he had just told him about a heart patient using medical terms. Of course, the Elder was very vague that basically said the 65-year-old man was sick and got help. President Allen then told him the same condition using more common terms and asked the Elder to tell us what his said. The Elder was able to give a somewhat detailed explanation about the man and what the procedure was going to be to help the man to make him feel better. It was night and day difference on understanding what was being said. Sometimes our unique Church language makes it difficult for our friends to understand what we are trying to teach them. We need to use more common words that both parties understand. 

Later we had our Comp Study with the Zone Leaders. Once again, we had a wonderful discussion. We talked a lot about how we have so many things we can study and learn. It is a lifetime pursuit. It is exciting to learn new things and to share what we learn with others. That way each is strengthened and edified…especially with the Holy Ghost is present. It was a great discussion. 

Friday was filled with doing things to help others. After several failed attempts for Sister Roylance to connect with BUY I, we met her at the Stake Center Friday morning to see we would be early enough for her to reach someone. Eureka! It worked!!! She used my phone and my laptop and was able to take care of whatever it was she needed to do. 

From there we headed to the Murdoch Crescent flat to install a toilet paper roll holder since theirs has not been on the wall for who knows how long. We were sad to see that the flat was NOT in the beautiful condition it had been the day before when we did our inspection. I sent them pictures along with a crying emoji to say how disappointed we were. Hopefully they have got the point that it should be clean WHENEVER they leave their flat. 

From there, we headed to Hikurangi. Elder Wilcox dropped me off at the Chapel and he headed to the Hika flat so could fix a few things. For one thing, he wrapped the wood stove in saran wrap to remove any temptation from the Elders to light a fire. The Elders we have now had no problems, but one of the first Elders in the flat had to light paper in there even though they were told NOT TO TOUCH IT! This should eliminate the temptation from future Elders. 

I spent the bulk of the rest of the day setting up the new Chromebook that was delivered to our Ward to replace the OOOOLLLLDDDD computer we had. It used to take 15 minutes to boot up. I am not exaggerating! The Chromebook is quick!!! We had to “donate” our HDMI to HDMI cable so we could connect the bigger monitor to the Chromebook. That was one of the last things we did. We will go to buy another one tomorrow to replace ours. I’m quite happy with the setup We now have two screens since we have the laptop screen as well as the bigger monitor. I’m also happy as I will be able to use the Chromebook to take the notes for Ward Council instead of my personal laptop. 

We spent Saturday morning trying to get our "weekend" things done, like laundry, before we packed and headed to Auckland. I finalized the Ward Council Agenda and the Sacrament Program so I could print them and drop them off at the Bishop’s house. I wanted to make sure we could see him so we could explain the new laptop in the clerk’s office. I assured him we would be back on Sunday when Church started at 10:00.

We had a nice drive to Auckland. We were early enough that we avoided traffic. We got to our hotel early enough to get settled in and relax a bit before we had to go out again. Then we headed to the Mission office to pick up a couple of mattress pads. We ran into a few little problems when we got in the car. 

I pulled up the GPS so we could figure out how to get from our hotel to the office. We no sooner started driving when we heard “GPS Signal Lost.” We didn’t know which way we were supposed to go. From what the map looked like, we went straight. By the time the GPS came back up, we discovered we were going the exact opposite direction. We lost GPS several more times in the city, which caused further mishaps with missed turns or wrong turns. We turned our 15-minute trip to 30 minutes, before we finally arrived. I felt bad because Elder and Sister Hurst were waiting for us. They explained they had the same GPS problems when they went to Dargaville, so they were very understanding. LOL

Following our office trip, we headed to a restaurant not too fa
r from the office to meet a friend of ours from our Salt Lake City Mission. Kendrick works for the Music Department in Translation. He came to New Zealand to work on the Tongan translations of the new hymns. He was able to bring his wife with him. We had a wonderful dinner with both of them. We had a great day. Luckily, our GPS sent us back to our hotel with no problems. 😉

Sunday dawned at 5:30am. Since we stayed overnight near the Mt. Roskill Stake Center, we didn’t have a very long trip to our training meeting. We didn’t have to get up nearly as early as we would have if we had driven from home. 5:30am is still early, but a lot better than 3:30am. LOL

Our training went very well. The Spirit was very strong in the room. It was just the Stake President and 5 Bishops. They were very receptive to the training. One of the Bishops had already used the Family Name Assist, but the others had not heard of it. After the training, I sent them a copy of the PowerPoint presentation so they can share it with their Ward Councils. 

As soon as the training was over, we were excused and headed immediately back to Hikurangi. We pulled into the Chapel car park 1 minute before 10. We walked in during the opening song. I have to admit, I was a bit concerned. Saturday evening at 7:20, we received a chat message from our organist saying she wasn’t going to be there and asked if one of the other players could help out. I saw the message after 9. No one else responded. She said she would contact Sister Paratene since she thought she was going to lead the music. I expected to be back in time to lead the music. I’m glad she contacted Sister Paratene. 

We heard the music and then saw Sister Horsford playing the organ. All was good! We slipped in and enjoyed our meeting. Our speakers were great. We heard from two primary youths who did a great job. The mother of one of the youths spoke also. Brother Walker was conducting and invited all the brethren up to sing the intermediate song. Since the next speaker was not there, Brother Walker gave his talk as the “concluding” speaker. He then invited the rest of the Bishopric to speak to us also to finish out the time. It was great!

After Church, we had our Soup Sunday. We didn’t hang around for too long. We swapped out the HDMI cable with the one we bought. After mingling for a bit, we headed home. We unpacked and finished preparing for the Personal Finances class for later that day. 

After class, settled down and rest!

All Our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox