Auntie Sandra's Breakfast, Zone Conference, Bonfire, and Stake Conference

What a week. No wonder I'm so tired. 🤪 Monday morning started with our Missionary Breakfast at Auntie Sandra's house. As usual, she went all out. Lots of delicious food and cute decorations for a fun party atmosphere. It was Halloween themed. We almost missed it because I failed to look at my computer that morning. I was taking a break from computers. Hahaha Thankfully, Elder Wilcox checked Messenger and found Sister Carlisle's message reminding everyone of the breakfast. We scrambled to get ready and go! Such fun when we got there and there was still plenty of food left. 

We spent the day sorting and packing stuff we won't be using for the rest of the mission. We cleaned the hall closets and packed souvenirs, Knick Knacks, and some winter clothes. We will be taking a bunch of clothes to the op shop before we go to make room for all the souvenirs. Haha

About the time we were both worn out, it was time to get ready to go to the Carlisle's for dinner. They had two other friends over as well. We had a wonderful time visiting and playing a game of Bank. 

We did our normal Monday video call on Tuesday. It was a little too tricky to coordinate on Monday. They are busy working on getting the space over the garage turned back into a little apartment for Laila, Tyus and Roman before we get home. Douhet is positive everything will be done in time. 

We had Comp Study with the Denby Sisters in the afternoon. Later we arranged to pick up a car for one of our sisters. She is unable to drive, and we were moving her to another place. All her belongings were in her car. We had to take the car to our house to pick up sometime later. Coordinating everything was a bit tricky, but it all worked out. 

Wednesday was a pretty busy day. We had DCM in the morning. We went immediately with the Carlisles to shop for Zone Conference food. We managed to be back by 2:00 as we were expecting someone to pick up the car we picked up the day before. The Hika Elders showed up for Comp Study a little after that. Not long after they left the others showed up to pick up the car. We had a nice little visit before they headed back home.  Then it was time to head to the Chapel for our Book of Mormon reading group. I am really enjoying our group. We lose some and get some different each week. If we could get everyone in the same week, we might need a bigger room. LOL As soon as that was over, we headed to the Snows for our Family Home Evening lesson. The kids were amazing, and we had a great time with everyone. After ice cream bars for dessert, we headed home. 

We had SPF on Thursday morning. Sister Allen talked about Doctrine and Covenants 58. She specifically focused on verses 26 through 29. These verses talked about being anxiously engaged in a good cause and being wise servants. We, as a mission, are working on an annual goal of 500 baptisms for the year. We are in a doable range if we continue to work hard and remain anxiously engaged. We will sprint to the end! I’m sure we can do it with the Lord’s help. The mission has never had that many baptisms in one year!

I was able to put in an hour or so working on HawkSoft ACORD forms. After that, we spent the rest of the day working on food prep for Zone Conference. Cooking most of the food on Thursday makes for a much easier day on Friday.

Friday was Zone Conference. We went a little earlier this time because the mission brough back the Haka and they were doing it before conference instead of at the lunch break like before. I wanted to make this conference a little special since it is the last meal we will be making for them. We angled the tables instead of just straight lines. We also decorated the tables with Bird of Paradise. They looked nice. We finished all the prep work before they did the Haka. They moved our center tables out of the way to make room for the Haka. it wasn't disturbed too much. We got to stand up front with the other missionaries who are leaving to go home. Technically we weren't going to be standing up front until the December Zone Conference, but since Sister Allen isn't going to be here in December, she wanted us to be part of the leavers. I'm glad, because this was OUR Zone Conference. In December, we will be meeting with another two Zones in Auckland. We will be standing up again, but it won't be quite as personal as this one was. It was an unexpected treat for us. 

We had a meeting with a new caterer who will take over the meals starting in January. She will have a Senior Missionary liaison between the Mission and her. It should be much easier for everyone. 

We rested for a bit when we got home and then headed out to our annual Ward Bonfire. We were tired, but I'm glad we went. It was a lot of fun, and we got to visit more casually with Ward members than we do at Church. 

Saturday was a Baptism for a young girl in our Ward. After the Baptism, I created her Baptismal Certificate so she could take it home the same day. Since we had Stake Conference this weekend, she would have had to wait a week before she got the certificate. While I had the Bishop there, I briefly went over the Membership Audit with him and printed some reports for him to review. Then we grabbed a quick plate of food before heading to the hospital to give a blessing.  

After the blessing, we went to the Stake Center for the leadership session of Stake Conference. We made it just in time. The theme for conference was Matthew 22:36-39. First to love God and second to love our neighbor. All the talks were related to that. We also had people from Auckland to kick off the Just Serve program of the Church. It has been available in the States for several years but is new to New Zealand. Whangarei is one of the pilot Stakes for the program. 

After the leadership session, we headed to the car to grab a protein bar for "dinner." Then we headed back in the adult session. There were different speakers, but they focused on the same theme. As we were getting ready to go home, Sister Nygren came up and asked with we wanted to go to dinner with them. There were four senior couples at conference. We all headed down the street to a Thia restaurant. We ate there not long after we moved to Whangarei with President and Sister Allen. We had such a good time getting to know a new Missionary Couple that will be taking over the Wards place in Wellsford. Elder and Sister Nixon are from Nevada. She is going to supervise the Zone Conference lunches, at least until another couple takes over for us. We sat across from them and had fun getting to know them.  We also had the Nygrens and the Carlisles.

Sunday finished our Stake Conference. It was a wonderful session. We had a beautiful children’s choir. They did an amazing job.  We also heard from a couple of youth speakers who also did an amazing job. We learned about Patriarchal Blessings from our Stake Patriarch and staying on the Covenant Path from and delightful Sister who talked about her journey back to Church and with a goal of the Temple. We heard from our Stake Presidency and a counselor in our Mission Presidency. The talks were inspiring and engaging. It was a wonderful Stake Conference.

At home, I did my scripture study and then worked on the recap for the week. I took care of a few other things before finally settling down for a relaxing evening. 

All Our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox