Birthday Boy, Inspections, Bishopric Dinner, and Final Family Name Assist Presentation

This week has been filled with lots of cleaning and service. We invited any missionaries over that wanted to help us clean our windows. We promised them breakfast. We got two companionships, and we all had a great time. They washed the windows, and we made them pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon. It took us about an hour to do the breakfast and windows and then we had another couple of hours to eat and play games.  

After they left, we had our last monthly video call with MyLiege's family from New Zealand. I have to qualify it with "monthly" because Sean has been known to just call us up randomly at other times. LOL I also spent several hours of our P-Day catching up on some HawkSoft work that I had. I almost completed it but ran into a problem that I needed checked out in the US. Since it was Sunday there, I had to wait a day. While I was working on HawkSoft, Steve was wiping out all the drawers and cabinets in the Kitchen and then putting everything back in place nice and tidy. Everything looks so nice. 

Tuesday was Steve's birthday. It was kind of low key until dinner. I was able to finish HawkSoft after Darrin fixed whatever the problem was. I think it only took me an hour. I also prepared our Family Home Evening lesson for the family we teach every other week. Steve took care of the weeding outside and I washed all the windowsills in the house to go with our nice clean windows. 

After lunch, the Sister came over for Comp Study. We ready two more chapters in "Saints." We are all really enjoying reading this book together. I especially love the discussions we have after (sometimes during) each chapter.

The Carlisles invited us to go to dinner for Steve's birthday. We had a wonderful time. When we finished, we decided to go back to our place for birthday cake and games. However, just as we were getting close to our house, Sister Carlisle got a call from their neighbor telling them someone was breaking into their house. Their neighbor saw the guy and called the cops. So, we dropped them off at home instead of taking them to our house. Scary! I’m glad they caught the guy, and everything turned out all right. 

Over the last few months, Wednesdays have become our busiest day. We had a wonderful DCM meeting on Wednesday morning. We had delicious snacks and visits for a short time after DCM with both Districts.  When we got home, we cleaned out the bathroom drawers. Some stuff we will send to the op shop. We threw away some stuff. Some are ready for packing now, and some I am still using. We vacuumed the drawers before wiping them down. They are clean and shiny now. I had pushed that little task back day after day for over a week. I’m so glad it is finally done. 

About the time we finished that little (NOT) project, the Elders arrived for our weekly Comp Study. Again, Elder Hunter peppered us with lots of doctrinal questions. We did the best we could to answer them, and we had a good discussion about them. After they left, we made dinner and finished watching the second half of Follow Him. Then it was time to go to our Book of Mormon reading. Bishop had a meeting, so he didn’t make it. We only had Wini show up. We read the two Isaiah Chapters in 1 Nephi. We had quite a discussion about them. Isaiah can be difficult to understand sometimes. Next week we will read Nephi’s explanation of those chapters. 

We left right after words to head to the Snows house for our Family Home Evening. We had a good lesson on the Second Coming of Christ. We had a couple of different activities the kids got to be involved in, so that made it nice. I think they had fun.

We started Thursday early with flat inspections. Both flats were in really good shape. The Riverside Elders had a couple things to tweak while we were there, but they took care of it before we finished our inspection. Then we headed to the Hikurangi Elders to do their inspection. We couldn’t find any issues. It is so nice to have such great missionaries.

We made it home in time for our Mission SPF meeting. President and Sister Allen gave a very creative presentation on being accountable for their own actions. After SPF we waited for the Zone Leaders to come by for our Comp Study. After a while we contacted them to find out they forgot to tell us they couldn’t make it that day. 😢We probably won’t meet with them next week either because it is transfer day next Thursday. 

While I was working on other projects both administrative and around the house, Steve went shopping to pick up a few things. We noticed that morning that both flats needed something repaired. The Riverside flat needed a new heat lamp in the bathroom. The Hikurangi flat needed a new bracket to fix a door in the kitchen. He was able to take care of both repairs as well as pick up a few groceries that we need for our Bishopric Dinner Friday night. 

Friday was a long day with hard work, and lots of fun. We started by picking up the Carlisles to head over to the Ata Mahina flat near Bream Bay. We met up with the Hursts and the Roses from Auckland. We were right in the middle of rush hour traffic, so we ended up being later than we planned. I think the Hursts and the Roses got there earlier than planned, because a lot of the work was done. Most of the packing and loading furniture was done. We all jumped in to help where we could. While I was vacuuming that flat, I noticed some black marks on the walls where different things had rubbed against the walls. I asked Sister Hurst if the landlord was planning on painting as normal wear and tear. She said that it was our responsibility to take care of holes, patches, and things like black marks. I had Elder Wilcox take a paint chip from the wall, and then he and Elder Carlisle went back to Whangarei to the hardware store to get some paint blended. They do a really good job of matching the paint. 

They were gone a really long time. There was construction on the highway that caused traffic to be backed up in both directions. So, they were slow getting there as well as coming back. We had finished all the loading and cleaning. The Roses went back to Auckland. We sent the Hursts to get some lunch because they were going to be meeting with the landlord and officially close the flat. They were also going to be doing the painting. Sister Carlisle and I wanted for the men to get back. While we were looking for a route for Sister Carlisle to take a walk on the beach since we were so close, the guys showed up earlier than they thought. We took care of a few things, left the paint and our extra keys on the counter, called the Hursts to see if there was anything else they needed, and then headed to Waipu Cove to eat some lunch. It is a nice little restaurant with outdoor seating overlooking the beach. After lunch we walked down to the beach to enjoy it a little more. Sister Carlisle got her walk on the beach with Elder Carlisle, and Steve and I sat on a bench and just enjoyed the view. 

After we dropped the Carlisles off, we headed home to relax for a little while before getting dinner ready for our Bishopric dinner that night. Bishop and Darlene showed up first. They informed us that the Walkers were not going to make it because one of their horses died and they needed to bury it. While we waited for the Horsfords to arrive, we shared our family Nativity Video that Season made for us during COVID. Russell and Merilene arrived near the end of our video, so it was just in time for dinner. 

We had so much fun. We enjoyed a wonderful visit. After dinner we played a dice game called “Bank”. Then we enjoyed delicious desserts and more visiting. I think they stayed until 10:30 or so. It was such a wonderful night.

Saturday was a little more laid back. We did our normal housekeeping things with laundry, linen and general cleaning. I took care of a few things for our meetings on Sunday. We left around 1:30 to go to Kaikohe for the Stake Leadership meeting of their Stake Conference. They were the last Stake that I needed to do the presentation for. 

I was the first speaker. The presentation went off without a single glitch. Most of the leaders had never heard of the Family Name Assist tool in the LCR tab. It was received very well. After the meeting, we were invited to a light dinner in the High Council room between the leadership and adult sessions of the conference. We had an opportunity to talk to several people about the tool. After dinner, we headed home.

I love Sundays when we get together with our Ward Whanau (family) to partake of the Sacrament and worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our Sacrament meeting consisted of a primary child giving his favorite scripture. He got shy, so mom gave it for him, but he got up there! We then heard from our two fulltime Elders, Elder Hunter and Elder Ihaka. I’m sure one of them is going to be transferred on Thursday. They said they thought they were both going to be transferred. I don’t think so. They both gave great talks. Our concluding speaker was Teina. He is going on a mission and leaves very soon. He will be going to Australia.

In Relief Society, we talked about Sister Tracy Browning’s General Conference talk entitled, “Tune Your Heart to Jesus Christ: The Sacred Gift of Primary Music.” It was a wonderful lesson as we shared what our favorite primary songs are and how they help to strengthen our testimonies. We talked about why primary music can be a powerful way for our children to learn the doctrines of the Church. 

We took care of a few administrative things before heading home and had a much-needed relaxing afternoon and evening.  

I hope you have a wonderful week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox