Breakfast at Aunty Sandra's, Visit with George, DCM, and Sailing Adventure 

Monday started with breakfast at Aunty Sandra's house. She is this AWESOME sister in our Stake who does a fabulous breakfast once a transfer for all the missionaries in the Whangarei Stake. We missed the first few she did, but finally made it to the last one. Since then, we won't miss another. This was her Christmas feast. She even had cute little goodie jars for each missionary with treats and soaps and fun things. Sister Carlisle couldn’t be there because she was helping a sweet member in their branch at the hospital. Elder Carlisle was there, and we were there. Breakfast was delicious. We said goodbye to Elder Christensen and Elder Dallimore. They were both headed to Cook Islands.

After running some errands, we had fun video call with MyLiege's family. Anna joined us from Provo. Erik dropped in to show off his new car, so we got to visit him too. Djeryd and Eva joined just before we were signing off, so we got to see Ruthie for a little while. She is getting so big and beginning to talk. I miss her so much. And I miss little Roman too. I haven't even got to hold him yet. 😢

We had our Comp Study with the Sisters on Tuesday. We read and discussed chapters 5 and 6 in the 1 Nephi. We talked about experiences we had when we just KNEW something was true, and no amount of persuasion from anyone else could change our mind. The Holy Ghost had witnessed to us, and we knew it. Jospeh Smith experienced that after his first vision. Even though people would not believe him and even got angry with him for saying what he saw, he knew it had happened, and he could not deny it. He also knew that God knew he knew it and he did not dear deny it. The experiences I have had may not be anything like the first vision, but I know just as assuredly as Joseph knew and I cannot and will not deny it. It was a good discussion.

Later, I put together the Christmas Sacrament Program. Normally we don't hand out a printed program, except to the one who conducts the meeting. But, since the Sacrament Program had lots of Christmas hymns, I thought a printed program would be most appropriate. 

After working on several more things, we left to meet the Elders at George's house. Elder Moyes asked if I could help George set up a Family Search account and get started with his Family History. It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside under a canopy. It is a little hard doing it all on the phone, but we got his set up and added a few of his relatives. I was hoping to add one that would connect to several more generations back, but we didn't quite make that happen. His sister lives with him and she is kind of a family history person. I'm hoping she will help him enter more names. 

I was up early Wednesday morning to address a problem Darrin reported to me the night before. We did a video call so he could show me how I can test the forms I have been sending him. That way we won't have to go back and forth so much. He showed me another issue that I was able to take care of. It will be so nice to test before I send it to him in the future. 

Just about the time I finished, it was time to go to DCM. We had a wonderful meeting. Our training involved what we can do to help the members of the Ward Council focus on members of the Ward who need greater support. We talked about a lot of things that we can do to help. I love seeing that particular meeting focus more on people and less on planning activities. We had a little party after our meeting to say goodbye to Sister Yesslith as she goes home 1 January 2025. We didn't know if we were going to have a DCM meeting on Christmas morning, so we had the party that Wednesday. I'm glad I brought snacks. I baked some Banana Bread the night before. Plus, we had some fruit and vegies. It all worked out well. 

Sister Yesslith

Thursday was a VERY FUN day. One of the Senior Couples in Auckland booked a sailing excursion up north and invited any other senior couples to join them. A week or so before the trip, they found out their daughter has cancer and needs their help with her little children. They flew home the day before the cruise. We missed them and hope they will be able to come back to finish their mission. Anyway, there were six couples that went on the Island-Hopper Sailing Adventure with the small crew of Barefoot Sailing Adventurers. There were four additional people that were part of our excursion. It was an all-day trip with lunch included. We had a crew of three people. Rick owned the boat. He had Jason helping him, and Carmen helped in the galley as well as with the rigging. She has only been working for them for 2 weeks. She did GREAT. 

The boat was a catamaran. From a distance, it didn’t look like it could hold 16 passengers, but it was much bigger than it looked. They had a bunch of big bean bags on the deck as well as some normal bench seats in the back of the boat. We were in the back with the Bennions. Later, Steve and I got on the two remaining bean bags that were also at the back of the boat. The weather was perfect, NO RAIN. It was sunny and even got hot. We lathered on the sunscreen, donned hats and sunglasses and settled in for the wonderful cruise. For most the trip to the island we actually sailed. The wind was with us. Then, all of a sudden it just died down and we had to make the rest of the trip to the island by motor. It took two hours to get there. Elder Bennion got to steer the rudder in the back of the boat for a little while. He did a great job. Elder Carlisle took a turn at it on the other side of the back when they had to move the sails over to get more wind. 

Once we got to the island, we had two hours to explore, snorkel, paddle board, or just hang out. We ate our picnic lunches on the island, too. We strolled on the beach and got our feet wet. The water was nice. We didn’t bring swimsuits to swim in. We were happy just wading in the water. Later, we took a short hike up the trail. Some went to the other side of the island, but we only went about halfway. It was so beautiful. After we got back from our little hike, we got our picnic lunch and found a nice shady spot behind some low hanging tree branches. It was also beautiful. I was able to sit on one of the low branches. After lunch, we wandered down the beach again, to where several other missionaries were hanging out and just visited with them until it was time to get back on the boat for home port.

The ride back was a little more adventuresome. Some dark clouds came in, the temperature got cooler, and the water became very rough. We bounced around quite a bit, but it was fun. Once again, the wind died down, and we had to travel by motor. When we got about 45 minutes away, the sun was shining, the waters were calm, and it got hot again. It was during that time that Carmen came over to us and started asking questions about the Church. We enjoyed talking with her and telling her the many different things that missionaries do. We told her about the young missionaries, as well as many different things the senior missionaries do. She had lots of questions, and we answered the best we could. We even got the share the Gospel with her.

As much as we wanted to recoup from our trip the day before on Friday, we still had plenty to do to catch up. We managed to print the Christmas Sacrament Program, so we didn't have to try and do that Sunday morning. Elder Wilcox fixed a few issues in one of the flats. It happened to be the same flat that Elder Garner dropped off a dresser for the Elders and a couple of bar stools for us, so Elder Wilcox was able to grab them while he was there. I took care of several other things that needed to be done on the computer, including making plans for the joint Central and North Districts DCM Christmas "party" we will have at our house on Christmas morning for the missionaries. It should be fun.

Saturday was spent taking care of household things like laundry, cleaning, bills, and all the other things that I kept bumping them from one day to the next because I never had time to finish them. A big part of the day was spent putting together the Christmas stuff we bought/made for the missionaries. I think they turned out cute. I also finally finished all the New Convert Initiative that kept getting bumped. It is just in time for my next report on Monday.

Sunday was our Christmas Sacrament Program. We invited people from the parade a week ago and it looked like some of them came. We had a lot of visitors today. Some, of course, were other family members visiting their families here. But there were several people that were from the community that came. The program turned out very well. Elder Wilcox did a wonderful job of narrating the story of Christmas. President Sadler was visiting from the Stake Presidency. He had some Stake business to conduct. He calls Elder Wilcox "the voice" because he loves his speaking voice. He was very excited to be here for our program. He was also excited to find out Elder Moyes was going to be singing a couple of songs for us. He has such a beautiful voice. He did two solos for us. We heard from the Primary kids and our Youth as well. And, of course, we had lots of congregational hymns. I was afraid we were going to end way too soon, but the time was perfect. The Bishop got up and gave a few closing remarks before we closed with Silent Night. Afterwards, we all went to the Cultural Hall for a Linger Longer. Normally, it is just some finger food, snacks, fruit, vegies, etc. This time, it was a full-blown lunch. We announced it last week as a potluck and we had everything from pulled pork, rice, chicken, ham, a variety of salads, fruit, and of course desserts. It was a wonderful time to visit and mingle after our meeting and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

We would like to wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Christmas Parade, Flat Repairs, Kawakawa Flat, and Sight Seeing

Monday was filled mostly with video calls. We got to talk with Season and Garren. Garren showed us his fancy new computer that has 16 LED lights in the tower than he can control the various colors. It looks really cool. We also talked about plans for Christmas Eve with the family from halfway across the world. I am so grateful for modern technology that allows us to still participate in family celebrations.

Next, we talked to Brooklyn to wish her a happy birthday. She is attending school at BYU Provo. It was good to visit with her and we look forward to seeing her home for Christmas break. At least we will get to see her on Christmas Eve.

Then I had a video call with Elder Sorenson about the New Convert Initiative spreadsheet. He found a problem with one of the formulas in the spreadsheet. After a few minutes, we tracked it down and got it fixed. After the call, I updated all the mission tabs with the new formulas.

Not long after that, I had a video call with Sister Ward. She is creating a book of about 100 pages for the missionaries with tools that can help them with the New Convert Initiative and My Covenant Path. As a mission we are also focusing on getting our new members to the Temple within 30 days of their baptism. She has lots of helpful information they can use to achieve that goal. Anyway, I helped her with some formatting things as she prepares the book for print in January. I showed her how to use styles to make the formatting more consistent. I will take a look at what she has done since our training sometime this coming week. Hopefully it will be ready very soon.

I managed to work on HawkSoft for a few hours, before having one more surprise video call. This time with MyLiege. She missed her mommy. 😇Oh, how I miss my family. I love being here and I love working with all the wonderful people we get to work with. But I miss my family…especially at this time of year. I am so grateful that Families can be Together Forever!!!

Tuesday was as follows: We had a wonderful Comp Study with our Sister Missionaries. We enjoyed it so much. Today we talked about chapters 3 and 4 in 1st Nephi. We had a great discussion. We worked on the Ward Council Agenda and got that sent out. We went to The Warehouse to pick up some much-needed supplies for the Ward Clerks office. After we got home, I spent the rest of the day on the New Convert Initiative.

Wednesday was a little busier. I woke up early thinking about the Christmas Award Certificate I needed to create for our after-parade activities on Saturday. I wanted to go back to sleep, but that was not going to happen. So, I got up and created the certificate. I think they turned out pretty cute.

Then we headed to DCM. Elder Swenson runs a very nice meeting. We had great discussion and sharing. After the meeting they pretty much ate all the snacks I brought, which, of course, is the intention. I enjoy watching them enjoy the snacks so much. After that was over, we headed to the Hikurangi Chapel so we could put away all the supplies we bought. While we were there, we started cleaning out filing cabinet drawers and paper trays that were on the counter in the Clerk's office. Most of the stuff we cleaned out were documents that were from 2010 to about 2014. NONE of which needed to be saved anymore. We put everything in the empty paper box we had just cleaned out. We put the box under the counter for the Bishop to take a quick peak before we get rid of it. We did find a few treasures like certificates, pictures, and even money. The pictures we found actually belonged to our Bishop. They were pictures of his son who had passed away several years ago. Neither he nor his wife knew about those pictures, so they were very happy to get them. When I opened the big envelop, they were in, I knew immediately they were pictures of their son. He as the most beautiful and angelic eyes I have ever seen. When I saw the Bishop a couple of days later and showed him the pictures, he was a bit overwhelmed. I'm so glad we were able to give them that special blessing.

On Thursday, right after our SPF meeting, we got a call from Sister Garner, who had just got a call from one of our Sisters. Apparently, their CO2 alarm went off. It didn't stay on very long, but they left the flat and waited outside. Sister Garner called us since we are in the area. We went right over to check it out. The alarm was no longer going off and only went off for a very short time. We tested the alarm and found it working correctly, so we started looking around. We asked them to tell us the circumstances of what was happening when the alarm went off. They were running the dryer when the alarm went off. Their dryer is in the spare bedroom right next to the alarm. It was very humid in the room. It didn't look like they had emptied the water container in several dryer loads. Also, the lint filter was nearly overflowing. We were pretty sure that is what caused the alarm to go off. 

We told them to crack a window, but we were confident that was the problem. We went out to call Elder Garner and tell him about the situation and the Sisters went back to crack a window. Before we could leave, they were back saying the alarm with off again. It was only a couple of beeps. My guess is it was probably still the humidity, but since it is better to be safe than sorry, we changed out the alarm. We had a spare one in our car. 

Friday took us to Kawakawa, which is further up north. We met with the Elders in the Kawakawa flat to install their CO2/Fire alarm. The one we had in the car was originally for them because they couldn't find theirs. When we texted to schedule the appointment, they said they found the original alarm but didn't know what to do with it. It worked out well, since we had given their new one to the Sisters. Hahaha. We moved the base to another room, so it wasn't in the kitchen anymore. Apparently before the current Elders were living there, the alarm would go off every time the previous Elders cooked anything. So, they took it down and the current Elders couldn't find it. We moved the base to another room closer to the bedrooms and installed the alarm. 

Before we left, Elder Wilcox noticed a lose floorboard was sticking up that could cause a stubbed toe or bad trip. He didn't have a long enough screw to fix it, so we went to the hardware store around the corner and fixed the floorboard. We asked them if there was anything else they needed, and they mentioned they didn't have an instant hot water dispenser. I texted Elder Garner to tell him what we did and that we were on our way to get them an instant hot water dispenser. He didn't respond right away, so we went ahead and bought it, hoping it would be OK. Later that day he said, "Great." 

After we left, Elder Wilcox decided to take the long way home. We don't get to sightsee up there very often. It is even more rural than where we live. We took a ride on the car ferry from Kirikiri to Russell. And then took Russell road all the way back to our area. It was beautiful. And because Russell road is probably the windiest road in Northland, I couldn't do anything else but enjoy the beautiful scenery.

We awoke on Saturday to a very bright and sunny day. It turned out to be the hottest day we have had since last summer. We got to the Chapel early so we could help set up the activities for after the Christmas Parade. We set up a volleyball net on the side yard and still left room for some touch rugby. In the front of the Chapel, we set up for the food. Brother and Sister Hester were doing the bulk of the set up. We had to leave so we could walk down to the school field where they were lining up for the parade route. By the time we got to the school, my hip was killing me, and I worried if I was going to make it through the whole parade. We gathered with the missionaries who were already there. We ended up with three sets of Elders and one set of Sisters. Elder and Sister Carlisle also joined us. We had lollies (candy) to pass out to the kids and flyers to pass out to the adults inviting them to the after-parade activity at the Church with free food and games, plus an invite to celebrate Christmas with our Sunday Service on 22 December at 10:00AM. 

The parade route went around a long block two times. It got to the Church and then turned to go around and start over. We passed out the all the lollies by the time we got to the Church. They finished passing out all the flyers by the time the parade was over. It was so hot in the heat of the sun. I managed to make it all the way for the first round and then dropped off to go to the Church to finish setting up. Sister Carlisle quit with me, but Elder Carlisle was a trooper and went the whole way both times. Elder Wilcox took a short cut to the Church so he could take pictures of the parade. We walked right behind the Rugby Team and in front of the Police cars. It wouldn't have been so bad, except the police turned their siren on without much of a break. It was LOUD!

After the parade we had lots of people stop by for sausage sizzles and strawberries and cream. So many tried to pay us and couldn't believe it when we told them it was free. We smiled and said to them "Merry Christmas!" Sister Carlisle and I manned the sausage sizzle table. Sister Hester ran the games for the kids. They did sack races, three legged races, and the egg race, although they used a tennis ball instead of an egg. There might have been a few more races too. She filled out the certificates for the first-place winners. Because of the heat, I don't think anyone played volleyball or rugby. Several of the Elders did pass the football around out front. The Kreutzkamps sent our Bishop two American footballs for an early Christmas present. LOL Bishop called them to show them our party and have a nice little chat with them. It was fun to talk to Caroline again.

We had a few ward members show up, but mostly it was the community. And that is JUST fine. We are hoping the community will also show up for our Christmas Sunday Service next week. Elder Wilcox will be reading the Christmas story, and we will have lots of singing to go with it.

We were at the Church bright and early Sunday morning to get set up for Church before our Ward Council meeting. It wasn’t quite as bright as Saturday. As a matter of fact, it was a bit cloudy, but still a very nice temperature. When we opened the door to the Ward Clerk’s office the odor just about made me sick. I think something died in there. We never did find it. We kept the door open most of the time we were in the office. It didn’t smell bad Saturday when we were there for the parade. We kept our things in the office, and it was just fine. 

Other than that, we took care of putting up the hymn numbers on the board and making copies of the rest hymn from the new hymnbook. We also got the big TV out for our Ward Council meeting. We showed a video from the Area Presidency that they wanted shown to all the Ward Councils. For the rest of the meeting, we had a great discussion about the video and the people we will work with to help come back to Church. I think it was one of our best meetings. 

We had three great talks for Sacrament meeting. Our Primary President spoke about what she enjoys most about Christmas. Our Relief Society President spoke about creating and making lasting Christmas memories. And Elder Wilcox spoke about putting Christ back as the central focus of Christmas. All three talks were excellent. Our Sunday School class was great too.

After our meetings, we went back to the Clerk’s office to take care of some business. The smell wasn’t quite as bad, but I could still smell it. We will check again sometime in the coming week.

Once home, I sent a report to the Stake Clerk and our High Councilor representative about the families we are working with that we talked about in our Ward Council meeting. I also sent our reminders to the different groups that will be doing songs for next week’s meeting. I then sent a list of the songs to our organist. Finally, I was able to work on the blog recap, but I didn’t finish it. I was tired. I finished it the next day.

All our Love,
Elder and Sister Wilcox

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

Monday was spent working on the New Convert Initiative for the morning and HawkSoft in the afternoon. That was a "fun" p-day. Elder Wilcox took care of a couple of issues at two different flats. We ended the day decorating our feeble little Christmas Tree. 

Tuesday had a little more variety. I worked on some reports for Sister Hester that she wanted after our discussion at Ward Council last week. The Sister Missionaries arrived at 10:00 for the weekly mentoring video call. After that we did our weekly Comp Study. We are reading and discussing the Book of Mormon from the beginning. We read and discussed chapter 2 for 1st Nephi. Our discussion focused on the main differences between Nephi and Laman and Lemuel. We decided it all had to do with attitude and desire. To start with, Nephi wasn't crazy about packing up and heading to the wilderness any more than Laman and Lemuel were. But, instead of murmuring and complaining, Nephi wanted to know for himself if it was what the Lord wanted, so he prayed. It says the Lord softened his heart and he did not murmur against his father. Once he knew what the Lord wanted, it was easier for him to obey his father and trust in the Lord. Laman and Lemuel, on the other hand, never prayed or asked. They expected the Lord to just come out and tell them without even asking on their part. That is NOT the way it works. We have to show forth faith and ask the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ what it is we want to know. Only then can we receive the answers from the Lord.

After that, I wrote my recap from the previous week because I was so late in getting it done. I then made treats for our DCM meeting the next day. Lastly, I sorted out all the boxes we received several months ago when we took over the responsibility of doing the lunches for Zone Conference. We didn't have a clue how much of anything we had because they were spread out in many different boxes. We had bought several things, thinking we were running out. We sorted EVERYTHING and organized them into specific boxes and labeled them. Now, we only have to grab what we need for a specific conference instead of putting nearly all the boxes in the car for each conference. I think it should be much easier to track all our supplies this way.

On Wednesday, we headed to DCM. With Zone Conference at the end of the week, President and Sister Allen were there to conduct interviews with all the missionaries. They did the Central and North Districts before DCM and then headed to Bream Bay about halfway through DCM to be there for the South District interviews. That meant we got to have President Allen in our District for the first part of our meeting. After our meeting, we were supposed to hang out until Elder and Sister Buchanan arrived from Bream Bay with our Christmas dresses and ties. All the Seniors had dresses and matching ties made down in Auckland. Sister Ward picked our Zone's up on Monday and took them to Bream Bay since they are in the District. Sister Buchanan brought the Carlisle's and ours to Whangarei, since they have to go through Whangarei to go home to Dargaville. Long story short, we forgot and went to Hikurangi right after DCM. On our way back home, Sister Buchanan texted us that they were at the Stake Center. We quickly rushed back there to meet them and pick up our dresses. 

Once home, I took care of several things on my plate before starting on our lesson preparation for our Family Home Evening lesson that night. I made a puzzle for each of the four little kids, as well as little paper quiet books for Sacrament meeting. The lesson was about the Sacrament and how we can Always remember Jesus.

After that the Sisters came over again for another mentoring call and then some lesson prep for a lesson they were presenting. I did some work on HawkSoft. 

Not long after that it was time to go to our Family Home Evening lesson. The kids were a little wound up that night, but we had fun.

After we got home, I gave Steve a haircut. Then we started on creating a Nativity Table Decoration for our Zone Conference on Friday. We were not supposed to buy anything but make it out of whatever we had in our flat. 

We stayed home all day on Thursday to finish up things before our trip and to prepare for Zone Conference. Besides some "housekeeping" things like laundry and paying bills, we spent part of the day finishing the Nativity centerpiece. We decided to choose pictures from our past Nativity plays with our grandchildren and paste them on some red cardstock. We did three sheets. Then we taped the sheets together to form a circle. It fit perfectly around the bottom portion of some plastic buckets we had so it makes a nice cylinder. Steve cut the rest of the buckets off so you couldn't see them. He then put the lid on the top upside down. It fit just right. We grabbed some mint we have in our garden and Steve glued the leaves to the top of the lid. Then we grabbed Christmas Bulbs off the tree to give it the finishing touch. I think it turned out really well and we got lots of compliments at Zone Conference. 

Friday was a VERY long day. We were up at 5:00 to pick up the Carlisles and headed to Auckland to be there by 9:30 for Zone Conference. We made good time and had no traffic issues. We arrived by 9:15. We normally have two Zones for our Zone Conference, Whangarei and Kaikohe. That conference consisted of four Zones. Two of the northern most Auckland Zones joined us. It was such fun to see several of our old missionaries who transferred out, some recently and other many months ago. First off, we got to see Elder Bailey! We love him! We also saw Sister Lilloux, Sister Ali, and Sister Enosa. Big hugs for all of them. We got to see many of our Senior Missionaries from Auckland. That is always fun. And of course, all our missionaries from our two Northland Zones. I was filled with JOY!

Our first hour was training and then we had a short break. The second hour (turned out to be closer to 2 hours) was the Christmas program put on by the missionaries in the zones. The next segment was what I was really looking forward to. It was the Christmas program the missionaries put together with song and the spoken word. I heard it was FABULOUS! Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any of it. Luckily, our video people recorded it, so we will get to watch it. Instead, we got to be angels. 

We ended up spending the next three hours helping a sister who was in a car accident. Luckily, she was not hurt, but she had to wait for the tow truck to get her car. So, we waited with her and got to know her better. She has such strong faith, and we witnessed several little miracles surrounding the accident. For example, when she talked to her insurance company about getting a rental car since hers was going to be in the shop for at least 3 days, she was told the insurance company wouldn’t cover it. She prayed and trusted in the Lord. She then called back and asked again and was told OK. You can have a rental car. There were several other miracles just like that.

We were running so late that we texted Sister Carlisle to make us each a lunch plate since we were sure we missed lunch and the conference pictures. But when we finally arrived, they were still eating lunch. Like I said, the program was almost two hours. So other than the Christmas program we didn't miss anything. They told us they recorded the entire program so we can still see it. I especially wanted to hear the song Elder Moyes and Sister Lilloux were doing. They make such a fantastic team. 

After lunch they took pictures and then played some games. We needed to leave by 3:30 to meet someone by 4:00. Just as we were ready to leave, the missionaries were seated all it a huge circle singing Christmas song like "Here Comes Santa Clause". President Allen showed up dressed like Santa and threw out candy to all the missionaries. They all loved it, and we stayed long enough to get pictures. 

Next, we met a cute older couple from Bethlehem who emigrated to New Zealand nearly 40 years ago. He is a fabulous wood carver who carves all the Kiwis that the mission gives out to our missionaries if they have perfect scores for keeping their flat clean five times in a row. Seniors don't qualify to earn one, so we wanted to buy our own. They showed us around the workshop, and he even demonstrated some of the things he does to carve his products. Very fascinating. Then we went to the "store" to see the finished products. These are all different buildings on the property where they live. We were blown away by all the things he carves. We got more than just a Kiwi. We also bought a beautifully hand carved unique Nativity set. All the carvings are unique because it all depends on the wood. We bought several other things as well.

Then we headed to dinner in Hamilton with the Carters. They are good friends with the Carlisles. We actually knew them when we served our mission in Salt Lake City. After a lovely dinner, we headed to our B&B for the night. True to their word, they put us up in a BEAUTFUL bridal suite. We had our own private bathroom, not to mention a huge room and gorgeous views from both sides of the room. It was truly magical.

Saturday was another long day. We did have a more leisurely wake up (7:30 vs 5:00) and a very nice breakfast with our hosts.  Clive, the owner, and his son, Coleman took great care of us. Colleen was at the hospital taking care of her month, so we didn’t get to see her. We had a nice visit with Clive and a delicious breakfast before heading out to pick up the Carlisles. 

We did Sealings and then Initiatory at the Temple. Both were wonderful experiences. The workers made us feel very special to be there. We were able to do all of our names this time. 😊We got an early start on the sealings and hoped we could get in early for initiatory too, but that didn't work. They were shorthanded and had to close initiatory down for almost 1/2 hour so they could all work at the veil. They were back in time for our scheduled appointment.

We left the Temple a little after 2:00 and made several stops on our way home. First stop was a little place called Pokeno. The Pokeno Ice Cream place is where "everyone" goes on their way back to Auckland from the Temple. We always see someone from the Temple. (You can tell because they are dressed in white shirts and ties and Sunday dresses. 😇) Next stop was Costco. It is always a mad house there. We went specifically for Ghirardelli Brownie Mix, but they didn't have any. I hope they will be back in stock next month when we go. That is the missionaries' favorite brownies. I'm not out so I should be able to make it another month. Of course we got several other things.

Then we had to drop something off at Waipu for Elder Carter. He lives in Hamilton and the person we were going to see was near Bream Bay up in our neck of the woods. In the course of our travels, we got a message from Sister Griffin wanting to know if they could use our Internet. We told them we weren't home, but they could probably access it in our driveway. It turned out, the problem was a little more complicated than that. They needed to use Chrome to access a website so Sister Yesslith could register for school housing. She goes home soon and is trying to get into BYU Provo for the next term. 

They do not have Chrome on their phones, so they needed my computer. I told them they could meet us by 8:30 if that would work. So, after we got home and unpacked, the Sisters showed up to use the computer. She could take care of some things but will need to come back to finish the process. She needs to have her family send her some things first. She'll be back after she gets that, hopefully on Monday.

On Sunday, we had a nice surprise. We always get their early so we can get things set up before Church. then Steve goes into his Bishopric meeting, and I have time to start on this recap before people start showing up for Church. I signed out of everything and headed to the foyer to start greeting people, when I saw Elder and Sister Garner. We were both wearing our matching Senior Christmas dresses. Lol Elder Garner forgot to get a rental agreement from our Punaruku Elders at Zone Conference and came by to pick it up from Elder Moyes. They share a flat with the Punaruku Elders. That way Elder Garner didn't have to drive ANOTHER hour to the Punaruku Chapel. Elder Moyes didn't know they were coming, so he gave the rental to me to get to Elder Garner. I was going to scan the document and send it to Elder Garner. Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised to see them. They stayed for all our meetings. I tried to get them to stay for lunch, but they had to go back for a Christmas Program tonight in their Stake.

Our meetings were great as usual. It was fun to have Sister Garner in Relief Society with me. She says she is usually in the nursery, so she doesn’t know any sisters in her ward. She enjoyed being in Relief Society. Wini gave a great lesson on Elder Uchtdorf’s talk called “Nourish the Roots, and the Branches Will Grow.” 

I worked on the recap after I got home. Thought I would be done early and be able to relax this afternoon but had several interruptions. It’s all good. Lol

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

New Convert Initiative, New District, and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day

With this new transfer, the mission realigned our districts by making 3 districts from the previous 2. We are none in the Whangarei Central District.  Since we have new missionaries, we decided to have a District P-day at our home. Everyone came over for pizza and treats.  Then we played several games to get to know one another.  I think everyone had a good time. 

I spent much of the rest of the day involved with the New Convert Initiative program between the area call and working on the spreadsheet.  I worked on it a lot throughout the week. It was all worth it. 

Sister Jones and Sister Koi for Comp Study

At 5:30 we met up with a few other members to help move a single sister into our ward. It only took around 2 hours to load her stuff and unload it in the new apartment.

On Tuesday, we started with our Com Study with Sister Jones and Sister Koi. Each transfer they give us a different companionship to study with. We decided to read the Book of Mormon one chapter at a time and discuss as we read. We had a great discussion, asking questions and pondering on things we hadn't thought about before. I can't wait until next week.

I also worked on some New Convert Initiative things. After lunch we made 46 goodie bags for Thanksgiving Dinner With the missionaries on Thursday. Then it was time for the video call we missed on Monday with Sierra. We also talked with Joey and Shonee. When we finished our call, we quickly ate dinner and headed to the Stake Center for the Stake Auxiliary Meeting. The training was very good. I’m anxious to implement it in our Ward Council. It goes right along with the training I did in our last Ward Council. One of the speakers shared that a Branch had done similar training in that previous Branch Council meeting as well. The speaker said it was a testimony to them that they were on the right track for the Stake Training. They had all prayed and fasted about it and felt it was what the Stake needed at this time. It strengthened my testimony too, as I felt it was the training our Ward needed on the 17th. Obviously, this is what Heavenly Father wants us as a Stake to work on at this time.

Wednesday was our first Whangarei Central District meeting. I got up early to make brownies and cut up some fruits and vegetables for our meeting. Normally, I didn't make snacks for every meeting, but then Sister Carlisle and Sister Ward showed up. They do treats for every DCM. They are both in different districts now, so I feel obligated to provide treats to our district each week. I'll have to buy more brownie mix at Costco. That always goes over well. We had a great meeting, and I know we will enjoy our new district as much as our previous one. 

After DCM, we picked up the Sister we helped move on Monday so she would get a few things for her apartment. She doesn't drive. We went to Bunnings (similar to Home Depot) and bought the things she needed. We found out that her birthday was that day. We purchased a few things for her birthday. We went back to her apartment so Elder Wilcox could take a look at her washing machine. He hooked it up on Monday, but apparently didn’t turn the water on. He thought it was taken care of since the sink worked but found the place to turn on the water for the washer. I think she is all set at least for a while. 

We then went back to Whangarei to do our shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. We wanted the freshest fruits and vegies. We stopped at a few other stores before we headed home. 

Once home, Steve took off again. Our Hikurangi Elders were out of kilometers for the month because they had to go to Auckland for transfers. We told them if they needed a ride to give us a call. Elder Wilcox picked them up and dropped them off at Charlotta’s house for their dinner appointment. After dinner, they walked to a few other members and friends for visits before walking to our house for a ride home. 

In the meantime, I started preparing some food for the Thanksgiving Dinner. I didn’t want to have to do everything on Thursday. I worried we wouldn't have enough food for all our missionaries. 🤞 

Thanksgiving Day was busy, fun, and tiring. I started by putting the potatoes I cooked on Wednesday into the slow cooker so I could warm them up and then make mashed potatoes. We then had our SPF meeting with the Mission President and Sister Allen. Immediately after that, we had a financial planning meeting via Zoom with our financial planner. Paul Carlson has been our financial planner for years and has done a marvelous job of managing our money. I have been very impressed with him.

We had a quick Zoom meeting with MyLiege as she shared some special news she just received. For several years she has been taking beautiful pictures for family and then friends. It has expanded to friends of friends and now word of mouth. She recently decided to start a business and actually start charging for her pictures. Most people tried to pay her anyway. She launched her website called: https://blossomwoodstudios.com/ It is Awesome. She wanted to share that she is photographing the launching of the Light The World Ceremony in Portland, Oregon.  I’m so excited for her. If you live in the Portland area, check out her work. You won’t regret it.

After all our calls were done, we went to work finishing up our preparations for our Big Missionary Thanksgiving Feast. We baked brownies, and made big fruit platters, not to mention mashing a big crock pot full of potatoes. Then we headed to the Hikurangi Chapel to get set up. Several of the Seniors from Kaikohe showed up before us. We got everything loaded into the kitchen and began to set up tables. We decided to make it a little homier by setting the tables up separately instead of in a couple of big lines. We cut some greenery, had some orange and yellow crape paper that we twisted and some beautiful blue flowers that Elder Wilcox cut, oh, and some Bird of Paradise. The Senior Sisters did a beautiful job of weaving the greenery and the crape paper togethers. It all looked magical. We gathered the extra flowers, and Sister Ward made a beautiful centerpiece for the food table. We ran the food tables down the center of the room instead of on the end. Everything looked magical. 

The missionaries all showed up and filled the room. Some came from over two hours away. There were two wishes I had. One was that everyone would have a GREAT time and feel like family. And two, that we would not run out of food. I prayed for the miracle of Loaves and Fishes. We experienced the miracles we desired. I think we may have taken home more food than we brought. Hahaha. Everyone ate and were filled. They came back for seconds and even thirds. There was even enough for them to take some home.  They enjoyed each other’s company as they visited while they ate. They expressed things they were thankful for.  After dinner we played several “Thanksgiving” games that were a lot of fun. My goal was it would help them feel loved and with “family” because that is what we are. 

Steve and Kathy Stebbings

I am so very grateful for all the help the Senior Couples put forth to bring an abundance of food and help in so many ways. I also am so very grateful for Brother and Sister Hester who came to monitor the food so the Seniors could sit and eat with the missionaries. They went above and beyond. They came early and helped with the setup. And they did all the dishes, helped pack up food, and cleaned the kitchen. They were so AWESOME!!!!  I am truly blessed this Thanksgiving Day!!!

Friday was intended to be a stay at home and rest day, but that was not meant to be. Instead, we made final updates to the Ward Council agenda and sent that out to the council members. Then we headed out to do Flat Inspections. The first flat we went to was by far the cleanest flat we have seen since we started doing inspections. And what made it even better was they didn't know we were coming and there was no running around to clean while we were there. It was just perfect. The other two flats still got their full points, but they both had some cleaning they were doing while we were inspecting other areas of the flat. 

The view from the Beach House

After lunch, Elder Wilcox picked up and delivered the Hikurangi Elders again since they were out of miles. They got refilled on 1 December. 😊While he was gone, I did some work on the New Convert Initiative spreadsheet so I could "eliminate" Children from our calculations. We only want to count converts who are eligible to go to the Temple to do baptisms. I managed to get the Auckland Mission sheet done by the end of the day. I did all the other missions on Saturday.

Us with Aniva

I worked on that until it was time to go to our dinner appointment. We received an invitation to have dinner with Aniva, our Young Women President and her aunt and uncle. It turns out her uncle is Steve Stebbings. I worked with Steve when we were on our previous mission. Steve worked in the Pacific Area Publishing Services Department. That department handles translation and interpretation, so we had several opportunities to work together. Normally I had only talked “face to face” via Teams meetings. Then, Steve came to the US for the last October General Conference we were able to work in Salt Lake City. We not only got to meet him in person, but we also were invited to a luncheon with him and the others that were with him. When we arrived in New Zealand, he was one person I wanted to see. So, on the day we left Auckland to head up north, we stopped at the Area Offices to visit Steve. He wasn’t there but was working from home. He forgot to tell us that. Lol We called and he gave us his address and we stopped by to visit before we arrived at our area of service. I didn’t think I would get to see him again, so it was a pleasant surprise to get the invite. He was spending a week at Aniva’s beach house for a little vacation. Somehow Aniva made the connection that we knew Steve and extended the invite. We had such a fun evening. We hope to have another opportunity in the future. We met his wife, Kathy. Kathy is the blood relative of Aniva. She is Aniva’s mother’s sister. They looked enough alike; I could see it immediately. I think we became fast friends. 

Douhet, MyLiege, and Season

Saturday morning, I awoke to a beautiful text message from our daughter, MyLiege. She sent a picture of her and her brothers, and another picture of most of the family in front of the Portland Temple for White Friday. In the past several years it has only been a few family members for White Friday. This year they had the whole crew. It really touched my heart. 

After that, we headed to the Stake Center to help out with the Stake Primary Activity. The primary kis made Christmas ornaments. They actually made two. One to hang on a tree at the church next door who was having a festival of Christmas Trees celebration, and the other one to take home for their own trees. 

Once home, I spent the rest of the day working on the New Convert Initiative spreadsheet to get all the Mission tabs updated with the new formulas. Just as I was wrapping up the spreadsheet, I got a call from Sister Carlisle. It appears we both forgot about a play we were going to see. Luckily, she called in plenty of time for us to make the play, but our dinner plans went out the window. We all grabbed a protein bar and headed to the theater to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was a wonderful play. The actors were amazing and had beautiful voices. The orchestra was also fabulous. I thought the music was prerecorded, until I realized they had a live band below the stage. It was put on by the Whangarei Theatre Company. The actor who played Joseph was AMAZING. He is quite young and still in high school. The whole cast did an incredible job. We had a great time.

Sunday was a wonderful day. We started with Ward Council. Elder Moyes did our "training" segment and did a great job. He talked about the Ward, and in particular the Ward Leaders can help move the Missionary work forward. We had a good discussion on several topics. We had several follow-up reports on the different visits that were made to people. We are trying to do a better job of assigning people to do things and then get follow-up reports on what happened. Sacrament and Sunday School were both good meetings.

We took care of some Ward Clerk stuff when we got home. Then around 3:00 our time we had a Zoom call with Douhet. He set the iPad up in a corner in the living room so we could see most of the living room, dining room, and part of the kitchen. The whole family (minus a couple grandkids) were there celebrating our annual Thanksgivagain. Since all our kids married within our Stake, they all get together with their in-laws on the actual holiday, (Christmas day, Thanksgiving Day, etc.) We get them ALL on Christmas Eve and the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It was a little noisy for them to hear us, but we managed to visit briefly with everyone there. They had to listen very closely to hear us. We could hear them just fine. I think Season will add some speakers for Christmas Eve so it will be easier for everyone to hear us. It was very fun to talk with everyone. I think we got to talk to little Ruthie the most. She kept wandering near the iPad and someone would pick her up so we could see and talk to her. By the end she was waving and smiling at us. We got to see Roman for a few minutes too, but he got a little fussy so that ended our visit with him. He will be another month older for Christmas Eve so that may work out a little longer. Lol It was so nice to talk with everyone, even if it was very brief. We even got to sing Happy Birthday to Kinsley! Douhet was one of the last ones to talk with us and he took the iPad into the walk-in pantry where it was quieter. When he finished, he got Joey and Audrey so we could finish with everyone. They were actually able to hear us without leaning into the speaker. Hahaha After our video call, we had a nice dinner and watched a couple of Christmas movies.

This has been a very busy and blessed week. I feel so very thankful for so many things. I am thankful for family and friends, close and far away. We love you all so very much. I am especially thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what He has done for me. I find myself pondering more and more often on His sacrifices for me. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed, I can't hold back the tears of joy. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I also love the gift and blessing of having the Holy Ghost as my constant companion. I am so very blessed.

All our Love,
Elder and Sister Wilcox