Zone Conference Zoom Meetings, Flat Inspections, Sunday School, and Temple

With our change in Relief Society Presidents, our Gospel Doctrine class was without a teacher. I volunteered until they could call a new teacher. That is one thing I have missed since serving missions. I don't get to teach on a regular basis. I'm excited that we are studying Doctrine and Covenants this year. I LOVE Church History. So, I spent several days this week studying and preparing for my lesson.

On Monday, we had our video call with Season. Garren popped in for a bit too. We talked for almost 2 hours about lots of things. It is so nice to catch up each week with one of the kids. I'm not sure what we would do without modern technology. I also gave Steve a haircut in the afternoon. I sure wish he could return the favor. LOL 

Tuesday was supposed to start with our third Mission Wide Zone Conference session, but just before it was supposed to start, we got a chat message stating would be delayed until 12:30. Unfortunately, that did not leave enough time to go do some flat inspections, so I busied myself with preparing for inspections by printing our inspection sheets. Sister Carlisle called to see if I could help print their sheets. For some reason they couldn't get it to format correctly so that the inspection was only 1 page wide. I volunteered to print their sheets off at the same time I did mine. With the delay in our meeting, they came by to pick them up in hopes of doing 1 or more inspections before the meetings started. All their flats in Whangarei fairly close to each other. We took the three furthest away flats because we don't do as much driving as they do. They drive into Pipiwai every day and that is about a 30-to-40-minute drive one way. We tend to be home more often than they are so we can drive further for inspections. 

I took care of several more things on the computer and then we had lunch. Finally, it was time to join our zoom meeting. We focused our attention on a talk by Elder Uchtdorf gave at the Mission Leaders Seminary in 2023 entitled "Fellow Servants": Uniting with Leaders and Members to Establish the Church. I loved the talks our leaders gave that went along with Elder Uchtdorf's message. 

Right after conference, we headed out to start our inspections. Because of distance, we decided we would do it over two days. We went to Bream Bay on Tuesday and then to Punaruku and Hikurangi on Wednesday after the Zoom Conference meeting. Bream Bay is always in great shape and the Sisters always keep it clean. After we got home, I worked on New Convert Initiative for a couple of hours. I couldn't finish because I was waiting on some information I needed from some Sister Missionaries.

Wednesday started with our Mission Wide Zoom Zone Conference Session on time. It was our last Mission Wide session of the Mission Tour. Elder Jaggi missed the first part of the session because he was called into a meeting with Elder Soares. When an apostle asks for you, you drop what you are doing and join that meeting. Anyway, President Allen carried on and our session went very well. We focused Preach My Gospel Chapter 1, first lesson as well as a talk by President Nelson in the October 2017 General Conference entitled "The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be like without it?" In the talk President Nelson asks us to reflect on three powerful questions:

1. What would your life be like without the Book of Mormon?
2. What would you not know?
3. What would you not have?

I reflected on those questions in my personal study that morning and felt such deep gratitude for the blessings I have received because of the Book of Mormon in my life. I would not be the person I am today, nor would I have the life I have today if it were not for the Book of Mormon and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am eternally grateful to my loving Heavenly Father for not giving up on me and continuing to place opportunities into my life to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon.

Again, we had a wonderful discussion, including several talks by President and Sister Allen, and Sister Jaggi. In the middle of Sister Jaggi's talk, Elder Jaggi joined us and finished up our Mission Wide Zone Conference Session.

After lunch, we finished our Flat Inspections. Unfortunately, those flats needed a bit of work. They still looked pretty good but slacked off in a few areas. We tried to find bonus points, but didn't quite get them as high as we would have liked. We have decided to start doing training after each Transfer so we can make sure all the missionaries know what is expected in an inspection. I don't think the expectations are being passed down from one missionary to another.

We returned Sister Hester's sewing machine to her before we went home. They are moving on 4 February. I can't believe it is that close already. We are going to miss them so much. One good thing about their move is we will be able to stay with them when we go to the Temple in Auckland. 😊

Thursday ended up being a bit busier than expected. I got up early first to bake brownies for the missionaries and second, so I could join the "All Hands-On Deck" video meeting for HawkSoft. It is a quarterly meeting that twice a year is only three hours different and the other two times it is five hours different. 😲I loving participating in the meeting for a couple of reasons. One is to see all my friends that I have worked with for years. Some are all over the country. I'm the furthest one away right now. Hahaha. I also love hearing about all the wonderful things HawkSoft is doing as a company. Sean, Paul, and Jason have built such a fantastic company to work for. They have won the Top 100 Companies to work for award for 10 years in a row. I think they could easily with the Top 10 Companies to work for if there was an award for that. The last fun thing for this quarterly meeting was singing Happy Birthday to Sean for his milestone 50th birthday that was that very day. Such fun.

As soon as that was over, we grabbed our treats and headed to the Stake Center so we could catch our Weekly SPF Zoom meeting. We needed to be at the Stake Center, because immediately after that meeting was our DCM meeting. We didn't think we were going to have a DCM meeting because it is usually on Wednesday, and we had our final Mission Wide Zone Conference meeting. But, at 10:00 PM Wednesday, we got a chat with our agenda for our DCM meeting at the Stake Center.

However, when we got there, the doors were locked, so we sat on the steps to the door watching the Zoom meeting on the phone. I think there were 10 of us waiting for the Zone Leaders to get there with the key to open the Chapel. Both SPF and DCM were great. After DCM, we picked up a prescription and quickly headed home to meet the Sisters for Comp Study.

They were running a little late, so we were able to catch our breath a bit. We were supposed to have a couple of Elders earlier that morning, but because of DCM theirs got postponed until next week. Since the Sisters went directly to a service project from the DCM meeting and then to our house they didn't get any lunch. So, Elder Wilcox made them a grilled ham and cheese sandwich while we did our comp study. They were happy! 😊

Just as the Sisters finished, our second set of Elders came for their comp study. We talked about what Elder Sanders could use with a lesson they were having later that day. We came up with several ideas that he thought would work well. The rest of the time we discussed Doctrine and Covenants Section 1. I sure love our Comp Studies.

Friday started with us packing for our Temple trip. We picked up the Carlisles around 10:00 and headed to the Ward's house in Wellsford to pick up a booklet for one of our Elders. They weren't home but left the book on the porch for us. We had packed lunches, so we ate our lunches

Next stop was the Mission Office where we turned in an extra key to Sister Garner. Sister Carlisle picked up some supplies she needed for her branch and for some of her Elders. I waited for Sister Geisler to return from lunch so I could take care of ordering a badge for Sister Koi. She had sent money for us to order her badge. Just about the time we wanted to leave, the Geislers showed up, so we were able to take care of all our business. While we waited, we were able to see Sister Lilloux and Sister Enosa as well as their companions. It is so fun to see our missionaries that we love so much after they have left our area.

From there we headed to Hamilton to the Temple. We were there in plenty of time for our session. We had a nice session. We stayed in the Celestial room quite a while. We don't usually get to just sit there and bask in the beautiful room and wonderful feeling. It was so nice.

After a while, we left to meet up with the Carters for dinner and this great burger place called "Burger, Burger." Best burger ever! We visited for a couple of hours before heading to our B&B for the night.

After a delicious breakfast and nice little visit with Colleen and Clive it was time to leave. They had a full house that weekend. They like to say, you arrive as guests but leave as friends. That is so true. Everyone loved them and had a great time. Colleen had left to take some guests out to feed the horses when we were packing up to go. We wanted to say goodbye before we left, so we headed out to the animals after we loaded the car. They have a few horses in the field near our car. Everyone had moved on to the alpaca, sheep, and cows by the time we got out there. We wandered over to the cows and Colleen gave me some feed to give the cows. Across to the other side were the sheep and alpaca. It was fun to feed the animals. We finally gave our hugs and headed out to pick up the Carlisles from the Carters house where they stayed.

We stopped at the distribution center next to the Temple so we could pick up a leather-bound triple combination for Sister Koi and also to pick up a few new garments. The Carlisles picked up a few more supplies they wanted, including some kids' books in Mauri. Then it was off to Costco.

There is only one Costco store in the entire country, so you can imagine how crowded it is...ALWAYS. We only needed a few things this time, but it still took forever to get in and out. Finally, we were on our way home. We made one more stop at the Chemist Warehouse in Whangarei because I received a text message that Steve's other prescription was ready to pick up. Carlisles were fine with that because they had some things they needed too. We dropped the Carlisles off at their house and made it home by 4:00pm. I took care of a few items of business that came in via email and text on our way home. Finally, it was time for showers and some time to relax.

We headed out to Church early on Sunday to get set up before Ward Council, when we had to return home because Steve forgot his phone and tablet. Luckily, we left real early. Lol We still managed to get everything done we wanted to before Ward Council.

We had a good discussion about our one-on-one ministering. We also talked about a few things upcoming, like the start of Seminary. I think we are moving in the right direction.

Just before Church was to start, the chapel looked sparsely populated. I left greeting people at the door, so I could go sit up front to be ready to lead the music. I think a swarm of people must have followed me in, because when Brother Walker got up to welcome everyone, we had a full Chapel. It was one of our biggest attended weeks. Our talks were really good, and we went over time about 5 minutes. I think the Spirit was very strong today.

After Sacrament meeting, I taught Sunday School. I think it turned out pretty well. Our lesson covered Joseph Smith History 1:1-26. I focused the lesson on what we learned from how Joseph Smith prepared himself to receive personal revelation. We had a great discussion of what that looks like for each of us. We can follow the same pattern Joseph did to receive our own personal revelation. We know that Heavenly Father uses many different ways to talk to His children and we talked about how we can recognize how He speaks to us.

We hope you will enjoy your week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Mission Tour, Zone Conference, and Back to Normal

A New Zealand "Snow" Man

The Holidays are over, and we are back to whatever "normal" is. Monday was spent catching up on the New Convert Initiative, as I finally got my report. It covered three weeks of baptisms. It took much of the day.

We have had a Senior Couple in the Hamilton Mission that has been unable to get into our master spreadsheet for over a month. We tried a number of things, and nothing worked. She called the Church Help Desk as well as Microsoft help. Still nothing worked. On Monday she sent me a simple spreadsheet with all her updates and asked if I could put them into the master spreadsheet. Even though she had quite a few new converts, I only had to add them to the spreadsheet so that didn't take much time at all. After that, we decided to try the recommendation from Microsoft one more time. I had tried it earlier, but didn't think I had the authority to change the settings since I don't own the spreadsheet. The owner hadn't pickup up the email so he hadn't tried it either. I decided to try one more time. I did some tweaking and low and behold, I was able to change the setting. She can now get into the spreadsheet!!!

We spent much of the afternoon working on planning for a couple of trips we want to take this year before our mission ends. In February, we are going to Hobbiton and Wellington. It will be just under a week. President Allen can approve any trips we want to take in-country. In June, we want to go to Australia for about 10 days. It shouldn't be a problem, but that has to go to the Area Presidency for approval. Steve served his first mission to Australia and always promised to take me there someday. Well, someday isn't going to get any closer than it is right now while we are serving in New Zealand.

Tuesday morning started with a Zoom meeting with the Housing Coordinators. They were implementing a Mission-wide clean out and wanted us to be aware. Also, for us in the Northland area, we needed to pick up and dispose of the things they cleaned out of their flats. Some of the stuff needed to go back to Auckland, such as clothing or supplies. Other things just needed to be disposed of. Later we ran some errands and did a spot check in Bream Bay. Since they were the furthest away, we wanted to pick up their stuff first. They didn't have much.

On Wednesday, we ended up having DCM at our house. We all went to the Stake Center, but no one had the keys to get in. The Zone Leaders were in Auckland for a meeting and apparently forgot to give the keys to someone else. So, the North District went to the Carlisle's house and the Central District went to our house. We had an enjoyable meeting and everyone "lingered longer" before heading out to do their work. 

When they left, we picked up Sister Carlisle and went shopping for food for Zone Conference. That way we could put it all on one receipt that I could send in. After we got home and unloaded everything, Elder Wilcox ran some errands and I worked on the Sacrament Program, Ward Council stuff, and eventually some HawkSoft work. 

Thursday morning started our Mission Tour with Elder and Sister Jaggi. The first session of the tour was a Mission Wide Zoom meeting Thursday morning. For the most part, the sound was pretty good, but there were some speakers that were hard to hear. We communicated with the APs who were in charge of the tech stuff and told them when it worked well and when it wasn't so hot. They came up with a plan that will hopefully be better for the rest of the tour. 

Elder Jaggi had several missionaries share what they learned in our preparatory studies about goal setting before Thursday's session. He also involved those of us on Zoom, by asking questions in chat and then sharing some of our answers with the in-person people. One of the main takeaways about goals is this. A goal is your destination. The plan is how you are going to get there. A goal without a plan is just a wish. We also heard talks from President and Sister Allen, and Elder and Sister Jaggi. We really enjoyed the session and are looking forward to tomorrow.

Before the Zoom meeting, we put the beef we bought for Zone Conference in the slow cooker to cook all day. After the meeting, the first set of missionaries (Elders Erickson and Maraetefai) arrived at our house for Comp Study. We fed them lunch since it was noon. We had a great study as we prepared for Friday's Zone Conference first session. We were in-person that time and the rest of the mission was on Zoom. 

We that was going on, Sisters Jones and Koi arrived for their mentoring session and their Comp Study. We finished with the Elders, and they went with Elder Wilcox to help pick up the rest of the "clean-out" from the other flats we have in our area. The Sisters then joined me for Comp Study. We ready 1 Nephi 13 and 14. We had a very good discussion about chapter 13 as we identified the different things going on in that chapter. I really enjoyed it and I think they did too.

After the Sisters left, I went back to preparing things for our Zone Conference lunch on Friday. I cut up several items for our salad bar. I didn’t make brownies because I figured we would have plenty of desserts. I was right. When I finished it was almost 4:00. Elder Wilcox arrived home and shortly after that Elders Swensen and Sanders arrived for our last Comp Study. We studied the same topic we studied for the earlier Elders. Of course, our discussion was completely different and very enjoyable. I think our Comp Study with the Junior Missionaries is one of the favorite things we get to do. I love it.

When they left, Elder Wilcox shredded the beef while I finished up my HawkSoft work from yesterday. We poured BBQ sauce over the beef and turned it on warm. We let it stay warm all night because we didn't have room in our fridge to store it. It turned out perfect on Friday.

Friday was Zone Conference. We didn't get quite as many people as we planned. I think there were some that were coming from Auckland that changed their minds and didn't come since they had already attended the Zone Conference on Thursday in Auckland. Anyway, we ended up with PLENTY of food. 

We thought we were going to be the first ones to the Chapel for Zone Conference to unlock the doors and start setting up. We were surprised to see so many missionary cars there and the gate and doors already open. President wanted to do interviews, plus they had another meeting that started before our normal Zone Conference. 

It worked out, because we had lots of Elders there to set up tables and chairs, so we didn’t have to do that. We usually have a couple, but we had so many they were done with the whole thing in about 5 minutes. It was AWESOME. We put the table runners on and set out plates, cups, serviettes (napkins), and plasticware. We got some potatoes in the oven to warm, the shredded beef was staying warm in the several slow cookers we had, and the fruit and vegies were in the fridge.  We then had a brief meeting with the Garners about missionary flats and finished up just in time to be there for the start of Zone Conference!

We had a wonderful meeting in the morning. We reviewed what was discussed the day before and the invitation that Elder Jaggi gave the missionaries. Then we went into the topic for the day, which was about the Light of Christ and how we feel the Holy Ghost. Again, we had a great discussion. 

At 11:30, the Seniors headed to the kitchen to put together vegie trays, fruit platters, buns for our shredded beef sandwiches, and the salad bar stuff. We also put out the deserts on the desert table. We put the crock pots on the serving table and called it good. The meeting was still going on, so we went back and caught the last portions of the first session. It went over about 15 minutes. 

Everyone loved our lunch. I’m so happy. They even sang to all the Seniors a song of thanks. It was so fun. All I can say is we couldn’t have pulled it off without the help of all the Senior Couples in Northland. I love them all so much! 

After lunch, we took a Zone Picture and then we cleaned up and packaged up the food. Everyone pitched in so it didn’t take that long. We were able to join most of the second session of Conference. It was as good as the first. The focus of the second have was on the Dedication of the Auckland Temple on April 13, and the month-long Open House in March. Sister Allen gave each of the missionaries a Temple puzzle made out of wood and magnets to put it together. It is very cool. Sister Jaggi collected hundreds of triangle shaped seashells that she gave out as a remembrance of the Godhead. It went along with her talk about the divine companionship we have with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. 

The Spirit was so strong today. I loved every minute. After the meetings, we got the vacuum out and finished cleaning the cultural hall and kitchen so we could go home. There was a little bit of food left in the kitchen that didn’t get set out for some reason. I grabbed one of the AP’s since I knew he would be there to the end and told him we were putting the remaining food out and it was his responsibility to make sure it was taken by the missionaries that were still in a training meeting. Finally, it was time to go home!

Elder Sanders, Conner, and Elder Swensen

Normally, we would rest up the day after Zone Conference, but not so this time. The Riverside Ward had a baptism Saturday morning. They had been working with Conner for some time, so we were all excited to attend his special day. 

Not long after that, we headed out to Maromaku to attend the funeral of the father of a neighbor to the Bishop. Maromaku is one of those places in the middle of nowhere. Lol. We actually drove out there not long after we got here. We went to visit a sweet sister in our ward who is bedridden. Her husband has helped build many chapels in the Northland area. He is a wonderful man and takes such loving care of his sweet wife.  The first time we were there he asked us if we had some time to go see a Chapel, he helped build that was “not too far” from where we were. He gave us directions and we were off. About 30 or so minutes later, after a very windy dirt road in the middle of nowhere we finally came to a little Chapel. It looked very nice, but there didn’t look like there was anything near it for miles. We couldn’t tell if it was even still in use.

Well, not only is it still in use, but a Ward meets there (not a branch) and the Chapel is very, very nice. I think it is even bigger than our Hikurangi Chapel. The funeral service was very nice. The Spirit was so sweet. The talks were so filled with love. It truly was a celebration of life. After the service, we crossed the street to a small cemetery where they had a short service to dedicate the grave. We had several members from our Ward in attendance. 

Shortly after we got home, we headed back to the Stake Center for a Devotional by the Auckland Temple Presidency. We are all so very excited to have our open house start soon and then for the dedication of the Auckland Temple. It is such a blessing to be here for this memorable occasion. 

We had a change in our Relief Society Presidency on Sunday. The Hesters have been building a new house in Auckland and will be moving soon. I have enjoyed working with Diane ever since we arrived in Hikurangi. Both Diane and John have become great friends, and we will miss them so much.

Our new President is Tracey Thomasson.  I know she will do a GREAT job. She has been our wonderful Gospel Doctrine teacher for a couple of years. She is feeling overwhelmed, but I know she will be just fine.

Our meetings went very well. The talks were exceptional. We also got to hear from a few of our youth who went to FSY. Aunty Sandra taught our Relief Society lesson because Sister Hester was out of town, and the new Presidency was…. well…. NEW! Anyway, Aunty Sandra did a great job with her lesson by a talk by Elder Gary E. Stevenson entitled "Days Never to Be Forgotten.” It was a GREAT talk and was a wonderful lesson.

We took care of some Ward business right after Church, then headed home for a relaxing afternoon and evening. I was able to get much of my recap done before Church, so it didn’t take too long to finish it when we got home. I can’t remember the last time we had a few hours with nothing to do!

I hope you have a WONDERFUL week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

New Year! New Convert Initiative, and Slow Week

This has been kind of a slower week. Everyone goes on holiday for much of the summer. This is especially true for the Christmas holiday. Everyone up North heads South and everyone down South heads up North. Lol We had good attendance for the last few weeks, but most of the people were visitors and many of our members were missing. Anyway, it made for a slower "work" week for all the missionaries. They all spent time knocking doors, but not many people were home and the few that were home had company and didn't want the missionaries. It was a little discouraging for them. Things should start pickup up this coming week.

Monday was pretty laid back. I worked on things pertaining to the New Convert Initiative for much of the day, which included an Area Call with the fellow Seniors in other missions. I also worked a little on HawkSoft. We shut down early and had a nice relaxing afternoon and evening for our P-Day.

Tuesday was a little busier, but still pretty slow. We had our Sister Comp study in the morning. We had a great discussion. We were afraid it was going to be our last study time with them as it was Transfer Week! We found out Tuesday night that both Sister Jones and Sister Koi were staying. YAY!!!!

After lunch, we went to the different flats and collected their weeds so we could take them to the refuse center. We have a lawn mowing service for each flat, but they don't do weeds. (Well, we don't pay for them to do weeds.) It was determined that the missionaries could do their own weeding, and we would just collect them. We can't put the weeds out for the rubbish collectors, so we have to take them to the refuse center ourselves. It is more cost effective for us to take all of them, rather than pay for each companionship to take their own. 

Our DCM on Wednesday was fun. Since we had a companionship from the Central District and the North District that were in Auckland because they had missionaries going home, AND the Carlisles were still out of town, we combined our two Districts for DCM. The companions of the ones going home stayed in Auckland to pick up their new companions on Thursday. I made a few extra snacks, and everyone appreciated the treats. We had a very nice meeting. It was fun to mix with the other Elders again. 

After DCM, we worked on planning a couple of trips we will be taking this year. Senior Missionaries get some perks that the Junior Missionaries do not get. For example, we can take a few trips (with permission from the Mission President, of course). Many Seniors go home for a week or so for weddings, grandbabies, etc. Some do sight-seeing trips (we are in the latter category.) We are planning a short trip down south to Hobbiton and then on to Wellington for a few days in February. Then in June we are planning a little longer trip to Australia for about 12 days. We should get our approval this week. 

We didn't have SPF on Thursday because it was TRANSFER day. So, I worked on designing a new Family Home Evening flyer to hand out. We are planning on going to different homes and present a Family Home Evening lesson. It didn't seem to work out when we tried to have people come to our house. It may work better this way. 

I also created New Convert Initiative Stake Spreadsheets. When we had the Area call on Monday, they talked about a change in procedure for how we get our information. Apparently, all the missions are having the same problem with getting the Bishops to fill out their spreadsheets. The Area Presidency has decided to send this through the Priesthood line. So, sometime in the near future, each Stake Clerk will be responsible for getting the information from the Bishops and then we will get the information from the Stake Clerk. So instead of contacting 96 Bishops and Branch Presidents, I will only need to contact 16 Stake Clerks. We feel they will have better luck getting the Bishops to respond then we are having. 

Elder Erickson also dropped by to introduce us to Elder Maraetefau from Tahiti. They serve in our Ward so we will get to know them better. Elder Erickson is fairly new and has been serving with Elder Moyes for the last 6 weeks. I think we will see great things with these two missionaries. 

On Friday, we went to a baptism in Punaruku. A young man and his family from way south of the North Island for the holidays were visiting an Uncle in the Punaruku ward. The missionaries taught him the Gospel and he wanted to be baptized. His parents we good with that. They are not active, but who knows what the future will bring. We had a nice talk with the Dad after the baptism. The Uncle baptized him. It was a very nice baptism.

After we got home, I finished up the work on the New Convert Initiative Stake Spreadsheets. I talked with Sister Ward about her project that piggyback on my project. She wanted me to move all my spreadsheets into her folder in the shared drive for the mission. I wanted my stuff on that drive anyway, but didn't have access. By working on her project, it was the necessary "push" the office Elders needed to give me authority to move my stuff over there and be able to maintain it. I didn't get full access until Saturday, but they all got moved over.

I also spent some time withing with one of the Seniors from the Area to see if we could troubleshoot her problem with accessing the master Spreadsheet. It is a real puzzle. We tried a few things. Then I had her call Global Support for some help. They tried a few things and said she needed to call Microsoft. They tried a few things and asked that Elder Sorensen change a setting on the spreadsheet to see if that will work. (I am not holding my breath!) At this point it still isn't working for her. Hopefully it will get figured out soon.

Saturday, we had a lovely Senior Luncheon. Before that, Elders Erickson and Maraetefau came over to get Elder Maraetefau set up in Messenger. The entire mission communicated via Messenger. It didn't take too long to get him all set up.

Shortly after they left, we left to pick up the Carlisles for our Senior luncheon. Sister Buchanan set this up a while ago so we could get to know our new Senior Couple, the Bowens. However, Elder Bowen’s father passed away, so they made a quick trip back to the states to attend the funeral. They will get back to New Zealand on Monday. We will have to meet them on Friday at our Zone Conference. 😊

We had a wonderful time. We went to Tutukaka Coast. We travel on that highway all the time but had never made it to the actual coast before. We were happy when the restaurant was right on the coast. The weather was very unpredictable. We were rained on and sunned on several times throughout the day. Just about the time we were ready to leave, it POURED down, so we decided to stay a while longer. I think we left an hour or more later. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone. We always have so much fun together. 

After we left, we stood outside the restaurant for quite a while longer. At least until it started sprinkling again. 🤣Then we drove to the Marina to look at the boats. We also walked along the beach because it stopped raining again. We drove to another lookout point to take some pictures. There was a tower that Elder Carlisle climbed up on. I gave him my phone just as it started raining again. He sent me to the car and took a few more pictures for me. It was sure fun to have the Carlisles back. We missed them while they were gone.

Sunday was gloomy and chilly. At least it didn't rain. We had two whole rows of visitors who were related to several people in our ward. They were actually visiting Aunty Sandra, who lives in another ward, but Aunty Sandra decided to come to our ward. Lucky Us!!! They pretty much said all the testimonies too. It was a beautiful meeting. 

Sunday School was good as well. We discussed how the Restoration of the Gospel has affected our lives. I didn't share, but I pondered it a lot. The Restoration of the Gospel is everything to me. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, who actually saw God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, just as ancient prophets did in the Old Testament. If God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, than it only makes sense that we have a living prophet today. After all, we need Heavenly Father's help just as much today and the ancients did in their day, maybe even more. I know that President Russell M. Nelson is a prophet today. I also know that I can receive personal revelation for my life. I don't have to have a vision to receive the promptings of the Holy Ghost. 

I know it is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can be saved from our sins and return to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. I know that we can be a forever family by receiving the sealing ordinance in the Temple of our God. This sealing ordinance binds us together as husband and wife with our children and grandchildren and so forth sealed to us for time and all eternity. I am grateful for that knowledge and the blessings that come from the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

If you would like to know more, please let me know. I would love to share the good news with you!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

CHRISTMAS!!!

On Monday, I did some research for the Bishop. Before he gave me the topic to research, he sent me my testimony translated into Māori. Several months ago, I wrote out a short testimony that I ran through Google Translate into Māori. I then ran it back from Māori into English. It didn’t translate very well. I decided to ask our Bishop if he would translate it for me. He sent it to me on Monday. I want to practice saying it so I can pronounce it correctly. I may have to ask for his help on that too. 😇 My goal was to be able to bear my testimony in Māori when we go home. At first, I thought all I needed to do was say a few street names and places and no one would know the difference. LOL But as we have learned some words and their meanings, I really wanted my testimony to be MY testimony. I am very excited about this, and I know it is going to help me grow closer to the people in our ward.  

Steve replaced another door lock on one of our flats. I think that makes all five of our flats in this area, getting a new lock. Steve replaced 4 of them and the property manager replaced the other one. It may be a bit cheaper for the property manager, but it can take weeks. That is not acceptable as the missionaries either can't get in or have to leave their flat unlocked. Neither is acceptable. 

We also had our monthly video call with Sierra. They just had an anniversary a day or so before, so we sang Happy Anniversary To You to them. We chatted about their rock-climbing trip to Nevada they took the weekend before that counted as their Anniversary trip. We also shared about our sailing excursion we took the previous week. We had a very nice visit.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve. I helped the Bishop with starting a missionary application for a young man in our Ward. While I was helping him, the Sisters showed up for their mentoring call and then for Comp Study. Bishop left just before Comp Study. We had a nice Comp Study session and covered chapters 8, 9, and 10 in 1 Nephi. Part of it was about Lehi’s dream of the Tree of Life. We had a nice discussion about that.

We visited a bedridden sister in our ward that afternoon. She was looking much better than the last time we had seen her. She jokingly said the only thing wrong is her legs don't work. Her husband takes such tender and loving care for her. We had a nice visit with them.

There are two things that are just weird for us in New Zealand. One, is it is summer here and it's Christmas. That just does not compute. Everyone heads to the beach for Christmas. School is out for the summer and the people camp for weeks. They even take portable generators and small refrigerators for their tents. The warm weather isn't too crazy for me. I grew up in Southern California and we had nice warm winters there, not to mention the two Christmases we had in Yuma Arizona. LOL It is the second thing that is really got we crazy. It is the fact that it stays light until 9 or 9:30pm!!! We have been trying for two weeks to go out and look at Christmas lights. But by 9 or 9:30 I'm in PJs and don't want to leave the house. We decided on Christmas Eve that we just had to go, so I got in the car in my PJs. It took us 5 minutes to get out of our driveway because of the line of cars in front of our house. While I waited for Steve to get in the car, a car drove in front of our house with Christmas lights all over it. I tried to grab my phone but by then he had passed. 

Once we got in line, we followed the crowd to see the Christmas lights in our neighborhood. It was hard to get pictures because of the walking crowds and the cars. I did my best. 😊 We did venture into Whangarei to another neighborhood to see some lights there. It was all very beautiful.

Wednesday was Christmas! We were expecting a quite early morning for us to open presents and then start getting ready for the missionaries who were coming over at 10:30. However, we had a party crasher at 9. Elder Dixon and Elder Baldwin from Dargaville showed up on our doorstep. They are in the South District and have two Senior Couples in their District, so we did not include them in our little gathering. They had a gathering on Christmas Eve. We invited our Central District and the North District because the Carlisles were out of town. So, Elder Wilcox had to grab two more chairs when he was getting 2 from the Carlisle's flat. We had plenty of food and we were able to squeeze all 14 missionaries around our two tables. Elder Wilcox and I sat at the bar in our new bar stools. LOL  

We started with our 2020 Wilcox Virtual Nativity video that Season put together for us during COVID since we could be together. If you want to take a look at the video, it is available on YouTube. Just search for 2020 Wilcox Virtual Nativity. After that, we all watched The Christ Child video that President Allen gave permission for them to see.  

Next, we passed out little gifts for everyone to remember this Christmas in New Zealand. Then we ate our Brunch. We made Hawaiian Haystacks because that has been a family tradition for us for years. We fed 14 missionaries plus us. They all seemed to enjoy it. We also made brownies for dessert. Everyone enjoyed visiting one another and just having fun together. 

We enjoyed our Christmas Eve Family Get Together at Season's house. We, of course, joined via Zoom. We still had a few missionaries hanging out to play some games, so we made them come talk to our family for a few minutes. They all agreed. One of the Sisters that was still here is from Fiji. Djeryd served his mission in Fiji, so when Douhet and Season found out Sister Koi was from Fiji, they called Djeryd over to come and talk to her. It was very fun to watch and listen to them talk to each other in Fijian. Sister Koi said Djeryd’s Fijian was very good. It was so fun to watch Sister Koi’s face light up as she talked to him. I think she enjoyed that very much. She is fresh out on her mission, so I think it helped her not be quite so homesick. 

Elder Wilcox read the Christmas Scriptures for the Nativity "program." This year instead of actors, the story was told using candles. MyLiege lit all the candles according to different parts of the scriptures and Elder Wilcox read. Of course, they sang lots of Christmas Carols throughout the program. It was very nice, but I still miss the kids performing. We ended with a family picture with us in the big TV monitor on the fireplace mantle and the rest of the family on either side. Lol

Elder Sanders, Elder Allen, and Elder Braithwaite

After that, we went to the Ah Mu's house for games and refreshments. Elders Moyes and Erickson were there also. We had a lot of fun, but I was getting tired. We headed home and showered for the evening. No sooner did we finish our showers than Elders Moyes and Erickson showed up to use our computer so Elder Moyes could check his Pathway registration again. It still wasn't working. I think he will do it when he gets home. He will have a few days before class starts. 

Thursday, we took a little break. We had our SPF meeting in the morning. Then we called Steve's sister-in-law in Utah. We had a nice little visit with her. I spent the rest of the day working on the computer for various projects. 

I spent most of Friday working on the New Convert Initiative project. I sent out specific reminder emails to each Bishop with a link to their spreadsheet and a request to PLEASE fill it out. I also finalized plans for our Zone Conference lunch coming up in a couple of weeks. We have all the food assignments done so I think we are good. I also helped Elder Wilcox with planning our Hobbiton trip in February. As Senior Missionaries, we have the opportunity to do a little traveling, with permission of course. We are planning two trips on our bucket list. One is Hobbiton. We will include a trip down to Wellington on that trip. It will be less than a full week. The second trip will be in June, when we plan to go to Australia. Steve served his first mission there and has always wanted to take me there to see it.

On Saturday, I put Steve's Hobbiton information into a travel plan with dates, times of tours, places to stay, etc. Steve liked the layout so much; he wants to use it for his Australia plan. That will be a long trip and take a little longer to plan.

We took care of laundry, weeding, and general household chores. I worked a little more on the New Convert Initiative. I even got a couple of hours in for HawkSoft. Steve started on the Australia trip plan. 

Before we left for Church on Sunday, I texted Douhet for his birthday. It is Saturday in the US. I told him to have fun on his birthday. He said he was hanging around and watching all of the Lord of the Rings movies. I told him his Dad was jealous. Then he sent a picture of baby Roman sitting next to Grandpa Douhet! He gets to hang out with Grandpa all day. I then told him I was jealous!!! On the way to Church, we called him and sang Happy Birthday!!! It was fun to talk for a few minutes.

Elder Wilcox, Elder Erickson,
Elder Moyes, and Sister Wilcox

We got to Church around 8:30. We were the first ones there. We didn’t have as many at Church as we did last week. Sister Horsford and Elder Moyes spoke. Both were excellent talks. Our third speaker ended up not showing up. We later found out he was at the hospital, whether for himself or one of his family, we don’t know. Anyway, Elder Moyes did a great job of using most of the time. He was asked to speak about opportunities in the coming year since he is going home on 1 January 2025. Sister Horsford talked about keeping Christmas in our lives all year.  

After Sacrament meeting, we had a 5th Sunday Forum discussion about helping our members prepare for things like baptism, priesthood advancement, and Temple Ordinances. After that, Elder Moyes used the Clerk computer to check his Pathway status with the same results he has been getting. He is going to take care of it when he gets home. He will still have about a week before class starts. 

Once home, I took care of a few things for the Bishop, worked on my recap, and then had a nice relaxing afternoon and evening.  

Grandpa Douhet and Roman

Have a Very Happy New Year!!!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox