Funeral, Trainings, Zone Conference, and Baptism

On Monday, I worked on the New Convert Initiative and hung around for the heater repairman to come by. Steve represented us at the Funeral of our dear friend, Joe. It was a beautiful day, and he got some great pictures. The funeral was very nice. Brother Ah Mu came up from Auckland. He and his wife used to live in our ward. Steve was able to hang out with them. The Marae was full to capacity, so they actually had to stand just outside the door and listen. I'm so glad that it was such a nice turnout for Joe. 

I spent most of the day on the Computer. The repairman couldn't fix our heater. He said he may have to order parts, but his recommendation was to replace it. Of course, that decision rests with the owner. He did come back on Friday and took the old unit out of the ceiling and took it back to the shop. I guess they are going to try and fix it first. We now have some plywood covering our whole in the ceiling. Luckily, the weather hasn't been too bad. We have a heater in the master bedroom that helps. We also have a space heater in the office. 

Around midnight, we heard a loud knock on our doon. All five Sisters were at our door with blankets wrapped around them, looking for a place to sleep. They had a scary incident at their flat and did not feel safe staying there. We found space for all of them between the spare bedroom and the couches in the living room. They fell asleep feeling safe.

Tuesday morning, I worked with the Sisters to fill out a police report so hopefully they will patrol their neighborhood for a while. They have been ok'd for the rest of the week to staying their flat. After they left, I started scheduling appointments for training for the Family Name Assist tool that the Bishops can use to easily help new members take a family name to the Temple. We need to try and train the whole mission. I received several requests already. I'm hoping to get permission to train in Cook Islands. I've already had two requests. 

We had a nice video call with Sierra. We missed Monday because Steve was gone pretty much all day for the funeral. Sierra told us about her new job. We also learned that Alyson is engaged. We are so excited for her and look forward to hearing all about it on our monthly call with them on our Monday.

Wednesday was long and kind of busy. We had DCM in the morning. We started a little late because our DL had a flat tire on the way to DCM. While we waited, I shared with the missionaries the new Love, Share, and Invited feature with the Church created Ward Website pages. 

After DCM, we headed to south Auckland to Papatoetoe to do a training meeting with the Papatoetoe 2nd Ward. We were to meet them at 6:30. It was a good thing that we left in plenty of time, because we hit bad traffic for the last hour or so before we got there. We made it 10 minutes before it was supposed to start.  There was one person in the parking lot who told us that one of the two Bishops we were hoping to meet should be there soon. So, we waited in the car. Almost 20 minutes went by before several other people came in the parking lot. We drove around back and went into the building, only to find out we were at the wrong Chapel. The 2nd Ward meets in a different Chapel about 15 minutes away. It is posted wrong on the Church meeting house locator. 

We rushed over there, now very late and arrived about 7:00. When we got there, several brethren were in a meeting by the back door we came in. We found the Bishop’s office and knocked, but no one answered. The Bishop and several other brethren were all in that meeting. They invited us in, and I was able to do the Family Name Assist presentation. There were about 8 or 9 brethren there and we were able to do a hands-on demonstration with them. Their meeting was all about helping their long-time members learn about and use Ordinance Ready, and to help their new members with the Family Name Assist so they can help all their members to get to the Temple more often. I think it went well. We weren’t there very long before we headed back home. It took us 3 ½ hours to get there and only 2 ½ hours go get home. That is how bad the traffic was.

On Thursday, we had SPF followed by shopping for Zone Conference food. We were also asked by Sister Garner to find some replacement whiteboards for the missionaries. They are being asked to turn in all the whiteboards that have metal frames because of the damage in black marks they make on the walls in the flats. We went to The Warehouse, but their boards were pretty spendy. We called and were told they were out of our budget, so we didn't buy any. After finding out that the boards another senior bought had metal frames so we couldn't use those, we decided to look online. We think we have found a plastic frame for a really good price that we think will get approved. 

Once all that was done, we went home and started cooking for Zone Conference. Well, actually Elder Wilcox started cooking. I prepared a PowerPoint presentation for my next Family Name Assist training that we were doing that same night in our Stake. The Elders dropped by to get a baptism program created for a baptism on Saturday. And will all of that was done, it was time to go to the training. 

We were able to train all the Bishops (well, all that were there LOL) as well as Stake leaders. I think it went pretty well. The training went a little longer than I was allotted but that was because people had questions. They seemed pretty excited by the new tool. 

After we got home, we finished our cooking. I doctored the baked beans we bought to make them really good baked beans. They were so yummy!

Friday was Zone Conference! Our training was about how to be a Consecrated Missionary. Several missionaries gave short talks. Then the APs took two different surveys to 1) see how the missionaries thought they were doing as a Consecrated Missionary and 2) how the Mission was doing a Consecrated Missionaries. Then they showed the results of the questions in the form of graphs and pie charts. It was quite interesting to see the comparisons between the two surveys. The individual missionaries thought they were all doing GREAT. However, they all felt the mission was not doing as well. The APs said that was the same results for all the Zone Conferences they had. We then had a nice discussion why the discrepancy in the results. The conclusion was that there has been some gossip about when someone breaks a rule. However, they do not talk about how often missionaries are going above and beyond by working hard to be great missionaries. The bottom line was to stop the gossip and concentrate on keeping the standards.

Lunch was a huge success. Since today was the 4th of July, we did what we could to celebrate. We had a traditional Hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, delicious salads, chips, and of course desserts. Everyone loved it. I overheard someone say, “this make me feel like I’m in America.” All the leaders from Auckland were happy too. The other three Zone Conferences we have in Auckland are all catered. Apparently, it is the same caterer, and she uses the same menu for each of the conferences. I think she does a different one for each transfer. Anyway, they were excited to get something different and loved our 4th of July theme. 

After cleaning up we were able to catch a little of the afternoon training and then the Testimony meeting for the missionaries who are leaving. We are losing Elder and Sister Bennion and Elder Hassell. There are a few others leaving but they don’t directly impact us. The Bennions came out a few weeks before us. They served 18 months up in Kaikohe. Elder Hassell has been our Zone leader for the last three transfers. We are really going to miss him. 

We managed to give away all the remaining food before we went home.

Saturday was our Baptism. Jared is Golden.  A couple of months ago, he walked into Church. He looked like he belonged. Then we found out it was his first time. The missionaries connected with him and started teaching. He kept coming to Church. Several weeks ago, the Elders were ready to ask Jared if he wanted to be baptized. It was the goal for the week to put him on date. Before they could even get the words out, Jared asked them what he needed to do to be baptized. Today, Jared was baptized. It was a wonderful service. He was very excited. 

Elder Na Nongkai, Elder Olson,
Jared, and Brother Walker

On Sunday morning, I received a message that our organist was not going to make Church today. She was our last hope. The normal organist is out of the country for two weeks. Our first backup is in Hamilton for the weekend with grandchildren. And our last backup wasn’t going to make it. We had to scramble Saturday at the baptism with the same issue. 

We thought about seeing if Elder Olson and Sister Paratene could help us out again. We also thought we could just play the songs on our phone near the mic. However, when we got to the Church we decided to see if we could figure out our Fancy Dancy Organ. After pushing several buttons and trying a few different things, I was able to figure out how to pick pre-programmed songs and then to play the intro and more than one verse. The intro and verse had to be selected separately. And you had to play the song again for each verse we wanted. So, today, Elder Wilcox was the chorister, and I was the organist. LOL It actually worked pretty well. I won’t worry about missing a pianist again. 

Our Ward Council meeting went pretty well, as did our Fast and Testimony meeting. Jared was confirmed. He looked so happy. During the second hour, the Bishop did his interview with him and took care of ordaining Jared to the Aaronic Priesthood and interviewing him for a limited use Temple Recommend. While he was doing that, Elder Wilcox and I were creating Jared’s membership record and printed his baptismal certificate. After the Bishop was finished, we also gave him his Priesthood Ordination certificate, and his new limited use recommend. We are having a Temple trip next Saturday and Jared and Ben both want to go. Our two Elders will get to go as well.  We are very excited for them.

We hope you have a Wonderful Week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Post Australia and Back to "Normal" (whatever that is)

Ruthie almost 2

Monday started early with our District Missionary Breakfast after transfers. Technically, it would have been the week before, but they decided to wait for us. YAY!!! Our Zone went from 3 Districts down to 2 Districts. So, most of our Central District is now combined with the North District. Our Sisters went down to the South District, so both the North and South Districts have 4 companions each, plus 2 Senior Couples each. We are so blessed to have so many Seniors up in Northland. Anyway, we were expecting missionaries at 8:00am. They came between 8:15 and 8:45. We were up at 6:00am to start getting everything ready. The Carlisles were supplying most of the food since we got home from Australia late Saturday night and couldn't grocery shop. We did have a couple of pounds of bacon in the freezer that we contributed. 

We met our four new missionaries. Our Denby Sisters are now a threesome. Two of those Sisters are new to Northland. They are great. I will be helping Sister Vili with her English Connect class each week. The Riverside Elders has a new Elder and the Zone Leaders have a new Elder. It was fun to get everyone together. I have missed them. The Sisters left around 10 to go eeling. It is kind of like fishing, but they were trying to catch eels. The Elders didn’t leave until 10:45. They were playing games. 

The rest of the day was fairly low key. Elder Wilcox did Grocery shopping while I did some catch-up work. When he got back, we had a nice video call with MyLiege's family. Eva came over with Ruthie. She is getting so big. She said GG several times as well as lots of other words. She interacted with us on the video call. It was so fun. Djeryd came over after his meeting. We were able to visit with everyone. Elle is getting so big too. She looks like a younger Anna. We are looking forward to being with family again.

Tuesday was very special. We did early morning Seminary. The Elders taught. I learned more about English Connect and an English assessment test that 4 of our missionaries need to take. Three of them will be starting Pathway soon. They can only enroll in Pathway during the last 6 months of their mission. Sister Lili is still very new, so she is doing the English Connect class. At noon, we met up with the Carlisles at the Whangarei Harbor. There are lots of cool restaurants around there and they wanted to take us out to lunch for my birthday. We had so much fun walking around the Harbor and having a nice lunch in a little cafe. We were able to eat outside as the weather was very nice. After we ate, we went to the big clock tower. Near there, they have a big mechanical clock with lots of gears and balls and other fun things that it does to keep time. We got there at the perfect time. It was about 12:55 when we arrived. We watched as the balls rolled around and added 15 seconds at a time. When it made it to 60 seconds a ball would drop to the minute row. At 10 minutes a ball would drop to the 10-minute row. At 60 minutes a ball would drop to the hour row. In our case we already have 12 hours, so when the last 15 second ball dropped, it wiped out the minutes, 10 minutes and all the hours. It then added 1 hour back to the hour row to mark 1:00pm. It was all very clever and fun to watch. After that, we went and got ice cream cones before eventually going home. I spent the rest of the day working on several Seminary lessons.

Wednesday morning, I was back at early morning Seminary. This time I was teaching because Sister Paratene had to work. We focused on "Personal Preparation to Meet the Savior" by Elder Renlund. We had a good discussion about what we need to do to be prepared. 

After we got home, we were notified of the passing of one of our new converts, Joe. It was very unexpected. He had been sick off and on for a while and they couldn't find out what the problem was. Apparently, it was more serious than anyone thought. He gave his first talk in Church last week and did very well. We missed it because we were in Australia. He was going to either bless or pass the Sacrament on Sunday but was sick, so he didn't make it to Church. I was asked to send out a notification to our Ward Council about meeting together on Friday as a Ward so we could all go out to the Marae together to pay our respects to Joe's family. 

Later, we had DCM. It was a nice big group. It was fun to have us all back together again. Elder Wilcox made Lemon Bars and Sister Carlisle brought other fruit and veggies. Next week we will bring the fruit and veggies, and Sister Carlisle will bring the major dessert. That afternoon we started doing the English assessment tests. We could do two missionaries at a time because we have two laptops. We had the Bream Bay sisters first. They are a threesome and two of the three were taking the test. It turned out, one of them didn't need to take the class. 

Later that afternoon we were supposed to have the other two over, but Sister Vili and her companions already had a lesson scheduled so we postponed them until Thursday. As it turned out, Elder Na Nongkai didn't need to take the test. It appears when he filled out his missionary paperwork, English was listed as his first language. He speaks it very well, so that is probably OK. He should have any problems with Pathway. When that was done, Elder Wilcox took the two Elders to go pick up their car from being serviced that day. 

Thursday was another early morning Seminary day. This time it was my "normal" teaching day. The kids were all a little late showing up. Elder Wilcox and I started on time. Once everyone was there, we had a great class. 

Later that morning, we went to the radiologist so I could get an ultrasound on my bladder and kidneys. They want to rule out if either of these are contributing to my back issues. The results came back clean, so that is good. 

We dropped our car off at the dealers for routine maintenance. They had a shuttle van, so they were able to take us home. I spent the rest of the afternoon working on various things like stuff for Bishop, Ward Council, Zone Conference preparations, and the final English test in preparation for the English lessons we start next week. 

No early morning alarm on Friday!!! I spent some time working on certifications for HawkSoft. I have a lot to catch up on, but it is OK if it takes a while. Steve picked up a few supplies to try and fix a leaky faucet at the vacant Punaruku flat. I'm not sure if we are going to get Elders back in there or not. It will stay vacant for this transfer, and we will see what happens next transfer. Our Hikurangi Elders are now covering Hikurangi and Punaruku. That is a VERY, VERY large area for them to cover. Anyway, Elder Wilcox says it is going to require a plumber, so we will turn it over to the Garners to decide what to do.

Later we met many from our Ward Council at the Chapel so we could carpool out to the Marae for Joe's viewing. It was a really long way away. It took us over an hour from our Chapel on a very, very windy road. The view was stunning when we got there just at dusk. The bay is right by the Marae and the sky looked heavenly. The service was very nice. Of course, most of it was in Māori. Different people took turns speaking. After each one, several people sang a beautiful song. We had two from our group speak and after each one we sang. The first song we sang was in Māori. The Sister next to me had the words on the phone so I was able to sing too. After the Bishop spoke, we sang another song. This time we sake “Love at Home” in English. After everyone that wanted to speak was done, we all went into the other big room where they served everyone dinner. After that, we headed home. 

Saturday was very low key. We took care of normal household things like laundry, cleaning, and later, haircuts. I finalized everything in preparation for Sunday. I also spent some time working on ACORD forms for HawkSoft. It was nice not to go anywhere!

We had a wonderful Sabbath. I love being with the Saints each week. In Ward Council I was able to share some things we learned about in our Stake Meeting last week. I was then able to share it again in the last 10 minutes of our 5th Sunday Forum. 

Two of our speakers for Sacrament meeting were unable to make it today. Luckily, we found out before the meeting started. Bishop asked our High Councilor Rep to cover the remaining time. Our first speaker did an excellent job and took 20 minutes. The High Councilor took 10 minutes, so we went over 5 minutes. Hahaha. We sang some great songs today. I just wish we would have had more people. Our numbers were low today. 

After Sacrament meeting, we had 5th Sunday forum. Our main focus was on Ordinance Ready in Family Search. We taught everyone how to do that on their phones. I think it was well received. I may have to help a few people set up Church Accounts. In the last 10 minutes, I showed them the Church created Ward Website. It connects with the Calendar app in the Church website for our Ward and provides an easy way to share and invite others to our activities. I’m very excited about it.

After our 5th Sunday Forum, we headed into the Cultural Hall for our Soup Sunday.

Have a Wonderful Week. I hope you enjoy the Fourth of July Celebration!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Tasmania, Sydney, Brisbane, and Auckland!!!

Monday was a travel day. Domestic flights only require an hour before the flight leaves. Since we had to turn in our rental car, we added an extra 1/2 hour to our arrival time. Little did we know of the several different issues we would run into before boarding our plane. Let's just say we had to run to catch our plane. It started after we dropped the Garners off to check in since they couldn't do it the previous night. We missed the turn to drop the car off and had to circle around a second time. Then there was the really long walk from the car drop off to the terminal check-in. We printed our baggage tickets and boarding pass, then headed to security. Besides long lines, they decided to pull me out because of my sewing kit in my purse. Mind you, it had already gone through two different international flights, one to New Zealand, and one to Australia. But to go to Tasmania, I couldn't take the tiny little scissors in my sewing kit. I forgot they were even in my purse. By the time we cleared security and headed toward our gate, they were calling for the last call for our flight. I'm not sure, but I think we were the last ones on the plane. 

After we landed, we tried to find a place to go to lunch. The entire town shuts down at 2:00pm and reopens again at 5:00. We finally passed a restaurant with lights on, so we went in. The two employees talking looked at us a little funny. Sister Garner asked them if they were closed and they sheepishly said they were. She then asked if they would mind fixing us some lunch since we landed and hadn't eaten anything. They graciously agreed and made us a delicious lunch. We were so happy.

We went to our hotel and just chilled for the rest of the day. Sister Garner was swamped with work, and we were ready to do nothing. Hahaha. The Garners are the housing coordinators, and we had transfers the Thursday before. She was busy taking care of lots of issues that always occur around transfers. Luckily, most of her work can be done on the phone. That meant she had to work early in the morning and after we were done for the day. It slowed down a bit this week. 😊

Tuesday was a very fun and busy day. It was also a very cold day. No rain, but lots of cold wind. Well, the wind was because we are on a Tasmin Island Cruise. It was a pretty fast boat, hence the wind! Our tour was about 2 1/2 hours around the costal wilderness of the Tasmin Island. The weather was good, so we got to see both sides of the island. Most of the time they can only go to one or the other side of the island. We saw some incredible sights and a whole bunch of Fur Seals. 

After the cruise, we at lunch in a quaint little place called the Lavender Warehouse. They specialize in Lavender essential oil. They did put it in some of their dishes, but not everything. We had a very good lunch and enjoyed walking around their little shop.

From there, we head up the road a bit to the Port Arthur convict settlement. It was established in September 1830 as a timber-getting camp, producing sawn logs for government projects. From 1833 until 1877, it was the destination for those deemed the most hardened of transported convicts ― so-called "secondary offenders" ― who had persistently re-offended during their time in Australia. The recalcitrant offenders were sent to Port Arthur, which had some of the strictest security measures in the British penal system but was, nevertheless, also based on the idea that prisoners could be reformed while still being punished.

Our tour also included another boat cruise called the Harbor Cruise. It was only about 1/2 hour, and we were nice and warm inside the ship with lots of windows and NO WIND. They gave us more history about Port Arthur. 

On Wednesday, we traveled to Sydney. We met the Garners in the hallway on our way down to the car. They greeted us with a nice little birthday gift for my birthday. It was a beautiful set of blue earrings and matching necklace. I was so surprised.

Our airport adventure was almost as crazy as Monday. We were even earlier than the last time, but the lines were excruciatingly long. They started announcing our flight, but we couldn't understand what they were saying. It all sounded muffled. Someone overheard us talking about getting to Sydney and told us they just told us to go to the beginning of the line for check-in. That was Tender Mercy number 1. 

Then we went to the security lines. They were even longer, if that was possible. Karen asked one of the workers what to do since they were already announcing our boarding. He told us to get in line and if anything changed, he would let us know. Shortly after that, they started announcing the final call for our flight, so we got moved to the front of the line again. There were several other passengers and also got to go to the front. That was Tender Mercy number 2. It was a little crazy.

We went to lunch before going to our Hotel. I think we were in little China town. Most of the signs were in Chinese characters and English. We went to one that had sweet and sour chicken, so it was good. Then we went to our hotel. It was just passed the little China town. We got unpacked and relaxed a bit before it was time to go to the Sydney Temple. The Temple is beautiful, and we got there in time in spite of the heavy traffic. When it was time for the prayer circle, only a few couples got up. Steve decided to get up too. As we were standing in the circle another sister came up next to Steve. She looked SO familiar to me. I tried to figure out who she was and where I had seen her before. She looked at me with recognition too. We couldn't talk then. When I got to the Celestial room, she had already left. I said a little prayer to ask Heavenly Father if she really was someone I knew, then that we could please meet in the locker room. If not, then I wouldn't see her again. We were in the Celestial room a while before everyone was ready to leave. Just as I was folding my robes in the locker room, this sister came around a corner and spotted me. We immediately recognized each other, although I couldn't recall her name. Then I saw her missionary badge and name and knew exactly who she was. The reason I was having so much trouble placing her is because I have only ever seen her in a Zoom call. Her and her husband are the Area couple over our New Convert Initiative group. It was fun to finally meet in person and what better place than the House of the Lord. That was Tender Mercy number 3. Such a wonderful birthday.

Thursday was a fun day. We started our day with a tour of the Sydney Opera House. The architecture is incredible. The Sydney Opera House was originally projected to take four years to build with a proposed budget of AU$7 million. However, the reality was far more dramatic: it ultimately took 14 years to complete and cost AU$102 million, a staggering 1,357% over budget. Our tour guide told us all about the glass and brink and cement and everything else that was used to construct it. It doesn’t have pillars holding up the structure. So, it is very open. They have several theaters and venues for all sorts of performing arts. It was very interesting. 

After that tour, we took a Hop On, Hop Off bus tour. You pay for your tickets and then you can get off whenever you want and get back on again when the next bus comes along. You get to hear a wonderful dialog about the places and history of the city. We got off to take a picture of a beautiful fountain and then we at lunch is a cute little French restaurant. Later we got off so we could go see a harbor. It was a lot of fun, and we learned a lot about the Sydney. 

After that we headed back to the hotel. Later we played some games. It was so much fun.

Friday was Karen Garner's birthday. On Thursday, we bought her some fancy dark chocolate. She loves dark chocolate. We looked for some place to get a birthday card and couldn't find any in the few blocks around the hotel. When we got back to the hotel, I thought I would ask at the desk if they had any kind of little card that I could write a note on. They asked if it was for a birthday and I said yes. Then they asked if it was for a female and I said yes. Then they showed me two beautiful birthday cards they were just looking at and asked if one of them would do. Both were beautiful, but one called the person Amazing. I think Karen is pretty Amazing, so I chose that card. It was perfect. That was my Tender Mercy for Thursday. 

Friday was all about Brisbane. We flew first thing in the morning. There was going to be no way we were going to run for our plane again. Hahaha. We were plenty early and everything went very smoothly until we got to the terminal. We were standing in the center deciding which way to go. The Garners talked to someone and started in the left direction. We started following them, but before we got very far, we were stopped by a worker who said we couldn't go that way because of construction and needed to go the other way. I tried to call to the Garners, but they didn't hear me. At first the worker would let me go after them, but finally said I could go. Steve had to stay back with my carryon luggage. I caught up with the Garners and they were talking to another lady who told them to go upstairs, and it would take them where they needed to be. She then said she thought the upstairs was faster, but the way we were told would work too. Since Steve was still back at the original spot, I told the Garners we would just go the other way.

All I can say is, we should have followed the Garners like we originally started to do. We got to the baggage kiosk so we could print our baggage tag and boarding pass. Not many people were there so we thought GREAT! By the time we finished printing our stuff and putting the tag on our baggage and large group of about 30 oriental people got in front of us in line. None of them went to the kiosk so they had to go through the whole check-in, passport check, etc. process and get their luggage tagged before they could put their luggage on the conveyer belt. There were only two people check us in. I asked a worker if we could just put our luggage on the conveyer belt and head to the gate since we already had our tags and boarding pass. He said NO. We had to wait in line. After what seemed like an eternity, we got to person, who weighed our luggage and sent us on our way. It was less than 20 seconds for the both of us. I thought that was the last part, but we still had to go through security. That was also extremely long. By then the Garners had called us twice to tell us they were boarding and getting ready for the last call. I told them not to let the plane go without us. Hahaha. We eventually made it, rushing to the gate once more to catch our flight.

Since we were only going to be in Brisbane one day, we needed to see some sights the same day we landed. Our Temple appointment wasn't until 6:00 so we decided to do the River Walk. Well, the Garners did the river walk. We walked down to the river, but my hips and back wouldn’t let me go much further. It was a long walk already from where we parked the car. 

We had a nice lunch and ate outdoors. We were serenaded by a couple of birds nearby. We walked toward the river and bought an ice cream cone before we finally reached the river front. Then we took the long walk back to the car. I got over 12,000 steps today!

Our hotel room was a suite. We had two bedrooms, a living room, laundry room, huge bathroom, and a kitchen. Part of the hotel is for permanent residents, so I guess all the rooms are this nice. We were on the 39th floor. The view was incredible.

Lastly, we went to the Brisbane Temple in the evening. It was such a treat to be there. The Temple is beautiful, and we enjoyed our time there very much.

Saturday was just incredibly long. Our international flight back to Auckland went off without a hitch. We had a couple of hours to spare. Hahaha. Of course they want you there three hours before the flight. But still, everything went very smoothly. We had to go through lots of lines and show our passports at most of them. We didn't leave on time for some reason. It was almost an hour late. The flight was good. We were about as comfortable as you can be packed in like sardines. They served us a nice lunch around 2:30. Since we started late, we landed late as well. Instead of getting in at 5:20, we were out closer to 6:30 after clearing customs. 

The Warwoods picked us up from the airport and took us to the mission office. The van Elder Warwood had wouldn't fit in the parking garage at the apartment complex where our car was parked. Plus, a couple of people left some things for me to pick up at the office. And Elder Garner's van was at the office. So, we went to the office. Steve jumped into the Warwood's car so Sister Warwood could take him over to the apartment complex so he could pick up our car. Then they both came back to the office. In the meantime, Elder Garner tried to find the key to his van that was left somewhere in the office. Sister Garner and I looked for the things that were left for me. We didn't expect anyone to be at the office, but there were several people there. I got to see Elder Maraetefau and give him a great big hug. I haven't seen him since he transferred out of our district and ward. His birthday was Saturday. About the time we got our stuff and said our goodbyes to everyone there, Steve was back at the office. We loaded our car, gave our hugs and said our goodbyes to the Garners and Warwoods and hit the road. 

We got home a little closer to 10:30 than we wanted. By the time we unpacked, wrote in my blog, took care of whatever else popped up and finally showered, it was nearly 1 before we got to bed. 

We were up early Sunday morning for Ward Council. Church was good, but I have to admit it was hard to keep my eyes open. We had a great Relief Society lesson too.

After Church, I took care of a few things for the Bishop. Then it was time to go home. At home, I took care of a few other things before I worked on my weekly recap. Finally, it was time to do nothing!!!

We have a very busy week ahead of us!

Have a wonderful week!

All Our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Family Home Evening, Auckland, Australia, Koalas and Kangaroos, and Twelve Apostles

Monday started with catching up on all the things I didn't do while I was sick. There was quite a bit to do. The second thing I had to do was schedule an ultrasound for my back for after we get home from Australia. 

We had the Bream Bay Sisters over to use the Wi-Fi to call home. We also talked to Season's family during that time. It is always nice to catch up on what is going on in their lives. 

We ended the day with a Ward Family Home Evening activity at the Chapel. We played several games and had a short lesson on hearing the Holy Ghost. We had a lot of fruit for our refreshments. We had a really good turnout. It was a lot of fun.

After we got home, we had a special Mission Zoom call. Our Mission had set a goal of 75 baptisms for the transfer. The transfer ended that week. Monday night they announced that we not only met our goal, but we exceeded it by hitting 81 baptisms. Woohoo!!!!

Tuesday started with Early Morning Seminary since the Elders were teaching. We had a really good lesson about showing reverence to the Lord. After Seminary, we went home and quickly packed for our trip. I think we remembered nearly everything we were supposed to. 

We made three stops on the way out of town. The first one was to Leona’s house to drop off her tax statement. Then we went to the Murdoch Crescent Elders flat to pick up some barbells that we needed to turn into the office. Next we went to the Bream Bay Sisters flat to pick up another set of barbells that we also needed to turn into the office. 

From there we stopped at Costco to pick up paper products for the next four Zone Conferences. We were making very good time, so we headed to the Distribution Center next. We found out last night that neither the Sydney nor Brisbane Temples rent Temple clothing, soooooo we decided to buy what we needed. We’ve been wanting to get new robes anyway, so we are all set. We got everything we needed.

After we dropped everything off at the office, we went to dinner with the Garners, the Warwoods, and Sister Mortenson. After a fun dinner, we headed a few blocks away to President and Sister Allen's house for the Treats and Testimony meeting for the departing missionaries. That was such a special experience. It is wonderful to see how much these sweet missionaries have grown on their missions. It was life changing for each of them. We said good-bye to three of our Northland missionaries who returned with honor. We spent the night at the Warwood's flat.

Wednesday was spent with all things related to traveling to Australia. We had a Senior Couple drive us to the airport in a Mission van. We picked up an Elder who was going home to Melbourne since he was on our same flight. I was so surprised how quick and easy it was to check in for our flight. It was a four-hour flight, so I watched almost all of the two part movie of Harry Potter 7. It was a breeze getting through customs in Australia. So, we headed to pick up our rental car. That is when it got a little crazy.

After finding out that the travel agent used a third party to book the car rental and the third party we were looking for didn't have a rental desk at that airport, we found out that our car was really coming from Alamo which did have a presence at the airport. Everything went smoothly until the agent summarized our rental agreement. She mentioned that we would be returning the car on 15 June. I didn't pay much attention to the date because I knew it was for 5 days. Sister Garner asked if we were turning it in on Sunday and I told her it was on Monday. She said Monday was 16 June. We checked with the agent, and she only had us down for 4 days. I was back on the phone with the travel agent. Long story short, we got it all straightened out and were finally on our way.

After checking in to our rooms, we met downstairs for dinner. We walked just a little down the block to a Korean restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner. Later we played some games in the lounge before heading off to bed.

Thursday was day 2 in Australia. We spent much of the day at the Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Park. We had so much fun seeing so many animals that are unique to Australia. We even got to pet a Koala Bear. We had a delicious dinner before heading back to the Hotel.

Day 3 of our trip (Friday) was spent driving to Port Campbell to see a national park called The Twelve Apostles. On the way there, we stopped in Ballarat where Steve had served as a young missionary back in 1968 to 70. We had a delicious lunch and started toward Port Campbell to see The Twelve Apostles. On the way out, Steve turned on a street that went past a street that he recognized. He then turned around to go down that street. That was the street where his flat was. That was the only thing he wanted to see in Ballarat, and it was a Tender Mercy that the Lord granted him. 

The Twelve Apostles was stunning, especially at dusk. We got some great pictures. After we checked into our motel, we walked a couple of blocks to a wonderful little restaurant for dinner and dessert. I ordered a Sticky Date pudding with caramel sauce and ice cream. It was SO delicious. I'm glad we had to walk back to the motel to work off some of those calories. Hahaha

Day 4 (Saturday) was spent driving all the way back to Melbourne with a few stops along the way. We stopped in Geelong, where Steve served as a young missionary. The town had changed a lot. He wanted to show us Her Majesty’s Royal Gaol (jail), but it is now a museum. He was unable to find the flat he lived in so that was sad.  

We found a cute little restaurant right on the beach where we went for lunch. It was colder today, so we were glad they had a nice wood stove in the dining room.  

When we got back to Melbourne, we went to a little town called Collins that was recommended to us by a Senior Couple from New Zealand that works with the Garners and is from Melbourne. The architecture was so quaint and old-fashioned. We then went the other way down the street and got to the more modern area. It was filled with so many different restaurants for so many different cultures. You could get any type of food you could ever want. Unfortunately, we were all still full from lunch, so we didn’t stop to eat anywhere.  

After our long two days of travel, we headed back to our original hotel to get settled in for the evening.

What a sweet Sunday we had. Steve wanted to go to Footscray Ward since he served there as a young missionary. At the time he served there, Melbourne only had one Stake. There are now five Stakes. If there were any members that may have known him, they were probably in one of the other Wards in the area as the Church grew. Still, we met some wonderful people who welcomed us with open arms. In the States, it would have been Father's Day. When we walked in, we saw they had the Cultural Hall all set up for a grand luncheon. It turned out, it was their Ward Conference, and they had a big luncheon after Church. Lots of delicious food and so much friendly fellowship. 

After that, we headed to the Melbourne Temple. It has been closed for renovations for about a year. It was supposed to reopen in April, but tiles started falling off in the baptistry, so they had to redo it again. It will reopen on 24 June. We go home on 21 June. 😢So, all we could do was take some pictures. 

A Senior Couple that works with the Garners in the Auckland Office is from Melbourne. The Sister sent Sister Garner places to visit while we are here. One of them was a place with some beach huts that wasn’t too far from the Temple. So, we decided to check it out. Apparently, it is a historic site. The Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes hold a key place in Melbourne's heritage, providing a rare and unique glimpse into Brighton's origins.

Dating back to the 1860, as the suburbs sprawled down the coastline, bathing boxes started popping up along Brighton's beaches to allow for modest bathing. There are 96 boxes. Today they are privately owned and cannot be rented.

After we got back to the Hotel, we met in the lobby area and played some games. It was fun to just relax and laugh. As we were heading back to our rooms, we met a delightful man who we all talked with for about 15 or 20 minutes. He was so smart and knew lots of history. We had a very enjoyable visit with him.

We hope you have a Wonderful Week!

All Our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox

Area Call, Missionaries, FHE, Flat Inspections, DCM, and SICK!

Monday was pretty low key. We had a nice video call with Douhet, Kinzley, and Griffyn. We talked about how the kids are doing and what’s going on in everyone’s life. Douhet talked about the changes to their upstairs to accommodate Laila, Tyus, and Roman when we finish our mission and get our house back. They are going to turn their upstairs back into an apartment for them. It will give them plenty of space. I will love having Roman close by. I can hardly wait to meet him.  He will be over a year old when we meet him in person.  

Sisters Jones, Brough, Smetaniuk, and Douglas 

I helped Leona with something she needed. I actually drove myself to her house! I think that is the third time I've driven since we got here. Hahaha. I got back, just as the Bream Bay Sisters arrived to use our Wi-Fi to call home. After their call we had them for lunch. It was nice visiting with them. While they were having their call, I was on my Area call for the New Convert Initiative. It looks like we will be changing our focus. Instead of tracking dates and things from the Bishops (who don't usually give us the information) we are going to focus on in-person training. So, it looks like we will be doing a lot more traveling when we get back from Australia. Hopefully we can train by Stake instead of individual Bishops. 

We had a nice Family Home Evening with Ben and the missionaries. Elder Wilcox made some delicious lemon bars with lemons from our very own tree!

Tuesday started with early morning Seminary because the Missionaries were teaching. Our Lesson was on Repentance. At the end of the lesson, we made an anagram out of how Repentance is for EVERYONE. Of course, I forgot to write down all the words we came up with for EVERYONE. Anyway, it was a good lesson. 

The rest of the day was spent doing Flat Inspections. I am happy to report that all three of our Flats were the best we have ever seen them. They all got perfect scores of 125. We picked up some stuff from a couple of the flats that we will drop off in Auckland when we go there this week on our way to Australia.

After we got home, I prepared my Seminary lesson for Thursday. I also spent some time working on a HawkSoft project that turned out to be a bit bigger than originally thought. It took several days, but we got it all sorted out by the end of the week. I had to talk with Sean a few times to get things figured out. 

We had DCM today. It was Elder Shupe's last DCM with us as he is being transferred to the Cook Islands next Tuesday. We won't be at DCM next week when it is the last one for the rest of the Districts because of Transfers next Thursday. We will be on our way to Australia. So, we had a bit of a party after DCM with both the Central and North Districts. We had a lot of fun.

After we got home, I took care of lots of business items and prepared a FHE lesson for the Snow family. The Elders showed up for our last comp study for this transfer. The Elders were on splits, so we had Elder Na Nongkai and Elder Shupe. It was nice to see him one last time. He was in our Zone when he first came out on his mission. We were happy when he came back this last transfer as a Zone Leader before going to the Cook Islands. Our Family Home Evening was a little crazy, but it was all good. The kids were pretty wound up. I'm so glad we go over there every other week. 

Thursday morning started with my early morning Seminary class. We studied the general conference talk by President Nelson titled Confidence in the Presence of God. I tried to make it fun. I gave each student a copy of the talk with the paragraphs numbered. Then we spent three minutes reading and marking the first few paragraphs of the talk. We were looking for ways we could have Confidence in the Presence of God. After three minutes, we passed the copies of the talk to the person on the right and started another three minutes. We started on the paragraph we left off with and marked our neighbors talk with what stood out to us. We continued the three-minute rotation until we all finished the whole talk. Then we returned the talks to the original owner.  We reviewed what was marked and highlighted in the talk and shared any thoughts we had. After that, we each created something that reflected what touched us about the talk. Some drew pictures, or memes, or a social media post. Then we shared what we created. Lastly, we picked one thing from the talk that we could work on to increase our confidence in the presence of God. 

I spent time on Friday finishing up the HawkSoft project I had been working on. I had a couple of video conference calls until we got it all sorted out. I was able to fix most of the issues with the dozen or so ACORD forms, but one fix will require a programming change. Sean took that to their planning meeting and actually got it on the docket to get fixed this sprint. It is such a simple fix, they were able to squeeze it in. 

All four Sisters came over for their last Comp Study of the transfer. I'm afraid we are going to lose one Sister from each companionship. 😢We had such a wonderful visit and, of course, lunch with them. We shared some of our favorite times. I gave them all an extra big hug since it may be the last time for a couple of them. 

After they left, we headed to the doctor's office. I could believe I was able to get a follow-up visit so quickly. The doctor wants to send me for an ultrasound on my back. We will take care of that when we get back from Australia. He also prescribed me some pain meds and told me to stop taking the Ibuprofen because they impact my kidneys and he wants to rule out the kidneys as being part of my back pain. My labs numbers weren’t what he wanted for my kidneys. 

I took the pain meds when we got home. The Dargaville Elders showed up so we could make a Baptism program for them. They did most of the work but needed a few tweaks. Just as they were leaving, the Hikurangi Elders showed up so we could make a Baptism program for them also. We had three scheduled with a possibility of a fourth. The three were two brothers and a cousin. The fourth was a young mother who was trying to get in contact with her family so they could be there. Her baptism didn't happen. It will probably happen next week.

After that, it was time to go to Ben's house with the missionaries for dinner. We were looking forward to visiting Ben and his mother. Not too long after we got there, I started feeling a little off. As the conversation went on and we started eating dinner, I started to feel bad. I eventually excused myself to go to the toilet where I proceeded to throw up. I realized that the pain meds were NOT setting well with me at all. I felt a little better and joined the group again. Then, I could feel it coming on again. We had been there
about an hour and that is as long as the Elders are supposed to stay, so we thanked them and headed back home. I had a few more trips to the bathroom after we got home before I was finally able to lay down and hope for sleep.

I was sick all-day Saturday. I thought it would have got out of my system, but it didn't. I made several trips to the bathroom throughout the day. I sent Steve to the baptisms since I didn't think I could make it. I was right. I was able to sleep on the couch for a while. I couldn't eat much and what I ate I lost. After my nap, I felt a little better. I tried to take care of some issues with our medical insurance. I managed to get the first one done but had to lay down again before I could tackle the second one. I made sure I printed the Ward Council Agenda and Sacrament Meeting Programs for Steve to take to Church. I didn't think I would be going. I also sent the baptism consent forms with him again since he forgot to get the parent's signatures. I was feeling somewhat better by the time I went to bed. I managed to keep my "dinner" down. It consisted of a few bites of rice and a little chunk of banana. 

I didn’t sleep well on Saturday night. I still felt nauseous when I went to bed. Thankfully, my body did not act on it. About 4:00am Sunday morning I noticed I didn’t feel any more nausea! I slept well. The alarm went off at 6:00am. I woke Steve and evaluated how I felt. We decided it would probably be best for me to stay home and get more rest. I still felt weak and didn’t trust that the nausea wouldn’t come back. Also, the back pain was back. I hadn’t realized when I was sick that the back pain was mostly gone. I guess the pain meds worked for that part, my body just didn't react well to them. However, I will take the back pain over the sickness any day!

I sort of slept another hour or two before I got up. I did my Scripture study and my blog recap, before crashing on the couch. I dozed off and on for the rest of the day. 

At least I feel I will be well enough to go to Australia now. I was worried before. I should be back to my new normal by tomorrow. 

I hope you have a Wonderful Week!

All our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox