Sunday, May 26, 2013 - Sunday at Berea Ward summary of Sundays

We went to Berea Ward today. So far, we don't have a home ward, so it's hard to know where to go. And, guess what? They were having Ward Conference with no Sunday School and a combined Priesthood/Relief Society meeting. That means that for the entire time we've been in Africa (almost two months), we have only gone all three hours at the same building once and that was in Swaziland. We've been to three stake conferences, and saw the General Conference tapes at three different wards on three different Sundays. The other times we were with the Murdocks going to Sacrament meeting in one ward, using the second hour to travel to another ward to be there for third hour.  We've seen two baptisms, three firesides, attended a missionary zone conference, been to two public affairs council meetings, attended a public affairs training meeting and a stake correlation meeting to present a summary of what we learned at our PA training. We presented a 'strength of youth' topic at a high school, and attended four family home evenings with other senior adult couples. We've attended the creation of a new stake, five wards and five new bishoprics; we've chosen needy candidates to give away 34 wheelchairs; we've seen the creation of a new ward in Lesotho; we've attended one history fair and helped plan two others; we've visited a Prince, two radio stations a newspaper and met with a member of the Quorum of the 70 twice. We've discussed a water project with the district president in Richard Bay, we've acquired venues and planned for David Glen Hatch concerts and firesides in Durban and Cape Town, we've crossed country borders six times; we've helped write stories for Mormon Newsroom; we've counseled the African public affairs people, spoken to Stake Presidents about public affairs and we've driven almost 3,000 miles...all this in two months. Many other things are in the planning stages and the next two months are turning out to be just as busy. When things are out of the norm, Elder Kyle just looks at me and days "TIA," an acronym for "This is Africa."

Today's meeting was packed. The people here really turn out for conferences, plus the Relief Society was serving lunch directly afterwards and that definitely helps attendance. The bishop of the Berea ward said that as a bishopric, they have to come up with a subject and scripture that addresses their needs as a ward. The stake then uses this to come up with the stake conference theme. After the stake business, the stake presidency talked about that theme, 2nd Nephi, Chapter 31, verse 20: "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father; Ye shall have eternal life." All speakers talked about how the members could accomplish this and receive the blessings of eternal life.

After sacrament meeting, they talked to the men and women about 'Teaching the Gospel.'

President Magaqwa talked about how he heard that members of the ward were turning down callings as teachers, because they don't know how to teach. He then spent quite a bit of time telling them how to prepare a lesson and get the Spirit to help them teach. He did a great job.

The Stake president, Bricknel, asked the question, "We see churches down the street with lots of nice cars in the parking lot and singing blaring from inside, so why should someone come to our church and not one of these?" He got a lot of answers, most of which I would have given, but he kept saying, "Well other churches claim to do or have that as well." Finally he said, "We are different, because we are a covenant people, just like in the time of Christ. No other church claims this." Then he asked, "What is a covenant?" He got lots of answers, but he used the one about it being like a contract. Then he asked how the contract was binding and someone said, "by signatures." He said that covenants were like contracts with the Lord, and ordinances were the signatures. We make a covenant and then seal it with our actions. I thought it was a great message and obviously the members needed help learning what covenants and ordinances meant. It helped me too.

All of the speakers asked for questions from the congregation. Near the end, A lady in the audience asked President Bricknel if he could tell her in a nutshell what the Book of Mormon is. President Bricknel said it would take a long time to explain it and anything that could be put in an nutshell, should probably stay in a nutshell, but she pressed him, so he wrote on the dry erase board and clumsily drew the European/African part of the world and called it the Eastern World. Then on the other side, he drew the US/Canada and South America part of the map and called that the Western World. He wrote the dates below them and then told her the Bible was from the prophets in the Eastern continents and the Book of Mormon was from the prophets on the Western continents. She was a white woman dressed in casual clothing, so I am assuming she is a non member. I was so impressed that he knew the dates and although he couldn't draw very well, he got the point across very simply. He told her she she could learn from the Missionaries at the back of the room if she wanted to know more, but she said she had already talked to them.

It really was a great meeting, but we did not stay for lunch...we wanted to save the food for the ward members. On our way out, one of the elders (Elder Kuwanatsoka) asked Elder Kyle if he remembered the Swazi name he gave him at zone conference. We didn't, so he told him again: It is "Nhlakhgnipho" which means 'wise man.' The reason we forgot is because we cannot pronounce it. I told Elder Kyle to practice, but he is struggling...you have to use a little throat action to do the beginning...Ha. The other language here, Xhosa, where you use the clicks is even more difficult. I love their South African accents...it's like a cross between English and Australian accents. The Bishop's accent was very heavy. When you put the accent together with the various languages...YIKES!

Our Sundays are so wonderful. Everyone is a great experience.

We will speak with Ryan tonight and then our wonderful weekend will be complete. It makes us feel great when we can speak to all of our children and grandchildren. Love to all.