Thursday, Sep 26 to Saturday, Sept 28th - helping plan couples conference

Our first day of being home after a long trip means PAPERWORK and GROCERY STORE and all those things that are no fun! I guess it is a small price to pay for being on such a great trip. So Monday through Friday was spent getting caught up. We went to the Unicopy Monday to try and get some toner for our printer and they would not accept our church credit card...hmmm. They were out of most of the ink we needed anyway, so we went to Waltons office supply store down the street. They wouldn't accept our card either...hmmm. I assume that I need to go on the website for the bank and tick off the charges and that will solve the problem, but I come back to the office and do that and we still can't use our card. We send off an email and then Elder Kyle gets on the phone with the bank that tells us the Church suspended our card. I thought, "Oh, no not again." A few months ago, they accidentally cancelled our card, so I was hoping that was not the case, as it takes weeks to have another card mailed to us. After several phone calls, we found out that is exactly what happened. Someone accidentally cancelled our card. Once cancelled, you have to get a new card. The bank will not restart the old card. What a hassle! I guess we should be glad that it didn't happen while we were in Swaziland, where we used the card a lot.

We also found out that our guest from the government that had accepted a meeting with Elder Bednar on October 25th had to cancel. This caused our PA Director, Sipho to scramble to try and find another opinion leader QUICKLY. Lots of phone calls and emails later, He finally got the premier for Kwazulu-Natal to accept. He is new to the job, so it should be interesting. We are just hoping that he does not cancel at the last minute.

Right before we left for Swaziland, Sister Zackrison, the mission president's wife, called and asked me to help plan the couples conference that will be going on during the Bednar visit. She said it start Thursday afternoon and end Saturday afternoon. She needs an activity of some kind for couples to do on Thursday afternoon and dinner and activity for Friday night. The rest of the time will be meetings with Elder Bednar. There will be a missionary meeting that we will all be invited to where he will speak, a priesthood meeting and a woman's meeting where the wives of Bednar and Christensen will speak. Sunday there will be two meetings at two different buildings...one will have Elder Bednar and the other will have Elder Christensen of the Seventy. It's going to be a big weekend. I've been racking my brain and talking to other couples. Since Sister Lombardi in Swaziland said they would like to do something fun, I've been concentrating on the beach and things to do there. UShaka is an amazing area with Sea World, Marine World, Water Parks, Live Shows, Dangerous Creatures, 5D theatre, shopping and more.

The other option is Moses Madhiba Stadium which was built for World Cup Soccer a few years ago. It is pretty state of the art and has several interesting options. There are Segwey tours (the two wheel upright motorized vehicles) that tour the stadium or the beach area or both.
Some of the couples have done this and say it is a blast. I am game.







There is a sky car that goes up the outside of the dome to the top of the stadium. It is all glass so you see the city. There is a swing inside the stadium at the top that people can jump off of and swing somehow...I'll pass on that one. We decided that we needed to go down to the beach and check our the various areas to see what was there to see.

We went to the Dangerous Creatures area at UShaka and outside in a glass enclosure were two very large black-throated monitor lizards. They were really big. We didn't go inside, but I read that it is done kind of like Indiana Jones movie, so they have obstacles, etc. inside with all the creatures displayed to add some adventure to it. One of the monitor lizards kept trying to get out. I was very thankful that he did not. We could have put a saddle in him and let Mia and Trey ride him. Ha.



I'm not sure Dangerous Creatures is anything the couples will want to do, but I will put it on my list and offer as an option. You never know. I figure that the more information I can gather for things to do at the beach, the better.

We then went to the 5D theatre, not quite knowing what to expect. Instead of being a regular theatre, it only has six seats attached to each other in a small room with a screen. You choose which film you want to see from about 8 -10 options. We chose a roller coaster type one, were given 3D glasses and taken to sit at the front of the block of seats.

We were told to hold on right to the bar in front of us and they took my purse and put it outside the seating area. That worried me a bit, but still I'm thinking it can't move that much. Then the film starts and we are on this roller coaster train track like thing. The seats were are in immediately move, so if the track turns right, the seats dip right, etc. When it goes down into a mine, it looks like the bottom is going to hit something and air comes up from the bottom of the seating area, so it feels like you hit something. Then when you go through water you feel water spray on your face. It was the craziest things. You actually felt you were on a ride doing all those things. It was over in only five minutes but my fingers hurt from gripping the bar so tight. It really did feel like you were going to fall out sometimes. I don't know if these seniors can keep their hearts in check for this one...Ha. Elder Kyle didn't like it. He said it made him dizzy. I thought it was fun and liked the uniqueness of it. I'll put it on my list.


Sea World has dolphin shows, seal shows and penguin shows. It's only $10 for seniors to get in, so I put that on my list. You can also go into this old ship that houses fish aquariums that are pretty amazing. We didn't go in, but I read about it and it sounds very cool. There is a restaurant in the ship as well, so you can eat and watch the fish. There are lots of things to do, so definitely want to consider UShaka for those interested in doing that. We'll pray that it does not rain.

Saturday got caught up on laundry and played with kids next door. It's a hard life. ha.