Thursday, October 24th-Durban Mission couples conference at zachrisons

Today is the first day of our Durban Mission Couple's Conference. As I stated earlier, I was responsible for coming up with an idea of what to do on this day for our conference. I made up a list of places the couples who arrived early could go for fun today. This included riding segweys on the beach or swinging off the roof of the Stadium or visiting museums, shopping, etc. All the couples filled out the survey saying what they wanted to do and we emailed them the list of who wanted to do what, with the couples phone numbers, so they could arrange get-togethers with the couples. Officially, our conference started at 4PM, which gave the couples that are seven hours away time to get here if they left this morning. This worked out well. I had this morning to finish up my part in the program and taking care of last minute details.

Elder Kyle attended a meeting with Francois Nortge, who is the Area Office fleet director and manages the distribution center in Johannesburg. He met with all the drivers at the hotel to explain what they would be doing, their schedules and the proper protocol for driving these general authorities and the wives around. Elder Kyle was asked to drive one of the vans on Saturday.

The Mission Home was the location and I was worried about us fitting 32 people in there, but they have sofas surrounding the room and chairs against the wall around the room, making it work. President Zackrison said a few words after we all found seats, had a song and prayer. He is always so nice about thanking the couples and telling them that he doesn't know what the young elders would do without them. The rest of the program, I had planned on the couples sharing inspirational moments from their individual missions. I asked three couples ahead of time to share something. Elder and Sister Murdock were in town so I asked them to go first (as they had to leave early to drive the Bednar crew out to dinner). 

Sister Murdock talked about their experiences going to other countries to solve Visa Problems and how miracles occurred, like when they needed to meet with a certain individual before they could begin to help solve the visa problems, but they could not get in touch with him. He was traveling. On Sunday, they prayed about what ward to go to and picked a ward that was in a bad section of town, that they had never been to before. They didn't know why they came up with that ward, but when they got to church, the individual who they needed to meet with was attending that ward and they were able to speak to him about the issue. He just happened to go to that ward that day too. That was just one of the many miracles they say happened on their mission to the area office. They talked about putting on a dinner for ten, where opinion leaders that were blocking visas for our missionaries were attending. At one of them, when Elder Murdock was explaining the Book of Mormon and showed it to them, the guy exclaimed, "Mormon? I thought you were called 'Mammon' (which is the devil). They pronounce things differently here because of their accents and they drop the 'r' from the word, making it sound like 'Mammon' which to the Africans means Satan. They all thought we were devil worshippers! That is why we are here to clear up these misconceptions that some Africans have of 'Mormons.'

Elder and Sister Wilding, who live in Lady Smith and cover Dundee and Ezakheni as well, talked about the enjoyment they get from working with the Elders and the members. They talked about one family whose 12-year-old son had an allergic reaction and they had to take him to the hospital. They gave him an injection at the hospital and the boy died. The Wildings went to her home to see what they could do and the woman was wailing and asking God why He took their boy. No one could quiet her, so Sister Wilding and the other woman started singing hymns and it calmed the woman down. She said they sang hymns for three hours. The next day, they went back to her home and she was wailing again, so they sang hymns again. That was the only way they could calm her. Eventually she was able to accept it and go on, because of these very considerate members of her ward. She told of many experiences like this and experiences with investigators.

Elder and Sister Lombardi from Swaziland were last, because they had such a great story to tell about the men of Laboma. We had heard this story and met these young men, but most of those at the conference were hearing it for the first time. They gave some history of Laboma and how it is just a community with lean-to shacks with metal roofs, no plumbing, no electricity, dirt floors, etc. It is the poorest of the poor area. In this area were gangs that robbed others, sold drugs, etc. Many of them lost their parents at a young age (usually of Aids) and had to raise themselves. One of these young men, the gang leader, was surprised when two young men in white shirts and ties knocked on his door one day. He let them come in and they had a discussion about Jesus Christ. He let them come back. The day of the 2nd visit there were eight more young men waiting in his shack to hear about the church. He was the first to be baptized and then baptized several others himself.

Now there are 16 men who have joined the church and get together at the Lombardi's once a week for FHE. They support each other. When one of the shacks burned down, they all came and helped rebuild. They are first to volunteer when a service project is announced. All have the priesthood. Two are going on missions soon. They all say that joining the church saved them from a horrible life and gave them hope. Now they know that there is a loving Heavenly Father that cares about them enough to send Missionaries to their area to play soccer with them, baptize them and provide them with a ward family to make up for their lack of parents.

One of them had been given away by his mother, who did not want the responsibility of raising him to an older woman in their village (called 'Gogo' meaning grandmother). She looked after him his whole life. Recently she got ill and had to go to the hospital. She eventually died and because she had some royal blood, they would not let this young man go to her funeral. He was very upset that he had to wait outside the gate and pay his respects alone, but the other young men and the Elders showed up that night outside the gate and stayed with him until 3:00 AM when he finally went home. Because the Gogo that was taking care of him died, he was being kicked out of the home he was in. After that, when he got his mission call, he came to Sister Lombardi with a little box in his hands and asked her what he should do with his stuff when he goes on his mission. He told her it isn't much but I don't want to lose it...a box of memories...all he had. She told him that though they were going home in January after a two-year mission, some other couple would be there and they would have instructions to look after his things until he came back. Such is the life of these young men and the mission office doesn't have a replacement for the Lombardi's yet. I wish more people would go on missions.

We had some time left after these three told their story. All the ladies were wiping their tears and some of the men. Elder Jaeger talked about their mission in Richard's Bay. Elder and Sister Wyatt talked about their mission in Bloemfontein, and Elder Stark talked about their mission at the mission office. Everyone had unique and special experiences on their mission. It was a very spiritual meeting, exactly what I was going for.

We then stopped to have dinner out in the back yard. The man that looks after our rental cars and his wife cooked a braai (BBQ) dinner with all kinds of beef, lamb and sausage. Sister Zackrison made salads and Sister Holt and I made sheet cakes for dessert. She made German Chocolate and I made lemon with Cream Cheese frosting. We served them with ice cream.

After dinner we gathered once again in the house for the second part of our program. Sister Holt and I had come up with some funny awards for everyone. I continually cracked myself up just thinking of what we could do. We had a great time buying the stuff and presenting it. It gave us a chance to know everyone a little better and have some laughs too. Here are some examples:

I bought a dart board and put every part of the mission on it. I told the mission president that he was getting the marathon man award for such long interviews with each of the missionaries and since this took up so much time, he wouldn't have time to spend on who was transferring where, so I gave him a dartboard to simplify the process. Where ever the dart lands is where they go and when hitting bulls eye, transfers are done. It was pretty funny.



 
 Elder Carlile who is a very tall and fit, retired FBI agent and headed up a three state SWAT team, was given a 'Take-em-out' award because when he and his wife first arrived their car was broken into twice in the first couple of weeks. He was given a toy vehicle with machine guns mounted on the front (side said 'mission' how appropriate) and an air gun with a grenade full of bullets (bbs). He thought that was very funny and shared that when the car had been broken into, he was pretty mad that they dared to rob him. Ha.


Sister Jaeger got the Mary Poppins award for putting on some pretty outstanding activities for the primary in Richard's Bay. One of the activities was going to the park and each child being given a balloon. They love it and followed her through the park playing with their balloons.








It is amazing how easy it is to entertain the children here. The children have not been totally entertained from birth by high tech toys and video games, etc., so they love the simple things, like balloons, that they never get to play with. She is teaching them to play with simple things and they love her ideas and her.

Elder Cluster in his Foggy glasses

 Elder Cluster got the 'foggy glasses' award for running over a large piece of concrete that he thought was a piece of cardboard and it took out the oil pan! They were on their way to Swaziland and stopped for a bite to eat, He pulled over and hit the concrete, which basically ruined their day. The glasses are really funny and I put some wax paper where the glass piece should, so they really were foggy. He commented that he couldn't see anything with these glasses and I told him it was an appropriate gift because he couldn't see anything without them either. Ha.

Elder Stark getting African history award

Elder Stark lived in South Africa until he was 14 and has been back to visit several times, so he is the resident authority on Africa. He tells us more than we ever wanted to know about Africa, whether we ask or not, so an appropriate award was a doctorate in African History. I wish you could see the one I found online to use. It looks so official. He was pretty pleased and will probably frame it and put it on his wall. You cannot tell it is not real.

Me and my blonde wig

Sister Holt got me the only 'blonde' wig she could find in Africa, a yellow clowns wig, and put some eyebrows on some glasses and gave me fake eyelashes to solve my losing hair problems. I think I look pretty good, don't you?

There were a lot more and we had a great time. The perfect way to end the meeting. We had spiritual moments, silly moments and shared friendships. Many of the couples told me they had a great time. That was what we were going for. It was fun. We had our moments wondering if we could pull this off, but Heavenly Father answers prayers and he provided whatever talent we used for the activity, so all thanks go to Him.