Sunday, November 24th at Kruger PA Training

Today, we prepared to have sacrament meeting and a combined Priesthood and Relief Society meeting at the lodge. Elder Kyle was conducting and responsible for bringing the sacrament trays and cups. We got bread from the kitchen and set up the main room at the lodge for meetings. The lodge has a lot of these tan recliners, so it was fun to see half the people sitting in recliners for sacrament meeting. Elder Kyle conducted, we sang hymns and prayers and a couple of guys blessed the sacrament and one passed it...just like normal. This photo is before everyone showed up. We filled all the seats!

Our Game Drive guide, David with Diane Donnelly

The nice surprise was that the young couple who ran the lodge attended (with their casual bush clothing) and our guide, David came all dressed up for church.

This is him with Sean's wife Diane. Sean asked him to give the closing prayer in his language, which he did quite beautifully. He has 14 children!

Elder and Sister Jensen

We started with a talk from Sister Jensen that was quite good. It as based on a story from Elder John Groberg's book, "Anytime, Anywhere". He and his wife were in Peru to handle two Stake Conferences. They had many delays in getting there and had nothing to eat. They were hungry and exhausted. Their luggage was the last off the plane and their were no restaurants open, because of the late hour. As their tired bodies walked down the corridor to exit the terminal, and they pondered why all of this had to happen to them, they suddenly heard someone call out, "Kolipoki, Kolipoki!" That was the name the natives called Elder Groberg when he served in Tonga as a young Elder. He looked back and saw a sister from Tonga whose daughter was finishing her mission in Peru. The mother had traveled there to meet her. There was some kind of mix-up and the daughter was not at the airport to meet her mother. The mother did not speak Spanish or English and no one could speak Tongan to help her find her daughter or figure out what to do next. She had just knelt in a corner and prayed for help. She received an impression to open her eyes and turn around. When she did this, Elder Groberg and his wife were walking by...the one person who could speak Tongan and help her. What a huge blessing for that mother to receive that special answer to her prayer. He was able to lend his support to her at a time when she really needed it.Sometimes in life we need to open our eyes to see the many blessings we receive from our Father in Heaven.

Elder Jensen talked about the importance of Public Affairs and the impact it can have on our future missionary effort and bringing the Church out of obscurity. He spoke about the misconceptions that are out there and by putting the truth there for all who wish to see and hear it, we can clear up the misconceptions and give the Church more opportunities to help those in need, by providing job training, humanitarian efforts, education and more. Through the love of Christ we can accomplish great things where all mankind can benefit. It is our duty to help ALL those in need. We are all God's children and as such, He expects no less.

Elder Hamilton spoke of the beauty of the plants and animals all around us in this beautiful setting. He said he didn't know how anyone could doubt that God created this world. He said the Garden of Eden must have been much like this...how we could feel the gentleness of these amazing animals that are considered a danger to man and yet not consider them a threat. This must have been what it was like in the Garden, when lion, lamb and man could be together without fear.

Elder Kevin Scott Hamilton describes himself as "the product of a conversion and a rescue." The story goes back to his birth in March 1955 in Wenatchee, Washington. "After I was born, my mother had all these questions about life," related Elder Hamilton, who was sustained at the general conference in April, 2013 as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. "She talked to her minister, but didn't receive the answers she was looking for, so she talked to one of our friends who was a Latter-day Saint, Richard Pratt (a good Mormon name)."

Brother Pratt connected her with missionaries of the Church, and she began to receive lessons from them.   Meanwhile, her husband let her know he was already a member of the Church. He was born into an LDS family and baptized, but at the age of 27, had not been active since his early teens and had not advanced in the priesthood, so the subject of his membership in the Church had never come up in conversations with his wife. "So she joined the Church, my dad became active in the Church and shortly after that, I was sealed to them in the Salt Lake Temple."

Subsequent children - two sisters and two brothers - were all born under the covenant. The family grew in faithfulness, and by age 19, Elder Hamilton was prepared to serve in the Switzerland Geneva Mission.  "I was probably as green as anybody," he said, "but going to France and Switzerland and learning the language and preaching the gospel in that part of the world changed me. It changed my heart. It created a fire and a burning desire to serve that never left."

While serving, he undertook "an intense quest to read the scriptures and pray and really come to know for myself." He added, "I would not say that I had a visitation from heavenly messengers; I just came to know in the depths of my soul, in a very personal and sure way that Jesus Christ was my Savior and that this is His Church. Once I understood that and it really became part of me, then everything else just kind of flowed from that."

Elder Hamilton found a kindred spirit in Claudia Keysor, and on July 27, 1978, they were married in the Los Angeles California Temple. Six children have blessed their marriage, all married now with families of their own, except for the youngest, who is attending BYU.

While rearing the children, Elder and Sister Hamilton endeavored to make of their home something of a visitors' center for gospel precepts. For years, the entryway has been regularly stocked with copies of the Book of Mormon, For the Strength of Youth booklets and other Church literature that is regularly replenished as visitors take them. "I don't have to say anything, but I notice the stack diminishes," Sister Hamilton said. And the copies have been handy when family members encounter missionary opportunities.

"They say you can have a silent sermon in your home, and we have had these little quotes around the house," Sister Hamilton said. For example, a plaque in the home bears the passage from Joshua 24:15, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve; ... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The hope is that, whatever family members choose to do on any given day, they will thereby serve the Lord.

"It has been our family motto," Elder Hamilton affirmed. It guided them when he was called to preside over the Belgium Brussels Netherlands Mission from 2003 to 2006.

"We served with marvelous young elders and sisters and senior couples," he said. Half of our mission was French-speaking, and the other half was Dutch-speaking at the time. They've reorganized it since; it's not that way today."

He was serving as a stake president when called, and that gave him occasion to get involved in what has become an abiding interest in community interfaith activities. Members of some Evangelical Christian organizations at the time had rather negative perceptions of the LDS faith.

"There was a large congregation in our community," Elder Hamilton recounted. "I picked up the phone one day and reached out to their senior pastor, Larry DeWitt. I said, 'Larry, you have about the same number of members as I have. We're in the same community. We should be friends.'

"He was a little reluctant, but I persisted, and he invited me to attend their interfaith prayer breakfast they had monthly. I showed up, the only representative of the Latter-day Saint faith.

"Over the years, Pastor DeWitt and I not only became friends, we became good friends, dear friends. He introduced me to a number of other faith leaders we normally wouldn't have interacted with."

Then the mission call came, and President and Sister Hamilton departed for their three-years' service. When they returned, they joined with a coalition of Catholic and Protestant groups to work together on community affairs and public issues. "We had a wonderful outpouring of interaction and support with these different faith groups who have some of the same values that we do, especially concerning the family," Elder Hamilton said. "We have so much common ground. And ironically, so much of the negative discussion about the Church has just kind of quietly died away. You hardly ever hear it anymore."

In bridge building, as in other endeavors Elder Hamilton has seen the wisdom of relying on the Lord.     "Every time I have been called to do something, I kind of shake my head and think, 'How could the Lord possibly trust me to do that?' And I have found that, whether the task be large or small, if we simply just move and start the process, the Lord miraculously opens doors, provides strength, wisdom and capability that was unknown previously." It is a knowledge that gave him assurance as he embarked on his calling as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy.

Elder Hamilton told us that we too can participate in bridge building by just reaching out to interfaith leaders and working with them on shared issues. Not only did he do this, but they became such good friends that this Pastor still calls him for help, even though he is not the Stake President anymore. They have built a mutual respect and admiration, willing to help each other with whatever needs come up. Developing Christ-like attributes will be the most productive thing we can do on this earth and the best way to represent Jesus Christ.

After the service was over, we had a combined Priesthood Relief Society meeting taught by Sister Shupe from our office. She talked about teaching seminary and her love of the scriptures. She then talked about how important it was to know the scriptures and be able to quote some important ones when asked questions about what we believe on a certain topic. She was very passionate as she talked about possible questions and the scriptures which explained our beliefs. I asked her for a copy of the scriptures. She said she had printed some, but forgot to bring them. They were really good.

It was a great Sunday and thoroughly spiritual and refreshing.