14 December 2008 – Sunday

At about 8:00 am this morning we got a call from President Mann telling us that he just got our papers. He asked if we would be willing to have a change in assignments from the office to the field. We told him we would be happy to serve wherever he and the Lord thought we were most needed.

We had a nice discussion about the mission, the weather and the conditions we would find. He said that we would find first world conditions in a third world country. Good health care, good food, and good water. He also said that we did not need to take pills for malaria because they do not have a problem. He mentioned that they have been trying to get that information taken out of the instructions to new missionaries for 10 years without any success. He said that the weather was not as hot and humid in the interior as it is in Durban or elsewhere along the coast. I am hoping we will be is some town like Ladysmith but we will be happy to serve anywhere.

If he is able to get the missionary department to understand that we will not be serving in the office, we should only be in the MTC for a week. Which means we should be in the mission by the 27th or 28th.  President Mann said if we get there by then we will be in time for a couples conference. That would be great because we could get to meet all the couples who are serving there. President Mann said that when we get there, he will have 11 couples.

This morning we had a short meeting with President Jackson so I could be released from my HP calling. I mentioned to the President that there were 11 couples in the Durban mission and he said that in the three years he was serving in Brazil, he had no couples.