Daily Archives: October 5, 2009

05 October 2009

05 October 2009 – Monday

We started the day by watching the Sunday afternoon session of conference. After elder Holland’s talk on the Book of Mormon everything else was rather anti-climatic. I am need to go back and listen to the other talks again to mine the words of wisdom that I am sure are there.

Our plans for our p-day was quickly changed when we got a call from President Mann asking us if we could come into Durban on Tuesday. We said sure, called the B’s to arrange to go with them, made a reservation for a B&B, and then spent part of the day doing things we were going to do on Tuesday today.

One thing we did not change was Mary going to the pharmacy for her monthly supply of medicine. The lines are often out the door – as I believe I have mentioned before it must be a very profitable business – but today she only had to wait about 30 minutes. We then went to Port Durnford so Mary could write a letter for sister Chirwa. She was turned down for her medical pension because they said she was healthy enough to work. She isn’t so she is appealing the decision. We then went to president Machaka’s tuck shop so she could print the letter and have the president take to sister Chirwa when he goes home. We had made arrangements to take sister Tembe to physical therapy on Wednesday and since we did not have a phone number for her we stopped by to make other arrangements.

After getting everything cleared up, I dropped Mary at our boarding and went to get the car washed. Because of the rain that seemed to come on any day when I had time to get the car washed, it had been getting dirtier for over 2 weeks. Today’s trip to the Chirwa homestead added a new coat of mud to the already dirty car so I decided I would get it washed so it would be nice and clean when we got home from Durban.

We spent the rest of our p-day just being wonderfully lazy. I did spend part of the time organizing and captioning pictures, but I think that was the most useful thing I did in the evening.



04 October 2009

04-october-2009-rb-zone-spread-those-legs.JPG04-october-2009-rb-zone-group-1.JPG04-october-2009-elders-otieno-and-maremela.JPGSince it was the last time this Richards Bay Zone would all be together in their whites, I took the traditional last picture. The one showing their backs started because Elder Mokopotsa lined up that way – I decided it would be an interesting shot if all of them did. Of course, unless you are sister Mann, trying to get 10 elders to all cooperate in a pictures is almost impossible but this one came close. Elder Otieno and Elder Maremela wanted the last shot. Right after taking it I pushed them over – the Devil made me do it.

04 October 2009 – Sunday

Today was general conference day in Richards Bay. Members were transported in from all the branches with only a small glitch when no taxi showed up at Port Durnford. When President Machaka called to tell me the problem, I told him to grab one passing by and make the arrangements. They ended up needing 2 but that was great news. There were about 170 in attendance for the 5 hours of conference broadcasts. We got to see the Priesthood session and then the Saturday afternoon session.

I thought Elder Ballard’s talk to Fathers and Sons was excellent and should be used in local Priesthood meetings on the 4th Sunday. I am going to suggest this to the branch presidents. Elder Choi’s talk about the ‘rowdy young boys’ who through his love and caring became powerful Priesthood leaders today was also inspiring. As usual President Uchtdorf’s recalling of his difficult, early life in Germany was an excellent back ground for his talk on the importance of work and learning. I especially liked his comment that ‘Retirement is not part of the plan of happiness and the idea that it is, is unworthy of a priesthood holder.”

President Eyring reminded us that we should not wait for the call to become prepared. We need to prepare young men for missions. It fits well with Elder Bednar’s talk of a couple of years ago about preparing to be missionaries not preparing for a mission.

President Monson gave a powerful talk on anger. Two comments stuck with me: “Anger does no build anything.” And “No one can make us angry, it is done by choice.”

My favorite talk from the Saturday afternoon session was Elder Andersen’s about repentance. I think the comment of the older couple who returned to the church is one that too many have had to say “We are back, but we are alone.” Their children and grandchildren who do not have the blessings of the gospel in their lives is a heavy burden.

President Packer gave me “Prayer is your personal key to Heaven and the lock is on your side,” to ponder.

After the conference sessions Mary went home to get things ready to feed the missionaries and I stayed to make sure everyone had a taxi to get home on. It is an interesting exercise to see the taxis straggle in and the members who are happily talking to each other board and leave for their home.

The elders seem to enjoy their food and we remembered to take a last zone picture of the 10 who will probably never be together again – unless it is on p-day – because Elder Richey is heading home in just 4 days. Today marked the anniversary of his going into the MTC and he plans to burn his coat to celebrate. I suggested he instead give it to someone who needed it but he pointed out it  had now served two missions – his brother had taken it on his mission – and it was far from being in good shape.

After the elders left, we cleaned up most of the mess and then watched the Sunday morning session of conference on the computer. I have to confess that I did not really listen very well and in fact fell asleep during parts of it. I am glad I can later go LDS.org and listen carefully to the words of wisdom that I am sure I missed.

The only part of the day that was not good was that sister B had managed to catch her son’s cold and felt terrible. She of course tried to soldier on but Mary and I managed to convince her that she really should go home after the Relief Society meeting and rest up because there is so much she will want to do in the next 2 weeks. In the evening Elder B came to dinner with the missionaries and brought more than their share of the things it takes to feed 10 hungry elders. Sister B wisely stayed home.

They are a super couple. The members in their branches will greatly miss them as we will. Of course they are going to also greatly miss the wonderful people who have touched their lives as they have served here in Richards Bay for almost 2 years.

How much are they going to be missed? Here is a good example: There was a planning meeting for the YM-YW activity that will be in late November. President Baldwin had originally thought to have it as a 3 day activity, then he cut it down to 2 days, and in the meeting he said that since Sister B would not here to organize it they would have it for just one day. Yes they will be missed.