05 December 2009 – Saturday

It was a busy but wonderful day for us. We spent the time before the Manns came to finish getting things ready for the lunch we thought we would serve. However it turned out that because Elder Koelliker wanted to meet with President Vezi alone, the meetings would start 30 minutes earlier leaving no time for lunch.

The Manns picked up Elder and Sister Koelliker at the Richards Bay airport – which is less than 5 minutes away – and brought them back to our boarding until it was time to go the RB chapel to start conference.

All the sessions of conference went off with out a hitch. I got to preside at the Women’s session. We thought Mary was going to conduct but Sister Khumalo cancelled her trip to a funeral – her mother said it was OK because someone else was representing the family – so she could conduct. Mary did play for Elder Nare when he sang in the PH leadership meeting that was at the same time.

The main part of the session was training by sisters Mann and Koelliker about how to teach. Also they taught about how to use scriptures, visual aids, etc and not just reading from the manual. One of the things they emphasized was taking the time to prepare lessons.

Sister Koelliker asked me to give a short message and I ended up talking to them about the importance of getting the Conference issue in to the home of each of the members. Other than that I just got to sit and listen to the excellent advice about improving teaching skills.

The sisters then joined the brethren for instruction by Elder Koelliker. He stressed the need to support your spouse so that they can fulfill their calls.

The first general adult meeting was full of wonderful talks. President Moloi asked if we wanted to be worthy in the eyes of God or in the eyes of man – to be worthy in the eyes of God we must remain worthy.

Sister Khumalo continued much in the same line by sharing 2 Nephi 5:1 where Nephi is told to separate from his brothers so that he and his followers could live righteously. Our lives can not be like those of the world – we must be careful of ‘Lamanites’ in our own family.

Sister Mann spoke about Heleman 26 where the Gadianton Robbers were converted by the gospel being taught to them. We can change the world by sharing the gospel.

President Mann gave five points that he felt important to developing full faith in Christ

1.       Study. Ponder, pray about Christ

2.       Talk with God regularly through prayer. Pray for what we want to know.

3.       Do Christ like things – Ask ‘What would Jesus do?”

4.       Pay Tithing –

5.       Love one another.

Sister Koelliker – told a cute story about a time when she was listening to a talk on you should pay attention to your children and one of her children tried to get her attention…she asked them to be quiet so she could listen to the talk.

Elder Koelliker spoke about strengthening our faith in Jesus Christ and our families.  He suggest that we read our Patriarchal Blessing. I am afraid I do not read mine once a year.