About once a quarter we have the opportunity to attend a zone conference where the elders are given inspired training by President and sister Dunn and the Assistants. Because of the size of the mission they hold four conferences and we went with the one that included our Vaal zone as well as those in the Benoni and Bedfordview zones.

We made great time getting to Joburg and I thought we were going to very early. However just 10K from our off ramp to the Bedfordview chapel we hit a wall of cars on the freeway. It took us about 30 minutes to make those last kilometers and while we were still on time, we were not really at all early.

The senior elders usually do car inspections during the first hour of the conference. Today it was myself and elders Dummer, Allred and Thompson. We have done enough inspections that it is down to a pretty efficient system.

I was able to take this picture of elder Harris because he was one of three drivers that forgot to leave the keys in their cars. After it was announced from the pulpit two of the drivers – including elder Harris came out with theirs. The third one did not show up until much later. 

Sister Dunn announced the birthday boys for the quarter and each got a nice present from president Dunn.

This was followed by a training lesson on the amazing story of sister Fulcher who turned a non-productive are and ward into an amazing missionary experience by loving the members into helping the missionaries find and teach investigators. Part of the story that was not explored in the training was that after sister Fulcher was released and went home, elders were sent into the area and it went back to the way it was before sister Fulcher arrived. Our good UK friend elder Stilgoe stood to give an observation about the story. 

Sister Dunn speaking to elder Stilgoe and elder Todd, one of our Ikageng district elders, with a big smile.

After the opening session, the elders were broken into three groups – this was easy because there were three zones at the conference – so they could go to each of three smaller sessions. In the chapel president Dunn spoke about proper missionary dress and grooming standards. He then introduced the new mission messenger bag. Over a year ago the missionary department sent out a letter saying that missionaries were not to carry backpacks but little was done about it. President Dunn wants to be 100% compliant in 3 months so he worked with the APs and Zone Leaders to design the perfect missionary messenger style bag that will be made here in South Africa and available to the elders at a special lower subsidized price.

One of the other training sessions was led by the APs and was on prayer. I came in a little late but thought what I did see was well done. They talked about our personal prayers and how they can be more effective.

After these classes it was time for zone pictures. First the Vaal Zone and one of the worse pictures of me that I have ever seen and I have seen some bad ones. However Mary always looks great. It was of course the Dummers’ last zone conference and i am sure they will miss them. The one on the right is the Benoni zone.

Between pictures president and sister Dunn just kept their seats and I love this one of them laughing and smiling. The final zone was the Bedfordview zone/

Before and between zone pictures the elders had time to talk with each other. The picture on the left includes our own elder Alvial, and elders Andritiana, May, Todd, McAllister and Stomp. Elder Oldroyd was not praying but hiding from an embarrassing situation – he is a great kidder. Mary with our Ikageng elders and elder Andritiana. On the right we have elder Stomp with elder  Togiatomai and elder Yates.

After the pictures were taken it was time for food! The senior couples serving in the office gets lots of practice setting up and feeding lots of hungry elders. We are grateful to the Thompsons and Allreds who do this great service for the missionaries.   

 

I caught elder Harris about to put his roll in his mouth…

A couple of shots that includes most of the Ikageng district including elder and sister Dummer. I kidded elder Reese about sitting next to my wife and not leaving me room. Instead I sat across from her.

Elder Liera seems to be holding court with elders Todd and McAllister hanging on every word. Elder Menendez – one of the APs – shared his thoughts with elder Reese – one of the Vaal Zone ZLs.

I am hoping that Mary does not notice that I stuck in this picture of her licking her lips after a tasty meal.

 

We had to leave the conference before it was over because we had an appointment at the US Consulate to have some papers notarized. We left with plenty of time to make the short trip to but of course it was our day for hitting traffic. We were 4K from our destination when we managed to find a construction site that ran for one or two of those Ks and it took us what seemed like forever but actually was only about 15 minutes to crawl though it. I know I am supposed to have patience but I do not think it is fair to have this kind of experience twice in the same day.

Along the way we saw this interesting scuplture of an elephant on top a parking lot gatehouse. Also there was this very unusual set of apartments or office buildings just across the street from the consulate.

We had an interesting experience while waiting for our turn to be helped. One of the men who was waiting was a member from a local ward who knew many of the missionaries we serve with. There was another American who was not LDS but knew a lot about the Church. He works for an NGO that helps African children get a better education.  We talked about his children who are growing up and being educated here in South Africa and the experiences they are having.

The trip home was uneventful – which was truly a blessing. However we both had been sitting much too long and so it was very nice to get to stretch our legs.

 

So Monday was p-day and we basically did very little except some of the chores that always seem to need doing. We made a number of trips to different stores. But the majority of my time was spent catching up this blog.

We finished this puzzle last week. It was a tough one – at least the roses were because there was so many changes of colors in any one flower and many pieces looked about the same. Thankfully we were able to work with shapes and get it done. I decided to take a picture of real flowers to go with this one from a painting. Notice that the colors are much the same.

Tuesday afternoon I picked up my AP companion to go home teaching. He had made the appointments and was ready to teach the lesson. Unfortunately the families were not home and after waiting for 15 minutes at each of them we gave up and just left copies of the message on their doors. But the time was well spent as we talked about home teaching, school and other things. jacque was not discouraged and we will try again on Sunday.

As I left Promosa I wanted to take a picture of the lake but could not really find a good place to park with an overview so we drove down to edge of the lake and I took a couple of pictures. I also had the opportunity to talk to a couple of local fishermen who told me that there were carp and catfish in the lake. However they were cooking chicken for their dinner – I guess the fishing was not all that good. I left them a passalong card before saying goodbye.

 

I jus threw this picture from Tembe in because of all the different animals. Also because one of the young elephants was playing in the water – something you do not see very often.