More Missionaries and General Conference for Easter -- week 60

First of all, we want to wish all of you a blessed and happy Easter.  This is the day we celebrate why we are here and doing what we do.  It is the suffering, the Atonement, and the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that is the basis for what we are doing.  We want to share this message with the world.  He Lives!  And we will also live eternally with Him and God the Father because of what Jesus did.  

This weekend is also the annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is always the first weekend in April, so it sometimes falls on Easter, but usually not.  There are five two-hour general sessions, broadcast live on the Internet.  In normal years these are held in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, which holds 21,000+ people.  Now it is held in a small auditorium with fewer than 20 people -- all spread out around the room.  But the messages are just as wonderful, and still shared live around the world.  We watched Saturday morning session at 6 pm Saturday night.  We started to watch Saturday afternoon session at 10 pm, but when Sue closed her eyes for the opening prayer, she knew she wouldn't make it through until midnight.  Ken was watching on his phone in bed -- and snoring.  So we turned it off and watched the Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening Priesthood sessions on Sunday morning.

 

All the sessions of General Conference are archived for streaming at www.churchofjesuschrist.org.  We really recommend watching.  Sue's favorite talks from Saturday:  Elder Dieter Uchtdorf about "God is Among Us," on Saturday morning and Elder Dale Renlund "Life is Not Fair" on Saturday afternoon. Ken's favorite was Elder Jeffery Holland, where he talked about being a stone catcher, not a stone thrower, among other things.

 

We also loved hearing Elder Gerrit W. Gong, also of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, talk about missing his father, Walter Gong.  Elder Gong grew up in Palo Alto, and we knew his father well for 25 years before his passing in 2000.  Ken was able to email Elder Gong today the link to the audio of Walter's funeral, and the video of the dedication of the grave.  This was one of the many videos that Ken was able to digitize last year while we were home, and he has shared many on his YouTube channel "Ken Allen of Palo Alto."

Most of the week was just office work and preparing for the eleven new missionaries arriving on Saturday.  

 

There were 29 coming to the three South African Missions -- all gathering in Atlanta on Thursday for a red-eye to Amsterdam, and then an all-day flight Friday to Johannesburg.  Our Elders have to overnight in Johannesburg, then fly Saturday morning to Durban.

Sue made a WhatsApp messaging group for our eleven, and it turned out to be a good thing.  In the USA missionaries provide their own smart phone.  When they move from one area of the mission to another (usually every six to nine months), they leave the SIM card in the area.  That way the Church members there always know the phone number of the local missionaries, whoever they are.  So, these missionaries coming had phones, but no SIM cards.  That's OK.  They could register the phone on WhatsApp before removing the SIM card in the USA, and WhatsApp still works on WiFi.  We were so glad to be able to communicate with all of them during the almost week-long travel process.

The COVID test requirement for KLM Airlines is that results must be negative less than 72 hours before arrival in Amsterdam!  That means the missionaries coming have to get their test on Tuesday morning, but they need the results back by Wednesday night to get on early-Thursday flights.  We are six to nine hours ahead of the USA, so Thursday morning we started to get some messages.  Three of our eleven did not get results back in time and would not be flying. Boo Hoo.  But Elder Naisbitt was not one of them.  Hooray!!  This was his third try to come--there were test result problems on the first two tries.  So, we are down to eight.  

Sue's phone is usually set on Do Not Disturb from 10pm to 6am, but she took it off that on Thursday night.  About 2am (8pm in Atlanta) she got a text from Elder Birkeland.  His plane to Atlanta was late, so he missed the flight to Amsterdam.  (Sue went back to sleep--deal with this at a reasonable hour.)  He was being re-routed through Paris!  He had 10+ hours in the Paris airport, then red-eye to Johannesburg.  But his ticket had him on the same flight from Johannesburg to Durban as everyone else.  The only problem was that he had 20 minutes in Johannesburg to get his baggage, go through Customs, recheck his bags and get on the flight.  That was not going to happen.  Easter is a big-deal four-day weekend in South Africa.  Sue sent an email to our usual travel person and got an auto response that she was gone until Tuesday and would not be checking email or phone calls!!  So President Lines called her boss.  He got her to call Sue , and we arranged for a new flight for Elder Birkeland -- arriving at 3 pm in Durban.  All is well.

Once every six weeks the Senior Missionaries do boarding inspections for the young Elders.  A "boarding" is South African for apartment.  We are doing our seven assigned boardings this upcoming week, but one of them is up north by the airport, so we decided to do it on Saturday morning before the airport pick up.  Elders Lutkin and Bibb had the car and apartment in good shape.  We were also able to give Elder Bibb the Easter package his grandmother had sent to him.  He's South African, so sending a package is pretty easy for his family.  

The best part of the visit was Elder Bibb's pet gecko!  It really is live, and just sits on his tie!!

Then we were off to the airport.  We don't usually go to the airport, but with eleven (or eight or seven) arriving all at once, we needed more vehicles.  Ken drove the bakkie (pick-up) to carry luggage.

Flight was due in at 11:35am.  As we were arriving at the airport we got a call from President Lines.  The flight was going to be about an hour late.  So we sat in the airport restaurant with the Lines and the two Assistants and drank mango lemonades.  Yummy.   

Seven came on the scheduled flights. These Elders were all originally assigned to South Africa Durban Mission, but have been serving temporarily in USA Missions because of COVID-19 restrictions.  One has been out almost a year.  Two just started six weeks ago.  The others are in between.  We are so glad to have them all!

In these days of COVID-19, when taking photos the big question is always, "Masks on or masks off?"  Just to be safe, we do it both ways.

  

The Durban Temple is almost on the way from the airport to the Office, so they stop there to take photos.  There is a photo of each Elder with President and Sister Lines, and then group photos.  Sue sends the individual photos to each Elder's family.  Our daughter, Rachel, whose second missionary child is now serving, calls it the "Proof of Life" photo.  Yes--they really made it in one piece!

Next stop is the Mission Office.  Ken and Sue skipped the temple stop because our assignment was to pick up nine pizzas for lunch.  Sue also made a big green salad and a few dozen snickerdoodles (cinnamon cookies--or "biscuits" in South African.)

The Assistants ate quickly, and then took off back to the airport to get our one last Elder.  Luckily the airport is only about 30 minutes away.

Elder Birkeland and also three from Johannesburg and one from Cape Town did not make the Atlanta-Amsterdam flight.  At least Elder Birkeland had good company in Paris.  He arrived in Durban at 3pm, and the Assistants were there to pick him up.  They were able to pick him up, but not his luggage.  That did not make it from Paris to Johannesburg!  He had sent me WhatsApp from there to ask for address and phone number for Mission Office.  KLM is going to deliver it--when they find it.  This is why we tell the Elders to put three or four days worth of shirts, socks and underwear into their carry-on bags!

We were so glad the Elders had phones and could message us during all these changes!  It sure makes tracking long-distance travel easier.

 

After lunch we start orientation.  

Ken talks to them about mission finances and vehicle rules and regulations.  Ken talks to them about being frugal with their money: it's the Lord's funds they are spending.  The don't get enough to eat out every day!

Ken also takes those with driver's licenses for a test drive.  Our last big group were all South Africans, so that was easy.  This group are all from USA, so have to think about driving on the "wrong" side of the road.  One of the rules is "Signal with the blinkers, not with the windshield wipers."  Another rule: "Pray before you drive."  That's understandable in a country where traffic laws are a suggestion.  He takes them in a bakkie because it's big and cumbersome to drive.  If they can drive that, a Toyota Corolla will be a snap.

Sue gathers paperwork--passports, medical info, parent contact info, etc.  She talks to them about boarding inspections and gives the USA Elders a conversion chart to meters and centigrade and kilograms.  

The Assistants talk to them about their Missionary Purpose, Mission rules, daily schedule, etc.

The Social Media Elders show them our Mission Facebook pages and talk to them about following up with people who respond to the pages.  This has become our main means to find people interested in the Gospel.  Going door-to-door is no longer allowed, due to COVID restrictions.  

And through all this, President Lines is pulling them out one-at-a-time to do individual interviews of about 30 minutes each, as the others watch safety videos.  That is all the time he has to get to know them well enough to get the inspiration needed to decide in which area each will serve and who the companions will be. 

 

The new Elders will get their assignments tonight (Sunday) and then leave early Monday morning for the areas where they will serve.

Elder and Sister Van Heerden came from Ladysmith on Thursday to bring Elder Netshiheni, who went home on Friday.  They were going to stay over just one night, so we went out to dinner with them that night.  Friday morning they stopped in the office for a bit to see the plans for all these Elders arriving.  By that time, we knew that our planned-for eleven were down to eight.  President had decided to send only four Elders and one car out west, instead of six Elders and two cars.  The problem is you cannot cram four Elders and all their baggage into a Toyota Corolla.  President asked the Van Heerden's if they would stay over the weekend and drive a load of luggage in their bakkie on Monday morning.  They agreed.  They are such saints.  Elder Van Heerden said, "We are here to serve.  Just tell us what you need."  We gave them some laundry soap to help... .

Ken also had another project this week.  The Social Media Elders wanted a short video to remind everyone about contacting referrals that come in from General Conference.  Conference is playing at 6pm on South African Television, so we expected to get people reacting to that.  That will be the Sunday morning session and will be full of Easter messages, of course.

The Elders and President & Sister Lines made the video and then gave the source material to Ken for editing on really short notice.  Still, it came out really well!  Watch it here.

Sister Lines is a real basketball star!

The puzzle progresses!  Van Heerden's helped again some, too.  

Sue worked on it while we listened to General Conference this morning, too.  The original plan was to average 20 pieces per day and finish it in 100 days.  In the beginning it went much faster than that.  Then the elephant face bogged us down.  However, it just might get finished this week.  April 10th is 100 days!