General Conference from Abroad

29 October 2008
Dear Family:

Here is a diary entry to let you know what's been happening in our part of the world. You are in our thoughts and prayers even though we are not keeping up with our emails.

Love to all,
MOM and DAD, Grandma and Grandpa, Stan and Karen, President and Sister Allen

Week 40—October 6-12, 2008

6th: We got up early this morning and drove out to the Daan Viljoen Animal Park. We stayed there about 3 hours and saw zebra (too flighty for pictures), giraffes (too far away for good pictures), warthogs (too fast for pictures), and wildebeasts, impala, gemsbok , kudo foraging at a river bottom. In the afternoon Stan washed the car, we collected posted for the elders, and the missionaries came to our house to play board games. But the most exciting thing of the day was that we received an email from Scott telling us that Merilee had her baby. He DID NOT, however, give us any details other than Mom and Baby were doing fine. We emailed him back asking him for details, especially BOY??? GIRL???. He responded back, “Ask Merilee!”

7th: Today we received the details on our new grandchild from Julie and Scott. Alexander Douglas Swain was born + - 9pm Sunday evening, October 5. He weighed 8lbs 2 oz and is 21” long. Scott sent photos and a video of Christie and Jordan talking about their little brother, and Merilee telling us a little about the birth. On the mission front, we picked up Brother Hutton and went to the Municipality and found that not much progress has been made on the purchase of the Katutura property. We then went over to Maureen Henckert’s (Windhoek Branch) with Bro Hutton to get info on missions served by Namibian branch members. She ended up giving us 4 loose leafs of info on the history of the Wind Branch. She told us that the mission couples have had these books and were responsible to keep them up to date. (How or why she had them, we do not know.) In the afternoon we went with Bro Hutton to see the Elmarie Visser, the church’s attorney here in Wind regarding the Kat property purchase.

8th: Today was the first day of our mission that we spent the entire day here at the house! Stan worked in the yard pulling weeds and raking rocks while Karen did the laundry and ironed white shirts. We sent emails to Logan Hugo, church real estate agent in Johannesburg, updating him on the happenings of the last month regarding the Kat property sale. We also emailed Sebastian Thomas in Cape Town inquiring as to the availability of funds to install fans in the Kat building. Stan worked on organizing the history books given to us by Maureen. We got things together for the elders’ car/flat inspections tomorrow.

9th: Between 8am and 12:30pm we inspected the 8 elders’ flats and their 4 cars. We are reasonably satisfied with the care the elders are giving to their flats and cars. In the afternoon Karen worked on her Primary sharing time lesson/project and Stan continued to work on the Wind Branch history books. We found some very interesting documents including when Elder Russell M. Nelsen of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated the land of Namibia for the preaching of the gospel. We also found that there was very little info for the last few years. As we were doing inspections this morning, we obtained from each of the elders the title of the General Conference talk they enjoyed most which we will download from the internet and give to them tomorrow at district mtg. so they use the talks for personal study. We checked the church’s website several times during the day, but it was not until about 10pm that the talks were posted on the internet.

10th: No post today for dist mtg—the elders are sad! Elders Thethe/Judd’s car went in for repairs today. Dist mtg. with the Wind dist was very enjoyable. Elder Antoine is a very spiritual leader. We received a response from Logan Hugo and delivered it to Bro Hutton. We picked up a prescription for Elder Domingos.. We went to Kat at 5:15pm for Karen to have a mtg. with the RS presidency, but no one showed up. We later learned that there was a miscommunication and the mtg. was actually held yesterday. After waiting for about 45 minutes we left and decided to “scout out” some potential chapel sites in Otjomuise which Stan found record of in the files. There are actually a couple of pretty good sites, but few members live there and distance and the accompanying transport is a problem.

11th: We picked up the elders’ post and delivered it to the zone leaders who told us transfer news. We will be losing 4 elders—1 zone leader (Elder Lovett), both district leaders (Elders Antoine, Carter) as well as Elder Thethe. We will be receiving Elder Parsons, one of the APs as a zone leader, and 3 greenies directly from the MTC. At 11am Stan met with pres Swartbooi relative to the fans for the Kat building as well as other projects. At 2pm we attended the baptism in which 4 new members were added to the Wind branch. It was a wonderful baptism and they are very wonderful people—an attorney (cousin to Bro Samaheya of the Wind Branch Pres)and his wife (Bro/Sis Matota), a college graduate daughter of a member (Wilma Viviers), and the daughter of a high-ranking Namibian legislator (Welwitcha Baptista). In the late afternoon we went to Kat and opened the building for the seminary and institute students.

12th: Fast Sunday was today because of Gen Conf last week. We attended the Kat Branch. Karen assisted with sharing time in primary and then taught the RS lesson (she was asked to do so as she went from Sacrament Mtg. to primary!) There was only time to peruse the lesson during the opening song and announcements before giving the lesson. It was about the Prophet Joseph Smith and his teachings on the Lord “proving” us to see if we will be faithful, and his blessings if we are. The spirit helped her give the lesson! After meetings Karen helped a sister fill out an order to purchase garments and Stan gave a young sister a blessing. In the evening Stan taught the dating fireside. The questions which we addressed in the fireside included cultural practices which are in conflict with church standards, marrying cousins, matchmaking, postponing marriage because of education, and poverty/unemployment. Resources used included Elder Oaks’s talk “Repentance and Change” Ensign, Nov 2003 and Elder Scott’s talk in Gen Conf April 1999.