We have had a crazy 6 or 7
weeks! It has been crazy here since the beginning of November with LOTS
of visitors from South Africa, conferences and Mission Tour. We are
certainly glad that we have our jobs to do and President and Sister Adams do
the 'wild and crazy' things, like traveling all over ALL of the time, and
speaking at all of the meetings in different places.
The second weekend in November Elder
and Sister Cook from the South Africa Area Presidency came, they brought with
them Hugh McKee and Never Phiri. They toured several of the areas in
Madagascar looking at meeting house needs and possibilities.
Dad and I went out to the airport to
meet them when they came back from Tamatave to drive everyone in to their
hotel, and then the Senior Couples prepared potluck lunch for all of them on
Sunday.
When I first started making
arrangements for their trip, I was really intrigued by the name Never Phiri and
commented that I was excited to meet someone with such an awesome name. Never
Phiri is from Zimbabwe and has worked for the Church in South Africa for quite
a few years. He was a super nice guy but doesn't know why his parents named him
that. His parents certainly gave him quite the legacy to live up to with
a name like that. I would think that it would give him confidence and
courage all of his life. He did love it that I really liked his
name. When we took them back to their hotel, I got a picture with
them.
The next week was really calm in the
office because President and Sister Adams were in South Africa for Mission
President Seminar.
The fourth weekend Elder Mkhabella,
an Area Seventy, came from South Africa for District Conference in
Tamatave. They all traveled down there for the weekend so it should have
been calm here in Tana, but that was the weekend of the shooting here in our
neighborhood. Since President and Sister Adams were out of town, and the
Shupes had gone to Tamatave that weekend, also; Dad and I were busy trying to
make sure all of the missionaries were safe and accounted for.
THANKSGIVING
The 'old' people got together and
had Thanksgiving dinner at the Adams. Elder and Sister Shupe had arranged
to get a turkey brought up from Tulear for Thanksgiving. Gaby, one of the
Malagasy guys that help the Humanitarian Missionaries, had killed, cleaned and
plucked the turkey and brought it into the office for the Shupe's to take home
to cook. He was a pretty weird looking turkey with his head and his
feet still intact. I'm used to Butterballs that you get at
the store!
I think that was the toughest turkey
I have ever eaten. It definatly wasn't a butterball, cooked in a
Cook'in Bag! Everything else was good and we had a fun time together and
played some fun games.
It wasn't like being home with all
of the family, but it wasn't quite as strange as the year we had Thanksgiving
Dinner in a bar in the Bahamas!
Robert and Janell Todd from the
Pleasant View 5th Ward are the Senior couple down in Antsirabe (about 3
1/2 hours south of Antananarivo) and they are doing a marvelous job down
there. When they were called to come here, they were given the job of
getting the Antsirabe District ready to become a Stake. They have worked
miracles down there, and the District is doing awesome. They are about
ready to become a Stake. Their District President was recently called to
be a counselor in the Temple Presidency in Johannesburg. It is going to
be great for the Malagasy people to go to the Temple and have someone there who
speaks their language, and knows many of them. The Todd's are training
their second District Presidency now.
The day after Thanksgiving, the last
weekend in November, Elder Gidy, another Area Seventy from South Africa, came
for District Conference in Antsirabe. While everyone was in Antsirabe for
District Conference, Elder and Sister Renlund, the Area President from South
Africa, flew in and joined them in Antsirabe...
AND THEN THE CRAZINESS BEGAN...
The next seven days were super busy
as the Renlunds and the Adams traveled all over the mission holding Zone
Conferences. Monday was Zone Conference in Antsirabe and travel back to
Tana, Tuesday was Zone Conference in Tana and fly to Reunion, Wednesday was
Zone Conference and a fireside in Reunion, Thursday was travel from Reunion to
Tana then on to Tamatave, Friday was Zone Conference in Tamatave.
.JPG) |
| We sure have awesome missionaries here! |
Saturday morning Dad and I got to go
down to the Carlton and have breakfast with Elder and Sister Renlund and then
take them to the airport. What an awesome experience. They are
super nice, 'real' people. We totally enjoyed our visit with them.
What a big job they have for this area of the world, and what great people they
are. All of our missionaries 'felt loved' when they left the Madagascar
Mission.
The next couple of days Elder van
Reenan, another area seventy, was here for meetings. The Senior couples
had a potluck dinner for him on Saturday night and got to visit with him.
He has been here several times since we have been here. He is another awesome
man. He knows Brenton and Janeen Salveson from our home Ward and often
gets to see them when he is in Utah.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec 10 and
11 we had transfers, missionaries going home and new missionaries coming
in. And then training for the new missionaries on Thursday. It is
always sad for us to see the missionaries go home. This time an AP and a
former AP went home, we really get to know and love these young men. It
is kind of like sending one of your own missionaries out all over again - except
that they are going home to their own families so you are also excited for
them.
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| Elder Smith and Elder Rasmussen, both were APs. |
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