Finishing up Zone Conferences

This round of zone conferences was pretty quick. We were spending the time helping the missionaries to prepare for a visit from an Apostle. We also brought our AP's with us to do leadership training before the actual zone conference. It really helped to lift and strengthen the Zone Leaders, District Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and Trainers.

In Kampala, we combined the North and South Zones, and brought in Masaka Zone as well. President Collings talked with them about spiritually preparing to meet Elder Stevenson. He invited them to ponder and pray about appropriate questions they could ask him if he opened it up for questions. One of the missionaries said he was really having a problem. He said he would think of a question, and pray about it and the answer to the question would come. He couldn't save it to ask Elder Stevenson. So then he would ponder and pray about another question, and again, his question would be answered. We decided that's not a bad problem to have.

Kampala North, Kampala South, and Masaka Zones

The assistants to the president don't usually travel with us. This training of leaders was a rare exception to what we normally do. Elder Rawlings was previously a missionary in Rwanda, so it was exciting for him to go back and see some of the people he had taught and grown to love. However, Elder Gwatidzo has never served outside of Uganda. It was a real treat to show him Rwanda and Ethiopia. He came to realize that it really feels like we have three separate missions. The countries are all so different from each other. 

Rwanda Zone at the K2 Chapel

Ethiopia Zone

A couple of funny stories to tell you about our experience with zone conference in Ethiopia. We actually flew to Addis Ababa on my birthday. I don't make a big deal about my birthday anymore, sometimes I'd prefer to just forget about it. When we arrived at the airport the missionaries that were there to pick us up were very sweet and wished me a happy birthday. There were two vehicles to pick us up. So as we were getting into the cars, I just said goodbye to the other missionaries and that I would see them the next day for zone conference.

When we got to the hotel, the other vehicle was there too. When we went inside, I was so surprised to see all of the missionaries there with a Birthday CAKE! We all went into a small conference room to eat the cake and they sang the Happy Birthday song to me in Amharic. So FUN! I was completely surprised. It was a very memorable birthday. 

Happy 49th to ME

The next day we had zone conference. We usually have a meal after zone conference. When we had a senior couple here, they would usually prepare a meal for us. Sometimes we have one of the members make a meal, which is wonderful. But this time we decided to go to a hotel that is right by the chapel, and order some food. The food was actually pretty good, however, President Collings and about 2 or 3 of the other missionaries decided to order Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was stuffed with cheese and broccoli, etc. He had eaten more than half of it when he actually really looked at the chicken, and it was raw. Like VERY raw. We were so worried that he would get salmonella or some other type of food poisoning, that I sent a message to the Area Doctor for advice. Apparently, the daily drug we take for Malaria Prophylaxis saved the day. He said it should have helped protect him from it. We were grateful we have been diligent in taking our doxy!