Thursday

Hi, We just had zone conference today and it was an excellent day. We had Elder Watson and his wife here (they have been on the mission tour for the past 10 days or so and we are the last stop). He is a councilor in the area presidency and has been serving for a year so far. He is also a member of the 1st quorum of seventy. Before this he was secretary to the 'twelve' and the first presidency and took the minutes, etc. at their meetings. He did that for 38 years. He talked
about missionary work, of course, and working with members and with the bishops/branch president and the ward councils.

Sister Watson talked about the articles of faith and the doctrines covered in them. She ended by telling us: Be strong, Don't give up, Endure to the End.

Pres. Dube talked about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings us all together, no matter where in the world we are. He also talked about the atonement. Sis. Dube talked about looking for Christ-like attributes in our companions and also about faith to follow the Lord's commandments and not to ever doubt. The conference ended with a wonderful roast beef fillet dinner with peppercorn sauce or mushroom sauce, scallop potatoes, butternut squash, broccoli and ice cream sundaes for dessert.

We are going to Merci's at 5 p.m. to give her a new member discussion. She wants us to teach her about 'gifts of the spirit' as she missed that Sunday School lesson week before last. When we saw her a couple of days ago she told us that something really good happened at church on Sunday. She said a lady sat by her in SS class and she found out from her that she and her husband had been driving by and decided to check out our church as they are looking for a new one. She said they never drive down this particular street but for some reason did Sunday
morning. Merci got them Book of Mormons and introduced them to the missionaries. (the missionaries have a discussion set up for Saturday). Merci said that in R.S. she and the lady (Lucy) were talking and she ask Merci where she worked and Merci told her that she had a restaurant and what it is called. Lucy ask her if she worked with 'Merci' and she said, I am Merci. Anyway she had recently talked to this lady, Lucy on the phone when she had called to book a birthday party for her daughter at her restaurant. Merci is SOOOO good. She told Lucy that it wasn't just by chance that they drove past the church that morning. She explained a few things to her and told her that she was a brand new member and how wonderful it all is. Lucy ask how long it had taken for Merci to be taught and get baptized. I guess in R. S. there was talk about getting baptized for the dead and Merci explained to her that it sounds "weird" but that it is okay.

Merci wants us to go see them and explain more about the church. We will try and do that tomorrow if we can get hold of Lucy - so far we haven't been able to.

We met our friends Carol and Ellson on our morning walk yesterday and they, along with their mother, have been reading the Book of Mormon we gave them. Carol said she has a lot of questions and want us to meet with them. The mother called yesterday and will call in a day or two to set up a time for next week. :) This is so fun!!!!

We were out yesterday talking to people in a community about a borehole (well) that they would like us to do. We are working with them to teach that they need a water committee and what the committee needs to do. They are starting to understand it all and get themselves organized. When we left the area we saw a boy down in a manhole in the street bringing up water in his container - it wasn't sewer water, but I'm sure it wasn't too clean. They get water
wherever they can. Hopefully we can get some boreholes in the area for them - we are looking at 3 schools and 2 areas in business centers where we would like to do boreholes. It is a lot of work to get it organized but we are working on it. It will take some time to put it all together. It will be exciting if it all happens or even part of it.

SA has requested that all the humanitarian couples go out and check on previous projects and see if they are still functioning and if the committees are doing their jobs. This will take some time but should be interesting. They want us to select a few (mostly water projects) and get what information, feedback and recommendations. This will take some time but they want the reports back by Oct. 23rd.

Need to run and go to Merci's.
Love to all. The Bullocks