23 April 2012 - General Conference, George Peak

Standing on top of the peak marker.
Unfortunately we were inside clouds
and could not see the view

Hello gentlebody. (I heard a member say that yesterday.)

Okay, kind of a lot of things happened this past week.

Let's see...
General Conference! I loved General Conference too much (that's what some people here say to mean 'very much'). If I were to tell you about my favorite talks I would just tell you about all of them, but I can say the one I took the most notes on is Elder Scott's talk about revelation. That was very informative. I was quite surprised to hear "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" sung in General Conference. Many of you back home may not have ever heard that song before; the first time I heard it was in the MTC. I really love that song though. The whole conference was great.

That's a wild chameleon.
It was in someone's front yard

Monday: Climbed George peak. It was such a workout my legs actually noticeably changed shape. It took about 5 days to stop aching. Tuesday: Had mngqushu (try pronouncing that!) at a member's house.  Wednesday: Had a pretty powerful lesson with a new family. President Mtyobile (At his house was where I had the mngqushu) came with us and shared his testimony.  Thursday: There's a kind of old but still good DVD called Together Forever that investigators can order. We brought the DVD to a man named Enoch and he thought it was awesome. He said he would share it with his family.  Friday: Not too much out of the ordinary happened on Friday.  Saturday: The branch youth hosted a movie night and with President Wood's permission we participated. The movie was amazing. I won't tell you what it was called because I want my family to see it for the first time when I can watch it with them. :)  Sunday: At our last appointment in the day a recent convert family offered rooibos tea because it was a cold and wet night outside. In case you didn't know, rooibos tea is not actually tea and is not against the Word of Wisdom. It was bearable, but I don't think I would choose to drink it.

Today: Hasn't really started yet. We plan to clean.



Standing on top of the peak marker.
Unfortunately we were inside clouds
and could not see the view.

And all of this, of course, on top of normal missionary work. I look forward to seeing you on Mother's Day in only a few weeks.

On the way up towards George Peak,
not long after this the clouds came in

1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,

tune my heart to sing thy grace;

streams of mercy, never ceasing,

call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,

mount of thy redeeming love.

2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer;

hither by thy help I'm come;

and I hope, by thy good pleasure,

safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

wandering from the fold of God;

he, to rescue me from danger,

interposed his precious blood.

3. O to grace how great a debtor

daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy goodness, like a fetter,

bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

prone to leave the God I love;

here's my heart, O take and seal it,

seal it for thy courts above.