Branch Conference - Sunday, Oct 25, 2009

We were hoping today at church would go as planned by the Branch Presidency. In anticipation of Branch Conference today, where the Stake Presidency and all the Stake leaders would be present, there was a huge effort made to increase our attendance.

Yesterday, all the branch members were asked to come together at the church and get invitations and a list of less active members to contact and invite to the conference today. It was mainly the auxiliary presidencies who participated. It is not like in Utah where a small area can be canvassed. If a car is not available, it requires taking the colectivos and walking to get to the homes of the members.

Some success was realized, as there were a few people at church today that came because of the contact and personal invitation. Hopefully they will continue to come. But, the numbers in sacrament meeting greatly improved today because of the all the stake visitors. It was a welcomed sight to sit on the stand as we do and look out on about 90 faces. The room looked full and we are sure President Torre was pleased.

As we walked through the door today, we were met by our Stake Presidency. Hurry, get the camera. We need to take advantage of this photo opportunity while it is here. The Stake President, Jose Batalla, is a distinguished man who has been a member most or all of his life. He mentioned in his talk about serving a mission in his youth. His counselors are Arnaldo Ullua, and Jose Maciel. The counselors work up at the Area Offices. When we have been there, we have seen them at a desk working their computers. We don't know what their jobs are.

Elder Kroff's Sunday School class was full. Even the Stake President was in attendance. He probably wanted to see how this gringo from the States taught a class.

Hermana Carbajal was ecstatic that the Relief Society room was full to capacity. The Stake President even attended and took some time, but I don't know what he was talking about. Then the Stake Relief Society President taught the lesson. She is young and cute . . with red hair. So all in all it was a successful conference and a good day at church.

We decided to wait for the bus by the stop on the corner by the church. We didn't want to walk up to the park area where there is more activity. We decided there weren't any more buses up that way on a Sunday. We no sooner got to the corner, than we could spot the bus coming. We hardly had time to get the pesos out.

From our balcony we could see forever. The day was clear and we decided to try out our new tripod.

After turning on our computer, Rich noticed that the Crawfords in Catania were on skype. He called them and they answered. It was so good to see them and talk to them. Well, sometimes talk to them. They could hear us, but we had problems hearing them consistently. We talked fast and shared as much information as we could before giving up when the sound kept failing. We'll try again another time. They are enjoying their mission and looked so cute on the screen.

When I got up from taking a nap, Rich was excited to tell me what he found out while searching for a way to publish our blog when we finish our mission. He found a website that can download our blog into a bound book. There are 70 layouts and themes to choose from and it will take up to 400 plus pages in one book. We could split it in half and do nine months in one book and nine in the other. They charge by the page. What we have so far in seven months would cost around $69. So that amount will increase, but any amount is worth it for us. It will be a journal record of this wonderful experience to pass down to our children and grandchildren. We are excited, and so glad we decided to record our daily experiences and pictures on a blog.

Thanks, Melissa, for setting it up and getting us started. And thanks to our Swiss missionary friends, the Doyles, for being such good examples of record keepers. You always have been, and it has inspired us.