Friday was the first day of the conference, and the first day that we got to hear from Elder Sitati. We had a combined Zone Conference with all of the elders in Bo and Freetown at Beliar Park. It was SWEET! We received instructions from the assistants to the President, President and Sister Roggia, and Elder and Sister Sitati. It was just amazing. Elder Sitati is just one of the most down to earth people ever. He's a real person! Not some super-charged spiritual coalescence of power! His instruction was basically a one hour Q and A period with the Elders. He shared a lot of awesome experiences, and gave some inspiring counsel regarding the selection of an eternal companion. ;) The advice that he gave there was especially good.
Saturday was another busy day for us, because my companion and I had to be Elder Sitati's piano ghosts, appearing wherever he was to accompany the singing. It was EXHAUSTING!! Saturday morning we took a taxi all the way from Wellington to Beliar Park to accompany the Priesthood and General Adult sessions, in the which Elder Sitati destroyed false notions about the "church in Africa" versus the "church in America." People here have the stupid idea that they are different, and we spend so much time convincing them otherwise! Elder Sitati sure helped us out. And, as an African general authority, he did an excellent job of destroying notions regarding mixing traditions and culture with the church. Some people in the church fight juju with juju, rather than depending on God. Anyone at the conference would now think better of that! I was grateful to be there.
After the sessions of the conference, the Assistants drove us, President and Sister Roggia, and Elder and Sister Sitati to the Kissy chapel (it was to drive us close to home, which was nice). I got to ride in a car with a General Authority! It was way nice. I just loved listening to him talk. He was going there for the open house and to prepare for the dedication the next day. As soon as we got there, we went proselyting.
Sunday was probably the busiest. We got up early to go to the dedicatory prayer in Kissy for the new chapel, and then left right before the conference session started so that we could find transport to west end. I gotta admit, any kind of travel from East to West or vice versa is STRESSFUL!! Eastern Police is a junction of a main thoroughfare of Freetown, and you HAVE to go through it to reach the other end of Freetown. Yeah, thousands of cars, one intersections. Who's idea was this?
Anyways, the transports operate as follows: Poda-podas and taxis labeled for West end operate West of Eastern Police, and those labeled for East end operate East of Eastern Police. So, to get to Beliar Park, one has to take a poda/taxi to Eastern Police, then find another poda/taxi to beliar park (if you are quite lucky, you only need to transports, though you usually have to take a third and sometimes fourth). Yeah, not fun. So, we had to do that from Kissy to Beliar, East to West, in order to meet Elder Sitati at the conference that was going to take place in the West. Yeah, piano ghosts, eh?
The conference in the West was wonderful and all, and the Freetown district was split into East and West districts, which is nice. After our duty was finished, we were left to ourselves to find transport from West to East (which we weren't able to. We WALKED from Beliar Park to Eastern Police before we found a ride! It was so far...).
So yeah, that was the majority of my week! Kinda hectic, kinda awesome. I have a few more pictures, but for the sake of time, I have to save them for later. Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Vaughan
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