Our First Zone Conference

28 April 2018

Last Saturday Bob  and I drove to Manti (about a two-hour drive) and attended the Manti Utah Temple. (Since it’s outside our mission boundaries, we got permission to go.) This temple was completed in 1888, the third temple to be built west of the Mississippi. Though extensive renovations were completed in 1985, they kept the character of the historic building, restoring murals and original furniture, etc. We loved being there! Almost all of the seats are wooden benches, but, we weren't uncomfortable. The celestial room, however, has cushioned seating – and it’s the first time I ever sat in a platform rocker in the temple! (There were only two of them, but, I couldn’t resist.) :-)

On Monday, I won a prize at our bi-monthly Aloha dinner (when we welcome new missionaries and say farewell to the ones who are leaving.) The man who serves as the MC at our dinners is from Hawaii, and he announced that if anyone knew the state fish of Hawaii and could tell him how many letters are in the name, they’d win a prize. Luckily, I knew that the state fish of Hawaii is humu humu nuku nuku apua a, and that it has 21 letters. I won a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts that I shared with our zone the next day. It’s always fun to win a prize!

This week Bob (Elder Crenshaw) organized a zone conference (our first one) and we had a special speaker.

Brother Eric Diazenza is from the Republic of Congo (or, West Congo) and is working here in the Church Office Building with the oral genealogy program. His story is interesting. He was studying to be a priest in the Catholic Church. (Had already completed six years of seminary.) But, during the terrible civil war in his country in 1998, many of the priests were targeted and killed, so it wasn’t safe for them to stay at the churches. Many of them went home to stay temporarily with family. During that time, his family interacted quite a bit with a neighbor family, who were LDS. Eric ended up learning about and joining the Church. The problem for him was that along with separating himself from his former religion, he was also giving up his expected career path. Soon, he moved to South Africa and completed a degree in math. While there he taught middle grades and created a best practices program for other teachers.

He also married and began his family, and eventually was able to come to the United States.

Because he knows the people and the cultures of the many villages in Africa, he has been an invaluable help in guiding parts of the oral genealogy program.

Many, many villages, all over Africa, only have an oral tradition for keeping records. (Written records primarily exist in the bigger cities.) There is a saying that when an old man dies, a library burns. For these villages, that’s literally true. Starting about five years ago, extensive efforts are being made to interview the village leaders – the ones who have memorized all of the family history/genealogy - and, to record the information while these people are still alive. Then, once the histories are recorded, they’re transcribed and processed so they will be available on-line for others to research. In each village where interviews are made, a copy of the records are given to the village for their own future use. It’s amazing how many thousands of records have already been recorded and how many millions more are still to be done! We love being a small part of this great work.

It’s been a good week!