MISSION TOUR: Twice a year we are privileged to attend a mission tour where a visiting authority comes to buoy up the missionaries, young and old. President Michael Watson, Counselor in the Southeast Africa Area Office and his wife were our visitors. Elder Watson has served as a secretary under 7 LDS Presidents. He learned shorthand in school and has used it in a secretarial capacity first in the Army and then in the Church President's Office for many years. He was very careful about not divulging confidential things, but he did talk about the mechanics of the general conference meetings and how he would make out the scripts for the person conducting, plan the time allottments to the second, and stand on the sidelines with his stopwatch. Sometimes he had to ask speakers to reduce their talks from 9 to 7 minutes, or ask the person giving the closing prayer to keep it to 30 seconds. How would you like to have to cut a speech by 2 minutes on the spot, or to try to give an inspired prayer while looking at your watch and keeping it under 30 seconds?

Elder and Sister Watson had 12 children in 18 years. Sister Watson admitted that she never had any help from Elder Watson on Sundays. Her method of control....if one of the children was acting up down the bench from her she would send a note: "It looks to me like you want to wash the dishes today." She said they shaped up pretty fast because doing dishes by yourself for 14 people is not much fun. Sister Watson also said that she could not tolerate contention and sent children to their rooms to work things out when necessary. This picture was taken at President and Sister Broadbent's home (seated on the right...Elder Broadbent was an orthodontist in the Orem area and Sister Broadbent served on the YW General Board). President and Sister Watson are seated on the left. From the left, seated on the arm is Sister Nevin (office couple from Safford AZ whose husband is taking the picture), we are next, E/S Puckett (Pubic Affairs), E/S Blake (CES, English, leadership in Kalungu Hills where all the baptisms took place on Sunday) , E/S McBride (Mombasa, proselyting. E. McBride is serving as Branch President), E/S Flinders (Perpetual Education Fund, S Flinders is seated), E/S Byrd (Employment). The senior missionaries were invited to a pot-luck dinner in the evening where we were able to talk informally. What a privilege it is to be able to associate with people who are so bright and dedicated to serving the Lord. This is brought home to me every Monday evening when we have FHE together, and on Saturday evenings when we go out to dinner as a group.

This is a picture of the shoes I wore to dinner at the President's home...my focus is obviously not on fashion these days. I put the mismatched sandals on in the morning and hadn't looked down at my feet until I sat down at the group social in the evening. Note the lack of pedicure, and the scabs on my feet from walking through thorny scrub brush areas during our monitoring activities.

Note the Masaai sandals. The Masaai tribe is known for their beaded work, and these are only two of the many styles of sandals you can find for sale in the open markets and on the streets.