Solomon's Porch: November 2010

(Downtown Echuca)

Cheers, Matey's: It's Elder Solomon here; my turn:
In Australia, they only have half as many days in October as we are used to.....it seems as though it went awfully fast!
During the month of October, we had General Conference the last Saturday and Sunday of the month. It is called "Video Conference." The second Saturday and Sunday was Wangaratta District Conference. I was called the Saturday before and asked to be the District Music person and had to put all the music together for the conference. Also I was assigned to talk on Sunday morning. The special number for the Sunday Morning Session was the popular EFY arrangement of "As Sisters in Zion/Armies of Helaman" which had been assigned to each Branch to teach their youth. Shirley felt comfortable right up until Thursday when the District President called and asked her to talk at the Saturday Night Session!! Her topic was "What She Had Done to be a Missionary". She told how her music had been her missionary tool, her Preach My Gospel. It was really a good talk. Saturday morning I waited for the troops of Young Men and Women to show up for the one and only practice. A pleasant group of young women and leaders arrived, however just a few young men showed up. So I rounded up all the Elders who were there for a Missionary Conference, to help the young men. Anyway, I "staged" the song. And because there is no room on the stand , I had the young women sit on the far side of the chapel, and I led them through their Sisters in Zion. Then during the 'interlude' between the songs, the young men and missionaries stormed into the chapel and stood against the opposite wall for a rousing Armies of Helaman, after which the 2 songs were sung at the same time. And everyone was absolutely amazed, and crying. The audience almost jumped up clapping!...it was so exciting! ( It, of course, was a real "Scott.")
The Friday before District Conference, the Mission President had a missionary conference and interviews, so we were in Wangaratta 2 nights. In the Lobby of the Motel, they had a huge photograph that had been taken with a Brownie Camera. It was a 1st World War photo of Military leaders, sitting in a row in front of a Middle East pyramid. As they prepared to take the photo, all the Australian Soldiers climbed the pyramid to get in the photo. There must have been at least 4 or 5 hundred soldiers; some were just 'boys', age 14 and 15. One was even dead and held up by 2 buddies. There was also a father and his 4 sons. They crossed their arms in front and held hands. Most of the men in the photo never came home. We were certainly 'touched' to look at this photo.
Also during the month, we went to Melbourne to hear Sister Julie Beck, General Relief Society President and Pres. Callister, of the Area Presidency, speak. They had a special Missionary Conference in the morning, and in the afternoon a Leadership Meeting for Ward and Stake Relief Society Presidencies. Then in the evening, just for 'sisters', Julie Beck spoke again. I sat in the foyer with the crying babies and heard the whole thing. Each meeting was two hours long. I could not get over the stamina of those leaders. We stayed at the Mission Home with Pres. and Sister Lifferth. They are truly wonderful people. Needless to say we ran up over 3,000 K's on our Toyota this month!
The missionaries out in the Bush where we are serving were not allowed to go to the Melbourne one, because it would cost too many K's; so Sister Solomon took extra good notes; then typed them up for all the missionaries in our District. Then last week, when we did "Flat Inspections" which took us two days and 700 More K's, she handed out the 'notes', as well as large cndy bars banana bread. This month we ran up 3,000 K's but the good news is the petrol is so much cheaper here than at home. It is only $1.25/litre???!!!
We had a baby die in our Branch and it was so very sad.

The funeral was lovely; Scott was asked to speak, so he spoke on the Spirit World where we go after we die. It was excellent, and we hope it brought comfort to many. There are pictures of the unbelievable Cemetery, where the little casket was buried.

We're so grateful to have the knowledge we do about the Great Plan of Life and Happiness.
We are now in the throes of "rehearsal" for our outdoor Christmas Pageant. We are well, feeling the blessings and time is rapidly moving along. It won't be long before we finish and return to Utah. Happy Day!!! Cheers!

Enjoy the pics!!!