Couples Convention

Sister Rands was scheduled to return Sunday evening, 11 March, to Botswana after surgery in Utah; and then drive to Johannesburg, South Africa, with Elder Rands to a Church Education System couples convention starting on Monday evening. Things did not work out as planned. Delta Airlines did not check her luggage through to Gaborone but only to Johannesburg. By the time she went through immigration and collected her luggage she missed the flight to Gaborone which was the last flight of the day. She called the mission office couple, Elder and Sister Oborn, who kindly picked her up at the airport (forty-five minutes away) and put her up for the night. She was blessed that they were home and could come and get her and that she had a South Africa visa; otherwise, she would have spent the night at the airport. All worked out well when Elder Rands drove to Johannesburg and picked her up at the mission office on Monday. We did some work at the CES office and then went to the convention.

The convention was at a large convention resort in Johannesburg. Sixty-five people attended. About a third were senior couples and the rest were Church Education System employees and their wives. People came from Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa.
There was dinner for those traveling from out of town on Monday night. The convention started Tuesday morning and went through Wednesday evening. Each morning was filled with training sessions that ranged from teaching with the spirit, to marriage relationships, and driving safely. It was very interesting and enjoyable to be able to talk with other senior couples and learn about their experiences in different countries. We are pretty blessed to be in Botswana.

Tuesday afternoon there was a video conference from Salt Lake City with Kelly Haws, CES director. We then watched the video "17 Miracles". Wednesday morning there was more training and in the afternoon we all went to the Johannesburg Temple for an endowment session. This was special for us because it was the first time we have been able to attended the temple since leaving on our mission.