LDS CONFERENCE WEEKEND

Dear Family,

We had a busy week during LDS General Conference. It is a great time of instruction, counsel and reunion. I love General Conference and each year appears to be better.

The first thing we had was a meeting of Collegium Aescalapian which is a society of LDS physicians. We went to the dinner Thursday night during which President Uchtodorf talked about the Church's extensive humanitarian program. On Friday there was a papers presentation and the best thing I have ever heard there was a talk by a Sister Brunner from South Africa. She was born on a ranch in the Transkei in South Africa, and had two Xhosa nannies. She learned to speak Xhosa which is a clicking language. She joined the church and went on a mission. Since she spoke Xhosa fluently she was sent to those people who number eight million. She began translating church material in Xhosa.

This is what is said about the language. Xhosa is a tonal language that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonants. Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet-based system. Three letters are used to indicate the basic clicks: c for dental clicks, x for lateral clicks, and q for palatal clicks Tones are not indicated in the written form’. She was asked to translate the Book of Mormon in Xhosa and did so. One of the best talks I have ever heard!

Friday night we had our Munich-Austrian Missionary reunion. The numbers have decreased over the last three years as many have married, finished school and followed careers elsewhere but it was great to see those who are still in the area and could come. It was great to see everyone. Each spoke for a minute on what they were currently doing. President and Sister Lutz Sommer was there. He is President of the Munich Stake and reported on what was going on there now. So great to see them also. We had about 40 - 50 thee including little kids.

Conference started on Saturday and Saturday evening was Priesthood Meeting and the tradition is that as many sons and son in laws and grandsons come to the meeting in our ward and after we have a steak barbecure. We always did this and in Boston, the treat was a trip to Mc Donalds and Doug remembers that it was Roy who got the Big Mac because he was a Deacon and all the others got the plain hamburger. We continued this in Michigan and went to Big Boy or Beau Jacques. When we moved to Utah we found that everyone in the valley had the same idea and we had these celebrations at home. We cooked 12 New York Strip steaks, smoked ribs and Mom made her traditional ice cream cake. I asked everyone to summarize the talks and they did well.

Mary and Mark were in town babysitting Cheryl's kids while they were in China. They brought the kids over for conference. Mom made conference paketes for everyone which included a notepad, conference bingo, conference quizes. word searches and plain paper to take notes. They did a good job in the beginning and there were prizes for those who had legible notes.

Roy has a good plan which he has used for years. He gives his kids $1.00 for good notes on each and every conference talk. On Monday, they go over the notes, discuss conference and get the rewards. Maybe there should be other incentives but this seems to work in his gang. A few years ago when asked what the Prophet said a reply from the youngest was, "Be nice, don't fight, don't bite" Now however he was able to note that Pres. Packer loves the scriptures and discussed his talk. Anyway, conference was great!

After conference, we had a visit from Sister Muench who came over from East Germany to visit her daughter Katje and husband Dan and the grandchildren. She came out for conference.

It was great to see her. I gave my fireside in her Cottbus ward when we were in Germany in October and she drove us down to Freyberg for Steffi's wedding. Small world in the church.

We had to dash over to Doug's. Doug was called to the High Council; I ordained him a High Priest and he was set apart on Sunday night. Here we are with Doug.

Well we were pretty bushed by the end of the week. It is April now and we have 19 birthdays in April! Roy turns 50 this month and it is unbelievable what has happened to time. Lexie graduates from BYU and will be our first grandchild to graduate from college.

More later.. love,

Mom and Dad