Zone Conference

We attended Zone Conference this morning with the young missionaries. They are so fun to be with. They are so enthusiastic about missionary work. President and Sister Granger work hard to help them stay focused on the work. They memorize all kinds of things, and boy can they recite them. We attended the morning session of training, and then went to Golden Port for lunch with them. The Golden Port is a fairly nice hotel, with a pretty good, and reasonably priced Chinese restaurant. Greg and I took three darling sisters with us to the restaurant. Two were from Tonga and the other from Malaysia. They are new to the mission and seem to be adjusting pretty well. If I remember to attach a picture, it's with me, the three sisters and Sister Granger. Don't focus to hard on my hair! I got scalped again the other day. I guess I'll just plan on having bad hair days until I get home! ha! They really don't know how to cut hair very well here. Anyway, lunch was really fun. We sat at a table with several Elders that were a hoot! They can put the food away too, especially the Tongan Elders. At our table we had Elders from Idaho, Mexico City, Tonga, Philipines, and Vanuatu. It is so
amazing to be with these fabulous missionaries from all over the world.

Friday night, the seniors were invited to attend the last two hours of the zone conference. If you ask me to describe the room that night, I would say that it was spiritually energized! Those missionaries are so well prepared to teach the gospel. They know the scriptures and have strong testimonies. President and Sister Granger love them and want them to be successful, and they are.

This weekend was conference weekend for us. We met at the church and watched conference with the members. Saturday, we met from 10:00-12:00 for the morning session, with a hour break, then from 2:00-4:00. We had the same schedule on Sunday. Many of the members brought a lunch and had a picnic outside and waited for the next session. They walk everywhere they go, so they don't just run home for a quick bite. Today is Sunday, and I was sitting outside visiting and taking pictures of the pikinini's as we waited for the afternoon session to start. One of the mothers had a pikinini that wasn't feeling well, so Greg and I took her home. You should have seen the bumpy road we took to get her home! Luckily we have a four wheel drive truck or we wouldn't be able to get around. We loved being able to watch conference with the members. They are trying hard, and are good members. I think I mentioned, that conference was translated into Bislama. They had a room for those that wanted it in English. We had quite a few that sat in on the English version. Many of the members can speak fairly good English, way better than my Bislama. Many want to learn English too, so its good
for them to listen. Wasn't conference outstanding?! It was fun to hear Elder's Stevenson, the apostle, and Elder Ardern, of the Seventy, because they were just here to visit Vanuatu. The members were excited to see them speak again.

 A few weeks ago, the District Presidents from Malekula, Santo and Tanna were here in Port Vila for some training. President Granger had things to train them on, and Greg talked to them about some audit issues. President Granger always has big bowls of candy on the tables for those he is training. After training, the Presidents gave a look as if to say, "do we get the candy"? President Granger told them they could have the candy. Greg said, they all stuffed their pockets full. He said it was so funny. I'm sure they don't see a lot of candy, let alone have the money to buy it. The next time we go to the islands to do the audits, I'm going to bring them each a bag of candy.

We got an email the other day for the Area Auditor, Glen Reid, inviting us to attend Assistant Area Audit Training, at the service center, in Fiji, 26-30 November. We are really excited. We had a lay over there before coming to Vanuatu, so it will be fun see the island. We'll send pictures! I'll close for now, but we want you all to know that we miss you and love you all very much!

Love, Elda and Sista Robison