Excitement?

Being on the District Council, I get to speak out at the ex twigs (branches in the Richards Bay District) that have - like everything else at the coast - grown beyond all imagination. A twig is a dependant unit that is going to grow into a branch! The only unit that was never a twig is the Mother Ship of the Richards Bay branch!

With a temple announced for Durban, I forsee that - like in the Amazon Basin - membership in the new Temple Area will take off! Would it not be great if a mini temple were announced in Richards Bay in the future? Dont hold your breath though! An hours drive to Durban is not so bad, considering that when I lived in Johannesburg, I was at least 45 minutes away from the Temple - less time if I had dared to venture on the busiest freeway in Africa. I have since realised that traffic gives me night sweats! I prefer to live where if 2 cars a day drive past, it is very busy, and 4 lanes of choked up freeway leaves me stone cold!

I was assigned to talk this last weekend at our Port Durnford Branch, and arriving there, I could definitely feel the love of the members. I have developed a style of speaking that I admired in the Stake President we had when we were part of the Durban Stake. He used to speak from his heart, and introduced humour in his talks. I find that this works for me - and is a great indication if the congregation at the back of the room understands what I say.

I can see that they are amuzed at what I say, instead of how I say it - and I am looking forward to speaking at District Conference sometime in the future. Then I know that I get maybe 10 minutes to talk, I am positive that I can cope with 10 minutes. I figure if they smile - or snigger - at what I say, there is a better than average chance that it will sink in - at least deeper than skin deep!

I am so glad that I dont need to battle against opposing congregations who are meeting when we meet and try to drown us out!