Two days before we left So. Africa to attend Jeff's brother Paul's funeral in Las Vegas, we had planned to go on a walk with our upstairs neighbors. Elder and Sister Cook. Just before they stopped to get us at our front door, I had the thought to grab two of the EFY t-shirts we brought with us from home. Several years ago, Jeff and I served for 3 years on the EFY committee which planned and created the new "stay-at-home" EFYs. Each year since then, we get together with the committee and have dinner and lots of fun. Just before leaving for Joburg, we met again as a group at Heber and Ardeth Kapp's home. The church-wide EFY director, Greg Tanner was there and as usual, he brought all of last years EFY paraphernalia and let us help ourselves. Greedily, I decided to grab t-shirts for our SA Area Presidency and wives. I thought that this occasion of our walk with the Cooks would be a great opportunity to present the first shirts.
As an opener to giving them, we told them that we had served on this EFY committee...etc. and these were just shirts from the past year. We never even think of EFY except when we get together and we NEVER talk about it so this was just a fluke to even bring it up but we did need to explain the shirts. Elder Cook's mouth just dropped open and he sort of turned red and looked at his wife and back at us - asking a couple of questions about it and then we went for a walk to the most beautiful neighborhood.
After the walk we came to our home for dinner and Elder Cook started asking questions again about EFY. Then he told us that he had been given the assignment to organize the first official EFY in So. Africa and he had been at a loss of what or how to do it. Two days later as we were departing for the airport, he stopped by our flat and called us to serve as the "coordinators" for SA. I quickly fired off and email to the Kapps telling them about the call and Ardeth wrote back saying that her sister and brother-in-law, Ralph and Sharon Larsen, were the International Coordinators for EFYs and the international program is called Special Multi-stake Youth Conference. By the time I got to Las Vegas for the funeral, I had connected with the Larsens and scheduled a meeting with them the following week when I spent 3 days in Salt Lake after Paul's funeral.
The Larsens were great, explained the program, answered many questions and loaded me up with materials to read and learn. When I got home to South Africa, we were set apart by Elder Cook to be the In-Area Coordinators for the first official Gautang, So. Africa SMYC in 2013.
The story continues when we met three lovely blond ladies 3 days later who were visiting from Zimbabwe where they live. They are: Cecilie Lundgreen (Cece), Reeve Nield and Lourette Mauritz (Lolly). They were on their way to a huge women's pro golf tournament in Austraila where Lolly and Cece will compete and Reeve (long hair) will coach them. We lunched with them at Mike's Kitchen and found that one of the reasons they came was to seek for direction and help from the Area Office with the youth conference they are planning for this coming summer. Last year, they had great success with over 500 youth attending and they wanted to expand their conference to be a multi-stake youth conference (EFY - or SMYC). They have about 2,000 lined up to attend and they ran into just the right people to assist and point them in the right direction - we hope!
Coincidentally, a couple of years ago on Thanksgiving weekend in Salt Lake, our son-in-law Nate, asked if we wanted to help with some service in packing a couple of containers to ship to Zimbabwe for a youth conference. There, our family met these same three women. They do great service for the people of Africa. Cece is from Norway, Lolly from the UK (born in SA) and Reeve from Zimbabwe. Now, they live and train in Zimbabwe but get around the world of golf everywhere and do tons of service along the way. Now we will try to reverse the service and see how we can be of help to them and the youth of Zimbabwe.
These wonderful ladies offered a golf lesson to us and to the whole Area Office. Some of us took them up on it and others stayed home and worked instead of having a great time on the driving range. I have to say that it was quite invigorating and exciting to have this great golf lesson from the pros.
Here is a picture of the group who decided to play instead of work!!!
Me and my new Norwegian friend Cecile Lundgreen
They told me that they would help me pick out a set of clubs when they come back in March.
Hmmmmmm...... tempting! I had so much fun that afternoon. Am I too old to learn to play golf?
Dominique was happy with his swing. His wife was not so sure but had fun.
Lolly and Cece showed us how to hit the ball a mile and Reeve gave us full coaching. These ladies are "the champs!"
I think I just figured out why old people like to play golf every day.
It is really fun!!!!
Ever since this lesson, I've been trying to figure out time and a way to get back out there to swing that club again. It was a delightful afternoon.
Back to callings....
So the callings did not end there. On Sunday, the Bishop called us into his office and extended a call to me to be the ward Young Women's President. That was a complete shock!!!! Jeff is the Sunday School President so we will be on the Ward Council together! It is fun to serve in a ward again. We have not had Ward callings for about 11 years since our 3 year mission and 8 years doing Utah North Area Public Affairs. Now we will be officially busy all the time. Between golf and church service, the only thing that is missing is loved ones to be here with us.
No comments:
Post a Comment