Elder Bednar’s Visit part 1

I’m impressed that I have had complaints that I have not posted enough lately. Well I have them ready to post but just not got around to it. As you can imagine it has been very busy in the office since transfers and we only had just over a weeks’ notice that Elder Bednar would be visiting us. It was actually a two mission visit but because it was hosted in Reboubt Chapel which is in our mission we had the responsibility to sort out the seating and car parking. Elder Saunders was responsible for the car parking and with the help of Elder Marsden, Elder Witts and other Senior Elders they did a fantastic job and it went very smoothly. Now the inside was up to me. President Rudd had told me how he wanted the stand organised plus we had to separate Hamilton and Auckland missionaries with the MTC missionaries on the front two rows I put it all down on paper and printed out the reserved seat names and that was it all organised. Other senior couple checked the missionaries at the doors. I know that sounds strange but we had to make sure that all the missionaries were smart and wearing the name badges because they were all going to shake hands with Elder Bednar. Sister Marsden, Sister Witts and I directed them to their seats.

Elder Bednar arrived on time to the MTC but the dedication of the new area at the MTC and the lunch took them over time by 30 minutes. The hand shaking organisation/flow I went over in my head many many times and I finally decided the best way to do it. Then Elder Marsden and Elder Saunders took over so I though “all well anything can happen now” and it did but not in the way we expected. It did not go ahead because of the time factor. Do you know how long it would take to shake nearly 600 missionaries hands? Well I for one was eager to know. Maybe next time!

                                                                      Auckland             and              Hamilton Missions