General Conference

Here's Michael at the bus stop. He loves wearing his sunglasses, even on days so overcast that we need an umbrella as well! We live in the second white apartment building in the background. Notice the jungle in this second picture. Only those little concrete barriers keep all that wild vegetation at bay. The variety is astounding.

We had General Conference this weekend instead of last weekend as we are 14 hours ahead of Utah. They just tape it and "rebroadcast" it here the following weekend. Michael and I only made it to the last session, which started at 11:30am. I had forgotten Michael's church bag, even though I had repacked it that morning, so I didn't have his usual activities. Luckily, I had packed snacks in my purse, and I always keep at least one toy and a pen in there for emergencies. He was pretty good. He kept himself entertained by taking four potty breaks. As the bathroom was right out the doors, I let him go by himself after the first time. He was good and never stayed too long.

English sessions in foreign countries are always full of missionaries, so I got to see their reaction to Elder Bednar's talk. You should have seen how happy they all were when he talked about how missionaries are full time teachers and that it is our job to provide them with people to teach. He was pretty direct when he told us it is wrong for us to pray for missionaries to find people to teach, as it is praying for someone else to do our job. The missionaries were glancing all around them to make sure everyone was listening, clapping each other on the back and elbowing each other and grinning. It was pretty funny.

Of course, it was Elder Ballard's talk to young mothers that I enjoyed the most. When he mentioned that we shouldn't turn to substance abuse out of frustration, I found myself wondering if oatmeal cookies count... I can stay away from them as long as I haven't baked them, but once they're out of the oven...

On Friday, I had bought Michael his own little umbrella with a firefighting dalmation on it. It also had a small whistle attached to it, which was Michael's favourite part. I explained to him that he should only blow it if he's lost. He got lost a lot during the past two days. Well, I don't have to worry about him blowing it anymore as he lost his umbrella somewhere while I was talking to some other ward members afterwards. We looked everywhere for it, but no luck. Michael didn't seem too bothered by its loss. Good thing, because I wasn't about to go buy another one.