Missionary conference.

Conference!  I love conference time – especially Missionary Conference.  Here in Maine we have only met a few missionaries who labor here in Augusta and then are transferred.  Two of them were at this conference because they still labor in this zone.  Elder Barfuss from Arizona and Elder Hill from  just south of Manti, Utah.  The other missionaries we have had here have already finished their missions and have returned home.  One thing that set the quiet spiritual tone for the day was  the presence of a Harpist with piano accompaniment.   Very peaceful and inviting to  worship and reverence.

Missionary conferences in Japan were very festive occasions.  Mostly they were held at West Branch out in Kichijoji.  When I was assigned to West Branch, the lady missionaries all came to our apartment and it was like a big slumber party.   We had entirely too much fun in that apartment.  The missionary conference that was the tops of all was the one held at Mt. Fuji.  We stayed in a huge Ryokan with an Ofuro that had one side for women and one side for men.  What a riot.  My companion from Ogden was aghast that we had to bathe in such a public area (we were all women) but she refused.  I did not care – the chance to sit in that over sized hot tub fed by a thermal spring was nirvana to my jangled nerves.  All the sisters were in this huge tatami mat room to sleep on futon and not much sleep took place because it also was one HUGE slumber party.  Elder Bruce R. McConkie was the speaker at the conference and he also interviewed every missionary.  When he found out that I was from Australia, all he wanted to talk about was Australia because he had been a mission president there some years before.  He did not ask me once if I liked my mission or Japan or anything – just peppered me with questions about Australia and the church there.  I knew little about the church in Australia because I had only been a member in Toowoomba for 2 years before I left for Hawaii and had not been back to Australia since I left.

It was cold at Mt. Fuji, but after Breakfast we were all out in the grounds of the Ryokan to get some fresh air before the mornings study session and we were treated to a rare sight.  Mt. Fuji was without even one cloud and I took some wonderful pictures of Fujisan at that t time.  A couple of hours later when we were again outside, Fujisan was covered with clouds.  I have been up on that mountain to the tree line.  At that point there is a Shinto Shrine and a narrow path up to the top.  Did not climb any further because it was too cold at the time I was there.  It was even doubtful that we would be able to even go up as far as the tree line because a day or so before they had received a massive snowstorm on Mt. Fuji, and the road had been closed off.  There were snow monkeys by the side of the road and there are all kinds of stories about the Snow Monkey population.

At today’s conference there were no church leaders other than the mission president and no interviews by anyone – just instruction about doing missionary work.  It was a spiritual boost to say the least.  I think that this was especially so for us because we work with court records where all kinds of human problems are dealt with and the seamy side of life with its parade of ills wears on you after a while.

So, tomorrow it is back to the grindstone of flattening out records and preparing them for digitization  by a new set of missionaries when they arrive sometime in the future.