Apr 27 07

April 27, 2007

Zone Conference all day today. It was in St. Johns, which is 111 miles from Cibecue. We left at 6:45 and got there in plenty of time.

We always learn something at Zone Conference in spite of the physical torture we endure. President Buttars is very intense and does not believe in taking breaks. This morning we sat for 3 ½ hours with about a 3-minute break to stand up and stretch. Bathroom breaks are considered false doctrine. No doubt he feels that if we had a true testimony we could control our bladders. The senior couples must be a group of real infidels because the minute he says lunch we dash to the rest room.

The stake provided a nice lunch of barbecue beef sandwiches, chips, orange juice and a brownie. They don’t feed our Elders as well as we feed them, but it was good. Sister Lamm, a fellow rebel, went AWOL with me long enough to take a walk around the chapel, then back to our hard seats for another 3 ½ hours. By the end of the day I had a sore tailbone, had worn through the seat of my pantyhose with all my wiggles, my knee hurt and I had a monstrous headache. In spite of President Buttars’ first lecture this morning, which focused on repentance and specifically mentioned Coke, Robert treated all my complaints and ails with a quick trip for a mug refill and a Snickers.

President’s afternoon lecture was on pornography. He had some good information and strongly warned the Elders about the dangers. Apparently, mission presidents now have to check the sites Elders use to send e-mail and make sure the site is trustworthy and adequately supervised. He talked about parents supervising their children on the Internet and made a good point. He said you wouldn’t allow your child to run around the mall unsupervised because it’s not safe. Why would you allow them to use the Internet unsupervised when it is an equally unsafe place.

We finished the day with a Wal-Mart stop and grocery shopping at Safeway in Pinetop. Then we went to one of our favorite restaurants for prime rib, and ran into President Buttars and his wife also waiting to eat there. We’re on our way home now and should be back in Cibecue around 8:30. We plan to go straight to bed, as we are going to Phoenix and back tomorrow, so it will be another early start in the morning.