Last week we had area conference at church. We had to drive to Ikeja, which is about 30 minutes away. It was fun to see another part of Lagos. We were supposed to take security with us, but decided not to since we were going in the day. We got there about 30 minutes early. The church was very nice, with colorful tile on the outside, and padded chairs. I found us seats under a fan. First we had a few callings, then they said Elder Uchtdorf would speak to us, which made me wake up. Then they hooked up the DVD player, and we watched a DVD. This was an Africa-wide conference, so they sent out DVDs because of the unreliable electrical grid (even the generator's aren't always working). First, Elder Pace talked. Then Elder Holland talked. He actually held up, in an official church meeting, a non-church book. It was The Fate of Africa, the book by Martin Meredith that I've been reading. He said that it was both inspiring and depressing. I guess he thought that the drive for nationalism was inspiring. I thought that it was depressing. (Are Apostles allowed to fudge the truth for a good reason?) Most Africans think that independence was a good idea and that a brighter future is right around the corner.

As a mostly separate topic, in Congo/Zaire, a country that has been in the news a lot lately, when they declared independence in 1960, there were 136 children who had completed secondary education (high school). And there were no Congolese doctors, secondary school teachers, or army officers. Because of all the violence, most the Belgiums left immediately. I don't know, it just seems prudent to have a little more infrastructure before you try to become independent. The Congolese were not well treated by the Belgiums, in fact, the Belgiums, far and away, treated their colonies the worst, but still, if you're living in the Congo in 1960, you can't look forwards and see any improvement with independence based on your current situation. (You can read Joseph Conrad, "Heart of Darkness" for a fictional accout of the pre-independence period. Joseph Conrad actually worked in the Congo himself.)

Anyway, the meeting was hugely hot. I thought that's just because it was hot, but afterwards, we went outside and it was cool, about to rain. I can't imagine how hot it would have been if it had been hot outside.

We walked to the Mission President's house, which is on the same compound as the Stake Center. We ate dinner with a couple expats, the mission president and his wife, who just retired from Exxon (after spending the last seven years in Lagos), and a missionary couple. The missionary couple works with the Perpetual Education Fund and paperwork. This was very nice, because no mission president in the US (in his right mind) would ever invite us for dinner. But I guess he thought that he owed us because we brought him about $400 of canned food in our shipment.

They told a lot of hilarious stories. I guess a few years ago, a missionary sued the church because he stopped getting paid after his mission. The missionary won, so now all of the missionaries have to sign statements that they won't get paid after their missions. Apparently, this doesn't quite sink in because most of the members and missionaries are always asking the church leadership why they can't have a church bus to drive them, and why we can't have a University in Lagos like some of the churches, and why the church authorities can't get them jobs. That being said, the missionaries that we have at our house every week seem very nice. Still, it's a completely foreign culture. (Obviously, my comments haven't been approved for publication in The Ensign.)

I guess that there are areas in Africa called "Missionary Wards." These are branches that were created in the push after the Proclamation on the Priesthood when they were baptizing everyone. So there's a lot of these little areas that meet in someone's house, but they don't get any financial support from the church, including literature, tithing funds (nobody even goes by to pick up the tithing, someone has to bring it to a ward in a city), everything. Most of these are located in little villages of a couple of thousand people that are somewhere in the boondocks.

Right now, the Elders are only allowed to proselyte within 30 minutes walking distance of a church meeting house, although our mission president said that he lets them stretch it to 45.

One of the talks, I think Elder Holland, talked about Something Budget Allocation, which explained how the church paid for everything. The crux of the talk was to explain that everything that the church provides has a cost to someone, and that it's not free, and that it's to be received with gratitude. He managed to say this in a sweet and loving way, which was really impressive, and only proves that he must be an Apostle. Because who else can tell you to stop being ungrateful and get up off your butt, and make you feel loved at the same time.