Saturday, May 23, 1970

The floor was hard last night, and sleep was not always the order of the night. I finished my talk for the conference before we left for the chapel on Rua das Ninfas in Boa Vista. A lovely chapel. President Johnson, flying in from Fortaleza, was nearly an hour and a half late, putting everything that much behind schedule. It was wonderful seeing President and Sister Johnson again. They are special people.

The conference theme, “Man Know Thyself,” was considered from the following aspects: (1) knowing who you are, a child of God, possessing Godlike qualities and potentials; (2) respecting that divinely born person, you; (3) guarding your “me intake”; and (4) standing up for yourself, being true to your own convictions. As always the remarks by President Johnson were timely and inspiring. Because everything was running late, the President had time to interview only the junior companions.

Following the testimony session of the conference, all the elders resorted to a certain school to play a quick basketball tournament. Each district was a four-member team. Each game lasted 15 minutes. We learned that Maceió was rated number two, behind Elder Christiansen (Recife zone leader), who is quite a basketball player, and his district. Our first game was against them, and we lost miserably. They went on to capture the tournament, while we took consolation, tying for second place. Sister Johnson kept score and time. A zone-against-zone volleyball game had also been planned, but we ran out of time.

In the evening we headed for the Boa Viagem beach, near the hotel of that name, where President and Sister Johnson were staying. I made an opportunity to speak with the President about Maceió and the branch and its many problems. His instructions were to spend more time on member and branch work and less on proselyting. He is concerned about the branch and does not want to close it. He plans to visit Maceió on his next visit north in about two months.

Rain has been falling nearly all day, and we expected at any moment to be rained out as we gathered on the beach. It did sprinkle a few times on us, but it turned out a lovely evening. We sat on the beach around a roaring fire, eating a fried chicken sack lunch dinner, listening for nearly two hours while President Johnson told us his life story, with particular emphasis on his mission experiences in Brazil in the early 1940s. Those were rich moments listening to him. If time later permits, I will here recount some of what he related.