Our Cairo church branch is part of the Cairo District. This district covers the top of Africa including, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Sudan. Spencer Penrod, who we knew when we lived in Egypt previously has been serving as the district president for the last 6.5 years. Yesterday, Spencer was released in a special district conference and Mark was called as the new District President.
Mark met with Elder Funk and Elder Singer, of the district presidency out of Salt Lake back in August right after we arrived. Not much happened from that meeting so we didn't think much of it. In fact, shortly after that meeting Mark got called as a counselor in the branch presidency so we figured they found someone else to replace Spencer who was moving to Virginia the end of September. We were wrong. About a week and a half ago Elder Funk's secretary emailed Mark asking to meet with us both. We met over Zoom and they extended the call to Mark.
This calling is similar to a stake president in an area with more members. While our district covers a very large area it does not have a lot of members. I am still not entirely sure all that will be entailed but we are ready to figure it out and try our best. Mark did call one of the humanitarian missionaries currently serving in Sudan to be his counselor which will be a great help. There could be travel involved but with Covid restrictions it may not be for awhile yet. I think it will be a lot of mentoring and training. There are some important people from SLC coming out to visit mid-October so we have a meeting this week to figure out what that will involve. I read the itinerary today and it feels like a lot but the humanitarian missionaries serving here take on a lot of that planning/hosting. The district Relief Society President is here in our Cairo branch and she helps a lot too. It will be quite the adjustment.
Both Mark and I bore our testimonies last night to the whole district. It was a weird sense of deja-vu as we just did this in April. Elder Hern (in Sudan), the Penrod's and Elder Funk did as well. I went before Mark and as I finished I looked over at Jared and saw that he was asleep!! It was so awkward. We were unmuted and couldn't do much to wake him up. Once I finished I just had to try to subtly wake him up. I can laugh about it but I was just hoping not many people had their Zoom on speaker view. A sister in the branch here sent me this picture today so they clearly had it on speaker view. In his defense it was a little warm with all of us on the couch. I guess my testimony was super riveting.
After the meeting concluded the four of us stayed on the Zoom with Elder Funk and Spencer set Mark apart. We had Spencer over for dinner before the meeting started and were glad to visit with him. Elder Funk talked about how first the district presidency had to get special permission to have Mark set apart this way from Elder Ballard who got it from the First Presidency on Thursday when they met. As the Salt Lake Temple where they have met historically is closed for renovations, they all met in a dedicated room in the Joseph Smith Memorial building that has been set up to look like the room in the Salt Lake Temple. This room is where all the weekly meetings of the 15 senior leaders take place so that was a fun piece of information. It's odd to think that Mark was talked about for a brief minute by these leaders. Elder Funk was explaining this to us all so Jared and Lydia could hear about this different type of experience but I am not sure they got it. After Mark was set apart by Spencer we chatted a little bit with Elder Funk. I was in and out trying to get Jared and Lydia ready for bed but I think it was really good for Mark to have that time. He will be talking with them a lot now. I am really happy he has a willing counselor to work with and one who has more flexibility to travel. He will be a great help to Mark.
Mark Spencer and Spencer Penrod
When he began the meeting Elder Funk mixed up their names, another sense of deja-vu as this happened when we all lived here previously.
When we got our job offers in December I immediately had the thought, "We got this job because there is something the Lord wants us to do in Egypt." AIS is a good school and international teaching is so much more competitive than it was 13 years ago. AIS was the one school that met our criteria and offered jobs for us both. We knew the branch president was moving to Turkey shortly before we arrived and thought maybe that was why. We were close but not quite right. This will be an interesting new phase for us.
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