We had our last MLC yesterday. We decided to have it in Bandon. It's a wonderful time of year to be on the coast. We held part of the meeting in the Bandon branch building and the rest at the beach.
The Assistants started with a demonstration on how NOT to call your district leaders and ask about the investigators which are on date for baptism.
Here, Elder Hill is pretending to be a zone leader just 'chillin' and asking his district leader about the people his district have on date. The questions are general and there is isn't much interest in what the district leader is saying.
Elder Cronin is pretending to be the district leader that the zone leader is talking to. He is much more interested in the Mac and Cheese he's cooking for dinner than the investigators that have a baptismal date in his district.
When they completed this bad example, they demonstrated how to the zone leaders call the district leaders and how the district leaders call the Sister Training Leaders.
The mission leadership is paying close attention to this role play.
And this is the other half on the room.
President Cropper then taught and after that we had lunch!!!
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Elder and Sister Bernhardt and Elder and Sister Woolley prepared this delicious meal!!
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| Sister and Elder Bernhardt |
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| Sister and Elder Woolley |
What a spread! Fried chicken, salads, fruit, a relish tray, and amazing desserts (that the Bandon branch had donated).
Have you ever seen such excitement over a meal!?
The Sister always get in line first for lunch. The Elders are so awesome to wait their turn.
You can see the Sister Morgan and Sister Brown are ready to eat!!!
Elder Deppe and Elder Holman are just about ready to go in and get their food! Those are genuine smiles!
Sister Leavitt and Sister Pane pause for just a moment for a photo op.
I dunno, maybe it is the fried chicken! Sister Jones and Sister Udall are almost giddy with joy!
Finally!! The Elder have their turn! Decisions, decisions, decisions; "Which potato salad do I choose, wait, I don't have to choose, I can have some of both!!".
After lunch we headed to the beach.
We had been to this spot before and knew there was a place for all to sit down.
It took a minute for all of us to walk down the steep sandy hill.
Almost all there!
And we're ready to begin.
I taught first. My topic was being a watchman on the tower. I told them that the watchman had to be alert at all times.
To demonstrate, I had Elder Hill fly a kite. Now, most of the time if you take your eyes off the kite it begins to fall. However, not on the beach in Bandon. It would quite possibly fly by itself. After looking away for sometime (and then jerking the kite down) it fell to the ground. Fortunately I had two stories that also helped me get the point across.
I think they understood what I was trying to say, well, they took notes anyway.
President Russell always speaks powerfully. His topic was called "Sealing the Deal". He spoke about bringing it all the way. Going the distance.
Of course there is the traditional role play. Here he first speaks with two Elders.
Then, to the Sisters he asked to help him.
Here goes the role play!
The missionaries listen intently.
And he concludes with an analogy of the Wheat and the Tares.
Now, the missionaries are given some time to walk along the beach.
We took some fun pictures.
These five Elders: Elder Knell, Elder Hill, Elder Cronin, Elder Terry, and Elder Holman were just standing around and I wanted to take their picture. They immediately struck a pose. Then, they began to sing "I Need Thee Every Hour". It was beautiful. Because of my lack of skills I have not been able to put it on the blog. I will get someone to help me with these videos.
President Cropper is checking out something pretty serious on his phone.
President Cropper, Elder Palomeque, and Elder Hatch spell
O E M
The mission leadership of the Oregon Eugene Mission.
President Russell and I love these missionaries, in fact, all of the missionaries in the OEM as much as we love our own children. They are truly amazing!!!