Hey y'all;
We put on a ward activity this Saturday where we went to Hawaii... well kind of. The plane didn't make it to Hawaii. We all got on but the plane blew up about 2 minutes into the flight. Then we went into another room (the "Hawaii" part) and played a few games. after the games we were "Judged" and put into one of the 3 Kingdoms of Glory, where we received a little explanation about the kingdom and then the activity ended.
The original Idea was really cool, but when you leave 4 missionaries to plan, prepare and carry out an activity things don't always go as planed. In the end the activity was a small disaster. the activity was supposed to have started at 7 but at 7:30 we were still trying to get everything set up (just the 4 of us were preparing the activity all day), only about half the amount of people planned on showed up, The 4 of us weren't able to control the games very well and not all of the people who were supposed to explain the 3 Kingdoms showed up either. I just hope that everyone enjoyed themselves but I really don't think so.
I remember that when we did the ward activities before (back home) we had activities that everyone enjoyed. I wonder if you could send me some of the activities we did so that either in this ward or in my next (changes are next week) we can do some really cool activities and be able to help the ward get exited about helping.
Well S* came to church again yesterday!! She is doing great. I really hope that she can continue progressing like she is. She has her baptismal date for the 10th of January. We might need to change it when we get closer in case there are any conflicts (the problem with a date so far out) but she really wants to do it.
President Christensen also came to church with us yesterday. It was interesting seeing him a little out of his role as mission president. I was a nice surprise when he called the sisters on Saturday to ask when the services were and told them he was going to come (we were rushing to get the last things ready for the activity so we were there when he called).
Elder Jason Blanding.
President Christensen;
It was nice to have you and your wife accompany us on Sunday. Thank you for the advice you gave to the sisters, they are really having a hard time right now. They are very discouraged.
We have been having a little more success recently. We have been finding a lot of new people to teach. We have been trying to work a lot more through the members. I am really killing myself that it has taken me this long to really realize that we can try all we want to work by ourselves but it will never be as effective as when we work with the members.
I just want to let you know that whatever happens in these changes, whatever assignment I get, I will give it my all. I do not want to look back at the last 3 months of my mission and have regrets or would haves. I want them to be the best 3 months of my mission.
Elder Blanding