First of ALL...Thank you everyone for your fasting and prayers and please do not stop. This week we have seen baby steps towards unity and less contention. Our efforts are working...keep it up. Just two days ago, FM leadership changed our morning devotionals to be more inclusive, mandatory for paid employees, and spiritual for the express purpose of becoming more unified. Other things are micro changing as well.
As activity directors for the mission we pray and counsel with our committee to provide activites that serve the individual and the group and help those individuals come closer to each other and Christ as they play.
It's a fun challenge. We make Kahoots (an online game) with fun getting to know you questions, or pictures of missionaries when they were children or newly married and give out prizes. It's very fun to scour Salvation Army for likely prizes.
We found two couples to teach us social dance and line dancing...SO fun.
We coordinate dinners and help others who plan dinners by providing games or activites to make them more bonding.
We encourage others to share their talents and shine. We help others develop their talents too! I just heard this week that a computer class I taught about google slides, helped one couple do a very cool remote fireside for their home ward! They were thrilled to have the computer skills they learned here from our activity. That was SO validating to me.
Last night was our BIG "Racing Down the Covenant Path Pinewood Derby" Activity. I could NOT believe how many people came and how eager so many people were to make derbies! We had an "open" category and provided wheels for Veggie Cars too.
It was very funny and fun and before the race we had a short lesson on what our covenants are and what God expects of us and what HE promises to do for us when we keep our covenants and we tied it all in to being good sports at the race.
They got big laughs from that AND we did have a "Covenant Keeper" Trophy for the best sport who ended up being Elder Christensen who had made a pickle car that looked great but got limp over time and wouldn't go down that track so he just ate it and didn't pout!! SO FUNNY.
I think the point of this letter is that God wants us to Work Hard (Even in the Rain)
And play hard (even when sad things happen)
and have JOY through Christ in all of it. Being close to Jesus is NOT just a Sunday thing. We can be close to Jesus when we work, including Him in our problem solving and daily tasks. We can be close to Jesus as we play by using play as an opportunity to bond with our fellow earthlings, love them, and grow in skill and competence with them. Have a wonderful week. We love you.
