Rich is in the District Presidency and he was in charge of this event...that meant that the two of us planned a bunch of events for the day. This is where our Wood Badge training really came in handy. We put the men and the young men on teams together. Each team had 6 members! A missionary was the guide of each team. They had flags and team names like The Sons of Thunder, The Sons of Mosiah, The Stripling Warriors and each had a team hymn (these people absolutely love the hymns - they sing an opening and closing hymn at every meeting!!!)
When they had formed their teams, they each picked a rock from a pile and inscribed their name on it. The rock stayed with them all day. At the end of each team activity each one held their rock in the air and they sang their hymn. The rock was to represent some sacrifice they wanted to make in their life in order to more fully consecrate themselves to the Lord. At the end of the day, President Otto spoke and talked about sacrifice and consecration and then each young man and adult put theirrock in the pile which represented an altar of sacrifice.
Throughout the day, we had many activities for each team - they went out together to share a missionary pamplet. Many came back with stories of service given. They memorized D&C 13. The reviewed the story from the Pearl of Great Price about the Restoration of the Priesthood. They did stick pull, trolley, wiggle woggle, rock paper scissors football, the BLOB tag....We had a great big Caribbean lunch and then....
The district men and boys had a tug o war with all the elders (there are some strong Tahitians in the group). Just as the men and boys from the district began to pull the missionaries over the line, the rope (about 2 inches thick) broke. It was a perfect ending to a very fun day. I thought some of the men would never stop laughing. They kept reviewing a video that they had taken!
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| The missionaries and the faithful men of the Capesterre Branch- the clean up crew - tamers of the mighty jungle and harvesters of the great mango tree on the property |
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| The View! |
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| Elder Bennion |
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| Stick Pull - An Elder and one of the Branch Mission Leaders |
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| Trolley when you have two boards and everyone has to walk together. Oh how I loved watching these guys succeed!!! |
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| President Otto is in the center in the red shirt. He is a great leader. We love and admire him! |
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| Rasie those rocks high and sing that hymn! |
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| Elder Hansen on the left with two of our great young men. |
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| Joseph Jomie - 15 years old - a Teacher in our Branch - great young man - loves to bicycle - tour de france kind of bicycling! |
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| Elder Tehoiri (Tay - oh - eetee) one of our Tahitian Elders is an artist and had the assignment at the PH Commemoration to paint the shed - he really is talented! |
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| Flags - seemed a small thing, but it really was a fun part of each group! |
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| Okay....here are two favorites - President Eclar on the left and Elder Bastien on the right. President Eclar is full of life and enthusiasm and speaks faster than anyone I know. He can speak English, but before he knows it, he is in full French and moving like a speading train. Elder Bastien is the Lion Hearted Zone Leader here in Guadeloupe! |
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| The Tug o War |
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| As we drove home at the end of a very happy, but very hot and long day, we saw this fabulous rainbow that "touched" the ocean. It was a great ending for a great day! |
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| Frere Abenzoar - One of the most hard working faithful keepers of the property. We would have never been ready without him! |
WOW! what a great event. truly, mom, it's so fun to read these stories. it sounds like everybody had a great time and worked hard--just the thing you want to have happen on this kind of day. and the view is breathtaking!
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