Buckeye Goodyear Interviews 7/13

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT!
We started our last week of INTERVIEWS this week in the Goodyear/Buckeye Zone.

We have just been SO EXCITED to meet with our missionaries this month.  We always are, but we were especially grateful to get to meet since we have had two large transfers of missionaries plus our new zone from Flagstaff, all who had never been to any meetings with us!  It was ABOUT TIME!

The purpose of Interviews is for President Taylor to check in individually with each missionary to see how they are doing and to offer counsel and encouragement as needed.
The rest is frosting on the cake so to speak.  But we love the opportunity to hold a mini Zone Conference as he interviews.  I and the Zone Leaders get to train.

 Today we played a game, as we always do on Interview days.  This one was rather different than others though.  Usually I am teaching a practical skill like budgeting or nutrition or health.
Today we just learned to open up and share.

As I asked a series of questions, we tossed around a ball of string from person to person that answered.  The questions were things like: When did you first know you wanted to serve a mission?
What does your family think of your choice to serve?

 What advice do you have for newer missionaries?

What do you think you will remember 10 years from now about your mission?

We looked rather like Spiderman when we were done, with strings all over the place.

 Which created the perfect NETWORKING for us to now play a game involving a beach ball.
The object being to keep in inside the circle and aloft.  They all worked together to make this happen and it was a lot of fun!

 Elder Rodgers always comes to Interviews to inspect the vehicles and do a safety presentation.  He always rewards the drivers with CLEAN CAR points.  They love it!

We also gave all bike riders some good reflective tape to put on strategic points of bikes and helmets so they can be seen better at night.  We worry about their safety.

 

 We celebrate birthdays in the Mission during these meetings as well.

HAPPY JULY BIRTHDAYS TO:

Elder Bryson
Sister Wade
Elder Pettingill

 For the afternoon session, we ate lunch as we watched a film called "The 5000Days Project: Two Brothers" about a couple of LDS boys growing up and working through some very tough things together.

We all learned so much about ourselves as we watched and it was incredible to see the perspective that the missionaries had after watching this.  It was what we had hoped for and more.

I am always entertained by elders wearing matching ties (see other photos in the link)
and the next day when we came to retrieve a poster we forgot, we noticed Elder Kane and Gerritsen looking pretty matchy...as I went to get my camera for a shot, I looked at President Taylor's tie and...he matched too!  It was blue and brown day!
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is TRUE!  We are ambassadors for the Savior and no effort is wasted!