PEORIA-PEORIA N INTERVIEWS Oct 2013

 Every three months is an INTERVIEW MONTH...
This means that the responsibility is for President Taylor to have a personal interview with each of our 235 missionaries (for now).

In some countries, this would take place over Skype or a phone call.  in many places, this would mean getting a few missionaries together at a time or it could be in each apartment or home.
Here in our mission, we are able to get each zone together for the day to hold an additional specialized training with them while President Taylor does the interview part.

And, when my camera gets out of my hands...I get to see what I really look like when I am training...and it is pretty frightening really.

Ahhh. But we LOVE this time to work together.  Above you see my volunteers who answered correctly my question of...
WHO HATES TO DO ROLE PLAYS?

Hence, my first victims.  Elders Davis and Dickson take on the task of role playing a missionary who is struggling with homesickness and the companion who is asking questions and trying to offer help based on the new booklet JUST PUT OUT TO ALL MISSIONARIES called:
ADJUSTING TO MISSIONARY LIFE.
They did great!  They followed the suggestions in the booklet to try to help the new missionary recognize his feelings and take steps to relieve his stress.

 We have had our new missionaries and their trainers studying this booklet for 2 weeks now and are getting great reports on how they think it is a wonderful tool for ALL missionaries to help them deal with the stresses of missionary life.
If you are interested in seeing the booklet yourself, click on this link and then it will direct you to log into your own LDS ACCOUNT in order to view it.  CHECK IT OUT!!
 https://missionary.lds.org/m-content/bc/PDFs/AdjustingMissLife_Booklet-LowRes_6-7-13.pdf
Today we also talked about CONFERENCE TALKS and how studying them after each conference is such a great idea.  We will be studying 1-2 talks a week from now til next conference...ask your missionary for a schedule so you can study the talks each month that they are studying!  These talks will show up on their monthly MISSION TRAINING PLAN.

Next we had a training on how to use the new online vehicle incident reporting system.   When implemented properly, it could take some of the stress off of our wonderful Elder Rodgers.

 He was on hand to offer the training and to offer certificates to all car drivers who maintained their vehicles to earn points towards extra miles.
These are coveted awards!

 We had a "working lunch" during the vehicle safety instruction and we see one companionship taking meal sharing to a new level...and we wonder why more than one elder may get sick at a time...we believe in sharing!

 Elders Davis and Dickson

Sisters Jackson and Brown

 Hermanas Bennett and Baumgartner

 Elders Christensen and Hicks

 Elders W Larsen and Wilkinsen

Elders Goldsberry and A. Beck

 Next we went to the gym for a rousing manners game called SOCKBALL!

We had the TIES including putting ties on the sisters on the team...


...and the NO TIES.
 As I asked a series of manners related questions, they would try to find the correct answer posted around the room and toss the sockball to the closest team member to whack it with the sockball!

Team captains Elders Dunn and Lower face off with the sockballs!!!  No messing around for these two!

Here are our fearless team members!  They learned many things about manners!
Ask them what the RULE OF 12 IS!!!









We celebrated SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Elder Wilkinson
Elder W Larsen
Elder Barrus






After this, it was time to discuss MEMBER MISSIONARY RELATIONS...You would not think that members could be so difficult to work with...but lets stop and think how we as members can try not to get in the way of our missionaries fulfilling their purpose!
We role played a couple scenarios to help us know we could explain Church policy and such to helpful members.

 Last, we had a discussion about how to TIGHTEN UP on our ONLINE PROSETYLING.
This is hard being pioneers in this area, as we still have the same purpose in all we do:  to INVITE OTHERS TO COME UNTO CHRIST.
This means that Facebook etc. are not to be used to report on any news from home, to tell an answer from an email question, basically, to ONLY communicate things with a targeted missionary purpose.

It is hard when family and friends post messages or posts that can be distracting to missionaries.  We encourage you to remember to use weekly email or our office staff to help with any information you need to get to our missionaries.  They are trying so hard to be consecrated in their work!

We ended our day with some gifts from the zone for us...a nice surprise!  Tee shirts with meaning!

In our mission we have the slogan "AND ONE" meaning that in anything we do, we can try for ONE MORE GOOD THING...one more referral, one more invitation etc.
Plus, the STAND ALONE reminds us of President Monsons story of standing alone in the cause of truth (Check out the great video on lds.org about when he was in the navy!)
And my shirt says what I have a passion about!!!
Yes, I love to drop everything to help!  Don't you?
This is the Lord's work and we ALL have a part in it!  What can YOU do to find someone for the missionaries in your area to teach?  How can you rescue someone else's child who is struggling to find their way back to the truth?  We KNOW you are being blessed by having a relative/friend who is serving a mission.  Pass it on!