Sunday 22 December 2013

Our First Baptisms

Every missionary loves baptisms, and even though proselyting isn't our main responsibility, we do get to accompany the young Elders often as they teach the gospel to people who are investigating the church.  We have grown to love these people, and love to see their lives changing as they embrace the gospel.  Saturday we attended the baptism of Selam and Yassmin Istifanus.  A mother and her 10 year old daughter. They asked Elder Fowler to baptize them and it was a wonderful experience.  We are so happy for them, and for the members of the Crystal Palace Ward.  They will be a great addition to the ward.  With Yassmin and the two younger daughters, they almost double the size of our Primary!


Selam, Yassmin, Rebekka & Serina Istifanus 
along with Elder Hanks and Elder Bailey & us.

Us with this sweet family.  We loved being able to help teach them the gospel!

Elder Fowler got to baptize Selam and Yassmin


Thursday 19 December 2013

Crystal Palace Activities

One of our first assignments when we came to the Crystal Palace Ward was to be in charge of the road show.  I can't remember the last time we had a road show in the States, but here they do them every year.  Unfortunately, the kids weren't very excited about it and since we have such a small ward we needed to come up with something that we could pull off regardless of how many people showed up the night of the performance.  To make matters worse, the theme was a scripture: The glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, Light and Truth.  Terry had the brilliant idea to tell the Restoration of the Gospel, early missionaries to England and latter day missionaries sharing light and truth using shadows and music.  It mostly just needed a large white screen and a spotlight and then our cast of 10.  It actually turned out pretty good and I think we all had a good time!

"Shadows" telling the first vision.

Cast and crew of our road show
 (minus Elder Fowler who had to take the picture).

The Priesthood of the ward decided they needed to have an activity, so they went bowling.  

A great group! To the left of Terry is our Bishop, left of him is Terrance who
 will be baptized soon.  Two youth, one newly baptized member, one less-active,
 the missionaries, the ward mission leader and ward clerk.  They all had a great time! 



Ward members watching fireworks on Guy Fawkes day.
Our ward Christmas Party was a great success.  We had plenty of food, singing, and nice program and even a visit from the jolly man himself!

A good turn out.  Lots of members, less actives and nonmembers alike.

Relief Society, WORKS the same in every ward.  We love these ladies!

Elder Bailey made a pretty sad Santa, but the kids didn't mind at all!