Mexico Guadalajara Mission 2012-2015: Sister Training!! One Very Fun Day!!

This past week we held specialized training in the office for the sisters in our mission. Although there were a few chaotic moments, and the office proved to be a bit small (and hot) for all of us, I think it went well. And I am sure the sisters all had a great time being together.

Our theme was "Power Through Covenants." This was taken from Preach My Gospel where it says, "Your calling gives you authority, your covenants give you power". So of course we started our training with "covenant bars" which were actually Nestle Crunch bars with a new wrapper.:-)

First on our agenda was a lesson by President Wagner on the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood and how it applies to women.

Here are all of our cute sisters in the office ready to be taught--and to teach. The sister on the right on the front row is our first 19-year old sister. We are expecting four more in April.

Next a companionship of sisters taught lesson 5 from chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel on Eternal Marriage. Our goal was not only to strengthen the desire of our sisters to make and keep sacred covenants but to also help their newly baptized members work towards attending the temple.

Here the sisters are practicing making an outline for teaching the principle of Eternal Marriage

The training model for missionaries is--explain, demonstrate, practice, evaluate and re-practice. We use this training model in almost everything we do. We have also learned that it is very effective to do a group evaluation after the last practice and ask, "What did you learn?" It is always interesting to hear the insights they gained from each activity.

Next up the assistants shook it up a bit with an outside activity we called "Speed Contacting" This is the same activity we used in leadership training (see earlier posts). It was a lot of fun and nice to get outside where there was more room!

Then one of our wonderful Senior couples used the game of charades to teach basic English words you would find at church. This was so much fun!!

One sister would act out the word and her team had to guess it in English. Then Sister Crockett would write the word on the board and everyone would practice saying it.

And speaking of Sister Crockett--she also made these very cute bookmarks and wood decorations for all the girls. Each bookmark and each wood decoration was different so it was a LOT of work!!

Next up was my part on "Scripture Power". Here we used PMG chapter 10 to learn how to use scriptures to add power to our teaching. In this picture the sisters are practicing with a scripture to decide how to introduce it, what difficult words might need to be explained, what the investigator should "look for" while reading it and how to apply it to their lives.

Next up was lunch!! Thank you to our other senior couple, the Calls, this was delicious!! I brought the fixings for sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies, and Elder Call made mouth watering salsa, guacamole and the most delicious fruit salad I have ever tasted!! They, along with the Crocketts and the assistants, got everyone served. What a blessing Senior Couples are!! We are so thankful to have them!

After lunch Elder Call also taught from lesson 5, chapter 3 on temple and family history. I am sorry I don't have a picture of him teaching! But just know he did a great job.

Then Sister Call taught all the sisters how to use Family Search. And she taught in Spanish!! (And did great!!) She had everyone fill out a pedigree chart and then we used five computers to give all the sisters time to look up their families. That was a lot of fun for them all.