November and December Interviews - Part One

   It's wonderful to be able to have official interviews with every missionary in the mission. Since we have almost 180 Elders and Sisters, the process takes some time, basically three weeks, but it is worth it. We have the most wonderful and amazing missionaries in the world!

     Each District has an Opening Exercises, so to speak, with welcome, song, prayer, and recitals. The latter, for your information, involves standing and together speaking the Missionary Purpose found on the first page of Preach My Gospel. with the added line of "Because we love them!" We then repeat Doctrine and Covenants Section 4 before sitting down. Each companionship in turn does their Accountability, teling about their most progressing Investigators, baptismal dates, etc. and goals/things for which they want to be held accountable before the next District MEeting. The time was then turned over to President Woodbury who introduced the Training for the session, Maximizing the Mormon Moment, with a video clip he and Sister Woodbury were shown at the recent  Area Mission Presidents Seminar. It's a piece of the Stephen Colbert Report where it was talked about whether Mormons are normal or weird, and talked about Mitt Romney, and also the current "I'm a Mormon" advertising campaign. At that point the Assistants, Elder Winn and Elder Johnson took over to do further training including  showing the missionaries how to use Mormon.org to aid their proselyting efforts, how to make their own profile on the site, and how to show members how to likewise do so.

     President Woodbury conducted individual interviews in pairs, but not actual Companions since he wanted to have at least one companion in training at all times to tell the other what they may have missed. While the President was talking with one, Sister Woodbury was visiting with the other, and as needed, mending whatever items of clothing they had brought for her to work on.

     The moment President Woodbury was finished it was time to hurry on to the next location, twenty to 120 minutes away. Most days they have met with three Districts per day, and one with four. Because of the distances involved, the Woodburys and the Assistants have, of necessity, stayed overnight in Lexington, and also Evansville, the Assistants staying with local missionaries and President and Sister Woodbury in a hotel.

     Here is the first batch of pictures taken with more to follow as we continue to visit each area. I'll go ahead and download them with minimal, if any captions, and come back later and fill in as needed. Enjoy!