An attempt to mimic and cleverly adapt Clement Moore's charming poem, The Night Before Christmas, was not working and sorely lacking in cleverness, charm and poetry, so, at the sweep of my computer mouse and a flick of my finger, it vanished, thankfully never to be seen again. Instead, I offer my simple explanation and description of the activity at the Mission Home the night before the mission-wide Christmas Conference.
Twenty Elders and Sisters arrived in various vehicles, picking up people as they came along, bringing them in to Louisville from areas more than an hour and half away. This same scenario happened in dozens of missionary apartments nearby, wherein travelers from afar arrived to stay overnight. At the Mission Home, games broke out within minutes after overnight bags had been taken downstairs to either the Elders' bunk room on the Elders' side or the two Sisters' bunk rooms on the Sisters' side. The activity of choice was the Name Game wherein each participant submitted a name of a real or fictional person or character, the names were read out loud twice because of the number playing, and then everyone took turns trying to guess who was who. Correct guesses resulted in that person joining you and becoming a team, or another team becoming part of yours. With both the President and Sister Woodbury playing it made for 22 names to be remembered and guessed which made it especially challenging. After several rounds, the activity turned to "Signs" wherein one person goes out while everyone makes up a silent sign and starts sending it back and forth around the circle. The person comes back in and tries to figure out where the sign is. By the time this had been done a dozen or so times, President Woodbury was back from a quick run to the airport to pick up son, Danny, his wife, Jessica, and toddler daughter, Josie. It was coincidentally an hour past missionary "bedtime" so everyone called it a night. The Elders , by the way, were Elder Sizelove, Elder Potter, Elder Heslop, Elder Newbold, Elder Geary, Elder Dahle, Elder Larsen, Elder Butterfield, Elder Van Beekum, Elder Kibler, Elder Stoddard, and Elder Wood. The Sisters were Sister WIlliams, Sister Briggs, Sister Bradley, Sister Heywood, Sister Saunders, Sister Nsser, Sister Roberts, and Sister Dickerson.
Everyone managed to get showered and dressed in time for breakfast at 7:30 the next morning, then clean-up, and relocate to the Louisville Stake Center, about twenty minutes away.
To be continued...
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| Elder Sizelove, Elder Heslop, Elder Newbold, Elder Potter, Elder Stoddard, and Elder Wood checking out the Baptism Board in the front hallway |
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| The Name Game |
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| Teams forming and scheming begins |
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| "Humh..." |
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| Bigger teams forming |
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| Okay, so we've still got Moses, Optimus Prime, the Grinch, Mickey Mouse, Thomas Edison, Hagrid, Goldilocks, Alma the Younger... Can you remember anyone else?..." |
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