The Week of the ABM Fitness Challenge

We had a pretty busy week. Our president and his wife are both pretty serious about staying fit. (No, it's not doing us any good). they also know that staying active is a great antidote to depression, anxiety, etc. So this week was the "ABM Fitness Challenge." The missionaries have been working and practicing for weeks to get ready for the big event. On Monday they had the event for the five Stakes in the north-east end of the mission. The other five stakes were on Tuesday. We went to the Tuesday event.

There was a bike race, a 5K, a 1 mile speed walk, 400M, 100M, tug of war, slam dunk, balance, planking, push-ups, jump rope, flexibility, and wall sits. These are some photos.

We went to the Tuesday event. We really had a good time.

These are some pictures of the missionaries.

(the tie-dyes are the Bentonville Stake. They were really into it. They won. They were so excited.

President had me judge the planking. He told me I had to say, "Keep your butt down." I was judging the sisters. I found it very difficult to talk to them this way. Before it started he made me demo what I was talking about.

You can tell that the sisters all really enjoyed my demonstration. They didn't seem to have issues at all with the "B" word.

Sister Johnson and I took a ZILLION photos. We posted half a zillion on the mission's Facebook pages. Soon we were getting comments from parents of missionaries in the Northeast zone begging us to post pics. We are so sorry. But no one up there took any pictures. I guess we should have gone.

As a passing thought, I have started a new fitness routine as a result of all the hype.

Another passing thought from the fitness challenge. We have an elder here who has a basketball scholarship waiting for him at BYU. He will play guard. But he's six feet plus. He missed most of his dunks. I told him I as glad that the Cougars would not be expecting him to dunk. LOL. But he has a silky smooth three-point shot which I'm sure will come in useful.



Saturday (p-Day) Fun
So, today Sister Johnson decided that she needs more licorice. And, the only licorice she wants is 45 minutes away at the War Eagle Mill (we love this place). So we wanted to drive out there. But, Verizon was having a huge issue and we didn't have any cell service. But we've been there enough times that I told her I thought I could find it without the GPS. Needless to say, we ended up here.

Don't panic! this is actually a very well maintained and fairly well used road in Arkansas. But is was a pretty drive.

We decided to have Freddies burgers on the way home. But we came up to a light in Rogers and saw this old place with a sign that said S SIE Q. Luckily the light was red so we had enough time to figure out what it said. By this time Verizon had solved their issues so Sister Johnson googled up SUSIE Q's Malt Shop and it had a five-star rating even though it look kind of scary.

Turned out it was great. Really old-school burgers and shakes.

Phone Audits

Each missionary has to submit to random phone audits. We have a set of missionaries designated to do these audits. The essence of the audit is to review their Facebook, and other messaging apps to make sure they are using them appropriately.

A while back the president asked Sister Johnson and me to start doing phone audits. When we asked why he explained that when elders do them they always have enough dirty laundry of their own that they don't want to say anything bad about anyone else. Now we have sisters doing them. The president says that they are too nice. So he want an adult to get involved. So here we go.

I had to work to get the Tech Sisters to actually document the process they go through. It was pretty squishy. But the old auditor in me just had to insist on a written audit procedures so that we can be consistent. Once I got them to do this I did my first audit this past week. It went great. The elders I audited are good missionaries and one of them has served before as the Tech Elder. So he knew more about it than I did and was willing to walk me through it. It was sort of funny to audit these missionaries because the one that had been a Tech Elder no longer has a phone (it was taken away) and the other one had a Note Widget on his home page that said "Don't spend too much time on Facebook." So, literally that is the main thing he sees whenever he looks at his phone. His average usage on the device was almost four hours per day.

So I just finished this audit. It was pretty interesting. The Brethren really encourage us to use Facebook to fulfill our missionary purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. But, I mean it, Facebook is the Devil. Missionaries have a really hard time to stay away from the things they should stay away from.

But some of the missionaries do really well. We took one to the airport on Friday.

We talked a bit about Facebook. When he got here, under the prior president, they weren't using Facebook. Pres. Strong was encouraged in his mission president training to use Facebook for proselyting. So they started it when he got here last July. This missionary said he quickly figured it out what a waste of time it was. So he created groups of apps that were a few levels deep and buried Facebook down in the lowest level. So he was never just idling clicking Facebook. It was always with intent.

I feel like I'm becoming the official enforcer in the mission. I have to enforce discipline in driving, miles usage, and now phone usage.



They do post a lot of inspiring stuff on Facebook. This is an example:
Missionary experience from some of our missionaries:

On our second visit to a returning member family, we asked the mother which children in her family had been baptized. She responded "all of them, but the two youngest weren't baptized into our church." They had been baptized at a Christian summer camp. We reminded her of her experience with missionaries and asked if we could teach her sons the same things she was taught. She said yes.

After this conversation, I told these brothers about my experience being baptized. I was eight years old. My birthday was in December. I watched all my church friends get baptized all year and I couldn't wait for my turn. When my Dad finally baptized me my first thought when he pulled me out of the water was "I want to do that again." I told these 8 and 9 year old kids about the feelings that filled my whole body.

Picture the cutest 9 year old boy you know: blonde, boyish, smiley, and curious. Then picture him saying this, "I think I have to be re-baptized, because when I was baptized I didn't feel anything. I just felt like I was being pushed under water."

These kids knew, in their own childish and wonderful way, the difference between baptism and baptism by one holding authority.


We are doing great. We love serving. We love the missionaries.