Don't want to be...alllll byyyy myyyyyself....

This week for institute, in the cosy location of the nursery room with the smell of KFC still lingering, we had a well prepared lesson by Alex primarily from the book of Jeremiah. Amongst the things discussed were forordination, patriarchal blessings and that Heavenly Father never leaves us alone...as in, he won't forget about us and leave us without his love and help! Thanks Alex for a great lesson and for bringing the spirit so well. The loyal Rosnyites present (who made up almost half of the YSA there) were Fiona, Libby, Rachel, Tyler and Mari-Anna.

Celestial transmitters and receivers

On Sunday night YSA from the stake gathered to the foreign land of the Eastern Shore (gasp!!) at Rosny Chapel to attend the Rosny-hosted stake fireside. Presented by our favouritest Sunday School teacher and geocacher, Colin Chick, we knew that it would be a great evening. He began by explaining to us about the art of geocaching, with the use of a GPS and we went outside and gave it a go, eventually finding the hidden box. He also had us experiment with our mobile phone reception at different locations around the building. These object lessons were likened to our communication with Heavenly Father, how we need to be in the right place physically, spiritually or emotionally to receive transmissions or answers to our prayers. We were given great insights into presenting our question in prayer correctly, for example not expecting to get a 'burning in the bosom' answer from a multiple choice question. I can barely do justice to the fireside from my summary, but be assured it benefitted many of us! Representing Rosny ward were Erin (aka Shazza), Fiona (aka Trev), Tyler, Scott, Jason, Libby, Rachel, Emily and Mari-Anna.

Faith Is Like A Little Seed...or is it?

Our lesson this Sunday was from Alma 32, and was of course on faith. The diagram of city of Zarahemla was cleverly disguised to look like a seed, representing the seed spoken of by Alma to the poor of the Zoramites. Emily pointed out that Alma 32:28 is different from the primary song which says faith is like a little seed; in this verse it is the word that is likened to a seed. Remembering that a seed, if not planted, will remain a dormant seed and will not grow or progress, we must plant the word in our hearts and nourish it if we want it to grow into a testimony. As we begin to see results from the planting and nourishment of the seed, our testimony begins to grow and we become more sure of it. Sometimes the growth is so gradual we don't notice it until we look back and realise how much it has grown.

We also had an exciting annoucement from Tyler, who received his mission call on Friday to the Halifax Canada Mission, French Speaking. He leaves mid-October. Congratulations Tyler!

A Specktacular Evening

On Saturday Rosny Ward hosted their own version of Spicks and Specks, the popular music quiz show on ABC TV. There was a good turnout from the stake YSA, including those in Rosny Ward - Bek, Emily, Tyler, Scott, Rachel, Mari-Anna, Erin (aka Shazza), Jason, Libby and Emma, as well as some of their friends :) We also acknowledge all those that were there in spirit! Despite an over-excited audience that kept shouting out the answers, and a strange spasmic disease amounst competitors which caused an over-zealous use of buzzers, the evening seem to go pretty well and all had fun. The grand winner of the evening was Scott's team, well done! The "show" finished with the premier viewing of Rosny's videoclip of their suggestion for a new YSA Tasmania theme, to Queen's "Somebody To Love", which turned out to be a great hit thanks to the brilliant editing skills of Esther Tavares-Tutida. A BIG thanks to all who helped or participated in any way with the activity, either on the evening or in the previous weeks. Rosny Ward also thanks Josh of Hobart Ward for agreeing to host the evening (and without a forewarning for the need of crowd control!). Way to show the stake a good time, Rosny-ites!

A Spiritual Feast...followed by dessert!

The institute lesson this week began, of course, with Sharing Time, with contributers from many individuals (although apparently 3 Nephi is the hot-spot to be reading in at the moment). Many insights shared were also from the recent Stake Conference, with Elder Baxtor the Area President. The lesson mainly focussed on understanding our relationship with Heavenly Father and the Saviour and knowing that they know us, as was talked about by Elder Baxtor at conference. We were given an experiment by Tania to try for a few minutes, writing a letter to Heavenly Father and seeing what we learnt from that experience. We also shared our favourite scriptures about Heavenly Father and discussed them. The spirit was very strong throughout the whole lesson and Bek, Tyler and Mari-Anna were in attendance to experience that wonderful blessing. After the spiritual feast, those who were keen headed to Mures for icecream (as you do on a freezing, cold night, whilst it is most likely snowing on the mountain.) Mari-Anna tried the banana flavour, mmm....

Look out, Hollywood!

Last Thursday night and Saturday morning the star music video clip by the Rosny YSA was filmed. This great feat involved Libby, Rachel, Mari-Anna, Emily and Phillip, as well as several of our Friends of Other Wards, either by starring in it or behind the scenes work. Thanks to all who came along and helped out. The hot footage is being edited as we speak by the reputable Esther Tavares Tutida (Train Movie 1 & 2, Smooth Criminal), also of Rosny Ward, and will be shown at the grande premier of the Spicks and Specks Specktacular this Saturday night, 7pm at Rosny Chapel. Don't forget to come along and bring your friends if you don't want to miss this exclusive viewing!

Foreign Correspondence

In response to the letters we wrote at the last ward fireside to our fellow YSA currently serving missions, we have received a reply from one of them, Elder Scott Docking. His letter reads:

"Hey YSA, it's good to hear from you, and to see that all is well. It's been raining a lot here in New Zealand. So far my mission has been pretty good, loads of fun.
The people are pretty laid back here, so it's fairly easy to talk to them. But you have to be careful, for the human-eating Maori. Just kidding, joking.
In a nutshell it's going good, teach people, getting wet a lot. Soaked through to the skin a number of times.
It's all good fun.
See ya, Elder Scott Docking. 3 Nephi 5:13."

It's nice to know our letters are appreciated, isn't it? So next ward fireside make sure you come prepared to use those letter-writing muscles! :)