A Puzzling Sunday…

These mysterious codes were analysed in Sunday School this week: AWDG, WESHG, LATDBUL, HTTL. Having gotten slightly less than optimal sleep this week, I cannot remember what any of these mean. Who can help me out?

A Frightfully Good Turn-Out

In a dark, cob-webbed corner, in a place called the stake centre, the Hobart Stake YSA Halloween dance was well attended, even attracting some of our northern friends. Rosny ward had an excellent turnout, with the Vicar of Dibley, two emo-goths, and the anime charater Sunako (Libby, Emma, Sarah and their friend Jane), three very lovely fairies with great hair (Erin, Bek, Fiona), a pirate and her witch friend (Emily and friend Jess) and of course Mary Poppins, who won best dressed female for the night (me!). That makes a grand total of 10!! Talk about drawing stars, eh! Now all we need is some male representation from our ward... David Greco of Hobart ward won best dressed male (in a very literal sense). There were many other great costumes from the night such as the incredible hulk (Dale), Caesar (Dallin) and Piglet (Fiona B). Well done to those who organised the event.

The Final Countdown

Our last institute of the year! What a monumental evening. We began by sharing scriptures or insights learned from the Old Testament this year, which was certainly interesting with input from many people in the class. Tania successfully managed to end it without cutting anyone off this time, and we moved onto the final book in the Old Testament – Malachi. The two most well known doctrines contained were identified as tithing and family history, and these are so important that the Saviour quoted the words of Malachi and commanded them to be written when he visited the people in the Americas, as we read in the Book of Mormon. The activity for the night was simply a party to celebrate the good times and the good food, I believe Biana’s vanilla slice was a great hit! Faithful Fiona and Mesmerising Maz were there and were not square!

Family History: Isn't it about time?

Yay! Another ward fireside! Pretty exciting eh? This month our fireside was presented by Sister Rebecca Read on how starting family history in her youth has been beneficial to her. As well as hearing some great stories from her experiences, we were also given plenty of helpful tips along the way. One tip was to start writing down our earliest memories, as once we are older we will not be able to remember many of them. An example was shared of an ancestor of Rebecca doing exactly this, and it has certainly helped her to feel closer to this family member. I’m pretty sure each of us felt much more motivated to get into our family history now and to start preserving our own. Thanks, Rebecca. While enjoying the food and socialising we also remembered our valiantly serving missionaries and wrote some notes of encouragement and entertainment to them. The stalwart attenders of the night were Emily, Erin, Bek and Mari-Anna, along with our borrowed male component, Josh and Nick, courtesy of Hobart ward.

What's it gonna be?

Sunday School. The classic and mandatory Zarahemla circle. What is it today? It’s... the number zero! Why? Because that’s how many members of the church there were in 1820. Colin proceeded to write the figures for varying intervals of time, until today where we have over 13 million or less than 1% of the world’s population (if anyone knows the correct figures feel free to post them in the comments). How is this relevant to the Book of Mormon? The prophecies stating that the true believers of Christ would be few in the last day could certainly be supported as true. Although membership continues to grow we will always remain in the minority, consistent with many prophecies. But as I like to say, quality is better than quantity and in the Lord’s strength we can do all things.

The Amazing Race

On the very morn of the AFL grand final the Hobart YSA gathered at the stake centre for The YSA Amazing Race!! Representing the Rad Rosny-ites was the Majestic Mari-Anna, with team-mates Lego Lauren and Princess Mary. First up was the service activity, our team got to wash Lisa’s mum’s car, which was great other than the scary Hawthorn supporter which happened to be a neighbour and getting started a little early in the day if you know what I mean. Next we were led back to the stake centre to make an infomercial in one take (“Do you need shelter from the rain? I do…”) and then to kick 3 consecutive goals with a footy…each. (Your footy tips were much appreciated Lauren and Mary! We could have been there all day…) Then to the KFC parking lot, where Lauren and I discovered first-hand that we do NOT like oysters….bleh. Then at last, success!! We finished first, go us!! The best part was watching all the infomercials from the different teams. They have to go on facebook, please!

"Neh." That's all I have to say.

The second last institute lesson was on Nehemiah (also dubbed “Neh” for simplicities sake), who is known for the rebuilding of the city wall of Jerusalem, which took his people just 52 days, and also rebuilding the spiritual life of this people. Also, as a class we also considered three famous people: Sally Robbins (aka Lay-Down Sally), Jane Savilla (aka the running walker), and Lindsay Jacob-Ella (aka why don’t I take this victory in style by showing off a little first). Other than each somehow botching it at the Olympics, we concluded that they were three people each with great potential for success, but who for one reason or another (but always a fault of their own) didn’t quite make it. We too have great potential as children of God, but we can decide to botch it up or to give it our all and be successful in returning to our Heavenly Father.

The activity after was a great game of Family Feud (I’ve always wanted to play that!), with questions surveyed on a LDS audience. Teams Neh and Miah both competed well, with team Miah winning in the end. Representing the great land of the eastern shore was the amazing Mari-Anna!