The biblical cliff-hanger

This week's institute lesson was on the story of Queen Esther. We watched a dvd which depicted how the evil and proud advisor Haman convinced the King to sign a decree that all Jews should be killed. Apparently the King and Esther were yet to have a meaningful conversation since he didn't know she was indeed a Jew. Her cousin Mordecai asked her to go in unto the king and stop the decree and save her people! But she was afraid, since she would be condemned to death upon interrupting the king unless he held out the golden sceptor. Apparently they were still working on the quality of their relationship. So Esther asked her people to fast for three days, as she would also do, and then she would go in unto the king. Soon arrived the day of doom, the moment of truth, she farewelled her friends and took the brave plunge to enter the king's court, interrupting the proceedings and there she stood, awaiting her fate as the king made his decision. And then....the dvd ended!! So cruel!!! Now we'll never know if Esther lived or died!! Unless there's a book somewhere...

The fun activity afterwards was a charades/pictionary type game (did it have a name?) where two teams, team Esther and team Haman, were both miming at the same time, fastest correct answer winning that team a point. Round two was slightly harder with one person from each team being a prop to be used by the one trying to depict the answer. The Rosny delegates, Maz and Tyler did the ward proud on team Haman, winning by several points. Go team!

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.