Open the Year With Orientation

 

Open the Year With Orientation

In January 2015, we held two morning orientations at the mission home. This is always a fun day in our schedule to invite our newest Elders for a half day to learn more about the mission. It is nice to be greeted by such happy faces, with our Assistants, Elder Malapula and Elder Menendez.

^Elder May, Barton, President Dunn, Emi Dunn Rigby, Elder Nelson and Turauskis 
The most special part of this session was that our daughter was visiting from San Francisco and could see the amazing new Elders and see what was shared in an Orientation. It also helped her get oriented to the South Africa Johannesburg Mission!

After greeting the Elders and offering a light morning snack of sweetrolls and juice, we start with a song, a prayer, introductions and overviews of the mission given by the Assistants. We also have questions and answers and spend a nice amount of time engaging with them about how to thrive in the mission.

^President Dunn and I teach a few concepts, but mostly introduce ourselves and our family to the missionaries.  We want them to know they are part of our family now …forever.                         Elder Bonifaz from Madrid, Spain shares his talents with us.

Elder Ainsle from England and his Trainer, Elder Todd are doing a great job in Rabie Ridge and a wonderful companionship.

Elder Swindlehurst,  Broadhead, Wegrowski, Savage, Mamhere, Clegg, Macaranga and Dube before lunch is served.

We then relax a little while the Braai gets fired up and we have hamburgers on the BBQ. A

nice part of the schedule is eating and enjoying each others company. 

The weather is always nice it seems, so we enjoy setting up outside when we can.

A little ping-pong competition is held during the cooking time.

Elder Barton as trainer with Elder Nelson from Brisbane, Australia(above)

Elder Turauskis from Lithuania with his trainer, Elder May and President Dunn

Elder Hunt from Samoa and his trainer, Elder Tukia and President Dunn

We love these Orientation Days at the Mission home. We may do the same routine a bit, but the cast of characters are always different. This is a special group from Australia, Lithuania and Samoa. We also have enjoyed adding Elder Malapula in the mix as our newest Assistant!                                               A great start to the New Year!!