Church Ball Begins tomorrow. Practice began tonight!

There are few topics as controversial as Church Ball.  Well if we are going into the "war zone", then we are going in prepared.  Had fun tonight with 4 teams of 4; full court; all in.

Bro Dare gave us all a good "ribbing"

The activity this last week was a planning meeting for the first quarter of 2015.  That was needed and a great thing.  It may not, however, have been as pleasant or exciting as the fantastic meal that we were treated to: 

BBQ Ribs (best I have ever had)

Baked Beans

Cookie Salad

Chips

Cookies

Brownies

Soda

It was just plain awesome.  Nuff Said.

Quilting like mad for Primary Children's Hospital

Jacob's Eagle Project was to create blankets for children at Primary Children's Hospital.  #supernotlame

How do you get a team of cool guys to pick up yarn and a needle and quilt?  Well, they don't need any excuse really but if you throw in a great cause then it seals the deal!

Summer brought a wide array of fun activities.  Depicted here is our 52 mile canoeing trip down the Green River down just past the confluence with the Colorado River.  It was fun and involved a lot of rowing.  After we finished our journey down river, a jet-boat came down the Colorado and we took a 3 hour boat ride a marina where we loaded up on a bus to head back to Moab.  It was an awesome adventure.

Etiquette Dinner

 Oh the JOY!!

So..... What did you learn?

Swimming!

Swimming! @ Erickson's

Baer Canyon Hike

We had a great 4.5 mile hike in Baer Canyon.  We also might have hit Bowmans and cleaned them out of Texas doughnuts.

Boys ......

Frontiersman - Bows and Throwing Knives

This past Wednedsay we began making Bows and Throwing Knives for scouts.  It was easy to see that the boys were enthusiastic (how could they not be with bows and knives).  

This Wednesday we will be doing the flag fundraiser and then continuing to work on the bows and knives.

I am super impressed with the bows we made I shot mine what I would estimate to be 100 yards with minimal effort.

If you happened to miss out come this Wednesday and make one or both.

It's all good in the Bridgecreek hood

You earned it!

Six weeks of bringing bread means you earned it: movie in the man cave is on!

Below are the options for the movie. You can vote on them by commenting.

1: The Best 2 Years

2: Mobsters and Mormons

3: 17 Miracles

4: Ephriams Rescue

5: Baptists at our Barbecue

6: The Home Teachers

7: Narnia

Time and Date of the movie party will be: Friday, March 14, 2014 at 7:30 PM at the Kinikini's home.  I'll make some popcorn.  Bring a bag of your favorite treats to share.

How do you like them Nachos? Creation, Education

Watch it there Jason!  Michael can see you out of the corner of his eye.  Try Conner he seems to be engrossed by something to his left.

Oh ... that explains it.  Conner was observing the strangely primitive eating habits of Hunter.  Jake was content and couldn't care less about anybody else's nachos.

All in all, the nachos were great.  We had more than enough nachos and missed those who were not able to attend.

We continued some conversation about the creation and the wonders of the universe and how science and religion are not in (or at least don't have to be) in contention with one another.  From either extreme we can learn a lot with humility and patience.  We also selected a new topic of focus for Duty to God.  We will work on Education.  Assignment:  Read the For the Strength of Youth section on Education:  Here is a link if you want to do it right now.

 http://www.lds.org/manual/for-the-strength-of-youth/education?lang=eng


Don't forget to comment! 

Duty to God Study Topic: The Creation - Next Sunday: Get Together @ Kinikini's (Nachos) - Half-way to the Party!!!

Nachos!!!

Today we had a great discussion in class about the Plan of Salvation.  Teachers:  I invite you to further ponder it.  Parents:  I invite you to discuss the topics of the Plan, pre-existence, agency, creation, etc with your sons.  They have some great questions and ideas.

The current Duty to God Study Topic that we have chosen is:  The Creation.  It is an awesome topic and has been very present in the news today.  As an appreciator of science I have, over many years, studied scriptures and science and have found that they compliment each other.  Many people these days argue that religion and science are not compatible; these arguments tend to be made from extreme sides.  I am so grateful for revelations that have helped us understand that there are some questions to which we have answers, other questions which we may have the opportunity to answer with study, and other questions which we may have to wait past this life to answer.  Have fun in studies, and I look forward to discussions on the topic with you all.

Next Sunday 2/23 the Duty to God (D2G) Get Together (G2G) will be at Kinikini's house.  Of course we will have great discussion and NACHOS!!!

Lastly,  I told the young men at a D2G-G2G that as we work on getting the sacrament prepared on time that being responsible for getting the bread to the church is essential to having everything prepared for the sacred ordinance of the sacrament.  We had a rough patch of having the young men recall when they were assigned to bring bread.  I decided that a good challenge was likely in order and let the young men know that after 6 consecutive weeks of successfully bringing bread by 10:30 AM that we could plan a movie party.  Well .... we have 3 consecutive weeks so far.  Three more to go!

You  can check when you/your sons have bread assignments at our teachers quorum blog:  www.bcwtq.blogspot.com

In the column on the right are calendars that auto update bread and ushering assignments as well as information about our weekly activities.

TTFN

Karson Kinikini

Cake Bosses - We made some cakes like a BOSS!

 Cool activity this past week.  We had a Cake-Off!

We all got baked cakes and decorating supplies.

Awesome results!  Cayden made a very original Zombie Owl cake, which in fact won the most creative design award.












Josh (a blast from our past) made a monkey.  The rest of that team ... I'm not sure if we were a help or a hindrance to Josh, but the monkey came through none the less.

 Jonathan, Jason, and Michael made a pink elephant with rider.  I often think of a pink elephant, but in my mind it is in a blue tutu and ballet shoes and it is doing pirouettes. It is a therapeutic tool I use to help people see how the mind must be occupied with something.

It is nice to see a different viewpoint of a pink elephant.

Alex joined forces with some of the Priests who made a pretty awesome 3D bear cake.  It was somewhat akin to a Minecraft bear methinks. 

Cakey squares rendered together with sugary goodness.  Now that is a virtual reality that I could get behind.











At D2G-G2G (Duty to God - Get to Gether) today we met at Bro. Kinikini's house and discussed how a prophet has different meanings.

1) Prophet for the entire church/world. Only one holds all of the keys, but the Quorum of the Twelve and the members of the First Presidency all hold keys.  So there are 15 prophets of that sort on the earth at a time.

2) The Bible Dictionary states that a prophet can be "In a general sense a prophet is anyone who has a testimony of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost.

Essentially, a prophet receives revelation; and the type of prophet depends on who the information received is for.  A person may receive personal revelation, or revelation relevant to their family or calling in church.  But only the prophet (President Monson at this time) and the other 14 can receive revelation for the church as a whole.

We also discussed the importance of administering the ordinance of the sacrament and that the attitude which we carry with us about the importance and sacredness of any priesthood responsibility can affect that ordinance and the power of the priesthood that we carry into that situation.

BTW the chips and salsa and snickerdoodle cookies were delicious.  Thanks Sis. Kinikini!

Klondike 2014

We had 8 teachers go up and help as staff for Klondike 2014.  It was fun, it was cold and I came home with a crick in my neck.

See below:  Trey, Grant, Trevor, Michael, Jake, and can you see Kaleb??

Running the First Aid Strecher Race.  Winners of that race were our neighbors from Stone Creek Troop 223 The Spartans with an earth shattering time of 21.94 seconds to carry a troop member 30 yards down and 30 yards back up the hill.

Jonathan and Jason ran the sled races which was also a popular event.

We learned a little bit about humility and our need to watch our behavior as well.  At night time on Friday night some of the young men struggled with settling down and others struggled with how to deal with other young men's behaviors that were bothering them.  One if the awesome leaders in charge of organizing the Klondike was bothered and offended.  The next morning our young men went and apologized.  I was proud of their ability to see their wrongs and acknowledge them and to begin making repairs to them.  I believe that at this age young men begin to learn better boundaries with behavior, language, and appropriateness.  We will continue to work on these things.  

Oh .... and here is a picture of Trevor buried in the snow.

And the Ping Pong Champion is ......

Jason "The Hammer"

He pounded through four rigorous rounds of pong to emerge as the Champ.

Cayden and Hunter had an epic battle which ended with Cayden trying to absorb a ping pong ball through his skin.  This type of osmotic movement is not possible with such a large object trying to pass through such a resilient and selectively permeable membrane as human skin.  Therefore Cayden has an incredible welt on his arm.  A badge of honor which he wears with pride.

There was fun to be had .... and we also got program plan ideas to select activities for the next two years.

And for your viewing entertainment: 

New Presidency and Awesome Sunday Stuff

 

In class today we had a re-organization of the quorum presidency.

We want to thank our outgoing presidency:

President: Kaleb, 1st Counselor: Grant, 2nd Counselor: Cayden Secretary: Josh.

Our new presidency is:

President: Hunter, 1st Counselor: Jordan, 2nd Counselor: Jonathan, Secretary: Michael

In our discussion in Teacher's Quorum today we continued our discussion about relationships of fathers and sons.  The challenge was issued to read Elder Ballard's talk mentioned in the previous post, and to invite their father/father figure to also read it.

The relationship with our fathers here on earth teach us quite a lot about how we tend think about our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  Because this is the case, it is a great idea to continually work on our relationship with our fathers/sons/children.  A great video on the topic can be can be found at the following link at lds.org  CLICK HERE.

We discussed also the Godhead and the blessing of knowing the doctrines that allow us to understand the separateness and roles of all three members of the Godhead.  Heavenly Father has a body and we are created in His image.  Jesus Christ is the Son of God and also has a body and came to the earth to be our savior.  The Holy Ghost is a spirit and he testifies of the roles of our Heavenly Father and of Jesus Christ and of all truth.

D2GG2G = D2G (Duty to God) G2G (Get ToGether) 

(2nd and 4th Sundays each month)

Today at D2GG2G we met at Bishop Erickson's home and had a discussion of our current doctrinal study topic (Prophets), and then selected our focus for Priesthood Duties (Preparing the Sacrament).  We have asked all of the teachers to notice how their preparing of the sacrament in a reverent, timely, and prepared manner helps the whole ward have a better experience each week with the sacrament.

We have asked all of the young men to ponder this and notice the effect that they can have upon the ward and then to commit to make sure that they are taking this Priesthood duty seriously.

Some of these duties include:

• Bringing bread when assigned 30 minutes before church begins
• Helping to prepare the sacrament 30 minutes before church begins to make sure that it is ready before the majority of people arrive.  This allows the ward to be focused on preparing to renew their covenants as they prepare to receive the sacrament.
• Providing ushering for the doors to help maintain reverence prior to and during the administration of the sacrament.
• Making sure that our own behavior and focus is on the ordinance of the sacrament.

 Sister Erickson made some super-delicious breadsticks with dipping sauces for us which the young men (and old men) scarfed down with enthusiasm.  (Thanks Sis. Erickson!)

Youth Fireside

There was also a youth fireside at 7:00 PM at the Stake Center.  It featured musical numbers by each ward's youth.  It was awesome and included testimonies throughout including those of the Stake's awesome sister missionaries (Sister Williams and Sister Havea).

What a great Sunday!

How can I know my Heavenly Father?

Today's discussion was "How can I know my Heavenly Father?"

I was impressed with the knowledge and insights of the young men in our quorum.  Praying, going to church, reading the scriptures, and  other primary answers were quickly out of the gate and then Kaleb talked about how we can talk to someone a lot and still not know them.  That is where our discussion led to levels that were of the level needed to deepen testimony.

We found that it was not just talking to God in prayer, but how we talk to Him.  We explored how obeying commandments helps us understand God and His plan better.  Jordan shared that we must serve Him to really know Him.

We then listened to part of a conference talk by Elder M. Russell Ballard titled, Fathers and Sons: A Remarkable Relationship.  We discussed that we can learn many things about our Heavenly Father through our relationship with our earthly fathers.  Becoming a father helped to deepen my understanding about how God feels about me and His other children.

I have issued a challenge to the young men to work on building their relationship with their fathers.  Elder Ballard mentioned 3 things in his talk that he suggested for young men to do to build their relationship with their fathers.  1) Trust him, 2) Take an interest in your father's life, 3) Ask him for advice.

For parents reading this Elder Ballard also makes 3 specific suggestions for fathers to build their relationship with their sons.  You can read it by clicking the title of the talk up above.

It is a joy to work with the youth of this ward.  We have great young men in our Teacher's Quorum.  Thanks for being who you are!