Hello all,
This week has been pretty dull (again). Not really anything happened this week that was particularly noteworthy, or fun. Except for the classes I taught this week.
So once a week, the elders all attend a night class. It is split into two nights, and then split into two classes each night. So everyone attends with a group of elders that is roughly ¼ of the mission. So about 25 elders or so. Well in the last 6 months, I have felt that something needed to change. I had that thought back when I was in Help Services in the Family History Library. I wanted to try and figure out a way that we could have smaller groups for the classes, to have more of a discussion than a lecture. I wanted to get more people to participate and be comfortable talking about the gospel, because we never get to teach anyone about the gospel outside of ourselves, and then most elders don’t get an opportunity to teach, or really participate. So I came up with an idea to change that. I had the thought (that I will attribute to the Spirit because of the outcome), that we could do smaller breakout groups. So we could split the missionaries into groups no bigger than 10 people in a group. Well when I was assigned to serve in the zone that I have been serving in currently, I brought this idea to my new zone leader, and my district leader, and the other missionaries in the zone and the assistants. We have been trying to work on this for 4 months, and had some pushback from one elder, who ended up getting transferred after my first two months in the zone, and then we were able to actually work on this idea, and this week we implemented the idea. So Thursday and Friday nights, we held these classes.
The response was wonderful! In my group I had a couple of companionships who I have never heard talk in classes, and have never heard them talk about the gospel. I was worried at first that I would have to try and get people to participate, and that it would end up being a lecture. But I was so wrong! Two elders in particular, Elders Balls, and Arndt, talked the whole time, and were absolutely engaged in the discussion, and it was awesome!!! They brought so much to the conversation, as did the rest of the elders actually. After the class, I had a couple of the people hang behind to thank me, and give me feedback about this new style of class that we had.
The response was unanimous in asking for more of these classes. The elders felt like they wanted to participate more, and that their comments were more valued. They even asked when the next class would be.
This was the best thing to hear! I talked with the other five group leaders, and all of them had similar experiences. They found that there was more participation, and that the spirit was stronger in the small groups as in contrast to the big class setting.
It's a very gratifying thing to have your idea implemented, and see good success in it. I don’t have a lot of gratification while here on the mission, so it was wonderful to have some for some of my work for once. After four months of preparation, and going back and forth on things, and then getting approval from President Fenn to try these, then to hold them, and having such good response has really been nice.
This week has been pretty dull (again). Not really anything happened this week that was particularly noteworthy, or fun. Except for the classes I taught this week.
So once a week, the elders all attend a night class. It is split into two nights, and then split into two classes each night. So everyone attends with a group of elders that is roughly ¼ of the mission. So about 25 elders or so. Well in the last 6 months, I have felt that something needed to change. I had that thought back when I was in Help Services in the Family History Library. I wanted to try and figure out a way that we could have smaller groups for the classes, to have more of a discussion than a lecture. I wanted to get more people to participate and be comfortable talking about the gospel, because we never get to teach anyone about the gospel outside of ourselves, and then most elders don’t get an opportunity to teach, or really participate. So I came up with an idea to change that. I had the thought (that I will attribute to the Spirit because of the outcome), that we could do smaller breakout groups. So we could split the missionaries into groups no bigger than 10 people in a group. Well when I was assigned to serve in the zone that I have been serving in currently, I brought this idea to my new zone leader, and my district leader, and the other missionaries in the zone and the assistants. We have been trying to work on this for 4 months, and had some pushback from one elder, who ended up getting transferred after my first two months in the zone, and then we were able to actually work on this idea, and this week we implemented the idea. So Thursday and Friday nights, we held these classes.
The response was wonderful! In my group I had a couple of companionships who I have never heard talk in classes, and have never heard them talk about the gospel. I was worried at first that I would have to try and get people to participate, and that it would end up being a lecture. But I was so wrong! Two elders in particular, Elders Balls, and Arndt, talked the whole time, and were absolutely engaged in the discussion, and it was awesome!!! They brought so much to the conversation, as did the rest of the elders actually. After the class, I had a couple of the people hang behind to thank me, and give me feedback about this new style of class that we had.
The response was unanimous in asking for more of these classes. The elders felt like they wanted to participate more, and that their comments were more valued. They even asked when the next class would be.
This was the best thing to hear! I talked with the other five group leaders, and all of them had similar experiences. They found that there was more participation, and that the spirit was stronger in the small groups as in contrast to the big class setting.
It's a very gratifying thing to have your idea implemented, and see good success in it. I don’t have a lot of gratification while here on the mission, so it was wonderful to have some for some of my work for once. After four months of preparation, and going back and forth on things, and then getting approval from President Fenn to try these, then to hold them, and having such good response has really been nice.
Tonight we are going to the Pioneer Day Concert at the Conference Center. That should be good.
Hope you all have had a good week, and I hope that this next week is even better!
Love,
Elder Bartholomew
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