March 24, 2016 - Thursday in Nauvoo

Today was another extended day of training new missionaries in my site assignment.  The schedulers had me in the Blacksmith shop from 9:45am until 5:00pm, and two new Elders in for training.  Elder Aina came in from 9:45am until 2:20pm and Elder Mauncha came in at 11:45am and served until 5:00pm... Both had their first day of training in the Blacksmith's shop, yesterday, with another seasoned missionary.  Our new mission president has designated all seasoned missionaries as trainers, so there really is no standard for training as I found out today.

As I was working with these brethren, I found out that they had not been taught how to make a horse shoe.  One Elder had tried making 18 horse shoes with absolutely no success in making one good one.  When I asked him how he was trained to make them, he said the "trainer", (ie seasoned missionary), told him to just go ahead and practice.  The trainer further taught him to just be on the Blacksmith side of the tour while he took the wagon side of the tour.  As a result, he knew nothing about that side of the presentation.

Needless to say, it was a long day of correcting the method of training they both received yesterday.  (The concept of "training the trainer" has not reached theborders of Nauvoo...)  However, they both responded well when I showed them how I gave a tour and demonstrated between tours on how to make the perfect horse shoe.  They were both given my best shot at trying to understand the needs of each tour we gave today and reaching into the key messages of the tours to connect with the visitors.  I worry about tomorrow's "trainer".  That Elder is known for giving information that is not approved and will give a 20 minute tour in about 60 minutes....

We had all levels of tours today with reaching out to the pre teens, the teenagers, the young adults, the less active members and the investigators.  I was tired when I got home but I was satisfied that I had given this day my best shot at teaching correct principles.  It was so much fun to switch gears with the level of understanding folks had in these tour groups.  I think the new Elders picked up well on the teaching opportunities.

I had so much fun teaching the young people in each of my tours today.  As I gave the presentation and shared the historical facts, I could sense those that needed a little more attention.  As I made the horse shoes, I would "marvel" at how good they were coming out.  I would keep saying that this shoes was going to be the "best" shoe ever!  (and the shoes did come out pretty good looking)... I would then do a little more "bragging" about what a great Blacksmith I was.... (because a good Blacksmith made a lot of noise...) and then I would brag some more about the excellent quality of the horse shoe I was making.

Then I would suggest that maybe this horse shoe was sooooo good that maybe it should be a collectors item!  (fun!).  Then I would ask if anyone wanted it before I gave it to the "excellent horse shoe museum"...  Of course they always wanted the shoe, and I would give it to them, and they would gently look it over and enjoy the fine quality of workmanship ... (after all it was the best horse shoe they had ever seen today)... And then I would say something like, "whenever you look at this horse shoe, remember the faith of the pioneers who were brave enough to follow a Prophet of God to the Rocky Mountains...............  I absolutely love teaching the young people!

Perhaps one of the reasons I was so tired today was that we had taken our morning walk this morning of 3.5 miles.  Then mom took the van to her assignment at the Visitors Center for an early shift from 8:45am to 1:30pm.  And I walked back down to the Blacksmith's shop for my shift.  That distance from our house is about 2 miles.  After my shift ended at 5:20pm, mom came down to drive me home.  It was snowing this afternoon, so the walk home would have been sooooo cold! 

It was good to take my shoes off and put on my pajamas tonight!  I was ready for a nice quiet evening at home!  My legs keep saying thank you!  And that's the way my day went today!  Thank you for joining me tonight!  We sure love you!