Stargazing

Monday 30th of December, 2013

Sam and his companion got to speak at church yesterday, Elder Calderwood spoke about a day in the life of a missionary, and Sam got to speak about what the members can do to help them with the work. He planned the talk differently than normal, he wrote it out like a tree, so he knew what he was talking about and where he would move on, but the wording was up to him. So he was able to add a lot more personality to the talk than he could have if it was just written out. It was a 10 minute talk and wasn't too hard to prepare, most of his time was spent practicing presenting it, rather than what he would say. People seemed to really enjoy their talks so he is hoping they can start getting more referrals from members and have them more involved with the work.

 

They tracted into someone named Todd Johnson, he had met with missionaries in Mesa, Arizona 7 years ago, and has a lot of friends who are members, he seemed interested, and after they had knocked on his door, he came back out to have a smoke, and he started talking with them again, so hopefully something will come of it!

 

After their Christmas dinner, they did some star gazing with Brother Jeffers, the telescope they used was a 12 inch reflector, and was as tall as Elder Calderwood, they were able to see the Orion Nebula, the rings on Jupiter and its moons. Sam also got to use his binoculars which were designed for astronomy, they are 10-50's. Even though they don't zoom in as closely as the 20-50's, you can see a lot better since you can never hold them perfectly still, so the hand-wobble doesn't have as much of an effect.

 

One of Sams Christmas presents was a balloon sculpting kit. He thought it was really fun, he managed to make a dog, but he got the proportions wrong and it had a huge tail. But it's really fun and a lot easier than he thought, so he is going to become expert at it!