Sunday, November 24, 2013

#124: Elder's Quorum "Nintendo Tournament of a Lifetime".

My friend Jeff is currently the Elder's Quorum President in his ward. Unfortunately, some of his past Elder's Quorum activities have not been very well attended. Together, he and I came up with a fun Elder's Quorum activity that was very successful--the first-ever Elder's Quorum "Nintendo Tournament of a Lifetime" (with dinner...free food always helps).

We gathered up all of our Nintendo games from the NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, and Wii (thanks to my mom for not throwing my old games away!), set up a few TVs in the cultural hall at the Church, brought in the couches from the foyer (with permission, of course) and had an epic 24-man "Nintendo Tournament of a Lifetime". In order to facilitate 24 players, we split the men into six different teams. Four players at a time would compete in a mini-challenge on one game (one race in Excitebike, one 3-minute round of Super Smash Bros, most points in a quarter of NBA Jam, etc.) until all 4 players had attempted the challenge. The winner received 4 points, the runner-up received 3 points, 3rd place received 2 points, and 4th place received 1 point. The team that had the most points by the end of the night was declared the "Nintendo Champions of a Lifetime". In this particular case, it actually came down to a tie, so the two winning teams picked their two best players to go head-to-head in an epic speed run of Super Mario Bros World 1-1. It was awesome. Jeff gave out some gift cards for the winning team. It was a great activity, and we can't wait to do it again. If you have some old Nintendo games lying around and are in need of a fun activity, give it a shot. It's a sure way to get your 20 to 30 year old Elder's to come out to an activity.
More games means more awesome.
Free food + Nintendo is a guaranteed success.
Setting up the teams. The dude in purple is ready to roll.
Jeff kept score in Microsoft Ecxel. It's great to be a nerd.
Bo Jackson is unstoppable in Tecmo Bowl. It's really not even fair.
Brody was the champion of the night--he had nerves of steel.
 He beat Super Mario Bros World 1-1 in record time.
And then he just kept on going.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

#123: Captain Morobi-Wan.

As a kid, I loved the Book of Mormon paintings by Arnold Friberg. Friberg's depictions of Nephi, Ammon, and the Stripling Warriors all looked like superheroes with their bulging biceps and massive weapons. But of all of Friberg's paintings, my absolute favorite was Captain Moroni. To a young boy, there is just something magical about him. He was righteous, he was brave, and he "didn't take no crap from nobody" (not an actual Book of Mormon quote).
In his writings, Mormon said this of Captain Moroni: "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken  forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men" (Alma 48:17). Think of it--if we were all more like Moroni, Satan would have NO power over us! That's a powerful statement.

Since my blog is called Mormon Wookiee, I thought it would be fun to take my own Star Warsy spin on some of Friberg's paintings (after all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery). With that thought in mind, I now present to you my very first attempt at Arnold Friberg's Star Wars: Captain Morobi-Wan. Enjoy!