Teaching Basketball?!?

I had a great day yesterday.  I coached basketball.  I haven't done that in a few years and about 5 minutes into it I realized how big a chunk of me was tied up in being a coach.  What really made my day was I coached about 25 missionaries dressed in white shirts,slacks, and athletic shoes.  Most of them hadn't ever played before but were enthusiastic and tried hard.  Actually, all of them tried hard.

A few days ago elder Cottriel called and asked if I would teach the Missionaries about basketball.  I said yes and wondered how basketball tied into teaching about our church. 

The Berlin Mission, like all missions has a structure.  It is divided into zones, districts, and companionships.  Each zone has zone leaders.  All zone leaders were invited by Mission President Kosak to come to the Tiergarten Stake Center for a 2 day training conference.  Elder Cottriel is an assistant to President Kosak.  He was assigned to teach a lesson on how to teach.  and so, he asked me to teach the zone leaders basketball basics.  We started with the ball and the basket.

After a few minutes of explaining rules and things like how to dribble the ball, we moved to the court for demonstration and practice.  We did 2 easy drills, ran up and down the court some and then played a short game.  Wow, it was great to coach and teach again.  I had more fun then any of the Elders and they had a great time.  The idea was to demonstrate how to teach the gospel of jesus Christ.  I hope I made that point to them.

Dan in Berlin, did I mention I had a great time????