So last minute, Logan and me were able to go on a LDS Marriage Enrichment Retreat through the Military Chaplin program. They had some spots they needed to fill and so we got invited. It was a bit different than I expected. I think we spent more time in "class" than I was thinking we would but we still had a lot of fun.
What we learned about:
This image summarizes everything we learned about. We pretty much spent the first two days talking about boxes, not real ones, but the figurative ones we put ourselves in when we interact with people: i.e. we put ourselves in boxes when we think of people as objects.
Then on the last afternoon we finished talking about the rest of the pyramid which I actually felt was more applicable than the box theory. Basically you work on the lower levels to correct and solve problems. It worked once when we got home. I was joking about it and told Logan I was "Listening and Learning" but then it actually did work.
We didn't really spend much time talking to our spouses in class unless it was about happy memories and such - I thought that was odd - but they did show us a few videos of bad communication that from the mullets, were obviously all filmed in the 80s. Maybe they didn't want people bringing out all their dirty laundry with the group.
I liked when we did the personality test and the love language test. My love language is Physical Touch and that's no surprise as I would do anything for tickles. My second is Quality Time. Logan almost tied between Quality Time and Acts of Service. (You can take the test
here).
We took the DISC personality test (Click
here to take it for free) and I came out as a "S" (Steadiness-Person places emphasis on cooperation, sincerity, dependability) with "C" and "D" traits (Conscientiousness - Person places emphasis on quality and accuracy, expertise, "competency. Dominance - Person places emphasis on accomplishing results, the bottom line, confidence). All my scores were pretty close - I guess I'm a pretty well rounded person. haha. Logan is almost all C but his second was D. I think his was very accurate. I thought it was funny we both scored very low in the "I" category (Influence - Person places emphasis on influencing or persuading others, openness, relationships).
What we did:
We stayed in a beautiful resort where the rooms are over $300/per night! All rooms were ocean view, we had all our meals at the hotel restaurants and all muffins and juice you could eat and drink during the classes. I could drink passion fruit juice all day - and did! On the second night we had our fancy dinner and I got a whole lobster with grilled leeks- so yummy!! Best part, it was all free!!! Thank you US government! Here are some pics from our free time.
The Kafuu Resort
View from our room
They had PJ's to wear in your rooms but we thought they looked a little more like outfits from a mental institution.
You could also borrow things for your room while you were there. So we got a foot massager and Jenga and had the Annie and Victor (our friends that went will us) come over in their white PJ's and Play with us.
We liked to walk down on the beach after lunch but it was pretty cool/rainy most of the time we were there.
One afternoon during our free time we had a opportunity to make our own shisa dragon dogs out of clay! You see them everywhere around Okinawa. One always has it's mouth open and the other closed. They are supposed to keep away bad spirits. Just to brag a bit, Log's and mine were probably they best pair!
They had a large buffet in the morning but it was almost all weird Japanese foods. I just ate fruit and french toast but Logan tried udon noodles, miso, marinated salmon, assorted meats and cheeses, and crab soup. For lunches we saw swordfish & potatoes, squid ink soup, ratatouille, more noodles, salmon, curry, just to name a few.
Great week together!
Finished product after they were fired and we brought them home.
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