In the evening we took a young man with us to the CES
Fireside at the Stake Center. Pres. Uchtdorf spoke and we really enjoyed it. Several
people from Toh-la-kai came and a couple of our institute students were there.
Monday we woke to cold weather. It snowed a tiny bit during
the day. We drove to the church and walked in the cultural hall. I wore my
gloves, hat, and scarf while we were there. We had an appointment at 10 AM, but
the sister wasn’t home when we arrived. Her son-in-law told us she had gone to
town for a couple of hours. That was really disappointing. As it turned out,
she got there right after we left and he had misunderstood how long she’d be
gone. We stopped at a couple of other places, but didn’t find anyone at home.
Having struck out, we returned home. I studied most of the day. I took a break in
the afternoon and made some quick cookies.
One of our children sent me a book about teaching that
arrived today. I read a chapter and scanned the rest. It looks really good. I
think it will be a big help. I also read some in the Lorenzo Snow book since I
volunteered to teach next Sunday.
Tuesday when I got up the outside thermometer said 0
degrees; the phone said -9 degrees; the car said -5 degrees. I figure if you
take an average it comes out COLD!!! We went to the church to walk and found
the outside door in the cultural hall was ajar. That was a bit of a concern. It
felt good to walk and it warmed me up a bit.
We had an appointment to see a lady, but she had company so we’ll
have to go another time. We delivered a flyer for Relief Society night meeting to
a neighbor and picked up our mail. We also had a conversation with our landlord
about what he would suggest to cut down the drafts inside the cottage. He
really had no ideas, but he was willing to let us try almost anything as long
as we didn’t damage anything. He said he had insulated the walls with Styrofoam
when he put the paneling on. We might try plastic on the windows, at least in
the bedroom. Or we may just opt for a room heater. When I measured for plastic
I found there was a ¾” gap at the side of one of the windows between the
paneling and the cinderblock wall. It had never been finished. That is
responsible for at least part of the cold.
Institute was interesting. We had two new people, two regular
attendees, and two sister missionaries—the largest group we’ve had—ever. Since
we’re moving to Thursday, this was the last time we would meet on Tuesday.
Ironic to get such a crowd the last night we are at that time and place. We had
a good lesson, but no one stayed for games.
Wednesday we walked at the church again. I like getting the
exercise. We had an inservice meeting for seminary teachers in the morning. It
used to be held on Tuesday nights but moved to Wednesday morning to accommodate
our schedule—another irony. I asked a lot of questions and got some good helps
for my classes. The coordinator had called earlier in the morning to ask if we
could visit some potential institute students after the class so we called the
sister missionaries to ask who in their ward could be coming. The prepared the
list, but then the coordinator said he couldn’t stay. It may have been that we
ran over or visited too long afterward, but it was a strange turn of events.
I spent the rest of the day studying and preparing for
Saturday. This week’s lesson is on Christ’s suffering in the Garden of
Gethsemane, the betrayal, and the trials prior to the Crucifixion. There is so
much there, but I’m not really sure how to impress on the students the impact
on their lives and what they can learn from it. I need to let them do more
learning and me less teaching.
In the evening we went to a Relief Society meeting on
Diabesity at the church. The RS president’s husband read several books to help
her and he presented a great deal of information. Afterward we visited and had
stew and rolls. It was a good meeting. Ted went with me to hear the
presentation and to visit with the husband and pick his brain about surviving
in winter weather.
Thursday it was supposed to be warmer, but it was still
around 5 degrees when we got up. We have had delayed starts for school two days
this week due to the cold. I had never heard of that happening, but I guess
they don’t want people out in the extreme cold and they assume many will be
late because cars won’t start, etc. When I went to shower I could not get
better than lukewarm water in the shower and that doesn’t work for me. It was
not a good start. After we ran the hot water taps for a while we got hot water
again, but we realized we needed to run the hot water faucets at night as well
to keep them from freezing. Apparently, the pipes had ice in them or something
because there was water but it wasn’t hot.
In the afternoon we visited with a young man in the branch.
We read scriptures together to help him get better understanding of them. I
started by having us read Matt 13 where the Parable of the Sower is recorded.
We talked about the various kinds of hearts people have as depicted in the
parable. Then we turned to Lehi’s dream of the Tree of Life. We read quite a
bit of the dream and Nephi’s repeat of the dream. We identified the four types
of hearts depicted there as well. There are actually a couple more in Lehi’s
dream, but the parallels with Matthew are clear. I think it helped him see how
symbolism is used to teach principles and how there can be multiple ways of
teaching and multiple interpretations.
We studied for a bit and ate dinner then headed for the
stake center. Ted gave a presentation to the missionary prep class, inviting
them to participate in institute on the weeks when they are not in mission
prep. We also visited a bit with the Seminary and Institute assistant director
who was visiting. He gave us some encouraging words and said they’d help any
way they can. What we really need are students. After that we can work on other
things, but without students nothing else is very meaningful.
Friday we were up and exercised at the church. I was able to
have a hot shower and my internet worked again so I was a happy camper. At the
post office I picked up the heated mattress pad I’d ordered. We spent quite a
bit of time getting the pad on the bed. I was so excited.
I studied rest of the day, preparing for Saturday morning and
Friday night. I need to make the students more responsible for their learning
instead of spoon feeding them. I prepared a couple of handouts to help them
learn the Scripture Mastery verses—I hope they take the challenge. They are
good kids—just a bit too cared for.
On the way to Toh-la-kai, we had to stop for water and gas. That
took longer than anticipated so we got to the church just in time to set up and
get things organized. Of course, my students were late arriving so there was no
worry. I think they appreciated the challenge. One student surprised me by
wanting to pass off a Scripture Mastery (a first) and by actually having read
every day the last week. I think he only read one or two verses a day, but that
is a start. He was pretty rough on the scripture so I told him to try again
after class. When he tried again, he didn’t really have it word perfect, but I
think he would be able to tell me the main components, so I passed it off for
him. He really needed the success. I also asked him to be class president. We
haven’t had one to date, but I told him that meant he had to be at seminary
every week and he agreed.
After we got home we ate dinner then went to bed. It felt
like heaven to have the bed warm and not have cold sheets. I think this was close
to pure joy.
Saturday was busy. We got ready for seminary and went to
church. I put all the chairs in a semi-circle so the kids wouldn’t be scattered
around the room. We had a good class. I assigned each student a different
scripture that talked about the events of the Garden of Gethsemane and asked
them to pick out the most important thing in the verses. I was a little
disappointed with the results, but we had a good discussion. One student
touched me with her response. She said something in effect that she was touched
by the anguish Christ suffered. She said she was sorry Christ had to suffer so
much for her. She answered most of the questions I asked the rest of the lesson
to the point that I almost said “besides her” when asking, but I felt it was
good for her to participate so much. It is totally unlike her. She also was the
only one that had read the scripture block and she had read scriptures every
day.
After seminary we headed to Albuquerque. We ate lunch on the
way to save time at the temple. We ran a couple of errands on the way. We got
to the temple and I got cards printed so a couple of my students could do some
work. I was on my way to take them the cards when I met their parents on the
stairs. They’d had car trouble on the way and the kids wouldn’t be there. They
can do them next month.
After we finished at the temple, we had a couple of car
fixes to do. The first appointment finished early, so we headed to the second
one to get the windshield fixed. Just as Ted went inside to see if they could
possibly take us early they called to say they had an early opening. We were
finished there about an hour ahead of schedule. That was a tender mercy. We did
a bit of grocery shopping on the way out of town then headed home, trying to
watch for the family with car troubles in case they had broken down on the road
home. When we got home we unloaded the car, put everything away, had some soup,
tried to reach our friends, and went to bed. We were worn out.
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