Week Ending September 21, 2013

Sunday seminary went OK. No one turned in a notebook, but I had 7 students in attendance. Two came just for the last 5 minutes, but they came. Three of them spoke in Sacrament Meeting. I am generous in my description—they read conference talks in Sacrament Meeting. It really makes me sad that they have no idea how to give a real talk. Maybe we should work on that in seminary somehow.

The rains were so bad last night that the road from Ft. Wingate to Church Rock was closed. It was covered with mud. The families had to drive to Gallup and take the interstate back to Ft. Wingate. A family from Pinedale apologized for being in their jeans and sneakers. Their road was flooded so they had to hike out to the main road to come to church.

Sunday afternoon and evening I spent time on the phone with my seminary students trying to help them get Webex set up for our meeting on Thursday. We got 2 done and one got video but no sound. The stake technical specialist called while I was on the phone with the third and I connected them so he could help her. The 4^th girl did it on her own and is ready to go.

It was strange as I waited for the girls during the process. I had my screen with my camera showing me in the corner. There is a slight time-delay in what is shown on the screen. It was an eerie feeling to watch myself blink and do various things just slightly after it had actually happened. And it wasn’t mirror-image as I expected; it was as if I were really looking at myself. Odd.

While I was talking with the girls it began to rain so hard I had to shut the front door in order to hear our conversation. The thunder sounded really weird, like cannon balls were rolling around. It went on for a long time with long stretches of thunder. When I finished with the last girl I felt drained. I must have opened and closed 10 or more meetings during our time online and tried several different things to get them connected. I was so relieved to get it done. The three new girls are going to be good students. Two have really heavy class loads and will be challenged to get it all done, but they are giving it a good effort.

Rainbow over Church Rock

Monday I spent the day working on seminary. I met with a student using Webex and it went well. In the late afternoon we met with the senior couples in our district. We spent most of the first hour visiting. We had a brief meeting then ate. By the time we finished eating it was time for us to leave. It is fun visiting with them, but we probably won’t get much other activity.

We attended the YSA home evening. Sis. Mortenson challenged them to get together outside of home evening and institute and be friends and a support to each other. She shared all their phone numbers so they could have no excuses.

Tuesday I spent the day working on seminary, trying to get my workbook assignments outlined so I’d be ready for seminary tomorrow. It is really demanding keeping up with everything that needs to be done.

Just an interesting dusky sky

Wednesday I spent time preparing my seminary lesson for the afternoon. I was supposed to help set up the quilt for the Relief Society night meeting about 11:30 or 12 so I tried to work around that to not be in the middle of something. When the other lady didn’t come I called her home to see if she had remembered. She had but she wasn’t coming. She wasn’t feeling well. I said Ted could help me. We went over to the church and got the quilt set up. I found a sheet and some yarn that would match the quilt top. We had some really cute variegated yarn that was more string than yarn that I thought would be cute. I did a sample row and left everything ready to go.

We made a couple of stops on the way to Tohlakai. Once there we waited until about 5:40 before anyone came. That is fairly typical—they call it “Navajo Time”. Two students didn’t come, but I had a good discussion with the other two and they both turned in notebooks for the week. (It turned out that one had done all the assignments, but the other had just done part of one day’s assignment.)

After seminary I went to the Relief Society night meeting where they were going to tie the quilt. When I arrived, the women were just sitting around waiting for me to get there to start. There were four women there and another came later which was really good. One lady misunderstood what we were doing and only used one string to tie with, but we got that corrected before too long. After we rolled the quilt the same lady sewed the quilt to the rolled part in a few places. All of that will still need to be corrected. Anyway, we were able to finish tying the quilt and it looked cute. We didn’t discover the goofs until we tried to take one of the boards off and it was sewn in. I hope we didn’t get too many slivers pulling it out.

Low clouds over Iyanbito--mountains in the clouds

Thursday at our quilting group there were four of us. I helped a lady do the calculations for her quilt and got her started cutting pieces. She did OK except that she cut one piece ½” too short. That will just mean the quilt will be ½” narrower. I know we cut enough long pieces to make 7 rows, but when she started sewing them together there was one too few. I think she must have cut it up for some of the shorter pieces between blocks. We decided to make the rows at the top and the bottom half as wide. I got her started sewing on the machine after lunch. She has never sewn before so this is two new skills she learned today. I’m really pleased with her progress. She’s making the quilt for her mom for Christmas and she’s sure she’ll cry when her mom opens it. I’m sure they both will.

Another lady had to separate the blocks she sewed. She then wanted to add some color to the quilt so we picked out some bright red and blue fabric. I left her cutting the red pieces. When I came back she had cut all but the first ones 4” instead of 5”. She had put the edge of the fabric at the 1” mark on the mat and cut at 5”. We can use the pieces somewhere else, but it was sad that she could not use them.

After the quilting class the president and I took a loaf of bread to a lady we met a few weeks ago while we were looking for someone. She is turning 90 today so we wanted to let her know people were thinking about her. There were a number of people from a Lutheran Church somewhere that were here to work on houses and visit with people. They were very nice and helped me get the car out of the driveway. We plan to give her the quilt, but that will be a few days coming.

I spent the next few minutes preparing for my virtual class. When it was time to start only one girl signed in. I waited a bit then sent reminders to the others. I called one student and found she was working on a float. The student that was having troubles never got her program to work, but she was able to listen through the phone. I’d really like her to be in the meeting because she has such good insights and she isn’t afraid to talk. Our meeting was interesting. I went over the navigation of the website and how to use the various tools. Then we had a somewhat abbreviated discussion of the unit we studied. It is difficult to get much discussion going with one on the phone and two that don’t talk much. I was able to show a video clip from lds.org and that went well. When it was over I felt like I’d been through a wringer.

We left almost immediately for institute. Six students came although some were late and others left early so I’m not sure what our count was at any time. We had a good discussion led by a student. We played games afterward but we quit by about 9:30 so it wasn’t terribly late when we got home.

Friday Ted took the car in to get the oil changed. They found we had a mouse nest in our cabin air filter. They cleaned it out then did a high-level disinfecting of the system to get rid of any infestation in the car. That is spooky. He said they had three others come in today with the same thing.

I graded seminary assignments all morning then participated in an online meeting with the other teachers. After that I did more grading that seemed to take all day. I have several students that have missed pieces of day’s activities so I can’t just move on and give them credit for the day.

We went to dinner in Gallup to celebrate Ted’ birthday then drove home, planning to go to the football game at the high school. We had forgotten our chair pads, so we went by the house to get them. We were walking toward the school when a lady in a truck called to us to ask where the elders lived. She drove to their apartment but they were not home. She seemed quite stressed so we went to talk with her. It turned out her sister had just had an operation and wanted a priesthood blessing. We explained that Ted could do that for her. She drove us back to get our car then we followed her to Iyanbito.

She lived on Windmill Road, one of the worst in the settlement. The original plan was for us to follow her as far as we felt we could drive then flash our lights and honk our horn and she’d drive us the rest of the way. She obviously had other plans. She took off at a fair clip and didn’t stop when we began flashing our lights and honking our horn. The road had been resurfaced since we were there last and was significantly better so we limped along after her. We pulled into her driveway and she hurried us into the truck without any word of apology for leaving us literally in her dust. She told us at least three times to be sure to lock our car—not a real secure feeling.

She drove us to the home of her niece where her sister was staying while she was recuperating. There was no way our car would have made 20 feet of that “road”. It was so rutted and bumpy and full of holes and puddles, I could not believe it. Her niece’s home was very nice, one of the nicest we’ve seen while we’ve been here. I couldn’t believe such a nice house was literally out in the middle of nowhere. We visited briefly with the lady and her daughter then Ted gave the lady the blessing. She had cancer in her mouth and sinuses that caused them to remove her pallet, much of her sinuses, and the bone under her eye. She was unable to talk, but she was obviously appreciative.

Afterward the sister drove us back to her home to get our car. It turned out she is the aunt of a lady we know. We had visited her home last fall—our first trip on the road—looking for her and her niece because the elders had left a note telling us to visit them. She was working, but we visited one of her sons. We’d tried calling since, but we hadn’t reached anyone and we hadn’t been back. Small world.

Grocery bag rug in progress and whittled crochet hook

Saturday I worked on seminary all morning. Our zone leaders came over and we visited for about 1 ½ hours. She brought me a pile of sheets they’d received. She also gave me a crochet hook whittled out of a stick and a ball of cut up grocery bags to show me how to make a plastic rug. We talked about lots of things their group has made. They’ve actually had some orders for quilts and are doing well. She showed me some other things she’d made as well. It was a fun visit and I felt like I got some good ideas. I was grateful for the sheets—they will be useful. In the afternoon I fixed all the mistakes in the quilt we’d tied. I cut the backing so it was ready to bind.

Week Ending September 14, 2013

Sunday I took sweet rolls for twins in my class for their birthday. One of the twins arrived a little late. The other twin had stayed in the dorms so her mom went to get her. (It turned out she came to the church a few minutes later but stayed in the foyer until seminary was over.) I was impressed that I had 6 of 10. Only two had their assignments to turn in, but that was two more than Tohlakai. Two students are online which meant two didn’t do the assignments.

We talked about the lessons of the week, focusing on the introductory material to the Book of Mormon which talks about the purpose and promise of the book. I told my two online students to redo an assignment about why the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. They need to understand the significance. With the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, almost everything we believe in stands or falls. If it is true, our other claims are true; if it is false, so are our other claims. I challenged them to read, ponder the message, and ask Heavenly Father if it is true. The promise is sure that if they pray with real intent they will come to know it is true. That would be a good goal for the year—to find out for themselves.

At the end of class we sang Happy Birthday to the one twin and the kids polished off the rolls. When we saw the other twin in the foyer I wished her a Happy Birthday, but I didn’t have any rolls for her. I made a quick trip home taking all my seminary stuff, including the cards I’d brought for the girls. When I got back I saw another girl (former student) whose birthday was Monday and realized her card was gone. I’d also taken everything home that I’d brought for a new student.

Apparently, Ted had four students in his class and only one of them was a parent—that’s a real breakthrough. One was a less active man whose wife comes off and on. That would be a real step for him to come to class.

In the evening we went to the stake center for a CES broadcast. It was very good. Back at home I had to open the seminary lesson for tomorrow and set things up for the new week. In the future I will be able to open all the lessons for the week at once, but for now this works.

Monday we had a lot to do around the house. I spent most of the time working on my seminary lessons. I want to be a week ahead of the kids so I can decide what they should do in the workbooks. I am trying to make it as similar to the online program as possible so I am cutting some of the questions that don’t match up. It’s a lot of work staying up with both programs.

I met with one of my online students in the afternoon. She isn’t a real chatterbox, so I have to carry most of the conversation. She keeps busy with her horses and that is the real focus of her life.

In the late afternoon we drove to Tohlakai for our senior couples family home evening. We actually visited for a while then had a brief meeting. We had some refreshments then played games. We had to leave when the game was about half over.

We then went to the seminary building for young adults family home evening. Everyone was on the porch so we thought there was no key. It turned out Sister Mortenson had taken her purse with her cell phone and her lasagna into the building and gone back out to get her baby. Her son was in the building so she had not unlocked the door. When she turned around to go back in, her son was standing behind her. So her keys were in the building with her phone. The solution was to get another key so she could get into the building and the rest of us went to the home of one of the girls.

Tuesday we went to the senior center for lunch. It was pouring rain so it made for a messy trip. We took a couple of empty bottles to be filled with body wash and we picked up the ones we’d left last week. There is still a lot left in the vat. They also had a large pile of food to give to people. We got two 10# bags of potatoes, 4 containers of tomatoes, a few onions, a bunch of tiny apples, and a big bunch of green peppers. We also got 2 pounds of butter. From there we went to pick up my student workbooks that finally arrived.

I spent the afternoon studying and finished up the lessons for next week so I can hand out the assignments on Wednesday. I graded the couple of notebooks that were turned in. One had done about half of the first day. The other student had done the work for every day, but I don’t think he understood the assignments very well. I find that the kids really have a tough time with even basic English grammar.

Wednesday I studied more and prepared for seminary in the evening. On the way to Tohlakai we picked up a key for the old seminary building—at last! Seminary went OK. Two of the kids turned in notebooks for their assignments so I got really excited. They each had one day’s assignment done.

We drove to the church for Branch Council. There weren’t any others there for the meeting. The missionaries said they thought it had been cancelled. We decided to wait for a while. When the branch president arrived for activity night¸ I asked if we were having a meeting and he said it had been cancelled. He thought the missionaries would tell us. I told him there were things I needed to talk with him about, so he decided to go ahead and have the meeting. It is confusing to me the way things seem to function.

In the meeting we talked about the dinner for the Ironman Challenge. I suggested we invite the entire branch so everyone could be strengthened by it. He agreed. Two others arrived then and he pulled them into the meeting. They had forgotten, but they also didn’t know it was cancelled. The men took charge of the meal planning and Relief Society will take care of the side dishes. I came off with not too much to do.

I also asked about the keys for the cupboards. I said I would be happy to call and make a work order. I am more than happy to do this because at least I know it will be done. I had another item for discussion, but he went on to other organizations, so that was OK. They decided the branch has a need for teacher training. I think the entire branch could benefit by it, but I’m not sure how many will come. They talked about the Young Women and Young Men—they really need to strengthen those programs.

Thursday I went early to the quilting meeting so I could start working on a quilt top. I spent the entire time cutting scraps of fabric into different widths. My plan is to sew them in strips then sew the strips together to make a quilt top. The burrito lady came and brought some material she’d bought to supplement the fabrics she’d found last week. She cut some pieces and began sewing it together. Another lady began sewing some pre-cut squares together. I told her to be sure she sewed the seams straight and even. She did a fair job. None of the other ladies came that said they were coming.

Just as we were ready to eat, another lady walked in. I was so glad to see her. We visited a bit then she joined us for lunch. She had just bought a book with the hope of learning how to quilt. I told her to pick out a pattern, a fairly easy one, then come back and we’d get her started. I really hope this can help her have some contact with the church.

I stayed after everyone else had left and continued cutting strips. I really enjoyed the time working on it. We had to drive to the old seminary building for institute so we had to leave early. Just as we were driving up the driveway to the building we had a call from a student asking if we could come get him. His car was not working and he needed a ride. Fortunately, he lived really close so we were able to get him and get back in just a few minutes.

Friday I had a Webex meeting with the other teachers for online seminary. Our supervisor was not there but they recorded the meeting for her. There is enough delay in the timing that it is a little dicey on occasion. The lady in charge gave us all a turn to discuss the items we felt were of need to address. That worked pretty well.

The weather here has been really weird. The rain has come off and on without much notice. The skies usually look ominous, but it will be dry one minute and a deluge the next. It rained fairly heavily most of the afternoon here today. At one point it actually hailed heavily enough that we couldn’t see across the street. There was supposed to be a football game here in the evening that we had planned to attend. I was sure they’d called the game so we didn’t go. (It turned out they did not and the home team won so we would have liked to see it.) It rained very heavily off and on all night.

Saturday early we picked up a lady to go to Albuquerque to the temple. On the way we passed several areas where the rain had formed lakes and puddles. A couple of areas had the water completely surrounding the homes. At one place there were some vehicles with flashing lights blocking the road into the area, probably to prevent looters.

We had to get our tires replaced. Ted was very concerned that we needed to upgrade them before winter because our tread was getting lower than he was comfortable with. We were out within an hour. We decided to stop by a farmer’s market. It was interesting but it didn’t have any of the crafty items I like to see. We did get some produce that we’ll enjoy. It was all beautiful.

It rained heavily during part of the trip home. I felt so badly for the people who already had enough rain. I kept Ted talking on the way home so he didn’t fall asleep. Still, we were glad to get home and get things put away. We hadn’t been home more than an hour when it began to rain very heavily again. We were grateful to be out of the rain.

Week Ending September 7, 2013

Sunday I had my first meeting with students of online seminary. I hooked up my computer to the TV screen so we could talk about the various things. They seemed to enjoy doing the online work. We had a good testimony meeting with people sharing testimonies of temple experiences and their experience reading the Book of Mormon.

In the afternoon I tried to mark attendance for seminary after I had graded my students’ work, but my class is not accessible to me. I used to have it but it’s gone. I’m sure it has something to do with my dual role. In the evening we went to home teach.

Monday I had great plans for the day that didn’t quite make it. We had a district meeting at Tohlakai at 1 PM. It was a potluck lunch followed by the meeting. I figured I needed to double the recipe I was taking. Ted suggested I should make a little less, so I cut the chicken down to 1 ½ recipes. I couldn’t really ½ the recipe for the cans. The chicken breasts were frozen as usual. We had to leave at 12:30, so I planned to shred the chicken about 11:30. When I checked at 11:30, it was still raw. I had a call just as I discovered the problem, so while I talked on the phone, I hurriedly put a pan of water on to heat to steam the chicken. I needed to shred the cheese, so I quickly did that while the chicken cooked. I then realized the rice would need to be cooking to be done in time to leave, so I put that on to cook. After a few minutes of steaming the chicken was ready to shred. Finally everything was done.

When we arrived we found that the couple that was supposed to open the building was going to be late. We opened the building and everyone pitched in to set up tables and get lunch ready. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, but only about half of my food was eaten after all that.

One couple who was on their second mission here had replaced a garden missionary couple that had a fabulous garden going. They brought a car full of produce. After we had taken all we thought we could use, they gave us everything that was unclaimed to give to others here. We had a car full of food.

From there we drove to family home evening. We’d had a call from Mortensons that they were not going to make it so we were in charge. We had 4 or 5 kids and it turned out to be a fun evening. When we returned home we unloaded the car then tried to find a home for all the food. We bagged up the leftovers and put them in the freezer—it was at least two meals worth. We then shredded as much zucchini as we could fit in the freezer and bagged that up. I still had to open seminary lessons for the next day, so it was fairly late when we got to bed.

Tuesday morning we drove to the senior center with several large containers. The elders had told us late Friday there was a very large container of body wash they were trying to empty and to bring gallon bottles. We found the container was probably about a cubic yard with a spout for emptying it. We took some small bottles and left our other containers for them to fill. Next month they are getting shampoo.

At home I thought I had an appointment for a Webex seminary meeting. At the appointed time I went to the email and clicked on the link. The meeting was not in session yet, so I waited. After a few minutes I looked at the notice again and I had the right time. After a few more minutes I read it more closely and discovered it was for Wednesday, not Tuesday. My goodness!

Later in the afternoon I met with one of my online students for our weekly meeting that was supposed to be last Friday. We had a good visit. She’s not really open, but she appears to be a really cute girl with a sweet spirit. I feel badly because she is the only online student for the class meeting as of this time. I spent the rest of the day grading assignments and preparing for seminary tomorrow. I’m hoping the kids will catch the vision of the program and do the work.

Wednesday I met with my supervisor and several other teachers via Webex to discuss the online program. It was really helpful. Most of the first half hour was spent getting people connected and visible. We were told our virtual meetings would probably follow this same pattern with quite a bit of time spent getting people on. That sounds frustrating. Afterward we discussed students that attend boarding schools. Since several of my students attend boarding schools, I participated. Basically, the students don’t meet with the others for a virtual meeting. They are able to watch a recording of the meeting at their own convenience.

After the meeting I made a double batch of zucchini bread for institute refreshments tomorrow. After I was done, just in time to cut some up for my Tohlakai class, Ted reminded me that I had planned to take some cookies from the freezer for refreshments. I am my own worst enemy, building my own stumbling blocks.

At Tohlakai two of my students are riding with another lady while their mother/grandmother is in school this semester. They were actually on time, but they had to leave 15 minutes early so their ride could get to school. One student had his makeup work for the classes he’d missed. He said he didn’t get it all done because he got busy with school. I reminded him he wasn’t in school when I gave it to him. He couldn’t find the book of James. I was incredulous. I asked him if he’d tried the Table of Contents. I told him Joseph Smith didn’t have any trouble finding it. When I asked for the notebooks, none of the students had done any work for the week. I know I told them to start their work last week. Yikes! I hope things get better. We were able to have a good discussion so I think we at least got something out of the lesson. I was just so disappointed that not one of them had done anything. 

Proud pillow creator

Thursday we had two ladies come to quilting. One picked out some fabric to make herself a quilt. I think it’ll be nice. The other lady finished sewing her pillow. We found a pillowcase that we could use for the backing and sewed it on. We used some of the pieces of batting for the stuffing. It turned out to be really cute. She still needed to sew it closed, but I was so proud of her. She also picked out some pre-cut squares that she wants to start to sew into a quilt next week. It’s fun to see her excitement.

In the evening we went to institute. We only had two students because at least one of our students was at mission prep. After class the mission prep teacher stopped by to let us know they are switching to Sunday because they have too many conflicts right now. It’s good we will no longer have that conflict.

I got another online student during the day so I sent her the letter with instructions on how to access the system and what to do. My computer was not doing what it should so it was frustrating. I also had to tell a couple of students they needed to do better on an assignment.

LDS Booth at the Window Rock Fair

Friday morning we drove to Window Rock for the Navajo Nation Fair. It’s supposed to be one of the biggest fairs in the area with lots of fun things going on and great displays. I’m sure most of the action will be Saturday. The fair was somewhat disappointing to me. There were some great 4H projects. There were interesting booths for schools, entitlements, and other benefits available to the people. We visited with a lady and her husband who consult for businesses in energy areas to help them get started. They don’t charge for their time, but the businesses are required to create jobs for people.  We visited the arts and crafts building where there were a few stalls set up. Most of the stuff was expensive and with not much variety. There was a wood carving of a Navajo legend selling for $17,000. The legend sounded like a bit of a takeoff on Christ. Ted had a good conversation with the artist about the church and the Book of Mormon. We watched the fry bread contest for a while, enjoying our lunch while we sat in the shaded arena.

Frybread contest

We bought some flour from a coop near Farmington. When we took our bags out to the car, we discovered we were further away than we thought. When we came back in we realized there wasn’t much more we wanted to see. We bought a huge cup of lemonade and went into one of the buildings to rest. We were sitting on the stairs of a 4H display. We watched some judges evaluate a couple of watermelons for taste. The lady in charge brought us each a piece to eat. It wasn’t all that good, but we were appreciative. We figured we looked pretty worn and bedraggled. She said they usually serve watermelon to the visitors, but there were only two entries this year so there wasn’t enough.

Arts and Crafts display at fair

I spent the afternoon grading seminary assignments online. In the evening we walked to the high school for the football game. The air felt so good we didn’t even think about jackets. We found ourselves sitting next to the fans for the other team. As the game progressed they had more to cheer about than we did. Our team only caught one kickoff and fumbled frequently. Their team picked up our fumbles and intercepted our passes. They ran nearly the length of the field for a touchdown at least once.

We had a couple of good plays, but the only one I noticed was when one of my students tackled their runner to stop a touchdown run. There were tons of penalties, including a couple for unsportsmanlike conduct. It was like they had no clue what they should be doing. The score was 50-0 at half time and they called the game. The air was really nice and fresh, but it got a little breezy toward the end and I was not unhappy to be headed home earlier than planned. I really hope the team can get their act together or it’s going to be a long unhappy season.

Saturday I spent time catching up on seminary things. I put together an attendance chart and a birthday list. I am finally able to have my classes in the attendance program, but the link from the online program does not work. I gathered my things for seminary in the morning. We’ll see how this group of kids does.

Week Ending August 31, 2013

Sunday we had stake conference again. We arrived early and spent time visiting with people we needed to convey information to or just renewing friendships. It was time well spent. Again the meeting was excellent. We had a Primary choir and a choir of youth that had attended the youth conference. Both brought a wonderful spirit to the meeting. We were taught we needed to be more united. Pres. Haws said they appreciate the way we sustain them, but he expressed the desire they have to sustain us. He talked about the importance of each calling and the need we have for every member of the church. We all need to do our best in the callings we’ve been given and pray to the Lord for His guidance and help. He reiterated the covenant to bear one another’s burdens. He said every calling is crucial, even the call to be a member.

We had a young man over for dinner and enjoyed a good visit with him. He laughed at the way I say Tohlakai. I couldn’t tell the difference between what the two of us were saying so I guess I don’t have the ear for Navajo. I worked on seminary again, making sure everything was ready. I spent the evening doing my first seminary lessons. I am supposed to do the lessons before the kids so I know what they are learning. They are supposed to start tomorrow. It should be interesting.

Monday I finished the first week of seminary lessons and got about half way through the second week. I wanted to do both weeks so I could prepare for my seminary lesson at Tohlakai on Wednesday. (The first week of online orients students to how the online program works. The second week corresponds to the first week of workbooks.) I got a text from one of the mothers at Tohlakai saying they would not be there. I’ll move the schedule back a week since the kids that will be there weren’t there last week so they would all be at the same place. I hope this isn’t an indication of how the year is going to go.

In the evening we attended family home evening. The young man we’d had to dinner on Sunday came for the first time and I think he had a good time. After fhe I did a few more seminary lessons. I noticed that none of the students had been in the system at all which is sort of discouraging. I would have thought they would have at least been curious to see what it is. I have one more student who is from Arizona. I’m hoping we get some action going soon. I’ll give them another day and then start calling.

Tuesday there were still no entries for the kids. My biggest concern is getting them started. Once they’re started, I think they will grasp the spirit of it and continue.

In the afternoon we went to see high school girls’ volley ball games. The varsity team was really good, but the last game was a squeaker. When we got out I discovered I had three messages from my sister who was planning on coming through town in the evening. They drove out here to see our little home and we visited for a while before they left to go to their hotel. They had gone to see the Indian dancing at the courthouse and got rained out. They’d had fry bread and seen the best Gallup has to offer.

Sunrise at Ft Wingate

Wednesday we met my sister Jan and her daughter for breakfast at Earl’s Restaurant. It is quite the cultural experience during the day, but we were there before most of the vendors so the cultural experience was minimal. We enjoyed a good visit then they were on their way.

Staci, Jan, Sister Roeth at Earl's

After they left we stayed in Gallup and ran errands. While we were driving I got an email saying one of my online students had completed the coursework for two classes. I was thrilled. Maybe there is hope.

I studied a bit in the afternoon, trying to complete more online classes. In the afternoon we stopped to deliver cookies to a girl for her birthday. I talked with two of my students about online. I’d had an email saying they never got the email explaining the procedure. I replied with instructions of how to get into the system, but she hadn’t had a chance to look at it. They had gone into lds.org and searched for seminary and done the first lesson for the workbook. I have to hand it to them for being so creative, but it wasn’t the correct thing to do. When we got home I called to see if they’d had any success and they were just getting in to try it. I noticed one was in the online system. I waited a while to see what happened but finally went to bed. I was so excited that they had figured it out and were actually into the program.

Burrito lady on road to church

Thursday the burrito lady came to the quilting group and so did the president. I pressed the pieces the lady had sewn last week while she finished sewing. I had to undo a couple of pieces that hadn’t been pinned correctly so she could resew them. I laid out the rows to try to figure out the best arrangement. She had to leave early so I trimmed and pinned the rows for her to sew next week. I was trimming one piece and the rotary cutter slipped and cut about ½” into one of the blocks. I should have just replaced the strip that was cut, but I trimmed down the entire strip. I hope it looks OK.

Ft Wingate church in early morning.

I spent the afternoon grading activities for seminary and doing more course work. I finally figured out how to get Webex to work for virtual meetings. I’m not sure the students will be able to get it to work, but it is a good tool and well worth the effort.

In the evening we left later than planned for institute.  It was starting to rain so Ted was a little anxious about the travel. We only had three students there. One is leaving for school and another will be in mission prep next week. We really need to build the class and get some more regular attendance.

Friday I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the Ironman Challenge. I read the conference talks and memorized the 25 Scripture Mastery scriptures, but they are a little rough. I have to relearn some of them each time I go over them. I will review them a bit more, but they are going to take some time to become part of my vocabulary. It has been a good experience.

I was impressed when I went into the online seminary to grade this morning. Two students had done the next assignments and had made some sweet comments on the third student’s work. I think this will be a good experience. They had really done an outstanding job of encouraging her and responding. I sent an email to the mother of two boys in my class who found they could not use the internet at school with some ideas for helping her sons get an internet connection going. I set a meeting for later in the afternoon with one student on Skype. I spent quite a bit of time making notes as to what I wanted to cover in the meeting, but when I tried calling there was no answer. 

I really hope we can get some more students. I talked with my supervisor and he said there were two more students in Arizona that he was trying to encourage to do online and there are two from Sheep Springs. It would be great if we could get those and then get the boys’ internet going. That would give us 9 during the week with 7 in the virtual meetings. (Part of each day’s requirement is to respond to a question and to respond to another student's response, so it helps to have more to interact with.)

Player piano at El Rancho Hotel

We met Elder and Sister Steele for dinner at El Rancho Hotel in the evening. We enjoyed a good visit then went to the Indian dancing at the courthouse. The dancing was a group we had seen before, but the night was lovely and we enjoyed just being out. It got dark sooner than I remember so it was fairly dim when we finished. We met a lady who said she was LDS. She said she had a daughter she lived with so I told her to invite her daughter to institute on Thursday. We enjoyed the night out.

Eagle dancer, singer, and drummer

 Saturday we attended a funeral for a lady who is a member of the branch but I don’t think she had attended in a long while. The branch president had been feeling very uncertain about what to do so he asked Ted if he would come help him. I sat in the car for a while reviewing my scriptures. Today was the last day for the Ironman Challenge and I feel a little rocky about the 25 Scripture Mastery scriptures. I’ve memorized all of them, but they just don’t all stick. I keep reviewing over and over and I keep forgetting them over and over.

After the funeral we went to see the farmer’s market by the courthouse. We had just found out about it on Friday night at the dancing. It was nearly over, but we found some bread and salad dressings we bought. One of our institute students was there selling produce from her work. She was so excited to see us she came running to meet us. We also ran into two of Ted’s students from Tohlakai who have a garden behind the church. They were checking it out to see if they might be able to sell some of their produce there. They gave us a nice eggplant.

I spent the afternoon finishing up the grading for online seminary. Just before bedtime, I began a final review of the scriptures. I worked on them as long as I felt I could and still felt I could have used more time. But I was able to feel confident I could say I had memorized them.