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.