After church I spent about an hour helping update membership
records with the dates and addresses we’d found when we first arrived. There is
much more to go. It would be nice if we could focus on doing some record
maintenance and help them get their records in shape.
In the afternoon I worked on seminary. It seems like there
is always more to do to get things set up for the next week or grading for this
week. The students are really getting strung out in the lessons so it is
difficult to track what is still waiting to be graded and where they all are.
Monday we tried to turn the heat on in the morning and the
pilot was out again. When Ted lit it, the heat still didn’t come on so the
landlord came to look at it again. I was really glad when we got heat again. It’s
been getting quite cold at night.
I spent time in the afternoon working on seminary again,
trying to get the assignments ready for the Wednesday class. I got about half
done.
In the evening we went to fhe with the young singles. We
took root beer floats for refreshments.
Tuesday I finished my seminary assignments and worked on
grading. I finished the certificates for the Ironman Challenge—I was really
pleased with the way they turned out. There are really quite a few which
pleases me. Most didn’t do much, but they did something. In the afternoon I sewed
the binding on the quilt the Relief Society tied. I’m glad that is done.
After I finished the quilt I hurriedly put together our
salad for the dinner tonight. The parking lot was resurfaced yesterday so the
gate had cones in front of it. I’m pretty sure it was dry, but we all parked
outside the fence. Pres. Joe signed the certificates then we were ready. We
waited a long time for the lady with the mashed potatoes to arrive so it was
very late starting. We had a really good turnout and one lady thanked me for
putting it together. I told her I hadn’t done it, but she said thank you for
giving us the idea and making it happen. The branch really needs more social events.
The burrito lady came with her granddaughter. The branch president disappeared
for a while so he missed the presenting of the certificates. We had people
waiting to leave so we decided to go ahead. I was very pleased. Almost everyone
helped clean up and it wasn’t a big burden on anyone. That’s the way it should
be.
Wednesday I worked on my lesson for seminary and felt ready
to go. I spent time pressing and cutting the sewn fabric strips for the quilt
top I’m working on. I had a call from a student at Tohlakai saying they did not
have a ride to seminary so they wouldn’t be there. It made me feel bad because
we might have been able to pick them up if we had known earlier. When we got
the call we had just enough time to get to the church. He said he had done some
of the work in the workbook so I was sad not to have them in class.
Our lesson went well with the two students that were there.
My lessons have to be very basic and even then I am not sure how much they
really understand. But I like having them in class. They try hard.
After we returned to Ft. Wingate we stopped at the church
for a minute to drop an assignment off to a student that was there. It is
getting cold and has been quite windy. I finished the grocery bag rug and put
it in front of the sink. It is really quite cute.
 |
| Grocery Bag Rug--picture does not do it justice! |
Thursday I went to the church for the quilting class. We had
two ladies there. One lady changed what she wanted to do with her quilt. It
will be cute. We found some material to put between the blocks, but I’m not at
all sure there will be enough. She started sewing her blocks together. I found
some bags of scraps and sorted through them to find small enough pieces to use
so that I wouldn’t be depriving others of fabric they could use. The other lady
spent time cutting blocks and putting pieces together. She has some really cute
fabrics she is working with and it could be quite cute. I think one of the
biggest problems is that people want everything to be very orderly and
regimented instead of using a more creative layout of pieces. The orderly
layout is limiting in that everything has to be exactly symmetrical and the
fabric has to come just right and we don’t really have that luxury. It would be
fun to mix it up a bit. The iron was acting up and it worries me a bit that it
might not hold up to the end of our mission.
We enjoyed a good lunch. I was disappointed that the burrito
lady didn’t come. After I came home I worked on seminary for a while grading
some lessons. When it was time for my online class I went into the meeting and
set things up then waited. No one came. I sent reminders and nothing happened.
I phoned the three girls and one signed on using her phone which was a much
better connection than before. The second girl couldn’t get in. The third girl wasn’t
home. We had a good discussion about 2 Nephi 2 and the Plan of Salvation. When
I asked if she had anything more she wanted to add, she bore a sweet testimony.
It was a good experience.
We ended a bit later than I’d planned because we’d started
so late. Ted was anxious to be getting off for institute. I’d had a message
come in during seminary, but I’d forgotten about it. On the way into Gallup I
had to make a call for Ted. I saw the message and checked it out. One of my
students was asking for a ride to institute. We were half way to Gallup. I
texted back that I’d drop Ted off and come back for her. We got to institute
about 7:30. She was touched that I would come back for her. I felt really badly
that I hadn’t got the text before we left, but I wanted her to be able to
participate. It all worked out. One young man had brought a friend so there
were five students there. After the lesson we had a good time playing Catch
Phrase. They are a fun group. Once again we are getting the program built up,
but two will be leaving on missions in the next few months and one will be
leaving for school in the spring.
Friday we had an online teachers meeting. We had a good
discussion about the grading. It still seems like a big job to get it all
together for the kids. We need to know fairly soon so we can let the students
know what we are looking at for grading.
Saturday we went to the stake center for General Conference.
It was a really good opportunity to hear the leaders of the church. Between
sessions we went to a restaurant for lunch. Ted ordered a berry salad after
asking the waiter if it had blueberries in it and receiving an affirmative
reply. When the salad arrived there were no blueberries. When he asked about
it, the waiter sent someone to the kitchen to get some blueberries. The person
never came back so the waiter was surprised several minutes later when we
called him over to ask about it. He went to the kitchen and returned to tell us
they were getting some and it would be a few minutes. After what seemed like
forever, and was probably at least half an hour, a young man arrived with a
plate with quite a few blueberries on it. It was obvious they had not been
washed, but Ted went ahead and put some in his salad and ate the rest. After he
was done we watched for the waiter to get our bill but couldn’t see him. We
finally called the manager over to tell her we had to leave. She brought us the
bill, telling us she had discounted the charges due to the wait for
blueberries. We appreciated her kindness but we vowed never to return.
We then went to Walmart to get a few things. It was jammed—first
weekend of the month. I’m sure that’s why the blueberries took so long because
they had to wait in line at Walmart to get the blueberries. We got back to
conference just before it was time to start again. After the second session Ted
brought me home, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and headed back for priesthood
meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment