Week Ending December 14, 2013

Sunday we woke to snow on the ground. Ted thought it was about 6 inches, but it seemed more like 2 - 3 inches. At any rate, it was cold and wet. The roads were icy and the sidewalk was slick. We got to church and Ted shoveled the sidewalk. I set up for seminary and waited. The kids came a little late. Church was really good, but there were only a few people there—probably less than 25. Church was cancelled after Sacrament Meeting so I didn’t teach my Relief Society lesson. By the time we left the roads were fairly clear and the snow had mostly stopped falling. Oh, well.

I worked on seminary in the afternoon. In the evening a couple came to our house so we could home teach them then we all went to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional together. It was really good. The prophet spoke, but neither of his counselors did. There were other speakers and nice music. It didn’t look as decorated as usual. It was snowing when we drove home which made me very nervous. We heated some soup then Ted went to bed while I did some seminary. I sent all my online seminary students their record of assignments and asked them to each prepare a plan to get the work caught up.

Monday was quite the day. It was really cold and had snowed more during the night. We went to the church to walk and had to really bundle up for the two short walks—house to car, car to church. We made cookies to take to the seniors’ dinner. We met with Elder England in the afternoon and went over seminary at Tohlakai. I had sent him several files and he wanted to understand them—my charts and attendance records and so on. We had a good discussion. Sister England was not feeling well, so he was alone. After we finished he got her cell phone to try out the holders I had made. Yahoo! They worked perfectly. I was so relieved.

After our meeting we visited until the other missionaries came. Sister Steele had made a really superb dip that I had a difficult time not downing all by myself. We had a good group and enjoyed a good visit. Thursday is our mission Christmas party, so the group wanted to meet for lunch before it. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to go because of the quilting class. I was planning to leave early, but I hate to not go at all.

When we went out to the car to drive to home evening, it was bitterly cold. We had to sit in the car for a bit before we could begin to see out the front window. I finally realized the ice was on the inside of the window and used the scraper and a chamois on it. That was very surprising that we had to scrape the inside of the window. We had a good time at home evening playing “Balderdash”. It was really funny because Bro. Mortenson has an unusual sense of humor and his two young sons picked his definition every single time. I laughed harder than I have laughed in a long time. One time the person couldn’t read Ted’s handwriting and thought he’d put something questionable down. His real definition wasn’t nearly as funny.

We’d been told the temperature was supposed to drop to minus 9 overnight. I didn’t believe it until I looked at the temperature in the car when we left for home. It started at 8 degrees, but it steadily went down until, by the time we reached the freeway, it was at minus 3 degrees. It was up and down all the way home as we went through pockets, but it was at a firm 0 when we arrived home. Brrrrrrr!

It was REALLY, REALLY COLD!!!

Tuesday I made bread and it actually turned out fairly well. I was very grateful. I spent most of the day doing stuff for seminary. I had to talk with all of the online students. I need to reach their parents as well, but at least I talked with them. We were able to get the seminary record for my new student, although she doesn’t think it’s correct. I put notes into the attendance record so everyone can see what’s missing if they go into it. That took a long time.

I don’t know why, but I don’t feel I am reaching all of my online students. It is really hard when we aren’t in physical contact. I’m not sure how, but I need to reach them better. I finally called all of the students and had pretty good conversations with them. I also made appointments to talk with a couple of students and their moms.

Wednesday we went to the senior center for lunch. There weren’t many people there, but we visited for a few minutes. Afterward we went to the homes of three people to deliver some gifts. None of the people we went to see were home, but there were others at two of the homes so we were able to leave the things. At home I worked on seminary, grading assignments and working on the lessons for tomorrow for a while. At 5 PM we went to the school for the JV basketball game. One of my students gave us a hug when we walked in and we sat and visited with the burrito lady. The game was a real squeaker. Our team had many opportunities to make shots, but they missed most of the time. Fortunately, the other team didn’t do any better. Wingate won. We didn’t stay for the varsity game.

Thursday I went an hour early to the church to help the burrito lady with her quilt. She had not bought enough material the first time, so she tried to match the fabric and wasn’t able. She got something close, but with fabric, that’s not good. I had come up with a few different plans of ways to cut the pieces to make it work by mixing the new fabric and old fabric within the quilt in such a way as to make it looked intentional. We talked about various options and settled on something I think will work best. We cut part of the fabric, leaving the rest until we’re ready to make the final decision on part of it, depending on how it looks. After we cut the fabric, I asked if she would like to lay the blocks out to decide how to sew them. She only wanted to cut this week, but she suggested we meet early every week. That works for me. So she was ready to leave around 10:30. We visited a while then left. The president drove up just as we were walking out of the building so she didn’t stay.

Elder and Sister Roeth at Mission Christmas Party

Is it a spoon or a fork? Seniors get easily confused.

Since we finished early we were able to meet the other senior couples for lunch before our Mission Christmas Party. We enjoyed a good visit. The Party was good. We started with talks by Pres. and Sis. Batt and the reading of the Christmas story. We watched the video of Elder Nelson’s talk at the Christmas Devotional Sunday. Then we all went into the Cultural Hall where an elder sang Christmas songs for us—he has a nice voice. Then we played games, with the young missionaries splitting from the seniors to play more active games. We played a domino game and had a good time. After about half an hour we had a closing prayer, brownies with mint ice cream and chocolate sauce on it for dessert, then cleaned up to go home. Pres. and Sis. Batt had small gifts for each of us. It was really a good time.

Pres. and Sister Batt

When it was time for class, one student wasn’t there again. Class went well and I felt good about it. Afterward we headed out for institute. We had three students and the lesson went well. One student gave the first half and Ted finished up. Afterward, we had refreshments then everyone wanted to go home instead of staying for games. I was glad to get home—it was a long day.

Friday I worked on seminary most of the day. In the morning I called one of my students and her mom to explain the attendance system and encourage them in the program. In the afternoon I talked with another student and her mom. I talked with her mom and expressed my concern about her daughter—I feel like she is really struggling to stay interested. Her mom said she thought she would really like a larger class. She is “very shy” and doesn’t feel as comfortable with just a few students.

I called my supervisor and talked with him about it. I said I thought it would be better to have more kids, but I also expressed my concern that she may just want to avoid being required to participate. He thought that might be valid. He indicated that he was thinking we might combine another class and mine and do some sort of joint teaching. I’m not sure how the joint teaching would work, but we could certainly combine the classes. The other class has 13 kids and I have 4 active kids and a 5^th that has a broken computer and may come back in a few weeks. There are 2 others in Pueblo Pintado that their teacher is going to talk to about participating. If all the kids come that might, it will be too big, but he thinks it might be a good transition for next year. We’ll see how it plays out.

In the late afternoon I made the mashed potatoes for our branch dinner. As it turned out, the largest pan I had wasn’t large enough so I had to use second pan. We got to the church and put the two pans on the counter where they were serving and went inside the cultural hall to visit. A while later I saw that another lady had put her potatoes there and mine had been moved to the stove. The dinner was good. We had a fair turnout, not nearly what I would have expected. When it was over the leftover food in the kitchen was distributed among all the people still there. We had a pan and a half of potatoes left over, so I was thrilled when people took containers of it home. In the end we only took about half a pan home.

Saturday was a weird day. I sewed bean bags for the New Year’s Eve Party. While I had the machine out I sewed some strips on my quilt. Ted fixed dinner and we had the missionaries over. Some of my students had done seminary assignments I needed to grade. And I typed the announcements for church.