Ted and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting on the priesthood. A former
student announced her mission call and shared her testimony. Another lady also
spoke. She gave part in English then gave the same thing in Navajo, except the
Navajo part was much longer so I think there was something lost in translation.
Ted did a really good job. He talked about keys and who holds the keys. After
church I worked with one of the counselors and nearly finished updating the
records with information we have collected. There are still a couple of
questions, but we are nearly done. I know this is a big help, but there is so
much more that needs to be done to get the records in shape. I also found out
which youth are going to the temple next weekend. Our institute student got a
recommend and is really excited to go.
Monday the elders decided they could do their wash at 8 am
so we let them. We went into Gallup early in the afternoon to run some errands
before home evening. We planned to meet the new institute teacher to “transfer”
the institute information and keys, but she called about 5:30 telling us she
was still sick and asking us to cover home evening. We had a good group—9 kids.
Sarah was supposed to have refreshments so we didn’t have any, the thought went
to the old location so she arrived late, and some kids had brought a game just
in case. It always works out. We played “Werewolves”, a game where everyone is secretly
assigned a role and we were supposed to guess who was the wolf. It was fun. When
they arrived, the kids with the game told us we had to play. I’m not sure we
were very good at it, but we were flattered that they really wanted us in the
game.
Tuesday I did seminary lessons all day. I needed to complete
the lessons for this week to know what the kids were getting in the online
class and to prepare to teach. It seemed a bit funny in the evening, knowing it
was institute, to not be going. We contacted one of the girls who had class on
Thursday to tell her it was now on Tuesday and arranged a ride for her. And we
checked with Sarah to make sure she was feeling better. I know it is hard on
Ted to not be teaching the class—he really enjoyed it.
Wednesday we began with early morning seminary in Gallup at
6:30 am. We had a good visit with the teacher before Bro. Miller, our
supervisor, arrived. The class was OK, but at the end Bro. Miller talked to the
kids and told them they were responsible for their learning and we were going
to take a different approach. He gave the kids and teacher assignments for the
next day when he would teach.
We spent about 45 minutes with Bro. Miller getting filled in
on our new assignment. Our position is Stake CES Supervisor. We should visit
every seminary and institute in our stake at least once a month and help the
teachers and students improve the classes. Bro. Miller will visit each class
and train the teachers then we are supposed to follow up and offer suggestions
and ideas to help the teachers and kids. We will have reports to fill out so he
knows who is being visited and what is happening in class and where he needs to
do further training. I’m excited about the challenge—I’m not sure we are
qualified to train teachers, but we can certainly observe and learn from them
and offer suggestions. He also wants us to meet with bishops and branch
presidents and help them create a plan to find the kids that are not participating.
We are not to do the visiting, but we are to help them focus on how to reach
those who would be blessed by their visits and encouragement.
At home I dove into seminary again. I needed to work on
preparing my lesson for Thursday. We opted not to go to the senior center for
lunch. I studied most of the day. I’m not sure why it takes me so long to get
the material. I took a break to work on my rug for a few minutes. I did a few
rows of weaving. It’s looking pretty good—all 1 ½ inches of it.
Thursday we were at early morning seminary again to see Bro.
Miller train the students and teacher. It turned out the teacher had gone to
Texas to pick up a load of feed so our supervisor was on his own. His teaching
makes the students totally responsible for their own learning. He makes them
get into the scriptures and think about what they’re reading and feeling. He
lets the direction of their discussion lead the way the class goes. I wish I
could master that technique. I wish the teacher had been there. The students
worked in groups to discuss things. We sat with a student who hugs the corners.
After we left seminary we decided to eat at Jerry’s Café. We’d
been told the best breakfast in Gallup was their stuffed sopapilla, so we
decided to try it. It was really good and very filling. We hurried back to Ft.
Wingate for the quilting class. Our two regulars came. Both continued to sew on
their quilts. I spent the time working on the binding of my small quilt. One
lady sewed two of her strips together and found one was about two inches longer
than the other. I know I had told her to pin it so the squares would line up,
but she thought this would work out OK. When she looked at it she could see
there was not a good alignment. She unpicked the stitching and soon she was
sewing again. I asked if she had pinned it since I had the pins and she had
none. She said she didn’t think she needed to. I pointed out that it makes life
so much easier.
At home I worked on seminary, going over my lesson for the
afternoon and trying to review the lessons for next week so I could make
assignments for my home study students. My class went well. I had all four
girls in the class—amazing. One was on the phone, but she was there. They all
made comments during the class. I tried doing what Bro. Miller had done and it
helped bring them out. It is a little more challenging because they are on
video and I can’t always tell who is talking or when someone has something to say.
But I know I can get better and help them more. It seemed really funny after
class not to have to rush off to institute. I know I will miss that, but it was
nice to be home.
Friday we were at early morning seminary again. It gets
easier to get up after a while. The teacher greeted us with the information
that Bro. Miller’s car had broken down on the way home yesterday and he would
not be there. They had talked on the phone about what had happened and he was
ready to give it a try. It went fairly well. The technique was OK, but the kids
were asked to find what was happening in the chapter instead of what was
important in the chapter so it tended to be more fact oriented than principle
oriented. I offered a couple of comments, but I’m not sure I realized what had
happened until it was over and I was evaluating it. It was much better than
before though.
In the evening we went to the basketball game to watch one
of my students. He wasn’t there. I’m not sure where he was, but his family
wasn’t there either. It started snowing just before the game started, just as
we drove up to the school. By the time we came out it was covering the ground.
It was still snowing lightly and was plenty wet. At the game I got text
messages from two families cancelling on the temple trip. Sad. When we got home
I called another boy and he was still planning to go.
Saturday we slept in and it felt really good. About 7:30 am
we had a call from another mother saying that she doesn’t do well on icy roads
so they were cancelling for the temple. I had received a text message the boy I
talked to last night telling us that the recommend they thought was his was
really his sister’s, so he wouldn’t be going. We called our institute student
about 9 am to check on him and he said they were just getting ready to leave.
His parents were driving him. It is worth it for just him to go.
We left about 10:30. When we got to Albuquerque we found we
had time to run a quick errand then we hurried to the temple and met our. We
were scheduled at the same time as another ward. They had a ton of kids and
several adults. There was only one Native American in the group besides our
young man. I’m sure he felt a little odd about being the only one from our
branch, but he had a good experience.
We wanted to go to Costco and I wanted to stop at Joann’s to
get some backing material and batting for my quilt. I’d stumbled across a sale
online, but I wasn’t sure of the quality so I wanted to see them. At the store
I was #22 in line and they were on #10, so I sent Ted to Costco and I stayed at
Joann’s. It turned out to be a bit of a fiasco getting the right fabric, but
there was a very helpful clerk who was patient enough to help me get the fabric
I needed. I visited with a couple of Russian ladies while I was waiting. They
were frustrated that they had to wait so long only to find out there was not
enough on their bolt to get what they wanted. They told me that would never
have happened in Russia—they would have demanded and gotten more clerks to help
so it didn’t get so far behind.
I had to wait quite a while for Ted. I was afraid he
couldn’t remember where the store was since we aren’t in Albuquerque much. I
was really relieved to see him. After we got some dinner it began to snow. We
hurriedly got in the car and on the road, but I was worried that we were going
to have terrible weather and Ted would be sleepy—a really bad combination. We
had a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help us be alert, drive safely, and
have good weather and good roads. The Lord blessed us with good weather—we saw
a few more flakes, but nothing serious. And I was very grateful to arrive home
safely.
No comments:
Post a Comment