Hello Everybody,
So
this is another one of those Sunday afternoons when we know (at least
we think we know) that you all are getting together for the monthly
birthday dinner. Remember to sing the happy birthday song in the
traditional family style! We sang happy birthday the other night in
something (can't remember what....oh dear we're loosing our minds) that
involved YSA or missionaries or somebody and they sounded just like
home. It was freaky! And wasn't this the last week before school
starts? The summer came and went and didn't even stop long enough to
let us stop and smell the sunflowers. Speaking of sunflowers, we saw
our first "sunflower field" ever a couple of days ago.....acres and
acres of sunflowers. It was awesome!
So
we said in the subject line of this email that our brains need a rest.
We procrastinated the last couple of months and saved our summer
on-line CES training until the last week which was last week. It was
basically a re-run of the 3 days we spent in the MTC a year ago March
learning how to teach. We wish that anybody who teaches in the Church
or in the family or anywhere (basically all of us) had access to the
Seminaries and Institutes website! We'll be sad to loose our top secret
password when our mission is over:). The emphasis on doctrines and
principles and getting those into the hearts of the young people as
opposed to just context and content makes so much sense. These new
manuals are phenomenal! We're beginning a course (which we'll only get
to teach for 3 weeks) for this next school year that is one of the
"cornerstone" classes, of which there are four, called "Foundations of
the Restored Gospel." You can access those manuals on LDS.org and what a
great study text those manuals would be for even personal scripture
study. And wouldn't we like to go back and take Seminary all over
again!!
Back
to summer. The dog days of August are here again.....hot and humid but
at least we don't have the severe weather that the east coast has had.
In fact because irrigation is non-existent here some of the lawns are
actually starting to have dry spots and in walking in Sapsucker Woods
the other day we saw that the leaves are starting to change with some
beautiful reds and oranges. We've got to remember in these last few
weeks we're here to take time to see the leaves instead of slaving over
the stove! One more week of "freedom" and then we do our last three
Friday Forums. We're expecting our numbers to go down as a lot of our
regulars graduated and moved on. Did we say that in last week's email?
But we'll see if we can't entice new ones in with Hawaiian haystacks or
meatball subs or better-than-anything cake or whatever else is on the
menu. Tomorrow morning will be our last "transfer breakfast." That's
been a fun tradition where the day of or a day before transfers, our
district of missionaries come over for waffles or french toast or
whatever and ALWAYS bacon and chocolate milk. We'll go to transfers
this week as this will be our 'farewell" to the missionaries. Since
seniors come and go on a different time schedule than the young Elders
and Sisters, we will already be on the road for the next transfer day.
The best part of the whole day is seeing the brand new missionaries come
into the chapel after a morning of training and meet their very first
companion/trainers. Those hugs from the ones who know what's going on
to the ones who don't have a clue are the best! We unfortunately loose
three of our missionaries to other areas and adventures.....we will miss
them but we get two brand new to the mission field Elders which is
always exciting. A fun thing last week was to have the visit of one of
our "old" Elders who finished his mission 6 weeks ago and came back out
with his family to see where he'd been and meet those with whom he spent
the last two years of his life. Anybody up for another trip to upstate
New York in a year or so!!!!
Our
little branch is starting to grow again. It will be a bit smaller than
last year but we have some great new undergrads and graduate students
and their families moving in. It reminds us of what it was like when we
moved to Ames, Iowa just day before yesterday!! These are some pretty
choice young people and we love to tell them that they too will survive
these years in school. Next week most students will be moving in (does
that mean more moving of furniture up and down stairs?) and then
everything is back for real again. We're still waiting for the names of
the senior couple who will take our place and hope there is one as our
official according to the office last day is September 18th. Any
volunteers?!
The
last thing for this email is our great gratitude for the principle of
eternal families and knowing through the Plan of Salvation that there is
life after passing from this one. Today we went with our Branch
President and Harmony, our special needs YSA, to visit with her mother
who has terminal cancer and who doesn't understand that doctrine. Liz
(the mom) wants to have her funeral at the Church because she believes
that it will be best for Harmony to have it in a place she knows and
loves. So we went to support Harmony (and Liz as we know her well too)
while funeral plans were made. Liz likes to have Gospel discussions
when we visit and we think that she finds great comfort in what she's
learning.
Well.....sorry
there won't be donuts and chocolate milk for after school snacks for
the first day of school for the second year in a row. Maybe we'll
figure out another occasion.....like maybe the first day in November or
something! Have a great week.....take pictures......text how your days
went......anything would be fine!! Hint! Hint!
WE LOVE YOU!!
No comments:
Post a Comment