Week of December 6, 2015

Sunday church was a little strange. None of the young elders were at church. They were attending somewhere else for two weeks and it made a strange difference. Since our mission does no proselyting, the young elders don’t get opportunity to teach people. Each week after our church meetings, they pair up with senior missionaries to teach them so they have the opportunity to develop their teaching skills and have more normal mission experiences. When our branch was moved to 2:30, it became difficult to give them teaching time after church. Our meetings are being moved to another building so we have an earlier meeting time, but we don’t know when. In the evening we attended the First Presidency Devotional. It was wonderful and a great way to get into the spirit of Christmas.

Elder and Sister Roeth at First Presidency Devotional

Monday our group went over the upcoming teaching schedule. Our leader asked me to prepare to teach a class at the end of the month on an editing tool and to be prepared to teach another class in January on searching historical records. I was thrilled to get those assignments. We are modifying the curriculum in January and several changes are being made to classes. Both Ted and I were asked to help develop a class that will use actual questions asked by library guests to help the students think about how they would help the guests find what they need. That should be fun.

Tuesday we started classes with a new group of Church Service Missionaries. This group was really sharp. They didn’t need much help in any of the classes. One lady needed some extra help, so we had one of us sit by her during each of the modules. I enjoyed that experience and she was very grateful.

About half way through the morning we were told we needed to change our schedule for January. There will be no full-time senior missionaries coming in January. They wanted to move the other missionaries coming then and wanted to know how we could accommodate the change in schedule. They are starting a major remodeling of the main floor of the library and classrooms are at a premium. I made a suggestion that was ultimately approved and I’m sure it was a bit of inspiration. It immediately became apparent that this change would be a real blessing to our group because it would give us a full week to try out our new classes and work out the bugs.

Tabernacle Choir at end of broadcast

Wednesday I printed up a card for the students to write their passwords on and we found plastic sleeves for them to attach to their security cards. The sleeves had cards for computer shortcuts but they were out of date so I am updating them.

Thursday the classes went well. I learned some good things and was able to help quite a bit. The big storm we expected turned out to be a little rain so we were happy.

Friday we finished our classes. I enjoyed this group of students. It is amazing to me, with my very limited experience, how different each group is. This group was great at helping each other and offering suggestions and ideas. I really enjoy the people I’m working with and their willingness to help and encourage.

Tabernacle Choir as you don't often see them

Saturday Ted and I worked through a set of questions in preparation for our meeting to plan the class on helping guests to decide what we would tell them if we were helping them. We had a good discussion about some of the different answers we had. It was a good exercise. I also spent some time working on one of my classes. I know basically what needs to be taught but I need to decide how I want to do it. When I teach in December I will have two hours for the class, but after that there will only be one hour allocated. The cuts that are coming in January will be a challenge and I’m interested in seeing how it all works out.