Sunday, July 7, 2013

Letter to Richard - 7 July 2013

I saw something on facebook saying “Whohoo, it’s Friday! Oh wait, I’m a mom…” And I must be honest there are plenty of Fridays that I feel like that… But this weekend has been probably one of the best we’ve ever had with the kids! All three of them are starting to be willing to play on their own at times, and so we’re not having to be at their beck and call constantly for the whole time. Fantastic! The nights have still been bad, but despite us being really tired during the day, we’ve still managed to contain our emotions and have a pleasant time as a family. Progress! J

At work I finally managed to leave scholarly activity behind, and I’ve started preparing for the second semester’s teaching. I’m feeling pretty excited about getting back into the classroom. I feel like I’ve also learnt so much, and my teaching is improving a lot this year. So I’m excited J

Josh had a better/happier week at school, because his teacher was back from leave, and Dane was back after being sick. All of us are pretty much over the colds we had, so the great thing about that is that the children tend to behave better when they’re healthy. Maybe that’s also why the weekend was better…

I took Josh and Hannah, and Mom, to go and watch Peter Pan at Canal Walk on Friday. The show was really well done, with an especially cool and creative set. It is aimed at kids, so the acting isn’t spectacular, but it still is overall a high quality production. And of course the kids just loved it!

We went over to Fish Hoek yesterday, and had a braai J I’m guessing you don’t have many braais in Zim… We’ll have a special big one when you come home! J But before going to Fish Hoek we first had to deal with the fact that we had hardly any water at home… A pipe had burst in the road behind us, and so the water was just trickling – although at least it was still coming! We took the kids for a walk to see it, and at that stage all they City had done was cordon off the area, but Josh and Hannah were interested to see the water still flowing down the street. Josh was especially looking at where the water was just pooling, and where it was flowing… I think he’s got a scientific mind… Watch this space J

Our Sunday School lesson today was on learning by study and faith. There was an interesting talk last year in the Young Women session by Sis Mary N Cook on a similar theme. A cool quote from her:
“Seek learning by faith. We learn by faith as we diligently gain spiritual knowledge through prayer, scripture study, and obedience and as we seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost, who testifies of all truth. If you do your part to gain knowledge, the Holy Ghost can enlighten your mind. As you strive to keep yourself worthy, the Holy Ghost will give direction and added light to your learning.”
Before I reread this quote in the class Bro Terry asked me what one of my favourite scriptures is, and I chose Moroni 10:5, which happens to go really nicely with the quote too. But the Holy Ghost is amazing in helping you to know the truth about the gospel, but also in so many other things, in all areas of our lives. What an Amazing gift! I think we’re often too casual about it!

We also had a really great testimony meeting today. Andrew decided a few weeks ago that he really wanted to ward to focus more on the Saviour, and the one thing he could influence directly was the sacrament meeting talk topics. So we started 2 weeks ago a series of sacrament meetings that will focus on the Saviour. But it was interesting to see in testimony meeting today how many people focused their testimonies predominantly on the Saviour. And those are unplanned! So it’s great to see that the ward members are having the focus shift, although they probably don’t realise it’s happening :P

There was also a shake-up in the priesthood callings today, well part 1 today. Bro Bothwell has been released from the bishopric, and Sam called in his place! Andrew is really excited to have him as a counsellor J Bro Terry was changed to the ward clerk, and then a couple changes to the High Priest group as well. But hopefully things are going to be moving forward from here!

So another exciting week!

Shelly

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