Monday, February 24, 2014

Letter to Richard - 24 February 2014 (start of the semester)

Dear Richard

Well, first week of lectures – done! J And so far things are going well! My class is only just over 100 students, compared to 170 last year, so it’s actually really nice having a smaller group to get to know, and we can be in a smaller, more intimate venue. I think I’m developing a nice relationship with them so far, so so far, so good J But because the class is smaller than we expected I’ve had to do some reshuffling with our teaching hours, and now I’m taking a first year tut as well. I had the first tut this morning, and it was great! I haven’t tutored first year since 2004, so I was a big worried, but it really all went so smoothly J

On Saturday we had a ward activity. It was a picnic on the beach, but the wind was Pumping! So after a while most of us moved to the Dawsons’ and finished our picnic there. It was really nice to socialise with the ward members a bit, and it’s also great to see that so many of our move-ins, especially from Gugulethu, are really blending in so well with the ward. Very heartening J

Sunday we all got together for Dad’s birthday. Can you believe that Dad is 60!?! Just 5 years from retirement now! But it was great to be together, just missing you and Cindy. Andrew and I spoke to Cindy last night though. She’s wanting Andrew to perform her wedding ceremony, so lots of planning there J

I feel like there’s not much to tell this week… Things are getting busy at work – like this week I’m lecturing plus taking a full load of tuts.

But one interesting thing I read this week was from the December Ensign, talking about how we can teach our children to recognise the spirit. And essentially talking about how we all have different learning styles – visual, auditory or kinaesthetic – and so we’re each going to receive revelation differently as well, which makes sense. So someone like Hannah, who we think is more auditory, will feel the spirit in discussions about the gospel and through music. But someone who is more visual will feel it through reading more. And someone who is kinaesthetic will need to be doing things like service. So something to also bear in mind when you’re teaching – you don’t know what your investigators styles are, so you’ve got to use a combination to give them their best chance of feeling the spirit… Interesting thought!

Well, it’s really brief this week, but there wasn’t much that was that different… And we’re heading into a phase that will be like this quite a bit L But I’ll see what I can tell you that’s interesting ;)

Love you

Shelly

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