Letter to Richard - 14 April 2014 (new Panorama bishop)

Dear Richard

So I’m 31 years old now… And as Dad pointed out I’m now more than half of his age, or you could also say that he’s been a father for more than half of his life… My birthday was good overall J In the morning Andrew took the kids to buy roses for me, and then when I woke up I had all of them on the bed singing Happy Birthday to me, even Caleb! J We had a nice day, and in fact a whole nice birthday weekend. We’ve had such a heat wave the last week that we swam Thursday, Friday and Saturday! I would never have imagined that I would swim on my birthday with living in Cape Town and having a birthday in mid-April, but this year changed that! We also visited Andrew’s family, and then on Sunday afternoon we had our first Sunday afternoon family home evening with all of the family and a nice party for refreshments. I was definitely nice and spoilt J

The other big news is that Andrew got released as Bishop yesterday, and Dad was called as the new Bishop. We both definitely felt much lighter and we were just grinning as we walked around after church! But it was amazing how even though I was just the bishop’s wife, I already felt a detachment from the ward… Strange, because I’m still in the ward, but you’re just more aware of things happening in the ward (and Andrew’s been in the bishopric for nearly 10 years!) and now I won’t have that. But it is a big weight lifted, and we both have the feel that being a counsellor in the stake presidency is actually going to be a lighter calling than bishop, so we’re looking forward to this next phase J But it’s been an amazing experience, and both Andrew and I have grown so much! I think my favourite thing about it has been that people have had a chance to get to know Andrew, which they wouldn’t have done if he hadn’t been in a very public role like that.

Last week we had a National Symposium to end off the Large Class Teaching Project that I was part of for the last 5 years. I co-presented on the project we did at UCT in front of nearly 100 academics from around the country. Then the delegates were split into smaller groups and each of us teams rotated between them to have questions directed to us. We had very favourable feedback on what we had done, as well as just how we presented it. So good all round J

The rest of the week was spent doing things like getting ready for the test that my students wrote today and seeing students who were getting more and more anxious as the week progressed, and then also getting stuff ready for the new quarter which started today as well… But on Friday afternoon I left early to take Josh and 2 of his friends to watch a movie with one of the other moms. It was fun to do something different!

Today was a really long day, with my students writing their test ending after 20:00, and a few groups writing earlier in the day for various reasons. So Andrew had to fetch the kids from school and take them to swimming and do supper and bed with them. But everything went well on both sides J

Yesterday in Relief Society and sacrament meeting we sang 2 hymns where phrases jumped out at me, which when I put them together I realised it was giving some great insight into the atonement.

Forgiveness is a gift from thee (169)

3. As I search the holy scriptures,
May thy mercy be revealed.
Soothe my troubled heart and spirit;
May my unseen wounds be healed. (277)

I am so grateful for the gift of the atonement! And I’m realising more and more just how real the atonement is! In Sunday School we were talking about the Passover (which happens to be today) and how the deliverance of the Israelites is similar to our deliverance through the Atonement. What a blessing!

I hope that your new area is going well – all new growth experiences!

All the best

Shelly