Monday, April 7, 2014

Letter to Richard - 7 April 2014 (General conference)

Dear Richard

So the whole of last week was really about Joshua’s birthday. Every evening we were preparing things, from party packs, to baking and decorating the cake and cupcakes… And the nice thing was that Andrew was able to help quite a bit, because he didn’t have stake meetings because Pres Kruger was away, and he excused himself from youth because it was on Joshua’s birthday. So he was actually home every night last week. Amazing! And it was really fun having him at home to help with stuff J And on the whole I think that Josh enjoyed both his birthday and his party J And now my boy is 6 years old! Crazy stuff!!!

I also started lecturing the second years this week, which means 8:00 lectures. And of course, Caleb had a terrible week with his sleeping… So that every day I was exhausted in my lectures, but I got through it anyway, and I think I’ve gone quite a long way to developing a good relationship with this class. I’ll lecture them again for one week after the vac this week, and then right at the end of the year again.

At work there was also all sorts of other admin that I had to catch up on, including getting my April test set and given to my senior who needs to check it. I also finished the last chapter that I had to do for the new edition of the existing textbook, and tied up some loose ends for the new groups textbook. In July or August this year both should be in bookstores J

This weekend was General Conference which was great as always J Andrew and I each watched the Priesthood and Women’s sessions on our own, and then we also managed to watch most of 2 sessions at home on Sunday, which is pretty impressive for us at this stage! So there was a lot that I’ll need to engage with over the months to come, but I was especially impressed with Bishop Stevenson’s talk, where he spoke about the Winter Olympians and our “4 minutes” in this mortal life. What I’m realising more and more as well is how important it is to always balance pretty much any message with a reminder of how real the atonement is and how we can make things right when we make a mistake, which we all do of course. So I liked that aspect of his talk as well. I find myself in my Sunday School lessons saying something about how we can repent just about every week. But I think it’s so important!

And what was also great was that Sis Marie came with me to the Women’s meeting – the first time she’s ever attended General Conference! When they were still active it was before there were even the video tapes sent over. So you only got to read conference in the Ensign. Pretty historic day for her J And it was really great to see all the Primary age girls at the session. It will be really special when Hannah can go with me J

Have a great week J

Shelly

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