25 August 2014
Dear Richard
It was so nice to have no teaching last week! But of course
things were still quite busy… We did our visiting teaching, and I did some
shopping for Andrew’s birthday, so that meant less time actually at work to get
through what I needed to. But I spent most of the week developing the material
for the CPD course I’m presenting on for the Engineering Faculty. And I’m
really happy with how they turned out! I think that the participants will be
nice and surprised at the fact that accounting actually isn’t boring ;)
On Tuesday we took the kids to see the Days of the Dinosaurs
exhibition at the CTICC. It had about 45 models of dinosaurs that were
mechanised to be moving and sounding like dinosaurs. The biggest was a life
size T-Rex! It was a really awesome experience that the kids just loved of
course! Especially Josh :) We went around the display 3 times!
We were concerned about the kids being irreverent during
prayers. So we had a special family home evening lesson about it last week,
explaining why we need to be reverent and exactly how to do it. And now we’re
doing a reward chart where they can get a sticker if they’re reverent for all
of the prayers in a day. And so far there has been a huge improvement! This
past week we then had a family home evening lesson explaining what a testimony
is and sharing our testimonies with the kids, like Elder Bednar suggested, and
wow, was the spirit strong! I don’t know how much the kids benefitted from it,
but it was really great for me!
Elder Carl Cook and Elder Mkhabela were here this past
weekend. On Saturday morning Andrew went to a co-ordinating council meeting,
with the stake presidents from the 2 Cape Town stakes and the PE and East
London stakes. We had two kids come over to play for the morning so we kept
very busy here without him. On Sunday morning Andrew took Elder Mkhabela to
Paarl, and then afterwards just the Bellville stake presidency had a special
training meeting with both Elder Cook and Elder Mkhabela. Andrew was one of the
missionaries who taught Elder Mkhabela and helped him along to joining the
church, so it was really special for him to spend that time with him!
But the big highlight of the weekend was when we had the
adult meeting on Saturday evening about the family. I believe that the
equivalent meeting was held in your area this past weekend too? Andrew looked
after the kids for us, so I was actually able to go to the meeting childless
and then Andrew thought he’d be able to sit in the congregation for a change,
but we were both asked to go and sit on the stand… Big surprise! But thankfully
we didn’t actually get asked to do anything, and it did mean I was able to sit
with my husband! SUCH a rare treat! But the meeting was just great. What a
difference it makes when the participants come prepared, having read material
in advance, and then they are all able to give their thoughts and insights and
their questions from it. I hope that we do follow this model much more going
forward! One of the really nice outcomes was also to realise that most of us
are actually in similar circumstances, so I think there is a greater sense of
unity now among the members of the stake. And some good things to try and
implement, like the sharing testimonies idea.
As I’m writing the rain has just started… We had a few nice
warm days, but today the berg wind started together with the warmth, and we
have some mega winds and rain coming the next few days!
Today Andrew and I took the afternoon off and went for lunch
to celebrate his birthday, which was also a really nice and rare treat. And
then this evening was the normal swimming lessons… But Josh and Hannah are
doing SO well with their swimming! Josh is doing much better at being exactly
obedient to Lindsay and he is enjoying it, and Hannah swims in a squad with 2
boys and she really gives them a run for their money! And, in fact, Josh does
in his squad too, and he’s a year younger than the other 2 in the squad. He’s
just as fast as them though, if not faster, and as soon as he is willing to
keep his face under the water for longer (which is improving) he’s going to be
completely matching them! Today they did dives and then some fun things like
pencil dives and somersaults in the water, but he was a bit reluctant to do
them… Funny that he doesn’t know how to play in the water! But once the weather
warms up Andrew will help him to learn how to do that ;)
So a quieter week in some respects, but still busy… It just
doesn’t seem to slow down! But we’ll get there eventually :)
Have a good week!
Shelly
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