24 May 2007

24 May 2007 – Thursday

Wow the days just whiz by it seems – already the weekend is almost upon me. The best news of the day is Mary seems to have shaken her illness and that makes her very happy. We got great letters from Tyler and Taylor – both of them seem to ready for school to get out and have lots of plans for summer. It is always great to get letters from the family.

At the office we work on our English classes. We received a couple of calls from people who do not speak enough English that I can communicate with them. I give it my best shot but it does not work. In at least one case I believe they wanted to come by the office but I could not tell them enough about where we are. I gave them Sam’s phone number but they did not call him. Frustrating to say the least.

After the office we come home and rest until it is time to go to Tangerang for district meeting and English class. I told Mary I think it is time to change classes – she can entertain the young children and I get to teach the advanced class. I do not think she is buying it – maybe later in the summer we can switch.

At district meeting I once again talked about the need for the spirit when they teach. It is the only thing that will change a person’s life and without it we are just selling the Gospel. I said that if they did not feel the spirit burning in them when they were teaching, they could not expect the investigator to feel it. I certainly felt the spirit as I said this to them and I hope that they did also. I think at least some of them did. I am afraid that they all know exactly what to say but I am not sure they all know how to invite the spirit.

We had only 2 at our English class – both of them were from Mary’s class. But that was OK because all of the Elders went in with them and they had a good time. I spent my hour reading from the Kitab Mormon and Alkitab – I am encouraged by how much of it I can read. It helps that I know most of the stories so once I get an idea of what is going on, I can do some good guessing.

Usually when we get home from English class we are ready to drop into bed but tonight I turned on the TV and the movie ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’ was on. It was basically the story of the 1913 US Open and they young 20 year old amateur – Ouimet – that won it in a playoff with two of best British golfers of the time – one of which was Harry Vardon. The spiced up the story some but stuck to the basic facts including using a young actor that was a dead ringer for the 10 year old caddy that carried his clubs because there was no one else who would. Ouimet went on to be called ‘the father of American amateur golf’ and his caddie went on to become a multi-millionaire.

Mary watched the whole thing and I bounced in and out of the room as I had some other things to do. Unfortunately the movie won out over reading another hour from the Kitab Mormon. We will need to read more tomorrow to make up for it. One fo the things I did was to look at Olivia’s blog. It shows how she has changed over the last two years – from a chubby little baby to a thin young lady. One thing has not changed – her ever ready smile.



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