Sunday

Today was stake conference. Stake conference is always a stressful experience. We try to endure the whole meeting, but inevitably, we usually end up leaving early. Today it was made even worse by the fact that I am a retard and I forgot the diaper bag. Spending two hours in an auditorium where we can barely hear anyway without a diaper bag (aka: snacks, coloring books, toys, BOTTLE, etc.) is NOT a fun thing. We made it about one speaker past the intermediate hymn, and then we gave up. The big boys were getting super restless ("I needa go potty!" every five minutes), and Levi was REALLY tired and cranky since he missed his morning nap AND didn't have a bottle. What we did hear was really good though. I really like listening to President Jones speak. He is a pretty dry speaker, but he always focuses on the basics and makes it so we can understand. Today he talked about how we want to go home when we are away from home, and then he talked about how the Bible dictionary says that the temple is LITERALLY a house of God. Then he talked about all the blessings that can come from visiting the temple. About how when the Church first began, families were asked to sacrifice their time, and their money, and their china, etc. But that we are asked to sacrifice today too. We have to sacrifice our time (a whole day), our gas (a couple tanks' worth), and our tolls ($30). But that the peace and tranquility and knowledge that we gain is worth it. He said that we come into our homes when we are cold or hungry or dirty or need comfort, and that we should do the same thing with the temple--when we are feeling sorrow, or stress, or the world has "muddied our souls", that we should go to the temple to be comforted and cleansed.

The mission president and his wife spoke as well. At first I had a hard time focusing on the mission president's wife (Sister Seal?) because she kept referring to how different things are here because missionary work is a daily part of our lives, whereas in Utah it isn't. That is SERIOUSLY one of my biggest pet peeves! When people act like the only people who need the gospel taught to them are outside of Utah. GRR!!! But, once I quit being annoyed about that, I was really touched by her talk. She made the comment, at the very end, that she knows without a doubt, that she is a daughter of God, and that all of us are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father as well, and that he WANTS us to pray to him, and to ask him to help us gain knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel. That hit me hard, because I am really (and have always) struggled with prayer. I pray, but I don't pray on my knees, expressing gratitude and asking for help and enlightenment very often. I need to. And it is one of the things I am really trying to work harder on, so it was good for me to hear that.

I am glad that President Jones spoke at the beginning because I needed to hear his words. Had he spoken at the end, I would have missed it. Otherwise, today was an ok day. The boys were pretty much awful all day, but we did all get naps this afternoon, so that was nice. And I have my powerpoint review ready for class tomorrow, as well as plans for reading. So, things should be good to go.

In other news, well...we only have one functional toilet right now. That stinks...kind of literally. The main bathroom (yeah, so now everyone gets to go pee in my bathroom...even in the middle of the night!) is now out of commission...at least the toilet is. Cameron pulled it off last night, since the seal was bad (I think I mentioned this), but the bolts were so old (like 15 years) that they were kind of (ok, a lot!) corroded and rusted through (EWWWwww!!!) and of course, we didn't have any bolts on hand (who would, really?). So, it is now no longer attached to the floor, pending new bolts. I guess we could use the potty in the shop, but that is probably grosser than just peeing in the floor. (Who liked that image??)

I am really hoping this week goes well. I am thinking it will be a pretty easy week, as I wrap up two units. Next week will be a pain because I will be starting one last unit in each subject before really pushing MAP type stuff. I will work on MAP type questions now, and sort of have been, but my students need to start doing constructed response questions that I actually grade and get back to them with criticism. We'll see...wish me luck!