February 23, 2010 This was a week of firsts for me. I had my first driving lesson on Saturday, and I must say that Lynn was quite patient. I feel quite a bit more confident now, but he has me convinced to hug the middle line, which is nerve wracking. I guess a couple of times I was almost on the sidewalk on the left hand side…oh well, there really weren’t any pedestrians! I’m a far cry from being ready to drive in traffic! I also taught my first “piano” lesson on the keyboard Sunday. I had one little student who is about the age of Rachel and Eliza. Her name is Josephine and she didn’t get started with the group of 4 a year ago, and has tried to catch up, but needs the individual attention. She is certainly eager, and really trying hard. After her lesson she introduced me to her older sister, and then about an hour later the sister asked if she could have lessons, too. Then, a young lady who was just baptized asked if she could join the class. I am now trying to get another keyboard to be able to use. It’s pretty amazing to see how excited they are. The plan is that they learn enough to play in church, and also commit to teach others. I’m trying a second angle: Josephine is giving me lessons in Zulu pronunciation, in that I still can’t quite pronounce her last name…it has one of those clicks in it! It’s pretty fun! Our support group seems to be going well. One of the members really made some tough commitments last week, and has been so honest in analyzing his challenges. We feel that he is making wonderful progress. He works for the U.S. government, and will be working in Virginia the next couple of weeks, but liked the idea of our keeping in touch with him while he is gone. Lynn sent him a text today…he and Morgan seem to relate really well. I think that Lynn’s experiences as a Bishop and mine as a counselor help to make us a good team in working with these people. Work in the area office keeps bringing new assignments and challenges. We are preparing to teach our first “Basic Computer Training” class to new missionaries and employees in the building. We’ve developed an outline which includes training interspersed with cartoons and videos. It is a day-long class with pizza for lunch, and we’re attempting to make it as painless as possible. We’ll see how we survive in team teaching! We’ve been called to work in the temple on Saturday mornings. We have to be at the temple at 6 am and the shift ends at 12:30. We worked last Saturday for the first time, and loved it. It adds a new dimension to our work here, and we are happy about it. It does mean that we need to change our Preparation day to Monday in order to get things done and be able to do any field trips. Yesterday we went to the Lion Park which is about 45 minutes away from our flat. We fed giraffes and drove through the lion camps. We had some young lions follow our car a short distance after we photographed them. We also saw zebras that we could reach out of the car and touch, and quite a few other African animals and birds. (See pictures and video/the lion in the video winked at me!). It was a really nice morning and the weather was beautiful. (dmw)
My Kids are loving all the animal pictures. Dad-I think you should think of adding a girraffe to the corral when you get home. I wrote you an e-mail and was interupted...came back to finish it and the draft wasn't there. Hopefully, I'll find time to write another reprive soon. Love You!
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