July 18, 2012

Started CES training.  Wow is all I can say.  Every teacher in the church should have the opportunity to go through this training.  The whole point of gospel teaching is to get the gospel message into the hearts of the learners.  That takes the Holy Ghost and a teacher who wants to teach doctrines and principles.

Today we learned what to do as we prepare to teach.  The first step is to section each chapter of scripture into blocks. Once we did that we wrote a one sentence summary for each block.  We then wrote one principle that the block taught.  The principle was written "If I... then..."  The purpose is to get into our minds an outline of the chapter, determine what principles the chapter teaches, and then through inspiration (with a knowledge of what our students need) decide which principles to teach.  We did Luke 5.  The first block encompassed verses 1-11.  The summary could be "The Savior helps Peter, James and John catch fish, and then calls them to be fisher's of men."  The amazing part of this was the principles this short story teaches.  Here are some that were shared among the missionaries in the training.  "If I follow Jesus Christ my life will be full (like the nets)."  "If I obey Jesus Christ, he will help me with the things with which I toil/struggle."  "When the Spirit testifies of Jesus Christ, we must follow him."  By the time we had finished Luke 5 my heart was so full.  I can't wait for tomorrow.

We are continuing with Fijian lessons.  I was so proud of myself when I entered the classroom, greeted the teacher and did it correctly.  Bula vinaka.  Sa vakacava tiko?  (Hello, how are you?) I can testify from experience that pride cometh before a fall!  Our tutor followed my greeting with "Bula Bula vinaka tiko.  Ocei na yacamuni?"  Although I knew exactly what he had asked me, my poor old brain, just could not pull up the reply.  How hard is "Na yacaqu ko Sista Tennis?"  I am determined to be able to participate in the pleasantries of life in Fijian.

Just before we got to our tutoring session two young Elders were standing outside one of the classroom doors.  We stopped to watch.  They looked embarrassed and we told them that we wanted to watch how good they were in their language.  They said, "NO you don't.  We are terrible."  And then we watched them knock on the door and proceed to be wonderful at the greeting, and the door approach.  They spoke really fast for about 3 minutes before we walked on down the hall. Their accents were very good.  We hear all languages.  The elders and sisters are always practicing.  Each say thank you, how are you, and excuse me in their mission languages.  Ah to have a young brain and the gift of tongues.

We love being here.  We love the powerful spirit these young men and women carry with them.  We love the feel of this place even when we are walking from building to building.  We love what we have learned here.  It will be bitter sweet to leave the MTC.

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Here we are the Pres. and Sister Bell who did CES training with us.  What a wonderful example they are.