July 4

What a day.  Full.  Busy.  With not such a great ending.

We have decided that our mornings are not long enough. We have been doing companion study for 1/2 hour each morning which consists of memorizing scriptures that are important to the work.  I learn two each morning. Scott bless he heart knows most of them already, but works with me anyway.  Then we do 1/2 hour of yoga or walking.  We then shower and get ready for the day which takes me longer here.  I am not sure why.  We eat breakfast and then walk to the Service Center where our temporary office is. We like to be in the office by 8:30 when the center opens.

I am going to pause here and explain about the temple compound.  It is gated.  There is a 24 hour guard at the one gate into the compound--standard I would imagine for temples around the world.  So when one drives through the gate, the temple is to the right up an incline, parking is straight ahead, behind the parking lot is the mission president's home to the left, the temple president's home straight ahead, and small temple housing flats on the right. On the left is a two story medium sized building in which is housed: on the ground level; the mission office, the distribution center, the family history center, and the temple housing office; in the basement (which is a walk out) is the Church Service Center which is if I am correct like a mini Church Office Building.  Here are the employees who run the day-to-day affairs of the church.  The main entrance to the CSC is in the back of the building on the basement level, but again one just walks into the building there are no stairs.  It is here that we have a temporary office.  Here is where Elder Wakolo of the Seventy has his office as he is the director of the Service Center.
OK so back to our mornings.  We have been getting up at 6:30 which is when the young missionaries get up.  We have been late everyday. Bummer.  We decided today that we needed to get up at 6.  UGH

I gave my first lesson for the Suva North Stake YSAs.  I think I mentioned that I am teaching Preparing for Eternal Marriage.  Now we all know that the M word is not a good word to YSAs.  I think it embarrasses them.  I thought no one would sign up, but to my surprise 14 signed up.  I think none will show up this week.  I gave the lesson as outlined in the manual with modifications; a game that lead into the discussion, talking about concepts in pairs, and triplets, and time to ponder read scriptures.  Even I was bored!  The students were so gracious.  They participated, acted interested, and thanked me at the end of the lesson, but I was totally disappointed. It was awful.  What can I say.  Something has to change and I am sure it is me.