July 26

Wow!  What a fun lesson we had last night.  After listening to the advice I got, I adjusted the lesson.  I started out talking about rugby.  Had one of the students draw a rugby field on the board and then we talked about the point of the game (score more trys than the other team), the rules of the game, and the skills necessary to play the game.  Then I said, "Dating is a game; it has a point, rules, and one needs skills to be good at it."  Then I let the class fill in the point, the rules and the skills.  We laughed from the beginning of class to the end--well except the part where I bore my testimony.  The church where I teach is built so all the classrooms open onto a courtyard.  I sat with the students to teach this class, and every time we would get laughing students in the classroom across the courtyard would look out their door/windows to see what was going on.  One of the cutest things that happened was when I made a huge deal that kisses are special and should not be given out like pretzels.  The YSA that was writing all the stuff on the board wrote "no kissing" under the rules.  I said, "No, No. that is not right." So he then he wrote under "no kissing" "get skills" as a joke.  I laughed and laughed and then shook my finger at him.  Every YSA in the class was watching to see what I would do.  Cute.  After class one YSA from another class told one of the YSAs in my class, "I am in the wrong class." Because these kids really don't date at all, I am thinking of having a date night at our house.  I think I want to put the girls names in a hat and have the boys draw out who they will bring to our "date night".  We will see.

Institute class minus three girls
The girl in the front is a former Viking who was visiting

No Gecko yet.  Am tired of the rain.  I can tell that I am becoming acclimated as I don't put up my umbrella when it is just sprinkling--to much hassle.