Seminary and Weddings
Using a format such as this or even in a personal journal if you don’t keep it up on a regular basis it is easy to get so far behind that it is difficult to know where to begin to catch up. Such is the case with me here. I have had many thoughts and experiences I would like to share but haven’t taken the time to do so.
About the time of my last post I received an assignment to teach early morning seminary to 25 youth ages 15-16. That assignment has consumed me to the point I sometimes feel I have no life other than seminary. While a rewarding and sometimes a fun assignment, it is never-the-less extremely time consuming and difficult for me. I have never had the opportunity to teach much in a formal class setting so there is a steep learning curve in figuring out just how to approach teaching 25 sleepy teens at 6:00 AM every morning on a gospel subject. We are studying the Old Testament which is quite intimidating to me as I had never read it all the way through cover to cover. How do you teach smart kids about something I am just learning myself? I can tell you it has been done with lots and lots of reading and studying and even with that I am often only one day ahead of my students. But I am learning a lot and finding the Old Testament to be fascinating with great stories of heroes that always teach a principle that can be applied to us right now in our own personal lives. Growing up in the church I have often heard these wonderful stories but somehow never recognized all the great principles they teach. I love learning and applying these principles to myself and I am enjoying trying to help my students figure out how to do the same.
I find getting up at 4:30 AM each day to be the easiest part of the assignment. It is exhilerating to me to be up early and see the world so still and quiet. I enjoy that part of the day immensely. And then I am quite amazed when 6:00 AM rolls around and 25 sleepy students come trooping in to my class. Each day I am amazed I didn’t bore them to tears the day before and run them off. Then again, I may have bored them to tears and they are just there because they are good kids who will give a newbie teacher one more chance to do better at conveying the wonderful messages taught in the scriptures.
By the way, our seminary class is being held in a nearby Catholic church. Our chapel burned last March and hasn’t been rebuilt yet so we were so thankful to have Father Tom offer his church to us for our seminary classes. He and his parishioners have been so nice to us and their generosity in turning their building over to us for that hour is very much appreciated.
Aside from seminary, the other big word in my life and the lives of all us Oriens is weddings. Yes, plural. Weddings with an “s”. Two of the Oriens have announced engagements and made wedding plans that occur within a month of each other. Megan is marrying Kyle on November 24 in Anchorage and Jason is marrying Caroline on December 28 in St. Louis. So life at our house is abuzz with wedding plans. Fun Fun Fun! More on all that later!
