Just before arriving at the Institute, there was a small traffic jam on the adjoining street. A woman was trying to parallel park and had blocked traffic. The problem is that she was slowly trying to back into a tight double parking spot. That is, she was parking illegally and blocking effectively three lanes by so doing. Dee writes: I guess we can enjoy the entertainment value.
During the afternoon, I spent time preparing my FHE lesson, and a bit on my Friday lesson. Using my Foxit PDF editor, I also modified the sheet music for one of the stake choir songs, taking out the English lyrics and putting in the Italian words. That makes it much more legible. My plan is to do this for all four songs, and to offer copies to the director. Inside the Institute, with its thick outer walls, it stays nice and cool, so I even wore a light jacket to stay warm in there, which hopefully augurs well for the heat this coming summer. My wife had a very heartfelt and private talk with one of our of GANS girls who is going through a tough time, and it seems like Dee's advice was helpful. She said she felt prompted to come to the Institute, not knowing why, and that talking with me really helped. I'm touched and humbled.
For FHE, I based a lot of my lesson the talk by Bishop Caussé at the last conference, entitled "It is all about people." We talked about how the church is about people, not buildings or programs. Several of the kids, including Sheyla and Jomar, shared wonderful experiences where they had grown a lot by taking on difficult callings as new converts. Teaching the 12-13 year-olds in Sunday School was a common theme; that was my first calling too, when a freshman in college. The lesson didn't all follow my original outline, but it ended up as a very nice and heartfelt exchange.
