Dear Lisa,
This month hasn’t been much of anything, yet still busy in its own way. The last Saturday of September was the General Relief Society meeting. I enjoyed it very much. I was surprised to see President Monson tear up and have to actually wipe away a few tears. It was very touching. He talked about judging other when we have no right to. He told the story of a young couple who moved into a new house and every week for a few weeks she kept complaining to her husband about how the woman next door couldn’t get her laundry cleaned, which was hanging up where the couple could see. After several weeks, she remarked how the woman must have learned how to finally clean her laundry. Her husband spoke up and said he knew what had happened. He had gotten up earlier that day and washed their windows. I couldn’t help but think about how we can each be that way so often in our lives. I know I am guilty of it. I am amazed at how when I get to know someone better, they are much smarter than I thought they were initially. I hope you know what I mean. It’s very sad to think that we are so mean to one another and yet all we want from others in their compassion and understanding.
The beginning of the month we had General Conference. We went to most of the sessions at the Chapel, but Sunday afternoon I gave up and decided to sit on my soft couch at home and watch it on the Internet. Those chairs are not the most comfortable chairs to sit on. I think the talk that most affected me was Elder Holland. He spoke about gratitude. He did so in such a way that I felt he was talking to me personally and thanking me for every effort I have ever made in the Church. I’ve never felt so appreciated from someone I have never met.
October also brought the Road show. We have been practicing for what seems like an eternity, on the 16th we finally performed. We went to the Vicksburg auditorium. It was so fun to watch what everyone had come up with. Although I know that I’m quite biased of course, I think ours was one of the two best. The one by Kalamazoo (all three wards) had some amazing dances, but there was no story line, so I didn’t like it as well as the other one. I can’t remember who did the other good one though. Sorry about that. Anyway, the kids had lots of fun. I was quite happy with the way it all turned out, but I’m also glad to moving past that and onto something else.
On the 23rd, just a week after Road show was finished, we had a huge garage sale at our house as a fundraiser for the Scouts and Young Women for camp for next year. We did pretty good. I think we made about $550. We probably would have made more, but the weather wasn’t getting along with us too well. We gave the rest of the stuff to Goodwill. They were pretty overwhelmed with all we had to give them. We probably could have done a 2nd yard sale and raised just as much money again, but I was so tired of the stuff being here and taking up my garage space that I wasn’t about to put it all away again. Still, if I had realized in advance how much there was I would have planned on two garage sales. Most of the kids came to help at one point or another and we enjoyed being together.
I finished my math class finally and ended with a B. It’s not what I had hoped for, but I’m glad it’s over with anyway. I also finished my creative writing class. I got an A in that one and I was happy to see that. Now I’m taking another creative writing class for fun and a Humanities course. I also went and enrolled at Baker College in Jackson. I will start there on January 10th. I go in for orientation in November. I am excited to be getting on with obtaining a degree, but I can’t believe all the schooling I will need to get my degree. I will need 239 quarter hours to finish the degree up and that seems like an awful lot. I don’t know how that works from semester hours, so right now I’m just in the dark as to what that really means. I am in high hopes that I will be able to transfer a lot of my classes over and not have too many to take once they are transferred over. I haven’t heard yet about that. I am planning to really get in and take a huge load of classes so that I can finish as soon as possible and get into a school and finally be able to teach. I want to try and take as many classes as I can on just two days of the week so that I can substitute teach on the other three days if anyone needs me for whatever reason.
I guess that’s about it for now. I hope you are all doing well. I’d love to hear back from any of you anytime!
