Happy Easter 2016!

We've all had the day off on this Good Friday--it's been nice.  Rhiannon has been the busiest of us all, taking on a babysitting job and now partying up at a friend's 5-hour birthday party (whew!).  Both the kids pulled lots of weeds for me today, too, which I really appreciated.  Wade's Scout camp-out got cancelled, so he's enjoyed a lot of video game time!

Our Easter baskets are very simple this year.  We have a tradition of doing the baskets on Saturday morning, to be able to focus more on the Savior on Sunday, instead of candy, candy, candy.

Instead of buying gobs of candy like I've usually done, I just bought a couple things and then filled plastic eggs with little strips of paper on which I wrote either love notes, coupons for fun things or acts of service, and a favorite Easter scripture (Matthew 28:6).

I even gave myself a few love notes, such as "Remember to enjoy the magic of ordinary days!"  I feel really good about the baskets and hope they will be received well, haha! :)   Idea for the Easter love notes here:  http://growingupgabel.com/easter-baskets-idea-for-kids/

Jason was out of town Monday thru Thursday this week and got back yesterday afternoon.  He is still not 100%, but feeling a little better each day.  Tuesday was an absolutely crazy insane day (Wade gone to Disneyland from 5am to almost 1am the next morning), drumline for Rhiannon, institute class and a sub job for me....but we made it through!

Institute class was magical this week.  I came prepared to teach several highlights from the whole book of Deuteronomy, but we spent almost half the class time talking about temple marriage.  In fact, the class joked that it was a "Face-to-Face Event with Sister Cushing."  One of our class members said something to the effect of, "Well, here we are talking about temple marriage and there's only one person in the room who's been married in the temple.  So, Sister Cushing, mind if we ask you some questions?"

It was an incredible experience for me.  Everyone appreciated that I set my lesson notes aside and just rolled with it.  They asked me how a temple marriage had blessed us, what Jason and I did to strengthen our marriage, etc, and then they all thanked me for taking that time with them.  There was an amazing spirit in the room, a feeling of openness and hope and love for each other and our potential.  I can't remember half of the things I shared, but I do know I came home and texted Jason about what had happened, told him I loved him, and appreciated all he did for me!

Not every lesson is like that.  This one was special, and, I felt, particularly guided by the Spirit, Usually I glaze over anything having to do with "marriage" because these young single adults hear it over and over and over, ya know?  But it was meant to be that night, and we were all blessed by it!

A timely kick in the pants

After an AMAZING, best-ever semester teaching the young single adult institute class, I'd been dragging my feet on the upcoming class material.  We just spent 14 weeks covering one of the new core curriculum classes, I'm sure I've mentioned it before, called Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel.  The material for that class was a joy to cover and consistently brought the Spirit into our class each week.  I just loved it!

The next two semesters I'd planned to power through the Old Testament, and I have NOT been excited about it.  The complexity, length, and sometimes weirdness in this book of scripture made me nervous.

But I got some help today.  Before anyone else woke up, I grabbed my scriptures and the institute student manual for the first part of the Old Testament and started to read.  I read some very helpful things in the student manual, and then I opened up my old scriptures.  The first thing I saw was the title page to the Bible:

Here's a plug for marking your scriptures--they will help you one day!  There on that title page, I'd written some tips from an Ensign article back in January 2002, from President Eyring, about how to study and teach from the Old Testament.  I'd forgotten that I'd written that!  I immediately looked up the article, and let me tell you, it was just what I needed to focus and guide my preparation, and, most importantly, change my attitude about it all!

I'm looking forward to a new adventure in institute and hope I'll remember to focus on finding Christ, Jehovah in the Old Testament, and not get caught up in the dramatic stories and unimportant details.  I'm thankful for the word of God in the scriptures that brings comfort, answers to prayer, and helps us come closer to Christ!  

A thoughtful text

I've been teaching an institute class for young single adults for almost a year and a half now and I absolutely love this assignment, in case I haven't mentioned that before. :)  Every week we have a good time learning together, but there is something special about the brand-new course Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel.  We feel the Spirit in a powerful, consistent way every single week because of our focus on the Savior.  It is fantastic.

Last night was no exception.  We spent almost 45 minutes sharing our favorite General Conference moments and talks, and then we learned about Jesus Christ calling the twelve Apostles and proclaiming His mission as the Messiah.

When I got home there was a text on my phone from a friend in the class--it made my day and my heart filled with gratitude.  The Spirit is the true teacher, and I'm always thankful when it is there in abundance, comforting and helping us individually.

Symbols

It's bedtime around here after a very long, productive day.  I need to play catch-up badly on the past few weeks!

Tonight I just want to express gratitude for my institute class that I get to meet with each week.  We started a new course, Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel, this fall semester, and it is fantastic.  Every week we focus on the Savior and learn something new through the scriptures and modern revelation.  At the close of class tonight, several shared their favorite symbols, ideas, and even people that remind them of the Savior.  Family, lighthouses, the moon, special items, the temple, sunlight...the list went on and on.  There was a strong spirit there and I was glad to be a part of it!

These young single adults are wonderful examples to me.  They are helpful, fun, funny, smart, and FULL of faith and hope. It's very inspiring to be with them!

I needed more copies

I had to laugh at myself last week when my spring semester institute class was set up online.  We've been going for 3 weeks, and 6 or 7 students were coming each time (bless them!).  Out of curiosity, I checked the numbers--I had 9 students officially enrolled, out of almost 400 young single adults in Ridgecrest.

Eeek.

If I'd been feeling a little too prideful and a little too confident, that news certainly burst my bubble!  If you're doing the math with me--those 6 people coming represent 1 and a half percent of the people invited to the class.  Not a great statistic.

At the same time, out of that 400, several are away at schools out of state.  Some have married and moved on.  Some are attending Tuesday night classes at the community college or working.  Some are serving missions.  So, there's that.  It made me feel a little better, haha!

Well, I just kept plugging along, spending massive amounts of time on lesson prep for that special group who find the time to come.  Oh, how I appreciate them!  They brighten my day and lift my spirit with their comments, love, and participation.  It's a pretty good weekly gig I've got going on, and I am very thankful for it!

Over the past week I'd been stressing about the next lesson about the law of consecration and stewardship, from several sections in the Doctrine and Covenants. I chose to cover it in one lesson instead of the two available.  SO MUCH MATERIAL.  I felt like I was tripping over myself during the actual lesson and kept trying to find quotes and info I'd read to no avail.  There was just so much information it wasn't funny.

But here was the great part.

I started the lesson with those 6 wonderful people, and a few minutes into it, there were 13 of us!  So many there that I ran out of copies, haha!  A wonderful young woman, Emma, had returned THAT DAY from serving a mission and was getting released that night.  Instead of going home and spending time with her family she had missed for 18 months, she came to institute and brought her siblings and a friend with her.  I was amazed by her example and loved having her there.

It was a really special night!  I've said it before and I'll say it again--nice people make the world go 'round!

Spiritual homecoming

Last Saturday I hitched a ride with my friend Melanie McDonald to a seminary/institute training conference down in Valencia.

I wasn't looking forward to being gone for a whole day.

But I'm sure glad I went anyway!

Months from now I'll have forgotten exactly what was taught and shared, but I hope I never forget how I felt while I was there, absorbing information through the Spirit.  It was like a million light bulbs turning on, or being drenched from a spewing fire hydrant.

One of the best moments was the keynote speaker's address.  He was a great teacher.  Funny in the beginning to get our interest, and had the whole room, men and women, brought to tears at the end.  His closing point was that we, as teachers, get to help the young men and women we serve prepare to return to their Heavenly Father.  And he showed a video similar to the following to drive home his point.  It was powerful.  I think we could all imagine our own "spiritual homecoming."

Institute Party

I follow the local community college's schedule when it comes to teaching my Institute class.  Last class for the fall semester was on December 9th, and we don't start back up again until January 20th.  I really enjoy rubbing shoulders with these young adults--they are fun, kind, respectful, and full of good ideas and experiences.  We have a good time together!

Here we are having a mini Christmas party after class--everyone brought goodies to share and then we played quite a few rounds of Reverse Charades.  It was awesome!