First week of Institute Work

Well, we made it through our first week at the institute. We are teaching three classes on preparing for and building family relationships and eternal marriages and two classes on the Doctrine and Covenants. Classes are held each day at noon, M-Th and we usually have about three students in each of these classes. We meet in a cozy little classroom down in the basement of the institute building where we are all around a table. We start by serving lunch, which Mom brings from home. We have a serving table near the door and people as they come in can take what they want. The couple of days we had taco salads and then on other days we had Mom's famous Minestrone soup along with hoagies. The students really like the lunches. After the blessing and opening prayer we have an opening song. Then we get down to some serious eating. We eat and talk about things around the table for about 20 minutes, and then when everyone is finished or about finished we start our lesson. The lesson is informal. We have a chalk board behind us and we put items we are to discuss on the board. Last week we talked about what eternal marriage about and the process of progression and becoming better each day. We also talked about the process of finding an eternal companion and becoming a better person to be a good companion for someone else. We are using the family proclamation as our starting point and we went over some of the promises and teachings of the proclamation. In the D&C class we are starting at the beginning and discussed where the D&C came from, when it was first published, and what the things that needed to be restored were--the first restoration steps after we got the Book of Mormon and the revelations and doctrines that had to be restored to earth. We have a D&C class for the institute on Tuesday evenings, and then we teach a D&C class for the Kalamazoo Stake adults on Wednesday evening. On Thursday evening we have a Marriage class. We had about ten out to the evening D&C class and about eight to the Marriage class. On Monday evenings we have Branch FHE and there are usually about ten there. We have a lesson and then play games. We usually have a refreshment and the Branch really likes ice cream. We also had pizza. On Friday evening is Branch activity night, which is similar to FHE without a lesson. It is just an informal chat where we get together to talk and play games. FHE and Activity night are held in the basement activity room of the institute. Today, Saturday, we are going to the Chicago temple. We are all meeting at the church at 1 PM and then car pooling for the 200 miles or so that it is to the Chicago temple. We plan to get there at about 4 PM and then spend two hours doing baptisms. After the temple activity we are all going out for pizza. Yes, the branch likes pizza. Then we drive home, getting back at about 11:30. This is supposed to be out P day, but since it is Branch temple day, we are devoting it to that. As you can see that keeps us busy seven days per week. The time has just flown by. We are having a great time. Our branch has several married students in it who have been called from the regular wards to come and participate with the branch. They are all young marrieds without children so they fit in really well. Several of these young marrieds attend our institute classes and add their comments to our discussion. The weather is cooling off in Michigan and the humidity is gone, so we are settling into a beautiful fall with mostly blue skies, except for the occasional rain, and weather in the low 80's with low humidity, we are are quite comfortable outside when we get there. We we are sure getting to know our institute building, spending several hours there each day. It is starting to feel like home to us. It takes awhile to make the transition to missionary life where every day is like Sunday and you are doing Church service all the time. We don't have time for much else, since we are either spending time preparing a lesson, discussing the lesson material between the two of us and what we are going to say and what learning activities/games we are going to play or actually giving the lesson and being at the institute. Some of the students we see every day. There are several who are taking two institute classes and they come twice per week. Well, that is our news for this week. We will attach some pictures of our activities. Love, Dad and Mom.