Life in Ohio

Picnic at the Park. Yes, we still like to eat for our dates

A couple of weeks ago, there was a breakfast at a park for the ward. After going home to get some things done, we came back and had a picnic there for lunch! It was a nice little park with about a one mile trail which we walked around most of, and we played frisbee! It was a nice, relaxing thing to do on Labor Day.

So I still don't have pictures of our apartment yet. We have some of our laundry hanging up to dry. And I have finally started working as a substitute, so I really just don't have as much time anymore to really clean this place up. But I'm liking it. I've actually done a couple of preschools, which is a new thing for me, and I actually enjoyed it! I still struggle with first grade, but preschool is fun! The kids are darling! However, today I was in a first grade class (that was a bit of a struggle) but a cute little girl called me Mrs. Sunshine! She obviously forgot my name, but I thought that was so cute, I didn't correct her. And we're getting really involved in the ward, which keeps me busy. I have 2 callings, one as a primary teacher with Nate over the 7 turning 8 year olds, and the other as an activity days assistant leader over all the girls 8 - 11, which is about 16 girls. So basically I'm seeing less and less of Nate. In fact, this week I will be (have been) busy for 3 of the evenings, which for a newly wed couple, is a lot! And I still haven't really started my tutoring job! We're also getting invited to a few of the members houses. I think we're in demand because we're the young, newly married couple so they want to take care of us...or they want us to play games with them because we don't have any kids that we would have to leave their house early to put to bed. We certainly enjoy it and are grateful for it!

We're quickly becoming friends with a couple where the wife is recently baptized and the husband is from Mexico and doesn't speak a ton of English. She and I hung out while the men went to an Elders Quorum activity on Saturday. We were also able to go to her baptism on Saturday, which was really special. She is one step closer to eternal life, which is really exciting! The next day (Sunday) in church, we were sitting there, waiting for sacrament meeting to start, when one of the missionaries came up to Nate and was like, "Has someone talked to you about confirming Shayna?" So Nate was like, "No." So basically, Nate had to do a confirmation of the Holy Ghost spur of the moment when he had never done one before! Needless to say, he was a bit nervous. The missionary gave him his white handbook to study what to say in the beginning, but Nate was even more worried about the part after since it had been so long since he had even seen a confirmation done. But he did great! The Spirit obviously guided him in what he needed to say and it was absolutely perfect for Shayna.