Family Home Evening Funny...

While Claude and I were in Savannah a week ago I was standing front of The Lady & Sons Restaurant waiting to get a seating time. Claude was finding a parking spot for the car. I decided to use part of that time to call home and see if we had any messages on the answering machine at home. Sure enough, I had one from Pres. Beaman, the Branch President in the Lexington 1st Branch (a congregation in the Church). This branch is made up of young single adults from the two stakes (groups of congregations) in the Lexington area. Pres. Beaman's request was for me to teach a Family Home Evening lesson to these young people. I couldn't make out the last 4 digits of his phone number on the message so I called his home and left a voice message there stating where we were and to call my cell phone but I would be happy to teach a Family Home Evening lesson. Later in the afternoon I heard from Phyllis, Pres. Beaman's wife. She gave me the number and I called Pres. Beaman. He asked that I teach about Basic Welfare Principles and said he had a link to the Church website he would eMail me to let me see what they were wanting to cover. We set the date for Monday, March 15th at 7pm. I checked out the link and found a list of 20 principles. I had 30 minutes for the lesson and struggled to find an interactive way to get all 20 principles covered in 30 minutes. I clicked each principle and noted there was a definition and then a quote to support that definition. I copied and pasted all 20 of these into a word document. At the beginning of my work I typed some of the foundational aims and definitions of the Church's welfare program. Then I set about my period of pondering how in the world to handle this in 30 minutes. Monday morning, I had my plan in place and paired the 20 principles into 10 groups of 2 similar principles. I went through my aims and definitions of the Church welfare program and determined to use them as a preface to set the tone of what we would do. Then I set out to print the 10 sets of 2 similar prinicples each on it's own paper with the plan to staple a blank piece of paper to each 2 principles. The idea being to group the young adults attending into 10 groups. Each group would get two similar principles, their definitions and their quotes and a blank piece of paper. They would have time to read, circle key words, and then report back to the group for 2 minutes what they learned and felt important to share with the group about their two principles. I figured I had 30 minutes. I would use 5 to get started, set the basis for Church welfare, divide them into groups and give them their assignments. They would have 5 minutes to read their papers and make their notes. Then each group would have 2 minutes to present the key points about their 2 principles. I might make a quick comment between to support what they said. Then I would close by reviewing the aims and this great quote about the program really aiming to strengthen each of us as individuals. I knew this would run over a bit but not much. I sat at my computer to copy and paste from my earlier session. Then, love my computer's heart (they are almost human to us you know!), it went blank. It has been doing this since Christmas time. It just gets tired and shuts down. Then it automatically comes back up and I can eventually use it again. So I went about doing things in my sewing/craft/computer/etc. room while I waited for it to come back up. This time it was trying to come back on but the monitor just said 'No Signal'. The light on the tower is lit so I know it is trying to do something. The box on top of the tower that tells me the DSL is working and that Claude has access to the Internet on his wireless laptop upstairs is on but one of the 4 lights that should be on does not come on. I hurry upstairs (Claude is getting ready to go to Frankfort to meet with Damon Thayer, our state Senator) to be sure I won't wreck anything for Claude if I just shut the whole thing off at the power strip and start again. Claude said it wouldn't hurt a thing. I asked him if I could still use Word on his laptop if I needed to retype stuff for the Family Home Evening. He said Word would work but I couldn't get out to the Internet unless things were working downstairs. Back downstairs I go and shut the power strip off. Wait, Wait, Wait!! Try to be patient. Turn back on the power strip. The light on the tower shows it is trying to work but the monitor still says 'No Signal'. I turn off the monitor. Wait, Wait, Wait!! Turn back on the monitor. Still says 'No Signal'. I turn off the power switch. Wait, Wait, Wait!! Turn back on the power strip. Light on the tower is on. Monitor still say 'No Signal'. I go up and tell Claude I'll be using his computer. I had all the information I needed printed from my first round of copying and pasting. It will take a bit of time but I can retype and then print the 10 sets of 2 to hand out. Claude suggests I just turn off the computer and let it really cool down. I take his suggestion and shut down the power strip. Then just walk away from my computer and upstairs to use Claude's laptop. The keyboard on a laptop just feels sooooooo different for my PC. I'm searching for the end, control, insert, delete, back, forward, etc. buttons. I typed one of the 10 sheets I would need and printed two copies, one for me and one for the young adults. Then I did the 2nd sheet and printed two copies. I still had 8 more sheets to go. This was going to be slow even thought I type very quickly, it is just slower on the laptop that I'm not used to. After the first two pages, I headed back downstairs and turned on my power strip and walked away. Back upstairs and I typed the 3rd of the 10 pages. Printed my 2 copies. Then I cautiously walked back downstairs with a prayer in my heart my computer would work. This would be soooo much faster if I could just copy and paste. Amazingly, my computer was up and running. I ran back upstairs and grabbed my stacks of paper and notes and printed copies, etc. Then back to copy and paste before my computer decided it might be tired again!!! The funny thing about all this process is that I never got really upset. I had time to think about what I was doing and realize I felt really good about the way this lesson was laid out, the potential for some sharing with everyone, and a better understanding of what I really might want to say or add. It gave me time to confirm in my heart and mind I was on the right track and this hassle was really a part of my preparation time. I got everything put together, pencils, magnets for things on the board, a poster made of all the 20 principles and the groups of 2 they were now in. Then Claude called. The plan was that he would finish in Frankfort and come back to Sadieville to get me, then we would head into Lexington for dinner, then do an errand at Michael's, then be on time to the stake center for the Family Home Evening. Claude was calling to tell me that Damon Thayer was trying to get Claude on the floor of the Senate to introduce him as the new Mayor of Sadieville. Time for a new plan... I suggested to Claude that I stay at the house until 5:30pm. If he wasn't there or hadn't been able to call by then, I would head into Lexington myself giving me enough time for Michael's and then to get to the Family Home Evening. If Claude could join me fine, if not, that was okay too. The 2nd plan was that if Claude got finished soon enough, I would meet him at Papa's apartment where we would leave one car in Papa's driveway and head into Lexington together in the other car. The 2nd plan is the one that actually happened. We made it to an exit close to the stake center that has an Arby's at it. We were able to have dinner and still get to Michael's for our errand before going to the stake center. The lesson went very well. We had enough for 2 people in each group and one group had 3 people. I set the stage and then handed out the assignment pages. Two girls on the side were working together. I noticed that one of them was on her cell phone. She had longer hair so I wasn't quite sure and I watched for a bit during their 5 minutes of prep time. Sure enough, she had a cell phone to her ear. Before I thought I blurted out, "Are you trying to 'phone a friend'?" She looked up surprised. Then she realized what I was asking and she laughed and said, "Yes, I'm trying to phone a friend. I'm going to read this to them and see what they think are the key words." We all got a good chuckle out of it. After the meeting I learned her sister was having some kind of surgery and she was probably checking on her. I spoke to her as we were leaving and we had a hug and laughed at the silliness of 'phoning a friend'. It was great fun to be with the young single adults. They have so much enthusiasm and energy. They also have a lot more knowledge than I think I did at that age, and I was raising kids at that age. It's been sooooo long ago, who knows, but I do feel like they have a great understanding of things. Next fall they are going to have Claude teach a 'time management' class.