This past weekend there was a major ice storm on the forecast. The freezing rain was supposed to start early on Friday, and continue intermittently through Sunday early afternoon. School was cancelled for Gabe on Friday because of it, and the temple preemptively closed down for the weekend. The freezing rain had started (slightly) by the time we woke up Friday morning, so we spent the day inside. Every so often we would peak outside to see how bad it was. There was definitely a layer of ice on everything, but not nearly as much as we expected. By Saturday the roads were clear and it was supposed to stay that way until late that night. So we went to the theater and watched Moana (which we LOVED, minus the stupid, weird crab) and went out to dinner with some friends.
I was supposed to teach the combined young women for the first time on Sunday, but the forecast had changed to constant freezing rain from 3am to 2pm on Sunday, so I just knew church would be cancelled. My lesson was mostly prepared already anyway, because I had been thinking about it and making notes over the past two weeks at least. But I still hadn't organized those thoughts and notes into a coherent lesson yet. At dinner with our friends (the wife is the 1st counselor in the Young Women Presidency and I'm the 2nd), I told her that I was so sure church would be cancelled (actually we were all really surprised it hadn't been cancelled already), but I just knew that if I assumed that and didn't finish my lesson, it would end up not being cancelled.
Well guess what, I didn't take any time that night to finish working on my lesson, so I set my alarm a little extra early for Sunday morning. When I woke up, it was raining - not freezing rain, just raining - and you could see what ice was left melting. So much for church being cancelled. I didn't have as much time before church as I really wanted to finish putting my lesson together, but because of the preparation I had done beforehand, it was enough. I, surprisingly, wasn't nervous about teaching the entire young women, and actually found that I really enjoyed it.
I had been reading the section "Love Those you Teach" in the Teaching in the Savior's Way manual during the week, and absolutely loved the suggestion to set up/prepare for the lesson ahead of time, so that as the students are coming in for class you can interact with them, instead of being absorbed and hurried in setting things up. The other suggestion was to have some of the students help you set up, so that you could interact with them in that way. I don't really do displays for my lessons - artsy stuff really isn't my forte - but I did pick up a few posters from the library ahead of time to hang on the board, and I wanted the main scripture from the lesson written on the board. So a couple of the young women worked together to write the verses on the board, and another hung up the pictures for me. It was a small thing, but I appreciated their help, and appreciated that it allowed me to have more interaction with the girls before the lesson. Like I said, I really enjoyed teaching the entire group, and the lesson went very well. The young women had some wonderful comments, and I felt the Spirit guiding my responses and the flow of the lesson. Teaching is such a great experience when I do my part ahead of time. I am so grateful for my calling with the young women and all that I am learning because of it.
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