Wednesday, 11, 10:24 pm

I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun with a group of people I’ve just met than I am having w/ this group. Everyone just has so much in common, even though we are from all around the country, and we all just have a great time laughing and joking around and playing games.

This morning I awoke at 7:15 after David had taken his shower, so then I took mine and got ready for the day. Today we had to dress in our Sunday best because we visited the Church Office Building after lunch. But before that, from 8:00 to 12:00 we reviewed a few more exercises and then split up into three groups again and practiced teaching. It’s great being able to really teach and see how the workshop is from that perspective. And the practicing gets good ideas out and good feedback to remember for the real thing. Our group today was with Jon and Leah (newly married couple) and Amanda and Lori, with Stephanie as our instructor.

At noon, all 24 of us loaded into 2 vans and drove to the church office building. There we ate lunch. Something fun was after we were done eating, Jeff and I decided to practice what we’ll be doing on the program, and we went and talked to random people eating lunch to find out more about their jobs and how they got them. This way we get more of a feel for the communities we’re in and will be able to share more accurate information with our students. Obviously the information for our students will be collected in the cities they live.

After lunch we went back up into a conference room in the heard some neat speakers: Elder Rudd and Brother Rann – both important leaders in the organization. Then we did some more activities with Gustavo and then at 4:00 pm we walked to the Joseph Smith Building to watch the new Joseph Smith movie: The Prophet of the Restoration. It was my third time seeing the film (2 times in Nauvoo over Christmas break), and it really is a great film that shows how Joseph Smith was as a man.

After the movie we got taken out to eat pizza in downtown Salt Lake, it was a fun time! Then we went back to the hotel and the married couples did their own thing, while the rest of us goofed off in the aerobic/exercise room for a while, and then went into the main lobby and played Uno, and then did more athletic activities… like leg wrestling, and then with a tape measurer we did limbo, and then high jump where you had to land on your feet, and then standing long jump. It was pretty entertaining. And the people entering the hotel would often stop and watch. Ha… it was fun.

Now I need to read and study a bit before I go to bed. Only a few more days of training then we have to do this teaching stuff on our own. Yikes.