English Class Adventures

Well, I'm still not entirely sure how to use the blog but I figure with all that happens on a daily basis I had better just start posting. Today, just like everyday, was full of adventures. The island is having a shortage of eggs due to lack of chicken food. Many of the chickens didn't make it during the famine and I am anticipating a long wait for the egg count to get up to where it once was. I went to both of the grocery stores and a vegetable stand that has eggs occasionally but had no luck. My afternoon was open and I had wanted to make more rolls and attempt cinnamon rolls again, but I guess that will have to wait. I have enjoyed having the time to cook real meals for Keith as well as fun things such as cinnamon rolls. I feel like such a better wife as well as a more skilled person as I learn to cook different dishes as well as with different foods. It has been a challenge to know what to do with some of the food down here, but talking to the other wives and the natives has given me some great ideas. After my egg hunt I had some time with Keith for lunch which is an hour I treasure every day. This evening I was able to start helping teach English to the natives. What an experience. I mostly observed and work with a shy girl who struggled to read and had a hard time pronouncing many English words. It is such a humbling experience to spend quality time with some of the people here. I helped in the beginning class, which is in the bottom level of the church and has 25 people in it. Sister White teaches the intermediate class upstairs and I would imagine it has close to the same amount of people. President White would like to be able to start another class because of the amounts of people that had to be turned away for this semester. Now that Leigh is teaching and I am learning to teach, we have enough teachers to start more classes but not enough space. Hopefully the Church will find land to build on before too long and we can move to a larger building, opening up all sorts of possibilities! In the short time that we have been here, we have been able to witness the branch grow and we are so excited to be a part of it. Every week it feels like the "chapel" has more people in it and before too long, the room will be to small. Pres. White is now searching for land to build and the branch won't have to rent the bottom two floors of the "Kool-Air" building. Keith talked to our native neighbor about the church and he (Rens) has already read the Book of Mormon. We talked to him on our way home from church on Sunday and he said that he will make it next week. We are hoping to see him there, but know that we might need to form a stronger friendship with him first. We'll see. After teaching English tonight Keith and I didn't have much time to spend together, but had fun while we could. We pulled out the marshmallows, the Nilla wafers, and a Hershey bar I bought at the bookstore and turned the propane stove on. It was all we had to work with, but the s'mores we made tonight were the best I've ever had. It was nice to relax and laugh with each other, even for a short time. We lit almost every marshmallow (that we were roasting on forks) on fire but it just made the experience that much better. We laughed and giggled with each other for a while and then just enjoyed our s'mores. I love this time in my life!