Phew!

It's been one of those weeks where I've had a lot on my plate. We had a big joint activity for mutual last night that I was in charge of. Sometime yesterday afternoon I began to worry that I had bitten off more than I could chew. It was a missionary work activity, and started off with the youth receiving a "mission call" and entering the "MTC" (Relief Society room). We had an LGM (Large Group Meeting) introducing Preach My Gospel and the missionary purpose, and then they split into districts by language (we had Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Tagalog). They learned to introduce themselves and testify of the Book of Mormon in the language, and then they learned to teach a short first lesson on the restoration. Their "MTC teachers" were volunteers from the ward who had served in different parts of the world, and the full-time missionaries assigned to our ward. From there, they went to the "field" where they completed their To Do list of missionary tasks (sew a button, tie a tie/put on knee highs, find a scripture) and also went to their mission country (a table in the gym decorated with things from the country- we had the Philippines, Venezuela, France, Madagascar, Spain and Portugal) where they approached the "investigator" (volunteer from the ward), taught the first lesson, and sampled a food from the country. Once everyone finished this, they went "home" from their missions (back to the RS room) and a full-time Elder from the ward talked about how they can prepare for full-time missionary service and a member of the bishopric talked about things they can do to share the gospel now. Anyway, I was nervous because there were so many people involved, and so many things to get done in a short period of time, AND because our youth tend to be a bit unruly most of the time. When all was said and done, though, I think it went really well. The youth had fun (except for a couple who had decidedly bad attitudes and refused to fully participate---but that's something we deal with every week) and I hope they gained an increased desire to share the gospel and to serve missions some day. The volunteers and missionaries were awesome, and we never could have pulled it off without them. I'm glad we did it, and I'm glad it's over!

Today, I had my fourth and final observation (the department chair and principal come and observe me teach a class) for the year. I wasn't TOO worried, since the first three went well, but it's always a little bit stressful getting ready, and just praying that the students will be on their best behavior (since behavior issues tend to be my biggest concern). This observation was also of my largest and most difficult class. But the studets were (almost) angels and everything went off without a hitch. The principal and department chair were very complimentary, and (as I usually do) I felt like I was tricking them into thinking that I'm a good teacher. Oh well. I'm glad that's over too. Smooth sailing from now until the end of the year (knock on wood).

With those two "big" events and several other issues (including house-buying stuff- more news to come) this has been quite a week, and even though it's only Thursday, I am breathing a HUGE sigh of relief!