Teaching a career workshop

Ok, Tuesday and Wednesday (Aug 26-27) we were set up to teach our 1st career workshop. This is different than the career days or AKA emplyment days.  Teaching? No problem, I have taught many classes of many types, I don't mean to sound a little over cofident, just saying I love to teach. Anyway  at the career days in Gastonia we had 2 appt. and 12 showed up. For this class we were expecting 8 or 9 and 5 showed up with only 2 really seeking employment, the others were either ward employment specialist or stake employment specialist observing. So I need to teach a 6 hr program for 2 days, to 2 candidates. Ok I can do it. Actually on day 1 there was only 1 candidate, the other came in late. So thinking 1 person, I have to make this last for 6 hrs. The morning went slow, I was trying to figure a method, after lunch it went better. Day 2 two ward employment specialist did'nt come and the stake specialist needed to leave after lunch. It's getting thin. Now the workshop book is really well done, not Preach My Gospel, but still done by the "brethren". There are lots of small activities and if you have a average group it can be time consuming, but 2 people. I was trying to get them more involved filling out the book, and brother Blount, my supervisor so to speak, (he was there to help me if needed) said it's important to get the candidates to fill out the activities. I said I'm trying, then I thought of one of my favorite scriptures, D&C 121: 34-40.  I didn't read all the verses just 34-36
Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?

 35 Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson—

 36 That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. 

The idea was that the Lord is telling the prophet many are called, but few are chosen, then asked a question Why are they not chosen. OK that should pique your interest, then the Lord tells why they are not chosen .... that they do not learn this one lesson.... ok my interest is piqued again what is this lesson... I then explained that they were here to learn career building ideas, and the Lord wanted them to succeed as did the brethren, so maybe the workbook wasn't as inspired as Preach My Gospel, but it was inspired to help them succeed. So we needed to fill out the workbook completely, including myself. The rest of the afternoon went great. Again I found out if I would get out of the way of the Lord, He can and will do His work. I love His work!!! Keep the faith.

Sister Slade, trying to make the apartment more like home. Many have eaten here few have died is a blessing in itself. Below is the scripture we used for our plaque. "Be Still and know that I am God" In the middle is on our living room wall, pictures of the the kids and grandkids, with "Count your many blessings name them one by one". Keep the faith,

Gastonia NC

When we got back from Atlanta, we started right in trying to use what we learned. We knew we had a career days to set up for on Thursday Aug. 21st in Gastonia NC. Elder and Sister Shelley were coming down again to conduct the career days. Our job was to get the people signed up for 1 hr appointments for the candidates. It wasn't that long ago we held a career days in Gastonia so we were having a difficult time trying to find people to attend. On Wednesday August 20th Sister Slade and I were busy calling and searching when a young man comes in and introduces himself and says he loves to meet people, he works for physical facilities and was working cleaning the building.We talked and he told a couple of nice stories about following the Spirit, I will avoid the details but it was times he felt impressed to do something and later found out why. So I mentioned that we were going to Gastonia for a career days and I needed to get into the building. My plan was to call the bishop and see if I could get in. He said to me call sister Mull she is the building coordinator, and he gave me her number. I thanked him and he went back to work. By now we only had 2 candidates scheduled, one for 1pm and one for 7pm. So I called the Atlanta office and told the Shelley's not to bother coming down for two people that I could handle it myself (I hoped).Anyway I called sister Mull and asked her to meet me at 12:30 pm, she asked what we doing, I told her and she said can I put this out to our stake, I said sure. When we arrived there were 4 people waiting and more coming. All in all we set up profiles for 12 candidates spending over 91/2 hrs in the Gastonia building. The reason I say this is we were thinking why are we coming to Gastonia again, Well the Lord knows why. I truly believe that it is possible out of the 12 there 4 will have jobs within the next week, and the others are now in the system. One of the canidates was not a member and by the time we done, after visiting with everyone she said to me I am also looking into visiting the church too.We also have invited them to attend our career workshop next week in Gaastonia.  Keep the faith,

Mid-week in Atlanta

Well it's Wednesday in Atlanta, we just finished a two day workshop, (training for us).  So after work (work really?) the Brocket ward had a institute class taught by the gospel doctrine teacher, Sister Tracy, wow let me tell you she is good. We sat in the gospel doctrine class last Sunday. She teaches with enthusiasm, but, well she does have a PHD in Old Testament studies. Anyway I always love gospel discussions. I don't want to post to often but I want to say that just in the last few days here Sister Slade has really come out of her shell. She has been called on to read, to make comments and inter act with everyone, and pray out loud! Truly amazing. I hope we can learn what we need, I don't need to know it all just what I need, the rest will come. Loving the mission, keep the faith. Love to all,

One I forgot is the St. George temple,

At the Atlanta, GA. ERC (employment resource center)

Top is Brother Blount, he is the ERC director in Atlanta and we report to him on employment issues

Bottom is Elder and Sister Shelley, they are the couple missionaries who serve in the Atlanta ERC. They have been a great help to us in our training.

This is the Atlanta temple, since we don't have a temple in our mission we attended the Atlanta temple while we were here. It looks like all temples we have seen since we left Utah are about the same type and size.

This is a picture of our break out group with our morning instructor, he was from the Charlotte area. He thought it was great we were serving in his home town. Great couples serving in varied areas.

First off lets get the dates straight today is Sunday August 3rd. We attended the Sharon ward, this was the ward assigned to us by President Craven. It is about a 35 min drive to get to get there. It is in a very nice neighborhood. Seems like a wonderful ward, nice people and so excited to have a senior couple serving in their ward. Today was fast Sunday and I'll tell you it went late, everybody wanted to bare their testimonies and they were great testimonies. I was going to get up, but I wasn't fast enough. After the block we had a "break the fast" which was nice because it gave us a chance to meet a lot of folks. They are so nice and excited for us.

This is the Provo City Center temple under construction, used to be the Provo tabernacle.  We saw several temples along the way I'll post others also

This one is the Denver temple, Patty, Rex and Rhonda Griffin at the Denver temple

Ok is it me or do I have my days/ dates mixed up, I'll sort it out later.

Well, it's Friday August 2nd and today we just got the internet hooked up so this is my first post since leaving the MTC. We arrived in Charlotte at about 9 pm on Wednesday the 31st. We were in Castle Rock (Denver area) on Saturday and Sunday. We attended church with Rex and Rhonda Griffin, good friends from years ago. Sunday after church Rex drove us to the Denver temple (pictures later). We all had a great time rehashing old memories. Thanks Rex and Rhonda. Leaving Castle Rock we headed for Kansas City MO. We stayed the night there and found the KC temple. Next we headed for Nashville TN. actually we stayed in Franklin where the "Nashville" temple is, I checked on the temples and they are all the same size, fairly small. At least they have a temple to call theirs. On Wednesday morning we attended the Nashville temple we had our choice of either the 10 am or the 11:30 am session, that's it for the day. We attended the 10 am session then left for Charlotte after lunch of course. I have to say the entire trip out of the MTC has been beautiful. As you would expect the further East we went the greener it got, with that comes humidity. St. Louis was a nightmare getting through, because they were doing road work everywhere, GPS was lost, not me, but don't ask Sister Slade it's a touchy subject. Anyway we finally made it to Charlotte and met with Elder and Sister Urban, they are the facility couple. They are great, they set up our apt. Waited up for us and got us started. They did such a nice job setting up everything. Oh and I finally made it to the mission office, Sister Slade was still busy putting up everything, so I drove to the office, met President and Sister Craven and Elder and Sister Hunt ( they are the office couple). Found our office, which no one has been in since before January, it was deserted. So tomorrow we will both meet with President Craven and most likely get our assignment to which ward he wants us to attend and any extra responsibilities we wants us to have. Well, that's quite a bit so I'll end here any carry on tomorrow or whenever. Keep the faith,