GOING AT A FASTER PACE AT THE ERC—2014

 

 

So many things have been happening since my last post that I haven't had time to write--too busy working and learning.  The time between Christmas and New Year's was almost dead time, and very few people came in.  I was able to register a lovely non-member, Tasha, and also, an electrical engineer, Jeff, who will probably do best through professional networking.  Then, on Jan 3, I registered a lovely Korean young lady, Helen, which seemed to make all the unbusy time more worthwhile.  She, like most of the candidates I have registered, signed up to take the career workshop the next week, and this is the first time I was able to teach this!  It was very exciting, exhausting, and completely involving and I loved it!  We always "team" teach these classes, and I was fortunate to be paired with Sister Splain, who is the most experienced (and best) teacher, and we worked together to set up the class schedule.  She entrusted me with most of the teaching for the first day, while she did more of the second day (which involved technical assistance).  I prepared the best I could--I was really concerned about doing it well, since lives and futures were on the line--and then I prayed very hard for His help.  He never lets me down!!  I felt the Spirit prompt me to really pay attention and emphasize the scriptures we use during the course, and I even wrote them down in big print to go over them in class.   Because of the condensed amount of time we have, although the scriptures are usually read, they are seldom discussed.  I actually spent a few minutes talking about the relevance they had and felt the Spirit as I taught. I felt the spirit in the whole class became much greater, and I was amazed that the members of this class seemed to understand the concepts I taught later much better that I had seen in other classes. I really loved the teaching although I was a bit nervous before I started. I prayed very hard to teach with the Spirit and I felt that Heavenly Father answered my prayers. I have helped so many new people, members and non-members register on the website and learn about our website, and I have talked about the Church with most of the humble non-members if I felt the Spirit witness that I could. There were two really special men, one older and one younger, who seemed to be so receptive, as well as a young married couple from Laos, so I referred them to the missionaries. I asked them if they "would be willing" to learn more about this great Church which provides so much help to people all over the world in the Lord's way. One of the men, Keith, the younger one, was really enthusiastic about the Church and wanted to join just from my descriptions!! He committed to baptism at the first discussion, which I was invited to come to, and the baptism was scheduled for Feb 1. I was so excited for him, as we had become friends when I wrote two resumes for him and learned about his very difficult life. The first thing he did after attending Church the first week was shave off his "dreds" (dreadlocks). He is such a special spirit and I felt the Spirit witness to me that he could be one of the great "protectors" of our people in the last days. He was an all-American football player for 7 years, a champion amateur boxer (with 42 wins, no losses, and 40 knock-outs!!), a cook, a coach, worked in a funeral home, and had as his greatest desire, helping and caring for others!! I also fell in love with some of the humble students in my classes (I have now been able to teach two workshops since I began writing this!). Teaching the classes is really exhausting and no "breaks," but rewarding. One precious young Korean-born lady, Helen, was such a loving Spirit and really brightened my day when I first registered her and throughout the career workshop. I still have so much to learn, but am doing the best I can. We are now working 9 hours (8AM to 5PM). Before the beginning of the year, we usually tried to be there by 8:15 for our spiritual thought, but the ERC opened at 9AM and closed at 4:30PM. This doesn't sound like a huge change, but we are all really feeling the extra hours and are more tired, especially since we seldom actually have lunch "breaks", but just grab a mouthful of food when it is quieter (if it gets quieter). But I much prefer it when we are busy, as I am still struggling with feeling comfortable with those with whom I work—would rather "lose" myself in the work with our candidates than feel the dislike/disdain of some of the others I work with. However, because of the long hours, when we aren't too busy, we are encouraged to take ½ hour breaks for “lunch.” This has given me the opportunity to drive to a very nearby park with real grass and walk for about 20 min!! This is a great blessing to me when I can do it. Of course, I often have candidates who need help, especially with their resumes that go over my break time. I don't know how many resumes I have helped with, but it is quite a few (maybe 20) so far!! I don't believe in doing it for them, which some of the others do, but take time to let them help plan, write, and even format (if they have the computer skills) their resumes, and I just offer suggestions and help with wording, placement and formating. I've gotten much better, and understand the importance of having separate resumes for each job application, if they are different jobs or in different fields.