Which is harder: Tagalog vs. ASL

ASL is my 3rd language. I grew up speaking English, plus a little French in High School and College - but not really enough to count it as a second language. Then I moved to the Philippines as a missionary and learned Tagalog (and I learned it very well, if I may say so myself!) Tagalog is really pretty much on the opposite side of the world - and the language spectrum - from English and French, but I really love everything about it! And now, I'm learning language #3, which proves that the language spectrum is 3-D, because ASL is completely different from English AND Tagalog. Here are some things that are better about learning each language. You can judge which wins the smackdown!

If you don't know a word...

ASL: you just fingerspell it. It's amazing.

Tagalog: you use a handy ambiguous word like "Kuwan" or "Ano" - Like, "Please pass the kuwan" while pointing your lips at the butter. Or, "Will you please...y'know....ano." Usually they get it from context, and sometimes they don't even guess that you don't know what you're talking about. They think you've just forgotten the word for a minute! Ha!

Grammar....

Tagalog: Easy peasy. Verb, then actor, object and location. Same word order, every time.

ASL: You draw an image with your hands, starting from the big picture, narrowing in to details...

Pronunciation...

Tagalog: phonetic.

ASL: making the same motion one, two or three times can mean three different things...or not. But people usually get what you're trying to say, anyway.

Conjugation...

Tagalog: none. You do use different prefixes/suffixes on verbs to indicate tense.

ASL: also none. There's not even any tense. (I have mixed feeling on whether that adds or takes away points...) In fact, half the time I can't even tell the difference between a verb and a noun...

The King's ASL

Whenever you see a conversation about the "right" way to sign something, the answer is consistent: the way your teacher showed you. There are a lot of regional variations in ASL, and different people have (sometimes) strong preferences. But the one who gives you the grade is the one who wins!

Sometimes the variations aren't so regional. For example, last week our 3-yr old daughter (as of last week! Happy Birthday, Martha!) came home from Nursery telling us how to be reverent for the prayer. She signed "reverent" with "r" hands moving out from her forehead, like the sign for "honor".

So armed with my new sign (yes, I learn signs from toddlers. I mean, she got it from a grown-up.) I told a kid who was talking during the prayer to be reverent. The other Primary teacher in the room corrected my sign - she uses "r" hands doing the sign for "quiet".

Why is ASL like this? I'm sure there's an official answer out there from a credentialed scholar. But this is my blog, so here's MY opinion! :) I think it's just because ASL is a really young language. It's still settling into its official grammar and "pronunciation" rules.

People correct me all the time on my signing. I'll change my sign, and the next week someone will correct me back the other way. It's ok, just be happy for feedback, then choose your source of wisdom according to your best judgement.

In my case, I'll do the "quiet" version of reverent, because us Primary teachers have gotta stick together!

Why am I writing this?

I put this blog on a real blog this week. I've been writing for a few months without sharing it with anyone, but I decided to share this week. And I've thought a lot about why I want to share this with the world.

Most of all, I want my hearing friends to learn along with me. I want them to be comfortable meeting a deaf person because they've read my experiences.

I hope people will have their faith lifted as they see the blessings and miracles in our lives. I hope people will resolve to serve the Lord in whatever circumstances because of the tough things we push through. This calling is a great opportunity and adventure for our family, but there's also an element of sacrifice. I write to remind myself that the Kingdom of God is worth sacrificing for.

And, I write because I want to tell people stories, but nobody wants me to call and talk their ear off all day. Because there are just so many experiences.

Things I heard this week

Here are some things I heard this week that most other people didn't...

• A kid saying, "**%& it" several times during Primary before he knew a hearing adult was in the room.
• Someone watching "Signing Time" during Sacrament meeting with the sound on. And I'm sure their kid loved it, and it made it so they could stay and worship, and there were only maybe 4 adults that could even hear it, anyway. So good for them for staying.

Ha ha! Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Because teenaged boys are weird.

This is totally not ASL related. Just in case you're looking for the connection while you're reading....

Lige (13) does Boy Scouts with our Branch troop, which meets combined with his old troop, because there aren't any deaf boys in the troop right now, so it makes a lot of sense to have the two small-ish troops meet together. The last few weeks I've been teaching the Cooking merit badge.

For Christmas, my mom gave me a freeze dryer. Yes, seriously, my very own home freeze dryer. It's shockingly fun. Besides the copious amounts of snack food we make, one of the best things about it is freeze drying meals, then just adding water when you want to eat it! I mean, buying freeze dried meals for backpacking is pricey. But we can make our own now! Woot, woot!!

So the boys need to go hiking and backpacking and cook 2 meals (plus a snack) on the trail. I thought it would be awesome to cook one of the meals in advance, then freeze dry it for the boys, so they can have something amazing to eat. I researched good trail foods - you want something hearty, since they'll be burning calories. And it has to be easy to cook, because they're teenagers. And it needs to be easy to reconstitute.

I got to Scouts and put my list of ideas up on the board. "Anything else you guys want to put on the list?" A voice in the back, in good brainstorming fashion, says, "Maybe chicken noodle soup?" And then nobody else adds anything else. Then I ask if there's anything on the list that anyone just hated and would starve if we took it. One by one, everything on the list was crossed of, until only chicken noodle soup was left.

I get a chuckle out of the idea that we're making chicken noodle soup for a hearty backpacking meal. But hey, they have to cook 2 meals and a snack, and they're only hiking like 10 miles, so I'm sure nobody will starve.

A few random things from this week

1. I have a bruise on my palm where I poked it hard with a finger during Primary while teaching a song. Weird.
2. Not one but TWO of my kids closed a prayer this week by saying, "With the name of Jesus Christ" instead of the traditional "In the name..." ASL uses "with" instead of "in" because if you think about it, "in" is a strange word to use. 
3. I went to the park with a friend on Thursday. It was 75*F and sunny - it's the sort of day that makes me not hate living here! (As opposed to hot and muggy summer days, which do make me hate living here. But these pleasant winter days redeem the area in the court of public opinion. At least for the next 6 months...) When my friend arrived, I yelled to Sam, "Hey, Sam, say hi to our friends!" Sam looked shy and hid. I apologetically signed, "Sam likes to hide..." Then I realized that I might have just signed, "Sam likes turtles" instead...and my brain is trying to remember the difference between the two signs. My friend signs back, "Yes, he's hiding" (or was that, "Yes, he's a turtle??") and I look up and see that he's wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sweatshirt - he IS a turtle! He's a turtle, and he's hiding! So it doesn't matter which one I signed! Ha ha! I'm saved! It was a pleasant feeling.
4. Jane, my 9-month old, is starting to copy everything we do. Vocally, she can produce a scream that accurately imitates her 2-year old sister. Oh joy. But she's got more skills with her hands, and she totally signed "more" at dinner the other day. It was so cute! I'm noticing that if she's not hungry, she generally won't go to the effort of copying me, she'll just squawk to get out, so we seem to be actually communicating here. Which is really amazing to me.
5. Lige (13) led the music today in Sacrament meeting for the first time. He did wonderfully! But he/we were nervous leading up to it because he has a habit of making a funny face when he's concentrating (with his tongue half sticking out the side of his mouth), and he kept forgetting to keep his face calm. He practiced and practiced all week. Last night at dinner, Marriner asked Lige if he was ready, and Lige said he was a little nervous. Marriner consoled him, "You will be just fine. And if not, it will be really funny, and that would be fine, too." Give that man the Dad of the Year award! :)

Video Phone

Here's the question you've all been asking (right?): How do you call a deaf person? Here are the options.

1. Don't call, just email or text.
2. Call using VRS (Video Relay Service). When you call their number, it connects you to an interpreter. The interpreter calls the person's VP (Video Phone) and facilitates the conversation. It's a little clunky sometimes, because the interpreters aren't usually familiar with church vocabulary, alas.
3. Call using a VP. VP was invented back before the internet, and only deaf people could get one because the system was tax subsidized and they didn't want waste and abuse. Now-a-days, we can all video chat, but the system has been a little slow to adapt. One VP company made an app for android and apple that can call a VP directly. Otherwise, you sorta have to be deaf to call another deaf person's VP.

A lot of people in the branch are traditional VP users. (Don't you roll your eyes, we still have a landline and don't think we're stuck in the past. They're useful!) But we have an OS problem - we run Linux at home, have Chromebooks and Kindles, and the VP app doesn't work for us. Well, not true, our Linux computer has a dual boot, and we can switch to Windows to make phone calls. It usually takes 5 minutes to switch, so we have to plan ahead :) Or, Marriner can drive to the church and use the VP there. 

All of this is just to give you the background to appreciate our story from a few weeks ago. The other funny thing about VP is that the other person can see you. Marriner came upstairs from making a phone call the other night and grumbled, "You know, I know one way Mike (our brother-in-law who was called as a bishop the same time as Marriner became a branch president) has it better than I do - he doesn't have to put on a white shirt every time he makes a phone call!"

Being an interpreter

The thing is that I'm not an interpreter, I'm barely a conversation partner. But when someone deaf needs help communicating with a hearing person, I guess ya take what you can get. Personally, I think it would be easier to use pen and paper than try to talk through me. Nevertheless, a couple times this week I found myself interpreting. One was just interpreting a quick Q&A conversation at Scouts. That was hard because the vocab was more than I knew. But it was easy because I wasn't involved in the conversation, I was just the middle person.

The other time I found myself interpreting was when my friend in the Stake Primary presidency visited our Primary. After Primary was over, she came up and wanted to tell our presidency how much she enjoyed visiting and what a great Primary we have. And I suddenly realized that it was my responsibility to facilitate that conversation.

I actually have experience as an interpreter for English-Tagalog. That works a little differently because each party has to say something, then wait as it's interpreted. In ASL, you can interpret simultaneously pretty easily, so it almost feels like you're having a natural conversation. Except that the deaf person can't look at the person talking to them, they have to look at the interpreter. People always talk a little weird because of it. Maybe if I was more comfortable being turned to as an interpreter, I would just jump in with a little introduction about just talking normally, like the interpreter isn't even there. And then people would feel less uncertain about how to talk to a deaf person, and life would be easier. Of course, having a competent interpreter would make life WAAAAAYYYY easier :) I didn't really think of this when I started learning ASL. I just thought it would be nice to be able to tell my kids to sit down and behave during church without bothering people. Then I thought it would be nice to be able to make new friends. Now I realize that I also want my new friends and old friends to be able to talk, and that is my burden and blessing to facilitate. I can't avoid it because I'm not good enough. But I do want to learn how to help people feel comfortable talking.

Dominant hand

In ASL, it doesn't matter if you're right or left handed, you can do things with either hand. Because I'm left handed, I do things in a mirror image of the person I'm imitating. Very convenient.

Lige was called as one of our Sacrament meeting song leaders, and his first time song-leading is next week. This evening, he was practicing his songs, and he asked me to be "the congregation" for him. Lige is also left handed.

It was HORRIBLE! I don't know how to follow someone else in non-mirroring mode! I was signing all sorts of weird stuff :)

We'll see if everyone else thinks it's weird, too...or if they just enjoy getting to mirror the leader.

Karma

Remember a few weeks ago when I complained about having to carry my kids and all my junk 2 whole blocks to the church? The universe taught me a lesson this week.

I forgot all my church stuff this week.

Carrying stuff is hard, but not having it is worse :)

Luckily, Martha is in a phase of putting random things in bags and carrying them around with her. She had a bag with a Book of Mormon and a Children's songbook, plus a few baby toys. We made it through Sacrament meeting.

(Actually, most of Sacrament meeting was better with less stuff. I was thinking, "Maybe we should cut back on the entertainment for little kids." Then right at the end, Sam got bored and was making paper airplanes out of the programs and trying to fly them around the chapel. So maybe I can cut back, but I probably still need some things to do in case of boredom. Because bored kids are a little difficult.)

Getting into the scriptures

Feb 5, 2018

Yesterday at church was a rough day. Lugging my family and bags through the freezing rain, tired and grumpy kids (mine and the ones in Primary), a general feeling of panic that everything wasn't going to work out, ya know. But there was one great little part of the day I want to write about. 

For Sharing time, we were teaching about the creation of the world. The plan suggested to have the kids break into 6 groups, read the scripture of what happened on each of the days, then draw a picture of it on the black board. One of the things that bothers me with ASL is that you don't seem to get the same relationship with the scriptures as you do in English. Most of the time, it's too hard to show a video of a scripture, so people just translate it on the fly. But when you do that, you don't get that relationship of seeing the same scripture over and over again. It's that feeling of meeting a friend that you know and love well. But technology is advancing, and I've wanted to use the scriptures more in my lessons, so I pondered how to adapt this lesson for the branch.

I decided to use the ASL Bible and have the kids watch the scriptures, then see if they could figure out what was created each day. I think it's pretty similar to reading the scriptures in English - the language is deeper and more difficult to understand than normal conversation, so it takes some getting used to, at least for kids. I used the Jehovah's Witness's translation of the bible, which has links to each verse so you can look at the exact verse you want. That's lovely. In contrast, the Book of Mormon is only indexed by chapter, so you have to guess how far the verse you want is. Blech.

For Senior Primary, we did the whole thing in ASL. We "read" scriptures in ASL, discussed what they meant in ASL, and it was amazing. The kids did great! My tablet is a little small, so we had to turn off the lights, pull the curtains and crowd around the screen...but everyone could see, and I loved seeing even my tough nuts mostly engaged!

The funniest part of the day was when one of the boys drew what was created on Day 6: A dinosaur to represent the "beasts" and a person. The rest of the lesson, when we talked about Day 6, it was "Dinosaurs and People." And yeah, I totally knew the sign for dinosaur already, because I'm awesome :)

Pioneer children sang as they walked...

Jan 30, 2018

While our previous ward's building was located in a somewhat industrial area of suburban Maryland, we now go to the Capitol Hill building, so named because....it's in Eastern Market :) Which is right next to Capitol Hill. It's a GORGEOUS new building, built in the spot of an old church that had been put into a gutted Safeway. It's an adorable urban spot, with lots of people walking, high density housing, chic restaurants, etc. 

Alas, the parking isn't easy. There is a 20-spot parking garage below the church, but most of those spots are taken by people in the ward that meets before us. They're not being selfish, only people who can't walk park below. There's just not enough room for everyone. So we park on the street.

I'd like to say (very humbly) that I've always been good at parallel parking. (Well, not when I flunked my drivers test the first time, but you know....) So that part doesn't bug me. I do wish I wasn't driving a hulking minivan. Man, if I had my Mazda5 back, I'd park like a boss. 

The only really annoying part is that I'm always bringing about 20 tons of junk to church. This week, I had my diaper bag, my "quiet things to do during Sacrament meeting" bag, my bag of all my books and manuals and lesson plans, a poster showing how to play "I am a Child of God" on hand bells, the bag of hand bells, all the kids' scriptures and the baby. Everyone has 2 hands full of stuff. 

We were lucky this week, and got a spot only 2 blocks away. I think 4 is our maximum so far. I don't mind the walk, but oh, the stuff!

Maybe we should bring our wagon to church...

One point for Sister Merrill!

Jan 29, 2018

In the constant battle to get kids to pay attention, I scored!

And I don't even feel bad that it involved sugar.

It was only a little bit....

I made little meringues this week. If you've never had them, one of the kids descirbed it well - they're like icing baked into solid form. But I made them little Hershey kiss-size. I got up, we sang a song, and I rewarded everyone who was participating with a meringue. And suddenly everyone was interested in participating! 

And, as prophesied (to myself, if not to everyone else...) as soon as they were all participating, we had a lot of fun. We found out that everyone has the first verse of "I am a Child of God" memorized in both languages well. We celebrated by playing it on the hand bells my sister gave us for Christmas. Then we had time to learn the 2nd verse. And we got out the hand bells again just for fun. Everyone was happy and smiling, we were happy to be singing and snacking together, and it was a great time.

We'll see next week if they've decided I'm cool now or not...crossing fingers!!

New Beginnings

Jan 29, 2018

I have an 11-yr old daughter, which means that pretty soon, she'll graduate from Primary (or Junior Sunday School) and enter the youth program, known eloquently as "Young Women". Yesterday the YW had a start of the year program and did a big welcome for all the girls coming in during the year. That is, just Ellis. Hey, guys, we're a branch, of course there's only one girl! But being in a branch isn't always bad...because when there's only 1 new girl, you can welcome her in STYLE!

First they did a little spotlight on her and introduced her to everyone, then they gave her a fancy glittery box of truffles and a chocolate rose. Later they gave everyone a box of M&Ms and a Snapple that had the labels changed to match the theme for the year. Let's just say she was popular when she came home!

The other girls in the YW program opened their arms up wide and made Ellis feel like her birthday was the most looked-forward-to event of the year. If being in the branch will make my daughter like these other girls, then being here is one of the best blessings I could hope for!

Sometimes I feel like a fish out of water

January 25, 2018

We had Activity Days last night, which is an activity for 8-11 yr old kids. We're doing it once a month instead of the twice a month my kids are used to, just because of travel time. We did an activity to pass of a requirement in the Faith in God program. We read D&C 89, discussed the blessings of the Word of Wisdom, then planned an activity to teach about the WofW to the other kids in Primary. 

I think this would have been an awesomely successful activity in English. I'm really good at teaching older kids in English. When we got done with the activity last night, I sat in my car feeling a little drained. I realized that I'm not actually very good at teaching kids in ASL. I'm not even going to list the reasons why not, there are a lot of them. And talking to grown-ups is still stressful. 

I know, unrealistic expectations. What, I'm not amazing and perfectly fluent after 3 months?!?!?

But still, being realistic doesn't make it FUN to not be very good at your life yet.

I have to keep going. I can't hide or only talk to other English speakers or stay where I am. I have to make myself get better. 

Stake Conference

January 21, 2018

This week was Stake Conference, which meant two big things for me:

1. I didn't have to prepare anything for Primary! Woohoo, week off!
2. We got to see all of our old Capitol Ward friends!

Our stake broadcasts to every building, so most everyone just goes to church like normal. But there are some conveniences of having the ASL branch meet at the Stake Center, which is also the building where the Capitol Ward meets. It makes for a weird combination of going to church the old way and the new way, both at the same time :)

Confession: In some ways, I really loved the week off. It was nice to not have any lessons to prepare, and honestly, it was nice to have a relaxing week of listening and talking, and not thinking really hard to communicate.

Best part of the week: Talking to friends I haven't seen in 3 months. So fun to catch up with people. Some of our old friends got new calling, advanced in the priesthood, said prayers or gave testimonies, and it was wonderful to feel the glow of their faith. Seeing old friends is good for the mental health! Which is funny, because they weren't "old friends" a couple months ago :)

Hardest part of the week: I have Deaf friends and hearing friends. None of them know each other. I want them to all be friends. These are all people who have had a great influence on my life. I tell stories about things I learned from them all the time. I wish they could all get to know each other. But there is such a language wall, and I don't sign well enough to bridge the wall. It just becomes awkward, and I wish I knew more, and had more ability to make everything more inclusive. Not just language ability, but social skills, too. 

A pattern I've observed: When I run into a friend from the Capitol ward, they always say, "Hey! How are things going?" and then there's sort of a pause, a look that says, "No really, how are things going? Are you guys doing ok? Are you able to handle this really big request from the Lord?" I don't really have a great response, I usually say, "Yeah, we're doing great, having a lot of fun." I hope that is sufficient to let them know that the calling really wasn't a horrible thing to do to our family. Because the long answer is just way more than they have time for. I mean, I could write a whole blog about the experiences and adventures we're having...

Oh yeah, I am writing a whole blog about it :)

In which I'm actually smarter than I look...

Jan 21, 2018

A friend asked me how many kids I have.

In ASL, you hold up your thumb and first two fingers for 3, and your middle three fingers is 6. So the sign for 6 is the way most English speakers would do 3.

So I hold up my middle 3 fingers, because I have 6 kids.

But you know, 6 is such a crazy number for me to hold up, and I'm pretty new at ASL, so my friend is sure I must have meant 3.

"No, really, 6!"

"You mean 3?"

After about the 4th time, she finally believed me. Which is good, because I was afraid I'd have to call all my kids back from running down the hall and around the church to prove that I really have 6 kids :)

Teaching children

January 16, 2018

I decided to turn off my voice this week in Primary, except during singing time. I had a great conversation with another member of the Primary presidency last week and decided that it's harder, but it's important for the kids - both to learn ASL better and because their other teachers are deaf, so they need the consistency. 

It was harder. And discouraging.

I asked two kids to translate a sentence, and I was totally surprised, they couldn't do it very well! Like, asking me "how do you sign 'is'?" And finger spelling every. Single. Word. There were so many times when I just didn't think these kids understood anything. 

In senior Primary, I asked everyone to look at me so I could bear my testimony. I'd wave at one kid and tell him to look at me, then the next kid - and by the time I got that kid's attention, the other had wandered off again. In the end, I bore my testimony to 2 kids. I know nobody else paid attention because after I said, "If you can tell me what I just said about when I was in high school, you can help me choose the songs for singing time." Two kids raised their hands and the other 3 said, "What? When did you talk about high school? That's not fair!" 

The next night, we did a sign language Family Home Evening. It was the same. So hard to get people to look at the same time. So hard to keep people paying attention. Even to a topic you know they'd be interested in (in English). 

So here's the question: how do you teach someone in the language they'd rather not communicate in, when they know very well that you could switch if you wanted to? 

I've been thinking about how helping the learn and understand ASL in some formal ways could help - memorizing scriptures or reciting phrases. Marriner points out that being really interesting visually can help keep the attention. And finally, motivational incentives can build habits of paying attention. You know, rewards for answering questions and such. 

I'm thinking of making a sign to wear: "Sister Merrill is using ASL" on one side and "Sister Merrill can speak English" on the other to help differentiate between times when I can speak (singing time) and when it's voices off.

The long and short of it is that you can't make someone pay attention to you in ASL like you can when you're speaking. So you have to be more interesting. I think they'd think I'm interesting if they gave me a chance. Hopefully, I can convince them that I'm worth paying attention to!

My first Sacrament meeting talk!

January 16, 2018

I spoke in sacrament meeting this week! Woohoo! I was asked to talk about things I remember about President Monson, who passed away last week. Man, there was so much you could say. I didn't realize until I started looking back just how much I learned from him. When he first became prophet, I felt like he just told stories and didn't ever teach anything. I'm smarter now - I realize how much I learned from him through his stories, as well as through his catchy quotes. Keeping with his style, I talked about 3 things.

1. Never let a problem to be solve be more important than a person to be loved.
2. Read the Book of Mormon every day.
3. Go and find someone who is having a hard time and do something for them. - his birthday wish.

I didn't say much about each thing, it took a long time to figure out how to just explain each point and share a bit about why I chose it. My whole talk was 2 pages, large type. I was pretty worried about being really short and leaving the last speaker with gobs of time...but fortunately, the last speaker was someone who can pretty much do anything, so I knew things would be fine. Still, it's not so nice to leave the last person with half an hour to talk, right?

I didn't need to worry. I talk a lot more slowly in ASL, and I took 20 minutes. The branch president was about to kick me to get me to sit down. 

The stake president was visiting our branch - he called a new branch clerk - so we had translation again. It's so hard to just tune out and keep talking.I did better than last time, but there was one part that they just translated wrong, and I stopped and tried to figure out how to sign it better. I just couldn't figure it out. Finally, the translator got what I meant to say, and we moved on. 

I wasn't sure how to write my talk down, but I ended up writing it gloss-style, pretty much word-for-word. For example, "President Monson, he himself teach me lots."

The best part of the talk was when people laughed at the humorous part! I told about how I didn't understand much when we first came to the branch, but every week I would have a moment of clarity when I could understand and learn from Sacrament meeting, and what a blessing that was to me. And now it was their turn to experience that, because even if they can't understand everything I sigh, they can learn through the holy ghost, too! :)

Life is funnier with kids

Jan 16, 2018

I was signing with one of my kids. He or she will remain anonymous, for reasons which will become obvious. This person signed the word "if" which is a pinkie finger tapped under your eye. Then the finger just slid down and scratched the inside of his/her nose, then kept going with the next sign. It was like the equivalent of someone talking with their mouth full of food - something you can do without seeing. :)

Best. Day. Of. My. Life.

Jan 8, 2018

The day every mom looks forward to arrived earlier than expected. Usually, moms have to wait until their kids are adults. But I got it when she is only 11. You know what day I'm talking about: the day she admits that she's really glad you made her keep taking piano lessons! 

Ha ha! Ok, maybe not the single best day of my life...but maybe it is...

All those years that she was an absolute stinker about practicing the piano. Lessons were torture. They usually resulted in yelling, ultimatums and threats, because all less-drastic techniques were rejected. All the drama! A lesser mother would have given up. But I persevered! I sacrificed! I operated on faith that she didn't in fact hate the piano, and that she would enjoy it eventually.

And now we're here. She played "I am a Child of God" for me in Primary, so we could sing with the piano instead of recorded music. And it was awesome. And she LOVED it. She actually bore her testimony in our family testimony night about how glad she was that she'd kept going (ha! what she meant was, "that Mom forced me to keep going") because it was so useful now.

Told ya so. Tbbth.

Wearing many hats

Dec 31, 2017

Last summer, we visited a branch in Pennsylvania on our way home from a weekend trip. The Primary president made a side remark about how in a branch, you wear a lot of hats. I totally get that now :)

Our Primary president was gone today, which meant I was teaching the entire time in Primary - Sharing time and then singing time. We brought the Nursery kids in for singing time again, since we only had one leader in Primary and I didn't have any other time I could do singing time with the Nursery kids. 

There was only one person in the Youth Sunday School class today (that would be Lige) and so the teacher invited Ellis (who will join the class in September) to come in today so that Lige wouldn't be all alone.

So. Much. Adaptation. I keep thinking "after _____" things will settle down and be less hectic, but I'm realizing that there's no such thing in a branch. One person moves, one person is sick, one person goes on vacation, and we adapt to make it work. Because there just aren't very many people who can substitute! I mean, someone has to go to Relief Society...

So, blessed are the flexible. 

We're turning into night owls...

Dec 27, 2017

I want to know if anyone else has experienced this....

This calling is turning us into night owls.

There's just always a few more things to do, and then we just need some time to talk, and suddenly it's 11:30.

And it turns out that I'm a solid 8-hr-a-night person. Oh well, my kids can get themselves ready for school.

Here we come a-caroling

Dec 27, 2017

Every year, my family goes caroling. It started when I was a kid, we would sing to our neighbors and maybe a few close friends who lived nearby. When I got married, we sang to our neighbors and a few close friends, as well. Then we moved to Indiana, and our close friends weren't necessarily our neighbors...so we started driving around more. We wanted to sing to people we were serving in church. In Maryland, our ward (congregation) covered a pretty large area, and soon we were spending all of Christmas eve driving around singing to people. 

This year, we reached level "insane".

Our branch has huge boundaries, and some people drive a long ways. And we wanted to let them know that we understood what it's like to always have to drive a long ways. So, we drove to their houses.

We didn't make it all in one day. We didn't even get everyone we wanted to in 2 days. But here's where we drove:

Saturday, December 23rd

3 hours and 40 minutes of driving time - 131 miles. We left at 9:30am and got home at 8:30pm. Of course, we did stop for a party in Woodbridge in the middle.

Sunday, December 24th

5 hours of driving time, 224 miles. We left about 1:00, after church, and ended at a friend's house for dinner. We got home at 10:30pm. Because we were having a lot of fun.

Overall, we drove 360 miles caroling. We filled up the minivan at the beginning and the out-of-gas light came on as we were driving home from our last stop. I don't know if we want to do that much caroling again next year, but we actually had a lot of fun and made some people happy. So I think it was worth it.

A funny thing - when we first started caroling, people were sorta weirded out by this strange family singing to them. Now those people look forward to the tradition, but all the new people we added this year had that familiar, "what?" look on their face. I'm sure they'll get used to it. Or maybe it really was weird, because people don't go caroling in ASL so much...we're ok with being trendsetters :)

All is calm....sort of...

Dec 18, 2017

Christmas is (almost) here! Gallaudet is out and most of the students have gone home. Four of the 5 families with kids have left town for the holiday. There were about 25 people in Sacrament meeting this week. It was pretty quiet. Of course, it always is :) 

After Sacrament meeting, the Primary President said, "Your kids are the only kids here today!" We had been worried about having a nursery leader and a CTR teacher. But with only 1 family, we quickly decided to simplify. We brought Martha (who is almost 3) into Primary with us. She played in the corner with some toys most of the time, and participated some of the time. Jane crawled around and ate everything. Sam sat on his chair most of the time and tried to play with the toys some of the time. Ellis and Lillian waited mostly patiently while Sister S. and I tried to keep the chaos in check.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty chaotic in Primary, and I was looking forward to a smaller week to`maybe help things get it together better. Alas, it turns out that the chaos was caused mostly by a certain 4-yr old in my very own family. I don't think things were much better. BUT - that 4 yr old got a lot of one-on-one time, and that was really good for him. Sister S. turned off her lip-reading and vocalizing and we focused on helping Sam learn how to pay attention and use sign language. It's been a tough change for him. I think he thinks we're just making him use sign language because it's our educational project. I don't think he understands that people actually can't hear him. Add in that church is during nap time, and he's a little grumpy anyway, and no wonder he's balking a bit. I hope that a day of special attention helps him out a bit.

Meanwhile, Ellis is growing out of Primary, and admitted that it's getting a little boring. Probably because most of what I do during singing time is say "Look at me, everyone!"

Martha sat with Sister S. during Sacrament meeting and decided she's her favorite person. During sharing time, I took Martha and Jane for a walk to the Mother's room (Jane's snack) and the nursery room (Martha's snack) and we learned how to sign Sister S's name. It was pretty cute.

We're still having fun!

Nuggets

Dec 18, 2017

Here's something I've noticed the last few weeks...

Sacrament meeting is a little hard to pay attention to with little kids, and it's pretty common for moms to come up against the question, "Why do I even bother to come, since I don't even get anything out of it?" I confess, I've worried a bit about my spiritual health with this new calling. Sacrament meeting is hard enough to learn from in my native language, but heaven knows I need spiritual recharge every week! And now that I'm serving in Primary, I feel the need even more. A momma's gotta recharge her spiritual batteries sometimes!

So this week, I was moving my eyes back and forth from the speaker to some squirrelly kids. She was about 10 minutes into her talk, and I honestly hadn't identified the topic yet. Then I looked up and my kids were quiet for a moment, and I understood what she was signing long enough to get my spiritual nugget for the day.

Every week, I come home with something. I never go to church and come home with nothing.

----------

This was the nugget I got this week. It was powerful to me, maybe it will be good for you, too. It wasn't anything new, just something I hadn't thought of in quite that way before!

Imagine that your neighbor is having a hard time with lots of trials and difficulties. Who would walk over and say, "Hey, your life is tough, why don't you give all your trials and hard stuff to me. I'll take all of it." Of course, I'm thinking, my life is hard enough for me to deal with without any more problems, thank you very much. But of course, that is exactly what the Savior did. He took it all and left us with all the good things and happiness.

That message of the power of the Atonement was just what I needed.

Love letters

Dec 4, 2017

I remember when I was a kid sometimes doing a Primary activity to write thank you notes to the Bishop or surprise him with treats to thank him for his care and service. Honestly, it always seemed like the best part of being the bishop! Who wouldn't want to get love from all the kids?

Well, Marriner got his first love letter last night. For the Branch Christmas Party, Marriner gave everyone a Christmas letter in their stocking. He spent a ton of time on it, trying to make it look nice and be worth reading. In the end, he had that feeling you get when you put a lot of work into something and you're not sure it made a difference for anyone. You know the one I'm talking about. It needs a name. But the next day, he came home from church with a beautifully handwritten note from 10-yr old Lizzie. She really has very nice handwriting. And a very adorable writing style, I might add. If she had red hair, I might mistake her for Anne of Green Gables :) She thanked President Merrill for the beautiful letter he had given her, affirmed that it had changed her life, and invited him to write back at any time he wanted. She even included her address. (Because she doesn't know that he can look up ANYONE in the branch directory...ha ha!)

So, be like Lizzie, y'all. 

Away in a Manger

Dec 3, 2017

Last night was the branch Christmas party! The Primary was responsible for the Nativity play. Lige and Ellis were Joseph and Mary. (Lige was drafted into service because none of the boys in Primary wanted to be Joseph...) Sam was a Wise Man. Martha was married. Ha! She and another nursery girl ended up tagging along with the Wise Men, and didn't cause too much chaos.

The best part of the show by far was the real baby to play Baby Jesus. She's only 1 month old and has a definite "Middle Eastern" complexion. She was wrapped in a white blanket and for all the world could have been the Baby Jesus. After the speaking parts were over, parents spontaneously rushed the stage to take pictures. It was a picture perfect moment!

After the play, we sang "The Nativity Song" and then I led the entire audience in "Silent Night." Every time I looked up and saw everyone following little ole' me, I felt remarkably shy and looked back down. Eventually, I forced myself to look up and smile.

It was a really lovely few minutes, some quiet time with the Baby Jesus. Then my kids went crazy and I took them home. But it was fun while it lasted!

And now, I have to figure out what I'm going to sing in Primary today...oops.

Kiddles

November 26, 2017

Some kid funnies:

We are getting ready for the branch Christmas party, and the kids are doing a Nativity play! Ellis is Mary, Lillian is an angel, and Sam (4) is a Wise Man. Only, he wanted to be a shepherd. So...

Mom: You can be a Wise Man at church, then you can be a shepherd when we do it at home!

Sam, nodding that he likes this idea: Yeah, first I'll be a wise man. Then the next time, I'll be the foolish man. Then I can be a shepherd...

(Now you have a song in your head, don't you?)

Sam, talking to Martha: Martha! I get to be the Foolish Man in the Nativity!

(Still confused...)

Martha (2), upon hearing that Ellis gets to be Mary: I want to be married!

Martha, later on with her baby doll in her sling, walking around like Mom: Now I have my baby, and I can go to the temple and be married.

Martha, every 5 minutes the rest of the morning: I'm going to be married!

Sure, Martha, whatever...

And, one last funny...

Sam: My favorite animal is...(shows a made up sign). That's a rock jumping on the couch.

Humility and Gratitude

November 25, 2017

Our branch Christmas party is next week, and I'm in charge of the children's song for the Nativity. We're singing, "The Nativity Song" which has 5 verses and isn't already available in ASL. Dang it.

I knew that I wasn't really the best person to translate the song, but when I asked the branch Facebook group if anyone had time to help me, nobody responded. So, I decided to give it my best effort and then ask someone to correct it. Alas, the person I asked to correct it just scrapped my translation and started all over again. When we got done, I couldn't help but notice that her translation wasn't THAT different from mine. A little pride crept in and wondered what was so bad about my translation, anyway, to make it worth completely re-doing. Mine was a lot simpler, easier for the kids (and me) to learn on short notice. 

Then I remembered that my first resolution upon joining the branch was to have an attitude of absolute humility and willingness to learn. So I checked the pride and suddenly the understanding started to come. Sure, my version was easier, but it wasn't as nice. And most of the people there were experiencing the song only by the signing, so I guess having a really nice translation for them makes a lot of sense. 

I noticed that as soon as I chose humility, I started learning things. Next time I translate, it will be better because I will make sure it has details. 

I also noticed that when I chose humility, I felt great gratitude to the person who didn't just say, "Oh, that's good enough" but took the time to help me make it a little better. I think gratitude is a natural outgrowth of humility. Really, taking time to teach someone is one of the best gifts, and humility is the method of receiving the gift!

So, tomorrow I get to teach the improved version of the song. Wish me and the kids luck! But really, with such supportive people around us, it can't be that bad. :)

In which I am put to work...

November 21, 2017

I got a calling this week! I am going to be serving in the Primary (Junior Sunday School) presidency. Since our whole Primary is the 3 people in the presidency, 1 teacher and 2 nursery leaders, there's nothing very glamorous about being in the presidency. Here is what I do:

• Teach singing time each week. Of the 6 adults in Primary, they picked the hearing one to teach singing. :)  
• Substitute for nursery or junior primary when their teachers have to work on Sunday
• We're going to start Activity days, an extracurricular activity for the older kids. 

Oh, and I'm assigned to bring a star for the Nativity at the branch Christmas party. Can't forget to bring that!

We had a Primary presidency meeting today to get me oriented and make plans for the next year. At the end of the meeting, the president asked if I was ok. I had a concerned look on my face. It was actually the "I have been concentrating really hard to understand you for 2 hours and my brain is about to explode" face, but my language abilities were declining by that point and I'm not sure I explained that really well...

I'm really excited to serve in Primary. I'm excited to get to be with my kids, I'm excited to be teaching singing again, and I'm excited to get to serve with the other sisters in the presidency, both of whom are among my first friends. I'm sad that I don't get to go to Sunday School and Relief Society, since I was learning a lot there. I'm scared of teaching singing time in English and ASL...maybe I need to do some innovative thinking about how to do this. Or I just need to get better at singing and signing at the same time. I mean, the words are almost the same, how hard can it be? Ha ha...

Chit chat

November 14, 2017

I've heard a lot of women mention that being the wife of the bishop or branch president is socially difficult. They've felt a little isolated because of their perceived connection to the man in charge. It makes sense - nobody wants to look like a brown-noser, so they just avoid the appearance of social indiscretion. 

I am happy to report that I have absolutely no problems along these lines right now.

My identity as wife of the branch president is completely overwhelmed by my identity as the girl who doesn't sign very well, the woman chasing around those 6 kids, the person who doesn't have a calling right now and is available to substitute for someone who is gone, and the new person.

I'm ok with that. In fact, I'm not even sure that everyone has connected me to my husband yet. Heaven knows we haven't actually been seen together :)

Saturday was a Relief Society craft day. Side note: crafting and speaking ASL is a slow process. Ha! ANYWAY, I talked to one older lady who did the nicest thing anyone could ever do to a person like me: she asked me if I was deaf or not. Yes, friends, my ASL is not beautiful, but I don't sign like a 1st year student anymore, anyway. If there was such a things as mental sweat, she would have seen how hard I was working to try to sound coherent!

I took Ellis with me to craft day. She had a lot of fun hanging out with old people and making Christmas bling. She didn't do really well at the ASL. I realized that I've put in a lot of effort over the last month to improve my ASL, and it's helped me a lot. But my kids haven't. They've done some things, but at the end of the day, the amount of effort you put into something is what you're going to get out. I can't share some of my understanding with her. She has to work for that herself. It was a metaphor-for-life moment. I can help my kids learn a lot of things, but they have to be willing to put in the effort to get the things that matter most. I hope my kids will decide to put in the effort.

A funny story: when I got to the Relief Society activity, everyone seemed to know it was my birthday. I was so impressed at how many people must have seen it on Facebook and remembered. Man, the branch is so friendly. Then, one person said something about my back that was totally out of context and didn't make any sense...and finally I figured it out, he was pointing out a paper stuck to my back (in Marriner's handwriting) that said, "It's my birthday today!" It had stayed on for about 45 minutes before someone spilled the beans. Ellis just about died laughing. I took it off and stuck it in my pocket, but Ellis kept sneaking it out of my pocket and putting it back on my back. Finally, I had to rip it up to stay safe!

I'm starting to get it!

November 6, 2017

Dear Non-existent readers (because I haven't yet told anyone I'm writing these posts...)

I'm starting to get it! I'm starting to get it! I just watched a 3-minute spiritual message that I've watched before, and read the text of (in other words, something super-easy, but it has still been super-hard for me), and for some reason, I just understood it. This, my friends, has to be a gift of the Spirit, and I'm just so excited that I had to tell someone. Even if it's my imaginary friend on the internet!

That's all. Thanks.

The Bermuda Triangle

November 6, 2017

Let me start off with an expression of not-love for Daylight Savings Time. It ended on Sunday. I told my kids they had to stay in bed until at least 6 (which was formerly 7) am, and they were all up at exactly 6. They're not really good sleeper-inners. It was Fast Sunday, which means anyone old enough to do so (and not nursing a baby) was not eating breakfast. Which meant at 6am, I had 6 kids with nothing to do! And guess what - church doesn't start now until 1pm!

We used to wake up, eat, give anyone who needed a bath/shower still one, get dressed and head to church. Not much play time. We literally had no idea what to do with ourselves. 

Everyone eventually figured something out - some kids just played with toys, some did some exploring of family history, some just took their good sweet time bathing and getting dressed :) We made some green bean casserole for the potluck after church. We had a long discussion about how to help ourselves focus and learn when you don't understand a lot of what people are talking about. My sister in England got home from church and we video chatted with her a bit. That was remarkably awesome.

We left for church early because we didn't know how hard it would be to find parking, but we got a spot in the parking garage. That was good because I'd forgotten to feed my baby :) So we didn't get to Sacrament meeting too early. But when we did come in, I found out that the sound system wasn't working. (Why would this matter in an ASL branch??) They use pre-recorded hymns for the music, since nobody could play the piano/organ before. So I got asked to play the organ, which I was excited to do, though at the expense of nobody sitting with my kids...again. Jane found "Grandma S." pretty quick. Even though we'd talked about behavior before church, 1:00 is a difficult time for a 2 or 4 year old kid to implement the principles discussed, and Sam and Martha were pretty horrible. And Jane was crying her exhausted cry, too. But I didn't want to put her to sleep, because I'm not sure I can play the organ with a baby strapped to me!

I didn't need to worry about the awkwardness of a baby strapped to me, I managed to have plenty of bloopers all on my own :) I didn't get any chance to preview the organ, so I just picked a random pre-set, which honestly had a little bit of a weird sound. I played way too quietly at first, then way too loud. And during the Sacrament hymn, I hit a wrong control and turned on a bunch of extra sounds instead of just increasing the volume. It startled everyone! So I quickly turned it off, and then it was too quiet again...I tried to switch to the right pedal and got the same wrong one again...then off again...then FINALLY hit the right one. Whose idea was it do put all this stuff at foot level, anyway??? 

So, it was a long morning, my younger kids were sleepy messed-up maniacs, and I scared everyone with the organ. Fortunately, the day got better from there :) But it was definitely a crazy way to start life in the branch!

Keeping it Honest

November 6, 2017

Yesterday was our first *real* day in the branch. All the ceremony and dignitaries were gone. It was...a lot quieter :) We're all still feeling each other out - I'm trying to meet people, learn how I can best communicate with them. They're learning how well I do (or don't) sign, and how brave (or not brave) I am. At first, I just focused on meeting people and remembering names. But yesterday we had a Linger Longer (aka church potluck after the services) which gave me time for some longer conversations.

The  problem with a visual language is that you have to watch the person signing, or you miss things. It's really hard to keep an eye on kids and participate in a conversation! I got a plate and sat down. Someone came and sat by me, and we started talking. Then my son asked for help with his food. A minute later, my daughter fell off her chair and bonked her head. A minute later, she needed to go to the bathroom. Finally 5 minutes after I got back, my baby's diaper leaked. I didn't end up getting to talk to that person very much!!

I'm learning that I have to be really honest when I'm talking to someone. If I just smile and nod like I understand, even when I don't, they won't be able to trust that I understood them when they need to tell me something important. So I'm trying really hard to stop people and ask them if I'm not following them. That's so tough!! 

I helped out in Primary (Children's Sunday School), but had a little time to go to Adult Sunday School, too. I....knew what they were talking about... There was one time I *almost* made a comment, then decided it was too complex of a concept for me to sign and chickened out. I'm not sure if I regret that or if I was really wise. Later on, I did participate. I answered a question with, "You can't." There you go - I did it! I participated in class! It was only 1 sign, but I think it made a difference for me. If nothing else, it show's God that I'm here to learn. And oh, I am learning! So many things. It's just such a clumsy process. Learning is just a mess. So much of it comes by trying something, and it doesn't usually go well the first time. But it comes. And it will. 

Feeling Welcomed

October 29, 2017

I've been thinking about what the wonderful people in the branch have done that has helped me feel so welcomed, despite my language deficiencies. I thought these things might be worth writing down, because most of us are in situations where someone doesn't speak the predominant language so well. So when you're in that situation where there's one person who doesn't speak English so well, here are some things that might help make them feel welcome.

1. I love how people always smile and say hi to me, acknowledging that even though we can't talk so well, I'm still a person.
2. A lot of people have gone out of their way to have a little conversation with me: ask my name, how old my baby is, how many kids I have. It's a 30 second conversation that take 2-3 minutes because I am so slow, but it helps me feel successful. Interestingly, when I was very first learning, that was about all the conversation I could handle. More than that, and my brain started to panic. 
3. People talk really slowly to me. Thank you so much. I'm still getting a feel for how signs fit together in a big picture, and I just need some more time to process what has been said. I can tell they're using small words, too, even though there are plenty I don't understand still. 
4. When someone says something to me, I'll repeat it back to them a lot of the time to make sure I got it right, which, again, slows down the conversation but keeps me from just watching with a glazed over look on my face, having lost the conversation 5 minutes ago. They always smile and say such nice things when I get it right!

So there you go - don't talk too long, acknowledge their presence, talk slowly and be patient while the person works the sentence out!

Making Friends

(October 29, 2017)

Our family went to the first branch activity last night - Trunk-or-Treat! It was funny - it was the exact same time and the exact same activity as our old ward's Halloween party. Just different people. And a lot quieter :)

When we first moved to this area 8 years ago, my first friends were all empty-nesters. And they're still some of my best friends. And last night at the Trunk-or-Treat, I found myself talking to the same age group (who are now closer to my own age than they were back then!) There's something special about women who have been through it all, but now they have time to sit and talk and make friends. They aren't chasing around their 6 kids any more. They know what it's like to be new, to have a lot of kids, to do all the things I'm doing right now. And so they sit down and talk to me. Even though it means talking r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y right now.

Ha ha ha

(October 25, 2017)

Sunday morning, Marriner and I went to training for the new branch presidency with the stake presidency. Sister A., who was interpreting, was a few minutes late, and one of the stake presidency asked if anyone knew where she was. But he didn't know how to pronounce her name, so he asked Marriner. He didn't know, so he turned and asked Brother and Sister S., who know her well. Brother S. finger-spelled, "A-_-_-_-_-_ [using the correct letters]- that's how you pronounce it in ASL."

Seriously, though, when I spell MY name, they all pronounce it correctly the first time. In English. Which is pretty amazing.

Blessings

(October 25, 2017)

We really had a rough start to our new church life. We had family come visit for the occasion, and stayed up waaaayyyy too late (for the kids) hunting for fossils the night before. On Sunday, our new church time is 1pm - NAP TIME! By halfway through Sacrament meeting, I was pretty sure Martha and baby Jane might explode. Never have I had such a complete loss of ability to behave in church before. By nighttime, I was starting to see that it was more than just fatigue from playing with family the day before. Both Martha and Jane were getting a horrible cold! Jane had a fever and snot running all over her face. She couldn't breathe well enough to nurse, and she was up every hour or so all night long. Ugh. It is so sad when your sweet baby gets their first really bad cold.

Monday was fine, as long as I didn't put Jane down. But I admit, it didn't feel like a very nice conclusion to the weekend. I may have been a little grumpy about the timing....

In his training before he was set apart for his new calling, Marriner was reminded that his new calling was about using the priesthood to serve, and that should definitely apply to his family. So Monday night, he gave everyone in the family a priesthood blessing. For Jane, he gave her a blessing of healing. After her blessing, I put her to bed and she slept for more than 40 minutes for the first time in 24 hours. In fact, she stayed asleep until her usual wake-up time, and her runny nose went away enough for her to breathe comfortably.

It's somewhat of a symbol to me. Hard things will happen, but the priesthood can call down the powers of heaven to bless and strengthen us. My family has access to that power. It's pretty neat!

Coincidences

(October 24, 2017)

Elder Ronald A. Rasband said a few weeks ago, "Through the experience of my own life’s journey, I know that the Lord will move us on [a] seeming chessboard to do His work. What may appear to be a random chance is, in fact, overseen by a loving Father in Heaven, who can number the hairs of every head. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father’s notice. The Lord is in the small details of our lives, and those incidents and opportunities are to prepare us to lift our families and others as we build the kingdom of God on earth. Remember, as the Lord said to Abraham, “I know the end from the beginning; therefore my hand shall be over thee.”

Here are some of the "coincidences" that have happened in our lives....

• Almost 20 years ago, Marriner was called as a missionary to Ukraine, speaking Russian. But he spent 6 months of his mission serving a deaf congregation, speaking Russian Sign Language. 
• 7 years ago, our oldest son, Lige, was bored in Kindergarten and not having very much fun in life. We decided he needed something fun and challenging to do at home to make up for the tedium of his school day. A lot of prayer and thought took us to two things: he started piano lessons and we decided to learn a language all together as a family. Of course, our natural direction was to learn Spanish: it's useful, it's similar to English, Latin roots are so darn useful, etc. But somehow, we just felt like we should learn ASL instead. And, Marriner's experience with Russian Sign Language and his semester college class in ASL would be very helpful to us. We checked out all the Signing Time movies we could from the library and started practicing what we'd learned at dinner time.
• Two weeks later, Marriner arrived at work and met a new hire named Kevin. He was deaf and became Marriner's dear friend. Marriner's ASL improved a lot, and he shared with the rest of us!
• A year later, Marriner was called as a temple worker. He was asked to work two shifts a month, and Friday night was really the only time he could do that, so we gave up our date night (we moved it to Saturday or Monday) and Marriner started working at the temple. It turns out that Friday night is the ASL temple session, and Marriner was soon put to work on the ASL session.
• Last year, the ASL branch (congregation) relocated from the Silver Spring stake to our stake. Our family re-focused on improving our ASL, since we'd be seeing our friends that we'd met at the temple more often now.
• Marriner was serving as a High Council member, and was assigned to work with the branch during the transition.

Those are some of the little moves on the chess board of life that have made it so our whole family was able to answer the call to serve in the ASL branch.

If I got to pick God's brain for a few minutes, I'd like to ask, "Why us? Why ASL? And where is this whole journey going, anyway?" But, when I asked, He seemed to respond with a smile and, "That would ruin all the fun, wouldn't it?" 

Interestingly, I have a sister who also speaks ASL, for completely different reasons. She lives in Baltimore, an hour away, and interprets her church services for some deaf members in her area. But that's a coincidence we'll have to ponder another day...

Smarties

(October 24, 2017)

In the Capitol ward, my young kids would sometimes sit with Sister Gibbons when Dad was gone (he spoke in another ward about once a month). Sister Gibbons kept her friends quiet during Sacrament meeting by keeping smarties in her bag. She's not a grandma yet, but she has her grandma skills ready to go!

When we knew we were leaving the ward, we asked Sister Gibbons if Sam (4) and Martha (2) could have one last chance each to sit with her for our last two weeks. Sam was so excited for his turn!

Sunday morning, Brother Gibbons told me sadly that Sister Gibbons was sick. Sam took the news stoically, but with great disappointment. As a consolation prize, he got to sit with Sister Goode, who doesn't usually have smarties, but does have some fun books that she brings with her, "just in case". Imagine my surprise when I saw Sister Goode pull out some smarties for Sam!

Two days before, Sister Goode had been at the store and seen a big bag of smarties. She had a sudden urge to buy smarties. Sunday morning, she had a sudden urge to take smarties to church, even though she never brings treats to church unless she has grandkids with her. And when Sam came and sat with her, she just felt like Sam needed some smarties. She didn't know about the deal with Sister Gibbons or the change happening in Sam's life. Only God knew that, and took care of a 4-year old.