Stuff

 Hey, friends, it seems like it's been a long time since I wrote. That's because I haven't been able to think of anything interesting to share with you! Of course, there are lots of interesting things going on, but sometimes they don't write so well on paper. 

For example....I've been thinking for a long time about how to expound on the interesting sounds ASL makes. I was sitting in the living room when I heard the sound of "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I knew that Marriner's meeting on zoom was over, despite him being in a different room just because I heard the knuckle pop of the sign "with" then the clap of "amen." Sure enough, Marriner came up the stairs a few minutes later. I've thought about how to describe the tummy slap of "please" and the hand slap of "bless" that Jane makes when she prays. Most people rub their chest for "please", but Jane's in a hurry, and little kids don't have much of a chest to aim for, so they hit their tummies instead. :) It sounds like thumping a watermelon. The language has become auditorily fascinating to me! But these things probably work better in video format than on a blog....

We had some visitors this weekend - some long-lost friends who were brave enough to look us up when they came in town for the temple open house. It makes me so happy when people do that! I'm so glad they reached out! Of course, they know no sign language, but we're not going to send them to the hearing ward and not see them all day. When friends come to visit, they come to church with us. We took their 11 and 12 year old kids to Primary since YW was just reorganizing their class presidency - boring.... I thought Primary was pretty fab, definitely showing off for our visitors. But after Primary, our 11 year old visitor gave me his frank assessment. "Primary isn't so fun in ASL. When people are talking, if your mind starts to wander, you'll hear something and it will make you interested again. It's really hard to pay attention without any talking." I was very impressed at his analysis - this is, indeed, about what I'd thought of it. It's just harder to pay attention! The poor little kids really struggle with it. I wish I knew a way to make it better without excluding the deaf teachers, but I don't. I mean, going to church is hard, but in general it's the same hard no matter where you go. But all our kids know that their church is HARDER than everyone else's. Sigh. 

One last comment....we've been in the branch 4 1/2 years. Lots of people have started to notice this. I have a simultaneous desire to not talk about it because I don't want to get anxious, and a need to talk about all the worries I have about the future. Getting released eventually is not going to be easy. But even though I keep talking about it, I really don't want to talk about it yet. So if you're one of my 3 readers (ok, that's a made-up number...) do me a favor and don't bring it up. We don't know what's going to happen, or when it's going to happen, and that's everything I'd tell you anyway. :)