I am having so much fun getting to know my visiting teaching partner! I have been around her girls for a number of years now working with the youth group at church and I love them... and finally got an opportunity to serve with her! I was so excited when I found out, and I have not been disappointed! We just click!.
It is really hard to coordinate 6 different schedules, but with her it doesn't seem like a hassle at all. It comes together every month... so cool. She doesn't blab like I do about things I am not happy about, or things that bug me, or all the little stuff happening around me. So I have to find out about her through her likes instead of what she dislikes... she doesn't complain! But even that is hard, because she is a really good listener (which means around me she doesn't get much of a word in edgewise).
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We switched the lessons around for August and September, so this month we were learning and sharing about lifelong learning and education. I loved this lesson because each one of the sisters we visit has different talents... and part of the qualities of a lifelong learner is to "share" your talents with others. But I am most excited about learning from her. Because she isn't one of those "put it all out there" kind of girls; her talents are more quiet and behind the scenes.
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So far I know she is an amazing seamstress (I have seen the costumes in the musicals she worked day and night to get altered), and when we talk about the sewing machine, she uses words I've never even heard of before. I can't wait to learn more from her behind the sewing machine.
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I know that her family has an amazing garden and she knows how to can everything under the sun, so I can't wait to glom onto her when she is doing some apple canning this fall (she doesn't know it, but I am secretly asking her all kinds of questions to find out when and where so I can show up on her doorstep to borrow a cup of sugar or something).
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And something else I have known since the first time she taught a lesson in our relief society class is that she is a great teacher... I almost wish we had 12 other sisters to visit when it's her turn to teach because I always walk away with something applicable and tangible that I might have never pulled from the lesson on my own. And when I hear her talk about her kids and what they are reading or interested in for that week (she has amazing, smart, curious, high achiever kids that she manages to stay steps ahead of to keep them learning and growing), you should hear the love and excitement in her voice when she talks about her kids; the other day, I learned just a simple phrase to help me cope with all the crazy questions that a kid could come up with... "tell me what you think it means?" And she says it puts it back on them, and they will search and learn and grow in a direction their mind takes them. Brilliant!
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About age 7 I was so happy for the world wide web to turn Jacob towards with all his crazy questions about where clouds come from, and many more that I never knew what the kid was even thinking to come up with all the questions he did. The bad news is I would get so frustrated by the 400th question, that I was put off, and I didn't go with him to learn it too. I wish I would have known how to turn it back on him, and not tried to take all the burdens of his mind being ahead of mine (or in a different direction than mine) and not known how to capture and re-direct that energy to something useful.
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I just know there is sooooo much more I can learn from her talents and attributes as a good mother, wife and daughter... I can't wait! I know God puts people in our paths for a reason, and I am so happy and excited, to learn what he has in store for us together. I feel like I could climb a mountain with her by my side, we just click!
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