Literacy, or the Lack Thereof

I love to read, in fact, I'm addicted to reading. Seriously, I feel incomplete without reading (or writing) something everyday. I learned to read before I went to Kindergarten. When I asked my mom how I learned she told me I'd see a sign, (street, billboard, store front) and I'd ask her what it said, she'd tell me and I'd remember it. I learned to decode words by myself, I think. I don't remember. I do remember learning a few phonics rules in school, but I usually got 100% on spelling tests.

Both of my parents are readers and our home was full of books and magazines. We read scriptures together and my mother read novels to me before bed. I still remember the soothing sound of her voice. She had the ability to read in the car without getting sick (I didn't inherit that trait) and would read to us as we traveled, in the olden days before anything other than AM radios were in autos. My parents subscribed to the Church News from Deseret News and all the church magazines. I read them all. When the magazines were standardized and correlated we continued to subscribe and I still read them all.

Before I got married I lived alone in a one bedroom apartment near downtown San Diego. In the little hallway between the living room and the bedroom was space and I had my dad build me some shelving to fill that space from floor to ceiling. One half of the shelves housed my books and the other half was for food and other storage. One guy I had a date with came over to pick me up and saw those shelves and asked incredulously "Have you read all those books?" "Well, most of them," I answered. He seemed disgusted and said something about it being a waste of time. I didn't go out with him again. When TopDad came over and saw all those books he exclaimed "You like to read too, cool!" I married him.

Our children have grown up in a home where the books shelves are full and there are piles of books all over the place; plus we go to the library regularly. They all can read, most like too, several are addicts like their parents. We subscribe to the Church News and the Ensign, New Era and Friend magazines. (Well, actually our Friend subscription expired and I won't renew it at this time because our youngest is almost 15, and I decided to give a gift subscription to a single dad in our branch.) We read scriptures together and I have read novels to all of the children at bedtime.

We are a literate family. I thought most other church members were like us. WRONG! Not out here in our tiny Iowa branch. Most here can't read very well if at all, and it seems that many who can, don't. There is a preponderance of reading disabilities as well as a lack of desire to improve. It drives me crazy!

As the RS President I suggested to the Branch President that we offer a "literacy class." He put it before the Branch Council for discussion. One suggestion was to call it a "book club" which I thought was a poor suggestion as people who can't read are hardly going to attend a club for readers. Another brother suggested that we must be very careful and sensitive so we won't offend anyone. My little teapot boiled over at that point and I asked "How would anyone be offended by an invitation to a voluntary class to improve their literacy so they could improve their employment skills as well as have a greater understanding of the gospel through reading and comprehending the scriptures, church magazines, and lesson manuals?" What am I missing here? Am I the only one who wants to improve in this life? The matter was tabled for another time.

Here's a little example: I learned to lead music as a child, I think from my dad, and was called to be a Primary chorister when I was still 13. From that time on I took whatever music conducting course was offered in all the wards and stakes I've lived in. I NEVER felt that I didn't need to learn more or practice to get better.

Another example: I was never offended because I was asked/assigned to take a teacher development course, even after having taken it a half dozen times. I figured there was something else I could learn.

The Glory of God is Intelligence or in other words, light and truth. But how can a person gain more light and truth if they can't read? A brother got up to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting and said something like "I've been asked to talk about the Atonement. I don't know much about the Atonement so I don' know what I can say. Now if they'd asked me to talk about NASCAR or football I could talk for two or three hours." (I thought, well there's your problem, you've spent too much time studying the wrong things, buddy.) Then he proceeded to painfully read excerpts from a General Conference address, add his testimony and sat down. He is one who would benefit from a literacy class. His wife types the Sunday bulletin, which is an embarrassment to me with all of its typos, mispellings and misinformation. She likes to read in Sunday School class, but butchers anything she reads so that it makes little sense. It is no wonder that the illiterate don't comprehend the gospel as found in the scriptures.

Has anyone who reads this been involved in a unit literacy class or effort? I'd love to hear about it.

Until next time. Right now I'm going to grab a book and relax.

Thank Goodness Someone Understands

In a wonderful article over at CNS News Ashley McGuire explains something too many today don't understand. Truth, in whatever sphere it is found, is eternal. Facts may change, but truth doesn't.

For myself, I'm so thankful we (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) are led by a living prophet.  I saw in a comment somewhere "beware of false prophets" and wanted to ask the commenter if because he believed there are false prophets if he knew who the true prophet is. Why would the ancient apostles warn of false prophets if there were to be no true ones?

The world does have a true living prophet. He is Thomas Spencer Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ is Latter-day Saints. And he doesn't get to retire until he is called home to God.

New Calling = Less Time

I haven't been posting because I've been just so busy with other things; particularly with my calling in the Branch as Relief Society President. This calling is time consuming in any unit but in ours it is time consuming for reasons of geographical distance rather than welfare work to be done. For example, I visited a sister yesterday, one of my assigned visiting teachees, and it took four hours! I started out on my way there at 10:20 AM (for an 11:00 AM appointment), made a stop at the bank (combining errands), then began down the country highway towards her town. After about 5 minutes I realized that I'd forgotten my Ensign and scriptures, as well as her new "prophet" manual, so I turned around and went back for them. I ended up almost 20 minutes late to our appointment. She is a wonderful woman, struggling with a mentally handicapped daughter, a stretched to the limit in his work as a surgeon husband, and loneliness in our little branch. They moved here from Price, Utah, where she had many friends and was visited regularly by her visiting and home teachers. She told me that in the five years they've been here home teachers have visited maybe three times; and she's not had any visits from visiting teachers. I listened to her for almost two hours. She just needed someone to talk to! I know the feeling. I get really lonely too and in the over two years we've lived here I've NEVER been visited by anyone from the Relief Society. Anyway, after visiting her I stopped at the store (combining errands again) and then drove home. Four hours had gone by! And that was just one visit, we have over ninety sisters in our branch. Attendance at RS on Sunday is usually four to six sisters.

As I've pondered and prayed about how to reach the sisters and help them, beyond the stupor of thought that persisted for a week, the thought keeps pressing on my heart and mind that I need to continue teaching and training the sisters in visiting teaching so that it becomes the norm and is effective. The previous RS President encouraged the sisters to simply send a card and that counted as a visit. She went so far as to instruct my visiting teacher to NOT visit me because it was "not safe." When my visiting teacher told me that I was stunned and absolutely incredulous. I live in a quiet rural town, I am a stay at home mom, and have never felt unsafe here.

I've been blessed with many revelations for this calling, from who should be my counselors, to what to put up on the bulletin boards, to what to teach. It has been a great oppotunity and blessing to me. But it sure doesn't leave much time for blogging.

No matter how many times. . . .

No matter how many times we watch "Mr. Kruger's Christmas" we get teary-eyed at the scene in the grotto/stable. TopDad looked at me and I looked at him and he made that comment.

Random thoughts:

Life proceeds at a pace that I can hardly keep up with. Wasn't it just September yesterday? We finished our family reading of the Book of Mormon today. Next on the schedule is the Doctrine and Covenants. Big decisions coming up in JET's life. Dandylion is now taller than me, Dr. Hair towers over me, I turn 55 soon, so does that mean I'll be a little old lady?

We had a huge blizzard last week, about a foot of snow accumulated. I'm so grateful for all the modern conveniences we have. At the same time I'm grateful for a pioneering spirit which makes life easier when those modern conveniences fail.

Merry Christmas! And may the New Year be happy, or rather may we choose to be happy in the New Year!

Stop the World So I Can Catch Up

I have to take a break from computers so I can get the rest of the work done on our new (to us) house and move in before the snow flies. Check back in November. Thanks for reading.