Saturday -- Institute and a Welcome Reprieve

This week has been so busy and power packed, we welcomed our Saturday reprieve in spite of an early start. That didn't come without adventure however.

We rose with our alarm at 5:00 a.m. and headed to the church before 6:30. As we went into the church wing where our office is we found a surprise ... most of the wing was flooded from a problem in the rest room. We were relieved to find the water had not gone into our office, but the classroom we use for Institute had about an inch. The guard who unlocked the door called the Physical Facilities Manager to report the problem. Then as we made the decision to move our class to the ground floor in the High Council room, he came to unlock that door and we discovered the water seeping down and flooding the classrooms below our office. We were grateful we were relocating into the other wing which was dry.

We were happy we didn't have to cancel, and our class soon arrived. We started with about six, then more and more arrived. We had our largest Institute class we have ever had with 28 participants. What a wonderful spirit accompanied our class today as we talked of our Savior's birth and baptism, and  how his life and mission relates to us.

As our class finished we went to our office to make Skype and FaceTime calls to family and found people starting to take care of the flooded mess. While we made our calls we could hear a shop-vac sucking up the water. They were finished before we were ready to leave and found the classroom carpet looked much cleaner than it has in months. We commented this was really not the most practical method of getting the carpets cleaned.

With all the visitors and meetings we have had recently it was a welcome reprieve to be able to go home to our apartment for the rest of the day and relax. It was nice to have nothing scheduled and nothing pressing for the day. Tomorrow should be a lighter schedule for a Sunday as most of the Stake will be viewing General Conference. We will attend Sacrament Meeting with the International Branch, then visit Sameth's ward for his Sacrament Meeting as well. Two sacrament meetings instead of two three-hour blocks of meetings sounds almost like a vacation.