The Practical Stuff

For three days, we have been learning the really practical stuff about our assignment. We’ve learned about our cars—how to use the gas card, how to get it serviced, what to do if you’re in an accident or get a speeding ticket. We’ve learned how much we have for a budget for instructional supplies, etc. and how to keep track of that. We’ve learned what our phones will and won’t do (mostly won’t do J) and we’ve learned how we will connect to the Internet service which we hope happens very soon. We’ve learned that we will be assigned to the Johannesburg stake, which has eight wards and/or branches, so there are quite a number of both seminary and institute classes. Unlike the United States, where institute programs are connected to universities, that program along with the one for high school age students (seminaries) are the responsibility of the local units. From the number of classes we saw listed, it seems that each wards may have multiple seminary classes-- distances are far and school starts very early so some are Saturday programs with students doing individual work each day. What we understand we will be doing is conducting in-service training for the teachers each month, visiting their classes frequently, supporting and assist teachers if needed, gathering records of attendance and completion of work and inputting that information into the church system so students can receive credit toward their seminary or institute completion. It is likely that we will also teach some of the classes ourselves, which should be fun. Those are just the base duties; couples who have been here longer tell us that other duties will probably be added along the way.