Learning the gift of tongues with my hands

We had another lesson with Kitt’s deaf sister Pakeather, she goes by Keatha (Kee-tha), and isn’t a fan of her name. She told us that the nurse was the one who named her, rough time. Anyways, the lesson was awesome, Kitt was able to come and made it a fantastic member present lesson! It humbled us in our signing abilities, we thought we were becoming somewhat proficient, but watching Kitt and Keatha sign together, we realized we get the “dumbed down” version from kitt. We did the restoration with her. I absolutely LOVED watching kitt sign about Joseph Smith and the first vision, he’s so expressive and fun to watch. It’s unlike any story telling I’ve ever experiences. I’m coming to believe how sign language can be much more effective than the English language because of how expressive you can be. Long eloquent words are nice, but there’s something better about how Kitt signs the first vision, watching him act out Joseph Smith being blinded by the pillar of light, and being in utter amazement at seeing God and His son, and being told NONE of the churches are true. The spirit testified, and Ketha enjoyed and believed, but wants more time to study. This time the deaf had the advantage, Kitt’s oldest brother Bernard also decided to join us sitting in a chair near the dining table we were seated at. Just a refresher Bernard is the one who proposed marriage to Sis Willis and I, and tried to debate with me about the similarities between Spartacus and Christ. Anyways, Bernard was badly injured when he served in the military, and now Kitt refers to him as crazy Bernard. The ENTIRE lesson, Bernard was sitting there talking to himself. At first Sis Willis and I thought he was interpreting to himself what we were talking about, but soon realized he had no clue what we were saying. For 45min he just sat there talking to himself, Sis Willis and I were a little distracted, and Kitt joked that it didn’t bother him or Ketha at all. He babbled all sorts of stuff, one time yelling out, “the nina, the pinto and the santa maria!”. He’s so funny, Kim (ketha’s hearing daughter) turned to us and said he does this all of the time.

Today’s lesson with Evan (our little 8yr old friend) included walking various transformer action figures through the plan of salvation. He even found an ambulance transformer for Christ and made Optimus prime Heavenly Father. It was definitely one of my favorite plan of salvation analogies. Next we made it to the Duren’s in time for pizza, Sis Willis was praying it would be pizza. We ended the night with a lesson with the Lincoln family. This family is amazing, they do family scripture study and read 2 chapters this week in preparation for our lesson. The 11yr old, Isabella even shared with us the notes she had taken about Alma ch 32. They’re reserved about baptism still, but said they would if they found out the truth, and promised us they’d pray about it as they read from the scriptures this week.

Tried my hand at interpreting today in church. Heh heh, see what I did there;) But anyways, Sis Willis did sacrament meeting, but had to leave for the bathroom during Sunday school so I started interpreting for Kitt. I believe in the gift of tongues. I still struggled, was slow, and missed a lot of words, buuut I felt confident, and my finger-spelling was flawless-it was so awesome! As soon as Sis Willis came back she took back over, I asked her if it’d be okay if we tag-teamed it in the final hour and she was all for it. She’s so willing to step aside and do whatever it takes to help me learn, what a saintJ It was the fifth Sunday so it was all combined. It wasn't the easiest lesson to interpret, seeing as it was all about self reliance. Kitt is either a great actor, or a genius. We tried our best to explain about the bishop’s storehouse, and emergency preparedness. It felt so so so good, I’m feeling better about my ASL, but I know it’s not even close to where it needs to be. Kitt told us we need to practice more, or get a real interpreter. The deaf community can be rather blunt, and not tactful at all. Kitt’s pretty kind and understand, Alison, not so much, but I’m getting used to it.

well that's all, time to scoot. hope y'all make like laborers in the vineyard and make the most of this lovely labor day.

love y'all!

sister smith