A Weekend Together

Brock played on Brookings’ softball team last Friday in their game against the State Department Diplobats. He hit a triple to win the game in the bottom of the last inning! Hometown hero, baby. To celebrate his last-minute heroics, we went to Shake Shack for a vanilla shake and crinkle fries. Because health.

On Saturday we visited the Library of Congress, which was just was stunning! My mouth dropped as soon as we walked inside and I’m pretty sure it didn’t close until we left. We saw one of the last three remaining Gutenberg Bibles printed on vellum (dried cowhide), and all the other exhibits were incredible. My favorite was Thomas Jefferson’s library. It was huge and I swear there were books covering every subject imaginable. What’s amazing is that the exhibit only represented 1/3 of his original library—the other 2/3rds burned away in a fire. Another great exhibit was called Creating America, about the early days of the Revolution and Constitutional Convention. It was amazing to see letters and documents written by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams.

My mom this weekend and I can't wait to go back with her. (Also, I’m determined to come up with a good excuse to get into the beautiful Library of Congress Reading Room. Aside from being beautiful, it hosts some of the last remaining copies of original Books of Mormon!)

On Sunday, Brock gave a lesson to the 8-11 year-old girls in Sunday School. Every time I see him teach something, it makes me fall in love with him a little more. He is the best teacher--whether it's a lesson about church doctrine, Bayesian statistics, or surfing. Brock is the best communicator I've ever met. He knows how to put things in context that people relate to, and man can he capture a room. The girls' eyes were glued to him the entire time (and they're a rambunctious group!).

It was cool to teach these girls church fundamentals. Growing up in an LDS family, you kind of take the basics for granted. Not so with these girls! Most of their parents are converts who are just barely learning those basics themselves. (When we asked the girls about the Plan of Happiness, they said "What's that?") It was cool to see their eyes light up as they learned about resurrection and eternal families. They had so many questions! I just love that bunch--they're such a cute, inquisitive, talkative group of girls who make my Sundays brighter.