little victories. and puppies.

Wonderful thing for Saturday and Sunday, 21 & 22 February:

Three people showed up for Institute Saturday!  Our Institute class has been really floundering.  I make most of my blog posts upbeat, but I readily admit that sometimes - lots of times - you get bidonato (as in, stood up).   Some of the young people who appeared to be - and are - among the best and brightest seem to ebb sometimes.

We only have the "overflow" Institute class anyway, so it's never very big, but lately there have been two or three weeks in a row when we've had nobody - which has been the case for months with our English Institute class.   I know, somebody call the waaambulance.

Saturday we decided to take a chance and move the class up an hour, so that we could attend the baptism of a young single adult in Florence (whose name, by the way, is "Elvis", and he's Peruvian).   Bless their hearts - they actually did respond - which happens about half the time - and two of them actually came, along with one who usually attends the regular class on Friday.   Three students!  Our preparation was not in vain!

Of course, it never is.  We always benefit, even if no one else does.  You just have to keep pushing through.  Learning to push through and stay dedicated.  That's the wonderful thing.

Fun thing:

Yesterday at the weekly GANS home evening, Ivan shows up with his latest acquisition - a little puppy named Dubbi.  You would think that if a person wanted to bring his pet to your house, he would call and ask permission; just remember the post several months ago when I wrote about a woman at the table next to us at a restaurant.  Yeah, it's just understood, I guess, that you can bring your pet to the home of friends unannounced - even if he did leave a present in the hallway...which Ivan graciously cleaned up.

He says he names all his dogs Dubbi, ever since he found out that you will see your pets in Heaven.  He asked himself, "How will I know which ones are mine?  I know, I'll give them all the same name.  I'll just call, 'Dubbi', and they'll all come running."

Gotta love Ivan, puppy and all - and the puppy is adorable.