Week 15

Another week has flown by and brought with it some interesting developments in my assignments at the temple.  

Under Sis Husz’s direction, I put together a systemized program for the sisters and then every Tuesday and Thursday, I stood up and presented the subjects we felt were most important, presenting scriptures, and giving directions on procedures relevant to those topics.

I have been willing to do what I was asked, but admit to feeling awkward in having to an assistant to the matron—our wonderful Sis. Metzner—have to stand by my side and translate for me as I did the training.  Since President Husz called me we have twice been through a full training sequence with the workers.

From the first, Sis Husz had confided in me that it was her plan, once the time was right,  to put her assistants up in front instead of me. This week we talked about it and, with my encouragement, made the shift. They begin doing the training before the sisters next week, moving me into a coaching role. I am delighted. It feels right to put that alignment into its proper place. Now I work with them to help keep the training uniform while also working with them as a support in preparing materials, scheduling new workers for them to teach.  

John is still handling the brethren’s training. He does a really good job.  

Family Home Evening

We enjoyed getting together with the missionaries for a monthly Family Home Evening this week to study the Beatitudes and also having our second English Sunday School class just today, which John taught. The class was announced for the first time in Sacrament Meeting and we had one Romanian sister attend with us, in addition to us two missionary couples—the Chidesters were out of town. John did a great job on the lesson. I am up next week. It is a delight to discuss the gospel in English.

President Husz and our Oberin!

This week John and I had our annual mission interviews with President Husz, It was wonderful to have that hour in the temple with him. We focused together on how we were doing and what we were experiencing and were told how much we were appreciated. It was a very nice experience. We focused on the miracles of our lives that we are very much aware of and grateful for and for the ongoing blessings that come to us and our family because of our missionary service. He also asked us to consider extending our service for six to twelve months. He loses all eight couples within the next eight months. We are the last of those. It takes some five months to process a new missionary couple so he is looking ahead. We agreed to consider six months but do not yet know what would be best. We appreciate his inviting without pushing.  My passport expires by April 13, 2013, so we have to be home by then or I won't get back into the USA. We are thinking about what is best.

Speaking of miracles, we were happy to learn from Adam this week that he had been promoted to the position of sales manager for his company. We are very grateful that each of our sons and son-in-law has good employment in this day of economic challenge. 

Freiberg Temple in its blanket of snow.

We have had snow this week that actually stayed on the ground so it looks and feels like winter. We are very far north and so it is dark by 5:00 PM so we have little or no impetus to go outside, except for an occasional trip for groceries.


We haven’t been out to dinner for ages and don’t miss it. We frankly like our own cooking best. My “unwind” from the temple is to cook and this week I got in the mood to make up a pile of cauliflower pizza crusts, since a favorite of our dinners is pizza—our way.

In case you want to try something delightfully yummy and surprising, I’ll include the recipe and pictures below.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust  (Gluten-free and low-carbohydrate)

       Put pizza stone into cold oven. Preheat oven to 450.  

Cook a cauliflower in florets until just barely tender. Cool and then shred with a grater.  (One head will make 6 round or 12 rectangular crusts, about 5x12 inches each)

 

In a medium bowls, combine

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower  (Do not pack it in. Just spoon in.)  1 egg 1 cup mozzarella cheese 1 tsp oregano 2 tsp parsley flakes 1/2 tsp ground fennel (opt. I never have it but it would be yummy—adds pizza taste.)

      Press evenly onto parchment paper until very thin but even. (I do this in the two rectangle shapes mentioned since my stone is a rectangle and holds two at once. Make round or rectangle—dependent on the shape of your stone).    

Put pizza stone in oven and let it heat up as the oven heats to 450 degrees.  Slide the parchment paper with the uncooked pizza crusts onto the stone. Bake for 10 minutes then flip the parchment over, putting the pizza onto the stone to brown the underside. Remove paper. When browned, lift the “pizza” crusts off the stone with a pizza paddle and slide onto a cooling rake. Slide in another parchment with the next crust(s) and continue the process until all are baked.  (Once cooled the crusts freeze beautifully until needed.)

To bake a pizza:

Place pizza stone in oven and pre heat oven to 450 degrees.

Top crust with any kind of pizza sauce you want or make your own

2 cans (8 oz.) tomato sauce.

Finished product cooling. Yummy!

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. garlic salt 1 T. green chilies, chopped dash of pepper. Spread sauce evenly over crusts. (Freeze leftover sauce for other crusts) Top baked crust with pepperoni slices, browned sausage, hamburger,

olives, mushrooms, vegetables of choice

A lot of grated mozzarella or combination of grated cheeses.

Place in heated oven until cheese is melted and beginning to brown.  

It sounds like a process but it is easy and delicious. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful week. We plan to. (I have no idea how this entry ended up with such a big font and I don't know how to reduce it so it will just need to stand out as an ugly duckling among the trimmer entries. Sigh. Have a good week anyway.)