The New Salt Lake City Dictionary

Astounding: Violinist Jenny Oaks Baker’s performance on Monday. She played songs from all over the world including “Golliwog’s Cakewalk”, the most jaw-dropping version of “Yankee Doodle” (technically called “Souvenier d’Amerique”), and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” We had no trouble keeping awake during that concert!

Bible study: The wonderful time in the morning (or afternoon, or evening) when you sit down with your fellow Washingtonians and study God’s Word. The topic of this trip’s study is the glory of God, and we have been learning amazing things about the glory of God in the Old Testament and New Testament and how it relates to our daily living. I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a blog post or two on the subject, because it really is life-changing!

Caffeine: The thing that is keeping me going!

Class: The group of people with whom we learn each day. This includes Erynn, the girl we have gotten to know the best, and who is taking the class to start to earn some money. Erin also is in our class, but she is mainly interested in viola. Gabriel is from Boston, is “not religious,” and has a wife and son. James is the one with the ponytail and beard, and he seems to be always smiling! Micah is living in Salt Lake City right now, and he is studying for his Master’s Degree. Carrie, our teacher, is not a Christian, but she is extremely sweet and has wonderful insights into some things.

Crisis: When Salt Lake City gets one inch of rain overnight. Under such conditions you will of course have to evacuate people!

Dad’s Birthday: Today—June 19! I’m sorry to miss it, but I hope he has a wonderful day!

Friendship: Sleeping in the same bed for nine nights, putting up with each other’s oddities and exhaustion, and still loving it and wishing the time were longer!

Fiddling: Aaron Ashton is the essence of a jaw-dropping fiddler! Here he is with his fiddling class, and they are all having a blast! During his own performance with his band, he would improvise on the spot and at one point changed keys with every shift up his fingerboard. I think we all were sort of stunned by what he could do!

I’m Leaving: An exercise we worked on in class yesterday. It has to do with dead weight. (-:

Mormonism: The religion of most of the people around us; many of those we have met are in bondage to this religion. Please pray that we might have an opportunity to witness to those around us. We have already been able to share how we use music to glorify and worship God, but we would love to get into even deeper conversations.

One year: The average amount of time a young student might spend on “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Popularity: When you buy a package of coconut M & M’s, and the lady at the snack table says, “Oh, let me know how those are.” This phenomenon continues when you walk into a classroom of 21 people, calmly take out the package, and everyone’s eyes zero in on your candy. “Tell me if those are good, OK?” they all say, and watch for your reaction. In case you were wondering, they were quite delicious.

Prayer: A blessing that we hope all of our friends and family are giving us right now!

Scream: A loud sort of screeching noise that you make when you get a big bowl of ceasar salad from the cafeteria for lunch, are eating happily away, and discover something odd on your lettuce leaf. A yellow-and-black-striped-dead-bug something to be precise. The other two people at our table kept placidly eating away, not caring to ask what the fuss was about.

Scrumptious: The box of Mrs. Fields cookies that we retrieved at the front desk of our hotel from our family! Needless to say, we have been enjoying them very much! When we first got them, I said, “If we were nice, we could share these with our class.” Mikaela and Sarah instantly shook their heads: “No, we’re not that nice!”

Weather: The conditions outside that are subject to change at a moment’s notice. In fact, you must always bring your jacket when you go to browse through Barnes and Noble, because you might get caught in a rainstorm on the way home (but then you get to run back to the hotel in the downpour, and how fun is that?).