Sign Language

Well, I have a new assignment at Church. It's not exactly a calling, because I haven't been set apart. I've just been helping out.
There is a new member of our Ward who is going deaf. She was born "hard of hearing" and recently received a cochlear implant, but it didn't work, so within a year she will be completely deaf. There is a woman in the ward who is very good at Sign Language, so she has been interpreting for her. Now, I am by no means great at Sign Language, but I did take 5 semesters of it at BYU, so I SHOULD be very good. However, it's been over 2 years since any of my classes, and let's just say I'm a bit rusty. I thought about not saying anything and just letting this one girl interpret forever, but it's a very demanding job, plus I would really like to get better at it.
So, I've been interpreting! One week I did the entire Sacrament Meeting, which was SO hard! I knew I didn't do a very good job, but thankfully the woman didn't miss too much because she can still hear a little bit, plus she can lipread, so I didn't feel TOO bad when I messed up. I figure I have to start somewhere. Thankfully it was a fast and testimony meeting, so the doctrine wasn't too deep, so I was able to remember most of the signs I needed.
Now I mostly interpret for the hymns and the prayers, including the Sacrament prayers. The sacrament prayers are hard because they say them so quickly, so I still need to practice those. But every week I'm a little more confident and I'm really happy that I'm practicing this skill. There is also a Sunday School class every week taught by the interpreter where we just learn Sign Language, so that more people will be able to eventually help out. That has helped a lot too, and I'm really enjoying it.
A lot of people don't consider Sign Language to be a "real" language because it isn't spoken. People also tend to think that it's just English, but using your hands. It's not! It has it's own grammar rules and everything. For example, if someone said in English "I can go to the store for you", it would not be signed "I can go to the store for you." ASL's grammar rules make it so that I would sign "For you, store I go can". It's a challenge to remember! It's especially difficult to interpret because you get so focused on translating a certain sentence or idea that I completely miss the next part because I'm still signing the previous thing they said. But that's a problem that all interpreters face, I think.
Anyway, so that's my new assignment. I'm still serving in YW, which I LOVE. As it happens, we are camping this weekend because that's what the Laurels really want to do. Granted, it will be in the YW president's back yard, but still... it will be great because I like sleeping outside and everything, but I also love clean bathrooms... so this is a perfect medium.