Week 7
It was another fairly quiet week, but a delightful one, as well.  We went to a walk-in clinic on Monday since Kerby still had a lot of back pain.  Testing ruled out anything serious, and he got a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and instructions to rest and apply heat. (He felt great after about five more days.)  That afternoon at the institute we finished clearing out the library--tons of audio and video cassettes that are no longer needed or even usable got dumped along with many extraneous odds and ends.  Much more pleasant and usable now.

FHE was at the Bishop's home, and consisted of a crazy game where everyone brought a wrapped gift that was placed in a huge box (along with loose wrapping paper).  One person put on a coat, hat, scarf, and gloves, and tried to reach in the box, and grab and unwrap a present before the next person in the circle could roll double 2s, 4s, or 6s with the dice.  As soon as that happened, the whole outfit had to be put on the next person, who tried to get a gift, etc.  It was really fun and much harder than it sounds!

On Tuesday morning we took a walk and we saw our blue heron on the pond.  Here are a few pictures of Bennie the Blue-he's pretty spectacular in flight:

Bennie the Blue Heron

The saga of the sewer continues--suffice it to say we had floods Tuesday night, Thursday morning, and Friday (Christmas) night.  The maintenance folks are very responsive every time, but obviously whatever they have been doing hasn't been effective.  So before he even came on Saturday, the maintenance guy called in a plumber from Oklahoma City.  When the plumber got here they put a camera in the line and diagnosed roots in the pipes.  We've now got root killer in our toilet tank, and I don't know what else they did, but he said if they need to dig up and replace the pipe they will.  Sigh. But on to better things!

We went to OKC to attend the temple on Wednesday; it was an absolutely beautiful day and a beautiful session. It's nice to have a little free time and be able to do that during the break.  We ate at a fabulous Thai restaurant before returning home.

The Cleavers came up from Edmond on Thursday so we could teach them how to make PowerPoint slides, something they'd never done but wanted to learn.

Christmas morning we opened our presents to each other (two ties for Kerby and an OSU black and orange knit scarf for me) then the Sisters came over for breakfast.  Later we opened our gifts from family (thanks to all).  We've also enjoyed all the Christmas cards and letters we've received.

Sisters Liddell and Taylor

At 11:00 am we went to the Community Center to help serve the Community Christmas Dinner.  Last year they served between 700 and 800 people, and I suspect it was about the same this year  Some of the participants were clearly in need of assistance, some were probably international student families, others just lonely.  It was heartwarming to see so many volunteers helping out and it was a joy to be among them.

At the Community Christmas Dinner

We had a quiet afternoon Skyping with my sister in Croatia and visiting with the grandchildren (and their parents) via Facetime.  Pretty amazing age we live in--a lot of what we do seemed like absolute science fiction when we were young. 

In the evening, we had a Christmas get-together with our district of missionaries.  We had bought and wrapped some silly little toys for each one of them and had snacks (since they had all been at members' homes for dinner [sometimes two] during the day).  It was relaxing and fun.

Best District anywhere!  :-)

Saturday morning it started raining about 10 am, and then the rain got heavier and the winds got stronger.  It rained and blew all afternoon and through the night.  This morning the rain turned to freezing rain and snow. 

The view out our back door--Cold!

We were planning to attend the 1st ward church meetings since the YSA ward is not having meetings for two weeks.  We got a Facebook notice at about 10:15 am that the 1st ward 11 am meetings were cancelled due to the freezing rain.  The zone leaders then impounded all cars in the zone (not ours, but all the "regular" ones), so no missionaries can drive until further notice.  They take these treacherous roads seriously around here.

So, we hooked up the computer to the TV, pulled up BYUTv and watched Music and the Spoken Word live broadcast, then watched Worship Service.  This is a series of abbreviated sacrament meetings filmed about 10 years ago. (Who knew?!)  Ed Pinegar is the bishop, there is a ward choir, there are talks, a closing hymn, and a closing prayer.  The ward is an interesting group of people (the children are abnormally well behaved).  Anyway, that was church for us today.  Looking at the weather map, we're probably out of the worst of the storm, though it should be cold and snowy for a couple of days.

Just want to close with my testimony that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most precious possession there is.  What a joy to know that we are loved by our Heavenly Father and the Savior, and that we have the pattern and plan to allow us to return to their presence.

Week 6
Because OSU is closed for semester/Christmas break, our schedule is pretty flexible until we start teaching classes again on January 11.  On Wednesday we met the new CES couple (the Cleavers from the Seattle area).  They live in Edmond and will be teaching stake institute classes in Edmond and Oklahoma City.

Our Mission Christmas Conference was Thursday from 8:30 am until about 7:30 pm in Oklahoma City (OKC), so we drove down on Wednesday and stayed in a motel.  We did a little shopping, then after dark we drove to the city of Yukon (right on Route 66; birthplace of Garth Brooks; on the top 5 best Christmas lights in OK list).  It was amazing, and neither of us had seen anything like this display.  It wasn't the calm, sedate beauty of the lights on Temple Square, rather it was a purely whimsical, delightful, and HUGE array of lights.  A few pictures follow:

Everywhere we went around OKC, we saw big piles of tree branches and limbs--we finally realized that they were the result of the big ice storm that hit most of the state on Thanksgiving weekend.  The damage was really extensive.

Our Mission Christmas Conference was actually about 2/3 of the mission, the third farther south had their conference earlier in the week.  There are 90 companionships in the mission (not counting seniors), three missionary couples who live at home near OKC and work in the office taking care of housing, vehicles, and general office needs.  There are the two CES couples and a couple in the north west doing Member/Leadership Support, and we think another two couples in the southern part of the mission (we didn't meet them).  There are several sets of Spanish-speaking missionaries and even two companionships of Marshalese-speaking missionaries!  Apparently a very large group of people from the Marshal Islands has settled in Enid (north of Stillwater), and every nation, kindred, tongue, and people gets to hear the gospel :-)

The first speaker was the Stillwater stake president, who spoke about receiving  the Gift.  He said we are the agents of our hearts, and only we can harden or soften them.  Then President Walkenhorst did a quick run-through of some rules and reminders about behavior before he gave his real message.  My favorite was that to avoid homesickness, "take down the family picture shrine" in the apartment. The topic of his message was, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"--he had the missionaries list all the words they could think of that "white" could symbolize.  They came up with a really lengthy and insightful list.  The President then spoke in depth about a few of them, using scriptures to illustrate the points as they relate to the Savior.  He pointed out that Satan will always try to hold us back from following the Savior, using the same tool he used in the war in Heaven--fear.  He used fear then and and he uses it now.

After the Assistants to the President conducted some training on teaching investigators, we had lunch that one of the ward Relief Societies had prepared for us.  The president of the Oklahoma Stake opened the afternoon session, followed by President Walkenhorst giving instruction on planning.  A highlight of the conference followed, when all of the missionaries who will be going home before the next mission conference bore their testimonies.  Some really powerful, mature testimonies were shared.  Many of them have had really hard experiences on their missions, with people throwing things at them, accusing them of being false prophets or false Christs, etc.  Every one of them said that they loved their mission and have grown to know and love the Savior better as they have served.

Following dinner (prepared by a different ward RS) was the entertainment--music by companionships, districts, or other combinations.  Some of the missionaries really have talent, others were just earnest, but it was delightful and fun.  The day ended with everyone going into the cultural hall to receive their Christmas packages from home.

Missionaries singing "Army of Helaman" to thank RS for feeding us

We stayed in OKC another night, and went to the temple on Friday morning.  It is a very sweet little temple, dedicated in 2000.  On the way home we stopped in Guthrie so we would be able to find it in the dark on Saturday night.  It was the territorial and later the first state capitol.  It has some great architecture (see pictures below) and now has about a zillion antique shops as well as craft shops for spinning and weaving, pottery, etc.  They do a Victorian Christmas for a couple of weekends where people dress in period costume and demonstrate various crafts, perform music, and so on.  Guthrie also has a theater company that performs several plays a year, but annually for the last 29 years, it has put on A Territorial Christmas Carol --a wonderful adaptation of the classic set in 1893 Oklahoma Territory.  It was different enough to be fun and true to the original enough to be comfortable.  The actor playing Scrooge was as good an actor as we've ever seen in that role.  

Downtown Guthrie

Today we realized that our little YSA ward would not be having a traditional Christmas sacrament meeting program, so we went to the 1st Ward before we went to the YSA sacrament meeting so we could enjoy a good Christmas program.  Our YSA numbers were very small, and will be even smaller for the next two weeks, so anyone who is in town will just go to church meetings at one of the family wards. 

After church today, the bishop and counselor gave Kerby a blessing because he is still not feeling well.  He's improved from last Sunday, but definitely not healthy.

Week 5
Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone and in Stillwater.  It was finals week at the university, so students came and went at the institute building to study, eat, and hang out and relax.  Different people volunteered to make breakfast on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 8-10 am, so students could eat breakfast before or after a final.  We cleared out the frozen soups those same days (and baked some Rhode's rolls) so they had something to eat for lunch, too.  On Thursday Kerby baked cookies, so the place smelled wonderful and the students enjoyed the little snack.

On Thursday morning our district came to the institute to rake leaves for a service project.  The building is surrounded by trees, and the grounds were covered in leaves.  Looks much better now.

Three of our enthusiastic sisters

And some even more enthusiastic elders

On Friday afternoon we sat in with the sisters in a discussion with a young woman who has been investigating the gospel for several months.  She is really close to making the decision to be baptized, and there was a wonderful spirit in the meeting.  We watched The Restoration video and discussed preparation for baptism.  Elder Kerr and I both shared a pertinent scripture and bore our testimonies; our primary responsibility is not proselyting, so it was a treat to be involved in sharing the gospel in that way.

Friday evening we went to the community band concert--since we had a little time to kill before it started, we decided to drive around looking at Christmas lights (one of my favorite activities every year).  Much to our amazement, very few folks in Stillwater have decorated their houses with lights.  We saw a few lovely light displays, but they were few and far between!  About 80 amateur musicians played in the band, and it was a fun Christmas concert.

The music director in our YSA ward is a very talented musician (majoring in vocal performance, but he almost majored in organ performance).  He put together a wonderful Christmas concert Saturday night using all of the talent in our ward (considerable) and also four folks from the music department at OSU.  There were some vocal solos, duets, and choir numbers; a woodwind quintet, a flute quartet, a cello and piano piece; and Kerby and I even joined in by reading scriptures from Luke. It was a really lovely evening.

The high temperatures have been in the 70s most of the week (though chilly in morning and evening), but dropped last night with a big thunderstorm.  We were supposed to have some severe weather, possibly even tornadoes, but all we had was rain.

Kerby came home from church this afternoon feeling kind of puny, so he went straight to bed.  He missed dinner with the sisters and we didn't go to ward prayer.  He's feeling a bit better now, and we have high hopes he'll rally by tomorrow.

Week 4--A month in Oklahoma!
Well, this has been a very interesting week.  First the odd things:  When we came home from ward prayer last Sunday (had just been gone an hour) our bathroom floor was completely flooded.  There was no obvious place the water had come from, but there it was, and Kerby quickly got it all cleaned up.  On Monday morning just before 4 am, we woke up to a magnitude 4.7 earthquake, centered about 50 miles north of us. We shook for close to a minute! We have since learned that Oklahoma has a lot of earthquakes due to all the oil well-related activity.  On Tuesday all the apartments were sprayed for bugs (preventive for the winter, nothing scary happening).  Wednesday seemed to be a pretty normal day until 10:15 pm, when we heard a huge gurgling sound in the bathroom, ran to see what was happening, and found the floor completely flooded and sewage backing up into the tub--and this time there was a most unpleasant odor as well.  Noble Kerby got it all cleaned up, and the next day the apartment maintenance folks were here by 8:30 am  to work on the sewer lines outside.

Now on to better tidings:  FHE was glow stick capture the flag.  Every week they have really creative, fun activities at FHE, and they are careful to be in and out in an hour.

Glow sticks inside water bottles on the center line, and a glow stick around each wrist just before starting--it was crazy!

Tuesday evening was the 4th annual Fanfare of Lights on campus.  They served hot chocolate and cookies, we all got orange glow sticks to put on our heads or around our necks, several musical groups from the University and the junior high performed, and Elsa from Frozen and Rudolf of the red nose were wandering through the crowd. After the performances, Santa came out--dressed in an ORANGE suit (we've told you these folks are maniacs for black and orange), and he counted down to the lighting of all the buildings and trees (again, orange and white lights).

The big O all aglow--unfortunately you only see Kerby's shadow in front of it

A small fraction of the sea of orange and black clothing in the campus bookstore

Soup Tuesday (last of the semester) featured macaroni and cheese soup and honey whole wheat bread (my sister's great recipe).  We'll heat up frozen soups from previous weeks (some that preceded us and some we made) Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so there will be something warm and good during the first three days of finals.  Various volunteers from the two family wards will make breakfast those three days, as well.

Elder Kerr at his kitchen post

Thursday night was the Parade of Lights down Main Street in Stillwater.  It was a truly small town experience, and I say that with love.  The parade included the high school marching band, trucks of FFA students, the 4H club, horses, police and fire trucks, bagpipers, and suddenly I said, "Hey-that's Sister Taylor!"   And there were all our missionaries distributing pass-along cards while they walked behind a truck with a Christmas tree in it and the name of the church on the back.  They gave out between 200 and 300 cards.  The parade ended with Santa--this time in his red suit.

The couple we replaced had starting working at a thrift store called Elite Repeat for their community service, and subsequently, sisters and elders take shifts there on Saturday.  We began working there this Saturday, as well.  Elite Repeat takes donations, sorts them carefully, and only sells the very nicest items, then all the proceeds go to charitable organizations.  Nothing that can't be sold there is wasted, though; everything that is donated gets used or passed on in some way.  I spent my time sorting clothing, and Kerby was putting pre-sorted items on hangers and taking incoming donated items.

There was a tiny little Christmas tree in the closet of our apartment, and we bought a wreath and a poinsettia, so that is the extent of our decorations.  We also put up and decorated the tree at the institute.  Students won't be here to enjoy it long, but at least it looks a little like Christmas when they come to study or socialize between finals.  Kerby made his traditional cookies--triple chocolate chip, snowballs, and shortbread--in the institute kitchen on Friday.  We shared them with the missionaries and the few students who came by on the last day of classes.  Today we made up nice little cookie boxes and gave them, along with the christmas.mormon.org pass along cards, to our three neighbors.

Testimony meeting was very nice today.  Sweet, sincere testimonies born by sweet sincere people.  We really love the young single adults with whom we've been called to work!  Elder Kerr bore his testimony and alluded to a statement from President Eyring that all learning in the gospel comes through the spirit.  Everything that we know and love about God and the gospels comes only as we are taught by the Holy Ghost.

We just got back from a little open house at the bishop's house.  People brought snacks, we had ward prayer, and then watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

Our baby Christmas tree

Week 3
Every Monday at noon we meet with Brother Valletta (institute director) and Jeanne (administrative assistant) for a coordination meeting.  We prepare by reading sections of Gospel Teaching and Learning and take turns giving a spiritual thought out of our reading.  It was my turn this week and I was so struck by a statement by Elder Eyring:  "Never, never underestimate the spiritual value of doing temporal things well for those whom you serve."  The statement resonated with me because a big part of our call is to feed the institute students (and their friends) each week--something that may not, on the surface, seem terribly spiritual.  I really believe, though, that providing good food in a good place can be a blessing.  Even the cleaning up is less tedious when done with a spiritual focus.

The rest of the week was a good test of that insight.  On Monday, FHE was a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner at the institute for the YSA ward.  We cooked a turkey (the counselor smoked a turkey, and someone brought a ham), dressing, and gravy, and worked with the setup and clean up.  About 45 people participated. The short FHE lesson was about gratitude, and every person said something they were grateful for.  One young man said "Soup Tuesday!"

The beautiful mahogany turkey

The next day for Soup Tuesday we made lasagna soup and garlic french bread, and a big bowl of Blessings Mix--a fun snack mix of savory and sweet components that represent things to be grateful for. On Thanksgiving day, we had dinner, again at the institute, for those in the ward who didn't go home for the holiday.  For that one we made pie, whipped cream, cranberry relish, and mashed potatoes, and the bishop's family supplied almost everything else.  There wasn't a very big crowd, but we had fun.

Our little Thanksgiving family dinner

Friday morning we went to STM (Special Training Meeting) with our whole zone, so we met more Elders and Sisters. We are so impressed with the missionaries serving here--they are dedicated, full of testimony, and ready to share the gospel.  Several of them gave short talks on various aspects of pride and the need for unity in companionships and districts.  Then attention turned to the Christmas Initiative to use the Church Christmas video as a missionary tool.  We were all given a pack of pass along cards with the message A Savior is Born and the christmas.mormon.org address. Yesterday we both got our hair cut, and gave a card to the stylist, then to the clerk at Hobby Lobby where we went to get a few Christmas decorations.  The video truly makes me feel like rejoicing!

The Oklahoma equivalent of the BYU-Utah rivalry is the OSU-University of Oklahoma rivalry.  They call the annual football game Bedlam--it was last night and OSU lost miserably.  Because three of our YSAs play in the marching band (we mentioned one in the drum line last week, one plays the clarinet and another the french horn) we did something I've NEVER done for a BYU game.  We went to the student union to see the team go from there over to the stadium about 2 hours before game time, not because we cared to see the team, but the whole marching band was there so we wanted to see our girls do their thing.  It was cold but fun, and once again the sea of orange and black was amazing.

The weather was rainy and cold almost constantly from noon on Thursday until today.  The rain on the car was frozen when we went out on Saturday, and freezing rain fell on and off, but didn't stick to the road.  Thousands are without power all over Oklahoma due to the ice, but that severe weather went around Stillwater (so thankful!!).  

We taught our Old Testament class on Monday, and this week will give the last lesson of the semester Monday and Thursday.  It has been good to think and pray about the principles to be learned from the Children of Israel and their difficulties in trusting in and worshiping the Lord.  We end this week with the wonderfully uplifting book of Ruth.  She reminds us that people can be good, kind, and righteous despite what is going on around them.  A good lesson for our day.

Week 2

This week was a little less hectic than last with no trips to Oklahoma City or Edmonds.  We taught our Old Testament classes, and had a successful Soup Tuesday (spinach cheese soup and Parmesan cheesy rolls).  We're still getting used to our responsibilities and trying to establish a routine in our little apartment.  We spoke in Sacrament Meeting today about gratitude--which reminded us of all the blessings we enjoy, including the gospel and the chance to serve a mission together.  Then we had the sister missionaries over for dinner, followed by ward prayer. The YSA ward is small but the members are strong in spirit and firm in the faith.

This week's coincidences:  One of the YSAs (here on a wrestling scholarship) is from Cedar City, UT, and he went to high school with my niece, Catherine.  The other was while grocery shopping on Saturday.  We went to the other grocery store (Walmart being the big player in Stillwater), and a woman said rather tentatively, "Nora??".  It was the dietetics program director at Oklahoma State University (OSU), whom I've known for several years from professional meetings.  It was a great surprise for both of us.

Here's a little information about Stillwater and OSU.  In the musical Oklahoma, there is a line that says, "Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain. . . "  Well, they didn't make that up; it is really windy here.  It's not as flat as much of Kansas or Nebraska, but there are no mountains (or tall buildings) to help us tell North from South. We've seen deer a few times grazing along the side of the road, and there is a blue heron living (or at least feeding) on the little pond in our apartment complex. Stillwater has about 47,000 residents (plus about 25,000 students at OSU), and the town was devastated by the tragedy when the woman drove into the homecoming parade crowd in October killing three and injuring several others.  The corner where that happened has lots of crosses, flowers, and candles, and many of the businesses have "Stillwater Strong" on their marques or in their windows.

OSU is a beautiful campus with lots of trees and red brick buildings.  The student union is quite new and a student told me it had been selected as the best student union in the nation.

Fall leaves against one of the buildings on campus

No purple pansies here--just orange!

Big O in the brick sidewalk

The Student Union--the Christmas decorations have orange balls and orange lights

The institute is situated in the midst of the fraternity and sorority houses--most of them are very big and very lovely.  They are already decorated for Christmas.  We need to brush up on our Greek letters!

One of the many sorority houses

And another sorority

The OSU teams are the Cowboys (or Cowgirls) and the mascot is Pistol Pete.  The school colors are orange and black, and virtually everyone wears orange and black on game days, as well as any other day of the week.  It sort of seems like perpetual Halloween, but we're getting used to it.  Yesterday they played Baylor in football at 6:30 pm.  One of our YSA girls is in the drum line in the marching band so we went near the stadium at about 3 pm to see them do their run through.  It was crazy! There were hundreds of tents set up for tailgating parties--many had generators and had TVs, crock pots, and orange lights, and some had big BarBQ smokers outside the tents.  Most also seemed to have a large supply of beer.

The drum line of the OSU marching band

The weather is getting colder (snow in the forecast for next Saturday), but we are comfortable, safe, and blessed.

Our First Week

Well, we finished our first week in Oklahoma, and it was a busy one!  On Monday we had our orientation to our responsibilities, toured the institute, and moved into our office.

Outside our Institute Building

Some of the institute students had this greeting (made from Kleenex) waiting for us on our desk:

Our first greeting

In addition to pictures of the Savior, this is hanging on our institute office wall:

On Monday evening we attended the class we'll be teaching (the person who substituted between the last missionary couple's departure and our arrival taught) and it was wonderful to listen to our class members' thoughtful discussion and see their desire to learn.  We went straight from institute class to Family Home Evening at the church building, where they had a short lesson then played chair soccer.

We had the weekly Soup Tuesday the next day.  We made 6 loaves of bread and heated some frozen soup that the previous couple had made.  Soup Tuesday goes from 11:30 am to 1 pm and the students and their friends, all the missionaries in the area, and the YSA bishop come to socialize and have soup and bread.

Wednesday was fairly quiet and we just put the finishing touches on our lesson for Thursday morning's class.  We're studying the Old Testament--right now in Numbers and Deuteronomy.  On Thursday afternoon we had a ward temple trip to do baptisms for the dead in Oklahoma City.  When we bought our new Highlander, one of our purposes was to be able to take at least four people with us on ward temple trips or other activities, and it worked perfectly--two in the far back and two in the back seat.  It was so fun to interact with them on the trip--just over an hour each way.

Outside the Oklahoma City Temple with the YSA Ward

Two coincidences at the temple.  We knew a lot of the kids' first names but none of their last names.  When one of the young ladies I had met Monday at home evening was being baptized, I heard her last name and thought she had to be the daughter of a dear friend from Kansas City.  When I handed her her towel I asked her, and sure enough, she is my friend's daughter!  When one of the young men was being baptized, I heard his last name and it was the same as one of the elders in my mission in Taiwan.  It wasn't his father, but when he named his uncles, one was familiar, so he texted his dad to find out, and it was, indeed, his uncle who had served there.

Friday we attended our district meeting in the morning--there are 6 sisters and 4 elders plus us in the district.  Later that day we met our mission president for the first time; he was in Stillwater interviewing the missionaries.  

On Saturday (our P-day) there was a CES in-service meeting in Edmonds (about 50 minutes away) in the morning.  We met the other CES missionary couple (stationed in Edmonds) and the early morning and distance seminary teachers in the area.  After that we went to Oklahoma City and attended the temple.  When we got back to Stillwater we did a more extensive driving tour of the city and discovered the more "happening" side of town.  On the way back to the apartment we were treated to a spectacular prairie sunset.

We participated in Ward Council this morning, then attended the regular Sunday meetings.  Later the sister missionaries came to dinner, then we went to ward prayer.  We are so impressed with the wonderful members of the YSA ward--they are just super and have been so welcoming to us.

We Arrive in Oklahoma

Our Church Education System (CES) training at the MTC was fantastic.  We learned a lot and were spiritually enriched.  It ended on Wednesday at noon, and at 1:20 pm, we headed for Oklahoma.  We went via I-80 through Wyoming and had clear sailing until we hit Laramie, where we encountered a pretty scary snow storm from there to Cheyenne.  Fortunately we could follow in the tracks of semi trucks so progress was slow but sure.  Then we went south to Denver for the night.  We spent much of the next day with Kim, 2 1/2 year old Wendy, and baby Amanda, and got to see Doug at lunch.

With Amanda and Wendy

We then went as far as Colby, KS, on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Oklahoma Friday afternoon and went straight to the Institute building near Oklahoma State University (OSU) campus to get the key to our apartment.  The apartment has two bedrooms (one is an office), a tiny kitchen, and a little pond.

On Saturday morning we joined some of the members of the Young Single Adult ward in their service project at a food bank, then we spent the rest of the day getting settled in the apartment.  One trip the Walmart for the non-food items, home to get them in place, then back to Walmart for all our groceries.  I'm not sure the cashier had ever rung up that many items at one time before!

Today we had Regional Conference--it was broadcast to 255 stakes in three districts.  The speakers were Sister Reeves and Elders Robbins, Corbridge, and Oaks.  Very good meeting.  The sister missionaries assigned to OSU will come to dinner this evening, then we'll go to the Institute for ward prayer.  We're excited to go to the Institute tomorrow for our first day "on the job."

MTC

We completed our first week in the Missionary Training Center yesterday.  Wonderful experience, a little scary but mostly uplifting.  About 65 couples began the day we did, and they are going to serve all over the world and in a variety of capacities (military relations, Church Education, office, member/leadership services, etc.). What a church!!

MTC District

With President Bradford, our Stake President

Opening the Mission Call

We received our mission call on August 8, 2015.  We opened it in our home.  Eric, Emily, Miles, Grayson, and Stella were there with us.  Kim and Wendy were on the phone.  

Here's a video of opening our call: