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.