Week 9
We spent most of the week getting ready for our classes this semester.  We'll be teaching three different courses (if they all carry):  Book of Mormon part 1, Old Testament part 2, and Teachings of the Living Prophets.  Brother Valletta is teaching two different courses (two sections of one of them and one of the other) and a couple from the stake is teaching Book of Mormon part 2.  Each class only needs about 4 students to carry, but we won't know until the end of the second week which classes will have enough to continue.

On Friday we went to the temple in Oklahoma City, then drove further south to Norman.  Saturday morning was a Scripture Conference in-service for all the early morning and home study seminary teachers  (and the two CES couples) in the Stillwater district (3 stakes) and the Norman district (2 stakes).  We didn't want to drive down early on Saturday, so spent the night in Norman, home of the University of Oklahoma.  After dropping off some supplies at the institute building there, we drove around the campus (very nice, but not as nice as OSU [see, we're starting to bleed orange and black]) then went to the art museum on campus.

The museum was a wonderful surprise.  The visiting exhibit was 20 busts from the Hall of Emperors of the Capitoline Museums in Rome, and it was the first time the exhibit has been in the US--it was marvelous.  Also on the first floor was a re-creation of the sitting room/parlor/dining room of a wealthy OU benefactor.  It included all of the original furniture as well as all of the family art--a Monet, a VanGough, several Renoir, a Pissaro, a Toulouse-Lautrec, a Gauguin, and many by lesser known artists.  Fantastic!  On the second floor was a very impressive collection of Southwest and Native American art.

Saturday morning dawned with a fairly heavy snowfall.  We only had a mile to drive (and we were grateful we'd come early), but many folks were on the road for over two hours to get to the in-service, and the snowstorm caught them half-way there.  The keynote speaker was President Gray, stake president in OKC.  His remarks were so touching, as he reminded us that we're reminding students that Heavenly Father knows them individually and is breaking down barriers for them constantly.  His topic was helping our students (and ourselves) recognize the Ananias moments in our lives.  We looked at Acts 9: 1-9 briefly, but focused on Acts 9: 10-17.  What were Ananias's thoughts, feelings, fears as he received his instructions from the Lord?  What allowed him to fulfill his assignment?  We discussed those and several other questions, and we invite you to ponder those verses, as well.  Our focus in the chapter is generally on Saul/Paul, so it's easy to overlook the spiritual insights of the Ananias experience.

Brother Sturges, the CES coordinator in Norman, used the book of Jonah to illustrate an approach to teaching (and studying) the scriptures.  That is to make a list of the questions you would like answered about a particular chapter or block of verses while reading it.  So we read Jonah 1 individually, each making his or her list.  Then we shared our lists (where were Nineveh and Tarshish, why was Jonah a prophet, why was he scared, why did he volunteer that he was the cause of the problems, why didn't he just jump in, how big was the fish, etc).  Though some questions may not be "answerable," we talked about where one can find answers to a lot of the questions (footnotes, Bible Dictionary, lesson manuals, etc), but the most interesting thing is what it does to make reading active.  We did some similar activities with the remaining verses of Jonah, and it was very interesting how many of the questions led to spiritual insights as well as to factual information.  Again--give it a try with the next block of whatever you're studying in the scriptures right now.

The final speaker was Brother Valletta, teaching about IUFA (identify doctrine and principles, understand them, feel their importance, and apply them).  That is the pattern for teaching the scriptures that we learned about in the MTC, and continue to strive for as we begin teaching our classes tomorrow.

By the time the in-service was over, the snow had stopped and the roads were dry.  Today our ward met together after the two-week hiatus, and it was so good to be with our YSAs again.  Tonight we attended the world-wide devotional broadcast with President Nelson and his wife, Wendy as the speakers.  Good, good thoughts and spirit.