Week 16
We had a busy and eventful week.  On Monday we played volleyball in FHE, and Elder Kerr actually contributed!

He's a good blocker

I don't recall if I mentioned earlier that we knew it would be wise to have a doctor in Stillwater, but you can't just go to the doctor--you have to audition (ok--not really, but that's what it felt like). In December we went in and filled out forms, then the doctor looked them over and decided if he'd take us on as patients.  We got calls a couple of days later saying we were accepted.  Then Part 2 is to actually go in for a new patient visit, and the first available were in February.  Mine was a couple of weeks ago and Kerby's was Tuesday.  It looks like we both passed and now have a physician in town if the need arises.  He's actually very nice and thorough, it just seemed funny to have to go through "try outs" to get a doctor!  

Speaking of auditions, we've tried out three hairdressers since we got here.  We went back to the third one on Tuesday evening, so I guess she passed and we'll just go to her from now on.  It's pretty traumatic finding a new stylist after going to the same one for 15 years.  Of course Kerby didn't find it traumatic at all, having never gotten terribly attached to any barber.  He does find it a bit odd to sit in a beauty salon and have his hair cut by the same person who does mine, but that's just what works best on missionary schedules.

Thursday was a ward temple trip for baptisms.  Elder Kerr helped in the baptistry, but I did a session with Heidi, who did work for her grandmother, and another young woman who was also pretty new to the temple.  Great day.

It has been our ward's turn to clean the church building every week in February, so we helped with that on Friday.  Afterward we enjoyed steak and baked potatoes compliments of Jake.  He's working on a PhD in animal science, and these were "research steaks" that he grilled outside the building while we cleaned.  

Really not nice to say "look over here" when your spouse has a mouth full of steak

Friday night was the "Evening With a General Authority" for all CES employees and volunteers.  We watched at the institute building with seminary teachers from the stake.  The first speaker was Elder Kim Clark, acting in his capacity as Commissioner of Church Education.  He said that we have to do better and be better than ever before in teaching the youth and young adults.  He shared "The Parable of the Nursery Leader" to teach the principles of faith, hope, humility, and love in teaching seminary and institute.

The primary speaker was Elder M. Russell Ballard, who reminded us that our purpose is to help build unwavering faith in the lives of our students as they navigate a world that is increasingly hostile to faith, family, and gospel standards. His talk was superb and long, so I'll just share a couple of highlights. He said that unfortunately, many young people in the church are more familiar with google than with the gospel, more familiar with the internet than with inspiration, and more familiar with facebook than with faith.  They need to be inoculated with faithful, thoughtful, and accurate interpretations of history, doctrines, and practices as they go into the world.  He counseled us to avoid getting off course by periodically having a personal interview with ourselves using 2 Nephi 26: 29-32, Alma 5: 14-30, and D & C 121: 33-40 to guide the process.  Another great meeting.

Saturday was the Black and White Dance--a regional YSA dance sponsored by our stake.  It was held in the OSU ballroom.  Since it's easily been about 40 years since I've been to a dance, I'll simply say they have changed a whole lot!  Apparently having a dance partner is not part of the process any more--nice to avoid any sense of being a wallflower, but not really helpful for getting to know people.  At first it was kind of funny to watch groups in little circles dancing--mostly guys in one group and mostly girls in another.  Finally the groups got larger and integrated.  We stayed about an hour and a half, and actually danced several times (we also actually danced together).  The only song I recognized was Footloose.  It seemed like everyone really had a fun time.

A big clump of dancers--not partners

One last note--my nephew, Dave, was called as the bishop of his ward last week.  Kerby's son, Eric, and my nephew-in-law, Lonn, are also serving as bishops right now (my other nephew, Spence, was released as a bishop last year).  Kind of neat to have a family full of them!

Week 15
Another busy week.  I've mentioned several times that the activities committee comes up with so many great activities for FHE, but I don't know if I stated that there is always a 10 minute lesson before the "fun" begins.  The lessons are generally really well thought out and presented.  This week the game was Human Hungry Hippos and it was crazy.  Four teams try to capture as many balloons as possible--one person per team is on a cart holding a basket and ready to grab balloons, the rest push that person into the balloons then pull the cart back with a rope, and repeat until all the balloons are gone. The team with the most balloons after several rounds wins.

Human Hungry Hippos

For Soup Tuesday we had a chili bar--"and the crowd went wild."  The YSAs like any soup we make them (after all, free food is free food), but they really had fun putting whatever toppings they wanted on the chili, and many commented on how good it was.  May have to repeat this one soon.

Every week the sisters have a booth for about an hour or two near the student union, and they have found some investigators that way.  We went over to see how they were doing this week (it was an incredibly windy day, so kind of a challenge for them) and we went into the union for a few minutes.  This transparent piano suspended from a huge frame has been "hanging around" all year to celebrate something (not sure what), so just thought it made an interesting picture:

And it plays when you push the button

The wind howled all day and all night long--it was warm, but kind of icky being out in the strong wind.  We actually got up to 82 degrees this week.  That just seems wrong for February! Next week the highs should be in the 50s and 60s, and the lows are still in the 30s, but the daffodils have started blooming.

This week's highlight came on Saturday.  In an early blog post I said that on our very first week in Stillwater I discovered that a young woman here is the daughter of my very good friend from Kansas City days.  Well, Heidi received her endowment in the temple on Saturday, and she asked me to be an escort, along with her mother.  I had been her mother's escort in the Mesa temple about 25 years ago!  I hadn't seen her mom, Paula, in over 20 years, so it was a wonderful reunion in addition to the opportunity to be with Heidi.

A glorious day with Paula and Heidi

We just got back from ward prayer--that is held every Sunday night at the institute.  There is a short lesson/thought, then ward members tell whoever is praying the names/situations of those they would like remembered in the prayer.  Then everyone kneels, and the person offering the prayer (referring to the list) gives a heartfelt prayer, including everyone who was mentioned.  It's really a neat experience to be part of that.

Week 14
We just returned from the most exciting event of the week:  Mariah's baptism.  She is a delightful young woman who began investigating the church a month or so before we arrived.  She was in our Old Testament class last semester, and has been fully active since she first found the church through her boyfriend (who just happens to be our new ward mission leader).

Sisters Englebrecht and Liddell with Mariah

As Primary President, I was often working on baptism programs for children--this is the first adult baptism I've been to in many years.  It was wonderful to hear the same talks (one on baptism and one on the holy ghost) but prepared for an adult mind and heart.

On Thursday a young stranger walked into the institute and said, "I'd like to learn more about your church."  He had actually had one meeting with the sisters, and we quickly texted them to come over if they could, which they did.  He met with them for a bit, then the sisters came into our office and asked Elder Kerr if he would give the young man a blessing.  He's needing to make a lot of decisions very soon and has felt very disquieted.  The sisters told him about priesthood blessings, and he was blown away, but then felt it would be helpful.  It was a neat experience for all of us.  He came back the next day for a lesson with the sisters.

Wednesday was another very warm day (73 degrees) so we took a walk in the afternoon.  I've included pictures of Theta Pond before, but in this picture you can see the most well known duck on campus.  Also a picture of the library.  We continue to enjoy this lovely campus.

Our favorite duck because of his fluffy little topknot

The beautiful library

Gas was down to $1.29 per gallon on Saturday morning, but back up to $1.39 by that evening.  In a state heavily dependent on oil/gas revenue, these low prices are causing a lot of problems in the state budget and also in employment.

On Saturday we helped clean the church building (our ward's turn all month), then after that we learned something interesting about the church welfare program here.  On the second Saturday of each month, a semi-truck arrives from the OKC bishop's storehouse.  Some of the items are unloaded and put in a smaller truck to go to Enid, and the rest of the items are brought into the cultural hall and placed on tables all around the room (labeled by item type), creating a giant grocery store.  Then the individual family orders are filled (either by the family/individual if able or by missionaries or other volunteers) who walk around the room and put the specified items in a box.  All of the people receiving aid are supposed to come to the church before the truck arrives, participate in a devotional, and help unload the truck and fill orders if they can. Our ward was going to help, but there were so many young missionaries and aid recipients that there was no need for us.   

Yesterday, to celebrate Valentine's Day Kerby bought me some beautiful pink roses (actually I picked them out at Walmart--it's very hard to surprise someone to whom you are attached 24/7).  We ate dinner at Olive Garden and rented a movie.  At church today the elder's quorum gave all of the sisters a lovely long stemmed rose.  Some wonderful testimonies were born--like young adults all over the church, they are going through trials and growing pains, but relying on the Lord for strength and comfort.

Week 13

Nothing too exciting happened around town this week except we watched the price of gas go down about three times--it's now $1.36 per gallon.  Don't know what it's doing in the rest of the country, but that seems pretty low.

Stillwater community center had its annual Dancing with Daddy event on Saturday--reminded me of the daddy/daughter dates in Primary.  My daddy bought me a sweet little corsage of pink rosebuds for our first one--he was one classy guy!

There is exciting news back in Orem--there will be a new baby in our house in August.  My great nephew Kenneth and his wife Lauren are expecting!!

Elder Kim Clark of the Quorum of the Seventy was our visitor for stake conference yesterday and today.  What a spiritual feast we had.  In the Saturday night session, he said the theme of the meeting was finding, rescuing, etc.  Then he spend half an hour discussing Mosiah 18: 21 (with input from the congregation); he really delved into what each part of the scripture means and what the implications are for our families.  He concluded the discussion of the scripture by saying that the loops of the "knit together" are the small acts of love and kindness we do in our families, and that the Savior is the knitter who knits us together in unity.  He then promised that attending to the concepts in this scripture make us more powerful in reaching out to and rescuing others.  We watched the wonderful video about a family reaching out to share the gospel with others and discussed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbRUXWVMlw

Today's session was also wonderful from start to finish.  Elder Clark talked about the version of the foolish man and the wise man as found in Luke 6: 46-49.  In this account, both men start out on the earth, but the wise man dug deep into the earth to come to the rock (the Savior) upon which he built his foundation (covenants and ordinances that bind us to Christ).  The framework of the house is our daily lives--the small and simple things that connect us to Christ, i.e. prayer, scripture study, obedience, temple attendance, and service.  

Following conference the ward went to one of the counselor's homes for tacos and visiting.  Later, since tomorrow is Chinese New Year, we had Chinese food for dinner with the sisters.