Week 20
Once again I start with a picture from FHE--this time it was Pudding Pictionary.  Three teams competed, simultaneously having to draw the selected word in their chocolate pudding while the rest of the team guessed. Great fun.

Intense concentration

On Tuesday we went to A Taste of Stillwater.  It is an annual fundraiser for Stillwater Public Education, and among the ticket prices was a five adult special.  So, we bought that, and put on the ward Facebook that we had three tickets for the first three who wanted to go with us. It is held at the expo center, and draws about 1100 people to sample food from 30 Stillwater restaurants (some local and some chains).  It really was fun (as well as tasty and filling) and there are a couple of restaurants we want to try based on our samples.  We probably only tried 10 or so, but it was fun to wander around and see what was offered.

A couple sat down across from us--we asked if this was their first time at the event and they said it was because they were new to town.  We said we were, too, having been here just 5 months.  They said they'd been here 4 days!  He is joining the OSU faculty in Industrial Engineering (one of my favorite classes in my PhD program) and she will be the new pediatrician at the medical center.  They come here from Louisville, KY, where he was teaching and she was a pediatric ICU doc.  They acknowledge divine providence in the events bringing them here, and we shared the Hallelujah pass-along card with them.  It's been fun to share those with people when we can.  One of the ladies I work with at Elite Repeat thanked me for giving her one last week--she had watched it and truly enjoyed the message.

The weather was a little cooler this week than last, and we had two days and nights with incessant high wind.  It really got a little creepy listening to it howl through our windows and doors.  About 1:30 am on Thursday I awoke to the smell of smoke.  In my half awake/half asleep state I went wandering through the apartment looking for a fire.  When I was fully awake I realized it was smoke from a wildfire being carried by the wind and entering through the patio door in our bedroom.  

Friday, we could look out our office window and watch the frat boys building this: 

Maybe an ark?

It is soon rush week (or maybe some other recruiting effort) for the fraternities and sororities, and many of them are doing amazing things to attract folks.  We have no idea what this is yet, but we did observe that if the students spent as much time and effort on their studies as they do these things, they'd all have straight As.  A couple of the Greek houses have turned their lawns into beach volleyball courts (with tons of sand), others are building structures, etc.  It's a whole different world to us.

OSU really does excel in a lot of areas.  The OSU Trumpet Studio won the national trumpet ensemble title for the 3rd straight year (we heard them at Christmas and were very impressed).  The OSU Cowgirls Equestrian team took the Big 12 Conference Championship yesterday.  I forgot to mention last week that the wrestling team took 2nd place in the national championships, with a couple of guys winning 1st place in their weight classes.  I guess all this orange really pays off!

Kerby spent all week feeling lousy with a dreadful cold, which he generously shared with me.  I'm actually staying home from church today, because now I feel lousy, and I doubt anyone really wants to be around me.  Otherwise all is well, and we know these are temporary.

It was great to be back to teaching our institute classes after Spring Break.  The students bring a wonderful spirit with them to classes, and the scriptures and conference talks we study together are so edifying.  In both Old Testament and Book of Mormon classes, the scripture blocks this week were directly related to the Savior's life and the Atonement--wonderful preparation for Easter Sunday.  We feel privileged to be on a CES mission in Oklahoma with these fabulous YSAs.  

Dusty received his mission call last week.  It came while he was in NYC at the wrestling nationals.  He deputized another young man to open it for him--Brother Valletta videoed him doing it, then they sent the video and a picture of the call to Dusty.  He is going to Texas, San Antonio, Spanish speaking.  He goes to the Mexico MTC in mid-June.  He's in our Old Testament class, and the mission president in San Antonio doesn't know how blessed he is to have Dusty coming to him.

Week 19

Spring Break this week!!  I see why this is a good thing--since BYU didn't have one, I didn't realize how nice it is to have a little R & R at mid-semester.  Virtually all the kids were gone all week.  We spent Monday doing errands around town (including joining the YMCA so we can get some exercise on weight machines, etc) then joined in FHE.  One of the counselors in the bishopric lives a bit out of town, where we had a bonfire with hot dogs and s'mores. They also had a TV set up by the fire to watch a movie, but they never got to the movie; just visiting.

Relaxing by the fire

Tuesday morning we had our inaugural YMCA visit then drove down to OKC to spend a couple of days.  On the way we saw a turtle in our pond and about 20 wild turkeys in a field.  Just a note about our geese--there are not nearly as many now as a few weeks ago.  I guess they flew north.  This doesn't seem south to me, but perhaps to a goose Oklahoma is a lot better place to spend the winter than Canada!  Anyway, we went directly to the temple and had a nice session.  

After the temple we went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.  It was very well done and very moving.  Last year was the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and some of the exhibits had been redone in commemoration.  Outside is the Field of Empty Chairs, one for each of the 168 people who died.  Smaller chairs represent the 19 children who died in the daycare.  The chairs are arranged in 9 rows, one for each of the 9 floors of the building, and a bronze chair with the name of each victim is placed in the row representing the floor where he or she was when the bomb went off.  At night, the glass bases are illuminated.

The Field of Empty Chairs

Outside the museum is the Survivor Tree--a 90 year old elm that was charred and hit by debris and shrapnel but didn't die.  The inscription on the low wall surrounding it reads:  The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us.

The Survivor Tree

A wall of hand-painted tiles sent to OKC by children showing their support for the lost children surrounds a children's area just outside the main entrance.

Inside the museum are 10 different display areas taking you through the events of the day and following weeks in chronological order.  One of the most disturbing exhibits was where we went into a room to simulate a Water Board meeting that was being held and recorded in a building right across the street from the Murrah Building.  The meeting recording started at 9:00 am, and the explosion occurred at 9:02 am--hearing the actual explosion was truly horrifying.

Hate and fear take many forms, and seeing the aftermath of this particular form was very sobering. Across the street is a Catholic church, and after the bombing they erected a statue of Christ named Jesus Wept--He is facing away from the memorial.

Jesus Wept, from the street side

The Gate of Time--memorial entrance across the street from statue of Jesus

On the church property was a lovely specimen of a redbud tree--just love those!!

We spent the afternoon shopping for some comfortable shoes for me and a suit for Kerby--and despite the disdain with which most clerks met our request for a brown suit, we found one.

Wednesday morning we attended the temple again (the hyacinths are in full bloom in the garden), and then went to a movie--Race.  It was really enjoyable; a movie about Jesse Owens, the 4-time gold medal winner in the 1936 Olympics in Germany.  It rounded out our OKC theme of fear and hate--this time in the area of racial/ethnic bigotry and  discrimination.  In both instances (federal building bombing and the movie) heroic feelings and actions always rise to counter-balance the negative. Pretty amazing how that happens.  Must be very frustrating for Satan to have heroes and goodness pop up whenever he gets a foothold in the fear and hate department.

Most of Thursday was spent at the institute working on lesson preparation--we saw one student there the whole day, and she didn't stay for very long.  Just before we left the carpet cleaners came, so the carpets were wet well into the afternoon on Friday.

Church attendance was still pretty sparse today, as quite a few YSAs had not yet returned.  This evening I spoke at a stake singles (older, not young) fireside.  There were about 25 people there, many from outside the immediate Stillwater area.  My topic was "Be of good cheer," and we had a nice time.

Week 18
First the nature report.  There are signs of spring everywhere we look.  On Tuesday, just minutes before a 2-hour torrential rain, we walked over to the OSU Foundation building to see the magnolias. Have never seen such intense purple magnolia blossoms.

Then we saw these two lone tulips in front of the institute.

And we're seeing pear blossoms give way to green leaves on trees all over town.

Redbud trees are everywhere, and they are now coming into full bloom.  One day we saw (and heard) a woodpecker madly hammering, then heard and saw a meadowlark.  A few more cardinals are flitting about, and we see hawks soaring and/or perched every day.  Coming back from OKC on Saturday we looked over to the side of the road and saw two great big birds--roadrunners!!  We didn't know they existed outside of New Mexico, but when we looked it up, there is a variety that lives in OK.  This morning we had a huge, loud thunderstorm with more torrential rains.  When we drove to church all the culverts along the way were full or even overflowing. Right now the sun is out and we should be in the 80's tomorrow.

Friday was ward temple day, so we went down for the last session.  Then we stayed in OKC because we had a seminary/institute in-service in Edmond Saturday morning.  I really admire all of those dedicated early-morning seminary teachers.  It's not easy to face a bunch of sleepy adolescents every morning, but teachers have such an impact.  I'm so grateful for Sister LeMon, my seminary teacher in Kansas City, and the wonderful lessons she taught and spirit she brought every day.  

After the very good in-service meeting, we stayed in Edmond for a while to shop.  Elder Kerr wore out his brown suit and wanted to find a replacement, but apparently brown suits are very out of fashion (one store clerk actually looked aghast at the suggestion we could see one!), so no luck.

Church attendance was pretty sparse today, as this coming week is Spring Break.  The students in our ward come from various cities in OK, from Arkansas, and lots from Texas, so many had gone home for the week. One young man is from Las Vegas, here on a track and field scholarship--he was the mile leg of the distance medley relay at the NCAA indoor track championships last week.  Another young man is on the wrestling team and leaves this week for the national championship in New York--he's not wrestling, just supporting the members of the team who qualified.  He and a young woman in our ward are anxiously awaiting their mission calls and two others are in the process of preparing their applications.  Exciting times!

Each week we have Sunday dinner with the sister missionaries assigned to our ward, and they give us a spiritual message.  Tonight we looked at the Church's Easter video--FollowHim.mormon.org  If you haven't looked at it yet, please take a few minutes to do so and remember why He came to earth. What a great message to share with the world.

Week 17
On Monday (Leap Day) we got to the institute and found the big Bradford pear tree in full bloom:

In the shadow of blossoms

These pear trees are all over--some obviously planted, but many that look wild in the woods, so the whole landscape is dotted with big puffs of white.  The red bud trees are barely starting to bloom--should be gorgeous soon. Temperatures were in the high 60's and low 70's all week.  Folks keep warning us that there is often a big snowstorm over Spring Break (March 14-18), but that's hard to imagine with all the warm weather we've been having.

Preparing our classes (Old Testament part 2, Book of Mormon part 1, and Teachings of the Living Prophets) keeps us busy--that's a lot of reading, but we really loving teaching our classes!  We had just finished teaching the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon a week ago, then started Isaiah in the Bible this week.  I've mentioned before the delightful dovetailing of doctrine we see as we study and teach. Each class has only four students, but they are dedicated and participate fully in the discussions.  To graduate from institute, students need to take the four new cornerstone classes (Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel, Foundations of the Restoration, The Eternal Family, and The Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon) and two or three "primary elective" courses.  The classes we teach are primary electives.  Brother Valletta, the institute director, teaches one Foundations and two Eternal Family classes this semester. His evening Family class has about 20 students, but all others have about four.

Last week I forgot to mention something about the CES fireside.  The closing hymn by the choir was the words to Oh, How Lovely Was the Morning sung to the melody of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.  It was really stunning and made one concentrate on the words more than usual.

Friday was Elder Kerr's birthday.  Not easy to surprise your mission companion, but I called in an order for a cake, and one of the YSAs picked it up along with ice cream, balloons, and candles.  She had it all in place when we arrived Friday morning, and Kerby was indeed surprised!  Friday is district meeting for the rest of the missionaries, and it turns out two of the sisters had birthdays on the 4th as well.

The cake says Man Alive, He's 65

With Sisters Adair and Ryan

Each of Kerby's kids called, so he got to talk to them and the grandchildren.  Later his sisters called, and even my sister called from Croatia!  We ate dinner at a local steak place called Freddie Pauls--it was very good.  The next day at Elite Repeat (where we volunteer each week) they gave him a delicious big cupcake.