Week 24
This has been a week of commemorations.  Tuesday was the 21st anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing at the federal building--they have an annual marathon and other commemorative events. In Stillwater, today is the six-month mark of the homecoming parade tragedy when the woman intentionally drove into the crowd--killing four and injuring 46, some very seriously.  There were several articles in the paper with in-depth memories of the event.

We had heavy rain several days this week, but mostly nice weather.  Roses have been in bloom for several weeks, and we're starting to notice the humidity.  It's not bad yet, but certainly doesn't feel like the desert.

Monday's FHE was dodge ball.  When they announced it, I pictured the dodge ball from 4th grade.  Things have really changed in the 50 plus years since I last played!  The game starts with about a dozen balls in the middle, then on the count of 3 both sides run to the center and grab all the balls they can.  Then multiple balls are flying--if you catch one, the person who threw it is out, if it hits you, you're out, and you can dodge or deflect the ball with a ball in your hand.  They played about 5 games.

Elder Kerr just lobbed the ball

This Tuesday is the last Soup Tuesday of the semester--and we won't start up again with that until Fall term starts in mid-August.  In 15 weeks we had 14 different soups, and alternated white bread, wheat bread, breadsticks, cornbread, and biscuits.  In case you wonder, here are the logistics: Kerby made a shopping list template that matches the layout of Walmart.  There are two side-by-side on the page--the right side is for the institute and the left side is our shopping list.  We get to Walmart on Saturday morning and each take a cart; mine is for our list, his is for the institute.  As we go down the aisles we can see what needs to go in each basket.  Then we switch carts--I take the institute cart and pay for it with our institute credit card, after first showing the clerk our tax-exempt card.  Then we load the groceries in the car, institute first, and drive home to unload our goods and put them away.  After that we take the other groceries to the institute, and then go off to Elite Repeat for our community service.

On Tuesday, I can make three loaves of bread at a time in the 6 quart Kitchen Aid mixer (I make 6 loaves total on days I'm not making something other than bread).  While those are rising, we work on the soup.  There are two nice big stockpots, and our stove has two large burners (rather than the usual one large and three small).  Because the stove is electric and things take forever to come to a boil, we split the recipe (generally for 40ish) and make half in each pot.  We serve the soup in a large electric roaster, so it can stay nice and hot for the whole 1 1/2 hours from 11:30 to 1:00.  Kerby is becoming an excellent sous chef, and he's a wizard with washing the pots, pans, and other preparation accoutrements.  

Soon after arriving here, Brother Valletta said there was a little extra money in the budget, and did I think we needed anything.  WELL, we bought a food processor, a kitchen scale, a thermometer, two fabulous whisks and two sturdy, long wooden spoons, a chef's knife and two paring knives, and a good, large cutting board.  Of course I got great deals on all of them from a variety of online sources.

I realize that's more detail than most folks want, but when I'm old and gray (oh, wait, I already am!) and look back on the mission I'll be glad to read our blog record and remember how we did this.

We were sad to say goodbye to Sister Englebrecht this week, and now Sister Liddell has two new companions, Sister Smith from Idaho and Sister Christensen from Logan.  This transfer our district lost three elders and three sisters (two went home and others just assigned to other areas).  We continue to be impressed with the dedication of these wonderful young missionaries--they're serving because they want to, and they bless many lives.

Week 23
You can't get a better highlight for the week than a baptism.  Tuan, a young man from Vietnam here working  on his PhD in finance, was baptized yesterday.  He'll be confirmed today in church.  The sisters found him last fall and have been working diligently with him--he had no religious background at all (Christian or otherwise) so it was a step-by-step process for him.   His major professor just happens to be LDS, so he is the person who baptized him.  It was a lovely afternoon.

Tuan with ward mission leader and Dr./Bro. Carter

Tuan with Sisters Englebrecht and Liddell

Sister Englebrecht was scheduled to go home at the next transfer in seven weeks, but she has had some severe health problems and so she and President Walkenhorst decided it would be expedient for her to return home at this transfer.  She'll be leaving us on Wednesday, and we will miss her.  It is so wonderful to get to know these dedicated missionaries.  Since the sisters assigned to OSU and the YSA ward come here for dinner every Sunday, we feel like they are family.

On Saturday morning after we did the grocery shopping we went to the Stillwater Arts Festival downtown--music, food trucks, and 80 art and craft booths.  Kerby endured it and I enjoyed it. We made a couple of purchases, including one at a booth where some of the jewelry the artists make is from antique mother of pearl buttons (obviously no seamstress could resist here!).

The wind was blowing wildly, though it was fairly warm, and early this morning we heard the thunder storms roll in.  It's been raining heavily all day.  We've had quite a dry winter, so this rain is a blessing--things are greening up beautifully.  Unfortunately, the hot muggy summer can't be too far away.

This weekend was also the 10th anniversary of an OSU tragedy when 10 people associated with the basketball team were killed in a plane crash in January, 2006.  There were 2 players, the trainer, broadcast engineer and commentator, and others aboard the plane when it crashed in Colorado.  They have a 5K and 10K run every year to commemorate Remember the Ten.

Tuesday and Wednesday were the Stillwater Stake "Fill the Temple Days" where folks tried to do multiple sessions/ordinances and keep the temple busier than usual both days.  We needed to stay at the institute, so we went down on Friday evening.  Dusty went with us.  He received his endowment on Tuesday, went back on Wednesday with some YSAs in the ward, then came again with us on Friday.  He is a delightful young man--he's going home as soon as the semester is over then reports to the Mexico City MTC in June in preparation for his Spanish-speaking San Antonio Texas mission.  

On pleasant days we take a short walk in the afternoon.  Sometimes we go to Theta Pond (featured in previous posts) which we did this week.  We watched children feeding the ducks, geese, fish, and even a turtle.  On the way back we noticed this medallion in the sidewalk:

We're really quite fond of Pistol Pete--good thing,
'cause he's everywhere!

Just two weeks left in the semester--hard to believe!!

Week 22
Last week one of the wonderful girls in the YSA ward received her mission call to Finland. A young man just had his interview with the stake president, so his call should come in a few weeks.  There is such a nice spirit about these soon-to-be missionaries!

One morning we took a walk around a pond down the road from us (it is surrounded by a nicely groomed one-mile trail).  In one of the trees was a rather remarkable looking bird--about the size of a robin, but with a ridiculously long tail and a golden breast.  He took flight and was most interesting to watch.  When we got home we looked him up on the web and discovered he is the scissor-tailed flycatcher--the OK state bird.

The state bird of Oklahoma

We've been seeing more cardinals lately, too.  Another natural delight is the dogwood tree.  A few brave souls try to grow them in Utah, but dogwoods really don't like the climate or soil there.  Here they can grow to be magnificent specimens.  The way the blossoms seem to float above the branches is quite ethereal.

For FHE one of the girls in the ward taught a Zumba class--we started with the warm up, but that about did us in, so we left the actual dancing to the rest of the ward.

They've got rhythm

On Saturday afternoon we went to an OSU baseball game.  They lost to Texas Tech, but it was a lovely, relaxing day.

The boys of summer

I know you think that one day I'll be used to all the orange a black around here, but I'm not sure that will happen.  It is possible that the percentage of people wearing orange to a game (hmmm, about 99.9%) is the same as the percent wearing blue to a BYU game.  However, some people may just happen to wear blue.  No one accidentally wears orange!  At least orange is a nice perky color--it's hard to be down when gazing out at a sea of it.  We also see lots of orange cars.  The little number below is at the frat house across the street from the institute.

Orange Corvette, anyone?

In our Teachings of the Living Prophets class, we had a recap of all of the talks given by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve at General Conference last week (now we'll study six of them in depth over the last three weeks of class).  It was great.

While Elder Rasband was speaking on Saturday, I had a very deep impression about the sincerity of the brethren and the dangers of cynicism.  I've been thinking about it all week, so will share a thought or two here.  What struck me was the congruity between what they (the general authorities) are and what they project.  Too many people--generally very intelligent, seemingly well grounded people--try to project a veneer of doubt or cynicism about spiritual matters or church practices.  They know they feel more deeply about the matters, but don't seem to want anyone else to realize the depth of their commitment.  There is double danger in the outward cynicism.  First, it can influence others who are struggling to become less trusting, less faithful, and less sure of what they believe.  Second, it can bore it's way into the core of the person so that soon it isn't just a veneer but actually replaces commitment and testimony with doubt and disdain.  Surely projecting cynicism while feeling deeply is just as hypocritical as the pharisees projecting piety without conviction.  Both must be abhorrent to the Savior.

Our health report is good--no coughing to speak of for a few days, we returned to the YMCA this week (with sanitizing wipes in hand), and our degeneration seems to have slowed to a normal pace.

Week 21
Quite an eventful week, so please bear with a long post. FHE was Human Pac Man--"Mario" had a long pole with a magnet end to eat up paper clips, the ghosts had to walk without bending their knees--everyone had to stay in the blue lines.

Elder Kerr contemplating his moves

While waiting for their turns this bunch had a group back massage--the girl at the back is a licensed massage
therapist, so maybe they hoped her skill would seep through the rest of them

Monday night at about 11:50 we heard a rumble and felt a magnitude 4.2 earthquake. We did miss the tornadoes that hit Tulsa on Wednesday, though!

Wednesday morning on our way to the institute, traffic by the elementary school was blocked and backed up, red lights were flashing, and children were going away from the school instead of toward it.   A woman with a wire sticking out of her purse had gone to the school and kept saying, "I'm going to take the kids to heaven."  The kids inside were locked down, the ones on their way were quickly evacuated to a safe place, and every home or business surrounding the school was evacuated.  The police very quickly removed the woman, who had nothing dangerous in her purse.  Mass texts informed the parents where to pick up their children and that they were all safe.  School was cancelled for the day.  Mental illness is very sad and can be very scary!

We taught our Wednesday class, then zipped right off to Zone Conference.  It had started at 9 am, but we taught until 10, so were a little late.  When we got to the stake center, the car inspections were underway, and seeing all the missionary cars with their trunks and hoods open was a funny sight.

Open wide and say, AHHH

The president's first message was about teaching investigators about repentance.  It was very powerful and meaningful for all of us as individuals as well as for teaching investigators.  He called that section Repentance, a Principle of Happiness.  After the assistants spoke and we had lunch, the president's second message was about teaching by and with the spirit--again a wonderful message. We were the 5th and final zone to have a conference in the last two weeks.  President Walkenhorst will be released at the end of June, and during lunch he gave us some bios and showed pictures of President Mansell and his family (whose oldest son recently returned from his mission in Taiwan, and whose second son just got his mission call and will be in the MTC at the same time as his parents are there for mission president training).  He handed out OK postcards and had each missionary write a little welcome to send to the new president.

The health report:  I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we joined the YMCA to improve our health, and went 3 times the first week.  The next week Kerby had a dreadful cold,  (he figures he got it from the handles on the elliptical!) then I got it.  Anyway, I went to the doctor on Monday because I was wheezing and coughing pretty badly, and he put me on antibiotics and steroids (Kerby had already started taking steroids for his lungs).   After having to sleep (or try to) in the recliner for two nights because of the wheezing, and Kerby wasn't sounding much better--in fact it's sort of been like the tuberculosis ward around here--we both went to the clinic on Friday.  Now he's on antibiotics and I'm on a short, stronger dose of steroids.  All to say that we have missed two weeks at the Y, but we figure we will both live and probably go back tomorrow.  In class we had recently discussed Mosiah 2: 21 where we learn that the Lord preserves us from day to day ". . .by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your will. . . . ," and a little episode like this makes you appreciate that gift.

Saturday was "Greek Discovery Day" on campus, where incoming freshman (and their parents) can visit the sorority and/or fraternity houses in preparation for the rush in the fall.  That's what all the building across the street was about.  Here's the finished project.

Since arriving in Stillwater, we've seen big butterfly statues (about 4' by 4') outside several businesses and some of the Greek Houses. We finally learned that they were part of a fund raising effort a couple of years ago for Wings of Hope, the Family Crisis Center.  Artists donated their talents to paint them and they were auctioned off.  Some are very beautiful, some are whimsical, and some are a little odd.  This one is at a sorority down the street from the institute.

General Conference was, as usual, a spiritual feast!  We watched it at the institute, and on Sunday, we had a Crock Pot Luck lunch between sessions.  There were a couple of investigators (both of whom have set baptismal dates) Saturday morning and both sessions on Sunday.  A bit overwhelming for them--imagine having so little context for so many of the messages!--but they seemed to enjoy much of what they experienced.  What a joy and a blessing it is to have prophets, seer, and revelators in our midst.  All we can say is Amen and Amen to the inspired and inspiring talks we heard over the the last two days.

PS:  I don't know what's up with the varying font sizes and spacing--it all looks normal on the draft, but doesn't come out that way when published.  May need magnifying glass to read some of it!