Week 27
What a week!  On Monday and Tuesday we took a little holiday before classes started again.  We drove south west about 2 1/2 hours to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. It was established in 1901, and is now home to 650 bison, 700 elk, and 300 longhorn cattle (and zillions of prairie dogs), as well as native grasses and the second highest point in Oklahoma.  We went at the absolutely perfect time, because it's calving season, so we saw many little bison calves, as well as many little baby prairie dogs.  It was so fun to see the mama prairie dogs playing with their babies and mama bison nuzzling their offspring.  There are not a lot of cactus, but those were in bloom--another sight that doesn't happen often.  We drove to the top of Mt. Scott--it's elevation is 2400 feet, pretty low by mountain west standards, but it's the best they can do on the plains.  Beautiful views from up there.

A contented longhorn

Ancient rock slide on Mt. Scott

Being blown away at the top of Mt. Scott

We drove up to OKC to spend the night, and tuned in to the weather report to learn that nine tornadoes had touched down in Oklahoma that day--none near us, but there was one in Stillwater (and we missed all the excitement).  Two people lost their lives in some of the towns hit, and many home were destroyed.  The one in Stillwater was a bit north of town, and did take the 2nd story off a 1 year old house and destroyed some out buildings, but mostly affected fields.

Our institute director lives about a mile south of us, and he took this picture from his driveway:

And this is the same storm captured a few minutes later north of town

Tuesday morning we went to the temple and celebrated our third anniversary by doing initiatories, endowments, and sealings.  Later we just meandered our way home, exploring some little by-ways and stopping here and there to see what there was to see.  That evening we ate dinner at Freddie Pauls, a nice steak house.  

The Special Olympics were held in Stillwater May 11-14. We went over to a track and field event to cheer on a delightful young man who has attended our ward several times.  He is very active in another church, but had a friend in the ward, and we have enjoyed him coming to church.

Izzy ready to compete in the wheelchair race

All afternoon at the institute, Elder Kerr seemed a little distracted and kept getting up whenever he heard a noise.  Well, at 4:45 pm, the delivery man brought this beautiful bouquet--my anniversary roses/carnations/asters.  He was getting a little worried that they weren't going to get delivered to the right place.

 The first summer institute class was held that night--Church History from 1900 to Present. Brother Valletta taught that class, but he will be away most of the summer (some business, some pleasure) so we will teach the majority of the classes.  Then on Thursday the Missionary Preparation class started.  The couple in the stake called to teach a class will do most of that one, but they're having a baby soon, so we will teach for six weeks.

Soup Tuesday isn't held in the summer, so we decided to have a game night on Tuesdays.  We're calling it the Tuesday Twiddles (don't sit home twiddling your thumbs on Tuesdays--come play card games, board games, etc--and there will always be a Tuesday Twiddles Treat).  We'll just be there on Tuesdays to play games with whoever comes.  So many of the members of our ward have gone home or to internships for the summer, so it will be an adjustment to have such small numbers.

On Friday we came home to a heart attack--our door plastered with cute and loving messages from the sisters.  They are a lot of fun and so committed to their work--such a pleasure to be on the Lord's errand with them!

We're loved 

Despite the severe storms, the magnolia trees are hanging on to their blossoms.  These are not the magnolias we have in the west--I've only seen these in the east and south.  They're quite magnificent.

Almost open

And speaking of magnificent, the thunder/lightning storms here are incredible.  Earlier this week it finally dawned on me why the NBA team here is called the OKC Thunder--it's because thunder storms are what OK does best!  (By the way, the Thunder are in the Western playoffs with Golden State Warriors next week, and there's a lot of Thunder mania around here).

Friday we made another trip to the temple, and while coming home we watched an amazing lightning show for about 30 minutes.  At that point we drove right into the storm.  It was a white knuckle drive (I know, because they were my knuckles on the wheel) for about another 30 minutes.  Windshield wipers going full blast and barely touching the water--visibility was about 6 inches (that may be an exaggeration--it could have been 4!).  With slow, steady driving we finally got to the other side of the storm and drove the rest of the way home with no problems.  

We are so grateful for our call to serve in Oklahoma and especially with the Young Single Adults and the Institute in Stillwater.  We have been blessed in so many ways and we simply love what we are doing.  The gospel is the anchor in our lives and it is a privilege to devote this brief time to the Lord's service.