Week 42
It was a fairly quiet week.  We picked up one student in our Book of Mormon class, so we have five in that and the Doctrine and Covenants classes.  That seems small, but it's a nice size for here, and a nice size for discussions.  The Teachings of the Living Prophets class still just has Zack, our new convert, and we continue to enjoy discussions with him in that class.

Tuesday we had Taco Tuesday instead of soup.  This picture is really to show the bulletin boards.  When I think of all the years I evaluated student bulletin boards for the Teaching Methods course, I wonder if the students would think it only fair that I am responsible for three bulletin boards at the institute.  Kind of glad I'm not getting graded!

Taco Tuesday--the crowd got bigger a little later

Monday was the ward opening social/FHE, and we were back at the Linsenmyer's for a water slide and grilled burgers and hot dogs.  The evening actually got a little bit cool and the humidity was down--first really pleasant evening in months.

Bean bag toss, horse shoes, and dinner

The week's high spot was going with Zack to the temple on Saturday--Elder Kerr performed the baptisms as Zack was baptized for the dead for the first time.  He was so thrilled to be there.

Wednesday was transfer day for the missionaries, and we were surprised that Sister Smith was transferred to Ardmore (way South).  The new sister is also named Smith.  We also received a pair of elders to work in the YSA ward with the sisters.  That made our dinner table a little more crowded but very fun today.  Elder Richardson has been an assistant to the president for the last 5 months and his companion, Elder Van Alfen, is straight from the MTC last week.  Both delightful and dedicated young men. It is so wonderful to associate with these excellent young missionaries and see their passion for serving the Lord and sharing the gospel.  I'm so proud of my great niece Catherine and great nephew Daniel for their service in San Jose and New York City, and my sister Gloria and Catherine's other grandmother Venetta in Croatia--when Brigham goes to the MTC at the end of October that will make 7 of our family serving missions at the same time!

Farewell to Sister Smith

Week 41
Classes began at OSU on Monday, and our quiet town is gone.  The roads are crowded and parking places on the street around the institute are "double booked"--more cars than there are painted slots.  The institute parking lot gate has been open all week, so some of the frat boys sneak in and park their big pickup trucks or cars in our lot.

The young man who was baptized last week is just on fire!  He doesn't go to school this semester and works evenings, so he comes to a different institute class every morning.  He is anxious to learn and really seems to love the classes.  Today after the church meeting block Elder Kerr conferred on him the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained him to the office of priest.  He also gave a blessing to a sister on Friday (he's given several blessings to students since we've been here--I love being married to a man who honors his priesthood and is worthy to exercise it whenever called upon).

In sacrament meeting I gave a talk about the value of institute and the need to balance the secular with the spiritual.  The high counselor also talked on that subject.  Quite a few YSAs are die hard institute attenders, but quite a few don't come.  Hopefully some more will commit to coming.

I've heard of extreme Frisbee for a long time but never knew what it was.  On Monday that's what they did for FHE, and I learned that it's one more game I'd never be good at (sort of like touch football with a frisbee).

The players and the watchers

Main Street in Stillwater has some fun little shops and some fun statuary.  Elite Repeat (where we volulnteer on Saturdays) is on Main Street, and reached a milestone this week--it has donated $2.8 million dollars to charities since moving to the current location a few years ago.  Here are the statues on Main Street (and on Lewis Street by the Municipal Building).

And here's one on campus:

Spirit Rider

These cowboy silhouettes are located in lots of places around town--these are at Boone Pickens Stadium at every entrance.  

We're in serious cowboy country!

Week 40
Another great week.  On Wednesday my great-great niece Halle Anne Grant was born to Ken and Lauren--that was also my nephew David's birthday so he became a grandfather on his birthday.  Ken and Lauren are living in and taking care of our house while we're gone, so it's fun to think of little Halle livening the place up!

Yesterday Zack was baptized.  Elder Kerr confirmed him today.  This young man was so ready to hear the gospel--he asked the sisters if he could meet with them every day so he could get all the lessons as quickly as possible because he knew it was true and wanted to be baptized.

Zack with Brother Dobie--the Sisters right behind

The day before that, we took the sisters, Zack, Nicole, and Daniel to the temple so that Daniel could perform baptisms for the dead for the first time.  Daniel was so excited to be able to enter the temple, while Zack walked around the grounds and sat in the waiting area.  Elder Kerr baptized Daniel for three of our family names and four of Sister Smith's.

On Monday we went out to Blackwell Lake for FHE--Brother Linsenmeyer has a boat and the kids took turns tubing.  Hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner.  For the less adventurous we brought our giant bubble makers, and you can see the results were stunning.

Sarah the Bubble Master

Thursday was move-in day for all freshmen (they have to live in the dorms their first year), so Stillwater suddenly got crowded.  At church today we had several new students as well as lots of our "regulars" who were away for the summer.  It was fun to have a larger congregation than we've seen for several months.  And tomorrow school and institute begin again.  We're excited to be teaching Doctrine and Covenants, Book of Mormon, and Teachings of the Living Prophets.  Won't know until after the first two weeks if they will all carry.

Oklahoma note:  Architecture is not Stillwater's strong suit.  There are no skyscrapers, and the tallest buildings in town are the Kerr-Drummond dormitories (well, actually, the tallest is the grain elevator at the feed mill).  When we visited Kim and Doug in Tulsa last year we saw lots of great art deco buildings downtown, and even Enid has several art deco buildings.  But Stillwater doesn't have a whole lot of interesting buildings.  A very common home style in the older section of town is arts and crafts.  They are circa 1940s (maybe even 1930s), and there are many variations on the porch and pillars theme.

Top is a typical arts & crafts style, below are two old homes converted to law offices-- All on Duck Street

An interesting church building

Week 39
Wow--what a week!  The most important news of the week is that my great-nephew Brigham received his mission call to the Washington Vancouver Mission--he enters the MTC on October 26 (exactly a year after we entered).

The institute was closed Monday for carpet cleaning (the cleaners never actually came, so we don't know when they will show up this week), so we took the day to go to OKC.  First we went to a school supply store to get some materials to redo the bulletin boards at the institute, then we found a really nice Chinese restaurant for lunch.  The day's highlight was going to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.  We expected to enjoy it, but we were blown away by how magnificent it was! There is a permanent exhibit called Prix de West where the winners of each year's art contest are housed, but we were lucky enough to be there for the last week of the exhibit with all the 2016 entries.  The beauty of these western sculptures and paintings was amazing.

There is a gallery devoted to the work of Frederic Remington and one to Charles M. Russell.  While they are the best known western painters/sculptors, they've sure got some competition from these contemporary artists.  There were also galleries devoted to saddles, rifles and revolvers, western performers (the pictures of Matt Dillion, Kitty, and Doc made us weak in the knees, both having grown up watching Gunsmoke every Saturday night). Other galleries had displays of Native American art and life and the American Rodeo.  On the beautiful grounds were more sculptures, including a 33 foot high statue of Buffalo Bill Cody.   http://nationalcowboymuseum.org/explore-the-west/ Just in case you want to check out the museum.

Kerby with anonymous cowboy on left and with John Wayne on the right

Buffalo Bill Cody

At FHE Monday night we did tie dye. As the only folks in the room alive when tie dye was in its heyday, we probably made the worst looking shirts!

Friday, August 5th, marked exactly 9 months from the day we rolled into Stillwater, and exactly 9 months to the day we'll leave (we're extending our time a little over a week so that we can finish out the semester).  To celebrate, we ate at the Rancher's Club on OSU campus.  It is really the nicest restaurant in Stillwater and we had a delightful meal.

Only white tablecloth restaurant in town

Saturday morning we traveled to Norman (1 1/2 hours south) to attend the Scripture Conference--an in-service for seminary and institute teachers from both regions.  It was very good and uplifting.  We should all be ready for school to start again!

On the way home we stopped at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.  There is a visiting exhibit of Matisse and several of his contemporaries (including several works by his "friendly rival" Pablo Picasso).  It was neat to see, but frankly, not our favorite artist.  However, little did we know that OKC owns one of the largest Chihuly collections in the country.  It was an absolutely enchanting exhibit of the magic that Chihuly creates with glass.  I've loved every exhibit of his I've seen in various places, but this one was truly the best.

Must be for OSU--orange bowls

So, the half-way point in our mission caused a little reflection.  We have loved being here and exploring Oklahoma.  Working with our Young Single Adults has been absolutely wonderful--they are certainly choice.  Studying the gospel so intently to be able to teach our classes has probably been the very best part of the mission.  As senior missionaries, we are a little more distracted by the "cares of the world" than are the young missionaries (car registration, property tax, income tax, home up-keep via Ken and Lauren, medication refills, etc) but what a grand experience it is to be able to devote the bulk of our time and attention to the work of the Lord.  We highly recommend it!