Week 61
As we near the end of the semester break, we are also coming near the end of our "to-do list" for the holiday.  This week we finished cleaning out, straightening up, and revitalizing every nook and cranny of the institute and our apartment.  We got rid of things that I don't think anyone's eyes had fallen on for years!

Next semester we will be teaching three classes (if they all carry)--Doctrine and Covenants, Part II; Pearl of Great Price; and Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel.  The last one is one of the new core classes for institute graduation, and we're very excited to teach it.  Brother Valletta's responsibilities changed a couple of weeks ago, and he now is responsible for seminary and institute in the two stakes in Tulsa and the one in Bartlesville in addition to the Stillwater and one OKC stakes.  The south OKC stake he previously had went to the director in Norman.  That means a lot more travel for him, and is the reason we'll pick up the core course.    We've been working on syllabi for all three classes, and printed those on Friday.  This week we'll work on preparing the actual lessons and power points to be ready when classes begin on January 17.

I've mentioned the bulletin boards before.  In preparation for the Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel class, I decided to make the big bulletin board (that just gets changed once a semester) about Christ.  Here it is:

On the way back from the temple on Thursday, we made two stops at places on our list of things to see before we leave Oklahoma.  First was Pops in Arcadia.  It's a burger place/gas station on Route 66 that sells hundreds of kinds of soda pop.

The bottle with straw is 66 feet tall (for Route 66)

Soda pop everywhere!

When we got back to Stillwater, we went to the OSU art gallery, housed in the old post office.  It's very small, and is now showing works by female Native American artists.  Very enjoyable.

Friday we woke up to an inch of snow.  That's not much compared to what much of the country is getting right now, but it's still on the ground because it's been really cold.

Snow at the institute

Saturday we had a CES in-service in Edmond.  In-services are always uplifting and always give us something to think about improving our teaching.  We had heard about Teds--supposedly the best Mexican food in OK--and it's just a few blocks away from the Edmond institute building.  So we stopped there for lunch, and it was excellent!

Our ward met today and it was so nice to see a lot of our students after the long break.  This evening we have a potluck supper to be followed by the worldwide YSA broadcast.  President Nelson will be the speaker, and I can't think of a better way for the students to get themselves ready for a new semester than listening to an apostle speaking directly to them about things that concern them now.