Week 70
For some reason this was an exceptionally good week. Our classes seemed just filled with the Spirit and the discussions were great.  It is so remarkable to see the overlap in concepts and principles between courses--so often what we're discussing in D & C relates to what happens in P of GP, and Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel might draw from both of those.  We just love studying intently and teaching these great YSAs.

Monday was a fun FHE activity--a messy dinner.  Everyone donned a garbage bag and had to eat spaghetti and a cupcake without using their hands.

It helps to have a big mouth

Northwest Oklahoma has had devastating fires this week.  We smelled smoke on Friday night, but really haven't noticed any other effects here.  However, on Tuesday the sunset acted like there was smoke in the atmosphere and we drove home facing a giant red sun.  By the time we could stop for a picture the color intensity had dropped, but still quite a pretty sight.  A couple of years ago, a sister in the mission office lost everything she owned when her farm was caught in a wildfire. The combination of dry and wind can be deadly.

Our washing machine hasn't really worked properly the whole time we've been here, but it finally got worse and the repair didn't fix the problem.  Thursday the problem ended when the mission bought us a new machine.  Kerby kind of misses watching and waiting so he can manually move it to the spin cycle, but he thinks he can adjust to the new washer.

We had a special event Friday night.  My friend Paula, whose daughter (Heidi) lives here, drove down from Kansas City so she could be sealed to her parents.  Her mother died over 30 years ago, and her father passed away about 18 months ago.  Kerby was proxy for Paula's father and Heidi was proxy for her mother.  It was a marvelous experience for the four of us (and her parents, too!).  After that a few people came in and we then spent another hour doing sealings.  Very nice way to spend a Friday evening.

Saturday we went to Edmond for our CES in-service.  Brother Valletta addressed several things, but the bulk of the time was spent on Doctrinal Mastery and the Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge process.  The three principles to "guide us as we seek to learn and understand eternal truth and resolve questions or issues" are 1. Act in Faith 2. Examine Concepts and Questions with an Eternal Perspective, and 3. Seek Further Understanding through Divinely Appointed Sources.  This is the first academic year for Doctrinal Mastery (which replaced Scripture Mastery), and it's taking time for seminary teachers all over the world to understand and implement it fully, but I truly think it will revolutionize the seminary experience and the ability of youth to face an increasingly challenging world.

The coming week is spring break, so attendance at church was sparse today as so many students went home.  We'll take a couple of days off this week, so hope to have an adventure or two to report next week.