May 29, 2009 - comments from Ranelle

We are just completing five months of being "Michiganders" and we are feeling quite at home. Our surroundings are beautiful. Everything is very green and there are many wonderful flowers in bloom. This is a very "clean" state: it has to be--it get washed so constantly. Wednesday afternoon enough rain fell in three hours to equal one-forth of Utah's annual rainfall.






We are two weeks into the summer semester. John and I are each teaching one class. Though enrollment is small, our classes are very rewarding. Along with the students, we feel we are also learning and growing in our understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are also attending a class taught by the institute director. He is an amazing teacher and we are educated, inspired, and edified as we participate in each class.






We've enjoyed some Muncie, Indiana, company this past week. Gene and Jim Hoban stopped by on their way to their cottage on Lake Huron. It was good to be with them again. Gene was my Visiting Teacher in Muncie and we biked with Jim and Gene on the beautiful Indiana greenways. They loved seeing our apartment, the institute building, and our woods--then they took us to dinner.








A few days later, Ryan and Betty Jo Shrack came for the weekend. These two were undergraduate students at Ball State University. Ryan served a mission in the Utah Provo Mission and we enjoyed lots of contact with him when he was in Provo. Betty Jo served a mission in Salt Lake City and we were able to see her when she entered the MTC and again as she completed her mission. They began dating when they both returned to Muncie and were married in December 2007. Now they are going to be parents in August. We had a delightful weiner roast with them in our "woods" and enjoyed two full days sharing this mission with them as we shared our first one in Indiana.



We are enjoying our garden on our deck. We are harvesting fresh salad greens now and will have tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, and green beans later in the summer. We plan to plant some zuchini and yellow squash in the garden plot on the edge of our woods soon.

There are wonderful pictures to share, but I am still having difficulty learning how to connect them to the narrative. I'll still keep trying, but you might just have to use your imagination.

We enjoy your comments and emails.

Ranelle

Adrift in A Sea of Youth and Virtue

Last night I highlighted the missionaries, and yes, they are authentic heroes. Their counterparts--likewise heroes in their own right--are the young people who, with no formal rules imposed, follow their own self-chosen regimen using "rules" offered by the Lord God Himself. And without question or murmur they daily live God's way with scarcely any outside notice.

Take Family Home Evening for example. Tonight our young people held "FHE" here in the institute building. No outside supervision; no adult help, they simply go about their elective togetherness and have a great time doing it.

It goes this way--they gather in the Institute building, all twenty-five of them. Seated around one room's perimeter, one young lady was tonight's teacher. On the "board" she listed three scriptures that had been pre-assigned as "homework." Listed beside each scripture were associated questions. For the next hour the participants freely contributed thoughts and other passages of scripture. All was quiet; all was orderly; all was peaceful and calm. It was wonderful! (In a word, it was "heavenly.") After the discussion, the group adjourned to the playing field, and the sweet ambience erupted into energetic motion as lithe bodies raced full-speed while playing a game of "steal the flag!" It was fun for the old couple watching from a distance, but in the words of James Clyde O'Dell, "What a vulgar display of youthfulness!"

At times like these, Ranelle and I enviously watch and whisper to each other how blessed we are to be tolerated by some of the world's finest.

During the 1950's, a recent transplant to Californian was called an "Okie." (I am told that term has since become extinct.) Thereafter, his descendants could legitimately be known as "Californians." If one originated in Utah, he/she was/is called a "Utahn." I suppose children born in Oregon are called Oregonians, and New Yorkers are just as their name implies. But what happened when you came from Missouri? Of all things, in the past you were called a "Puke." And if from Illinois, in the past you were called a "Sucker." And from Indiana, you are still known as a "Hoosier." (And while we lived there, someone was manufacturing for sale, a cement statue of an animal they called a "Hoosier Goose.") I mention all this, because we have learned that citizens of Michigan are referred to as "Michiganders." (No mention of what the Michigan women are called.) Interestingly, however, the state of Michigan consists of two parts--the upper peninsula, that is connected with the lower peninsula by a massive bridge called the "Mackinac" bridge, and we are told that those living in the southland of Michigan are referred to as "Trolls." (Why? Because they live "under the bridge.")

Just a lot of nonsense, but it is interesting to experience this local flavor. I will say, however, that despite the cold, if you happen to be a Michigander, you come from one very lovely state!

I mention this, because last Friday Ranelle and I traveled to the "Celestial City" of Petoskey, Michigan (you need to experience it to appreciate what I am saying), and along the way we gazed in wonder at the greening farmlands, interspersed everywhere by just-leafing-out woodlands. All along the way northward, the countryside is lightly salted with stately red barns, and elegant farmsteads that resemble, in some cases, miniature cities. We feel most privileged to be here!

P.S. An interesting note about Petoskey is that down on the "seashore" (of Lake Michigan) one can pick up "Petoskey stones" that are found only in that location, and no where else in all the world. From a distance they resemble common gray rocks. But when wetted, and examined closely, they have pretty little crystalline rosettes that are somewhat like cells that make up the substance of the stone. And my guess is that the reason Lake Michigan is so large is because people gather for souvenirs, so many of those stones!

The Mormon Missionary Miracle

I may wear this theme out entirely, but it bears repeating. And repeating. It is about Mormon missionaries.

Each week, and at various times in between, Ranelle and I get to sit in with about twenty of them in their zone conference meeting. And being the senior couple, we have been asked by our mission president to give them a ten minute lesson, each time, about grooming, manners, doctrine, or whatever we judge is helpful for the service they are giving. Last week Ranelle conducted a class in "conducting" (music). Today I gave them a class on teaching, and had them read six different scripture passages about what they need toward being more effective teachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our parts went, I am happy to tell you, very, very well.

But our contribution is minimal in comparison with what materializes when those missionaries meet. Reason: Because present there is a group of the finest young people imaginable--just fine, young men. Handsome, courteous, confident, righteous.

And today Ranelle and I got to be a part of that miracle! I tell you, it is a joy to mingle with those kids, shake their hands, and listen in as they instruct each other, and discuss the nuances of their lives as they serve their Lord.

And Sister and Elder O'Dell get to be a part of it! We are blessed to the very core!

pictures from Holland Tulip Festival