Institute Tuesday

It is tricky teaching Institute twice a week for over a year--I have started worrying about if I am sharing the same stories and testimony.  Using different curriculum for each class adds to my concerns.  This week as I was planning the lesson for Clarksville which included Enos...and therefore prayer, I kept thinking that I had just given a lesson about prayer to them.  In looking though some handouts for a conference talk, I found a handout on prayer--which I had made for the Ft. Smith Institute--just two weeks ago.  Maybe couples teaching Institute should just do one year missions, so that the kids can be exposed to other stories and styles...but we will keep plugging along.

In Ft. Smith this week, I pulled the tables apart when we set up the room--as we had three different group things we were going to do.  Just doing that, increased the talking during dinner--which is a good thing and one of the reason we have dinner before class--for the connections.

We talked about Christlike Attributes----here is our whiteboard summary of Christlike Attributes (plus Benjamin Franklin's list of virtues) and how we can develop these attributes.

It is a great privilege to teach Institute and to talk about the gospel in this setting twice a week.  I will miss it when I return home....and especially the preparation which is one of the blessings of being a teacher.

Flowers Are Back!

And actually there have been wildflowers blooming since February.  However, now they are everywhere.  These red flowers can be seen along the road sides and freeways everywhere.  I don't remember them so much when we arrived a year ago, but perhaps it is because they started in March and may be moving to the end of their cycle. 

But I definitely remember these tiny yellow flowers....

And these orange and pink ones that are just getting ready to bloom.

And the "greens" are back.....Green is a perfect color in nature because greens look "good" together no matter the shade and color...

at the bend on our street

More of the red flowers

This is what they look like "in person."

The little purple ones are also getting ready to bloom along our street

The baby yellows....

My mom would have loved Arkansas and its three seasons of wildflowers!

Monday Moments

One of the local cardinals sitting on our mailbox this morning.  Randomly, Gary's screen saver of old photos showed a similar photo of a bird sitting on our Syracuse mailbox later in the week.

We had in-person interviews and district meeting along with the car inspections for the young missionaries.  Here Sister Witt and Sister Holding are posing with their cleaning gear for Jena to take a picture.  Oh, how she loves these sweet sisters.

It was great to meet with President and Sister Collins for our last in-person interview with them.  We shared lunch with them which allowed them to head home to Bentonville a bit earlier than planned. They are awesome and we look forward to our friendship with them over the next years of our lives.
 

Bentonville YSA Dance

Saturday night we headed up to Bentonville to support our young adults at the YSA Regional Dance.

We had four from our YSA--5 counting Jena who had a great time.

"BeReal" happened while on our way to Bentonville--I think this photo matches our last one as Gary once again stuck his finger out---

Due to a traffic accident and the road closed from I-540 to I-40, we had to take backroads which made us late and our YSA were already in the middle of the Swing dance instruction.  They all did a good job considering that they were being taught pretty complicated moves rather than just the basic swing.

Jena liked the line dancing.....

although she did enjoy her private Swing lesson by a "cute guy"  (her words, not mine)

Christian headed out before we got a group photo....

Jena, Lizzy, Roxy, and Sally

a nice spot next to the Stake Center for a dance

A sunset view of the Bentonville Temple
located next to the Stake Center

The Sack Tower

We headed to Five Guys for lunch and the Elders decided to build a tower with their sacks....

Elder Condie didn't want to stop until every sack had been added....

Success!

These great missionaries still are young adults and it is fun to see that side as well.  They chose to be dedicated and hard-working missionaries every day and they give up "typical young adult stuff" to do that.  But they have silly moments as well that makes us all laugh.
 

Zone Temple Day-April 11

Spring has come to the flower beds of the Bentonville Temple.....

Sister Holding is a photographer so she and Jena were also taking pictures of the flowers.

This was our zone--"every other transfer" temple trip.  Gary hurt his back on Tuesday and still wasn't doing well on Wednesday so he stayed home.  We got to transport Sister Holding and Sister Witt who are serving with us in the YSA branch.

Photos afterwards just right before the rains came.....

Sister Witt, President Beutler, Sister Holding

Ft. Smith Zone

Front Row: me, S, Witt, H. Boren, H. Beagley. S. Holding, Jena, President Beutler
E. Neese, E. Moon, E. Tonks, E. Eilander, E. Condie, E. Petersen
E. McKee, E. Keller, E. Pina, E. Ashcraft, E. Rigby, and E. Wayne

Sweet group of hard working missionaries.

 

Spring Treats

Following the suggestions given by state government to stock up on food stuffs, water, and gas prior to the eclipse (they were expecting lots of people to invade the state.  I think they had some but not the millions they were hoping for), I planned our Tuesday meal so that I could buy all of the groceries on Friday before the eclipse.  I don't know why, but for some reason I thought it would be fun to make- "Oreo Dirt Pots."  You probably have had them as a kid.  They have Oreos crushed up to look like dirt and then layered in a clear cup with chocolate pudding and cool whip and then a plastic flower is added to make it look like a little flower pot.

By Tuesday, when Jena and I were making them, I was really doubting this as a good idea.  Perhaps my Cub Scout days were showing through.  Jena liked making them so we had a fun afternoon doing that.

I was still undecided until we got to the Church and I showed Karina the plan.  She loved it and she and Jena went right to work adding the flowers and the "glow in the dark" dinosaurs.

And the young adults loved them!  It brought a smile to their faces as they saw them on the counter.  The dinos were in big demand by everyone.  And I saw the flower stems stuck in scriptures and purses as the young adult sisters left for home after class.

A silly little thing, but it brought smiles to the young adults--that's a win!
 

The Pass Along Cards

I tried to put these into my eclipse post but I couldn't get them in the right place that made sense, so I am making a stand alone post.

These are our current Sister Training Leaders--Sister Witt and Sister Holding. They were sharing how to complete the pass along cards on the group messenger.  Don't you wish that you got to hang out with fun missionaries like them?

 

April 8th- Total Eclipse Day In Arkansas

It is fun to be serving a mission during the time that a total eclipse is going to happen in your area.  Our zone meeting last week was focused on Spiritual Eclipses and what keeps us from doing our best to follow the Savior.  The Collins designed these fun pass along cards and the missionaries used them in the week before the eclipse to invite people to watch General Conference, come to Church, or to learn more about the Savior.

Arkansas Bentonville Pass Along Card

We had first thought we would go to Mena for the eclipse.  We enjoy that area down there.  However as we considered possible traffic issues, we decided that Clarksville was a better option.  In addition to I-40, there are several county roads to go from Ft. Smith to Clarksville while Mena has only a very few options.  We reached out to the Clarksville Bishop and asked if it was okay for us to be there and he said yes and mentioned that they were not planning any ward events (because everyone could watch from their homes and workplaces.) Ft. Smith was outside the zone of totality--like a 98% which was similar to Syracuse in 2017.  Jessica and others had convinced us that a total solar eclipse was something different and worth traveling for so that is why at 8:30 am we were headed to Clarksville.

We choose to take State Road 22 most of the way before turning north on 109 and on into Clarksville.  Wise choice as there was no traffic on our way to Clarksville--

We were surprised when we arrived at the Church to find three or four cars already there and the door unlocked.  We had friends coming from Fayetteville and we had told them to park in the back to not draw attention to the fact that people were at the Church...and that we had access to the building and to the bathrooms.

We got there in just over an hour or so and in plenty of time to set up for our on-line district meeting. To avoid traveling on this high traffic day, our area chose to do on line meetings on Monday morning.

When we headed outside again, we were amazed to see that the parking lot and the grass areas were filling up.  Going from expecting to be the only ones, we ended up having over 150 people at the Church.  It was a PARTY!  There were families playing ball, kids running around, and people chatting and sharing information about eclipse and everything else.  We loved talking to everyone.  We shared pictures with the Bishop who was thrilled that people were there (but asked us to lock up after everyone left which we were happy to do.)  We talked to people from several places in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Utah, Idaho, and California.  I didn't know that a Church was a good place to watch the eclipse.  I thought I was pretty clever thinking of it myself, but apparently it is a THING!  Most were members of the Church although a few were not.

It was fun because there were a few older couples who had served or were thinking about serving senior missions so we talked about that.  There was another family there with a son with Down syndrome who was 8 so we had to introduce him to Jena and talked about service missions in the future.  Families brought some things to share some odd effects of the eclipse which was also fun.

Gary and Jena claiming our spot in the middle

Our friends, the Ellises, came down from Fayetteville with some of their friends.  They couldn't sit with us as their friends wanted a more shaded spot, but we got these pictures with them.

Our Eclipse shirts which I got
everyone for our Anniversary. 
I could have sold them on the day of the eclipse.

We had brought the extra eclipse glasses and they came in handy as a few people didn't have enough or wanted one for their camera.  We were happy to share and loved the fun things others shared with us.

The moon shaped shadows of the circles

The changing of the shadows of the leaves

A moment where there was no shadow cast by my feet and legs...

There had been some concern about cloud cover and clouds started coming in around noon but not enough to ruin our views....

The crowd continued to grow....

The golf course also did brisk business as I guess people wanted to share the eclipse moment on the golf course.

A "lawn" neighbor took these photos of us as the eclipse was progressing.

She gave us posing instructions as well.... Look at the eclipse....

"Point"    Gary apparently needs more specific directions. LOL

We enjoyed about 3 1/2 minutes of totality in Clarksville, but my camera wasn't really good for catching the eclipse.  We saw the sunsets in both the east and the west, we enjoyed the dark and the coldness that same with it--but the best moment was when the moon first completely covered the sun, the whole crowd cheered!!  It was so unexpected but so perfect.  I was glad that I was in a place with 150 strangers enjoying these amazing event.

To the west, an 18 wheeler had pulled to side of the
street right before totality.  Afterwards, he drove past
and honked to everyone. Humans enjoying nature together.

Elder Moon in Greenwood posted this photo from his camera of the totality. It was all so amazing.

A moment and a day to not be forgotten! How perfect is our earth and Our Creator for this amazing display!

As people were leaving, someone approached us and asked if they could make a donation to the Church for their "hospitality and bathroom."  They said it had been a great experience being with this group. I guess we looked official with our nametags.  We declined their money but then shared a pass along card with the Church's website and suggested that they make a donation to the humanitarian fund.

Traveling home was a bit more challenging...

At first traffic was clear especially on these county back roads

and we even got to go across a new bridge....I sent a text to our family that the roads were clear for us....

but about 10 miles from Ft. Smith as we joined Hwy. 22, we hit the traffic.  So it took us about 2 hours in total to make the return trip home/

You never know what blessings will come your way when you serve a senior mission!