FHE was held at the Institute Monday night. After a short lesson they all tie-dyed shirts and/or socks. Here are some of the items "processing" in ziploc bags. We should have a colorful bus ride to Kirtland this weekend! Two investigators came to this activity. The young lady and her co-worker friend member also came on Tuesday to our Munch & Mingle. During the short lesson I had everyone read a few verses from the New Testament. I could tell this girl was a bit confused. Found out later it was the first time she had ever opened a Bible! She and 3 other investigators were at Sacrament Meeting today! The work is going forward.
Wednesday was July 4th! It was a quiet day at the Institute so I cleaned and Gary worked on his lesson for Thursday night. Early evening we went to the free night at the Minnetrista Museum and saw the Civil War Letters exhibit. It was well done. We liked the beautiful cursive handwritten old letters written by soldiers from Indiana. We enjoyed reading the blown-up transcripts and saw the love of country and love of their families expressed there. At 9:30 we walked to the end of our blocked-off street (about 3 blocks) and joined the crowds for the fireworks.
They were very similar to the NSL Eaglewood fireworks - with the addition of 59% humidity and temperatures that had cooled to 88 by 10:00. We missed the great music, nice grass and being with friends and family. Munch & Mingle Thursday was our biggest group yet - 12. Gary's lesson went well that evening teaching all 22 students about beavers and self-reliance. The other teacher wasn't able to be there. I cut up a watermelon and made flat chocolate chip cookies (not on purpose) - but they ate them anyway.
On Friday we drove to Columbus, Ohio (with permission from Pres. Collins) and attended a session at the temple. Then we joined Kevin & Dacia & kids at a nearby hotel. After swimming we tended kids while Kevin & Dacia went to a temple session. Saturday was Columbus Zoo & Aquarium Day. We enjoyed this great place despite the 100 degree temperatures. Kevin said this zoo reminded him of Disneyworld - hot and humid with nice pathways and lots of trees and benches and fun things to see. We loved watching the brown bear in the water literally up to her ears playing with the fish. We saw everything from manatees, otters and penguins to elephants, badgers and reindeer.
We saw lions and tigers and cougars (Bryson, our BYU devotee was first to see that!). The red pandas were cute and the HUGE fruit bats were scary! We saw snakes and flamingos and beautiful lorikeets that you could feed nectar to in cups. . . .and much more. We enjoyed listening to the Ensign on the Mormon Channel on the way home. (we love "converstaions" on that station on our i-Pod too ). We did most of our excerise indoors this week - walking through the rooms, upstairs as well. One of our institute young men saw my left arm and quickly identified the red streaks as poison ivy! Guess it is everywhere in Muncie - including our yard. The itchy bumps on my right knee and arms have yet to be identified - but seem to be getting some better.
