It's a new semester! Our students are back and we are back to work!

We just had an awesome weekend. Saturday morning was a baptism - a vibrant 72 year old recent widow. Elder & Sister Ulrich taught her and invited us to the baptism in the Dunkirk Building in our stake - first time we've been there (40 min drive). It's a beautiful building in the middle of corn and soybean fields! The rooms are tiny but it has everything. The chapel is lovely - only center benches (a real problem when people sit on the ends and leave the centers vacant!). As always at a baptism the spirit was very strong. Great way to start the day! We shopped, did laundry, (normal preparation day) then went for games and an early dinner (grilled

rib-eye steaks and roasted potatoes) at the Jacobsons. They asked us to teach them to play Hand & Foot. Aftewards we all went to a missionary open house for our former Institute president,Victoria, leaving soon for Guatemala. Gary held a ferret for the first time there. The house smelled "animalish". Sunday was our weekly missionary coordinating meeting with the Elders and Branch missionaries. Church was good - two ready-to-leave-soon missionaries spoke. We had a dinner invitation after church (a dog lives there too) and a CES fireside in the evening (8 pm). The Branch watched it at the Jacobson's home. President Uchtdorf gave an excellent talk about truth. It was a great weekend - despite the very heavy rains which caused some flooding in the city. Unfortunately Gary woke up with allergies today. . . Ferret? Dog? Other? Not sure - but not good!

Brenda taught the Church History Institute class this week - Wednesday and Thursday nights. She had no time New Year's week to prepare, so Mon. afternoon to 5:30 on Wed. was totally prep time - except for FHE, M&M, District Mtg, eating and sleeping. (And there were 8 students in the class - not just the one in the photo.) Brenda read lots of good stuff in the History of the Church by Joseph Smith (that she didn't have time to use in class). Her favorite was a letter written by a non-Mormon member of Congress to his wife after hearing the Prophet Joseph speak in Washington D.C.. You can find it in Vol. 4 page 78 (Feb. 1840.)

Gary did a good job teaching the Tuesday and Friday Munch & Mingle New Testament lunch lessons this week. He had both of those ready before New Year's! Brenda made the lunches - grilled cheese on Tuesday and waffles and bacon on Friday. We had to try out the Belgian waffle maker we got for Christmas. Next time she won't be making the fancy yeast recipes- way too time consuming for a crowd - and Gary says, "way too many dishes to wash afterwards!" The Krusteaz Buttermilk mix works great and uses one large bowl. Gary will be teaching Institute the next two weeks, has one lesson ready and is preparing the second one. He hardly wastes a moment!

We have a new District Leader & companion - Elder Tobler & Elder Russell (camera and keys go everywhere with him!). They have one of the last two red cars in the mission. We had a good District meeting on Wednesday - then fed everyone hamburgers. On Thursday Brenda updated the missionary and Institute photo boards and the calendars. There are 14 missionaries out from the Branch now and two more leaving soon. We had our quarterly interview with President Collins - always enjoyable. We made some very lemony and yummy cookies for refreshments on Thursday (thanks Julie). Twenty eight students came that night for Institute.

Just a quick update on "our babies." Ryan & Chelsea's

Kaylee is two weeks old and has already outgrown the newborn size clothes. She is doing very well. Kristin & Joe's Adria is 4 months old, healthy and smiley. Thank goodness for photos and facetime! After several cold days we were grateful for 59 degree temperatures here on Saturday. All our snow is gone now. We felt badly for our below-freezing family members and friends in Utah!