Week of February 25 - March 3, 2013

Two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking to and shaking hands with every missionary in the Indianapolis mission within 10 months of each other! Awesome! For many of the missionaries it is the first time they have ever been in the same room with an apostle. Elder M. Russell Ballard was here this past Saturday along with Presiding Bishop Gary Stevenson and Area Authority Seventy, Elder Lansing. They each spoke/taught. It was a great meeting - very focused on missionary work.:) President Collins also gave an inspiring message and admonished us to not just be on a mission but to Be Missionaries. In the brief bathroom break I met a fairly new Sister missionary, Sister Bonner - from Heber City, Utah.  Within a minute we had discovered that my grandfather and her great grandfather were Thacker brothers - so we are second cousins once removed! It is a small world in the church.

Since we were going to be in Indianapolis, we met up with Kevin & Dacia and kids for an afternoon at the Indianpolis Museum of Art.  It was a beautiful museum and they had a children's "art scavenger hunt and

                                                      a hands-on art experience room -

that the girls loved.  It was very cold, 24 degrees and windy.  Otherwise we would have enjoyed the extensive grounds and spent more time in the 100-acre nature park with its big "toys" like this basketball court.  Bryson had fun playing basketball with his Mom despite the cold. 

Afterwards we drove downtown to see the sights - the State House (capitol), famous Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in a bricked & driveable circle, and all the high rise buildings - and the traffic!  

 

It was a good day all around!

 

Now back to the first of the week - Monday FHE was an "Ugly Sweater, Crazy Shoes & Crazy Hair" Dance.  (Harrison didn't have crazy hair).  It was a big hit.  The YSAs just dance individually all out there together on a fast dance and then pair off for the slow dances.  The guys are fabulous - making sure all the girls dance the slow dances.  They could have danced all night! 

Tuesday was a game night at the Institute.  We taught kids how to play Perudo with the dice that Ryan & Chelsea sent.  Qwirkle is still the favorite game though. Gary taught everything this week - two New Testament lunch lessons and Institute class (although the students taught half of that class).  I cooked and also cleaned the building and tried to get over my cold.  Friday evening we helped clean the church and then played volleyball for an hour afterwards.  Next week is spring break for the students (and kind of for us too)!