From the Elders to the Seminary Students

Stories will be forthcoming about our trip to Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, the end of summer, 5 years of marriage etc. Tonight I wanted to write about my recent change of callings in the church.

For the last 3 years and 8 months I have served as President of the Urbana Ward Elders' Quorum. The week I was set apart as president, was the same week my experiment began and I had to start getting up at 5:00 am every morning to go feed the cows on my experiment. That first year was a trial and I wouldn't have done so well without the help of my wonderful wife Brittney who checked on the cows on Sundays while I was at church meetings, or without my counselors, Nathan Kartchner and Justin Dyer, and later Kevin Hoffman when Nathan moved. I felt my counselors were there to teach me how to be president. (I even named some of the cows on my experiment after them...Dyer, Kartchner, and Turley (Kevin Turley was my secretary)).

The first couple of years the quorum was full of graduate students who were returned missionaries and already serving as great leaders in the church. There is a story about an old farmer who enters his donkey into the Kentucky Derby. His neighbor asks him why he would do such a thing when he knows his donkey will never win. The wise farmer responds, "He may not win, but the association will do him good." That is how I felt serving with these amazing brethren, future doctors, lawyers, scientists, architects, janitors, mechanics, leaders of the church. I wondered why a simple farm boy like me was their leader.

Then a great trial of my faith occured when they split my quorum in two. How are you supposed to feel when you've been pouring your heart and soul into creating unity among such a great group of brethren and then they tear half of them away and put them in another quorum? And to make matters worse, my first counselor and dear friend, Justin Dyer was called to be the new young mens' president, which meant he could no longer serve as my counselor. It took great faith to raise my hand and sustain that calling. But I couldn't complain, when I found out changes were coming, there were two brethren who I felt my work was not done with and I prayed that they would still be in my quorum after the changes, and they were, and the joy I have had watching them continue in their spiritual progression has been great.

The quorum went from being a large, strong quorum with a deep well of leadership, to a smaller quorum, though there were still faithful, talented leaders in the quorum, there were fewer people to fill all the assignments. Some of the tools I used to direct the affairs of the quorum changed. It was a blessing to have the opportunity to preside over the two different sizes of quorums. The last year I went through three second counselors due to moves and internships, James McCubbins, Scott Cromar and Todd Freestone. It was a pleasure and honor to serve with each of them.

My favorite part of being president was one on one teaching moments with the members of the quorum for stewardship interviews. Some of my sweetest moments of being president were in these interviews.

Some intereting (at least I think so) facts about my time as President:
Two ward boundary changes, St. Joseph being split off and sent to Rantoul, and west of Neil being split off and sent to Champaign. I served with 2 Bishops, 6 counselors in the Bishopric, 6 counselors in the quorum presidency, 3 secretaries, 4 ward mission leaders, 5 relief society presidents, 3 primary presidents, 3 young women presidents, 4 young men presidents, 2 ward clerks, 5 ward executive secretaries, 5 quorum executive secretaries. As best I can count, I helped between 70 and 75 families move (some more than once).

The quorum has changed a lot over the last 4 years. Many have come and gone. I hate to see people leave (though it gives me hope that some day I will too, many of them leave to a dream come true with a great job and a house), but I love to have new people come.

Now I am serving as an early morning seminary teacher. We have a religious class every weekday at 6:05 am at the church for high school students. The first week has been great, though I have a couple students who would much rather be sleeping and refused to participate the first couple days of class, one finally read a scripture for the first time in class last Friday, yeah! I have found they enjoy group activities and listen better to each other than they do to me. So far 17 students have come to class. I love them. I hope and pray I can be an instrument in God's hands to help them have the strength they need to get through the high school years that are so trying and only getting worse. I want seminary to be a refuge for them, where they can get away from the sleeze, and degrading influences they face at school. I can only do it with God's help.

Mud, Sweat, and Tears

On July 3, Bruce, me, and other members of our ward played in a mud volleyball tournament in Tuscola. Cherry and I spent 2 days making these cool T-shirts



Before the tournament, we had a team breakfast full of french toast and pancakes. We were ready to play in the mud. We really tried to be intimidating, as we started each match growling and jumping in.




Although we played fierce and gave it our all...



...we were not afraid of getting dirty...


...we ended up losing both games and going home early. In the 2nd game, we tripled our score from the first game - so there was improvement. We just had a hard time getting it all together. Oh Well!

Better luck next year Mud, Sweat, and Tears team. We will really make the others "EAT OUR MUD!!"

Happy 30th Birthday Mr. Bruce

When I asked Bruce what he wanted for his birthday, he said one thing..... A JELLO Slide. So... after buying Gordon's Food Service (a great place to buy in bulk without a membership) completely out of orange jello, mixing nearly 75 gallons of it, (I was a sticky mess, so was my kitchen) and transporting 2 heavy garbage cans to Bruce's lab for setting up....VOILA!!







And this is how it's done.








I didn't get a very good picture of Bruce sliding down the slip and slide, but if you want to see some better pictures, and one of me, you can click here.


When we mentioned it over dinner, the missionaries were totally in. Elder Stidham and Elder Rosequist had to get special permission from their mission president. It came at quite the cost.



Amazingly enough, those white shirts came clean.

Bruce can't have a good party without a little JELLO wrestling.




It was probably one of the more disgusting things I've ever done.


On the positive side, if you get a little hungry, all you have to do is open your mouth while you jump in.
I would do almost anything to make sure my awesome and wonderful husband has a good birthday. You only turn 30 once! :) You might as well make it count for something.

Summer Musings

AHHH!! I can't believe that it is July already. Where did all the time go? It seems like just the other day I was looking at the clock on June 3rd and waiting for the school year to tick away and mark the beginning of summer vacation. There are lots of things that I enjoy about summer.

First - the sunshine; I love being outside. Camping, hiking, and playing sports are some of the highlights of summer break. For example:



On Memorial Day, Bruce and I went up to Kickapoo State Park to do some hiking. We voted on doing the 7.6 mile loop. We took a few wrong turns here and there and ended up 1 mile away from where we parked our car. When all was said and done, we probably did closer to 9 miles. We got a chance to break in the new hiking shoes we got for Christmas last year. We wanted to do some canoeing on the lake there, but decided to head on home when the rain started pouring down in sheets. We made it to the car just in time.

Second - the ants usually stay outside instead of inside. This spring we had some major problems with ants. Every time I turned around, more ants were found crawling on the floor, the kitchen sink, the counters, and even some clean dishes in the drawer. If you don't believe me, here are some pictures. The first one is of an apple strudel I made. It was left open on the counter for no more than 20 minutes. When I came back to take care of it...this is what I found.

It's difficult to see, but if you look close enough, you can tell that those little black dots do not belong in an apple strudel. I don't mind some insects, but they do not belong in my house and definitely not in my apple desserts.

Third - Summer time = garden time = FRESH Produce!!
I am not an expert gardener. In fact, every year I struggle with something else. Weeds are the bane of my existence. I don't mind most of the conditions of the fall, but the stipulation of "noxious weeds to torment men" is curse enough. I mean come on....REALLY? I have spent countless hours in the garden getting rid of crab grass - I guess I can deal with weeds, but crab grass...YUK!! Every once in a while, all that hard work pays off. Check out the produce I got in one picking.


Fourth - FREE TIME!!
Don't get me wrong, I still am busy. My schedule isn't quite as rigid, and I have the flexibility of choosing a variety of activities. I don't have to be as picky at what I fill my time with; there isn't really anything so pressing that I have to get it done that day. I can take time to go on walks, hang out with friends, and play with kids. I can do those "projects" I've been wanting to do around the house. And I usually don't have to as rushed to do those things that must get finished. I can go to Youth Conference, Girls Camp, and other activities. I can go to aerobics and socialize with my friends.
Last month, I hosted book club at my house. For refreshments I made these mice cupcakes.


Do you really think I would take the time to decorate that many cupcakes like that if it weren't summer time? YEAH RIGHT!!!

The beauty of summer!! Stay tuned to find out what other things I've been up to this summer.

NO!

Not everyone is as right as Brittney. As the time for applying for jobs has come, so has much opposition. Earlier we posted about job interview #1. Based on the title of this post, you may come to the conclusion that Bruce didn't get that job. Colorado State University decided to hire someone else (with more experience). So has:

North Central Missouri College- Trenton, MO
Southeast Missouri State University- Cape Girardeau, MO
University of Wisconsin - River Falls, WI
Dairy Nutrition Specialist - Portland, OR

Unfortunately the last 4 all came within the same week. :(

Additional Prospects:

University of Idaho
Washington State University
Cornell University
Miner Institute in New York
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
University of Florida
Northern Wyoming Community College
Among a few others that we can't remember right now.

Hopefully we get a positive response soon. If not...life goes on and so does the job hunt.

5 Years Ago Today - Brittney said "Yes!"

5 years ago today I woke up thinking, “I have a ring and I have permission, what am I waiting for?” I wanted to get married in the summer, and I knew if we were going to do it that summer, we needed to get engaged soon.


The ring was my great-aunt’s late husband’s mother’s wedding diamond. My aunt Shirley had told me I could use it when I got engaged and have it put in a different setting. I didn’t realize until I picked it up from her that her husband had it put in a different setting so that he could wear it. I knew when I got engaged that Brittney hadn’t said “yes” just because she liked the ring, it was way too big for her tiny fingers. Incidentally, when I went to dinner with Aunt Shirley to pick up the ring, she told the waitress we were celebrating an engagement. I was so embarrassed when the waitress looked at us quizzically and asked, “The two of you got engaged?” I’m sure Aunt Shirley was delighted to think she looked young enough to be engaged to a man young enough to be her grandson.

The permission I got from my future father-in-law the day after I met him. I went with Brittney to her brother, Otto’s high school graduation. We arrived Friday night and Saturday morning, Brittney’s dad said, “Why don’t you take a shower and then we’ll go on a walk.” On our walk, he asked me what my intentions were. I told him I like Brittney a lot and if she would ever consent to it, I would like to marry her. Then I asked him if I had permission when that time came. He told me I was supposed to ask for her hand, and he would say I could have her hand, but he got to keep the rest of her. In the end he told me I had his permission, but that if I ever mistreated her…

Even though I had a ring and permission, I wasn’t sure what Brittney would say if I asked her to marry me, so I mulled it over throughout the morning. I talked to my mom and my sister, Rachel on the phone. Rachel actually told me not to get engaged anytime soon because then she would be the oldest, unmarried child and everyone would be asking her when she was going to get married. (Two brothers and a sister between Rachel and I in age were already married. Rachel isn’t married yet, she just returned from serving in the Lithuania mission and as far as I know hasn’t been asked when she is going to get married).

I decided to surprise Brittney with a bouquet of flowers at work and ask her to go to dinner with me that night. Her favorite flowers are petunias, so I figured I’d get her a dozen petunias. Unfortunately, they don’t sell bouquets of petunias, so I got a tray of starter plants, took them home and made my own bouquet of petunias and put them in a blue vase I bought at the flower store. (If you have never seen “The Blue Vase, the Quest for the Go-getter with Integrity” come over and we’ll watch it sometime, it’s one of my all time favorite movies.)

When I showed up at the library where Brittney worked with the flowers, they told me she had left work early. I ended up calling her and asking her to go to dinner with me and gave her the flowers when I picked her up. When I got home from work, there was a letter for me from one of Brittney’s roommates, Bonnie, who got engaged two weeks before. She had actually written a letter of recommendation for Brittney telling me what a wonderful person Brittney is and why I should marry her. I took it as a sign and decided I was going to ask Brittney to marry me that night.

We had dinner at the Bluebird Restaurant in Logan, Utah. They have good food there, though I can’t remember what I ate that night or if it tasted good. After dinner I drove Brittney to the bottom of Old Main Hill and told her I wanted to show her something. As we walked up the steps of Old Main I asked her if she had ever played “Capture the Flag” there. She hadn’t. I told her I had and that I’m slow, so I was in prison most the time when I played. I showed her the base of a large tree that served as the prison. I told her while sitting there I noticed that there was a great view of the Logan Temple from there, as Brittney admired the view of the temple I got down on one knee and continued, “I decided that this is where I wanted to get engaged…so, Brittney, will you marry me?” I had pulled the ring out and was holding it up. Brittney responded, “Only if it is for eternity”. I said, “Of course.” Then I said, “OK, let’s sit down and talk about this.” I needed to sit for a while, I was shaking like crazy and I had only planned up to the words “Will you marry me?” because I had no idea how she was going to respond!

We went to my office to look at a calendar and decided we wanted to get married August 19. I told Brittney we could exchange the ring I proposed with for another one if she wanted. She thought that was a good idea, so we went to a jeweler from my office. The jeweler said they would give her a fake ring to wear until the one she picked out was finished, but the fake ring couldn’t be picked up until the next day, so we decided to only tell our parents that night. We used a hidden spare key I knew about to use the phone in my institute teacher’s office to call our parents so that our roommates wouldn’t over hear us calling. Brittney’s mom and sister were so excited, they started jumping up and down and whooping.

We asked my roommate to take a picture of us and the flowers, not telling him why. As you can see from our expressions, we were both a little dazed, but very happy.

Polar Plunge February 2010

Last November I went to Friday lunch at the institute. I met John Braun. In that hour I recognized him as a good man and a pretty cool guy and someone I'd want for a friend. In February I was at Friday lunch again and mentioned to John that I was thinking about doing the polar plunge to raise money for Special Olympics, but that I was only going to do it if someone did it with me. John said it sounded awesome and that he would do it with me. It was awesome as you can see in this video!