Potato Famine Hits U-Dub at Term End

Did someone say potato famine? Why it’s almost St. Patty’s day and what would this letter be without a few Irish sayings like:

This week marks the last week before finals at the U-dub. The University is on the quarter system and the first quarter will soon be in the books. Institute classes finished up on Thursday. The next two weeks are going to be really, really odd with no classes to teach and no Friday Friendship Feasts. But, this too shall pass and it will give us a little more time to go about and do some real visiting of the less active students (after finals.) Also the “young” missionaries have asked us if we could help them with some of their investigators, so that would be fun too.

As for Friday Friendship Feast and our classes, we are feeling pretty good how they ended for the quarter. As for the feasting part, as you may recall, it has been one of our goals to double attendance and turn it into a meal designed for students to invite their less-active and non-member friends. Of course, we weren’t just looking to double attendance to give us more work on Friday. The stories behind the numbers are what make it worth the while.

For example, as one of the “young” missionaries put it, he said, “Sister Thornton, did you know that we now have investigators who are inviting investigators to come to the Friday Friendship Feast?” What? Non-member investigators inviting other non-members to Institute? Of course, we can’t help but get just a little excited when we get news like that. This is exactly what a “Friendship” feast is all about.

Also, the “young” missionaries working on U-dub campus (3 sets of them) are having more baptisms than they can remember as of late. Of course, we know that is not because of us, but, to some extent it is because of the great member-students at the Institute who are really making a concerted effort to make the Institute a place where all, student or non-student, member or non-member alike, are all welcome. And we are just happy to support them anyway we can.

Several “less-active” students seem to also be giving Institute another try. One example this week was with a student named Roger, who says he has been “off the church radar” – (meaning he hasn’t done anything with church) - for over 5 years. Roger said he had been active in his youth, had even been a student EFY counselor and had served an honorable mission. But when he got home, somehow he drifted away and even became somewhat anti. Anyway, he said word had spread about the Friday Feasts and he decided to give it a try. Now he has attended a few times. In doing so, he has met a few of the students, made some friends and he now wants to give church another try.

Another young man, Richard, came into Institute this week and sat down and talked with us. He said he was a member, but didn’t know who the current prophet of the church was. He said he has a non-member friend who is sick in the hospital. He was wondering if he could just borrow some of the Institute material to read while sitting around at the hospital when he is visiting his friend. Of course, we loaded him up and told him to come back anytime he wanted. He then asked if we would call his parents and tell them he was doing okay and that he had actually dropped by the Institute. Of course we did. We hope to see him back soon. Anyway, these are just some of the reasons why we get a “lift” just by being here and serving these great students.

Also this week we had a special treat. Steven Harper, one of the Editors for the Joseph Smith Papers came and spoke at the lunch to the students (the Institute has also made arrangements for him to speak to a larger YSA group on Sunday.) Anyway, we wanted to make sure a lot of students came to lunch so as not to disappoint him. Since St. Patrick’s day is almost upon us, we went with an “Ode to the Potato” theme to celebrate Ireland. For dessert we served Tres leche cake. (Ya, we know that is a “Spanish” dessert, but if you put enough green food coloring in anything its turns “Irish” don’t ya know?) Anyway, Brother Harper came and his lecture on the Joseph Smith Papers was very fascinating. As a result of the speaker, or the cake, (we are not sure which was the MORE exciting draw) we hit an all-time record (at least for us) of 100+. Hence, we had a little potato famine. By the end of the lunch, there wasn’t one potato skin left, nor a crumb of cake. We ended up having to go out to lunch somewhere else in order to get a bite to eat.

We think we will try to serve Tres leche cake everytime we get a famous writer or editor come and speak. Speaking of which, does anybody know any FAMOUS writer, better yet, any former U-dub graduate / famous writer we could get to speak sometime before we go home next December? Not that we would want just any former U-dub graduate / famous writer / missionary. But does anyone know exactly when a certain Nauvoo PR missionary couple will be getting off their mission, hint, hint?

As for our Institute classes, we have seen a small increase in the number of students attending over the term. This has caused us to breathe a big sigh of relief. Why? You have to remember, unlike BYU students, students attending a non-BYU school do not have any requirement to take a religion class. Attendance is completely voluntary. As a result, if they don’t like the class, they just quit attending (and can you really blame them with all the other pressures they have in their “accredited” classes?) Anyway, since we had never taught before, visions of empty classrooms at the end of the term made us a little nervous. So to see an increase, even a small one, is a very good thing. But now the pressure is on, because the Institute Director is actually giving us an additional class to teach next term.

Well, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished. If you recall, we had a great visit a few weeks back at the Institute by our good friends Ken & Carol Milburn - who we put right to work. Carol then asked Jenny if she would speak at their Relief Society Birthday celebration this last Thursday. Of course, after the Milburns slaved at the Institute, how could we say “No?” Okay, it actually wasn’t that hard for Mike to say “Yes” since all he had to do was go and hang out with Ken while Jenny went and spoke. Of course, Carol is a sweetheart and Jenny was happy to return a favor. But, since neither of us have had our haircut since arriving here in Seattle, Jenny thought it best to get at least a cut before going down to speak. Of course, we are very particular about our appearances, (LOL), so we went to see Jacque. Okay, so we had a coupon for ½ price haircuts at Jacque C. Penney. And guess what? We got our ½ money’s worth. Mike came out the best, but just how bad can you mess up a man’s short haircut? As for Jenny? After Jenny went to extreme lengths on telling her beautician just how she wanted it cut and then have the beautician say, “No problem, I can do exactly that,” she then went and cut Jenny’s hair. And guess what? Jenny’s new Do, looked, well, exactly like the Do worn by the beautician - NOT Jenny. We have one more speaking engagement in a south Seattle Ward this upcoming week. Let us just say Jenny may be looking for another ½ price coupon to perhaps a different salon in the very near future.

And now it’s almost time to relax a little on Sunday during Easter and General Conference. Isn’t it funny how out in the mission field, no matter where you are serving, you tend to look forward, almost to the point of craving, the next General Conference? Or maybe it is just because we ran out of potatoes before we had a chance to eat. Or maybe there really is such a thing as spiritual cravings and maybe, just maybe, we have reached an age where we are getting to know the difference between the promptings from our stomach and those from a higher place.

May we leave you with a final Irish saying:

Love,
Elder “Mike” & Sister “Jenny”