Friday, September 4, 2009

Bring em in, tri fold them up and its purple mania time!

Most all of the students have left for September break. We are down to teaching ONE last class until fall down at Myers way where Karen Beagles mom attends church. (I think of my good friend Karen every time we teach down there.) Anyway, next week we will be down to NO classes. Then in two weeks later it will get sooo busy we will have wished for these slow times. But, the temple opened back up again this week. So we will go be missionaries for the dead, if not the living, for a week or two.

However, we have tried to be creative.


This is a picture of “Jarod” (in the white shirt) and “Brian” (in the blue shirt.) They are two of our most favorite people in the world. During this slow time, Mike got permission to pow-wow with them and our business partner, Brad, over some looming business issues. So on Friday, they came up from Oregon and visited Fife, Washington to see a transfill operation like ours in Oregon. Anyway, when they were done, we invited them over to the institute. Jarod is not a member, but if he was one, his Bishop would have him doing all sorts of things because he is so people conscientious and friendly. And Brian is the same way. They are both just really great “people” persons. Anyway, Brian thinks he may have been baptized a member, but he doesn't remember and his wife is definitely not a member. So we gave them a tour of the institute and campus. We then told them about what we study here and of course about the Book of Mormon. They were both impressed. They asked some very good questions. We left them with a copy of the Book of Mormon and they both committed to read 3 Nephi 11 and so on. So, if we can't find enough students or investigators to teach, we will just keep bringing our own people in to teach. LOL!

Also this week, two of our students in our “Building Lasting Relationships” class are getting married. They were already engaged before they took our class, so Sister “Yenta” Thornton can’t take credit for this match. But we were so delighted and honored to be invited (and we went) to the temple to see “Kristen” receive her endowments. “Holland” and “Kristen” will be getting married this weekend. They are so great. Neither of them come from active homes. So it was so great just seeing these two young people, without any parental support, doing the right thing. A new generation starting their lives out the right way. What a blessing for them and the future generations of their family.

As for the rest of our week, we are starting to gear up for fall. It may not seem like much, but here is a copy of a tri-fold we are working on to help students see the necessity of finding time for Institute in their busy college lives:


Anyway, that is the Outside, and here is the Inside:



Those are just some of the many students we have been so fortunate to get to know over the past school terms. And if you haven’t guessed, “purple” is the official University of Washington” color! Anyway, we feel lucky we brought a computer with us that just happened to have Photoshop on it to do some of these things. But don’t look too close. Because, if they don’t look “professionally” done you are right! Just think how they would have looked if we hadn’t brought the computer. We would have had to resort to drawing stick figures and turkey outlines of our hands with crayons. Anyway, we are also working on a CES fireside flyer to announce Sister Elaine Dalton who will be addressing us in a few weeks.

We are also getting a “Linus” quilting project going for fall to have the students participate in as they sit around the Institute. So this fall is starting to take shape.

This weekend is Labor day. Mike, the other instructors, and most all of the young men around campus are just quivering with the excitement of college football that will bust loose this weekend. Who would have known that keeping up with college football was part of a mission? We just hope UW wins at least one more game than last year (0 – 20, ouch!) But new Head Coach, Steve Sarkesian has high hopes. Go Dawgs! (Being from Provo, “Go Dawgs!” just seems so natural to say anyway!) And at the same time we still cheer for Cougar “BLUE!”

What a great time of year to be on a college campus – but it is a little strange to have a college game start before the students are actually back in school.

We hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend.

From the “purple” capitol of the west,

Love,

Elder “Mike” and Sister “Jenny” Thornton

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