It's May!!!

I’ve never seen such green, green grass before. It is everywhere and it appeared almost overnight. The daffodil’s are in full bloom and even some of the bushes and trees have blossoms. We’ve heard that spring in Michigan is spectacular and I think it is finally on its way. What a wonderful, but busy, week we have had. Along with finishing our classes for the semester at the institute, we had some very special visitors from home. Marjorie and Dean Cook stopped by on Tuesday on their way to serve their mission in Kirkland, Ohio. They were able to stay for the night; and after dinner out, lots of chatting and laughing, a very WET rainy walk on MSU campus, breakfast here, and they hooked up their rig and were off. We are enjoying our mission, but we definitely are homesick for our family and friends so it was so wonderful to visit with them. We welcome all family and friends!!! Eric called last night to let us know that he had his plane tickets to come visit us over Labor Day. Yea!

The University Ward keeps us super busy along with our institute classes. Monday night for family night, we went on a picture taking scavenger hunt for two hours on MSU campus. The kids helped us see things we had never seen before and it was a bit crazy, but fun. (It didn’t hurt that our team won.) The ward also had an “end of the year” BBQ and then Friday night was institute graduation which was wonderful.

We always try to make the most of our Saturdays. I am fascinated by the whole making of maple syrup so we went to the Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival and it didn’t disappoint. We had a yummy pancake breakfast with real maple syrup. They had maple everything for sale—maple ice cream, maple cotton candy (had to try it), maple candy, maple soda, maple cream, and on and on. Just driving to Vermontville was a treat as the grass and fields are so green and beautiful surrounding quaint farm houses and classic red barns.

Love abounds in the University Ward and there are lots of marriages planned for this summer. I even had the opportunity to go to one of the wedding showers yesterday. Then to complete our Saturday, we attended a musical concert at the Wharton Center at MSU as Peter and Terri Bates had given us their tickets for the concert. The chorus and symphony performed Verdi’s Requiem and the music was beyond amazing. Craig and I really got our classical music fix for awhile.

We came here to Michigan to serve and teach the young people in this area, but they have taught us so much. We have witnessed so much kindness as we watch how they treat one another—the young lady who walked back several rows to retrieve another young lady who is sitting alone, the young man who walks with the blind deacon as he passes the Sacrament, the many meals they fix for the elders who serve in this ward, the lovely flowers and thoughtful card we were given last week, and I honestly could go on and on. On Easter Sunday, I complimented Jo who is blind on how pretty she looked. She told me that Brittany had taken her shopping the day before. These kids just keep teaching us every day.