I Got Flowers!

One of the MSU students, Roy Merker, did an intership in Ohio this summer and brought this beautiful orchid back for me. Was that sweet enough? The students here take such good care of us.

"Summer Time and the Livin' Is Easy"

The summer has been a time of lots of moving in and out of the Living Center. As the winter semester ended, there were lots of moving outs and now as the summer is starting to wind down, we look forward to welcoming the returning students back along. Just this week two new freshmen moved down the hall from us and we expect to see lots of new faces in the coming weeks.
Eight have moved out as they got married, four just this past week. It has been so fun to watch the sweet romances blossom around here and then have the opportunity to share some of their celebrations. We had such a great time attending Brandon Carlson and Julia Mastie’s reception last evening—good food, nice music, a candy station, and best of all great friends to visit.
We only have two more weeks of summer institute classes and then it is full gear into fall with lots more classes added to the schedule at the institute and then we do a big lunch every Friday for what is called Friday Forum—lunch and a class. For now we are enjoying the summer and the beauties of Michigan as well as meeting times with missionaries and the young people. Here are a few recent pictures in no apparent order (Craig loves all the light houses in Michigan. We haven’t seen all 116 yet, but we are working on it.):




Jason and Justin playing 8-Ball in the Institute game room.

New Presque Isle Lighthouse between Rogers City and Alpena on Lake Huron.

Old Presque Isle Lighthouse.

Forty Mile Point Lighthouse on Lake Huron.

The historic - not to mention quirky and whimsical - Legs Inn, Cross City.

Beautiful Duplex at the marina in Harbor Springs, overlooking Little Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan. Reminds us of Bruce and Carrie's "Big Brown House"!

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Beachcombers at Petosky beach searching for the elusive "Petosky Stones".

The Charlevoix South Pierpoint Light at Charlevoix, on Lake Michigan.

Charlevoix Light...check out the gorgeous white "sugar sand" beach!

It seems we were able to make it Bear Lake after all! This one located southeast of Traverse City.

Beautiful scenery and cherry orchards...looking towards West Traverse Bay from the top of Mission Point ridge. The cherries in this area are amazing!!!

The essentials...ski boat in the lift, Waverider on the lift, a few ducks, and a well-located hammock! West Traverse Bay, MI.

Grand Traverse Lighthouse, on the end of the "little finger" of Michigan's "mitten"!

Fishtown, on Lake Michigan...VERY cool and funky!

More Fishtown!

The #1 most incredible barn I have seen so far, on the Leelenau peninsula. Originally built by an early Michigan lumber baron, recently restored.

Sleeping Bear Dunes "climbing" area.

Warning sign posted at the sand dune 400' cliff shown below.

Looking down the dunes to Lake Michigan, 400' below. VERY steep yet many were "running - or falling - down it and then climbing back up...eventually! That very small boat is actually about 35' long.

Looking south from Field Stocking Road lookout point (Sleeping Bear Dunes). That is Point Betsie in the background.

Point Betsie Lighthouse, overlooking the Manitou Passage on Lake Michigan.

The Frankfort North Breakwater Lighthouse, Frankfort, MI.

We all took a snapshot at our last District Meeting. We have district meetings each Wednesday morning at the Institute.

Hungry missionaries at the missionary breakfast. Check out the designer pancakes and the size of the sausage patties!




Family Home Evening activity at Lake Lansing beach...boating, barbeque, and volleyball.

Sister Poulsen, Elder Jensen, and Sister Jensen.

Saturday Missionary Breakfast....organized by Elders Ransley and DeHart. Great food and a great time. Elder and Sister Jensen made the "theme" pancakes...featuring Mickey Mouse, cats, stingrays, centipedes, etc. Talk about creative pancakes!

Incredible sand sculpture at a Holt Ward YM/YW beach activity. Walter Schwartz, in the picture, is actually a professional sand artist!

Huamachuco, Peru ???

One of the medical students who attends our Institute, Joe Gorz, is in charge of a MSU sponsored Medical Mission to Huamachuco, Peru. The participants, all 2nd year medical students from MSU, are arriving in Peru today. While there they will provide free medical care to approximately 1,500 local residents! Huamachuco is a rural area located high in the Andes mountains, where approximately 60% of the local population has no regular access to medical care of any kind.

Last March Joe approached us (as representatives of the church) about possibly helping out with translation services while the students were providing medical care. The locals speak a certain dialect that requires pretty good language skills, and it had occurred to him that if we had local missionaries in that area perhaps they would be able to help out. Treatment is very slow if Dr/patient communication is very slow (not to mention inaccurate)and good translators can increase the turnaround - and therefore the number of residents served - by about fivefold!

With the permission of our mission president and our CES Director, I contacted the president of the Peru Mission, President Terry Turk. He was very helpful in making arrangements with some of their local missionaries to help out with serving as translators during this MSU Medical Mission. This is all going on this week and next, so I am hopeful that everything works out as planned.

Truly we are a world-wide church, with a strong interest in serving others. Our reach is very long when it comes to humanitarian service. I'm really grateful to those on our end as well as in Peru who are participating in such a worthwhile endeavor.