The Church of Jesus Christ just designed emblems of belonging for children eight and older. The emblems are a ring with an image of a temple, and a photograph of the local temple wherever the child lives. Our bishop had encouraged me and my presidency to create a meaningful way to hand them out, so we had a brief Zoom meeting where the Bishop and I spoke to the children. That afternoon the primary teachers delivered the emblems to the children. Mark had so much fun seeing his class and they were so excited for the emblems. They really are cool- I want one for myself, haha.
Sunday we got an alert from USU that COVID had been detected in the waste water from four single housing dorms. Those students had to get tested and then stay in their dorm until getting an all clear from the medical professionals. They’ve been testing our water too. We’re glad they’re preventing the spread, but we sure hope we don’t get locked down and have to get the dreaded nasal test. All sewage from campus is being tested regularly for increases of the COVID-19 virus.
Mark started classes on Monday! This semester he has: species distribution and habitat modeling, conceptual ecology, and two seminars. He continues to work on his research and writing articles. This semester he will also have an oral exam from each person on his committee. This is going to be a very, very busy semester.
Monday was also the day I started training for BYU-Idaho. The name of my course is Parent Education (not Parenting and Child Guidance like I was originally told). This is the very first semester this course will be offered online. The professor who designed the course had a Zoom meeting with me and the other instructor teaching a section of the course. My mini miracle this week was that the other instructor for the course is a girl I know! She did an internship at the Logan Family Center when I was doing my undergrad internship there. She’s actually the one who told me about ASU’s online MS program.
I’m definitely overwhelmed by all there is to do and learn, but I’m very excited about how the course is set up! Each week the students will teach a parenting class to their community. They will also meet with a group each week over Zoom. Each person in the group will choose a different parenting book to read, then they will share what they’re learning with their group members.
On Wednesday night our niece, Tanya, opened her mission call! I’m lucky to have nieces close to my age who are friends as well as family. Tanya gave me her email log in information so I could print her mission call for her. I was hoping to get a sneak peek of her assignment, but she asked me not to look. I successfully printed the call and put it in an envelope without reading it. I also brought one of my old name tags so she could take pictures with it. She is going to the Texas San Antonio Mission. We’re so excited for her! Also, Mark wins bragging rights for guessing she would go to Texas!
Friday night Mark got a call from a person he worked with at the Great Salt Lake a couple weeks ago. This man’s girlfriend had tested positive for COVID-19 and wanted Mark to know he may have been exposed. So Saturday Mark went to get tested. He was not excited for the painful nasal swab, but luckily the worker recommended the finger-prick antigen test. The worker failed to mention how expensive it would be, but we’re glad Mark could have an easy test. His results were ready in twenty minutes and showed he hasn’t had COVID in the past 90 days. We’ve been doing our best to stay healthy and are grateful we and our family have been well. There’s word that a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year and we can’t wait!
Speaking of vaccines, our date night this week was getting our flu shots! We go to the grocery store pharmacy for vaccinations and decided to buy a treat from the frozen section afterwards so we could call it a date 🙂
Our Story: The Bell Family 