Mark is spending more time studying in preparation for his comprehensive exams. He’s compared them to a bar exam for a lawyer. They determine if he can earn a PhD so it’s extremely important that he does well. There’s a slight chance they will be moved from this semester to the spring semester. This would give Mark more time to study which would be great!
Mark also did two flights over the Great Salt Lake this week to count birds. He’s busy between studying, research, and classes.
Classes started at BYU-Idaho on Monday. It’s only been one week but I’ve loved it so much. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my students. I got to grade their first assignment this week and I loved hearing their insights and experiences. I also love that many include their testimonies in their work. I only attended BYU-Idaho for one semester, but I remember I loved having gospel principles taught along with the secular information. Now I get to help make that happen by sharing spiritual thoughts each week. It’s a good motivator for me to study the gospel looking for principles that will bless my students. I’m hoping to find gospel principles that apply to the class topics. This week I shared a quote about agency and discussed how Parenting with Love and Logic encourages parents to give their children small choices all throughout the day. Making choices teaches children about consequences and builds trust with the parent. Of all the books used in this class, I’m definitely most familiar with Love and Logic. I’m about done reading the parenting class manual, then I can begin reading some of the other parenting books my students are reading in their groups.
I had a meeting with my primary presidency this week. We met outside and stayed six feet away from each other. It was so nice to see them again! We spent most of the meeting planning for the primary program. Based on direction from the general primary presidency and our bishopric, we’ll have a Zoom meeting where the senior primary children will share their experiences and testimonies. We won’t be able to sing because on Zoom there would be echos and lags, but we will play a video for an opening and closing song that everyone can listen to. It’s going to be different than most programs, but I think it will still be special. I also got to have a Zoom meeting with a girl who will be baptized next week. It made me so happy to see her excitement and to see her desire to be baptized even though it’s disappointing to not have all her family and friends there.
We pulled up most of our garden this week. We still have tomatoes and peppers growing, but everything else was done producing or was damaged in the storms.
Saturday afternoon we had a brief but loud thunder storm. It literally shook our apartment. Then later that night we had an earthquake! It was the first earthquake I’ve noticed. Everything in our kitchen was shaking. I didn’t feel the shaking sitting at the table, but Mark was on the floor and he felt it. It was only a 2.7 earthquake, but the epicenter was just up the canyon near the Wind Caves.
Our Story: The Bell Family 