Scientific Fun

The other day there was a science fair in town so we decided to go.  Actually, we had other plans for the day but the weather didn't cooperate so we found ourselves looking for alternatives at the last minute because we wanted to do something but that's another story.  As it went, we ended up at the science fair, which turned out to be a very fun time indeed!

The whole thing was held in one of the local museums so there were plenty of exhibits that were long-term displays.  They were cool.  Often such displays get old and dusty looking but many of the displays at this museum were fresh and clean, that was nice.

But in addition to the normal displays, they had brought in some additional activities, many of which were hands-on activities the kids could get their hands in on and have fun with.

One of the one's I thought was the coolest was a dynamic topographical map activity.  They had sand under a computer that must have used ultrasound to detect the shape of the sand in the box and then project topographical lines onto it, as well as colors as the elevations changed.  At "sea level" the color changed to blue that moved like water.  But if you stuck your hand out over the sand it did something similar to represent the water in clouds.  Incredible!

They had sandbox toys the kids could play around with to change the shape of the sand piles with and watch the colors and lines react to what they did.  We spent a fair amount of time at that one - the kids loved it.  It was also very entertaining for the adults.

They had the obligatory dinosaur bones and skeletons on display.  One they had hooked up to a recording of what someone imagined a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have sounded like - the kids had fun playing that recording over and over again.  And the lower jaw moved up and down like it would have in life.  That was another favorite.

They even had hands on things for the littlest kids.  This little munchkin had a lot of fun with the puzzle.  We had to keep an eye on her as she kept making a break for the hall with puzzle pieces.  I think they were all there when we left that area  . . . ?

That same display presented a certain challenge for some of the adults present as well.

Rock displays, another hands on activity.

Fascinated as much by the hole as by the rock the hole allowed you to touch.

In another part of the science fair they had animals that the kids could touch, including a well supervised snapping turtle.  Pretty fearsome looking creatures.

There were snakes, lizards and turtles that the kids could touch and pet. That was popular, the kids visited that one and then came back to it later.  They had several different kinds of snakes, lizards and turtles, all available for well supervised touching.

And what kids activity would be complete without face painting?

They picked their own design and colors.  Though, being primarily a reptile display, the options tended to be reptiles.

But that was perfectly okay with the kids!

They each got to pick their own painting and were quite happy to wear them the rest of the day!  And the people doing the painting were really good with the kids, as well.

In fact, all the people hosting, supervising, and explaining everything were really good with the kids.  I didn't see a single one that looked like they would have rather been someplace else.

And when it was all done we hit our favorite ice cream place for a cool treat, even though it was only about 35 degrees out.

It was a very fun way to spend a couple of hours with the kids!  We may have to do something like this again!

The Glorious Day of the Lord

Easter, the Glorious Day of the Lord. On the one hand it has always struck me as out of balance that Christmas gets so much more attention and observance than Easter when the birth of Christ was simply a precursor to the main event. Then again, the LDS are sometimes criticized for not giving Easter as much attention as most of the rest of the Christian world gives it so maybe that's playing into my perception of Easter getting less attention than Christmas. Be that as it may, it's my feeling that most of the Christian world kind of misses the boat on where the emphasis of Easter ought to be.

My understanding is that the Christian world begins the Easter celebration with Lent and Ash Wednesday. Lent goes on for 40 days in commemoration of the 40 day period of fasting Christ went through in preparation for His public ministry. Then comes Holy Week, actually the last week of Lent, and includes  Paschal Triduum, commemorating and celebrating the events of the last week of Christ's life leading up to the crucifixion. For many Christians Holy Week is followed by Eastertide, which goes on until Pentecost, a date that moves around with Easter.

The LDS celebration is much more quiet and focused. Quiet in the way that it is more personal, without the outward show, ritual, and ceremony. To me it seems it is more after the manner that Christ spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount, regarding prayer and fasting.

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ...”

“But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret ...”  

(Matthew 6:6, 17 & 18)

Throughout His ministry, in most of His teachings, Christ seems to have been more concerned with the inward observance, the disposition of the heart, than the outward observance. Christ went so far as to chastise some of His detractors for using traditions and observances to get out of keeping the commandments (Matthew 15:3-6, Mark 7:8, 9). As the Lord told Samuel when he identified David as Israel's King, “for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

The LDS observance is also more focused on the events of the two gardens, Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb. It was in these two places that the heart of Christ's mission was culminated. Christ's death, horrific as it was, was only something that needed to happen so the miracle of the Garden Tomb could take place.  

Christ, prior to His death, spent His ministry teaching His Gospel. He knew from the start of His public ministry how His life would end and what possibilities that would open for mankind. He used His ministry to teach us how to take advantage of the atonement. So while the atonement and resurrection were critical, the two most important accomplishment to occur in the history of the world, without having taught the Gospel, so that we would know how to put the atonement to work, Christ would have missed a critical element in His mission.

So the LDS don't focus on the whole Easter season and Christ's agony, suffering, and death. That was significant and important but it wasn't everything. It is more the question the angels asked Mary when she came to the empty tomb; “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). The main point of Easter is not that He died, but rather that He lives again.  This is the focus of the LDS observance of Easter; the atonement and resurrection and how to put them to work. The everyday application of the principles He taught during His ministry. That, combined with deep gratitude for what Christ made possible, is the message of Easter. This is what makes it the Glorious Day of the Lord.

Two hymns sum it up.

The first is “He is Risen” (hymn 199), written by Cecil Frances Alexander:

“He is risen! He is risen!

Tell it out with joyful voice.

He has burst his three days’ prison;

Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

Death is conquered; man is free.

Christ has won the victory.  

“He is risen! He is risen!

He hath opened heaven’s gate.

We are free from sin’s dark prison,

Risen to a holier state.

And a brighter Easter beam

On our longing eyes shall stream.”

The other is “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” (hymn 200), written by Charles Wesley:

Christ the Lord is ris’n today,  

Sons of men and angels say,

Raise your joys and triumphs high,

Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth reply,

Love’s redeeming work is done,

Fought the fight, the vict’ry won,

Jesus’ agony is o’er,

Darkness veils the earth no more,

Lives again our glorious King,

Where, O death, is now thy sting?

Once he died our souls to save,

Where thy victory, O grave?

These celebrations of song sum it up: the work is done, the victory won, death is conquered, and man is free. That is the focus. A Christ who was alive three days after his death, 30 days later, teaching His apostles, and who lives today, still leading those who are seeking and willing to follow Him.

Gone but not Unforgetable

Not quite six years ago Schwartzbeere wanted to paint his room.  He was in high school then and thought the perfect color would be black.  Totally black.   

On the one hand, that he wanted it painted was understandable.  The family we bought the house from had smaller children and the room Schwartzbeere ended up in, while it had been a boy's room, it was a little boy's room. Schwartzbeere had never been very fond of the clouds that adorned the blue walls.  But black?

Well, as you might imagine, that didn't go over too well.  There was some discussion and a compromise was reached.  So he ended up with gray and purple walls and a black ceiling. Yeah.  I thought it was good.  And with that the painting began.

 Well, as you might imagine, that didn't go over too well.  There was some discussion and a compromise was reached.  So he ended up with gray and purple walls and a black ceiling. Yeah.  I thought it was good compromise.   

Anyway, even though he got married and moved out quite some time ago the room has remained as Schwartzbeere had wanted it.  I don't know, maybe there was always something else more pressing than painting.  That can be, after all, a bit of work.  But the time had come.  Brombeere picked her colors and got to work.

Now all her children will tell you that Brombeere prefers to decorate around shades of white.  So the room went quite a bit lighter than gray, purple and black.

But trust me, the room did not go totally white.  Can you see the contrast here?  The ceiling was white but all the walls are gray.  Yes, gray.  But a much lighter gray than Schwartzbeere had it.

Blaubeere came over one day and helped with the painting. That was fun. 

So, while the room isn't totally done, it is coming along quite nicely.  It looks much more inviting now.  And its amazing how much brighter the room is - you no longer feel like you have to turn the light on in the middle of the day.  Who knows!  Maybe this will even help lower the electricity bill.

Its been drying a day now and is getting to the point of being almost done.  I like it.  Her kids give Bromnbeere grief about always painting everything white.  Even when she goes with a color other than white its such a pale shade of the color that unless you look real close you pretty much don't notice that its not white.  But I like it.  I like living in a house that is bright and light colors.  Suits us just fine.

Maybe Not Chess

We were visiting Erdbeere and her family again the other day.  This time Blaubeere went with us.  While we were there she and Townsend were doing something with her phone.  I wasn't privy to the conversation so I don't really know what they were doing but in looking at the pictures afterward it sure reminded me of a chess match.

And the contest begins.

Taking the measure of one's opponent.

Contemplating not only the next move but several moves ahead.  That's the way to best your opponent. 

Checkmate?  Well, maybe.

All About an Egg

I recently had an opportunity to learn about eggs.  As it was explained to me, eggs are pretty cool.

Do not confuse a deviled egg with a boiled egg.  They are not the same thing.

When you think about an egg, they are pretty amazing.  A subject worthy of study.

And, yes, an egg, ultimately, should be eaten.  If possible, anyway.  That's hard to do when its really a toy.

Not a Clear Day But You Can Still See a Long Ways

I found myself in the vicinity of Rib Mountain State Park today and in possession of annual pass for state parks so I decided to go up to the park and check things out.

As you get into the park and near the top of the hill there's an observation deck facing east so I stopped there and took a look.

Not a bad view but there's a lookout tower at the top so I decided I wanted to go see if I could make it up.  So I drove on up.  The parking lot is a short walk from the tower.

Its not the tallest lookout tower in the state - only 95 steps to the top.

But the view is pretty sweet.  Its really too bad it wasn't a clear day.  But even as it was you could see a long ways off.  This is the view looking west.

Yes, I was there!  Out behind me is looking east.  It was cold and the wind was blowing.  And I was having trouble seeing image on my phone so this isn't as good a "selfie" as it might have been.  But I was pretty pleased with myself for having made it to the top. Not bad for an old, cripple, I'm thinking.

Three, Two, One, Presto!

Last September we had an amazing thing happen, and for the second time, no less!  A few years ago we had three of our kids expecting all at the same time.  How often is that going to happen?  But apparently its not as rare as you might think - it happened again last fall!  The only down side to all these grandbabies arriving is that they all too often live too far away to get to go visit right away, like we'd like to.  But now, five months later, all three babies have arrived and we have been able to visit each of them!  Wahoo!

First to arrive was Heidlebeere - she got a little girl.  Actually, Heidlebeere's little girl was not one of the three, she was in between the rush.  Or maybe she got it started.  In any case, she was a couple of months before the others, the three.  This is the little girl we had to wait the longest before we were able to go visit.  But at Christmas time we were able to get out there and see them, including the little cutie. So, yeah, she's a little bit older than the other three.

Next to arrive was Moosebeere's little boy.  They also live the farthest away.  But we made the trek and were able to see him.  We were even able to be there when he was blessed, which was extra nice.  We had to miss Heidlebeere's baby's blessing.  We just weren't able to get out there.  But Christmas time came and Brombeere had some time off from work so we made a dash out to see them all.  This was a quick but a very nice visit.

Next in the parade was Erdbeere - she got a little boy, Moon. He's a sweetie. They also live a bit closer so we were able to get down to visit them without such a long wait.  We'll be able to get back down there in a couple of weeks to be in on the blessing, too.  That will be nice.  

Last but not least was Schwatzbeere's little boy.  He actually came a little early.  Had he waited until his due date we still today would not have been born.  He was due on February 28th. But they were over for dinner the other evening and we were all sitting around the table talking.  You know how you do when you've finished eating but haven't yet gotten around to leaving the table.  Anyway, we were all sitting there talking when suddenly she got a surprised look on her face and said, "Oh!  I think something just happened!"  And it had - her water had broken!  So it suddenly got very exciting!  In a few minutes they were out the door and on their way to the hospital.  Little Duckie was born about 15 hours later.  Being a bit early he had bit of jaundice that he struggled with for a few days.  Now-a-days they put them in a blue light blanket, still with the cover over the eyes to protect them.  So Duckie was a little glow-worm for a few days.  Looked pretty cool in a dark room! Very different from way back when Blaubeere was born and had a touch of jaundice.  Back then they put her under a lamp, still with the eye protection, but not near as fun as a glow blankie.

So they are all here now and we've had the opportunity to meet them all.  That brings the grand baby count to twelve - a pretty nice number if you ask me.  It also means the picture I have at work on my desk top, of all my grandkids, out in the backyard here is out of date and needs to be replaced. Maybe at the reunion this summer. The family is growing - 28 of us now, and two still not even married yet.  Wow.

Long, Long Ago and Far Away

A few weeks ago one of the Young Men in our ward asked me if I would do a presentation on Germany for joint activity.  They were having three members of the ward who had served missions take a little time and talk about the countries they had served in and what the different culture had been like. They had given me two weeks lead time, which was good.  It gave me time to hunt through the storeroom downstairs and find what I had left from my mission. I haven't kept a whole lot of things, partly because the cost of living was pretty similar to here at home and the things most people usually buy for souvenirs were a little pricey on a humble elder's budget so there never was a lot to keep.  And a few years after I got home I tossed a few things, as well. They were things that, knowing how I feel about it now, probably would have gotten tossed eventually anyway. But I did get a few things. And I have hung onto a few things. So after searching through all kinds of boxes I found most of what I remember saving from my mission.

The stuff spent some time stored in the garage back before we moved into the house we live in now.  That was hard on it. So when I found it I had to dig it out and clean some of it up. Somewhere along the line mice had gotten into it, too, and chewed up a box some of it was stored in. They didn't damage the actual contents but the box looks pretty bad now.  Anyway, I got it all out and went through it and put together a presentation that, in the end, turned out pretty well.  I thought it was well received, especially the goodies I brought.  I ordered a few things over the internet and from a German restaurant and bakery here in town. I thought it went well.

The whole exercise was interesting.  Among the items I dug out was my old mission journal. Someone had given me a journal made specifically for missionaries and I had faithfully written in it while I was out. Most of the pictures I had taken while on my mission I had developed as slides, which I regretted almost right away after getting back.  But I guess my thinking was showing them to everyone in the form a a slide show, you know the kind that's easy to get board and fall asleep in; dark room, slide projector and screen and all that.  I'm not sure I ever did that, though.  I must have - my parents had a nice projector and screen.  But I don't specifically remember it.

Several years ago Edrbeere had taken my slides and converted a lot of them to digital and gave them to me for Christmas.  That was cool but I put them with the rest of the CDs I have of pictures and even though I have been looking for the box they are in for several months now I have yet to find it.  In the end, though, it wouldn't have mattered because I didn't have anyway to display them. Even though the church has the equipment to hookup a computer and display videos and slide shows, we don't currently have a laptop that I could have used.

Anyway, while I didn't find the slides I did find a few pictures that were prints.  Even though I didn't use them in the presentation it was a very interesting experience to go through the pictures and everything else.  I scanned them all, the prints I found.  But they're old and weren't stored in the best manner so some of them were somewhat damaged and faded.  In scanning them I sort of fixed some of that but I also don't have very good photo editing software so I could only do so much.  Some of the photos I had put in my journal - mostly photos of my companions.  So going through the journal and reading here and there around where the photos were brought back a lot of memories. Over forty years have passed since I got back.

I went back in the days before the Mission Training Center in Provo had been built.  I entered the mission home in Salt Lake City.  It was an old "re-purposed" building that had been originally built to be an elementary school - my mom had gone to school there.  It was across the street north of the church office building. When we went to the temple we walked a block west to the Salt Lake City temple on Temple Square. Harold B Lee had just become president of the church just before I entered the mission home - for many years he'd had a practice of meeting with the missionaries in the temple in a question / answer session in the assembly room of the temple.  Even though he had just become president, he still met with the group I was in.  Meeting in the temple allowed us to ask pretty much any question we wanted.  The only thing he had with him was his scriptures and with them he answered every question put to him.  I don't really remember any of the questions but I remember him complimenting us at the end that no one had asked any questions about "the mysteries".

After a week in the mission home those going to English speaking missions headed out to their missions while the rest of us went to one of three language training missions.  European languages to Provo, Asian languages to Hawaii and the rest to Ricks College, now known as BYU-Idaho.  So I went to the LTM in Provo to spend eight weeks learning German before going to Germany.

This is me and my companion, out front of Amanda Knight Hall, just down off the hill from the BYU campus in Provo.  My companion tried to teach me how to tie a bow tie but it was too much - I never could get the hang of it.

At the LTM the first thing they taught us was the phrase, "How does one say..." (Wie sagt man...) because within only a few days of arriving we were not allowed to speak English with anyone who spoke German.  None at all.  It was total immersion.  Then, as we worked on memorizing the discussions we learned the grammar behind the sentences in the discussions.  The rule was we were not allowed to memorize anything we didn't understand the grammar behind.  

 Then, after eight weeks it was off to Germany.  I had passed off all six discussions before leaving Provo but you could tell how traumatic the transition was by how much you forgot.  I didn't do too bad.  By half way through my mission I would occasionally have people tell me my accent was from the Netherlands.  I did alright.

 My Dad and me at the airport.  I'm holding a scarf my older sister had made me.  I still have it.

 This is me, in the kitchen of my first apartment. We rented a room from an old bachelor.  That was interesting.  He let us share his kitchen, including space in his fridge, which was pretty small.  Small was normal for Germany. The house was the end unit in a row of houses.  He had a second floor, where our room was, a ground floor (where the kitchen was), and a basement.  We also kept our bikes in the basement - my first city was a bike city.

 This is the big cathedral in downtown Munster.  Every city had a big cathedral, along with several other, smaller churches.  We went by this place a lot.

 All over Germany there evidence of and monuments relating to World War II.  This is some ruins; old, bombed out buildings, that had been turned into a monument.

This is me in the living room of our apartment in my third city, Solingen.  In that apartment we rented most of the second floor of a family's house.  The family must have been pretty well off.  You didn't see very many single family homes in Germany.  This was by far the nicest apartment I stayed in while on my mission.  We had our own kitchen, this living room, which doubled as our bedroom, and our own bathroom.  We didn't have to share any of our space with anyone.  Nice.

Not long after I got back I let my Mom read my journal.  She described it as one of the best conversion stories she'd ever read. I certainly used my journal as a therapeutic tool - a way to talk through what I was going through and work out things in my mind.  My mission president told me once he had been pretty worried about me at first but he must have gotten over that because he put me with some pretty difficult companions during the last half of my mission.  Anyway, it was good to be reminded and to remember it all.  Maybe some day I'll dig it back out and read it through again.  I don't think I've ever done that since getting back.

But I'll say this, I still think it was time very well spent.  And there were a few people other than me that also benefited.  But it put me miles ahead of where I'd have been had I not gone.  I'm glad I went.