Seminary Graduation

I can't resist the urge to recognize the end of my year in Seminary. Despite the stress of daily lesson planning, and harder still, the stress of leaving my children every afternoon during the craziest hour of the day, I have really loved Seminary. I have loved spending time with Megan and Carrie, loved getting to know each of the assistant teachers called to help us, and particularly loved the time I spent in the scriptures. I feel I now know the Savior better than I ever have, especially in the context of the Holy Land. Teaching the New Testament during my year in Jerusalem has been one of the most profound and important experiences of my life.

I am particularly proud of Carrie and Megan because they finished the year having read the entire New Testament and having memorized the twenty-five scripture mastery verses. It was a lot of work for them, much of which came while they were also struggling with school projects and exams. I hope they feel stronger and more confident for having worked so hard. I know from experience that those memorized scriptures will stay with them and come to their remembrance when needed.

We marked the end of the year with two outings. The first was a "Scripture Mastery Retreat" to Ashkelon Beach, where, despite what you may think, we all memorized six or more of the longest scriptures. We also enjoyed a beautiful day at a nearly empty stretch of sand.

A glorious day to be at the Mediterranean Sea.
(Ed got a new camera; can you tell? I used to think my iPad took good pictures,
but after I saw the very first picture Ed took with his Sony, I've all but stopped taking them with my iPad.)

Resting after body surfing. 

Our second outing was supposed to be on the last day of class, but due to another bout with the flu it was postponed until the following week. [Our family has had the flu four times, plus chicken pox and lice. Can we please be done already!?] As a class, we wanted to end our study of the New Testament in the right place, so we went to the Garden Tomb and shared testimony.

Left to right: Shanelle Applegarth, Carrie Judd, Megan Judd, me, Victoria Violette. (Shanelle and Victoria are BYU students called as assistant teachers.) Our Branch President, Bob Schafer, took the picture for us.