On the Road - Part Two

We arrived in Bismarck about 2:30 Saturday afternoon, and the Elders showed up about 10 minutes later to open the doors for us. The sun was shining and it didn't take us long to get our things into the apartment. Later that evening we drove around town to orient ourselves and find the church for Sunday. The meetinghouse and temple are only about a mile away, but there is a hill inbetween so we can't see it from our apartment. We took pictures right away, but won't be able to get them on the web until next weekend.

Sunday we attended the Bismarck Ward, which meets at 10 AM - the only ward in the building. Members come from all around the city and outlying areas. We were warmly welcomed. We attended the Young Single Adult Sunday School class and met the members there. We stayed for choir practice after church. Good thing - the pianist wasn't there and the chorister was going to try to play and lead. There are 4 organists in the ward, so I think my chances of subbing for Sacrament meeting are slim to none. (Katie, Laurel and Addie - it's a Rogers Organ. I'll have to go over there during the week just to try it out sometime.)

Sunday evening we attended a FHE group for the YSA and got to know them better. These young people are our Bismarck Institute Group too, so I think we will do a lot of things with them. There are YSA leaders in the Ward, and the Stake YSA leaders are also in the ward, so they attend too. There may be more adults at some functions than young adults.

We had two sunny days in Bismarck. There is plenty of snow that is gradually melting. But today (Monday) a storm is coming in. Since we had to drive to Minneapolis today, we started early and drove to St. Cloud Minnesota before dark. It rained all day, but we got to the hotel before the temperature dropped and the rain turned to ice. Tomorrow we will finish the drive to Minneapolis, but we are only about 2 hours away.

We drove to St. Cloud Minn. in heavy rain all day, but got to the hotel before it started to freeze. We heard that in Bismarck and ND places west there was 7 inches of snow. There has been light rain as we traveled the 2 hours more to Minneapolis, but I think this afternoon we might actually see some sunshine.

We are very anxious to get the CES training so we can begin to plan our schedules and know what we are to accomplish. That instruction will begin Wednesday morning. We will be receiving CES training tomorrow and Thursday, then will head back to Bismarck.

Here's something strange - all the gas in North Dakota is the same price at every station. We wonder if this is regulated by the state, or what. We will have to ask around. Seems strange, but there can't be much competition between stations when the price is the same everywhere.

And we haven't seen anyplace where people plug in their cars to keep the batteries warm. We'll have to ask about that too. Their very existence is an unconfirmed rumor.

We have been asked to talk in Sacrament meeting Sunday - and given the conference talk by Sr. Barbara Thompson on the Relief Society. We are wondering how to make that interesting or applicable to the entire ward. But it does give us something to work on before we learn our CES duties. We hope they can tell us what we are supossed to be doing up here, so we can go home and go to work.

That's our report from here, and here is St. Cloud Minnesota. Love you all - Elder and Sister Harris