General Conference

The April 2011 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints begins Saturday, April 2, with general sessions at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday and Sunday, and a priesthood session at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday.  You may be able to watch it here on the blog on the video link below.  If the video doesn't work here, you can watch it on the Church website.  It's also available at many Mormon chapels and local cable television systems.  Try the video link after the jump.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art: "Passages"

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art will be the first stop for "Passages," a worldwide traveling exhibit of historic biblical texts and artifacts.  According to NewsOK, the exhibition, which opens May 16 and closes October 16, “will have some of the most incredible rare biblical artifacts in private hands in the world,” [Hobby Lobby President Steve] Green said. “It will tell the story of the history of the English Bible.”

The exhibition's website, Explore Passages, describes what visitors will find:

Passages' 14,000-square-foot, interactive, non-sectarian, worldwide traveling exhibition will enable visitors to see, touch, feel and experience the dramatic and surprising story of thousands of years of Bible history. Included in the exhibition is one of the earliest pieces of Genesis, along with the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, one of the earliest-surviving, near-complete Bibles, and the most extensive early biblical texts in Jesus' household language of Palestinian Aramaic.

"The Bible didn't come from Mount Sinai to Moses and end up in a Red Roof Inn desk drawer," continued [Collection Director Scott] Carroll. "There was a process and Passages tells the dramatic story of that process."

I hope Elliot has a chance to see this exhibit in OKC.  It should be amazing.  Enjoy some pictures and a news video about Passages after the jump.

New pictures of Elliot and other OKC missionaries

I ran across the blog of another missionary in the Oklahoma City mission, Elder Philip Woolley.  Elder Woolley is currently in Elk City.  That's in the same district as Clinton, where Elliot was assigned until today's tranfer to Noble-Purcell.  Elder Woolley was companions with Elder Phillips, who was Elliot's MTC companion.  I found a couple of pictures of Elliot from Elder Woolley's blog.  It's great to see some new pictures of Elliot and other OKC missionaries.  You can see them after the jump.

Oklahoma sports report (sort of)

It's a bit of a stretch to call this an Oklahoma sports report, since it doesn't involve any games played by teams based in Oklahoma, but there is a connection.  First, however, the bad news.

Five days have passed since the Cougars played the Florida Gators in the NCAA Tournament.  After 32 wins, a conference championship, and a trip to the sweet sixteen, the magic finally ended as the Cougars lost 83-74 in overtime.  Jimmer Fredette scored 32 points but was an uncharacteristic 3 of 15 from three-point land.  No other Cougar scored more than 9 points.  My philosophical side says it was a great season and the team was extremely fun to watch, but my other side imagines how great it would be to have made it to the final four and maybe even win the whole thing.  But only one team can win it all, and this year it will not be the Cougars.  So life is good.  And the awards keep rolling in.  The U.S. Basketball Writers Association selected Jimmer as the winner of the 2010-11 Oscar Robertson Trophy, annually presented to the National Player of the Year.  He was also selected to The Associated Press All-America team and the 2011 Lute Olson All-America team.  The list of personal honors for Jimmer goes on.  And in recognition of the team's dedication to academics, DegreeeSearch.org conducted its own postseason tournament for college basketball called the Student-Athlete Championship and declared BYU men’s basketball the champions.

So what's the Oklahoma connection?  BYU coach Dave Rose has decided not to pursue the head coaching job at the University of Oklahoma.  Great news for the Cougars; not such great news for the Sooners.

Elliot's March 28 email and pictures

Here's the latest message from Elliot, along with some pictures.  He's getting transferred to a new area (more on that later) as a senior companion.  You can see the pictures after the jump.

Hola!

So I'm getting transferred! I'm gonna head to the Noble-Purcell area as senior companion. It should be an interesting new challenge but I'm looking forward to it. My new companion will be Elder Endicott. My companion right now, Elder Stephen McCord Kimber, is going to be training out in Clinton, which would be a very exciting greenie area. I love Clinton. It's so fun and the members are way awesome, but a change of pace will be nice. Besides I hear the work is going really well in Noble! It'll be hard to head out I think, but it's fun to get into new areas.

We've been teaching a lot lately and having a lot of fun doing it. A lot of our investigators are progressing well, especially "Bob," who I told you about last week. Apparently he's about to go camping for a few weeks though, so that could make things interesting. One funny thing that happened this past week was that we went and taught a family in "The Flats," the allegedly ghetto part of town. There were like 7 kids all 10 and under while we were trying to teach, which was a little crazy. After a few minutes the kids got a hold of paper and markers and all started to draw. Next thing you know they had given us a total of 38 drawings which we then went and put on the wall of our apartment! It was so fun. And the lesson went really well too I would say. It was just so funny because they were drawing us, trying to draw crosses, and gave us at least 5 pictures that say "I love Jesus." It was awesome. I'm loving the work and those I'm working around so everything's going good!

I gotta be heading out here in a minute, but I'm gonna attach a few pictures first! I got a new roll developed.

I love you all and hope everything's great! Except that all of a sudden OK decided to get cold and stormy. Oh well.

Love,

Elder Elliot Adair

Lots of April festivals in Oklahoma

It must be festival season in Oklahoma.  As a recent news report put it, "April is festi-full" (clever, right?).  I don't know if Elliot can get to any of these events on his preparation day.  But if you're planning to be in Oklahoma in April, there are some great events you have to look forward to.

Check out the details after the jump.

Mormon Messages: "Mormon Temples: The Blessings of the Temple"

I have posted about temples several times on Elliot's blog (here, here, and here).  The Church has posted another great video about the blessings of the temple, narrated by Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  The video is based in part on Elder Nelson's address at the April 2001 General Conference, "Personal Preparation for Temple Blessings."  Elder Nelson explains:

The temple is the house of the Lord. The basis for every temple ordinance and covenant—the heart of the plan of salvation—is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Every activity, every lesson, all we do in the Church, point to the Lord and His holy house. Our efforts to proclaim the gospel, perfect the Saints, and redeem the dead all lead to the temple. Each holy temple stands as a symbol of our membership in the Church, as a sign of our faith in life after death, and as a sacred step toward eternal glory for us and our families.

Enjoy the video after the jump.