Other Last Monday Activities: Oil Consecration and Farewell to Good Friends

Later this afternoon, in my guise as elders quorum president, I gathered the students by the center's olive presses to consecrate oil for them to take home with them.  Every fall, students gather olives from the trees on the center property and then later press them to make our own oil.  On the last Sabbath of fall semester, we walked to the Orson Hyde Memorial Gardens, where we joined together in consecrating the oil.

We did not have a chance to do that this last Sabbath, so we arranged to meet this evening to consecrate some of the oil left from the fall pressing.  After describing the picking and pressing process, I reviewed with the brethren the procedure for consecrating the oil.  I then offered a prayer, after which they then got into their home teaching companionships to bless their own oil and that of the sisters whom they home teach.

After that, the faculty, service couples, wives, and staff joined in the lounge for a farewell dinner for our good friends Val and Arlene Chapman, who are leaving next week to return home to take care of family business, helping their children.  They have served as the "housing couple," assisting the students with all of their residency issues and meals. Val has also been the center doctor.  We will certainly miss them.